The Rose, built in 1587, was the first of the Elizabethan open air theatres to be built at Bankside, London. It soon became a successful playhouse, attracting other and larger theatres to the area. The Swan was built in 1595 and the Globe in 1599. The Rose survived until its closure in 1606. It was the first playhouse to present the earliest plays of William Shakespeare. Much about it is known as a result of the diaries kept by Philip Henslowe, a part owner, and by excavation of the site.
The foundations were discovered after demolishing a building on the site in 1989. After archaeological excavation, the remains have been preserved inside the basement of a new building.
Shakespeare & Co, a theatrical company in Lenox, Massachusetts, are planning to reconstruct the Rose in Lenox. The architect of the Globe Theatre, Jon Greenfield, and the builders of the Globe have been retained to reconstruct the Rose. I was pleased to be asked by Shakespeare & Co to produce this model kit, based upon Jon Greenfield’s designs. This follows the original groundplan of the Rose, including a small adjacent building which is thought to have been an existing house on the site, used as a ‘victualling house’.
The model package includes an informative leaflet on the subject of the Elizabethan Playhouses, written by Mary Guzzy of Shakespeare & Company
