Stage Directions and Spatial Mapping on the Elizabethan Stage

Abstract

This paper will discuss initial work that points to a degree of directionality in some Elizabethan stage directions: they are not merely telling the actors to enter and exit the stage, but may in addition be indicating more specific points of entry and exit which relate to the spatial geography of the fictional world in its onstage and offstage components. It seems that ‘comes in’ and ‘goes out’ does not merely mean ‘comes onstage’ and ‘goes offstage’; and ‘comes out’ and ‘goes in’ does not just mean ‘comes out of’ or ‘goes into’ the tiring house. This research suggests that playwrights were writing themselves into practical production processes by inscribing important logistical information in their texts: my previous work has focussed on analysis of spatial indications in the dialogue, and this work on stage directions corroborates that. This analysis has broader implications for an understanding of how rehearsal might have been organised, and of the role the playwrights might have played, through their texts, in that process.