{"id":184,"date":"2015-09-24T14:09:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T18:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/?p=184"},"modified":"2017-07-26T14:49:06","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T18:49:06","slug":"184","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/2015\/09\/24\/184\/","title":{"rendered":"You’re Probably More Like a Groundling Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Globe<\/a>I\u2019m pretty sure that during a quiz my freshman year of high school I couldn\u2019t remember the term for the people who stood in the pit of the Globe Theatre to save my life. I sat in my honors English course feeling very stupid, and eventually turning in my quiz knowing I had failed to comprehend even the simplest term surrounding Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m aware, as I\u2019m sure you are as well, that those smelly folks who couldn\u2019t afford more than a penny to see a show were called groundlings. A penny may seem like nothing to us now, but back then it was the equivalent to 10% of one day\u2019s wage (Globe Theatre Groundlings, n.d.). The majority of groundlings were London apprentices who were shirking their trades to see a show. This led to disgruntled employers as well as some rowdy activity in the crowds, due to the age of most groundlings. The players were not entirely happy either. As Shakespeare\u2019s Hamlet speaks of the groundlings in Act 3, Scene 2:<\/p>\n

\u201cO, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span>And, it was not uncommon to find a prostitute among the throng, or to be hit with some flying fruit or nuts, or especially to be pushed and shoved among the 500 others with whom you stood! (Glanville).<\/p>\n

\"shakespeare<\/a>How are you like a groundling then? Let\u2019s put this into more of a relevant context. Imagine there is this concert by an artist you really love. Even if you don\u2019t personally spend your money this way, people today pay through the nose for the chance to be as close to the celebrity as possible, even if it means they\u2019re stepped on, shoved, sweat on, or hit (accidentally?). It\u2019s no longer the lower class that stands in the front, but the people who keep clicking refresh on Ticketmaster with their loaded credit cards at the ready.<\/p>\n

In addition, it\u2019s a common misconception that the poorest of the poor were groundlings. If only the poorest could have witnessed live theatre! No, they were more worried with having food than entertainment. In fact, it was the lower middle class that could afford to stand before the stage. The same is true in today\u2019s world. The poorest of the poor probably aren\u2019t going to live shows of any sort. Even if students can buy tickets for under $20, not all people have expendable income for entertainment.<\/p>\n

Continuing with today\u2019s entertainment industry, it\u2019s ironic that now the term groundling has nothing to do with someone\u2019s income or ability to pay for a seat. Rather it\u2019s a term that refers to improvisational actors who participate in The Groundlings Theatre & School. A little fun fact is that many of the actors who have been a part of Groundling productions have moved on to bigger and better things, such as being cast on Saturday Night Live and becoming very well-known comedians and film stars (The Groundlings).<\/p>\n

Glanville, Corrie. \u201cThe Life & Times of a Groundling.\u201d ArtsEmerson Blog<\/em>. N.p., 02 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
\n\u201cGlobe Theatre Groundlings.\u201d Globe Theatre Groundlings<\/em>. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
\n\u201cThe Groundlings.\u201d Website.<\/em> N.p., 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.<\/p>\n

For original post: http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2015\/09\/youre-probably-more-like-a-groundling-than-you-think\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By:\u00a0 Sydney Vollmer, ARB Intern I\u2019m pretty sure that during a quiz my freshman year…<\/p>\n

Read the postYou’re Probably More Like a Groundling Than You Think<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,7],"tags":[9,10,3,11,6],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plays","category-shakespeare","tag-arb","tag-groundling","tag-shakespeare","tag-theatre","tag-university-of-cincinnati","excerpt","zoom","full-without-featured","even","excerpt-0"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}