Following the religious upheaval of Henry VIII’s Reformation, and despite Elizabeth’s more tolerant approach to the religious divide, the scars of tumultuous change cut deep. English society experienced a revolution of thinking and religious practice – the poets and playwrights would be the chroniclers of these dramatic times. James Howard, who was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, will be our guide and his first webinar will take us from Shakespeare’s formative years in Stratford to early success in London as the challenges and opportunities of the age shaped his thinking. What lay behind the success that enabled him to buy the second largest house in Stratford and to help shape his theatre company ‘The Lord Chamberlain’s Men’ such that they could build the most important theatre London had seen, ‘The Globe’?