Original Practices: What It Is

Original Practices in Shakespearean theatre recreate the performance conditions of Elizabethan England. These include limited rehearsal, actors using scrolls with only their lines, and direct audience interaction. Productions often feature gender-fluid casting, live period music, and historically accurate costumes. The approach emphasizes spontaneity, improvisation, and a communal experience between actor and audience.

Based on research by Patrick Tucker, an expert involved in the recreation of the Globe Theatre in London’s Southwark, Shakespeare’s company would have worked under the following conditions:

• Plays during daylight
• Limited rehearsal time
• 6 different plays a week, and often 1 brand new one
• Mondays off for rest, laundry, and shopping
• Evenings by a rush (straw) candle reviewing for the next day’s play
• Mornings to rehearse entrances, exits, fights, dances and anything that might require specific staging
• A prompter with a script in the front of the stage

This allowed the company to be very flexible in the plays they put on, letting them switch if the Queen were coming, or perform a more popular play if they chose to.

We’ve adapted this to be even simpler. We have limited rehearsals for two reasons: to follow the original practices concept, and to fit our plays in between plays at other theatres with limited time required. We also use a base costume with pieces added so actors can play more than one character without a full costume change. We perform outside, so we wanted to limit that. And we use limited music, and most sound effects are created live. Our actors carry scrolls with their sides only, and these scrolls can double as a variety of props. These scrolls also allow our actors to work quickly as they are not required to be fully memorized. And finally, we do like to end with a jig as they would have done, and as they do at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Another curious aspect of performing in a public park like Fremont, we often have to contend with fire trucks, police sirens, motorcycle groups, the Beer Bike, music from the restaurants, and other noise concerns. We embrace it and will even stop to let it finish, then pick up where we were.

Lastly, we do this for free in the park and ask only for a donation if it fits your budget. We have embraced this opportunity to provide accessible theatre to all who wish to join us. We hope you will join us as well.

We’ll see you in the park.