Figure 1.--Here is a boy's acting troop in which Charle Chaplin was a member. He is in the middle row and wearing (of course) a bowler hat. The troupe was called Casey's Court and was photographed here in 1906.

We have little information about theatrical troupes at this time. We know they existed in the Tudor era as Shakespeare's and other historicl plays were performed by theatrical troupes. We are not sure just when they first appeared. We suspect that such troupes may have evolved out of the groups performing medieval passion plays. From the beginning boys were important in these troupes as they not only played the youthful male parts, but those of girls and women as well. Thus a substantial part of the characters were played by boys. I'm not sure when girls first began to perform in plays, perhaps not until the 19th century. We note an acting troupe called Casey's Court in the early 19th century made up of boys and young men. One of the boys is Charlie Chaplin. I am nor entirely sure what a boys' acting troupe would do at the time. Did these boys put in plays. I would have thought it would have been more like to have one or two boys as part of an adult theatrical troupe.

Created: 11:17 PM 10/4/2006
Last updated: 9:47 PM 1/1/2017