The Children's Troupes and the Transformation of English Theater 1509-1608

This scholarly work offers a groundbreaking reassessment of early modern English theater, focusing specifically on the influential yet often-overlooked children's acting companies. Jeanne McCarthy meticulously traces how these troupes fundamentally reshaped theatrical practice from the Henrician era through the early Jacobean period, challenging long-held assumptions about the development of Renaissance drama. The book demonstrates how these young performers transformed everything from acting techniques and performance spaces to the very economics of playing, providing a necessary corrective to theater histories that have prioritized adult companies.

McCarthy's research reveals the children's troupes as innovators who pioneered new approaches to dramatic authorship, patronage networks, and gender representation on stage long before these became standard in the commercial theaters. Her analysis connects these companies directly to numerous early plays and performance traditions, offering theater historians and literary scholars fresh perspectives on a formative period. This study will particularly resonate with readers interested in Shakespeare's contemporaries, the business of early modern performance, and alternative narratives of theatrical evolution, ultimately proving that the children's companies were not mere precursors but central architects of English Renaissance drama.