Music in English Children's Drama of the Later Renaissance

“All this is but forgery”. Gender and Performative Concerns in Fletcher and Massinger’s Love’s Cure (1615)

“…This metatheatricality was not subtle, but overt: the boy actors would discuss and mock their own performances and the mannerisms of acting, but also popular and conventional tropes and devices used in contemporary drama (Foakes 2003;Bloom 2007;Crow 2014;Shapiro 2017). Additionally, when the children of the company were highly trained musicians and choristers (e.g., the Children of Paul's) their plays showcased much more music than those of the adult companies (Austern 1992;Munro 2009;Shapiro 2017), with interludes frequently breaking the theatrical illusion. Boy companies would perform at court or in more exclusive private theatres, where candle lighting and costumes allowed to produce more evocative dramatic effects; their spectacles were catered to a socially ambitious and privileged audience, "seeking to create the consciousness of an in-group that would appreciate their railing" against other social groups and popular dramatic conventions (Foakes 2003, 28; see also Shapiro 2017).…”