Since there are hardly any stage directions in Shakespeare's plays, do we know how they were originally performed? (Other than being performed by an all male cast.)
Costumes:
Original Shakespearean productions typically used contemporary Elizabethan fashions even for plays set in other periods. For characters of low status, the actors often wore their own clothes. Those costumes owned by the theatre company would often be used again and again with modifications to suit the needs of the current production. Particularly lavish costumes would be purchased as needed or custom built by tailors hired by the theatre owners. The only known exceptions were for the Roman plays where togas, capes and robes were used to give a sense of another time and pace. There are a few accounts of clothes being donated by wealthy theatre fans or by local clothiers that wanted their fashions to be showcased on stage. Such records are woefully scarce and descriptions of individual costumes are practically nonexistent.
We know that makeup was used as well. Actors darkened their faces to become Moors. Crushed pearls and ground silver were used as glitter for gods, faeries, and ghosts. White skin, red lips and cheeks, and feminine wigs turned boys into women and identical makeup schemes/wig colors indicated twins even if the actors looked nothing alike.
Set:
The layout of The Globe Theatre Stage limited the use of set design to minimalist themes and the action had to shift from place to place as quickly as possible so as not to interrupt the pace of the story. There was a raised portion of the stage where actors could enter and leave that served as battlements for the Governor of Harfleur in Henry V or a balcony for Juliet to sigh on. Upstage reveals such as Talbot's dramatic entrance in Henry VI Part 1 could be accomplished by simply opening one or more of the 3 upstage doors. More intimate downstage reveals such as Desdemona's bed in Othello or the unveiling of Hermione's statue in The Winter's Tale were done with a simple curtain. The roof of the stage had removable panels so that Puck could descend from the sky and Ariel could fly away. Trapdoors in the stage allowed Calban to crawl up from his hole in the rocks and Hecate to descend into Hell. Metal sheets made thunder, a wooden barrel full of pebbles could be rotated for rain sounds, and gunpowder made puffs of smoke. The use of black powder inside a wooden theatre was, in retrospect, a very bad idea. The Globe caught fire on June 29, 1613 after a cannon misfired backstage during a performance of Henry VIII. The whole structure was reduced to ash in less than one hour.
Music:
Sadly none of Shakespeare's original melodies survive to the present. All we have are lyrics. Most tunes you have heard in a Shakespeare play are original melodies by another composer. The few exceptions are traditional hymns such as "Non Nobis" from Henry V that we can reproduce with more or less the same melody as 400 years ago.
Sources and further reading:
The Theater: Three Thousand Years of Drama, Acting and Stagecraft by Sheldon Cheney, 1972.
An Introduction to Shakespeare, (chapter 3) by Frederic William Moorman, 1906
The Historical Encyclopedia of Costume (beginning at page 162) by Auguste Racinet, 1992.
hi! there are a few Shakespeare experts in this sub, but meanwhile you can get started on this earlier post, which may include a few comments & links of interest
