About the Elizabethan Theatre

Elizabeth I and the Elizabethan Theatre The Elizabethan Theatre is that style of performance plays which blossomed during the reign of Elizabeth I of England and which continued under her Stuart successors. The queen was herself an admirer of plays, performances, and spectacles which were frequently held at her royal residences. Theatre was one of the media she used to project her own glory and that of her family, the Tudors. The queen actively sponsored artists and playwrights. Medieval England had witnessed the performance of morality plays and mystery plays, there were even dramas performed by actors during religious ceremonies and holidays. There were also Masques, a type of mime where masked performers sang, danced, and recited poetry. Towns across England had long funded public shows, which involved musicians, acrobats, and jesters, and these continued even as theatre became popular. The Elizabethan period saw these public performers become a professional body of entertainers. The first professional troupes of actors were sponsored by the queen, nobles, and anyone else who had the money for such entertainments.