Staging Stigma A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show [Hardcover]

Staging Stigma is a captivating excursion into the bizarre world of the American freak show. Chemers critically examines several key moments of a performance tradition in which the truth is often stranger than the fiction. Grounded in meticulous historical research and cultural criticism, Chemers analysis reveals untold stories of freaks that will change the way we understand both performance and disability in America. This book is a must-have for serious students of freakery or anyone who is curious about the hidden side of American theatrical history.Foreword Introduction: The Ugly Word Staging Stigma Prurience and Propriety Enlightenment and Wonder Pathology and Prodigy Exploitation and Transgression Conclusion: God's Own Artwork

This is an eminently readable book...It represents a reservoir of cultural and historical knowledge about one of theatre's often unacknowledged margins, and of the stories of performers who had intriguing and self-directed lives. - Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies

As a wide-ranging historian and dramaturg in a hands-on conservatory of theatre arts, Chemers knows that freakishness illuminates the conditions underlying all successful performance, because peculiarity, however stigmatized, can bestow eminence when effectively marketed. From the marriage of Tom Thumb to the firing of Frog Boy, Staging Stigma uncovers a history that will interest students of performance studies, disability studies, and American studies. - Joseph Roach, Sterling Professor of Theater, Yale University

Staging Stigma is a spirited exploration of how the freak show - that extravagant, strange, fascinating, and faded, but lingering, very American institution - turned unusual folks into compelling and repelling celebrities. Chemers perfectly captures the way the freak show stage converts social stigma into theater, detailing both the ascendancy and the decline of these exuberant displays as the extlS!