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

Showing 73 results.

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 …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

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

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 …

Available Formats: Softcover 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

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 …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

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

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 …

Available Formats: Hardcover

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 …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

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 …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

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: Softcover Hardcover eBook

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 …

Available Formats: Hardcover Softcover 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

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

W. C. Fields from Burlesque and Vaudeville to Broadway Book

W. C. Fields from Burlesque and Vaudeville to Broadway

Wertheim, A. (2014)

W. C. Fields was a virtuoso comedian, often called a comic genius, legendary iconoclast, and "Great Man," who brought so much laughter to millions while enduring so much anguish. …

Available Formats: Softcover Hardcover eBook

Performance Reconstruction and Spanish Golden Age Drama Book

Performance Reconstruction and Spanish Golden Age Drama

Vidler, L. (2014)

Spanish Golden Age drama has resurfaced in recent years, however scholarly analysis has not kept pace with its popularity. This book problematizes and analyzes the approaches to …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook

American Playwriting and the Anti-Political Prejudice Book

American Playwriting and the Anti-Political Prejudice

Pressley, N. (2014)

Twenty years after Tony Kushner's influential Angels in America seemed to declare a revitalized potency for the popular political play, there is a "No Politics" prejudice …

Available Formats: Hardcover Softcover eBook

Staging the Slums, Slumming the Stage Book

Staging the Slums, Slumming the Stage

Westgate, J. (2014)

Drawing on traditional archival research, reception theory, cultural histories of slumming, and recent work in critical theory on literary representations of poverty, Westgate …

Available Formats: Hardcover Softcover eBook

The New Humor in the Progressive Era Book

The New Humor in the Progressive Era

DesRochers, R. (2014)

By tracing the effects of unprecedented immigration, the advent of the new woman, and the little-known vaudeville careers of performers like the Elinore Sisters, Buster Keaton, …

Available Formats: Hardcover eBook Softcover

Class Divisions on the Broadway Stage Book

Class Divisions on the Broadway Stage

Schwartz, M. (2014)

Examining twenty-five years of theatre history, this book covers the major plays that feature representations of the Industrial Workers of the World. American class movement and …

Available Formats: Hardcover Softcover eBook