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Chapter 2 - Staging Skill

Movement, Metatheatre, and Boy Actors’ Theatrical Reputations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2022

Harry R. McCarthy
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter considers how the moving, working bodies of boy actors were depicted on stage throughout the early modern period, drawing together a number of metatheatrical instances which explicitly stage the acquisition and performance of theatrical skill. Focusing particularly on moments in plays by Ben Jonson, John Marston, and William Shakespeare, it argues for a theatre directly influenced by and representative of early modern culture's fascination with boys' physical capacities. Having established the early modern stage as a site of heightened physical display, the chapter moves to consider what bearing this culture of physical training and skill demonstration had on the careers and reputations of individual boy actors. It traces the careers of leading boy actors Nathan Field and Richard Robinson, attending to the highly physical nature of the roles these boys played, as well as how playwrights and audiences celebrated and commemorated the corporeal nature of their performances. Boy actors' physical performances, it ultimately argues, had a demonstrable impact on individual careers and reputations as well as company repertories.

Type
Chapter
Information
Boy Actors in Early Modern England
Skill and Stagecraft in the Theatre
, pp. 57 - 93
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Staging Skill
  • Harry R. McCarthy, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Boy Actors in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106658.004
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Staging Skill
  • Harry R. McCarthy, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Boy Actors in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106658.004
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Staging Skill
  • Harry R. McCarthy, University of Cambridge
  • Book: Boy Actors in Early Modern England
  • Online publication: 25 August 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009106658.004
Available formats
×