Under an alphabetical list of relevant terms, names and concepts, this text reviews knowledge of the character and operation of theatres in Shakespeare's time, with an explanation of their origins. It consolidates the author's 40 years of experience in studying and staging Shakespeare's plays. Coverage includes the practices of Elizabethan actors and script writers: methods of characterization; gesture, blocking and choreography, including music, dance and fighting; actors' rhetorical interaction with audiences; and use of costumes, stage props and make-up. The author makes use of scripts and scholarship about original stagings of Shakespeare and suggests how those productions related to modern staging. Much of this material has developed as a result of the recent increased interest in the significance of performance for interpreting Shakespeare, including the recovery of the archaeological evidence about the original Rose and Globe Theatres. The book contains bibliographies for each topic and consolidates these in an overall bibliography for Shakespeare and his theatres.