In one sense, the Renaissance in Europe was an era of renewed interest in classical (Greek and Roman) civilizations, but more importantly, it marked a period of revolution in thinking, during which the potentials of the individual and the mind were explored and expanded. Shakespeare, perhaps more than any other individual, exemplified this exploration and expansion. Although he was a consummate man of the theatre as an actor, producer, director, and author, his achievements as a playwright were set in an age of numerous other great playwrights, such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and John Webster.
London's playhouses were of two types, public and private. The large public theatres featured an area open to the sky, a large, roofed, thrust stage, and a sizable audience on three tiers virtually surrounding the playing area. Although exact dimensions and configuration are still in some dispute, excavations of the Rose and Globe theatres suggest some answers. Three preexisting architectural and staging elements provide other clues. Aspects of the medieval inn yard, trestle stage, and pageant wagon all seem to have been adapted in the construction of public theatres. The Roman amphitheatre also seems to have provided some influence. But Shakespeare's company also performed plays at smaller, indoor, "private" theatres attended by a more elite audience, at the court for royalty, and on tour to college halls, castles, manor houses, and palaces.
Players in Shakespeare's time were organized into troupes, under the patronage of nobles. These multi-talented performers were all male and began primarily as touring groups early in the sixteenth century, but by Shakespeare's lifetime, they had taken up residence in purpose-built theatres. The Lord Admiral's Men and Shakespeare's own Chamberlain's Men were the most celebrated troupes of the time, owning their theatres, refining the art of acting, and commissioning numerous plays.
Since plays with religious themes were banned by Queen Elizabeth I in 1559, playwrights turned to history and distant locales for their first Elizabethan era plays. Nationalism, internationalism, and a spirit of curiosity, adventure, and discovery informed the plays that followed. Playwrights were prolific, commonly working in collaboration, to create enough plays to satisfy the audience's appetite and fill their own coin-purses. Nonetheless, many were masterpieces, and yet publication was occasional and shabby at the time. Their numerous genres, including tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, history plays, and others, were written in verse or prose, featured swordplay, wordplay, and an energy of language unequaled by any other period of English writing. Such plays were staged with a similar energy and imagination that capitalized on the vigor and imagery of the writing. An in-depth look at the language and implied staging of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet provides insight into what an audience would have experienced at a Shakespearean-era production.
The theatre of the greatest and most lasting importance during the Renaissance, along with Shakespeare's, was Italy's commedia dell'arte. Since performances were built around a scenario and largely improvised, no scripts exist. However, scenarios, stock bits of comic business, called lazzi, set speeches, and a vivid set of stock characters provide a clear idea of the form, carried on today by commedia and related companies, street-theatre performers, productions of the commedia-influenced plays by Moliere, and actor training exercises.
