Of the many types of entertainment and past times we have today, theatre is still one of the most loved. For this, we have to thank the very earliest forms of ancient Greek and Roman theatre. These ancient time plays were staged often in honor of a god and have paved the way for theatre as we know today. A particular aspect that has had a remarkable effect on the way theatre has evolved is the architecture of ancient theatres. The architecture of ancient Greek and Roman theatres have had a remarkable effect on future theatre designs including the architecture of the great Elizabethan theatres.
             The Elizabethan time period in England was ever so popular and well accepted that specialized theatres were having to be built to cope with the large audiences. Before these plays were being held in grape cellars and old farmhouses, and so were not able to provide a large enough venue or provide the larger than life atmosphere playhouses needed. By the time Elizabethan theatre was in the British mainstream, the plays were being held in two types of theatre, the public and private. The public Elizabethan theatres were much larger than the private ones and were the preferred theatre of Shakespeare and other great playwrights to stage a production. The first such theatre was built by James Burbage in 1576 and was called simply the theatre. Soon after other public theatres were built, including Shakespeare's own The Globe which was built in 1599. They could appear round, square or many-sided and where built surrounding a central courtyard. Performances were only during daylight because there was no artificial lighting, even though many plays had night scenes. In most theatres, it consisted of three levels of viewing galleries and stood about 10 meters high. As well as being viewer platforms the part of the upper two galleries that went behind the stage were used as a balcony to give the play vertical action as well as horizontal. The courtyard (...