<P> Commercial theaters were largely located just outside the boundaries of the City of London, since City authorities tended to be wary of the adult playing companies, but plays were performed by touring companies all over England . English companies even toured and performed English plays abroad, especially in Germany and in Denmark . </P> <P> The acting companies functioned on a repertory system: unlike modern productions that can run for months or years on end, the troupes of this era rarely acted the same play two days in a row . Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess ran for nine straight performances in August 1624 before it was closed by the authorities; but this was due to the political content of the play and was a unique, unprecedented, and unrepeatable phenomenon . The 1592 season of Lord Strange's Men at the Rose Theatre was far more representative: between 19 February and 23 June the company played six days a week, minus Good Friday and two other days . They performed 23 different plays, some only once, and their most popular play of the season, The First Part of Hieronimo, based on Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, 15 times . They never played the same play two days in a row, and rarely the same play twice in a week . The workload on the actors, especially the leading performers like Richard Burbage or Edward Alleyn, must have been tremendous . </P> <P> One distinctive feature of the companies was that they included only males . Female parts were played by adolescent boy players in women's costume . Some companies were composed entirely of boy players . Performances in the public theatres (like the Globe) took place in the afternoon with no artificial lighting, but when, in the course of a play, the light began to fade, candles were lit . In the enclosed private theatres (like the Blackfriars) artificial lighting was used throughout . Plays contained little to no scenery as the scenery was described by the actors or indicated by costume through the course of the play . </P> <P> In the Elizabethan era, research has been conclusive about how many actors and troupes there were in the 16th century, but little research delves into the roles of the actors on the English renaissance stage . The first point is that during the Elizabethan era, women were not allowed to act on stage . The actors were all male; in fact, most were boys . For plays written that had male and female parts, the female parts were played by the youngest boy players . </P>

When did plays take place in elizabethan theatres