boys' companies
Plays performed by boys, in Latin or in English, were a popular element of education at the Tudor grammar schools, an activity extended with academic plays performed by students as ...
Christopher Beeston
(c.1580–1639)English actor and manager. Beeston began his career as an actor, appearing with the Lord Chamberlain's Men in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour (1598). Between 1603 and 1619 ...
Ezekiel Fenn
(1620–?),boy actor with Queen Henrietta's Men under Christopher Beeston at the Cockpit, where in 1635 he played the chief female part in Nabbes's Hannibal and Scipio. He must already ...
Floridor
(c.1608–71),French actor, leader of a troupe of strolling players whom he took to London in 1635, appearing before the Court and at the Cockpit in Drury Lane. Three years ...
George Jolly
(fl. 1640–73),English actor, the last of the notable English Comedians in the German theatre. He may have been at the Fortune Theatre in London in 1640, and is first ...
Georges de Scudéry
(1601–67)Prolific French playwright of tragedies, tragicomedies, and comedies. The most interesting is La Comédie des comédiens, one of two plays with this name staged during the 1632–3 Paris season ...
Inigo Jones
(1573–1652),English architect and stage designer. He introduced the Palladian style to England; notable buildings include the Queen's House at Greenwich (1616) and the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall ...
John Lowin
(c.1576–c.1659)English actor and manager. Lowin made his career with the King's Men (see Chamberlain's Men) whom he joined by 1603 when he appeared in the cast list for Jonson's ...
Lady Elizabeth's Men
Company under the patronage of James I's daughter. Formed in 1611, they were seen at Court a year later and in 1613 were merged with the Revels company, Nathan Field ...
Michael Mohun
(c.1620–84),English actor, who as a boy acted under William Beeston, and was playing adult parts when the theatres closed in 1642. He then joined the Royalist army, and returned ...
Prince Charles's Men
Acting company formed by Edward Alleyn in 1616 under the patronage of Prince Charles, the future Charles I. Based initially at the Hope Theatre, the company moved in 1619 to ...
public theatres
The downtown Manhattan home of the New York Shakespeare Festival, founded by Joseph Papp. A leading force in American theatre producing during the 1970s and 1980s, the Public Theater opened ...
Puritan Interregnum
Name given in English history to the period of Puritan domination in the mid-17th century. Opposition to the building of playhouses and the performing of plays by professional companies had ...
Queen Anne's Men
Acting company formed on the accession of James I in 1603, under the patronage of Queen Anne. It was based at the Curtain Theatre between 1603 and 1609, then at ...
Queen Henrietta's Men
Company of players, usually known as the Queen's Men, formed on the accession of Charles I in 1625 and placed under the direct patronage of his wife. It was headed ...
Salisbury Court Theatre
A hall playhouse built in 1629 by Richard Gunnell in the Whitefriars precinct, south of Fleet Street in London. Gunnell was an actor hoping to emulate the two other hall ...
Thomas Betterton
(1635–1710),the greatest actor in the Restoration, joined D'Avenant's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was associated in the management of the Dorset Garden Theatre from 1671. His dramas include ...
Thomas Heywood
(1533–1641),was writing for Henslowe's Admiral's Men in 1596, and later became a leading dramatist of Queen Anne's and Lady Elizabeth's Men. He claimed to have written over 200 plays, many of which ...
William Beeston
(c.1606–82),English theatre manager, son of Christopher Beeston. On his father's death he took over Beeston's Boys and appeared with them at the Cockpit. In 1647 he also acquired Salisbury ...
