ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Though there is evidence that women acted in street performances, and in other notorious venues, all commercial acting companies of the time were made up entirely of men and it was illegal for women to act on stage professionally until 1661.

Detailed explanation-2: -Women were not allowed to be on the stage because it was considered “dangerous.” Men played male characters as well as female characters! “The Greeks believed that allowing women to perform publicly would be too dangerous and that having men portray them neutralized the danger.” (Source) So what about the Romans?

Detailed explanation-3: -Women were not allowed to perform on the stage as it was judged an unseemly profession for women, until after the Restoration in the 1660s. The Globe decided not to use boys to play women, but men did take the parts of women in all-male casts.

Detailed explanation-4: -What is often overlooked, however, is the role that women played in the rise of theater. Women were not only attending plays in record numbers but were finding positions in chorus lines and as featured actresses.

Detailed explanation-5: -Traditions of male-only performance cultures Many societies prohibited women from performing on stage, so boys and men took the female roles. In the ancient Greek theatre men played females, as they did in English Renaissance theatre and continue to do in Japanese kabuki theatre (see onnagata).