Early Cambridge Theatres: College, University and Town Stages, 1464-1720

by Alan H. Nelson

Overview

The excavations of the Rose and the Globe theaters have created a new context for the study and reconstruction of the English Renaissance theater. This book attempts to reconstruct the early Cambridge theaters in the context of the professional theaters of Renaissance London. It incorporates a full survey of most of the Cambridge college theaters, the university's commencement stage, and extra-mural theatrical sites used by traveling professional companies, which lead to useful comparisons with the theaters of London. The author concludes with a plea for greater attention to documentary evidence in reconstructing the English Renaissance theater.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521431774
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/25/1994
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.51(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Note on sources; 1. Introduction: London to Cambridge; 2. Queens' College; 3. Trinity College from 1605; 4. Other colleges; 5. The university commencement stage, 1464–1720; 6. Secular playing sites; 7. Cambridge staging practices; 8. Postscript: Cambridge to London; Appendices; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This beautifully illustrated book provides a fascinating and richly detailed examination of the documentary, archaeological, and architectural evidence for early Cambridge performance sites, together with a judicious assessment of what such information can tell us about the design of commercial playhouses in Renassance London." The Early Drama, Art, and Music Review

"...offers an additional challenge to London's centrality in our understanding of Elizabethan theater....[The book] is a meticulous account of how plays were performed in Cambridge's colleges and inns. The advantages Nelson has over those who draw conclusions based in their necessarily limited knowledge of the Rose, Globe or Fortune amphitheaters is that the playing places he examines are still standing, and the records for their construction and outfitting are still extant." SEL

"Nelson's views on the subject have much to recommend them....There is a great deal to be admired in Nelson's book. He rethinks the entire subject and offers much solid evidence to alter many of our currently held notions about theater design and performance....specialists will welcome this book both as a helpful guide through the mass of primary material in Cambridge repositories as well as for Nelson's provocative reassessment of the subject." Albion

"...this mainly masterful expansion of the REED editorial apparatus offers the history of both early-modern theater architecture and performance." T. A. Pallen, Choice

From the Publisher