Shakespeare needs a new playhouse to compete.

The 1598 decision to build the famous playhouse came about as the answer to many of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’s problems. With the end of a lease on the Blackfriars Theatre in 1597, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (Shakespeare, J & R Burbage, G Byran, John Hemminges, Augustine Phillips, Thomas Pope and Will Sly) had no where else to readily perform their plays.

This acting troupe needed a new playhouse and fast as their rivals, The Admiral’s Men already had the the Rose Playhouse to perform their plays.

Clearly the Lord Chamberlain’s Men would need a playhouse to compete, but there was one little problem; a lack of money.

Paying for the Playhouse: Shareholders become the key.

Though James and Richard Burbage of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men had money, there still wasn’t enough. Instead they came up with a novel idea; they would each own 25 % of the new playhouse whilst the rest of The Lord Chamberlain’s men would each chip in the remaining 50%. This, the Chamberlain’s men did, Shakespeare and the other four members of the acting troupe each owning a 12.5 % share when Will Kemp another member of the troupe, backed out.

Sure enough the playhouse was completed, opening in 1599. Not only could the circular playhouse hold up to 3000 patrons but it turned out to be a good earner, earning Shakespeare and his troupe both money from hiring out the playhouse and from ticket sales for their own performances there.

Theft builds the Playhouse.

Construction of the famous playhouse, set near the Thames in a place called Bankside in Southwark, began in early 1599. Said to be built by Cuthbert Burbage, brother of the famous Shakespearean actor Robert Burbage and son of James Burbage.

Interestingly the famous playhouse was not the Burbage son’s first choice for a playhouse since they already had one in "The Theatre", the first of its kind in London and an inheritance from his father. Unfortunately for Shakespeare and the rest of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the lease of the land it was built on expired in 1597.

Theoretically this playhouse should have reverted to the landlord Giles Allen as well. Instead Burbage tore it down and then discretely removed several 12 inch oak beams, transporting them to Bankside where they formed the structural frame for a 100 foot circular polygon, the heart of the new playhouse's structure.

Location, location, location.

Though located near the river Thames, Shakespeare’s playhouse was not in fact in central London but rather an outlying district called Southwark. Southwark had a "colorful" reputation of being not too different from what we would call a "bad" district today, certainly not the place to find respectable gentry.

Yet the famous playhouse by attracting commoners and gentry alike, brought people of all classes together in a region renowned for bear-baiting and other less than respectable activities.

Nonetheless, elements of England’s strict class divisions remained; commoners were in the courtyard by comparison with England’s gentry and nobility which were seated in the galleries or the balconies.

That playhouses could even exist at all was in part due to its Southwark location; it was outside the jurisdiction of a disapproving central London bureaucracy...