How the Commedia Dell'Arte's Actresses Changed the Shakespearean Stage, with Pamela Allen Brown

Women didn’t act on London’s professional stages until after the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1661. But Dr. Pamela Allen Brown, author of The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage, believes that the movement towards women in the theater actually began in the 1570s, when Italy’s commedia dell’arte troupes first stepped set foot in London. The troupes featured something most English people hadn’t seen at that point: the Divina—a woman who played the Innamorata role, one of the two lovers in plays we’d characterize today as romantic comedies. English diplomats had seen the women who played these parts—who would later be called “divas”—but in the 1570s, divas started coming to England. And, Professor Brown says, their presence began to change attitudes about what theater could be, what plays should be about, and—maybe most importantly—about what kinds of people could play female roles. Pamela Allen Brown is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Pamela Allen Brown is a Professor of English at the University of Connecticut at Stamford. Her previous books include Better a Shrew than a Sheep: Women, Drama, and the Culture of Jest in Early Modern England, published by Cornell University Press in 2003, and Women Players in Early Modern England: Beyond the All-Male Stage, which she co-edited with Peter Parolin. That was published by Ashgate in 2005. Her new book, The Diva's Gift to the Shakespearean Stage, was published by Oxford University Press in 2021. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published March 29, 2022. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “I Shall See Some Squeaking Cleopatra Boy My Greatness,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Paul Luke at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Josh Wilcox and Walter Nordquist at Brooklyn Podcasting Studio in Brooklyn, New York.