Research Conversation with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
Part of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s free Research Conversations, Callan Davies speaks about playing places and the people who established early modern England’s leisure infrastructure, from animal arenas to performance spaces.
Callan will discuss his new book, ‘What is a Playhouse? England at Play, 1520-1620’ which explores some of the diverse playing spaces that characterised ‘Shakespearian England’ .
This research conversation will introduce some of the varied activity that took place within playhouses and the fascinating individuals who built and ran them, such as Margaret Brayne (who laid bricks by hand for the Theatre in Shoreditch) and Robert Wilkinson (who maintained a council-run cockpit in Cheshire). Who were these “ordinary” people who helped establish the country’s leisure infrastructure? And how and why did playhouses impact everyday life so profoundly?