Video Games Video Game Violence Essay - 1693 Words

Video Game Violence Blood and gore, intense violence, strong sexual content, use of drugs. These are just a few of the phrases that the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) uses to describe the content of several games. The future of entertainment revolves around technology. Along with the evolvement of technology, video games are also changing. More ways of playing violent video games are created each year, but most of us have this question in mind; do violent video games influence people to act aggressively? Video games are a unique form of entertainment because they encourage players to become a part of the game s script. Although video games have been available for more than 30 years, today s sophisticated video games require players to pay constant attention to the game. Players engage on a deeper level—physically and emotionally—than people do when watching a movie or television. Video games follow three guidelines to hook the player. These guidelines include a ‘wow’ moment within the first five minutes of playing the game to grab the player’s attention, communicating the core value of the game, and creating a storyline that the player can follow and ‘get into’ (Zurb). The violence found in today’s video games can be anything ranging from aggressive driving in â€Å"Grand Theft Auto† to defeating the world’s most dangerous enemies in â€Å"Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare† (â€Å"Television and Video Violenceâ € ). Video games cause the player to become more aggressive. Many ofShow MoreRelatedVideo Game Violence : Violent Video Games1626 Words   |  7 PagesDavis English III 27 March 2015 Video Game Violence Violent video games have been being created since the first console. Yet only recently have we been blaming them for aggression in the player. We as humans have a tendency to blame our violent behavior on other things rather thin ourselves. Now aggression is being defined in many ways in this situation but mainly people point to the anger that’s brought out in the real world after the game or maybe it’s the gamers’ tendency to haveRead MoreVideo Game Violence : Video Games892 Words   |  4 PagesVideo Game Violence On December 14, 2012, a twenty year old boy named Adam Lanza shot twenty children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Before arriving to the school, he shot his mother then committed suicide after the shooting. The reports say that he was influenced to shooting others by the video game â€Å"Call of Duty†. Video game violence is defined as a behavior including physical violence intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something impacted by videoRead MoreVideo Games : Video Game Violence1502 Words   |  7 Pages2013 Video Game Violence The evolution of video games has taken a drastic change since the 1970’s when video games were first introduced. Since then every decade video games have become more violent in nature with strong language and realistic to suit society today. Craig Anderson states that with more violence in video games they would sell better than games with less violence (Anderson, Gentile, and Beckley pg.5). Violent video games really became popular when the first person shooter games wereRead MoreVideo Game Violence And Violent Video Games2382 Words   |  10 PagesAbstract The issue of video game violence seems to be a hot topic right now after several shootings have occurred and made a connection to the shooters being video gamers. In looking at past research it is apparent that there seems to large amounts of research that contradict one work to another. Although I would have been interested in conducting a poll of the publics opinion regarding the use of violent video games and their connection to mass shootings I was not able to conduct the researchRead MoreVideo Games and Violence1011 Words   |  4 Pagesare probably millions and billions of video games sold every year to people. Some people seem to believe that violence correlates directly with video games. Video games are something that is usually a big interest in people at the ages of 13 to 19 years old. Video games usually start off as a little fun and then turn into a major hobby for some people. Emotions change based on whatever happens while a person is engaging in these games most of t he time. These games are another way to observe how peopleRead MoreVideo Games Violence664 Words   |  3 PagesUNV - 104 August 11, 2013 Video Games and Violence Video games and violence have different effects on children according to the type of video games that is being watched It is important to understand the world of video games. All video games do not prevent violence in children. Parents should take into consideration in monitoring their child while choosing video games. Depending on the video game that is chosen, does not mean the child will result in violent behavior later on in lifeRead MoreVideo Games and Violence1981 Words   |  8 Pagesconcerned about violent video games due to the increased reality in the games. However, society may not realize how children and teens are affected by these games. In modern times, children and young adults are affected by violent games in a negative way by causing changes in their behavior. The average American child watches 28 hours of television a week and by the age of eighteen will have seen 16,000 murders and 200,000 violent acts (Gallagher). People who defend violent games like to po int out thatRead MoreThe Violence Of Video Games971 Words   |  4 PagesMost kids today play video games to entertain themselves and it’s their hobby. Today kids and even young adults play games like Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), Call of Duty, and Fallout 4. All three of these games were one of the top games of their respective year of release. What do they all have in common? They depict violence in a way that its becoming more realistic every year they’re sequels are released. But what’s up with people blaming video games for mass shootings and other heinousRead MoreVideo Games and Violence942 Words   |  4 Pages Video Games and Violence Awe entering in more advanced society of technology, video games has become a popular source of entertainment among us. Almost all of us has rented or owned a video game and we have spent hours playing it. As we all know, video games have become the second most popular form of entertainment after television; the source of entertainment is proven to be violent. Excessive playing of video games has a huge impact on our life as well asRead MoreDo Video Games Contribute For Video Game Violence?1170 Words   |  5 Pages Do video games contribute to video game violence? I will discuss why video games do not contribute to youth violence, what types of warnings are given by video game companies, and what flaws exist in studies that suggest a correlation between violence and gaming. As the sales of video games have risen in recent years, some groups claim that violence in these games has caused violent behaviors among young players. However, this argument bears little factual evidence supporting such a connection

Essay about The Not So Patriot Act - 1635 Words

The Not So Patriotic Patriot Act On September 11, 2001 the United States was attacked by a terrorist group on our own soil. On October 26, 2011 the US Government signed into law the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (USA Patriot Act). Only one and a half months after we were attacked physically by a terrorist group, our government decided that we would be better off with a lot less freedom in order to better protect America from terrorist attacks in the future. Although this seemed like an obvious need in 2001, now almost ten years later there is little evidence supporting a need for such an Act. The bottom line is that the Patriot Act allows the US†¦show more content†¦Section 213 was written into the Patriot Act as a way to â€Å"sneak and peek† locations before potential criminals or evidence had a chance to be relocated. This would give law enforcement time to completely search th rough someone’s property either physically or electronically without their knowledge of it. However, at some point, they were required to inform the party of their search. In many cases, law enforcement works within a time limit during investigation of a case and Section 213 is intended to give law enforcement more leeway on how the fourth amendment is interpreted in terrorist type cases. To sum up Section 213, agents, through very little proof of evidence, are able to enter someone’s house and do a full search of their property without any kind of notice. Obviously when it is at the discretion of the officers, they will likely overuse this power to extend past just possible terrorist attacks and call for the use of this section in other cases as well. Although there are obvious issues with this ruling, Heather MacDonald in The Patriot Act Is No Slippery Slope argues that this section is a critical part of the process of protecting Americans from terrorist attacks. She uses an example of the FBI wanting to â€Å"plumb Mohamed Atta’s hard-drive for evidence of a nascent terror attack† (Donald, p. 1). In the text she goes on to argue that by allowing Mr. Atta notice of the FBIs’ intent to execute a search warrant on his property he would haveShow MoreRelatedThe Usa Patriot Act : What s So Patriotic About Trampling On The Bill Of Rights?1687 Words   |  7 Pageshappen again passed the USA PATRIOT Act, which is an acronym that stands for the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. The major goal of this act is to combat terrorism by giving the government more leeway in what areas they are allowed to use their surveillance tools and also to what circumstances these tools can be used. The major issue that arise with this act are the fact that many of the act can be seen as unconstitutionalRead MoreThe United States Of The Patriot Act1090 Words   |à ‚  5 Pagesdecades, most notably after the tragic events of September 11th. The Patriot Act was passed shortly after these events in response to the acts of terrorism witnessed by the whole nation. At the time, it seemed rational and logical to allow this bill to pass, due to the extreme anger of American citizens, and the willingness to fight against terrorism. However, certain breaches of privacy came with the introduction of the Patriot Act. We as Americans want to feel protected from the threats of terrorismRead MoreThe United States Patriot Act1533 Words   |  7 PagesKaylyn Dailey 11/27/16 Professor Carter American Gov. Term Paper Patriot Act On September 11, 2001, the Unites States suffered massive destruction caused by terrorism. Four planes were hijacked by terrorist. Nearly, three thousand lives were lost when two planes crashed into the World Trade Towers, one crashed into the Pentagon, and the final plane crashed in Pennsylvania before it could reach its final destination. An immense fear spread across the country and out of this fear came the UnitingRead MoreThe Patriot Act; Agree of Disagree877 Words   |  4 PagesThe Patriot Act: Agree or Disagree Amanda Collier ENG/215 August 27, 2012 Bruce Massis The Patriot Act: Agree or Disagree President George W. Bush signed into law on October 26, 2001 The USA PATRIOT Act. The title of the Act is a letter acronym: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (PUBLIC LAW 107–56—OCT. 26, 2001) This Act was written to prevent and punish terrorist acts here in the United States as wellRead MoreThe United States Patriot Act923 Words   |  4 PagesBush enacted the USA Patriot Act. George bush has been quoted Stating â€Å"Terrorism against our nation will not stand† (Jones 2) a message which was hit home by the enactment of the USA Patriot Act. The Patriot Act gives law enforcement agencies increased powers enabling them to apprehend terrorist. The USA Patriot Act was enacted by congress on October 26, 2001, with the idea that it would help a crippled nation combat terrorism. The act of terrorism which is described as the act of using violence toRead More The Patriot Act Essay16 84 Words   |  7 PagesThe Patriot Act After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 our country underwent a change that has drastically affected the fundamental values that our founding fathers instilled in this country. Since that tragic day in September the aftermath of the attacks has started to implicate our Civil Liberties that in this country we hold so dear. Just 45 days after the September 11 attacks, with virtually no debate, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act on October 5th, 2001. This act expandedRead More America Needs the Patriot Act Essay example827 Words   |  4 PagesIs the Patriot Act Unconstitutional? The Patriot Act was introduced in 2001 after the September 11 attacks. The Patriot Acts purpose is to deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world. The Patriot Act Is meant to help stop terrorism by making it easier to get search warrants for suspected terrorists. The purpose of the Patriot Act is to enable law enforcement officials to track down and punish thos e responsible for the attacks on 9/11 and to protect against anyRead More Patriot Act Essays1231 Words   |  5 PagesPatriot Act Were dealing with terrorists who operate by highly sophisticated methods and technologies, some of which were not even available when our existing laws were written. The bill before me accounts for the new realities and dangers posed by modern terrorists. It will help law enforcement to identify, dismantle, disrupt, and punish terrorists before they strike, (President George W. Bush at signing of Patriot Act, 2001). The terrorists of today cannot be reasoned with. We must doRead MorePrison1287 Words   |  6 PagesUSA Patriot Act (2001) University of phoenix Legal issues in justice and security AJS 522 Kim Tandy July 15, 2013 USA Patriot Act (2001) On September 11, 2001 19 Al-Queda members attacked New York and Washington D.C. by hijacking four passenger airliners. Two of the airplanes American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines 175 were crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Centers in New York City. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon which collapsed theRead MoreSecurity vs. Liberty1116 Words   |  5 Pagesunder the guise of a terrorist seeking bill. The Patriot Act was indeed effective in increasing the power allotted to surveillance agencies, but many feel at too high of a cost. Many have asked the questionÂ… is the cure worse than the disease? In order to appropriately analyze the Patriot Act, it is important to look at its exact stipulations, and how it has been used (misused) at the time of its passage and now. On Oct 24th 2001, the Patriot Act made its first appearance in front of the 107th

Elizabethan Playhouses and Performance Conventions Free Essays

string(53) " and the Lords were able to hear the actors clearly\." When Elizabeth became Queen of England in 1558, there were no specially designed theatre buildings. Companies of actors (usually small, made of 5 to 8 members) toured the country and performed in a wide variety of temporary acting spaces, mainly in inn yards, but also in churches, Town Halls, Town Squares, great halls of Royal Palaces or other great houses, or anywhere else that a large crowd could be gathered to view a performance. It is true that they continued to tour throughout Elizabeth’s reign (especially during the Plague in London, when theatres were closed or earned but little money). We will write a custom essay sample on Elizabethan Playhouses and Performance Conventions or any similar topic only for you Order Now Nevertheless, given the laws passed by the Queen to control wandering beggars and vagrants – which implicitly affected the acting companies as well – many actors were encouraged to settle down with permanent bases in London. The first permanent theatres in England were old inns which had been used as temporary acting areas when the companies had been touring. E. g. The Cross Keys, The Bull, The Bel Savage, The Bell – all originally built as inns. Some of the inns that became theatres had substantial alterations made to their structure to allow them to be used as playhouses. The first purpose built theatre building in England was simply called The Theatre, eventually giving its name to all such building erected in the outskirts of London and functioning until the closing of the theatres in 1642 during the Civil War. The Theatre was built in 1576, at Shoreditch in the northern outskirts of London, by the Earl of Leicester’s Men who were led by James Burbage, a carpenter turned actor. It seems that the design of The Theatre was based on that of bull-baiting and bear-baiting yards (as a matter of fact, bull baiting, bear baiting and fencing shows were very popular by that time, and they were often organized before the plays started. ). The Theatre was followed the next year (1577) by The Curtain, in 1587 by The Rose and in 1595 by The Swan (to mention but the most famous theatres). In 1599, a dispute over the land on which The Theatre stood determined Burbage’s sons to secretly tear down the building and carry away the timber to build a new playhouse on the Bankside which they names The Globe. By this time, the Burbages had become members of Lord Chamberlain’s Company, along with William Shakespeare, and The Globe is famously remembered as the theatre in which many of Shakespeare’s plays were first performed. (The Globe was destroyed in 1613 in a fire caused by the sparks of a cannon fired during the performance of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. Rebuilt, it was closed and demolished in 1644 during the Civil War. The modern reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London was completed in 1997. ) Before going into more details regarding the structure of the Elizabethan theatre, distinction should be made, however, between two categories of playhouses: the public (outdoor) theatres and the private (indoor) theatres. The former were amphitheatre buildings open to the air and therefore cheaper – The Globe, for instance, charged two pence for a seat in the galleries or a single penny to stand in the yard. The latter (e. g. Blackfriars; The Cockpit) were built to a hall design in enclosed and usually rectangular buildings more like the theatres we know today. They had amore exclusive audience since they charged considerably more – the cheapest seat in a private theatre cost sixpence. The adult companies did not start to use the private hall theatres until after Elizabeth’s death, but they were used by the boy companies (made up entirely of child and teenage actors) in Elizabeth’s reign and were used by Shakespeare’s Company – by this time the King’s Men – and other adult companies in the Jacobean period. Structure and Design of Public/ Outdoor Theatres Public theatres were polygonal – hexagonal outside and round inside (â€Å"a wooden O† as Shakespeare puts it in Henry V). An open-air arena – called â€Å"pit† or â€Å"yard† – had, at one end, a wooden stage supported by large pillars, with trap doors for special effects (to allow ghosts, devils and similar characters to be raised up) and was surrounded by three tiers of roofed galleries (thatched, later on tiled roofs) with balconies, overlooking the back of the stage. The rear stage was covered by a roof – which they called â€Å"Heavens† through which, by means of ropes, they ould lower down the actors playing the gods/ angels, etc. , for flying or dramatic entrances – held up by massive pillars and obstructing the view of audience members from various angles. The stage wall behind these pillars was called â€Å"Frons Scenae† (taken from the name given by Imperial Rome to the stage walls of their amphitheatres ) provided with doors to the left and to the right and a curtained central doorway – referred to as the â€Å"discovery space† – which allowed characters to be suddenly revealed or a play within a play to be acted. The rear wall of this inner stage was covered by tapestry, the only usual â€Å"scenery† used on the stage. Immediately above the inner stage, there was the stage gallery which could be used for multiple purposes: – as an acting space: on either sides, there were bow-windows used for the frequent window/ balcony scenes (e. g. Romeo and Juliet). Thus the arrangement of a front stage and two-storeyed back stage permitted three actions to go on simultaneously and a life-like parallelism of events. – another part of the gallery could be used as a music-room. Music was an extra effect added in the 1600’s. The musicians started playing an hour before the beginning of the play and also played at appropriate moments throughout the performance. – when necessary, some of the boxes of the stage gallery were used for audience seating. They were referred to as the â€Å"Lord’s rooms† and considered the best (and hence the most expensive) seats in the ‘house’ despite the poor view of the back of the actors. (Nevertheless, the audience at large would have a good view of the Lords and the Lords were able to hear the actors clearly. You read "Elizabethan Playhouses and Performance Conventions" in category "Essay examples" There were also additional balconies on the left and right of the â€Å"Lord’s rooms† called the â€Å"Gentlemen’s rooms†, also meant for the rich patrons of the theatres. As previously mentioned, the stage wall structure contained two doors (at least) leading to a small structure, back stage, called the â€Å"Tiring House† used by actors to dress, prepare and wait offstage. Above the stage gallery, there is a third storey connected with the â€Å"Heavens† extending forward from the tiring-house over the rear part of the stage, which was often used to represent the walls of a castle or a city. Last but not least, on top of this structure, there was also what might be called a fourth storey of the tiring-house, referred to as the â€Å"Hut† presumably used as a storage space and housing suspension gear for flying effects, while the third storey stage cover served as a loading room for players preparing to ‘fly’ down to the stage. On top of the â€Å"hut†, a flag (a black one, if it was a tragedy, a white one, if it was a comedy, or a red one, if it was a history) was erected to let the world know a play was to be performed that day. The access to the playhouse was ensured by one main entrance, where playgoers had to put the admission fee – i. e. 1 penny, for those who watched the play from the yard, standing, called the â€Å"Groundlings† (shopkeepers, craftsmen, apprentices), or more, up to 4-5 pence for the gentry and the great lords sitting in the galleries. The galleries could be reached by the two sets of stairs in the structure, on either side of the theatre. The first gallery would cost another penny in the box which was held by a collector (â€Å"gatherer†) at the front of the stairs. The second gallery would cost another penny. At the start of the play, after collecting money from the audience, the admission collectors put the boxes in a room backstage, called the â€Å"box office. † The Players There were invariably many more parts than actors. Elizabethan Theatre, therefore, demanded that an actor be able to play numerous roles and make it obvious to the audience by changes in his acting style and costume that he was a new person each time. When the same character came on disguised (as, for example, many of Shakespeare’s female characters disguise themselves as boys – e. . The Merchant of Venice or Twelfth Night) speeches had to be included making it very clear that this was the same character in a new costume, and not a completely new character. All of the actors in an Elizabethan Theatre company were male (which might explain the scarcity of female roles in Elizabethan drama). There were laws in England against women acting onstage and English travellers abroad were amused and amazed by the strange customs of Continental European countries that allowed women to play female roles. Exceptions : One woman – Mary Frith, better known as Moll Cutpurse – was arrested in the Jacobean period for singing and playing instruments onstage during a performance of a play about her life (Middleton and Dekker’s The Roaring Girl) and some suggest that she may actually have been illegally playing herself in the performance, and women sometimes took part in Court Masques (a very stylised and spectacular sort of performance for the Court, usually dominated by singing and dancing), but otherwise English women had no part in the performance of Elizabethan plays. The male actors who played female parts have traditionally been described as â€Å"Boy Actors† – they were actually boys whose voices had not changed. The rehearsal and performance schedule that Elizabethan Players followed was intense and demanding. Unlike modern theatres, where a successful play can run for years at a time, Elizabethan theatres normally performed six different plays in their six day week, and a particularly successful play might only be repeated once a month or so. For example, in a typical season, a theatrical company could perform thirty-eight different plays. The Elizabethan actor did not have much time, therefore, to prepare for each new play, and must have had to learn lines and prepare his blocking largely on his own and in his spare time – probably helped by the tendency of writers to have particular actors in mind for each part, and to write roles which were suited to the particular strengths and habits of individual actors. There were few formal rehearsals for each play and no equivalent of the modern Director (although presumably the writer, theatre managers, and the most important actors – who owned shares in the theatre company – would have given some direction to other actors). Instead of being given full scripts, each actor had a written â€Å"part†, a long scroll with nothing more than his own lines and minimal cue lines (the lines spoken by another actor just before his own) to tell him when to speak – this saved on the laborious task of copying out the full play repeatedly by hand. There was a bookholder or prompter who held a complete script and who helped actors who had forgotten their lines. Costumes, Scenery and Effects Elizabethan costuming seems to have been a strange combination of what was (for the Elizabethans) modern dress, and costumes which – while not being genuinely historically or culturally accurate – had a historical or foreign flavour. Strict laws were in force about what materials and types of clothes could be worn by members of each social class – laws which the actors were allowed to break onstage – so it would be immediately obvious to the Elizabethan audience that actors wearing particular types of clothes were laying people of particular backgrounds and types. The colours were also carefully chosen so as to suggest: red – blood; black – gloom, evil; yellow – sun; white – purity; scarlet – doctor; gray – friar; blue – serving men. Extensive make-up was almost certainly used, particularly for the boys playing female parts and with dark make-up on the face and hands for actors playing â€Å"blackamoors† or â€Å"Turks†. There were also conventions for playing a number of roles – some of which we know from printed play scripts. Mad women, like Ophelia, wore their hair loose and mad people of both sexes had disordered clothing. Night scenes were often signalled by characters wearing nightdresses (even the Ghost of Hamlet’s father appears in his nightgown, when Hamlet is talking with his Mother in her chamber). The Elizabethans did not use fixed scenery or painted backdrops of the sort that became popular in the Victorian period – hence the playwrights had to provide the actors with spoken descriptions of landscape which with Shakespeare represent memorable poetry. That does not mean, however, that the Elizabethans performed on a completely bare stage. A wide variety of furniture and props were brought onstage to set the scene as necessary – ranging from simple beds, tables, chairs and thrones to whole trees, grassy banks, prop dragons, an unpleasant looking cave to represent the mouth of hell, and so forth. Death brought out a particular ingenuity in Elizabethan actors and they apparently used copious quantities of animal blood, fake heads and tables with holes in to stage decapitations. Heads, hands, eyes, tongues and limbs were dramatically cut off onstage, and probably involved some sort of blood-drenched stage trick. A number of other simple special effects were used. Real cannons and pistols (loaded with powder but no bullet) were fired off when ceremonial salutes or battles were required. Thunder was imitated by rolling large metal cannon balls backstage or by drumming, while lightning was imitated by fireworks set off in the â€Å"heavens† above the stage. One thing that Elizabethan theatres almost completely lacked was lighting effects. In the outdoor theatres, like the Globe, plays were performed from two o’clock until about four or four thirty in the afternoon (these were the times fixed by law, but plays may sometimes have run for longer) in order to take advantage of the best daylight (earlier or later performances would have cast distracting shadows onto the stage). Evening performances, without daylight, were impossible. In the hall theatres, on the other hand, the stages were lit by candlelight – which forced them to hold occasional, probably musical, breaks while the candles were trimmed and tended or replaced as they burned down. Elizabethan actors carried flaming torches to indicate that a scene was taking place at night, but this would have made little difference to the actual lighting of the stage, and spectators simply had to use their imagination. The nearest that the Elizabethans came to lighting effects were fireworks, used to imitate lightening or magical effects. Performance Techniques We know very little, unfortunately, about how Elizabethan actors actually played their roles. Performances probably ran continuously without any sort of interval or Act Breaks. Occasionally music may have been played between Acts or certain scenes, but scholars think this was quite unusual except in the hall playhouses, where candles had to be trimmed and replaced between Acts. We do not even know how long Elizabethan plays usually ran. The law (mentioned above) expected plays to last between two and two and a half hours, but some plays – such as Hamlet, which in modern times runs for more than four hours – seem much too long to have been performed in such a short time. What props and scenery there were in the Elizabethan Theatre were probably carried on and off while the scenes continued, while actors were continually moving forward and backward into the midst of the surrounding audience. All entrances and exits were through the doors at the rear of the stage proper: one actor left through one door while a second actor would appear through the second door to swing into the next scene. That means that there would have been no need to wait for scene changes. The actors were kept in constant motion and, given the design of the stage, they had to face in as many different directions as possible during a scene. Another aspect of Elizabethan performance that we know a little about was the use of clowns or fools. Shakespeare complains in Hamlet about the fact that the fool often spoke a great deal that was not included in his script, and in the early Elizabethan period especially it seems to have been normal for the fool to include a great deal of improvised repartee and jokes in his performance, especially responding to hecklers in the audience. At the end of the play the Elizabethan actors often danced, and sometimes the fool and other comic actors would perform a jig – which could be anything from a simple ballad to a quite complicated musical play, normally a farce involving adultery and other bawdy topics. Some time was apparently put aside for the fool to respond to challenges from the audience – with spectators inventing rhymes and challenging the fool to complete them, asking riddles and questions and demanding witty answers, or simply arguing and criticising the fool so that he could respond. With no modern stage lighting to enhance the actors and put the audience into darkness, Globe audience members could see each other exactly as well as they could see the performers and the Groundlings in particular were near enough to the stage to be able to touch the actors if they wanted to and the front row of the Groundlings routinely leaned their arms and heads onto the front of the stage itself. The Groundlings were also forced to stand for two or three hours without much movement, which encouraged short attention spans and a desire to take action rather than remain completely immobile. This means that the Groundlings frequently shouted up at the actors or hissed the villains and cheered the goodies. Elizabethan audiences seem to have been very responsive in this way – as their interactions with the Fool suggests – and were particularly well known for hurling nut shells and fruit when they disliked an actor or a performance. The Elizabethan audience was still more distracted, however, since beer and food were being sold and consumed throughout the performance, prostitutes were actively soliciting for trade, and pickpockets were busy stealing goods as the play progressed. Elizabethan audiences may have â€Å"viewed† plays very differently, hence the origin of the word â€Å"audience† itself. The Elizabethans did not speak of going to see a play, they went to hear one – and it is possible that in the densely crowded theatre – obstructed by the pillars and the extravagant headgear that richer members of the audience were wearing – the Elizabethan audience was more concerned to hear the words spoken than to be able to see the action. This idea is given extra weight by the fact that in the public outdoor theatres, like the Globe, the most expensive seats were not the ones with the best views (in fact the best view is to be had by the Groundlings, standing directly in front of the stage), but those which were most easily seen by other audience members. The most expensive seating was in the Lord’s box or balcony behind the stage – looking at the action from behind – and therwise the higher the seats the more an audience member had to pay. (Some Elizabethan documents suggest that the reason for this range of prices was the richer patron’s desire to be as far from the stink of the Groundlings as possible. ) Specific aspects of Elizabethan performances: bear-baiting: three bears in ascending size are set upon by an English hound in a fight to the death! fencing: less gruesome, this civilized sport also took place before plays. umb-shows/processions: parades or spectacles, these formal groups used all the most ornate costumes they owned, including crowns and sceptres, torches and swords. Dumbshows appeared at the end of each act to summarize the events of the following act. By the turn of the century, dumb-shows were considered old-fahsioned and corny. Processions were more solemn as actors moved mannequin-like across the stage. jigs: at the conclusion of a play, the actors would dance around the stage. Separate from the plays, these were bawdy, knockabout song-and-dance farces. Frequently resembling popular ballads, jigs were often commentaries on politics or religion. masques: masques were plays put on strictly by the royals. These were celebrations, i. e. royal weddings or winning a battle. Designed as banquets of the senses, these celebrations spanned several days during which each member of the party played a part in the allegorical theme of the banquet. Masques were always held in private playhouses. How to cite Elizabethan Playhouses and Performance Conventions, Essay examples