AN EDVCATIONAL TRIPTYCH · BANKSIDE · LONDON
The First
Fandom
Before Hollywood, before Beatlemania, before the cinematic universe — there was a circular wooden theatre on the south bank of the Thames, three thousand groundlings, and a glover's son from Stratford writing plays that would never die.
- 3,000
- groundlings
- 38
- plays
- 400+
- years on stage
A plan of the Wooden O, as it stood on Bankside.
THREE WAYS IN
One subject, three voices
A graphic novel for the heart, an encyclopedia for the curious, an essay for the scholar.
The Apprentice's Tale
A graphic novel in seven scenes
Follow Tom Verity, a fifteen-year-old apprentice glover, as he crosses London Bridge in 1599 and stumbles into the opening season of a new playhouse on Bankside — and into the strange new feeling of belonging to an audience.
Open the folio →
Wiki of the Wooden O
An encyclopedic guide
Cross-referenced entries on Elizabethan England, the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare and his contemporaries, acting companies, patronage, the Master of the Revels, censorship, and the economics of the playhouse.
Browse 12 entries →
Inventing the Nation
A scholarly article
An essay examining how the playhouse forged English national identity, manufactured the first modern celebrity, and seeded the mythologies that today power cinematic universes and global media franchises.
Read the article →
Interactive Timeline
1558–1623: from Elizabeth's coronation to the First Folio.
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Map of London
The walled city, the river, the liberties of Southwark.
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Theatre Diagram
An annotated cross-section of the Globe.
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Shakespeare → Marvel
Comparing the Wooden O to the modern fandom machine.
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