Introduction

Theater had an unsavory reputation. London authorities refused to allow plays within the city, so theatres opened across the Thames in Southwark, outside the authority of the city administration.  The first proper theatr e as we know it was built at Shoreditch in 1576. Before this time plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes in the houses of noblemen. A noble had to be careful about which play he allowed to be performed within his home, however. Anything that was controversial or political was likely to get him into trouble.  More theaters began opening in the London area, including the Rose Theater in 1587, the Hope Theater in 1613 and the most famous, the Globe Theater in 1599. 

Although Shakespeare's plays were performed at other venues during his career, the Globe Theatre in the Southwark district of London was the venue at which Shakespeare's best known stage works (including his four great tragedies) were first produced. The Globe was built by one of Shakespeare's associates, Cuthbert Burbage, the brother of the most famous Shakespearean actor of the Elizabethan Age, Richard Burbage.  Five years prior to the Globe's opening, Shakespeare became one of the share-owning partners in a theater company organized under the sponsorship of the Lord Chamberlain, the head of Queen Elizabeth I's royal household.

