<P> The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama . Once they were in operation, drama could become a fixed and permanent, rather than transitory, phenomenon . Their construction was prompted when the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, and then formally expelled all players from the city in 1575 . This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell / Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields in rural Surrey . The Theatre was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage with his brother - in - law John Brayne (the owner of the unsuccessful Red Lion playhouse of 1567) and the Newington Butts playhouse was set up, probably by Jerome Savage, some time between 1575 and 1577 . The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre (1577), the Rose (1587), the Swan (1595), the Globe (1599), the Fortune (1600), and the Red Bull (1604). </P> <P> Archaeological excavations on the foundations of the Rose and the Globe in the late 20th century showed that all the London theatres had individual differences, but their common function necessitated a similar general plan . The public theatres were three stories high, and built around an open space at the centre . Usually polygonal in plan to give an overall rounded effect, although the Red Bull and the first Fortune were square . The three levels of inward - facing galleries overlooked the open centre, into which jutted the stage: essentially a platform surrounded on three sides by the audience . The rear side was restricted for the entrances and exits of the actors and seating for the musicians . The upper level behind the stage could be used as a balcony, as in Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar . </P> <P> The playhouses were generally built with timber and plaster . Individual theatre descriptions give additional information about their construction, such as flint stones being used to build the Swan . Theatres were also constructed to be able to hold a large number of people . </P> <P> A different model was developed with the Blackfriars Theatre, which came into regular use on a long - term basis in 1599 . The Blackfriars was small in comparison to the earlier theatres and roofed rather than open to the sky . It resembled a modern theatre in ways that its predecessors did not . Other small enclosed theatres followed, notably the Whitefriars (1608) and the Cockpit (1617). With the building of the Salisbury Court Theatre in 1629 near the site of the defunct Whitefriars, the London audience had six theatres to choose from: three surviving large open - air public theatres--the Globe, the Fortune, and the Red Bull--and three smaller enclosed private theatres: the Blackfriars, the Cockpit, and the Salisbury Court . Audiences of the 1630s benefited from a half - century of vigorous dramaturgical development; the plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare and their contemporaries were still being performed on a regular basis, mostly at the public theatres, while the newest works of the newest playwrights were abundant as well, mainly at the private theatres . </P>

Who went to the theatre in the elizabethan era