Of course, being that Renaissance theatre and Elizabethan theatre overlap, much of the information about both are the same when it comes to theatres being built and the playwrights of the time.
During this time, theatre was considered the most entertaining form of art. Also, women were not allowed on stage. Only men were allowed to act, so young boys, or at least men that could pass as women were dressed as women. This made plays such as Shakespeare's Twelfth Night interesting because there would be an actor that wa sa male who was dressed as a woman who was then dressed as a male.
The same play was never shown on successive days. Troupes of actors would travel around the London area, but outside of the city, due to bans on theatre, and learn a new play each week to put in their repertoire.
There were permanent theatres where they acted. In these theatres, it was the opposite of today. The cheap seats were at the ground level. Commoners would watch the play from down there, so they were known as groundlings. They would even sell wares and use plays as time to flirt with each other. The expensive seats were the ones further up where the entire stage could be viewed. While we are not completely sure about the ways actors performed or audiences acted, we make these educated guesses thanks to historical journals.
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