Child Actors on the London Stage, Circa 1600: Their Education, Recruitment and Theatrical Success

ISBN-13: 9781845198480 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 242 str.

Julie Ackroyd

Opis

A legal document dated 1600, for a Star Chamber case titled Clifton vs. Robinson, details how boys were abducted from London streets and forcibly held in order to train them as actors for the Blackfriars theatre. No adults were seen on-stage in this theatre, which was stocked solely by acting boys, resulting in a satirical and scurrilous method of play presentation. Were the boys specifically targeted for skills they may have possessed which would have been applicable to this type of play presentation? And, was this method of 'recruitment' typical or atypical of Elizabethan theatre?