soggetti/spettacolo/Glasgow 1992/8
 

... Our idler moves on into the theatre and approaches the person who assigns the seats and benches, and asks for a place ... and is told that he should wait till the guitar-players appear, and then occupy a certain seat. Our man argues, but to amuse himself, in the meantime, he goes to the dressing-room. There he finds women taking off their streetclothes and putting on their theatrical costumes. Some are so far disrobed as though they were about to retire to bed. He takes his place in front of a woman who, having come to the theatre on foot, is having her shoes and stockings put on by her maid. This cannot be done without some sacrifice of modesty. The poor actress must suffer this and does not dare to protest, for, as her chief object is to win applause, she is afraid to offend anyone. A hiss, no matter how unjust, discredits her, since all believe that the judgement of him who accuses is better than their own. The actress continues to dress, enduring his presence with patience. The most indecorous woman on the stage has some modesty in the green-room, for here immodesty is a vice, while there is it of her profession.

Our intruder, once seated, now turns his eyes to the gallery occupied by the women (the cazuela) ... he pays for oranges for one who has caught his eye, and lets her know she may have anything else she pleases. As the fruitseller leaves, the fellow immediately plans to wait for the woman at the exit of the theatre, and he begins to think that there is an interminable delay in beginning the play ... he incites the mosqueteros (groundlings) to break forth with insulting shouts, in order to hasten the players ... this is most ungrateful, for of all people actors are those who strive hardest to please. The rehearsals for a comedia are so frequent and so long that it is often a positive torment ... and when they come on the stage, what fatigue, what loss would they not willingly undergo to acquit themselves well of their task? If they are to cast themselves from a rock they do it with the fearlessness of despair, yet their bodies are human ... And if in a comedia a death-struggle is to be represented, the actor to whose lot it falls writhes upon the dirty stage, which is full of projecting nails and splinters, with no more regard for his costume than if it were of the coarsest leather, while often it is very costly ... And I have seen an actress of great repute (who died only a short while ago) representing a passage where, in a rage, she tears a garment to tatters to heighten the effect of her action, though the article torn may cost twice as much as the money she receives for the performance.

Juan de Zabaleta (17th-centurySpain) quoted from The Spanish Stage in the time of Lope de Vega by Hugo Albert Rennert, New York, 1909
 

            

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