Who played the parts in Shakespeare's plays?

Answer 1

After 1594 or so, Shakespeare became permanently attached to a company of players called The Lord Chamberlain's Men/King's Men. The actors would therefore be the members of that company, their hired men and apprentices, people like Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, Robert Armin, Lawrence Fletcher, Augustine Phillips, John Heminges, Henry Condell, William Sly, Richard Cowley, John Lowin, Alexander Cooke, Nicholas Tooley, Christopher Beeston, John Underwood, William Ostler, Richard Robinson, Robert Gough, George Bryan and Thomas Pope. Oh, and Shakespeare himself, of course. We don't have much information about who played what roles: Burbage played the leads like Hamlet, Macbeth or Henry V, Kempe was the clown who played Bottom, Costard and Peter in Romeo and Juliet, Armin was a later clown who played the Fool in King Lear, Cowley played Verges in Much Ado, Beeston and Robinson played women and Shakespeare was rumoured to have played the Ghost in Hamlet.

Answer 2

Your question is ambiguous. Do you mean what characters are in the plays? There are a lot of characters, a great many of them very memorable, such as the fat, dishonest, but immensely amusing knight Sir John Falstaff, the brooding Hamlet, resourceful Rosalind, faithful Desdemona and her sadly deluded husband Othello, the tragic lovers Romeo and Juliet, scheming Iago and Richard III, the insane Lear and Ophelia, the heroic Henry V, and many many more.

If you mean who performed Shakespeare's plays, the answer is actors, lots of them.

Answer 3

well when shakespeare was alive, women weren't allowed to act in the theater so young boys/men played parts. for example, in romeo and Juliet, Juliet would have been played by a young boy.