The Theatre History Podcast
Performance is an ephemeral thing, so how do we rediscover its history, and what can that teach us about theatre today? The Theatre History Podcast explores these questions through interviews with scholars and artists who are studying theatre's past in order to help shape its future.
Mon, September 23, 2024
Episode 109: Going "Beyond Ridiculous" with Dr. Ken Elliott
The 1980s might not seem like a decade conducive to the emergence of a groundbreaking gay theatre. However, amidst the AIDS pandemic and a homophobic backlash to the gains of the post-Stonewall era, Charles Busch and Kenneth Elliott created something unique in New York City. The company that they founded, Theatre-in-Limbo, developed some of the biggest underground hits of the 80s, with unforgettable titles like Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Psycho Beach Party . Now Elliott is out with a new book: Beyond Ridiculous: Making Gay Theatre with Charles Busch in 1980s New York . It tells the story of Theatre-in-Limbo and makes a case for its underappreciated importance.
Mon, August 12, 2024
Episode 108: "Stirring Up Sheffield" with Tedd George
In the 1960s, the English city of Sheffield began work on a new theatre. The new venue, called the Crucible, became an important landmark in the development of theatre in the UK, as well as a point of contention nationwide. At the center of it all was Colin George, who spearheaded the building of the Crucible and fought for its then-unconventional design. Although George passed away in 2016, his memoirs of this era appear in a new book, Stirring Up Sheffield: An Insider’s Account of the Battle to Build the Crucible Theatre . It’s co-authored by Dr. Edward George, an economist, broadcaster, and writer who’s especially well-placed to help tell the story, since he’s also Colin’s son. Tedd George joins us to talk about the Crucible and Colin George's legacy.
Mon, July 29, 2024
Episode 107: Tracing the Rise of the Professional Scenic Designer w/ Dr. David Bisaha
How did scenic designer become a job that people could pursue in the theatre? Dr. David Bisaha joins us to talk about his book, American Scenic Design and Freelance Professionalism . Correction for the episode: The correct number for the historical, segregated Washington, D.C. IATSE Local was 224-A, not 244-A.
Mon, July 15, 2024
Episode 106: Staging Latinx Shakespeares with Dr. Carla Della Gatta
Dr. Carla Della Gatta joins us to talk about Latinx Shakespeare productions and her book Latinx Shakespeares: Staging U.S. Intercultural Theater .
Tue, November 21, 2023
Episode 105: The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama with Professor Fiona Macintosh
Ancient Greek and Roman drama has influenced theatre for millennia, and playwrights and other artists from around the world continue to draw inspiration from these works. Professor Fiona Macintosh joins us to talk about the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama at Oxford University and how it's been a resource for those who want to learn more about how these works have been - and continue to be - performed.
Tue, October 24, 2023
Episode 104: Elise Harris Helps Us Look Into "Sidney Brustein’s Window"
Lorraine Hansberry's play "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" is often forgotten, or dismissed as an inferior play that fell victim to the playwright's declining health at the end of her life. But as our guest, Elise Harris, tells us, it's a fascinating work in its own right, and one with a rich and complicated history.
Tue, October 17, 2023
Episode 103: Special Guest Episode! Peter Schmitz and Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia present "Jasper Deeter and the Hedgerow Theatre"
It's a special guest episode, featuring Peter Schmitz and his podcast "Adventures in Theatre History: Philadelphia." Peter tells the story of Jasper Deeter, whose pioneering work had an impact on not only Philadelphia theatre, but the American stage as a whole.
Tue, November 01, 2022
Episode 102: Celebrity Pregnancy on the 18th-century London Stage with Dr. Chelsea Phillips
The eighteenth century was obsessed with celebrities, and, like our own time, the fans of the 1700s were fascinated by famous actress' pregnancies. Dr. Chelsea Phillips joins us to talk about how she explores the emergence of this aspect of 18th-century fan culture in her new book, Carrying All Before Her: Celebrity Pregnancy and the London Stage, 1689-1800 .
Mon, October 24, 2022
Episode 101: Visiting the Museum of Broadway with Ben West
Broadway has a long and complex history, and in November of 2022 a new museum is opening that will allow visitors to explore that history. Curator Ben West joins us to introduce the Museum of Broadway and explain how it's bringing the theatrical past to life.
Fri, August 19, 2022
Episode 100: Examining Robert E. Sherwood's "There Shall Be No Night" with Dr. Thomas F. Connolly
For anyone who's been following the news in 2022, a play about an Eastern European country's heroic resistance in the face of Russian invasion might sound timely. But as Dr. Thomas F. Connolly shows in this week's discussion of Robert E. Sherwood's "There Shall Be No Night," timeliness can be a tricky subject, perhaps especially in the context of live theatre.
Wed, August 03, 2022
Episode 99: Exploding the Canon with Classix
The Classix project is working to, as they put it, “explode the classical canon through an exploration of Black performance history and dramatic works by Black writers.” Two members of the Classix team – director Dominique Rider and dramaturg Arminda Thomas – join us to talk about their work and how they’re sharing essential works from Black theatre history with new audiences.
Mon, June 13, 2022
Episode 98: Marking 100 Years of "Abie's Irish Rose" with Eric Grode
It was the biggest hit on Broadway one hundred years ago – and yet it’s largely forgotten today. Eric Grode joins us to talk about his recent New York Times article marking the centenary of Abie’s Irish Rose , the hit comedy that, though it was riddled with stereotypes and reviled by critics, seemed like it just might be popular enough to run forever.
Mon, June 06, 2022
Episode 97 - Discovering Kunqu with Dr. Dongshin Chang
Kunqu is one of the cultural treasures of Chinese theatre. Today we're fortunate to be joined by Dr. Dongshin Chang, an expert on the art form. Dongshin will introduce us to the fascinating and musical world of kunqu.
Wed, June 01, 2022
Episode 96: The End of Her Own Rainbow: Dr. Kim F. Hall Introduces Us to the Life and Work of Ntozake Shange
The recent Tony-nominated Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf reflects a growing appreciation for a Black writer whose work gives voice to those who have been oppressed and marginalized because of their race and gender. But who was Shange, and what more do her theatrical works have to say to us today? Dr. Kim F. Hall of Barnard College joins us to explore Shange's life and work.
Mon, May 23, 2022
Episode 95 - Going Beyond Shakespeare with Rob Crighton
Shakespeare looms large over both the American and British theatre scenes. But his outsize influence means that we’ve long neglected a dizzying array of fascinating and brilliant theatre written by other early modern England dramatists. Rob Crighton and the Beyond Shakespeare Company are working to remedy this, and Rob joins us for this episode to discuss how they’re trying to expand our awareness of the theatre of this era.
Tue, May 10, 2022
Episode 94: A Theatre for the Oppressed? Dr. Amy Richlin on Slavery and Plautus
The ancient Roman comedies of Plautus have inspired playwrights from Shakespeare to Sondheim. But they've also been seen as grim reminders of the oftentimes horrifying world of ancient Rome, where violence and slavery were commonplace. Dr. Amy Richlin joins us to talk about her book Slave Theater in the Roman Republic , which explores how Plautus's plays gave voice to enslaved persons during this era.
Mon, April 25, 2022
Episode 93: Brava! American Women Make Theater, with Dr. Melissa Barton
The roles played by women in theatre in the United States have been varied, from playwrights and performers to critics and members of the audience. Now the Beinecke Library at Yale University is sharing some of the stories of these women in an exhibit called Brava! Women Make American Theater , which runs through July 3, 2022. Today we’re joined by Dr. Melissa Barton. She’s the Curator of Drama and Prose at the Yale Collection of American Literature, as well as one of the lead creators of the exhibit.
Mon, April 11, 2022
Episode 92: Lady Romeo: Learning About 19th-Century Actress Charlotte Cushman with Tana Wojczuk
Charlotte Cushman was a fascinating figure in 19th-century American theatre: in addition to being the first female celebrity actress on the American stage, she was also a trailblazer who embraced her identity as a lesbian and made a name for herself in a male-dominated industry. Tana Wojczuk joins us to talk about Cushman, who's the subject of her new biography, "Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity."
Mon, April 04, 2022
Episode 91: Passing into History: Dr. Megan Sanborn Jones on Pageants and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Performance has always been a key part of the spiritual life of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of the most notable Mormon theatrical events of the last few decades have been the pageants that depict stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. However, as Dr. Megan Sanborn Jones discusses in this 2018 interview, the era of pageants may be coming to an end. Even before the covid-19 pandemic made it impossible to safely perform live theatre, Church leadership had decided that the pageants didn’t fit well into its vision for the future of the faith. Dr. Jones joins us to discuss the past, present, and possible future of these unique performances.
Mon, March 28, 2022
Episode 90: Reappraising the Legacy of Ernie McClintock with Dr. Ibby Cizmar
Developing approaches to theatre that fit the needs and experiences of performers of color, particularly Black artists, has long been a pressing concern for the American stage. Actor training has been dominated by Eurocentric approaches based on theorists such as Stanislavsky, which are geared towards a repertoire that’s heavy with White authors such as Shakespeare and Ibsen. In the 20th century, the Black Arts Movement challenged these prevailing influences, offering work that spoke to Black experiences in the United States and developing new approaches to producing the movement’s plays. However, one of its most important figures, Ernie McClintock, has been underappreciated in histories of the movement. Dr. Ibby Cizmar has been working to reappraise McClintock’s career and situate him within the larger Black Arts Movement, and she joins us in this episode to discuss his life and work.
Mon, March 14, 2022
Episode 89 - The History of Method Acting with Isaac Butler
How did "Method" acting come to be? Isaac Butler joins us to talk about the history of this acting style and his book The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act .
Mon, March 07, 2022
Episode 88 - Learning About the History - and Future - of Stand-up Comedy with Dr. Rachel Blackburn
Stand-up comedy has long been associated with White men. But, as Dr. Rachel Blackburn explains in this episode, there’s a long history of women of color performing stand-up. Today, BIPOC comedians are challenging boundaries and raising new issues in ways that are changing the nature of live comedy.
Mon, February 21, 2022
Episode 87: Hearing the Voices of Women in Yiddish Theatre with Dr. Alyssa Quint and Amanda Miryem-Khaye Seigel
The Yiddish theatre has a long and rich history. But all too often that history focuses on the prominent men who found success on the stage. Now two scholars of Yiddish theatre have launched a new project to correct that historiographical imbalance. It’s called “Women on the Yiddish Stage: Primary Sources,” and it’s part of the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project, which chronicles the history of the Yiddish stage. Amanda Seigel and Dr. Alyssa Quint join us to share their work on the project and give us some glimpses into the lives of the underappreciated women who made the Yiddish theatre so vital.
Mon, February 14, 2022
Episode 86: Introducing the University of Pittsburgh's August Wilson Archive With Dr. Sandra Shannon and Bill Daw
Playwright August Wilson's legacy has loomed ever larger over American theatre in the years since his death in 2005. In 2020, the University of Pittsburgh announced that it had acquired his archive and would make it accessible to the public. We're joined by Dr. Sandra Shannon and Bil Daw to discuss the new archive and how Wilson continues to influence us today
Mon, February 07, 2022
Episode 85 - Reading the Manuscripts of the Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project with Dr. Kate Dossett
The so-called "Negro Units" of the Federal Theatre Project are often remembered for productions involving White artists such as Orson Welles. But, as Dr. Kate Dossett reveals in her book "Radical Black Theatre in the New Deal," the story of Black artists and audiences in the FTP was a much more complicated one, in which Black actors and writers fought to ensure that they could tell their own stories.
Tue, February 01, 2022
Episode 84: Imagining a New Federal Theatre Project with Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne
The devastation wrought by the covid-19 pandemic has left us all questioning what we should be working towards as we pick up the pieces and try to build a theatre that reflects our changed world, One possible model comes from the past: the Federal Theatre Project, which for a few years in the 1930s offered a national theatre that brought performances to every corner of the country. How might we revive some of the spirit and substance of that project? To answer that question, we’re joined by Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne of Florida State University and Corinna Schulenburg, director of communications at the Theatre Communications Group.
Mon, January 24, 2022
Episode 83: Transcribing the Federal Theatre Project with Morgen Stevens-Garmon
The Federal Theatre Project was a landmark of American theatre history whose influence has far outlived its brief existence in the 1930s. There’s probably no bigger trove of information about and material pertaining to the FTP than at the Library of Congress, which holds thousands of the programs and fliers printed to accompany its theatrical productions. Archivist Morgen Stevens-Garmon joins us to talk about an exciting new project that will let you read and transcribe them.
Mon, January 17, 2022
Episode 82: Where the Courtroom Meets the Stage: Dr. Luke McDonagh on Copyright and Drama
The connection between theatre and the law is a deep one that goes back thousands of years. Dr. Luke McDonagh has been tracing this connection in the context of British authors such as Shakespeare, and his new book Performing Copyright: Law, Theatre and Authorship looks at how copyright law affects dramatic works in the United Kingdom.
Mon, August 23, 2021
Episode 81: “Simultaneously Unhinged and Fantastical in Every Possible Way”: Margaret Hall Introduces Us to the History of Theatrical Merchandise
If you've been to a Broadway show, you've probably seen the merchandise booth. You may even have bought a t-shirt, or a magnet for your fridge. But where did the Broadway merchandise industry come from? Margaret Hall joins us to talk about her recent Theatermania articles chronicling the rise and development of this unique theatrical industry.
Mon, August 16, 2021
Episode 80: Rediscovering Lost Plays with Dr. David McInnis
We know that over half of the plays produced during Shakespeare's time have since been lost. What might we discover about that era if we knew what those lost plays were about? Dr. Davis McInnis's book "Shakespeare and Lost Plays" explores what we can figure out from the fragmentary evidence that remains.
Mon, August 09, 2021
Episode 79: Exploring Nuyorican Feminist Performance with Dr. Patricia Herrera
There are many theatrical movements and institutions that have been marginalized in histories of the American theatre. But there are also individuals and groups who are further marginalized within those movements, such as the role played by women in the development of Nuyorican performance. Dr. Patricia Herrera joins us to talk about these women and her book, "Nuyorican Feminist Performance."
Mon, June 21, 2021
Episode 78: Peter Schmitz's Adventures in Theatre History
How do we recover and retell the stories of theatrical performance from ages past? That's a question that Peter Schmitz is exploring with his podcast Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia , which delves into the theatrical past of one of America's most important centers of performance.
Mon, June 07, 2021
Episode 77: Exploring the Imitations of Gertrude Hoffmann with Dr. Sunny Stalter-Pace
"Imitation" is often a dirty word in the arts, but dancer and performer Gertrude Hoffmann was a genius at borrowing and recreating elements of other artists' acts, and in doing so she exposed early 20th-century American audiences to important developments in Modernist art. Dr. Sunn Stalter-Pace joins us to talk about "Imitation Artist," her biography of Hoffman.
Mon, May 31, 2021
Episode 76: Voyage to the Planet of the Grapes with Pete Marino
Learn how Peter Michael Marino is drawing on the Victorian-era tradition of toy theatre to create a new theatrical epic based on the classic sci-fi movie Planet of the Apes .
Mon, May 17, 2021
Episode 75: "Our Town" in the 21st Century: Howard Sherman's "Another Day's Begun"
Our Town is one of the classics of the American stage, but how well do we really know this play? Howard Sherman joins us to discuss his new book, Another Day's Begun: Thornton Wilder's Our Town in the 21st Century.
S2 E74 · Mon, May 10, 2021
Episode 74: Discovering Teresa Deevy with Drs. Una Kealy and Kate McCarthy
Teresa Deevy was one of the most frequently-produced Irish playwrights of the 1930s, bringing her unique experience as a Deaf woman playwright in a patriarchal society together with her dramatic skill to create fascinating works such as Katie Roche . But she's been relatively neglected by subsequent generations. Drs. Kate McCarthy and Una Kealy are working to change that, and they join us for this episode to talk about Deevy's work and legacy.
Mon, April 26, 2021
Episode 73: Introducing the Theatre 2020 Collection with Dr. Eric Colleary
Learn how Dr. Eric Colleary and his colleagues at the Harry Ransom Center are documenting how the tumultuous events of 2020 affected theatre.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 70: Restoring An Alternate Version of Shakespeare’s Works
Who can forget the timeless moments in Shakespeare’s plays, such as Hamlet’s encounter with the Ghost, Beatrice and Benedick’s playful sparring, or the happy ending to King Lear ? If that last example doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because it’s from a different version of the famous tragedy, one that comes from the era known as the Restoration. Coming after a period of civil war, during which English theatres had been forcibly closed, the Restoration saw the revival of Shakespeare’s work onstage. However, the plays didn’t return in quite the same way that they’d appeared before the wars: they were staged in new venues, rewritten to fit changing tastes, and featured women in roles that had previously been played by boys. Dr. Amanda Eubanks Winkler and Dr. Richard Schoch are working to help us better understand how Shakespeare’s works changed in performance during the Restoration with their project, Performing Restoration Shakespeare. In addition to facilitating scholarship on these revised plays, Amanda and Richard have also partnered with institutions such as the Folger Shakespeare Library to produce them onstage. Amanda joins us for this episode to introduce us to the world of Restoration Shakespeare and to explain what the project has accomplished so far.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 69: Tracing the Origins of the Freak Show with Dr. Matt DiCintio
Popular culture has largely forgotten about the freak show – or has it? The display of so-called “freaks,” human beings with bodies that were perceived as drastically different from what was considered “normal,” was once an incredibly popular form of public entertainment, but one which we now look back on with embarrassment. However, as Dr. Matt DiCintio explains in this episode, the origins of the freak show reveal fascinations and anxieties with matters of race and physical difference that remain with us to this very day. CORRECTION TO THE EPISODE: Matt has confirmed that Emma Leach’s appearances took place in 1771-2, not 1781-2.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 68: Learning About Mary Ann Yates with Dr. Elaine McGirr
Mary Ann Yates is the best actress whom you’ve never heard of. That’s how Dr. Elaine McGirr characterizes this fascinating woman, who rose to stardom on the eighteenth-century British stage and later went on to become the first female manager of a major London theatre. As Elaine explains in this episode, Yates’s time as the reigning queen of the stage, as well as her subsequent obscurity, reveal a lot about how we write women into —and out of—theatrical history.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 67: Dr. Derek Miller on the History of Performance and Copyright
If you’ve ever tried to get permission to perform a play, you’ve probably encountered some issues having to do with theatrical copyright. But where did the concept of copyrighting theatrical works come from? What do the legal wrangles over who owns the rights to a performance say about the nature of theatre?
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 66: Dr. Sara B.T. Thiel on Pregnancy on the Stage in Early Modern English Drama
How do you depict pregnancy onstage when your cast is all-male? That was one of a number of problems that English playwrights and performers faced in the Stuart era, when plays like The Winter’s Tale frequently began to feature pregnancies as major plot points. Dr. Sara BT Thiel has been exploring this subject, and it’s resulted in a chapter entitled “’Cushion Come Forth’: Materializing Pregnancy on the Stuart Stage.” The chapter appears in the new book Stage Matters: Props, Bodies, and Spaces in Shakespearean Performance . Sara joins us to explain how Stuart-era playwrights and theatre companies created the illusion of pregnancy onstage, as well as the significance of her research to how we understand the depiction of women in Shakespeare’s time.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 65: Playing Around with Nineteenth-Century Theatre in Dr. Robert Davis’s Broadway 1849
Dr. Robert Davis has been studying the world of nineteenth-century theatre in New York City for much of his career, but he’s recently engaged with that world in a new and unconventional way. Robert is the author of Broadway: 1849 , an online game and app that takes the form of a multiple-choice novel. Players can explore what it was like to manage a theatre in the 1840s and navigate the outsized personalities and harrowing events that marked the theatrical world of the period. Robert joined us to talk about how his game reflects New York’s social, political, and artistic history, as well as the ways in which turning this subject matter into a game provide a new perspective on historical events.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 64: Learning About Modern Indonesian Theatre with Dr. Cobina Gillitt
When people think of Indonesia’s performing arts, traditions such as the shadow puppets of wayang kulit and the dance-drama of Bali often come to mind. However, as our guest for this episode teaches us, there’s a vibrant modern theatre scene that developed over the course of the twentieth century and continues to produce new and exciting work today. Dr. Cobina Gillitt introduces us to the work of playwright and director Putu Wijaya, as well as the larger context in which modern Indonesian theatre emerged.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 63: After the Big Top: Carlos Alexis Cruz on the Evolution of Modern Circus
The classic circus, featuring performing animals in three rings under the big top, has passed away. What’s taken its place? That’s the question that CarlosAlexis Cruz is exploring with his studies in the rise of acrobatics and the modern circus. He joins us for this episode to explain how the circus has increasingly become a place where performers use their bodies to tell stories and invite the audience to join with them in celebrating the amazing physical potential of the human form.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 62: Theatre and Civil Rights: Dr. Julie Burrell on the Importance of A Medal for Willie
How did African American theatre and the struggle for civil rights intersect? For many critics in the 1950s and ’60s, they didn’t, at least not in a meaningful way. But, as Dr. Julie Burrell points out in a recent essay for Black Perspectives , the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society, some of the works produced in the 1940s and ’50s are far more radical than we might expect. She explores the story of William Branch’s A Medal for Willie , a 1951 one-act that impressed Lorraine Hansberry and demonstrated the subversive potential for Black theatre before the 1960s.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 61: Chantal Bilodeau on “Breaking Up with Aristotle” and Finding New Ways to Tell Stories Onstage
Back in 2016, playwright Chantal Bilodeau announced that she was breaking up with Aristotle. In addition to her work writing plays, Chantal is also a translator and the Artistic Director of the Arctic Cycle, which aims to create theatre that engages with the ongoing climate crisis. That latter role, in particular, has led her to rethink how we write plays and how we approach the legacy of the famous ancient Greek theorist. Chantal joined the podcast to discuss her feelings towards Aristotle, as well as to discuss how we might begin to move past his strictures in creating new theatre.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 60: Lost Worlds and “Pansexual Extravaganzas”: Rediscovering Weimar Operetta with Dr. Kevin Clarke
When we think of operetta, words like “edgy” and “sexy” rarely come to mind. Dr. Kevin Clarke is hoping to change that through his work with the Operetta Research Center, which focuses on studying and reevaluating works from the first half of the twentieth century. These had long been denigrated as “silver operetta,” as opposed to the supposed Golden Age of the late nineteenth century, when composers like Johann Strauss and Gilbert & Sullivan created some of the most famous examples of the genre. Weimar operetta was a vibrant expression of international culture and sexual liberation, incorporating new musical influences such as jazz and frequently showcasing the work of Jewish artists, which made it a particular target of the Nazi regime. After World War II, social conservatives sought to keep these operettas in obscurity, repelled by their freewheeling and tolerant-minded explorations of sexuality. Now, these hidden gems of musical theatre are making a comeback, thanks to the efforts of scholars like Kevin and directors like Barrie Kosky. Kevin joined us to talk about the ongoing reevaluation of this long-neglected part of operetta history.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 59: Taking Shakespeare’s Measure in the Twenty-First Century: Dr. Nora Williams and Measure (Still) for Measure
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure has long had a reputation as a “problem play.” Structurally, it’s a comedy, but because its plot goes to some dark places, some of its characters’ actions are utterly repugnant, and its thematic concerns are so serious, its ostensibly happy ending doesn’t leave audiences feeling satisfied. Rather than shy away from Measure for Measure and its uncomfortable elements, Dr. Nora Williams is using them to further discussions about sexual consent, rape culture, and power. Her devised theatre project, Measure (Still) for Measure , invites participants to revise the original play in order to focus on these themes. She joined us to talk about the play and how she’s using the devising process to find ways to make it speak to our present-day concerns.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 58: What We Think About When We Think About Casting: Dr. Amy Cook’s Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting
Theatre nerds spend a lot of time obsessing over casting choices: who’s going to play this classic role in the latest revival of a Broadway musical? How might an unconventional casting choice up-end our assumptions about who a character is and what they look like? Dr. Amy Cook of Stony Brook University looks at what’s going on in our heads when we ask these questions. Her forthcoming book, Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting , examines the cognitive processes that allow us to understand what’s happening in, say, an all-female version of The Taming of the Shrew , or the casting choices behind a modern hit like Hamilton .
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 57: Dr. Claudia Orenstein on the Evolving Art of Tolpavakoothu
Tolpavakoothu is a traditional form of shadow puppetry from Kerala, in southern India. Like many similar performance traditions, tolpavakoothu faces an uncertain future because of social and cultural changes. However, it’s facing up to those challenges in some unique ways. Dr. Claudia Orenstein of Hunter College joins us to explain what tolpavakoothu is, and to introduce us to the Pulavars, the family of puppeteers who are finding new and surprising ways to keep their tradition alive while bringing it into the twenty-first century.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 56: How to Succeed in (Early Modern Show) Business: Dr. David Nicol’s Philip Henslowe Blog
What was the business of theatre like in Shakespeare’s time? We don’t have many records, but one fascinating document has survived: a book of accounts and memoranda (often inaccurately referred to as a diary) from Philip Henslowe, a businessman in 1590s London. Henslowe helped build the Rose Theatre, where a number of plays by Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and their contemporaries received their premieres. Now Dr. David Nicol of Dalhousie University is bringing Henslowe’s day-by-day account of early modern show business into the twenty-first century. Dave’s site, “Henslowe’s Diary … as a Blog!” follows the entries in Henslowe’s book day by day, introducing readers to plays ranging from the familiar to the forgotten, as well as trying to make sense of how financially successful each performance was. Dave joined us to talk about Henslowe’s book, the business of running a theatre in early modern England, and how he decided to turn this valuable document into a blog.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 55: Examining the Controversial History of the “Mummers Wench” with Dr. Christian DuComb
We know that the history of theatre and performance contains plenty of insensitive, even offensive, tropes and stereotypes. We also tend to think of ourselves as having left those stereotypes in the past, where they belong. However, as this week’s guest reveals, our popular culture still contains plenty of uncomfortable reminders of those types, and they’re often woven into the fabric of beloved cultural institutions in a way that forces us to come to terms with them, rather than simply pretend that they have nothing to do with us. Dr. Christian DuComb, author of Haunted City: Three Centuries of Racial Impersonation in Philadelphia , joins us to talk about how these complicated issues appear in the figure of the “mummers wench,” a fixture of Philadelphia’s Mummers Parade for decades. The “wench” hearkens back to the nineteenth century and the days of the minstrel show, serving as yet another reminder that what we think is long-past is often very much still present.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 54: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart: Tracy Heather Strain Shows Us a Different Side of Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Hansberry’s reputation will always be inextricably bound up with her best-known work, A Raisin in the Sun . But who was the woman behind this landmark play? Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain explores Hansberry’s life in her new documentary Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart , which premieres on PBS on 19 January 2018. Tracy’s film brings a new perspective to Hansberry, showing us not just the playwright who became the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway, but also someone who was a political radical and who embraced her identity as a lesbian at a time when it was dangerous to do so. Tracy joins us to discuss her film and to give us new insights into this crucially important figure in American theatre.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 53: Rediscovering Sheridan’s Smash Hit Pizarro with Dr. Selena Couture & Dr. Alex Dick
We know Richard Brinsley Sheridan as the comic playwright responsible for The Rivals and The School for Scandal . However, one of his most important plays is a major departure from those works. His play Pizarro , an adaptation of an early melodrama by the German playwright August von Kotzebue about the Spanish invasion of Peru, became a smash hit on the London stage in 1799.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 52: Remembering Argentina’s Traumatic Past Through Theatre with Dr. Noe Montez
History can be a contentious subject, especially when it comes to determining how and what we remember. That’s especially true in Argentina, which is still trying to come to terms with the legacy of its period of military rule in the 1970s and 80s, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of citizens. Theatre has been an especially important way for Argentinians to remember and reflect upon this dark era, a process which Dr. Noe Montez of Tufts University explores in his new book, Memory, Transitional Justice, and Theatre in Postdictatorship Argentina . Noe joins us to talk about his book, and about how Argentina’s theatres have served as an important part of the nation’s collective memory.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 51: Death-Defying Acts with Amy Meyer
Would you watch a pregnant woman attempt to walk a tightrope without a safety net? Many people in London decided to do just that in 1863, and their curiosity turned to horror when the tightrope walker, Selina Powell, fell to her death. The accident prompted an outcry that even drew in Queen Victoria herself. Amy Meyer joins us this week to talk about accidents like the one that befell Powell. What drew audiences to such a risky spectacle? What did society make of woman performing such dangerous acts? The answers she’s found point to our own appetite for risk and danger—almost always at someone else’s expense—in our own favorite entertainments.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 50: Opening Up New Approaches to Acting with Dr. Sharrell D. Luckett
How do you train an actor? The answer to that question has changed over the course of theatrical history, but at least within the last century or so, standards for actor training have largely come from the teachings of theorists such as Constantin Stanislavski. However, we often don’t think about how these acting methods arose from specific historical and cultural contexts, and how they might not always meet the needs of a more diverse population of performers in the twenty-first century. Dr. Sharrell D. Luckett and Dr. Tia M. Shaffer have co-edited a new book, Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches , that explores some of the ways in which we can expand upon the legacy of traditional actor training to offer a more diverse array of perspectives. Sharrell joins us to talk about the book, the African roots of performance, and the legacy of Freddie Hendricks and his Hendricks Method for training young actors.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 49: Dr. Erin Mee on Modern and Contemporary Indian Theatre
In our previous episode, we spoke with Dr. Erin Mee of New York University about kutiyattam, a style of theatre from southwest India that brings ancient Sanskrit plays to life. But what about the more recent history of Indian theatre? Erin joins us for the second part of our series to talk about how British colonialism, independence, and contemporary debates about gender and sexuality have shaped the development of Indian theatre over the past century.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 48: Learning About Kutiyattam with Dr. Erin Mee
How can a play whose script covers less than ten pages take weeks to perform? That’s just one of the many questions we delve into when we explore the world of kutiyattam, which is a particular way of performing Sanskrit drama in the southern Indian region of Kerala. Dr. Erin Mee of New York University introduces us to this fascinating art form, which keeps bringing classical Sanskrit plays back to life thousands of years after they were first performed. This is the first of a two-part series on theatre in India: join us next week, when Erin leads us on an exploration of how Indian theatre has developed in the decades since independence.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 47: Translating An Enemy of the People with Dr. Paul Walsh
Environmental catastrophe. Political conflict. The ugly breakdown of a society that had previously seemed harmonious and peaceful. Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People contains much that speaks to our present-day anxieties. Dr. Paul Walsh of the Yale School of Drama has been thinking about this play a lot recently, because he’s the translator for a brand-new version of the play, which recently premiered as the first production of the Yale Repertory Theatre’s 52nd season and runs through October 28, 2017. Paul joined us to talk about Ibsen’s surprisingly comic take on serious issues, as well as the process of translation itself.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 46: Reimagining Shakespeare’s Legacy with Madeline Sayet
William Shakespeare’s plays continue to be some of the most frequently-produced works on our stages. While his dominance allows new generations to enjoy his work, it also poses a difficult question: how do we keep Shakespeare relevant when his plays have often been associated with a patriarchal, Eurocentric point of view? Madeline Sayet is looking for answers to that question, and it’s led her to create productions of Shakespeare’s work that incorporate the perspectives of Native American artists and performers. She joined the Theatre History Podcast to talk about how she’s working to change our perspective on Shakespeare and his legacy.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 45: Rethinking Amateur Theatricals with David Coates
Community theatre, school plays, and other examples of performances by non-professional actors don’t often don’t get a lot of respect or scholarly attention. David Coates, who’s in the closing stages of his doctorate at the University of Warwick, is trying to change that. He’s one of a growing group of scholars who are reassessing amateur theatre (in his case, specifically in Britain in the long nineteenth century, 1789-1914) and finding that its history is far more complex and interesting than we’d previously assumed.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 44: Exploring the Performing Arts Collections at the Harry Ransom Center with Dr. Eric Colleary
The Harry Ransom Center, a world-renowned research library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, holds many treasures. Its performing arts collections are particularly fascinating, as Dr. Eric Colleary, the Cline Curator of Theater and Performing Arts at the center, tells us in this episode. Eric shares some of his favorite items in the collections and tells listeners how they can further explore the Harry Ransom Center.
Mon, November 18, 2019
Episode 43: Being Melodramatic with the Staging Napoleonic Theatre Project
Nowadays, when someone accuses you of being “melodramatic,” it’s got a pejorative connotation, and usually means you’re acting in an overly emotional and hyperbolic way. But melodrama, which emerged during the French Revolution, was a rich and complicated theatrical genre. Now, the team behind the University of Warwick’s Staging Napoleonic Theatre project, which includes Dr. Katherine Astbury, Dr. Diane Tisdall, and Dr. Sarah Burdett, is working to both study and stage melodramas. They’ve already performed Roseliska , a unique piece written by French prisoners-of-war in England, and they’re preparing to stage La forteresse du Danube , one of the many hits written by Renè-Charles Guilbert de Pixerècourt, who claimed to have invented the genre. They joined us to talk about melodrama’s origins and how it worked onstage, as well as to demonstrate how music was an integral part of these spectacular plays.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 42: From "West Side Story" to "Wicked": Dr. Stacy Wolf on Feminism & the Broadway Musical
Are Broadway musicals feminist? It’s a fair question, given that many classic examples of the genre evince their fair share of outdated attitudes regarding gender and the role of women in society. However, as Dr. Stacy Wolf of Princeton University points out, there’s a surprising undercurrent of feminism even in the more traditional musicals of the 1950s or major commercial hits of recent years, such as Wicked . Stacy’s book Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical tracks how women’s roles have changed on the stage throughout the post-war period, and she joined us to share some of her insights.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 41: Bryan Doerries and Theater of War Productions Use Classical Drama to Address Today’s Problems
The characters and events of ancient Greek drama might seem remote from our present-day concerns, but Bryan Doerries and Theater of War Productions don’t see it that way. Since 2009, this company has used readings from classical theatre to tackle issues from post-traumatic stress disorder to the community impact of gun violence. Now Bryan’s a New York City Public Artist in Residence, working with city agencies to stage over sixty events all across the city. He joined us to discuss Theater of War’s work and the continuing relevance of ancient drama.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 40: Dr. José A. Pérez Díez & Dr. Matthew Steggle Introduce the Oxford Marston
John Marston was a controversial early modern English playwright and poet with a nose for trouble, but he’s relatively obscure in comparison with some of his major contemporaries, such as William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. Now a team of scholars is preparing The Complete Works of John Marston , which will collect his writings together in a critical edition for the first time. Dr. Matthew Steggle of Sheffield Hallam University and Dr. José A. Pérez Díez of the University of Leeds are two members of that team, and they join the show this week to tell us more about Marston and how they’re working to bring his works back into the spotlight.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 39: Dr. Matthew Sergi and the Surprising Truth About Morality Plays
The phrase “morality play” often comes off as pejorative today; it’s a phrase that we use when we want to dismiss something as dull and didactic. But Dr. Matthew Sergi of the University of Toronto begs to differ. He’s been studying and, most importantly, staging these works, and he’s come to some unexpected conclusions about how these plays function and what performing them today can tell us about our own world.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 38: Eleanor Fitzsimons on Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, and the Troubled History of "Salomé"
Most of us know Oscar Wilde for his sparkling, witty comedy The Importance of Being Earnest . But he also wrote tragedies, most notably the scandalous Salomé . He’d intended the play, which dramatizes the biblical episode in which the title character causes the death of John the Baptist, as a star vehicle for the great French actress Sarah Bernhardt, but his plans never came to fruition. Eleanor Fitzsimons, author of Wilde’s Women: How Oscar Wilde Was Shaped by the Women He Knew , joins us the story of this unique play.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 37: Examining the Diary of Nineteenth Century Actor Harry Watkins with Dr. Amy Hughes, Dr. Naomi Stubbs, and Dr. Scott D. Dexter
What was it like to be a working actor in the United States in the nineteenth century? The diary of Harry Watkins—who made a living acting, playwriting, and stage managing in the antebellum era—provides us with some insight into the way in which life in the theatre has and hasn’t changed over the last century and a half. Dr. Amy Hughes, Dr. Naomi Stubbs, and Dr. Scott D. Dexter are our guests this week, and they’ve been working on producing both scholarly and digitized versions of Watkins’s diary.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 36: Editing and Staging The Dutch Lady with Dr. Joseph F. Stephenson
Since the 1870s, a mysterious play manuscript has sat in the Boston Public Library, largely ignored except by the library’s dedicated staff. Dr. Joe Stephenson of Abilene Christian University aims to change that. He’s reevaluated the anonymous play, entitled The Dutch Lady and written sometime in the late 1660s or early 1670s, and is preparing to release a scholarly edition in 2018 of this surprisingly engaging Restoration comedy. He’s also working with Fred Theatre in the United Kingdom to produce the play, bringing it back to the stage for the first time in over 300 years. Joe joins us to explore The Dutch Lady and its place in Restoration-era theatre.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 35: Get Thee to a Nunnery: Learning About Medieval Convent Drama with Dr. Elisabeth Dutton, Dr. Olivia Robinson, Dr. Matthew Cheung Salisbury, and Aurèlie Blanc
Many medieval convents were major centers of dramatic activity, with nuns and other members of their communities frequently participating in plays and other performances. However, because much of the evidence of this activity in the British Isles was destroyed during the Reformation, English-speaking scholars tend to ignore the crucial role played by women in medieval drama. The Medieval Convent Drama project, based at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, is trying to change this through scholarship and performances. The project’s members join us to tell us about this surprising, richly-varied, and woman-centered drama.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 34: Dr. Mary Chinery and Dr. Laura Rattray on Edith Wharton’s "The Shadow of a Doubt"
Did you know that novelist Edith Wharton was also a playwright? Dr. Mary Chinery and Dr. Laura Rattray join us this week to talk about her work for the theatre, in particular her play The Shadow of a Doubt , which had languished in obscurity after it failed to make it to Broadway at the turn of the twentieth century. Thanks to Laura and Mary’s work, it’s now back in the public consciousness.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 33: Rediscovering the Victorian Theatre at the Alexandra Palace with James White
When it opened in the 1870s, the Alexandra Palace, or “Ally Pally,” was a massive entertainment complex, meant to serve as “the People’s Palace.” Over the course of its lifetime, it’s seen multiple fires, served as an internment camp during the First World War, and been the site of one of the first television broadcasts. It’s also home to a spectacular and historically-significant Victorian theatre. James White, our guest this week, is a curator working on restoring the complex, as well as the theatre.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 32: Seret Scott Looks Back on the Free Southern Theater
The Free Southern Theater was one of the most important activist theatres in the United States, bringing politically- and socially-engaged theatre to poor African American communities in the South throughout the 1960s and 1970s. One of the performers who joined the Theater was Seret Scott, who went on to play key roles on Broadway in My Sister, My Sister and for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf . Her memories of engaging with the Free Southern Theater’s audiences offer new suggestions for how theatre activists can engage with the economically-disadvantaged and politically-marginalized.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 31: Exploring the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s New Jo Mielziner Acquisitions with Annemarie van Roessel
Few, if any, stage designers have had the impact of Jo Mielziner, who designed the sets for the original productions of Death of a Salesman , A Streetcar Named Desire , Carousel , and South Pacific , among many others. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts recently added two private collections of Mielziner’s work to their already-extensive holdings, and the newly-acquired works are now on display at the library’s Lincoln Center location. Assistant Curator Annemarie van Roessel joins us to talk about Mielziner’s work, as well as what a curator in a performing arts archive does.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 30: Dr. Esther Fernandez Introduces us to the Siglo de Oro Festival at Chamizal
For over forty years, artists and scholars have gathered at Chamizal National Memorial to perform, study, and celebrate works from the Siglo de Oro, the Spanish golden age that brought us the work of Calderon, Lope de Vega, and Cervantes, among many others. Dr. Esther Fernandez of Rice University joins us to talk about the festival, as well as Siglo de Oro’s place in American theatre.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 29: Short Day’s Introduction to Monte Cristo Cottage with Anne G. Morgan
Monte Cristo Cottage has gone down in theatrical history as the setting for Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece, Long Day’s Journey Into Night , as well as his comedy Ah, Wilderness! Once the family’s summer residence—and the closest thing to a real home for peripatetic actor James O’Neill and his wife and sons—it’s now part of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. This week, we’re joined by Anne G. Morgan, literary manager and dramaturg at the O'Neill. Anne introduces us to the cottage and talks about how a historic site helps us to better understand O’Neill’s life and work.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 28: Digging up Nea Paphos with Dr. Craig Barker
For over twenty years, teams from the University of Sydney have been excavating Nea Paphos, a splendid ancient theatre on the southwestern coast of Cyprus. Built in the year after Alexander the Great’s conquest, the theatre entertained audiences for over six centuries. At its height, it could hold over 8,000 spectators. Dr. Craig Barker is a co-director of the excavation and Manager of Education and Public Programs at Sydney University Museums. He joined us to talk about the history and layout of Nea Paphos, its hidden surprises, and the mysteries that he and his colleagues are still investigating.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 27: Learning About Ta’ziyeh with Dr. William O. Beeman
Long before Western-style theatre came to what is now Iran, a unique performance tradition had already developed that fused song, movement, and religion. Known as “ta’ziyeh,” it has since spread among Shiite communities in Iraq and Lebanon, as well as even farther afield. William O. Beeman, chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, introduces us to the fascinating world of ta’ziyeh in this episode.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 26: Jack Viertel Introduces the New York City Center Encores! Revival of "The New Yorkers"
The New Yorkers , a risqué collaboration between New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno, Cole Porter, and Herbert Fields, hasn’t been seen onstage since it debuted in 1930. In fact, it hasn’t really existed , at least not in the sense of there being a definitive script of the show. The New Yorkers provides us with a fascinating snapshot of the Broadway musical at a time when it was still as much revue as “book musical,” and of an entertainment industry that hadn’t yet been muzzled by production codes that attempted to enforce “public decency.” Now, New York City Center Encores! has revived The New Yorkers , with the help of some archival research and some additions from other Cole Porter shows. Encores! Artistic Director Jack Viertel spoke with the Theatre History Podcast to explain how this version of the show, which runs from March 22 – 26, captures the spirit of the original production.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 25: Exploring Modern Chinese Theatre with Dr. Steven (Siyuan) Liu
Western theatre tends to get most of our attention, but practically every culture has its own rich and vibrant performance tradition. Our guest Dr. Steven (Siyuan) Liu, of the University of British Columbia, is an expert in one such tradition: modern Chinese theatre. Developed as a response to the changing cultural and political landscape of twentieth-century China, spoken-word theatre, or huaju , became an important part of the country’s distinguished performing arts scene.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 24: Exploring Plays About Urban Ireland with Dr. Elizabeth Mannion
Most stereotypes of Ireland have more to do with idyllic rural scenes than busy city life. But, as Beth Mannion points out in her book, The Urban Plays of the Early Abbey Theatre: Beyond O’Casey , there’s an entire sub-genre of plays depicting life in major cities like Dublin in the early 20th century. The most famous of these are the plays in Sean O’Casey’s trilogy ( The Shadow of a Gunman , Juno and the Paycock , and The Plough and the Stars ), but O’Casey was just one small part of a much wider and richer body of work by Irish playwrights who reflected what it was like to live in urban Ireland.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 23: Is It Happening Here? Dr. Paul Gagliardi on the Return of the Federal Theatre Project’s "It Can’t Happen Here"
Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here tells the story of a fictional populist who rises to power and establishes a Fascist regime in the United States. The novel soon became a play, produced by Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theatre Project. Some eighty years after the play premiered, it’s become a topic of conversation again because of its perceived relevance to the current political climate, and a number of theatre companies have revived it. Paul Gagliardi is an expert on the Federal Theatre Project, and his recent HowlRound article explores both the history of It Can’t Happen Here ’s original run and the renewal of interest in it in the twenty-first century.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 22: Dr. Mac Test’s New Translation of "La monja alfèrez"
Spain’s New World colonies might be the last place that you’d expect to find a cross-dressing nun. However, a famous memoir from the 17th century, chronicling the life and surprising career of Catalina de Erauso, became wildly popular for its account of her military exploits in what’s now South America. The memoir was adapted into a play, La monja alfèrez , or The Lieutenant Nun , and it became a hit on the stage back in Spain. The play’s never been translated into English before, but now Mac Test of Boise State University is working on one. Join us as Mac shares the surprising story behind this unique play.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 21: Director George Drance on "Calderon’s Two Dreams"
Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s Life Is a Dream is one of the best-known plays from Spain’s “Siglo de Oro,” or Golden Age, in the 17th century. However, even many fans of the play don’t realize that there’s a second version, written late in Calderon’s life, that incorporates many of the same speeches and themes but also transforms other aspects of the play. George Drance, co-director Kelly Johnston, and Magis Theatre Company are producing Calderon’s two versions of the play together for the first time at LaMaMa in New York, and he joined the podcast to talk about the production.
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 20: Rediscovering the Lost Lope de Vega Play Mujeres y Criados with Dr. Alejandro Garcia-Reidy
You might think it’s virtually impossible to discover new work by a playwright who’s been dead for nearly 400 years, but that’s just what Alejandro Garcia-Reidy of Syracuse University did in 2014. He talks about his work with Lope de Vega’s Mujeres y Criados ( Women and Servants ), a play that sheds new light on the important and prolific playwright from Spain’s “Golden Age.”
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 19: Jeremy Morris on His New Play About Vaudeville Performer Bert Williams, The Top of Bravery
Bert Williams was one of the most important African-American performers in the history of the American stage. He became one of the first African-American superstars and starred in what was arguably the first African-American plays on Broadway. Now, actor and playwright Jeremy Morris is sharing Williams’s story in a new play, The Top of Bravery .
Tue, October 01, 2019
Episode 18: Dr. Charlotte Canning on Internationalism and US Theatre
We tend to think of the middle of the twentieth century as a litany of horrors, from the trenches of the First World War and the atrocities of the Second to the fear of nuclear annihilation that came with the early decades of the Cold War. However, as Dr. Charlotte Canning of the University of Texas at Austin chronicles in her new book, On the Performance Front: US Theatre and Internationalism , there were also plenty of theatre artists during this time who believed that they could bring about a better future by sharing their work with the world.
Thu, September 26, 2019
Episode 17: Dr. Anita Gonzalez Introduces Listeners to 19thcenturyacts.com
This podcast keeps returning to the question of how we can reconstruct theatrical performances from bygone days. For the last few years, the website 19thcenturyacts.com has done just that. It was developed by a team led by Anita Gonzalez, of the University of Michigan, as well as Project Manager and Designer Clara McClenon. The site allows visitors to both see and hear what it was like to watch some of the most prominent stars of the nineteenth century perform onstage.
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 16: Exploring the Surprising—and Disturbing—Origins of “Jingle Bells” with Dr. Kyna Hamill
We all know the classic Christmas song “Jingle Bells” —or at least we think that we do. Dr. Kyna Hamill of Boston University has been looking into the origins of this beloved holiday classic, and what she’s discovered about its creator and its first known public performance may cause us to look at the song in a rather different light.
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 15: Dr. Fiona Coffey on Women in Northern Irish Theatre During The Troubles
When we think of Irish theatre, we tend to think primarily of playwrights and theatre companies from the Republic of Ireland, not northern part of the island. Those Northern Irish playwrights we do know, such as Brian Friel, tend to be men. Fiona Coffey’s new book, Political Acts: Women in Northern Irish Theatre, 1921-2012 , challenges these preconceptions, exploring how female playwrights and theatre practitioners have navigated the difficult political and social landscape of Northern Ireland.
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 14: David Mandelbaum Talks About New Yiddish Rep’s Revival of God of Vengeance
Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance is a provocative classic of the Yiddish stage, and it’s recently come back into the public eye, with an upcoming revival by New Yiddish Rep and a new drama by Paula Vogel, titled Indecent , that tells the fascinating backstory behind the play’s premiere. In this episode, we talk with David Mandelbaum, artistic director of New Yiddish Rep, about Asch’s powerful play and about the new revival.
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 13: Staging a Medieval Play in the 21st Century with Kyle A. Thomas and Dr. Carol Symes
Of all the various eras of theatrical history, the Middle Ages might seem like one of the least immediately relevant to the concerns of the 21st century. However, Kyle A. Thomas and Dr. Carol Symes of the University of Illinois think that medieval theatre’s never been more timely, and they’re staging a fascinating work, known as the The Play of Adam , to prove it. In this episode, Kyle and Carol discuss their production, which will run December 17-18 at The Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, as well as the dynamic, inventive theatrical context that gave rise to plays like Adam .
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 12: Music Theory and Musicals with Adam Roberts
How can we better understand musicals through music theory? Adam Roberts talks about how we can grasp nuances of character and theme in classical musicals by exploring the theory behind the music.
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 11: “You Don’t Read Latino”: Discussing the History of Latinx Casting with Dr. Brian Eugenio Herrera
The recent success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has led to some casting controversies as regional theatres mount productions of his previous hit musical, In the Heights . As this week’s guest, Princeton University’s Brian Eugenio Herrera, shows, these controversies have a long history, as Latinx actors have unsettled the simplistic racial categories perpetuated by white-dominated American society.
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 10: Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and the Legacy of Anti-Apartheid Theatre
Theatre was an integral part of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Performers such as John Kani and Winston Ntshona, as well as playwrights such as Athol Fugard, created some of the most vital political theatre of the twentieth century. But what are we to make of such theatre when the immediate circumstances that led to its creation have passed? What is the enduring legacy of works such as Sizwe Banzi Is Dead , the international hit that stemmed from Kani, Ntshona, and Fugard’s collaboration?
Tue, September 24, 2019
Episode 9: Theatre of Cruelty on Michigan Avenue: Dr. Susanne Shawyer on Street Theatre and 1968
The images of the chaos at the Democratic National Convention of 1968 have become iconic representations of the turmoil of the 1960s in our nation’s collective memory. However, not many people think of those turbulent events in terms of theatre. In this episode, Dr. Susanne Shawyer of Elon University discusses her research (a version of which will appear next year in the book Performance in a Militarized Culture ) and looks at the “Battle of Michigan Avenue” through the lens of Antonin Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, showing how the protests staged by groups such as the Yippies were meant to create an impromptu performance that would lead to social change.
Mon, September 23, 2019
Episode 8: Fifty Years and Counting: Talking About Chicano Theatre and Political Activism with Dr. Jorge Huerta
When Jorge Huerta became involved with El Teatro de la Esperanza, Chicano theatre was only beginning to emerge. The famous Teatro Campesino had begun producing short plays about political and social issues confronting Chicanos in 1965, but it wasn’t until much later that theatre practitioners and scholars began paying close attention to their work. Now at the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Huerta looks back over the history of Chicano theatre, including his own experience in producing activist work in the 1970s, and provides valuable insights into how theatre by, for, and about the Chicano community has changed over five decades.
Mon, September 23, 2019
Episode 7: Getting (Politically) Radical with Dr. Amy Brady
Dr. Amy Brady talks about her article in The Awl on Mary Virginia Farmer and her work with the Federal Theatre Project, in particular her production of the play The Sun Rises in the West .
Mon, September 23, 2019
Episode 6: Diversifying the Classics with Dr. Barbara Fuchs
Spain’s Siglo de Oro , or Golden Age, was a period in which the country’s political and economic power contributed to a cultural flowering that included a vibrant and prolific theatre scene. However, only a few plays from this era get taught in college classrooms or produced onstage. Barbara Fuchs of UCLA is trying to change this with the Diversifying the Classics project, which aims to take previously overlooked plays and translate them for an English-speaking audience.
Fri, September 20, 2019
Episode 5: Dr. Joel Berkowitz on the Yiddish Theatre's Past (and Present)
Dr. Joel Berkowitz takes us on a tour of Yiddish theatre, past and present, explaining the origins and significance of this proud and vibrant performance tradition.
Fri, September 20, 2019
Episode 4: You Naughty, Naughty Men: Joshua William Gelb’s New Reimagining of The Black Crook
The Black Crook often appears (somewhat inaccurately) in history books as the first American musical. Joshua William Gelb has reimagined this important play, rewriting it to place it in its historical context.
Fri, September 20, 2019
Episode 3: Eric Swanson Discusses His New Musical "Edwin: The Story of Edwin Booth"
Eric Swanson talks about his new musical, Edwin: The Story of Edwin Booth , which follows the life of the famous American Shakespearean actor.
Fri, September 20, 2019
Episode 2: Like a Boss: 1940s Musicals and the “Boss Lady” with Dr. Maya Cantu
The musicals of the 1940s feature an intriguing figure: the “boss lady.” Reflecting the social changes brought about by World War II, this figure showed women as competent, tough, and capable of taking charge. Dr. Maya Cantu explains where the “boss lady” came from, and how she takes a dominant role in some of the major musicals of the period.
Fri, September 20, 2019
Episode 1: Talking About Drugs (and Theatre) with Max Shulman
Drug use isn’t exactly a new topic on the stage. Dr. Max Shulman joins us to tell the story of Madame X , the shocking play that served as a star vehicle for stage legend Sarah Bernhardt.
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