The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare

The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare by Daniel Swift

Shakespeare's plays are well known. His life is also explored in various forms in fact and fiction. This book takes a different approach of exploring the culture of theater at the time. Shakespeare was put one of the characters in this drama. Theaters had become a popular form of entertainment at the time. The goals and rights of performers and playwrights were being established. The capitalistic financing scheme was just starting to take hold. People borrowed from each other and didn't see huge value in their work. Traveling troupes had their own separate economics. The plague seemed to bring much crashing down - especially with the unknown length of time. The book is loaded with interesting detail, though it went on a bit too long for me to maintain interest.