Disciplines
Performance Studies | Theatre and Performance Studies | Theatre History
Abstract (300 words maximum)
This paper examines the treatment of boy actors in the Renaissance between the years 1300-1600. With very little primary source material due to the low literacy rate in the Renaissance era, analyzing court records is the primary way of understanding how theatre companies and society harmfully treated the boy actors. One of the many issues the boy actors faced, was their perception from the audience. This study analyzes through a materialistic lens, how the audience treated the boy actors. By using this Marxist approach, focusing on the role of labor, the study dives deeper into the direct physical abuses the boy actors endured by older male audience members. This paper critiques the glorified viewpoint of Shakespeare's plays and the role of these “female” performances by offering a different angle into the limited protections for the boy actors. By looking at the mistreatment of the boy actors today, the paper contextualizes a longer history of the abuses into child actors dating back to the early modern period.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
COTA - Theatre and Performance Studies
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Jim Davis
Included in
Under the Wig: A Critique on the Usage of Boy Actors in the Renaissance
This paper examines the treatment of boy actors in the Renaissance between the years 1300-1600. With very little primary source material due to the low literacy rate in the Renaissance era, analyzing court records is the primary way of understanding how theatre companies and society harmfully treated the boy actors. One of the many issues the boy actors faced, was their perception from the audience. This study analyzes through a materialistic lens, how the audience treated the boy actors. By using this Marxist approach, focusing on the role of labor, the study dives deeper into the direct physical abuses the boy actors endured by older male audience members. This paper critiques the glorified viewpoint of Shakespeare's plays and the role of these “female” performances by offering a different angle into the limited protections for the boy actors. By looking at the mistreatment of the boy actors today, the paper contextualizes a longer history of the abuses into child actors dating back to the early modern period.