The Repertory System before Shakespeare, 1582-1594

FAIN: FT-264952-19

Elizabeth Elaine Tavares
Pacific University (Forest Grove, OR 97116-1797)

A book-length study of four 16th-century British theater companies and their contributions to the history of theater, performance, and the early modern English economy.

The generation of theatre makers before William Shakespeare enjoyed greater marketplace diversity than at any other time in the early modern period. 1580s playgoers were spoiled for choice, with more than fifty professional troupes at hand. If plays weren’t systematically advertised, playhouses were in close proximity, and one could see a different play every night of the week, how did one choose? My book, “Playing the Stock Market: The Repertory System before Shakespeare” (under contract with Palgrave) examines four seasons of four companies to expose the interconnections between thematic concerns and staging techniques—revealing that it was repetition, revision, and collaboration rather than novelty that produced their financial success. Attending to the collective process that was the Elizabethan theatre industry, this is the first book to offer a dramaturgical approach comparing several early troupes, proving an important contribution to theatre history and performance studies.

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