SAA Seminar Proposal 2020
Chris Highley, Ohio State
London’s Indoor Playhouses
This seminar invites participants to explore the individual identities of, and relationships among, London's indoor playhouses in the early modern period. When the Salisbury Court theater opened in 1629, Londoners had three indoor venues to choose among: the Blackfriars and the Cockpit/Phoenix had been in operation since c.1608 and 1617 respectively. Playhouses in St. Paul's Precinct and the Liberty of Whitefriars had also been part of the theatrical scene until c.1614. All five playhouses were built in close proximity to one another either side of the City's western wall. But questions remain about the precise geography of each: what did it mean, for instance, that Blackfriars and Whitefriars sprang up in post-dissolution Liberties? And what did the presence of the Cockpit and Salisbury Court mean for their immediate environs and the development of the so-called 'west end'? Some questions that participants might consider: Should we think of the relationship among the playhouses as basically competitive or were the economic dynamics more complicated? In what ways did each playhouse develop its own distinctive repertory and how were the various repertories in conversation with one another? More generally, did each playhouse cultivate an individual identity or push distinct political or ideological agendas? And what do we know about the actual playgoers at these theaters, their playhouse preferences, patterns of attendance, and the coteries they may have formed?