Globe Theatre Box Office
Interesting information about
the Globe Theatre Box Office during the life and times of William Shakespeare and the Globe
Theatre of Elizabethan London, England
Globe Theatre Box Office - the
Cost of the seats
Profits were made from the Globe Theatre
consisted of hiring out the playhouse and from ticket sales.
Globe audiences had to put their entrance fee in a box - the cost of the
entrance price was determined by the seat.
Globe audiences had to put one penny in a box by the door which would
pay for a view of the play by standing on the ground, in front of the
stage. To sit on the first gallery would cost another penny in the box
which was held by a collector on the front of the stairs. To sit on the
second gallery, you put another penny in the box held by the man at the
second flight of stairs. The Globe Theatre Lords Rooms were considered
the best seats in the 'house' and cost 5d. In 1599, Thomas
Platter noted the cost of admission in his diary:
"There are separate galleries and there one stands more
comfortably and moreover can sit, but one pays more for it.
Thus anyone who remains on the level standing pays only one
English penny: but if he wants to sit, he is let in at a
farther door, and there he gives another penny. If he
desires to sit on a cushion in the most comfortable place of
all, where he not only sees everything well, but can also be
seen then he gives yet another English penny at another
door. And in the pauses of the comedy food and drink are
carried round amongst the people and one can thus refresh
himself at his own cost"
The Globe Theatre Box Office
When the play started, the
entrance men went and
put the boxes in a room backstage, the Elizabethan box office - hence
the term 'box office' which is still used in modern theatres. Wages were
paid to the men who worked in the theatre, the backstage boys and the
actors. Additional money was earned by leasing out the theatre. Profits
were then shared between the
owners of the theatre (called the "housekeepers")
-
Cuthbert Burbage
(25% - theatrical entrepreneur )
-
Richard Burbage
(25% - Actor )
-
William
Shakespeare (12.5% - Actor )
-
John Heminges
(12.5% - Actor )
-
Augustine
Phillips (12.5% - Actor )
-
Thomas Pope
(12.5% - Actor )
Globe Theatre Box Office
Interesting Facts and information
about the Globe Theatre Box Office.
Additional details, facts and information about the
Globe Theatre can be accessed via the Globe Theatre Sitemap.
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