Some Show Must Go On: Elizabethan York as a Case Study in the Demise of Locally Based Theatre in Tudor England

Abstract

The growing volume of local dramatic records published by the University of Toronto in its on-going Records of Early English Drama reveals some interesting patterns relevant to the emergence of the theatre we associate with Shakespeare. Before the religious reformations of Henry VIII and Edward VI, there were but a few “professional” acting companies sponsored by aristocrats, like Shakespeare’s Chamberlain’s Men. Instead, an extensive and often elaborate theatrical tradition of local religiously based drama flourished throughout England.