ABSTRACT
How did audiences of the early modern playhouses access the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries? The aim of this chapter is to explain how a notion of access that is central to interface theory can expand understanding of the audience experience of early modern playhouses. This requires some adjustments to the focus on computer-mediated communication that underpins interface theory to enable access to include all aspects of the complex modes of interaction between audience, player, and playhouse space. The chapter thus seeks to shift thought of the interface from “the word” to the whole space in which early modern theatrical contact took place.
