Elizabethan Boy Actresses
4/6/202650 min
Why were Shakespeare’s greatest heroines played by teenage boys? How did they learn their craft? On the Elizabethan stage, highly trained young men progressed from minor parts to play some of the Bard's most famous heroines, including Juliet and Cleopatra.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Roberta Barker to uncover how these cross-dressing apprentices brought some of the Renaissance theatre's most memorable characters to life.
MORE
Shakespeare's First Playhouse
Girls on Stage and Page in the Elizabethan Age
Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSuzannah Lipscomb· Host0:01
Want to walk the halls of Anne Boleyn's childhood home or explore the castles that made up Henry VIII's English stronghold? With a subscription to History Hit, you can dive into our Tudor past alongside the world's leading historians and archeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand-new release every single week, covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe.
Speaker 10:31
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Suzannah Lipscomb· Host1:05
[soft music] Hello, I'm Professor Suzannah Lipscomb, and welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to samurais, relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and witchcraft.
Unknown speaker1:29
[woman laughing]