We don't have much information about which roles which actors played in Shakespeare's day. Sometimes the printed copy of a play gives the name of the actor instead of the character, which helps. In one of the quartos of Romeo and Juliet the lines for Peter are marked as being for "Kemp" which tells us that Will Kempe played Peter. Unfortunately, we have no such slipup to help us with Shakespeare's roles. There is a legend that he played the Ghost in Hamlet. A contemporary said that Shakespeare favoured "kingly roles".
Actors inevitably play the roles in Shakespeare's plays, although some roles nowadays are played by actresses. Sometimes these are professional actors who earn their money this way, and sometimes they are amateurs who have a different day job. Either way, people who are not in interested in acting rarely play Shakespeare's roles (or indeed any roles).
We do not know. There is very little information about what roles Shakespeare played.
The thing that is most true for someone watching a play in Shakespeare's day has to do with gender differences. Someone watching a play at the Globe Theater in Shakespeare's day will notice that all roles are played by males. This includes female roles.
Yes, women weren't allowed to act.
No, women's roles were played by young boys, although at times women would dress up as men to be allowed to play women's roles!
Actors inevitably play the roles in Shakespeare's plays, although some roles nowadays are played by actresses. Sometimes these are professional actors who earn their money this way, and sometimes they are amateurs who have a different day job. Either way, people who are not in interested in acting rarely play Shakespeare's roles (or indeed any roles).
We do not know. There is very little information about what roles Shakespeare played.
The thing that is most true for someone watching a play in Shakespeare's day has to do with gender differences. Someone watching a play at the Globe Theater in Shakespeare's day will notice that all roles are played by males. This includes female roles.
His favorite role to play was the role of a king. It was said that he favoured "kingly roles" by one of his contemporaries.
Probably not. All of the roles he played that we know of were men. It was said by a contemporary that he "favoured kingly roles", not queenly ones. The actors who did female impersonation were generally specialists at that art, but Shakespeare was not one of them.
Yes, women weren't allowed to act.
Actors played all of Shakespeare's roles, because they were trained in acting.
No, women's roles were played by young boys, although at times women would dress up as men to be allowed to play women's roles!
In Shakespeare's time yes, all roles were played by men.
All of the female roles were played by male actors in Shakespere's time.
I don't know what Elizabeth you are speaking of, but I presume it was because she was a female Shakespearean actress who was acting after the year 1660 sometime. Sometimes actresses play the male roles in Shakespeare as well.
Women's roles in Shakespeare's plays were usually performed by boy actors. Shakespeare jokes about this several times - especially in Hamlet and in As You Like It. It was illegal during the Sixteenth Century for women to perform in plays, and most Elizabethan playwrights wrote only minor roles for female characters as a result. Shakespeare seems to have been one of the first playwrights to give women characters important roles in his plays - though after Shakespeare's time quite a few playwrights began to write important roles for women.