illustrated portrait of English playwright and poet William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

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Discussion Topic

Shakespeare's association with an acting company

Summary:

Shakespeare was associated with the Lord Chamberlain's Men, an acting company he joined in the early 1590s. This company later became the King's Men after receiving patronage from King James I in 1603. Shakespeare wrote many of his plays for this company, which performed at the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars Theatre.

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What was the name of the acting company Shakespeare worked with?

It has been confirmed that William Shakespeare performed with Lord Chamberlain's Men. However, before his time with Lord Chamberlain's Men, his acting company is unknown. There is evidence that Shakespeare did act before his time with Lord Chamberlain's Men, but there is little solid evidence to prove which company he was associated with. There is speculation, but no proof, that he could have participated in a handful of different companies.

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What was the name of the acting company Shakespeare worked with?

William Shakespeare worked with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

Shakespeare performed with Lord Chamberlain’s Men at the Globe Theater in London from about 1595 to 1603, when they were named the King’s Men after the death of Queen Elizabeth when James I took over the company.

An acting company is a group of players who work together to put on plays.  A player is another name for an actor.  Players put on plays in repertory, which means that more than one play will be performed at a time.  Usually, actors will then have more than one role in a play.  Sometimes comedies and tragedies will play at the same time in the same theater on different nights, to give people variety.  Some theaters still do things this way.  A famous example of this is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Southern Oregon, which still performs in repertory just as Shakespeare used to, and still performs Shakespeare plays.

The Lord Chamberlain’s Men performed many famous plays, including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and the Henry series.  They also performed plays written by other dramatists such as Ben Johnson.  They were a very popular company and the theatre, its actors, and the playwright became famous in their day and ours.  Of course, the Globe Theater had an unfortunate disaster in 1613 when it burned down during a performance.  It was later rebuilt.

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