This year the Digital Humanities Lab had the pleasure of collaborating with Professor Pascale Aebischer on an exciting project exploring the staging possibilities of the early modern Whitefriars playhouse. Bringing together literary scholarship and 3D digital modelling, our DH student intern, Holly Doel, aimed to create a 3D model of the Whitefriars stage to better understand how plays might have been performed in this theatrical space.
Prof. Pascale Aebischer had this to say about the collaboration:
‘The gorgeous little model of the Whitefriars stage is the result of multiple conversations between staff and students at the University of Exeter. We’ve been teaching Ben Jonson’s Epicene, which was written specifically for the very elite early modern Whitefriars playhouse, for years – and for years, we’ve struggled to understand exactly how some of the more crowded scenes could possibly have been performed on a stage of such unusual shape and dimensions. While the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, the Cockpit-at-Court reconstruction in Knowsley (Shakespeare North) and the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia, all help us get a sense of how generic and specific individual indoor candlelit playhouse spaces ‘worked’, there was no existing design or even a simple drawing of the Whitefriars stage that could inform our interpretation of how that stage shaped what could be performed on it.
Then of our former students-turned-lecturer, Briony Frost, performed a deep dive into trying to understand the dimensions and properties of this playhouse a few years ago for a lecture which she later published as an article. Her research, while answering important questions about sound insulation and sound penetration in the Whitefriars playhouse, along with the broader sonic environment of the Whitefriars precinct (very noisy), only raised more questions for us about sightlines, stage-sitters and the use of the ‘above’ area. Since then, every year when studying the text, lecturers and students have scratched their heads about how to imagine this space and its affordances. Dodgy drawings on whiteboards and maps of the stage area on PowerPoint slides only made it ever more evident that we weren’t quite able to imagine the relations between performers on the upper and lower stages, stage-sitters, and the audiences in the galleries and stalls.
Finally, a research project by one of our students, Holly Doel, presented an opportunity to create a 3D model of the stage. We dug out all the information and hypotheses we had regarding the Whitefriars stage and Holly used her design skills to produce two alternative models: one with an upper stage thrust over the lower stage and the three tiring house doors, and another with the upper stage recessed within the tiring house, so that the stage doors were not obscured by the main part of the balcony. Comparing the two models has revealed just how challenging a theatrical space the former arrangement is, suggesting that (purely from a practical standpoint), the latter arrangement is the more plausible. As it happens, this arrangement also corresponds more closely to the layout of many surviving early modern hall structures, in Guildhalls, manor houses, Inns of Court and Oxford and Cambridge colleges. The part of the balcony that protrudes over the stage is unusual for early modern halls, but it was included in the design because one of the sources we used mentioned pillars to support the balcony. The little stage-sitter figures Holly produced help us understand the crowding of the stage for group scenes, while the ‘female’ figurines enable us to grasp better the proxemics plays such as Epicene and The Tamer Tamed (another probable Whitefriars play) that involved unusual numbers of female characters whose skirts required more stage space than that occupied by male characters.
All in all, the models have transformed and refined how we can imagine those plays in performance and have taught us to ask new questions of the plays and the performance space. It’s wonderful to see how questions that arose from the classroom are contributing to asking new research questions and find new methodologies for answering those questions, in collaboration with generations of students and with the help of colleagues in Digital Humanities!’
Working from existing scholarship and staff discussions, Holly transformed ideas about the Whitefriars stage into a detailed digital model that balanced historical interpretation with practical demands of 3D design and printing.
Holly had this to say about the process:
‘Creating the model involved transforming rough sketches, based on existing scholarship, into a 3D design using the CAD software Tinkercad. To construct the theatre, I had to break the structure down into as many individual geometric components as possible. Certain features, such as the railings, had to be reinforced or simplified slightly to ensure that more delicate sections would not break during printing, when removing supports, or through general handling. The final model was produced at a scale of approximately 1 cm to 1 metre.
One of the most rewarding aspects of the project has been the opportunity to connect my interests as an English student with the work I’ve undertaken during my internship. Producing the model has made the potential layout of the Whitefriars stage far easier to visualise and understand spatially. The project also highlights the value of digital technology as both a research method and an educational tool, demonstrating how 3D modelling can help bring historical performance spaces to life in a tangible way.’
Projects such as this highlight the value of collaboration between academic staff, students, and the Digital Humanities Lab. By facilitating opportunities for students to contribute meaningfully to research and teaching projects, the Lab helps create spaces where innovative ideas can be explored in practical ways. Additionally, DH internships provide invaluable experience that enables students to develop technical, creative, and research skills that extend far beyond their studies. To access Holly’s Digital models of the Whitefriars theatre, follow these links:
Whitefriars Theatre – 3D model by Exeter Digital Humanities (@exeterdigitalhumanities)
Whitefriars Full Hall – 3D model by Exeter Digital Humanities (@exeterdigitalhumanities)
