Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History

Wilmeth, D. B. (Ed)

Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History is a series devoted to the best of theatre/performance scholarship currently available, accessible and free of jargon. It strives to include a wide range of topics, from the more traditional to those performance forms that in recent years have helped broaden the understanding of what theatre as a category might include (from variety forms as diverse as the circus and burlesque to street buskers, stage magic, and musical theatre, among many others). Although historical, critical, or analytical studies are of special interest, more theoretical projects, if not the dominant thrust of a study but utilized as important underpinning or as an historiographical or analytical method of exploration, are also of interest. Textual studies of drama or other types of less traditional performance texts are also germane to the series if placed in their cultural, historical, social, or political and economic context. There is no geographical focus for this series and works of excellence of a diverse and international nature, including comparative studies, are sought.

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Titles in this series

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George Alexander and the Work of the Actor-Manager Book

George Alexander and the Work of the Actor-Manager

Sutherland, L. (2020)

In the first book-length study of the work and legacy of West End actor-manager George Alexander since the 1930s, George Alexander and the Work of the Actor Manager examines the …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

Sex, Class, and the Theatrical Archive Book

Sex, Class, and the Theatrical Archive

Sikes, A. (2020)

In Sex, Class and the Theatrical Archive: Erotic Economies, Alan Sikes explores the intersection of struggles over sex and class identities in politicized performances during key …

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Eugenics and Physical Culture Performance in the Progressive Era Book

Eugenics and Physical Culture Performance in the Progressive Era

Walsh, S. L. (2020)

This book strives to unmask the racial inequity at the root of the emergence of modern physical culture systems in the US Progressive Era (1890s–1920s). This book focuses on …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966 Book

The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966

Burrell, J. (2019)

This book argues that African American theatre in the twentieth century represented a cultural front of the civil rights movement. Highlighting the frequently ignored decades of …

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A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre Book

A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre

Pinnington, N. J. (2019)

This book traces the history of noh and kyōgen, the first major Japanese theatrical arts. Going beyond P. G. O'Neill's Early Nō Drama of 1958, it covers the full period of noh's …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

W. C. Fields from Sound Film and Radio Comedy to Stardom Book

W. C. Fields from Sound Film and Radio Comedy to Stardom

Wertheim, A. F. (2018)

W. C. Fields is known as a virtuoso comedian and legendary iconoclast who gave the gift of laughter to multitudes. As the first author to use the newly-opened Fields Papers at the …

Available Formats: Hardcover

Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre Book

Thomas Hamblin and the Bowery Theatre

Bogar, T. A. (2018)

This book recounts the personal and professional life of Thomas Souness Hamblin (1800-1853), Shakespearean actor and Bowery Theatre manager. Primarily responsible for the …

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Theaters of Error Book

Theaters of Error

LaFountain, P. (2018)

This book offers provocative readings of canonical Enlightenment dramas that reflect and shape the period’s changing understanding of error. With striking interdisciplinary …

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The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre Book

The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre

Tian, M. (2018)

This book is a historical study of the use of Asian theatre for modern Western theatre as practiced by its founding fathers, including Aurélien Lugné-Poe, Adolphe Appia, Gordon …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

Racism and Early Blackface Comic Traditions Book

Racism and Early Blackface Comic Traditions

Hornback, R. (2018)

This book traces blackface types from ancient masks of grinning Africans and phallus-bearing Roman fools through to comedic medieval devils, the pan-European black-masked …

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Staging the Past in the Age of Thatcher Book

Staging the Past in the Age of Thatcher

Pennino, A. P. (2018)

This book investigates how the British theatrical community offered an alternative and oppositional historical narrative to the heritage culture promulgated by the Thatcher and …

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War and Theatrical Innovation Book

War and Theatrical Innovation

Emeljanow, V. (Ed) (2017)

This book examines the relationship between wartime conflict and theatre practices. Bringing together a diverse collection of essays in one volume, it offers both a geographically …

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Popular Theatre and Political Utopia in France, 1870—1940 Book

Popular Theatre and Political Utopia in France, 1870—1940

Wardhaugh, J. (2017)

This book is the first study of popular theatre in France from left to right, exploring how theatre shapes political acts, ideals, and communities in the modern world. As the …

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The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall and Cosmopolitan Entertainment Culture Book

The Britannia Panopticon Music Hall and Cosmopolitan Entertainment Culture

Maloney, P. (2016)

Focusing on Glasgow’s earliest surviving music hall, the Britannia, later the Panopticon, this book explores the role of one of the city’s most iconic cultural venues within the …

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W.C. Fields from the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway Stage to the Screen Book

W.C. Fields from the Ziegfeld Follies and Broadway Stage to the Screen

Wertheim, A. F. (2016)

This book reveals how Fields became a character comedian while performing in Broadway’s most illustrious revue, the Ziegfeld Follies. As the first biography to use the recently …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Performing Race and Erasure Book

Performing Race and Erasure

Riley, S. R. (2016)

In this book, Shannon Rose Riley provides a critically rich investigation of representations of Cuba and Haiti in US culture in order to analyze their significance not only to the …

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The Education of a Circus Clown Book

The Education of a Circus Clown

Carlyon, D. (2016)

2017 Freedley Award Finalist, Theatre Library Association 2016 Best Circus Book of the Year, Stuart Thayer Prize, Circus Historical Society The 1960s American hippie-clown boom …

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Child Labor in the British Victorian Entertainment Industry Book

Child Labor in the British Victorian Entertainment Industry

Colclough, D. (2016)

Child labor greatly contributed to the cultural and economic success of the British Victorian theatrical industry. This book highlights the complexities of the battle for child …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

Irish Stereotypes in Vaudeville, 1865-1905 Book

Irish Stereotypes in Vaudeville, 1865-1905

Mooney, J. (2015)

Vaudeville is often viewed as the source of some of the crude stereotypes that positioned the Irish immigrant in America as the antithesis of native-born American citizens. Using …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage Book

American Cinderellas on the Broadway Musical Stage

Cantu, M. (2015)

Drawing upon Broadway musicals ranging from Irene (1919) to Gypsy (1959), Maya Cantu considers how Cinderella Broadway musicals from the 1920s through the 1950s adapted and …

Available Formats: Hardcover