Locating the Queen's Men, 1583û1603: Material Practices and Conditions of Playing

Locating the Queen's Men presents new and groundbreaking essays on early modern England's most prominent acting company, from their establishment in 1583 into the 1590s. Offering a far more detailed critical engagement with the plays than is available elsewhere, this volume situates the company in the theatrical and economic context of their time.The essays gathered here focus on four different aspects: playing spaces, repertory, play-types, and performance style, beginning with essays devoted to touring conditions, performances in university towns, London inns and theatres, and the patronage system under Queen Elizabeth. Repertory studies, unique to this volume, consider the elements of the company's distinctive style, and how this style may have influenced, for example, Shakespeare's Henry V. Contributors explore two distinct genres, the morality and the history play, especially focussing on the use of stock characters and on male/female relationships.Revising standard accounts of late Elizabeth theatre history, this collection shows that the Queen's Men, often understood as the last rear-guard of the old theatre, were a vital force that enjoyed continued success in the provinces and in London, representative of the abiding appeal of an older, more ostentatiously theatrical form of drama.

Contents: Locating the Queen's Men: an introduction, Helen Ostovich; Holger Schott Syme and Andrew Griffin; Part 1 In and Out of London: On the road and on the wagon, Barbara D. Palmer; The Queen's Men in Elizabethan Cambridge, Paul Whitfield White; Motives for patronage: the Queen's Men at New Park, October 1588, Lawrence Manley; London inns as playing venues for the Queen's Men, David Kathman; 'The curtain is yours', Tiffany Stern. Part 2 The Repertory on Page and Stage: The start of something big, Roslyn L. Knutson; Page wit and puppet-like wealth: orality and print in Three Lords and Three Ladies of London, Ian Munro; Truth, poetry, and report in The True Tragedy of Richard III, Brian Walsh; The Famous Victories and the 1600 quarto of Henry V, Richard Dutton. Part 3 Figuring Character: Onstage allegory and its legacy, Alan C. Dessen; Usury on the London stage: Robert Wilson's Three Ladies of London, Lloyd Edward Kermode; Stock characterization and 'theatrical literalism' in the Queen's Men's history plays, Karen Oberer; Male birth fantasies and maternal monarchs: the Queen's Men and The Troublesome Raigne of King John, Tara Lyons. Part 4 From Script to Stage: When the jig is up - and what is it up to?, William N. West; Facial hair and the performance of adult masculinity on the early modern English stage, Eleanor Rycroft; Performing the Queen's Men: the SQM project as theatre historiography, Peter Cockett, Bibliography; Index.