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Home / Periods / English Renaissance / Elizabethan Travelling Players and Theatre

Phase

Elizabethan Travelling Players and Theatre

1558–1603 CE

Elizabethan theatre developed through companies of professional actors who performed under aristocratic patronage. Although permanent London playhouses became increasingly important, touring remained essential for income and brought plays to towns, great houses, inn yards and schools.

Players travelled in a legal environment that distinguished licensed companies from masterless vagrants. Their work combined rehearsal, costume, music, improvisation and negotiation with local authorities and audiences.

Brother Dusty-Feet uses a travelling company to show the mobility, fellowship and insecurity of theatrical life while connecting popular performance to the wider intellectual energy of the English Renaissance.

Related people for Elizabethan Travelling Players and Theatre

Anthony Babington1561–1586 Elizabeth I1533–1603 Francis Walsingham1532–1590 Mary, Queen of Scots1542–1587 Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor1552–1612 William Shakespeare1564–1616

Series

Series about Elizabethan Travelling Players and Theatre (2 series)

Nick Revill in Order

by Philip Gooden 6 books 3.7(637)

The Nick Revill mysteries follow a provincial actor who joins the Chamberlain’s Men near the end of Elizabeth I’s reign. Each investigation mirrors a Shakespeare play being written or performed, placing murder inside rehearsal rooms, inns, country houses, court entertainments and the commercial theatre of London. The sequence…

Elizabethan Mysteries in Order

by John Pilkington 4 books 2.5(20)

The Elizabethan Mysteries are four historical adventures for younger readers featuring Ben Button, an apprentice actor with Lord Bonner's Men. Beginning on a provincial tour and moving through London theatre and back to Ben's home village, the books place mysteries of theft, sabotage and murder inside the working…

Books

30 Best Novels About Elizabethan travelling players and theatre

Non-Fiction

2 Best Non-Fiction Books About Elizabethan travelling players and theatre

Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.