This course explores the emergence of a professional, commercial theatre in England in the period from 1576, when the first purpose-built theatre was constructed in London, to 1642 when the theatres were closed amid the turmoil leading up to the English Civil War. This exploration will involve study of play texts and of material conditions of theatrical enterprise in the period. We will examine dramatic forms and practices that the commercial theatre nourished as well as broader cultural changes that the commercial theatre both reflected and shaped.
