The Elizabethan Era and Its Actors

After the end of the war of roses, the Tudors came to the throne. The Tudor family liked theatre. The first Tudor king Henry VII was the patron of court entertainment. After him, his son Henry VIII took the throne, and he established an independent Office of the Revels, there they arranged plays and masques for the nobility. In the reign of Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, the streets of London felt like people were in a play themselves; there were street jugglers in the streets and public executions that peopled relished to watch. The theatre itself was popular, and many people liked to watch, even the lower class people. The queen herself enjoyed theatre too. However, some regulations on Elizabethan actors were made, but the actors professionalized themselves, and they licensed themselves as servants to nobility under names like The Lord Admiral’s Men or Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Even though the theatre was liked and it was popular in the Elizabethan era, being an actor was not appreciated, and they were seen as “rogues” and “vagabonds.”

The actors were not trusted by the Elizabethan people. Traveling actors were seen as a threat; people saw the actors as mice who were carrying the disease, the black death. The idea of an actor traveling town to town terrorized people so much that regulation was made on actors. They were to pay a bill if they traveled. The plays were regulated too. The plays were checked to assure that they did not contain political or religious materials. In other words, the government did not want any elements that would threaten the state. 

Not just the actors themselves were seen as the carrier of the disease; the public playhouses were seen as the hearth of the plague. The playhouses were not built in the center of London because people thought that the disease would spread faster. Thus, the playhouses were built far away from the center of the city. Even though the theatres were far away from the city center, people still went there to see plays. The plays had to be played in the afternoon because the actors were using natural light. People, from poor servants to rich merchants, left their work to see the plays; however, this ended up damaging London economically.

Another facet of being an actor in the Elizabethan era is that men were playing female characters too because women were not allowed to become actors. The female characters were played by a young boy, by reason of the young boys’ voices have not cracked yet. In order to play a woman’s role, the boys were to cross-dress, meaning that they were to wear clothes that were not associated with their sex. They would also put on make-up, make-up meaning a substance that is highly dangerous to the skin called LED powder. There were companies just for a troupe of boy actors such as The Children of Chapel Royal and The Boys of St. Paul. The theatre companies for adults were in competition with these companies because the actor children were better at memorizing their roles and the majority of the audience found them charming, and adorable.

To conclude, being an actor in the Elizabethan era came with hardships. One of them is being treated like they are nobody even though they work hard to entertain people. Facing and putting up to regulations while trying to create and express their art is the second important adversity of being an actor in that era. Lastly, while dealing with regulations, they had to be competitive and creative in order to make the audience stay and watch them.