Edward Alleyn, the New Model Actor, and the Rise of the Celebrity in the 1590s.

This article argues that the career of the actor Edward Alleyn initiated the rise of theatrical celebrity in England in the 1590s. Alleyn's success as Tamburlaine shaped the repertory of the Rose theater and his company of the Admiral's Men. It was in this period of rising stability of capitalist playhouses that actors themselves became a commodity.