Were the Doors Open Or Closed?: The Use of Stage Doors in the Shakespearean Theatre‪.‬

The stages of most early modern English playhouses almost certainly had three entryways, that is, two flanking doors and a central opening. (1) Most entrances and exits were made through the flanking doors, and the central opening was used for special events, such as 'discoveries', eavesdropping, and ceremonial entrances and exits. The flow of the action was greatly dependent on the smoothness of entrances and exits through the flanking doors. It is therefore important to investigate how these doors were handled during the performance. (2) Scenes in which a character opens, closes, or knocks at a door are relatively few. How were the stage doors usually handled in most scenes that do not involve any such action? Were they kept open or shut throughout the scenes? If shut, did an entering or exiting actor have to open and close the door himself? Or were stage attendants standing by the doors in order to open and close them? Some scholars argue that if closed, the heavy wooden doors would make it impossible for actors offstage to hear their entrance cues. They believe that the doors were therefore kept open and that backstage activities were concealed by curtains hanging in the doorways. (3) However, as some stage directions imply, stage doors including grates or grilles may have been available, at least at certain indoor playhouses. (4) Even closed doors, if fitted with grates or grilles, would have made actors onstage and people offstage fully audible to each other. The question of audibility might, therefore, not be a vital factor in the larger question of how the stage doors were handled. In this essay, I examine the early play-texts themselves to see what kinds of evidence or information they provide about the use of stage doors in the theatres of Shakespeare's time.