What did they use in Elizabethan times in plays setting and backdrop?

Answer 1

An acting company in Shakespeare's day would have an ample supply of swords, daggers, pikes and other weapons for the many plays involving soldiery. Cups and jugs for people who are shown drinking would likely be used and reused. Other props might be brought in for the particular play: a company might have to procure a skull or three to put on Hamlet, although the skull would come in handy if they were to produce Middleton's Revenger's Tragedy.

Essentially, then, theatre companies would treat props the way theatre companies treat props now: the director would make up a "list of properties, such as our play demands" as Peter Quince does, and then would have to find them among props from previous productions, borrow them from other companies, or make them.

Answer 2

Because of the thrust stages used by the Elizabethans, fixed set pieces were impractical, and portions of the stage (the gallery, concealment space, heavens and Hell) were used to depict unusual settings, like Ophelia's grave, or the place where Hermione's "statue" was kept, or the mast of the ship at the start of The Tempest. Set props which could be brought on by one or two actors such as tables, benches and thrones were also used. In addition, there would be numerous hand props and quasi-costumes such as weapons, armour, crowns, and so on. The laundry basket in The Merry Wives, the skulls in Hamlet, the witches' cauldron in Macbeth and Stephano's bottle would all have been actual props.

Answer 3

Large pieces of scenery were not used in the theatres of Shakespeare's time, where the stage projected right out into the middle of the audience.Scenery being carried on and off in full view would have been very disruptive of a play's action, and of course some members of the audience at the sides would have been able to see the back of the scenery once it was in position. If the script called for a particular environment - perhaps a cave or a tomb - a curtain at the back of the stage was pulled aside to reveal the 'discovery space', where a set could be prepared in advance.Small items (known as 'properties', or props for short) were carried on by the actors themselves. The surviving inventory of an Elizabethan theatre company's property-cupboard includes a pair of wings, a bear skin, a cage, a golden fleece, two coffins, four crowns (three imperial and one plain), a cauldron, even a wooden leg. No doubt much armour and numerous spears, swords and daggers were also held in stock.

Answer 4

Shakespeare's plays would have used big props like beds and cannons