You can't really be proud of yourself if you don't know your history.

Those were the words of Nelson Mandela

and the foundation of a new podcast from the Times and the Sunday Times, your history.

Join me Anna Temkin, Deputy Abitri's editor of The Times each week as we

explored the astonishing lives that have shaped our own lives.

Your history, available wherever you find your podcasts. During the reign of Elizabeth I, England saw the establishment of its first playhouses.

At the heart of this new form of entertainment in London were the acting companies,

exclusively male troops of players who performed thousands of new plays in

repertory. Perhaps the most famous of all were Richard Burbage and Will Kemp, members of the company known first as the Lord Chamberlain's men and later the Kingsmen, the company of William Shakespeare.

Here with me to discuss their lives and legacy is

Chivorn Keenan, professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance literature at

de Montford University. Among her many fantastic works on early modern theatre are acting companies and their plays in Shakespeare's London and travelling players in Shakespeare's England.

She's currently working on Burbage, the delightful Proteus of the Shakespearean stage, due out in 2025.

I'm Professor Sus Anna Lipscomb, and this is not just the Tudors. To everyone, thank you so much for joining me.

Delight to be here.

I wonder if we could start by you explaining a little bit about how theatres and acting companies

were structured whether actors were loyal to a single company and companies to a

venue or whether they moved around?

It varies a little bit. So for most acting companies this is an era where in order to be allowed

to act you need to have either a noble or a royal patron so most acting companies

they will be known by that patron's name so you mentioned the Lord

Chamberlain's players Shakespeare's first known company they obviously were patronised by the then Lord Chamberlain.

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