The Story of the Globe Theatre

In 1949, Sam Wanamaker, an American actor, visited London looking for history of the Globe Theatre. He found nothing except a plaque in a brewery that proclaimed it was built in the same location that the Globe existed in over 300 years before.

Wanamaker decided that Shakespeare's contribution to theatre was too important to remain unnoticed, and he began plans to reconstruct the Globe in its original location.

In the 1950's, Wanamaker left the U.S. because of his implication in the McCarthy anti-communism trials. He moved to the U.K. and set to work on making his dream of rebuilding the Globe a reality.

In the early days, Wanamaker's aim was simply to build a faithful and authentic reconstruction of the Globe. Today, the dream has grown into the creation of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre (ISGC), a complex of interrelated buildings which will serve the world's vast interest in Shakespeare in performance.

The Globe is the main focus, or "jewel in the crown," of the Centre, but the entire project's mission is to be an international resource of Shakespeare and his great playhouse. It will strive to combine learning with entertainment.

The Shakespeare Globe Exhibition, in the undercroft of the ISGC, tells the story of the history of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage.

The Globe Education Centre is a resource for study and appreciation of Shakespeare in a performance aspect. In 1996, 25,000 students of all ages and nationalities participated in workshops or programs organized by Globe Education. It was estimated that when the Globe Theatre opened, numbers would increase tenfold. The Education Centre also provides programs in association with the other Shakespeare Education Centres in Germany, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

A storehouse of various types of media, the Audio-Visual Archive and Library, provides information on Shakespeare from film, television, radio, and theatre.

The Inigo Jones is an elegant indoor or "private" theatre (meaning indoor, and not meaning closed to the public) that is recreated from the architect's actual design. It serves for lectures and performances of all sorts from Shakespeare's era, plus as a home to the Globe troupe during rainy days in the regular season and during winter months.

A small cinema and lecture hall will continually run film and television programs about Shakespeare, the old Globe, and the construction of the ISGC.

The Grand Piazza, the common of the ISGC, is surrounded by restaurants, shops, and apartments.

Wanamaker was unable to make much progress for many years because no one was interested in raising a theatre from the dead in the heart of London. Gradually, Sam got influential people interested in his idea through his contacts in theatre and show-business.

In 1970, Wanamaker founded the Globe Playhouse Trust, an educational charity which aims to make Shakespeare accessible to all ages and nationalities. In that same year, a 0.8 acre site was identified on Bankside, 200 yards from its original site. For about seventeen years, the key architect in the reconstruction of the Globe, Theo Crosby, and his firm, Pentagram, researched the designs of other master builders of Shakespeare's time.

Excavation did not begin until 1987. Construction workers cleared the site, dug a hole 50 feet deep, and proceeded to construct the "diaphragm" wall, on the side of the theatre closest to the Thames, to keep the water out. Unfortunately, once the wall was completed, the project ran out of money. It was going to be impossible to raise the enormous amount of money needed and then to build the Centre.

Crosby came up with an idea he called, "direct building." They could build the project phase by phase as the money came in. That way, sponsors could see what they were contributing to. Besides the Globe Playhouse Trust funds, the ISGC had at least one more way to fund building. A donation of £2.50 bought a walling lath; £20.00, a floor board; £50.00, a mortice and tendon joint; and £300, a York paving stone engraved with your name, laid on the piazza amongst those sponsored by celebrities such as Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and John Cleese. What a way to put your name into history! [I, myself, stepped on Sir Laurence Olivier, as he was right in front of the entrance, and was quite displeased with myself for several minutes.]

Construction of the actual building began in 1993, the year Wanamaker died. The theatre opened its doors for visitors in August 1994. Between 1994 and 1996, over 300,000 visitors from all over the world came to see the Globe under construction. The New Shakespeare's Globe reopened on August 21, 1996 with a short, unofficial season performance of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In December 1996, Shakespeare's Globe was already voted the best attraction in Europe and was awarded the European Tourism Initiative Golden Star Award by the European Federation of Associations of Tourism Journalists.

On June 12, 1997, Her Majesty the Queen inaugurated the Globe. Its Opening Season ran from May to September 1997. The entire complex will not completely open until 1999, 400 years to the day of its original opening on the South Bank of the Thames. [One source says this date is June 14 , another says September 19.]