Globe Theatre Box OfficeInteresting 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. |