History of Theatre

Examines the people who composed the theater audiences in Athens, including foreigners, slaves, women, and the poor.

Examines how actors used story-telling, dance, mask, song and visual action to create a large-scale event that shaped the lives of the citizens.

Presents epigraphic, historiographic, iconographic and archaeological evidence indicating that the fourth century BC was an age of exponential growth in theatre.

Examines actors and their popular reception; offers evidence of the spread of theater outside Athens and the impact of that expansion on actors and dramatic literature.

Traces the evolution of Roman tragedy from the earliest tragedians to the dramatist Seneca and explores the role played by Roman culture in shaping the perception of theatricality on and off stage.

Reveals marketplace pressures at the heart of dramatic form in medieval and Renaissance drama; demonstrates how early moderns borrowed medieval money-gatherers' techniques to signal communal obligations and rewards for charitable support of theatre.

Tells a new story about the emotional experiences of theatregoers in Renaissance England and the impact those theatregoers had on early modern drama.

Shows how the stage imaginatively shaped and responded to the vibrancy and changing demographics of early modern London.

Offers an account of women's contributions to theatrical production in Shakespeare's time. Reveals that the professional stage relied on the labor, wares, and capital of women of all stripes, including ordinary crafts- and tradeswomen who supplied costumes, props, and comestibles; wealthy women who provided capital and credit; families of theater people who worked alongside their male kin; and immigrant women who fueled the fashion-driven stage with a range of newfangled skills and commodities.

Proposes that playhouses contributed to local commerce and charitable endeavors, offered a convivial gathering place where current social and political issues were sifted, and helped to define and articulate the shared values of their audiences.

Using European newspapers, diplomats' reports, foreign travel accounts, witness accounts, and payment records, the authors uncover unique aspects of local culture and politics of the time, revealing how the Muscovite court's interest in theater was strongly influenced by diplomatic contacts.

Reveals the way actresses animated issues of national identity, property, patronage, and fashion in the context of their dramatic performances, and contains an original argument about the importance of actresses as the first modern subjects, actively shaping their public identities to make themselves into celebrated properties.

Examines change in acting, stage design, setting, and new forms of drama during the Romantic Era.

Examines the composition of the theatres' audiences, their behavior, and their attendance patterns by looking at topography, social demography, police reports, playbills, autobiographies and diaries, newspaper accounts, economic and social factors as seen in census returns, maps and transportation data, and the managerial policies of each theatre.

Argues that the expansion of theater outside Paris came about through local initiative, civic engagement, and entrepreneurial investment, rather than through policies undertaken by the government; overturns the notion that cultural change flowed from Paris and the royal court to the provinces and colonies.

Uncovers the complex mechanisms underpinning the dissemination of French culture and language throughout Europe between 1670 and 1815.

Examines the lives, careers, and fame of largely forgotten women from Europe and the United States whose work in melodrama, ballet, and other stage shows shocked and excited early U.S. audiences.

Explores the role of gender in the formation of American theatrical culture during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Shows that American society was more divided and less idealistic than the received histories of the WWII home front and the entertainment industry recognize.

Recovers the story of the anonymous stagecraft workers and the historical neighborhood in which their labor occurred.

Explores the ways in which comic pain and comic violence are performed within slapstick to make audiences laugh.