Lighting+and+stage+effects

Lots of plays form Shakespeare's time call for 'noises off', or form backstage there would be sounds of battle, shouts, gunshots, horses, music and birds.

There was a cannon above the stage that was fired to signal that the play was about to begin. The cannon was only one of the special effects that were used in the Elizabethan theater. fireworks were used in a number of plays, but these fireworks were notoriously foul-smelling and even in the Globe, with its open roof, they would have been terribly noisy. Towards the end of Shakespeare's career and later in the 17th century, more and more plays were performed in indoor theaters, which would have been more difficult to let of explosions, so they used quieter sound effects.

There was no artificial lighting in the Globe, all the light came from sunlight. in order to make best use of the available light, plays would have to begin in the early afternoon.