SIZING UP THE GLOBE.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

William Shakespeare would have loved the reconstructed Globe Theatre.

Just several hundred yards from the site of the playwright's original ``wooden `O' '' on the south bank of the Thames River, the new circular open-air theater is a faithful reproduction from its thatched roof - the first in London since the Great Fire of 1666 - to its sturdy oak beams and hand-crafted wooden balustrades.

The centerpiece of the International Shakespeare Globe Centre in Southwark, the theater's first full season begins June 14 with Shakespeare's ``Henry V,'' written in 1599 when the Globe first opened. The Globe Theatre Company, an international ensemble of actors, plans to produce four plays annually during the spring and summer.

``Henry V'' won't be the first play in the theater; the new Globe opened last year for a brief preview with ``The Two Gentlemen of Verona.''

While the Globe is complete, the center is not.

``The Shakespeare Globe Centre is being developed for the enjoyment and understanding of Shakespeare,'' said spokeswoman Lucy Beevor.

So besides the Globe, the $52.6 million educational, entertainment and cultural complex will include the 300-seat indoor Inigo Jones Theatre, a Shakespeare museum, library, education center, shops, cafeteria and a pub.

The entire complex is scheduled for completion on Sept. 21, 1999, just in time for the 400th anniversary of the Globe's first recorded performance. About $11.4 million is still needed to complete the education center and museum, Beevor said.

A tour of the site is a step back in time. In the mind's eye, one can visualize groundlings - theater patrons who stood near the stage - throwing rotten fruit at performers who irked them - and members of the Lords' room, above the stage, adding comments and witticisms of their own to the play.Today, the area is alive with tourists, barges chugging up and down the Thames, and joggers and office workers stopping for lunch along the waterfront.

During our half-hour tour, craftsmen were putting the finishing touches on the Globe, including its dressing rooms and a 38-foot-long stage that will feature faux marble pillars, a canopy and trap door through which devils and the ghost of Hamlet's father will someday emerge. (``Hamlet'' is not being done this season).

In keeping with Shakespeare's day, the roof is painstakingly thatched with Norfolk reed, the polygonal oak frame assembled with fitted joints and tapered wooden pegs.Even the 315 wooden balustrades that decorate the theater's middle seating gallery were turned on a pole lathe, a 16th-century, foot-powered cutting machine.

Not everything is an exact replica, however. The new Globe accommodates 1,500 people and has twice as many exits as the original 3,000-seat theater.And, following health and safety regulations, the thatched roof was treated with fire retardant and equipped with sprinklers.

Theatergoers can take heart, however. Audience members will be able to stand around the stage as groundlings did during Shakespeare's time, as well as sit in the Globe's three galleries. And noises from the waterfront that distracted audiences last year during the Globe's three-week prologue season have been largely eliminated thanks to sealing the theater's open windows.

Reconstruction of the Globe began after American actor Sam Wanamaker established a trust to raise funds for the project in 1970. Work on the Globe Theatre began in 1993, the same year Wanamaker died.He began the project after his first visit to London when he discovered the theater had never been rebuilt.

The original Globe burned down in June 1613 during a performance of ``Henry VIII''; it was immediately rebuilt on the original foundations. The second theater was closed in 1642 by the Puritans.

On Location

Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission includes a guided tour of the Globe Theatre. Information: 0171-928-6406.

``Henry V'' kicks off the Globe season, opening June 14; ``A Winter's Tale'' opens June 19; ``A Chaste Maid in Cheapside'' by Thomas Middleton opens Aug. 27; and the season closes with John Fletcher's ``The Maid's Tragedy,'' which opens Aug. 26.

Theater tickets range from about $9 for groundlings to $35 for seats. Information: 0171-344-4444 or 0171-401-9919.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Color) The Globe Theatre is a faithful reproduction of Shakespeare's circular, wooden, open-air theater of the 1600s.

Richard Kalina/Shakespeare's Globe

(2) Just as in Shakespeare's day, the stage of the Globe Theatre in England is covered in straw - but this being the 1990s, it gets sprayed with fire retardant.

David Thompson/Associated Press

Box: On Location (See text)