The Theatre History Podcast

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."

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. 

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Learn how Dr. Eric Colleary and his colleagues at the Harry Ransom Center are documenting how the tumultuous events of 2020 affected theatre.

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.

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.

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.