Parity Pipeline

Genre

Synopsis

The film looks at the history of theater in Elizabethan England, from early plays at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, to the opening of the first public theaters in Shoreditch in the late 1570s, and the parallel career trajectory of renowned poet and patron of the arts Edward de Vere, 17^th Earl of Oxford. Edward de Vere was the leader of a circle of the most prominent writers of the day and the center of the London theater scene. The film follows his journey to becoming the writer who changed the world. It begins with his father’s troupe of players performing for Queen Elizabeth at Castle Hedingham, and charts his experiences at Cambridge, known for its theatrical productions, and at Oxford University where he attended the play Palamon and Arcyte. At Gray’s Inn, he participated in student productions, and at Blackfriars, he served as Master of the Revels. Returning from Italy where he had seen commedia dell’arte street theater, he produced plays at court and started a scriptorium and school for writers in London.  His first school was located at The Savoy, today London’s theater district. He moved his group to Fisher’s Folly in Bishopsgate, near the two new public playhouses, The Theatre and The Curtain in Shoreditch. At The Curtain, De Vere rehearsed works he created along with those of his literary circle including Marlowe, Nashe, Munday, Lyly, and Kyd. This is a story that has never been told: his early exposure to the plays at Castle Hedingham, at university and the Inns of Court, and of course, his productions of the plays at the palaces. The development of his own style as playwright and a theater-maker is the story arc of the film, tracing the history of theater in Elizabethan London and the parallel trajectory of De Vere’s career. Edward de Vere’s reign as the center of the London theater world ends when, as Alexander Waugh revealed in his article “1591: A Watershed Year,” he runs out of money, having exhausted his resources to support his fellow writers and finance innovative productions. He retires to Hackney to revise his plays, and a new group of actors and businessmen, Edward Alleyn, Philip Henslowe, and Richard Burbage, take over the scene. In 1593 the name “Shakespeare” first appears in print.