Search results
People also ask
When was the first public theatre built?
Who built the first public theatre in England?
Who built the London Theatre?
What was the first public playhouse in London?
Where was the first playhouse built?
Who built the Burbage Theatre?
Britain's first playhouse 'The Theatre' was built in Finsbury Fields, London in 1576. It was constructed by Leicester's Men – an acting company formed in 1559 from members of the Earl of Leicester's household. Over the next 16 years, 17 new open-air, public theatres were constructed.
The Theatre, first public playhouse of London, located in the parish of St. Leonard’s, Shoreditch. Designed and built by James Burbage (the father of actor Richard Burbage), The Theatre was a roofless, circular building with three galleries surrounding a yard. It opened in 1576, and several.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Built in 1576, after the Red Lion, it was the first permanent theatre built exclusively for the showing of theatrical productions in England, and its first successful one. Actor-manager James Burbage built it near the family home in Holywell Street.
In 1576, when William Shakespeare was a twelve year-old schoolboy in Stratford, an English actor, James Burbage, built one of the first public theatres in England since Roman times just outside London, in Shoreditch (in fact it was supposedly the second permanent theatre built in the UK) .
- Elizabeth I & The Arts
- Professional Actors & Theatres
- William Shakespeare
- Other Playwrights & Actors
- Challenges & Legacy
The Elizabethan age saw a boom in the arts in general but it was the performance arts that perhaps made the most lasting contribution to English and even world culture. The queen was herself an admirer of plays, performances, and spectacles which were frequently held at her royal residences. Elizabeth carefully managed her image as the Virgin Queen...
The first professionally licensed troupe of actors belonged to Elizabeth's court favourite Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (l. c. 1532-1588). Called 'Leicester's Men' they gained their license in 1574 and toured the country's stately homes giving performances. Naturally, actors needed a suitable stage on which to impress and so the first purpo...
William Shakespeare has become one of the most celebrated authors in any language. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, it was not until 1592 that William became known in theatre circles. Two years later he joined Chamberlain's Men and then, as mentioned above, became an important member of the Globe Theatre's permanent staff, a position he held th...
Under the Stuart kings, it became fashionable and profitable to print the scripts of plays, even if they were always originally written with performance in mind. Some 800 play scripts survive from the 16th and 17th century, although this is only a small proportion of those produced at the time. After Shakespeare, the next most celebrated Elizabetha...
The new theatre was not without its critics. Puritans, who were ever-more prominent in Elizabethan society from the 1590s, objected to such frivolous entertainments as plays. They considered their subject matter - especially plots with vengeance, murder, and romance - unsuitable for commoners and likely to corrupt their minds, much like some modern...
- Mark Cartwright
In 1576 the first permanent public theatre, called simply the Theatre, was erected by the actor James Burbage. The building boom continued until the end of the century; the Globe, where Shakespeare’s plays were first performed, was built in 1599 with lumber from the demolished Theatre.
The Theatre was the first London playhouse, built in 1576 by the English actor and entrepreneur James Burbage, father of the great actor and friend of Shakespeare, Richard Burbage.
