Who went to the theatre in shakespeare's day?

Answer 1

Just about everyone except the extremely poor who could not afford to eat never mind go to the theatre (and they might sneak in so they could pick a pocket), the Puritans who would rather listen to a sermon for three hours, and the Royals and very rich who could afford to hire the actors to come to them.

They included people from a variety of social classes, and were made up of both men and women. Of course when Shakespeare's plays were performed at court, there was not nearly as much diversity. It is probable that nobles attended performances at the Swan, Globe and other theaters where they occupied the preferred (and most expensive) seats in the covered galleries and on the stage itself. Below them, Elizabethan tradesmen stood in the pit as "groundlings." In the pits stood the goundlings, who wanted to see dirty jokes and fights. The galleries housed the middle class people, who wanted a good story or plot. On and above the stage sat the nobility, who just wanted to be seen.

Shakespeare's plays were performed in summer in outdoor public theatres; between the 1560s & 1642 at least nine open-air public theatres were built just outside the city of London. All levels of society attended productions at the public theatres; the most popular being The Globe Theatre, which was the home of Shakespeare's plays. In the winter when it was too cold and dark to use the outdoor theatres, the plays were performed after 1608 in The Blackfriars, an indoor space, lit by candles and high windows. Indoor theatres like the Blackfriars were also open to the general public, however, they were usually smaller and therefore more expensive than public theatres. The poorest part of the crowd at the outdoor theatres could not afford to go to the theatre in winter.

Also, you had to be in or near London. It is dubious whether Shakespeare's wife and daughters ever saw any of his plays unless they were taken on tour through the country.

Answer 2

Everyone did! It was the equivalent of TV today and was one of the main cheap forms of entertainment.