The Stage Furniture of Early Modern Academic Drama

2025/07/21 by Sutton, Dana F.

paper · doi:10.13136/zp3b3q45

Abstract

This note examines the stage furniture of early modern academic drama, focusing on the use of temporary “houses” in collegiate dining hall performances at Oxford, Cambridge, and the Inns of Court. While typically limited to two such structures, many plays required three or more, creating logistical and interpretative challenges. Drawing on case studies like Ruggle’s Ignoramus and Fraunce’s Victoria, the study questions prevailing reconstructions based solely on physical evidence and argues for incorporating textual analysis.  KEYWORDS: academic drama; stage furniture; Inns of Court; early modern English drama

Related

• The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642
• Speaking plates: text, performance, and banqueting trenchers in Early Modern Europe
• Review of Philip Butterworth, Staging Conventions in Medieval English Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 272 pp. ISBN 9781107015487
• Horestes “and a Tragedie of the kinge of Scottes”: Theatre and Politics at Elizabeth’s Court
• ‘Our Children Made Enterluders’: Choristers, Actors, and Students in St Paul’s Cathedral Precinct