In the Elizabethan time period, acting was not an easy job. Actors had to go through strenuous training before they could receive a main role in a play. Elizabethan actors had to be skilled in dance, voice, and fencing to maintain their position on stage.
             Elizabethan actors had to be skilled in dance to maintain their position on stage. Dance was used to test the physical control of an actor. Normally there was a dance written into the actual play itself, and it was not unusual to have a dance scene at the end of the play that featured several members of the company.
             Elizabethan actors also had to be skilled in voice to maintain their position on stage. Another qualification of an Elizabethan actor and perhaps the most important was their voice. A play was full of action but the final analysis was not the physical aspect of the play but more of the dialogue delivered by the actor. Since the actors were mainly men and young boys physical contact such as lovemaking was dependant upon words. When words were used correctly audiences could pick out the exact meaning of the scene.
             To maintain their position on stage Elizabethan actors had to be skilled in fencing. Most Londoners were experts in fencing. An actor had to learn how to handle a heavy rapier in one hand and in the other a dagger. The actor had to achieve the reality of a brutal Elizabethan duel without harming himself or fellow actors.
             So many times in today's movies do we see what we may think is the real actor but is could simply be a stunt double. In the Elizabethan time period actors had to be able to do everything. There was no such thing as computer help or body doubles. Actors had to be skilled in the arts of fencing; acrobatics, dance, voice, and memorization just to name a few. Next time you see a play or a movie on the big screen just think how easy the actors of today have it.
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