Elizabethan Theatre

Within this wooden O.

Henry V Prologue 13

 

In the course of the sixteenth century the theatre went through an enormous change. It went from performances taking place at inn yards in London and around the country to the foundations of the theatre we know today.

Despite Puritan efforts against it, the theatre was a very popular form of entertainment in Shakespeare's times, as were bear-baiting and bull-baiting. In 1594, the first two playhouses in the suburbs of London were licensed for two professional companies to use: The Theatre and the Rose. The Curtain, The Blackfriars, and the Globe succeeded them soon.

After decades of success for the theatre, in 1642, the Puritans finally closed the London playhouses.

The Elizabethan Theatre
Elements of the Shakespearean Stage
Audience Behaviour in Shakespeare’s London

The Rose - Bankside’s First Theatre
Shakespeare and the Globe: Then and Now

Records of Early English Drama

Shakespearean Prompt-Books of the Seventeenth Century