Take a Virtual Tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

Last week, we fea­tured a Prize-Win­ning Ani­ma­tion of 17th Cen­tu­ry Lon­don. In many ways, it could be paired with these short vir­tu­al tours of the Globe The­atre. Built in 1599 by Shake­speare’s play­ing com­pa­ny, the Lord Cham­ber­lain’s Men, the orig­i­nal the­atre host­ed some of the Bard’s great­est plays until it burned down 14 years lat­er. In 1613, dur­ing a per­for­mance of Hen­ry VIII, a stage can­non ignit­ed the thatched roof and the the­atre burned to the ground in less than two hours. Rebuilt with a tile roof, the the­atre re-opened in 1614, and remained active until England’s Puri­tan admin­is­tra­tion closed all the­atres in 1642. A mod­ern recon­struc­tion of the Globe, named “Shake­speare’s Globe,” was built in 1997, just a few feet away from the orig­i­nal struc­ture. If you want to get a feel for what Shake­speare’s the­atre looked like, then look no fur­ther than this vir­tu­al tour. All you need is this free Quick­time plu­g­in for your brows­er and you can take a 360 tour of the stage, the yard, the mid­dle gallery, and the upper gallery … all with­out leav­ing your seat.

via @matthiasrascher and @faraway67

Relat­ed Con­tent:

What Shake­speare Sound­ed Like to Shake­speare: Recon­struct­ing the Bard’s Orig­i­nal Pro­nun­ci­a­tion

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour Sings Shakespeare’s Son­net 18

A Sur­vey of Shakespeare’s Plays (Free Course) 

Shakespeare’s Satir­i­cal Son­net 130, As Read By Stephen Fry