Theatre history

So i did indeed make it to the library today!! I feel rather good about that. Once I got my new card, i just started looking things up. I decided to look up the history of theatre. I found a few books and got started. I found one great book in the reference section that had so much on the topic! I didn't know where to start, it was so big.

I decided to look into British theatre in the sixteenth century. I learned a lot more about theatre in that era. I couldn't even finish the section because I had a time limit. I took notes so I will be sharing those. I hope you don't get too bored with my history lesson.

In that time actors travelled together in what were called troupes or even companies. There were adult companies and boys' companies that put on plays. Of all the companies there were during Queen Elizabeth I's reign, only the Admiral's Men and the Chamberlain's Men were the first companies to get their own playhouses. These companies grew and were able to monopolize the the rights to producing plays. In these troupes, some of the actors could buy a share of the company. Quite a few of them would be shareholders in the troupe and they would have responsibilities of conducting the business. But they also profited a little more than those actors who did not have a share, and the shareholders often got lead roles in the plays. For a troupe to get a play, they paid the playwright when he was finished with the play and in a sense then the play would be theirs to produce. They didn't have copyright then and I am sure they had problems with that, but this was how they tried to solve it. When the troupe travelled they had to give a preview performance to the city officials for it to be approved. Only if it was approved could they then create performances in the town. If approved, they were usually paid for their performance to the officials. Some times, if the performance was so bad and was not approved, they would be paid to get out of the town.

In the 1580's there was a group of playwrights who were called "the University of Wits" because of their style of writing and plays. They created plays that reached out to people who were learned and also to the common people. They used historical topics, mythical topics, and pastoral comedies in their plays. Christopher Marlowe is most known for his plays of Doctor Faustus (c. 1588) and Edward II (c. 1592). He was able to take an historical event and make it more relate-able and easily understandable to his audience.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) wrote nearly forty plays. Only sixteen of those were published before his death. The rest of his works are mostly known because two of his fellow actors put together a collection of thirty-six of his plays in 1623. Shakespeare's fame was low in his time, but it began to grow in the late seventeenth century and was at its peak in the nineteenth century. His writings were different in how his many different characters actually seemed to be like real people instead of just a role on the stage. He used language in such a way to effectively bring emotions, moods, and ideas to his audience.

I find it interesting that both Shakespeare and Jane Austen became most popular for their works after their death. These two writers are considered some of the best authors today, but in their time they were not the most popular. It is interesting how things change over time.

Well I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson. I did. I am glad I went to do this at the library. I will have to do it again soon.