Medieval English drama
• Based on Bible and religious stories
• Didactic
• Mystery and morality plays (inside the church and in the streets).

Elizabethan drama
• The growing population called for entertainment professional theatres were built
• Queen Elizabeth has her own group of actors: "The Queen's Players".

The first Elizabethan playhouse "The Theatre"
• Open air theatre, built in 1576 by James Burbage
• After that, "The Curtain" in 1577, "The Rose" in 1587, "The Swan" in 1595 were constructed
• The theatres were built on the south bank of the river because the puritanical City Magistrates considered plays immoral and therefore they had to be made outside their jurisdiction
• 1597: "The Theatre" was dismantled and brought across the Thames by the "Lord Chamberlain's Men", included Shakespeare. The new theatre was called "The Globe"
• The Southwark district became the "theatreland " of London
• 1613: "The Globe" burst into flames during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII
• 1644: after being rebuilt, it was destroyed by the Puritans
• 1994: "The Globe" was reconstructed.

At Shakespeare's "Globe"
• Performances especially during the winter because in the summer the risk of spreading the plague was increasing
• Theatres were closed when the plague killed more than 50 people in a week.

Performances and Theatres
• During the afternoon
• Acted only by men and boys Shakespeare exploited it to create comical effect through sexual ambiguity
• All sorts of audience: the poor paid only a penny but they had no seats, therefore they were called "groundlings" (or "stinkards" because of smell)
• The groundlings mediated between the stage and the galleries and they also took part both physically and verbally in productions
• The stage was high and there was a railing
• No scenery, no curtain and no breaks during the performances
• The "thrust stage" was a stage according to which the audience stood around it on three sides  sense of close intimacy with the actor.

Elizabethan theatres
• Noisy and violent places
• Places in which the audience smoked, ate, drank and quarreled
• There were thieves, prostitutes and beggars
• The director was not very important
• Actors: juggled, performed acrobatic exercises, fenced and danced
• Richard Burbage was the best actor of time (he also performed many Shakespearean roles as Hamlet, written with him in mind)
• Will Kempe was the greatest clown: he had to make people have fun and to provide a different common-sense view of a play.