Playgoing in Shakespeare’s Time: theaters, theater-goers, cock-fighting, bear-baiting, & religion.
Lectures: February 23 & March 2, 5:30-6:30 PM
Study Group: March 6, 11:OO AM
How is theater used as social and political commentary, then and now? What records do we have of how audiences responded to violence, humor, infidelity and bullying in Shakespeare’s plays? How do such responses compare to our own lives and contexts? And, if within a single week, audiences could have seen one or two Shakespeare plays as well as plays by other dramatists, who were these other dramatists and how did they relate to Shakespeare?