Travelling Players in Shakespeare's England [Hardcover]

Travelling Players in Shakespeare's England is the first extended study of the touring practices and performances of Elizabethan and Jacobean travelling players. It opens with a general introduction to the lively, competitive world of professional touring theatre. Following chapters focus on playing practices and performances in the spaces used as temporary theatres by touring actors (such a town halls and country houses). The final chapter looks at the decline of this important theatrical tradition in the 1620s.List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations and Symbols 'How chances it they travel?' (Hamlet, 2.2.317) : Travelling Players and Performances in Shakespeare's England Playing the Town Halls Playing to the Gods: Church as Theatre At Home to the Players: Travelling Players at Country Houses Drama at Drinking Houses: Inn Performances Playing at Schools and University Colleges Playing in Markets and Game Places Provincial Playhouses in Renaissance England, 1559-1625 The Decline of Professional Touring Theatre Notes Bibliography Index

'This is an excellent exploration of the touring performances of the professional companies, focusing on the specific places that players used in the provinces (town halls, churches and their precincts, inns, market squares, school houses and colleges, country houses, provincial theatres). Keenan's book will fill a serious gap in the existing literature.' - Professor Peter Stallybrass, University of Pennsylvania

'Siobhan Keenan can justly claim the status of a pioneer, for in Travelling Players in Shakespeare's England she has given us the first general survey of the subject and has pushed the scales a little against metropolitan dominance. Armed with her scholarly buckler and sword of lath, she has sallied forth on a tour of every kind of venue once frequented by the sixteenth and seventeenth-century playing companies.' - Nicholas Robins, Times Literary Supplement<lS‘