Prior to Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in 1538, the section of London known as Blackfriars was as major religious institution extending along the bank of the Thames River. In its' entirety, Blackfriars was second in size only to St. Paul's Churchyard. After the Reformation, Blackfriars was located in what's known as a Liberty, which meant it was just outside the reach of the mayoral law. Being outside the mayor's jurisdiction made Blackfriars especially attractive to entrepreneurs like The Burbages and their star writer, William Shakespeare, who wanted to open a theater that wasn't subject to the tighter restrictions of London proper. Blackfriars wasn't only attractive to innovative theater professionals, however, it was also attractive to immigrants and the highly religious who were seeking freedom from the regulation of guilds. At the time that Shakespeare and the Burbages were looking at Blackfriars as a home for their theater, the parish of St Anne, Blackfriars, was dominated by godly clergy and parishioners, the people we usually think of as the enemies of theater. Here today to explain to us how Blackfriars theater was able to survive and thrive in this section of London is our guest, Chris Highley.

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