The GEES Project

(Girls on Early English Stages)

Girls have always appeared on stage!

The GEES Project (Girls on Early English Stages) is an online open-access research archive that documents girl actors on the medieval and early modern stage.

The GEES Project challenges the old assumption that girls were not allowed to perform on the early English stage. It explores girls’ participation in English dramatic culture from its earliest beginnings, and shows that they took active roles in religious drama, court masques, royal entries, civic pageants, and household entertainments: basically everywhere except the commercial London stage of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

The project explores the different ways girls performed in early modern England, from performing in plays and court masques, to writing and creating their own plays. Some of the girls are very well known to history, but most of them remain anonymous. Their participation is recorded in stage directions, cast lists, and records of payment. This project brings their long-forgotten performances to light.

The GEES Project compiles evidence of the girl actor drawn from two amazing multi-volume resources: the Records of Early English Drama, published by the University of Toronto Press, and British Drama 1532-1660: A Catalogue, edited by Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, published by Oxford University Press.

Girls on Early English Stages

Key Objectives:

  • calling attention to the dramatic activities of girls in the medieval and early modern period, from the plays of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim (935-1002 AD) to the dramatic works of the Cavendish sisters, Jane (1621-1669) and Elizabeth (1626-1663).
  • compiling evidence of the girl actor drawn from two amazing resources: Records of Early English Drama, published by the University of Toronto Pres, and British Drama, 1532-1660 ed. Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, published by Oxford University Press.
  • exploring the various ways girls participated in early English dramatic cultures, from the performing in plays and court masques, to composing their own plays. Examining the dramatic activities and experiences of girls from the Middle Ages to the Restoration

Project News

Examples from the GEES Project Database

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