In this engaging text, Arthur Kinney introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater. * Introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater. * Focuses on the material conditions of playing and of playgoing. * Covers venues, audiences, actors, society, government and regulation. * Each topic is considered in relation to a selection of Shakespeare's plays. * Shows students how the plays and the context in which they were produced illuminate one another.