What is a Playhouse?

Callan Davies researches the cultural, literary, and theatrical history of early modern England. He has taught at universities across the UK and at Shakespeare's Globe, and he is part of the project teams Before Shakespeare and Middling Culture. His work includes studies of Elizabethan playhouses, rhetoric, practice-as-research and a monograph with Routledge, Strangeness in Jacobean Drama.

• Note on Texts and SpellingList of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The “Playhouse” CanonChapter 1: ArchetypesChapter 2: Multipurpose SpacesChapter 3: Crowd CapacitiesChapter 4: Community HubsChapter 5: BusinessesCoda: Archives and AfterlivesIndex

''We thought we knew the answer to Davies’ title question, but it turns out that playhouses were much more various, multiple, and collaborative venues than traditionally allowed. Based on new archival work and a refreshing critical intelligence, Davies’ exciting and readable book is a theatre-history gamechanger.'' Emma Smith, Hertford College, Oxford''In What is a Playhouse? England at Play, 1520–1620, Callan Davies brilliantly explores and expands our understanding of what an early modern playhouse was in London and beyond, resulting in a book which is a much-needed addition to the field of theatre study.'' Heather Knight MCIfA, FSA, archaeologist who led the excavations of Curtain, Theatre and Boar’s Head playhouses.''What was a playhouse and how was it used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Davies’ detailed study capitalises on recent archaeological discoveries and offers new archival research to revisit and reassess what we think we know about early modern playing venues, a concept which was more elastic and varied than traditional narratives have conditioned us to believe. Rigorous yet engaging, What is a Playhouse? is a welcome corrective to Globe-centric conceptions of playing spaces, accentuating a plurality and diversity of venues that ‘housed’ play in all its forms.'' David McInnis, University of Melbourne''Callan Davies' new book, What is a Playhouse? England at Play, 1520–1620, offers a fresh and stimulating perspective for anyone interested in the history of theatre and popular entertainment. His decentring of older London-centred narratives of a male-dominated theatre world opens up a more generous view of the multipurpose functions of playhouses and a well-researched view of the wide range of indoor and outdoor spaces used and supported by diverse participants -- men, women, children and animals -- in the Shakespearean era and earlier. An important reassessment of the pervasive influence and meaning of play in early modern England.'' Sally-Beth MacLean, Professor; Director of Research/General Editor, Records of Early English Drama (REED)