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In Victorian society--rigidly stratified by both income and
occupation--performers were drawn from various class backgrounds
and enjoyed a unique degree of social mobility. Nevertheless, the
living and working conditions of female performers were distinctly
different from their male counterparts: fully justifying in social,
economic, and gender terms the semantic distinction "actress."
"Actresses as Working Women" utilizes the methodologies of a
number of disciplines--labor history, historical demography,
sociology, performance analysis, and literary theory--and a vast
amount of primary evidence to investigate actresses' separate and
equivocal status. Their segregation and marginalization guaranteed
economic insecurity. Their attempts to reconcile sexuality and the
female life cycle to a physically demanding, itinerant occupation
while under constant public scutiny led to assumptions about their
morality that were difficult to overcome. Performance
conventions--in both theatre and music hall traditions--that
reflected popular pornographic images reinforced this stigma, which
was documented in contemporaneous erotic literature and the
male-controlled culture of vice that permeated theatrical
neighborhoods.
One of the first in-depth feminist studies of the history of
theatre, "Actresses as Working Women" brings a fresh perspective
and voluminous evidence to bear on the study of nineteenth-century
theatre.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Historiography
sets the agenda for inclusive and wide-ranging approaches to
writing history, embracing the diverse perspectives of the
twenty-first century and Critical Media History. Written by an
international team of authors whose expertise spans a multitude of
historical periods and cultures, this collection of fascinating
essays poses the central question: "what is specific to the
historiography of the performative?" The study of theatre, in
conjunction with the wider sphere of performance, involves an array
of multi-faceted methods for collecting evidence, interpreting
sources, and creating meaning. Reflecting on issues of recording -
from early modern musical scores, through VHS-technology to latest
digital procedures - and on what is missing from records or oblique
in practices, the contributors convey how theatre and performance
history is integral to social and cultural relations. This expertly
curated collection repositions theatre and performance history and
is essential reading for Theatre and Performance Studies students
or those interested in social and cultural history more generally.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Historiography
sets the agenda for inclusive and wide-ranging approaches to
writing history, embracing the diverse perspectives of the
twenty-first century and Critical Media History. Written by an
international team of authors whose expertise spans a multitude of
historical periods and cultures, this collection of fascinating
essays poses the central question: "what is specific to the
historiography of the performative?" The study of theatre, in
conjunction with the wider sphere of performance, involves an array
of multi-faceted methods for collecting evidence, interpreting
sources, and creating meaning. Reflecting on issues of recording -
from early modern musical scores, through VHS-technology to latest
digital procedures - and on what is missing from records or oblique
in practices, the contributors convey how theatre and performance
history is integral to social and cultural relations. This expertly
curated collection repositions theatre and performance history and
is essential reading for Theatre and Performance Studies students
or those interested in social and cultural history more generally.
British theater became big business in the nineteenth century, and the role of laissez-faire in this cultural industry consistently troubled the government. This is the first full-length study to investigate the theater's growth from an economic perspective, reflecting the debates of theorists from Adam Smith to Alfred Marshall. Tracy Davis' wide-ranging analysis grounds issues such as subsidization and the economic viability of the live arts in an era predating government funding, offering fresh insight into the history of cultural policy for the arts in Britain.
Why does historical memory exclude nineteenth-century women
playwrights when hundreds worked prolifically across the spectrum
of professional theatre, amateur theatricals, and publishing? What
might it mean to adjust the collective focus of cultural historians
and literary critics so that these women can come into view? This
collection of essays, written by a team of leading scholars in the
field, undertakes not simply to recover the names and careers of
women playwrights but to call into question the whole idea of what
a playwright is, and what she does, and why it matters. Gender
inquiry is the start: destabilising the category of playwrights
loosens the borders of theatre history, making it possible to
reconceptualize theatre and drama not as a product of culture but
as social processes dynamically interacting with culture.
A biographically based study of George Bernard Shaw and his milieu,
this book offers a non-laudatory reading of Shaw's economic
practices and theories, augments feminist and postcolonial
critiques that preoccupy the study of literary history in the
1990s, and provides a long overdue revisionist reading of Shaw for
an undergraduate readership. It traces the theatrical and political
influences on Shaw from his earliest days in London; tracks his
interest in socialism as an activist and author of tracts, novels,
and plays emphasizing certain polemical traits; and follows his
career as a major literary figure into the mid-20th century. The
overarching themes of theatre and politics are narrated in relation
to attempts by Shaw and his contemporaries to identify an audience
and aesthetic for socialist theatre. The bibliographic essay that
concludes the book is particularly helpful for student readers, who
can benefit from a manageably-sized orientation to the mountain of
Shavian scholarship.
Specially-commissioned essays explore the element of performance theory known as "theatricality" in six case studies that use specific circumstances to illustrate how the concept of "theatricality" developed. Topics covered include early use of the term; employment of theatricality by other disciplines to describe events; non-Western interpretation of theatricality; and its role in analyzing political and cultural events and philosophies. The book provides an introductory guide for those discovering the complex yet rewarding world of performance theory.
Since the turn of the century, Performance Studies has emerged as
an increasingly vibrant discipline. Its concerns - embodiment,
ethical research and social change - are held in common with many
other fields, however a unique combination of methods and
applications is used in exploration of the discipline. Bridging
live art practices - theatre, performance art and dance - with
technological media, and social sciences with humanities, it is
truly hybrid and experimental in its techniques. This 2008
Companion brings together specially commissioned essays from
leading scholars who reflect on their own experiences in
Performance Studies and the possibilities this offers to
representations of identity, self-and-other, and communities.
Theories which have been absorbed into the field are applied to
compelling topics in current academic, artistic and community
settings. The collection is designed to reflect the diversity of
outlooks and provide a guide for students as well as scholars
seeking a perspective on research trends.
This ambitious study traces the strategies of human rights
activists to show how world-changing reform movements were shaped
by women and men from modest backgrounds who were deeply attuned to
the power of performance. Tracy C. Davis explores
nineteenth-century reform campaigns through the pioneering work of
a family of activists – prominent anti-slavery lecturer George
Thompson, his daughter Amelia (the first female theatre and music
critic for a British daily newspaper) and her husband, the
political organizer Frederick Chesson. Engaging in some of the most
important social struggles of the late Georgian and Victorian
periods – including abolition, enfranchisement, and anti-genocide
- this book reveals how two generations' insights into performance
consolidated into activist tactics that persist today.
Characterised by a skilful deployment of performance theory
alongside deep and wide-ranging historical knowledge, this
ground-breaking work demonstrates what 'dramaturgy' can teach us
about 'history'.
In an era defined by the threat of nuclear annihilation, Western
nations attempted to prepare civilian populations for atomic attack
through staged drills, evacuations, and field exercises. In Stages
of Emergency the distinguished performance historian Tracy C. Davis
investigates the fundamentally theatrical nature of these Cold War
civil defense exercises. Asking what it meant for civilians to be
rehearsing nuclear war, she provides a comparative study of the
civil defense maneuvers conducted by three NATO allies-the United
States, Canada, and the United Kingdom-during the 1950s and 1960s.
Delving deep into the three countries' archives, she analyzes
public exercises involving private citizens-Boy Scouts serving as
mock casualties, housewives arranging home protection, clergy
training to be shelter managers-as well as covert exercises
undertaken by civil servants.Stages of Emergency covers public
education campaigns and school programs-such as the ubiquitous
"duck and cover" drills-meant to heighten awareness of the dangers
of a possible attack, the occupancy tests in which people stayed
sequestered for up to two weeks to simulate post-attack living
conditions as well as the effects of confinement on interpersonal
dynamics, and the British first-aid training in which participants
acted out psychological and physical trauma requiring immediate
treatment. Davis also brings to light unpublicized government
exercises aimed at anticipating the global effects of nuclear war.
Her comparative analysis shows how the differing priorities,
contingencies, and social policies of the three countries
influenced their rehearsals of nuclear catastrophe. When the Cold
War ended, so did these exercises, but, as Davis points out in her
perceptive afterword, they have been revived-with strikingly
similar recommendations-in response to twenty-first-century fears
of terrorists, dirty bombs, and rogue states.
During the nineteenth century, British theatre developed into an
industry with considerable importance in the economy, diversified
by whole new forms of entertainment - first music hall then cinema
- evolving alongside the dramatic stage. This comprehensive study
examines the theatre's growth from an economic perspective. Tracy
Davis reflects the debates of economic theorists from Adam Smith to
Alfred Marshall to investigate three key areas: the state's role in
protecting theatre; the factors affecting the success or failure of
theatre companies; and how theatre came to be regarded as one of
the 'service industries'. By grounding debates about subsidization
and the economic viability of the live arts in an era predating
government funding, Davis sheds light on the history of cultural
policy for the arts in Britain. Her book will interest scholars
across a range of disciplines - theatre, social history, economics,
gender studies and the sociology of culture.
This collection of essays, written by a team of leading scholars in the field, undertakes not simply to recover the names and careers of women playwrights but to call into question the whole idea of what a playwright is, what she does, and why it matters. Gender inquiry is the start: destabilizing the category of playwrights loosens the borders of theater history making it possible to reconceptualize theater and drama not as a product of culture but as social processes dynamically interacting with culture.
A biographically based study of George Bernard Shaw and his
milieu, this book offers a non-laudatory reading of ShaW's economic
practices and theories, augments feminist and postcolonial
critiques that preoccupy the study of literary history in the
1990s, and provides a long overdue revisionist reading of Shaw for
an undergraduate readership. It traces the theatrical and political
influences on Shaw from his earliest days in London; tracks his
interest in socialism as an activist and author of tracts, novels,
and plays emphasizing certain polemical traits; and follows his
career as a major literary figure into the mid-20th century. The
overarching themes of theatre and politics are narrated in relation
to attempts by Shaw and his contemporaries to identify an audience
and aesthetic for socialist theatre. The bibliographic essay that
concludes the book is particularly helpful for student readers, who
can benefit from a manageably-sized orientation to the mountain of
Shavian scholarship.
Specially-commissioned essays explore the element of performance theory known as "theatricality" in six case studies that use specific circumstances to illustrate how the concept of "theatricality" developed. Topics covered include early use of the term; employment of theatricality by other disciplines to describe events; non-Western interpretation of theatricality; and its role in analyzing political and cultural events and philosophies. The book provides an introductory guide for those discovering the complex yet rewarding world of performance theory.
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