by Mj Ferruzza

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: January 10, 2009

Shakespearean Theater was comprised of a company of players playing many roles on and off the stage. The theatrical company was run by a Manager who did the financial books and records as well as bookings. The costumer and set dressers were probably also members of the cast. And surprisingly, the whole cast was comprised of men.
Men playing the roles of women was common in the English Elizabethan Theater. Plays were performed as a road company, but also at the famous Globe Theater. The Globe was known for its special design which allowed the playwright many options of interiors to depict salons and halls, to a wide exterior to represent fields for things like battlefields and town squares. It was seen as an open roof playhouse. Since the set pieces were usually simple, the costumer was important to make elaborations that kept the audience's eyes on the actor and less on the scenery.

Shakespeare (1564-1616) was the most famous playwright during the Elizabethan era. He was an actor as well as prolific writer. He left the world with a great number of works which included 38 plays. His Romeo and Juliet has been adapted many times including such plays as West Side Story and The Fantasticks.
Elizabethan Theater came about during the Renaissance Period. It had a run up until the Reformation when Henry the Eighth fought Rome and started the Anglican Church and preferred not to be chronicled by these keen English playwrights of the time. The era of Elizabethan theater came to a close in 1642.
Performances by Elizabethan companies were usually performed in repertory, more than one play prepared at one time. This put quite a load on many acting troupes of that era. Plays were run in tandem and rarely the same performance was perfomed night to night. Shakespeare's contemporaries were Christopher Marlowe (who some skeptics believed penned one or more of Shakespeare's works) and Ben Jonson. Both men were rowdy sorts and wouldn't fit the mold of the bard so often portrayed in film and television.
Most playwrights worked with a partner or two in collaboration. Shakespeare being a talented exception. The Shakespearean Theater was filled with many styles of writing which included dramas, historical dramas, love stories, sonnets, comedies, political comedies and farce. It was a mixed bag that kept the audiences entertained season after season.But the religious movement (basically Puritanism) all but closed the Elizabethan era claiming immorality. But its mark in our world history would far outlive its early demise. Shakespeare is the most prolific writer of all time and his works, themes and situations will live on long after even this current generation of writers have passed.

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