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5 ILLUMINATION OF THE OUTDOOR PLAYHOUSES Besides the natural effects of sun and clouds, the playhouses themselves affected the quality of the daylight that illuminated them. The configurations of the amphitheaters built in Shakespeare’s London may never be determined to our complete satisfaction, of course, but from the Swan drawing, extant playhouse contracts, perspective maps of the Bankside, and the partially excavated foundations of the Rose and second Globe, we know enough about the shape, size, and orientation of several outdoor theaters to make intelligent surmises about the amount and kind of light that illuminated their stages. The variables are the position and size of the stage and the “heavens” above the stage, the altitude of the sun above the horizon, and the proportions of the playhouse. Diagrams a through f (see fig. 12), based on Richard Hosley’s reconstruction of the Swan, demonstrate the principles.1 Let us assume that sunlight comes from the southwest, as it does on average in the midafternoon from spring to autumn. In diagrams a and b, the stage is placed at the northeast side of the theater, opposite the sun. Diagram a shows the articulation of light in the Swan at 2 p.m. on the summer solstice. It will be seen that at the height of summer, the altitude of the sun at 2 p.m. (about fifty-four degrees) is high enough to light nearly the entire stage. Diagram b, however, presents a more typical performance situation—3 p.m. on the autumn or spring equinox. Here the altitude of the sun is about twentyseven degrees, and only a small area high on the tiring-house wall is lit directly by the sun. In winter, the sun is so low in the sky even at 2 p.m. (only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roject MUSE (2024-04-25 13:47 GMT) cross the stage from front to back. Diagram d demonstrates that on an autumn or spring day at 3 p.m., no direct sunlight could strike the stage at all. Diagrams e and f represent the corresponding situations when the stage is at the southwest, the same compass point from which the sun is shining. It will be seen that even at the height of summer at 2 p.m., no frank sunshine could reach the stage. Orientation To obtain the best light, a modern lighting designer would undoubtedly put the stage at the northeast side of the yard, as in a and b. Judging by the shadows in pictures of their reconstructions, several early theater historians put the stage there, too, as did the planners of many American outdoor Shakespearean festivals. But the practice in Shakespeare’s time was less predictable; in many of the amphitheaters, in fact, the orientation appears to have been the exact opposite to what we might expect. A summary of the most important evidence for the orientation of amphitheater stages and the structures above them follows. Red Lion. The recently discovered legal description of the construction of the Red Lion indicates that its stage was erected in a “Courte or yarde lying on the south syde” of a garden belonging to a farmhouse.2 About the court were galleries, and within the court the carpenter built a stage forty feet north and south and thirty feet east and west. Because other amphitheater stages were wider than they were deep (Richard Hosley estimates an average ratio of eight to five), we may conjecture that the stage of the Red Lion faced either east or west.3 Theater...

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