Creating the SL Globe Theatre

The SL Globe Theatre was built to be a historically accurate replica of the original Globe Theatre that stood in Shakespearean days. To reconstruct this theatre of legends, Ina Centaur Architecture perused the resources available from JSTOR and the UC Libraries, especially the UC Davis Libraries and C. Walter Hodges' sketches, and consulted doctoral historians Dolgoruky Umarov and Billl Vita (published references). Changes, however, had to be made due to certain Second Life quirks.

Size perception is actually larger than life on Second Life due to (standard humanoid) avatar height distortions. Using a 1:1 RL to SL ratio would yield a petite theatre, roughly, the size of the Old SL Globe Theatre. However, the new SL Globe Theatre was built for voice acting, and requires movement on a stage. Thus, dimensions were multiplied by a SL Size Distortion factor of 1.5 based on sketches taken from historical excavations.

The Stage was constructed based on C. Walter Hodges' conjectural diagram, which he used to stage theatrical solutions in interpreting flamboyant scene directions such as "enter the whole army," as well as examples of evident dramatic irony — where players hide behind one of the stage's two characteristic marbled pillars, apparently away from the sight of other players further upstage. Again, the dimensions are taken exact, but multiplied by a 1.5 SL Size Distortion factor.

(More details to come!)

The Old SL Globe Theatre

The Old SL Globe Theatre was demolished in LavaIce at Burning Life 2007, but here are some relevant details behind its creation.

The (old) SL Globe Theatre was built to be a historically accurate replica of the original Globe Theatre that stood in Shakespearean days. To build this replica, Ina Centaur Architecture perused the resources available from the UC Libraries, especially the UC Berkeley Libraries and C. Walter Hodges' sketches. Changes, however, had to be made due to certain Second Life quirks.

Although petite in size, having only a footprint of 1024m2, the SL Globe Theatre has not a corner too soft to be heard—it was designed with the 20m Second Life chat distance limitation in mind. The farthest corner of the third floor galleries can hear the farthest corner of the first floor galleries on the opposite side. Despite Second Life's unit distortions, the stage is actually within historical parameters in meters.

Because of default Second Life camera settings for an avatar in a sitting position, special cushions (c/o Dahlia Trimble's clever LSL coding) are employed that directly project the sitter's camera to center stage. Each and every seat thus has perfect view of the stage. And, the view can be changed by the director, dynamically during the show.

The stairwells are designed so that a petite avatar (the size of Ina Centaur) could traverse the levels. However, to account for avatars of all sizes, a "floor-jumping" teleportation device is set for usability.

The stage is equipped with the legendary trap door and even has a Heavens above the Globe. Backstage provides a greenroom for actors to gather, and access to all three levels of the stage.

The Original Globe Theatre

For a while now, historians got the Bear Baiting House mixed up with the Globe, thus an earlier generation of historians had the mistaken notion that there were three gables atop the tiring house. , Current historical consensus and C. Walter Hodges' famous argument based on "common sense" suggest a much simpler roof superstructure, just some straw bridging the overhang atop the Heavens above the stage to the tiring house. These two superstructures are shown in the diagram on the right.

Archaelogical digs show signs of giant pillars, but the exact look of the stage is up for conjecture. This schematic of an Elizabethan stage explains the necessary bits.