The Shakespearean stage, 1574-1642
The Shakespearean Stage describes all the main features of the original staging of Shakespearean drama in one volume : the acting companies and their acting styles, the playhouses, the staging and the audiences. For twenty years it has been hailed as not only the most reliable but the liveliest and most entertaining overview of Shakespearean theater available to students. The appendix lists all the plays performed at a particular playhouse, the playing company and date of performance
Print Book, English, 1992
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992
History
xv, 280 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521410052, 9780521422406, 0521410053, 052142240X
23080959
1. Introduction
Then and now
The London focus
Life in London
Social diversions
The poets
The city and the court
2. The companies
The laws of playing
The early boy companies
The early adult companies
The strong companies
The later boy companies
The later adult companies
Company structure
Government control
3. The players
The social status of players
Famous clowns
Famous tragedians
Styles of acting
The repertory system
4. The playhouses
Mobile players
The history of playhouse-building
Early amphitheatre design
Later amphitheatre design
The hall playhouses
Court theatres
5. The staging
Mobile staging
Hall and amphitheatre staging
Stage realism
Stage properties
Stage costumes
Court staging
Directing performances
6. The audiences
Social attitudes to playgoing
Social diversions in the playhouses
Audience behaviour
Changes in fashion
Appendix: a select list of plays and their playhouses