- The dramatic
company was a group of travelling players, which usually consisted
of an extended family led by an actor manager who wrote or adapted
the material. At the time only men could act in plays, women worked
in the preparation of costumes.
- Differently from
their guild predecessors, they acted in a more professional way and
they used to tour the country stopping at inns or country houses to
perform their selection of plays. In 1572 the Vagabond Act was
passed, which considered these companies outlawed and classed actors
as vagabonds.The only chance dramatic companies had to continue their profession was
to rely on aristocratic patronage. The patron, a cultured
aristocratic who had a great influence on the type of plays produced,
often desired a play which dealt with the new topics of the
day.
Tha main influences came from the Italian renaissance (Seneca,
Machiavelli) and from the Aristotelian
classical drama.
- The actor was
obliged to respect the wishes of a more popular audience, which
wished to be entertained by the humor of farce, and could understand
simple language of the everyday world. The result was the
development of English drama and a gradual abandonment of biblical
plays, fabliaux, and farce.
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