Theorizing Practice Redefining Theatre History [Paperback]

In a series of essays, several of the most significant figures in the field present a wide-ranging interrogation of the practice of theatre history studies at the present time, raising questions of history and historiography; the bearing of national, sexual, and racial identity on the canons of theatre history; the limits of print and the history of non-textual forms of performance; the intersections between theatre and other forms of commodification; and even the work of performance at the borders of the human.List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Series Introduction - Redefining British Theatre History; P.Holland Volume Introduction - Theorizing Practice; W.B.Worthen PART I: HISTORIOGRAPHIES A History of Histories: From Flecknoe to Nicoll; P.Holland Confessions of an Encyclopedist; D.Kennedy The Criteria for Evidence: Anecdotes in Shakespearean Biography, 1709-2000; T.Postlewait PART II: OBJECTIVITIES Decomposing History (Why Are There So Few Women in Theatre History?); S.Bennett Photography, Theatre, Mnemonics; or, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Still; B.Hodgdon Vicarious: Theatre and the Rise of Synthetic Experience; J.Roach Zoo Stories: Boundary Work in Theatre History; U.Chaudhuri PART III: DIS/CONTINUITIES History Plays (in) Britain: Dramas, Nations, and Inventing the Present; L.Kruger Deus ex machina in the Modern theatre: Theatre, History, and Theatre History; F.Rokem PART IV: ABSENCES Improvising/ History; S.L.Foster The Imprint of Performance; W.B.Worthen Index

'This charming mosaic - each piece having been placed by a different hand - is still worthwhile reading, with some wonderful essays.' - Leslie Barcza, Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

'There is much to offer in this volume and I would heartily recommend it to anyone working in theatre and performance history.' - New Theatre Quarterly

SUSAN BENNETT University Professor and Professor of English at the University of Calgary, CanadaUNA CHAUDHURI ProfessorlC"