Question

Please help!! Identify each characteristic as common to either modern theater or Elizabethan theater.

Answer 1

1. Performed in courtyards: Elizabethan theatre.
2. Crowds cheer and boo actors during performance: Elizabethan theatre.
3. Most expensive seats are in front of the stage: modern theatre.
4. Microphones used to help the audience hear: modern theatre
5. Crowd maintains  silence during the performance: modern theatre
6. actors rely on the power of their voices to reach the audeince: Elizabethan theatre.
7. lighting is artificial: modern theatre
8. lighting is natural: Elizabethan theatre.

Observation: theater (American spelling); theatre (British spelling)

Answer 2

In Elizabethan theater, the lighting was natural, adding only candles or torches, as most of the plays were performed during the day or afternoon. In modern theater, lighting is artificial and carefully planned to establish mood, control the audience´s focus of attention and enhance the meaning of the play.

While In Elizabethan theater plays were performed in courtyards, Inn-yards, playhouses, and amphitheaters where actors had to rely on the power of their voices to reach the audience, in modern theater microphones can be used to help the audience hear the actors during a play.

While In Elizabethan theater crowds could cheer and boo actors during the performance, as the theater was designed for the actor to speak with and directly to the audience, in the modern theater the crowd maintains silence during the performance and the actors do not speak nor acknowledge the audience.

In modern theatre, the most expensive seats are in front of the stage, in opposition to Elizabethan theatre where the cheap seats were in the front and the expensive seats were above and behind the players.