Meryl Faiers

Meryl Faiers

Shakespeare Institute
Doctoral researcher

Contact details

PhD title: The commercial infrastructure of the London theatre profession in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, examining the costs of playhouse building and operation, income and profitability through the lives and careers of Philip Henslowe and John Heminges.
Supervisor: Professor Tiffany Stern and Dr Tara Hamling
PhD Shakespeare Studies

Biography

Former producer and general manager of commercial theatre in London, throughout the UK, and US and Australia.

Research

This thesis will explore one of the underlying factors contributing to the explosion of dramatic literature at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries: the commercial infrastructure which provided relative stability to the professional London theatre industry.  Informed by the strong commercial viewpoint of an experienced contemporary theatre producer, its aim will be to uncover what it may have cost to run a successful theatre business and what that business and some of its participants may have earned and will assess what constituted financial success for owners and practitioners.

Other activities

  • Papers at British Graduate Shakespeare Conference 2018 & 2019; British Shakespeare Association 2023; Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Leisure Learning course 2023.
  • Member SAA, BSA.
  • Member of The Kingswomen researching the lives of the wives, daughters and extended families of the King's Men.

Publications

Blogs for The Kingswomen