Staging Act 5, Scene 1
(click the image to see the full-sized panorama)
In Act 5 of The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare dumps pretty much the entire cast on the stage all at once. We’ve done that, and added a few ensemble members for good measure.
I would say we’ve done this because the stage we’re using is much larger than the one on which Shakespeare worked, however, a quick jaunt over to Wikipedia reveals that the dimensions of his stage (43′ x 27′) and ours (42′ x 24′) are eerily similar…
So let’s fall back on the fact that our anticipated nightly audience (5000) is significantly larger than his (3000), and we want to maintain the cast-to-crowd ratio he established in the scene.