<P> The establishment of large and profitable public theatres was an essential enabling factor in the success of English Renaissance drama . Once they were in operation , drama could become a fixed and permanent rather than a transitory phenomenon . Their construction was prompted when the Mayor and Corporation of London first banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague , and then formally expelled all players from the city in 1575 . This prompted the construction of permanent playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London , in the liberties of Halliwell / Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink , and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George 's Fields in rural Surrey . The Theatre was constructed in Shoreditch in 1576 by James Burbage with his brother - in - law John Brayne ( the owner of the unsuccessful Red Lion playhouse of 1567 ) and the Newington Butts playhouse was set up , probably by Jerome Savage , some time between 1575 and 1577 . The Theatre was rapidly followed by the nearby Curtain Theatre ( 1577 ) , the Rose ( 1587 ) , the Swan ( 1595 ) , the Globe ( 1599 ) , the Fortune ( 1600 ) , and the Red Bull ( 1604 ) . </P>
where were the first professional theatres built in london during the elizabethan period
outside the jurisdiction of London , in the liberties of Halliwell / Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink , and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George 's Fields in rural Surrey