<P> The period starts before the establishment of the first permanent theatres . Initially two types of location were used for performing plays, the courtyards of inns and the Inns of Court such as the Inner Temple . These venues continued to be used even after permanent theatres were established . </P> <P> The first permanent English theatre, the Red Lion opened in 1567 but it was a short - lived failure . The first successful theatres, such as The Theatre, opened in 1576 . </P> <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 a 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; yet 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 (though 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, only the rear being 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 or Antony and Cleopatra, or as a position from which an actor could harangue a crowd, as in Julius Caesar . </P>

Where were the first professional theatres built in london during the elizabethan period