Beginning with the premise that audience response is a complex interrelationship of factors, this dissertation explores the impact of practical stage technique on audience response in Middleton's dramaturgy, focusing on strategies of maintaining and manipulating control of characters, of the audience, of the dramatic experience, as well as on the ideological and performative implications of doing so.

The first two chapters consider the impact of the seemingly minor strategies of entrances and exits in establishing or undermining closure of a scene, in shaping which character holds power over others on stage and the ways in which these shaping functions influence audience response to the drama.

The third chapter examines the familiar convention of asides to suggest unusual ways in which Middleton uses the device to challenge the limits of the stage illusion in order to confront his audience and to force the audience into deeper commitment with the dramatic illusion.

The fourth and fifth chapters look at larger stage devices, first social occasions (feasts, weddings, funerals) then performance occasions (masques, plays-within-plays, madhouses), to explore how these structures are manipulated on the stage to influence and shape audience response.