The Theatre History Podcast

Follow The Theatre History Podcast
Share on
Copy link to clipboard

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.

Michael Lueger


    • Sep 23, 2024 LATEST EPISODE
    • monthly NEW EPISODES
    • 33m AVG DURATION
    • 107 EPISODES


    Search for episodes from The Theatre History Podcast with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from The Theatre History Podcast

    Episode 109: Going "Beyond Ridiculous" with Dr. Ken Elliott

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2024 54:04


    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. 

    Episode 108: "Stirring Up Sheffield" with Tedd George

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2024 40:21


    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.

    Episode 107: Tracing the Rise of the Professional Scenic Designer w/ Dr. David Bisaha

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2024 41:17


    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.

    Episode 106: Staging Latinx Shakespeares with Dr. Carla Della Gatta

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2024 34:20


    Dr. Carla Della Gatta joins us to talk about Latinx Shakespeare productions and her book Latinx Shakespeares: Staging U.S. Intercultural Theater.

    Episode 105: The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama with Professor Fiona Macintosh

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2023 50:42


    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.

    Episode 104: Elise Harris Helps Us Look Into "Sidney Brustein's Window"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2023 55:02


    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.

    Episode 103: Special Guest Episode! Peter Schmitz and Adventures in Theater History: Philadelphia present "Jasper Deeter and the Hedgerow Theatre"

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2023 60:46


    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.

    Episode 102: Celebrity Pregnancy on the 18th-century London Stage with Dr. Chelsea Phillips

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2022 92:15


    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.

    Episode 101: Visiting the Museum of Broadway with Ben West

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2022 35:59


    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.

    Episode 100: Examining Robert E. Sherwood's "There Shall Be No Night" with Dr. Thomas F. Connolly

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2022 27:02


    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.

    Episode 99: Exploding the Canon with Classix

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2022 61:52


    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.

    Episode 98: Marking 100 Years of "Abie's Irish Rose" with Eric Grode

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2022 28:37


    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.

    Episode 97 - Discovering Kunqu with Dr. Dongshin Chang

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2022 43:10


    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.

    Episode 96: The End of Her Own Rainbow: Dr. Kim F. Hall Introduces Us to the Life and Work of Ntozake Shange

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2022 51:14


    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.

    Episode 95 - Going Beyond Shakespeare with Rob Crighton

    Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2022 50:32


    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.

    Episode 94: A Theatre for the Oppressed? Dr. Amy Richlin on Slavery and Plautus

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2022 61:09


    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.

    Episode 93: Brava! American Women Make Theater, with Dr. Melissa Barton

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2022 27:44


    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.

    Episode 92: Lady Romeo: Learning About 19th-Century Actress Charlotte Cushman with Tana Wojczuk

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2022 25:12


    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."

    Episode 91: Passing into History: Dr. Megan Sanborn Jones on Pageants and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2022 25:03


    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.

    Episode 90: Reappraising the Legacy of Ernie McClintock with Dr. Ibby Cizmar

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2022 26:04


    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.

    Episode 89 - The History of Method Acting with Isaac Butler

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2022 36:00


    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.

    Episode 88 - Learning About the History - and Future - of Stand-up Comedy with Dr. Rachel Blackburn

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2022 36:39


    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.

    Episode 87: Hearing the Voices of Women in Yiddish Theatre with Dr. Alyssa Quint and Amanda Miryem-Khaye Seigel

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2022 28:48


    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.

    Episode 86: Introducing the University of Pittsburgh's August Wilson Archive With Dr. Sandra Shannon and Bill Daw

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2022 24:25


    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

    Episode 85 - Reading the Manuscripts of the Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project with Dr. Kate Dossett

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 7, 2022 55:59


    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.

    Episode 84: Imagining a New Federal Theatre Project with Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 1, 2022 49:27


    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.

    Episode 83: Transcribing the Federal Theatre Project with Morgen Stevens-Garmon

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 24, 2022 10:31


    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.

    Episode 82: Where the Courtroom Meets the Stage: Dr. Luke McDonagh on Copyright and Drama

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2022 55:15


    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.

    Episode 81: “Simultaneously Unhinged and Fantastical in Every Possible Way”: Margaret Hall Introduces Us to the History of Theatrical Merchandise

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 23, 2021 39:31


    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.

    Episode 80: Rediscovering Lost Plays with Dr. David McInnis

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2021 44:58


    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.

    Episode 79: Exploring Nuyorican Feminist Performance with Dr. Patricia Herrera

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 9, 2021 43:57


    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."

    Episode 78: Peter Schmitz's Adventures in Theatre History

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2021 58:48


    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. 

    Episode 77: Exploring the Imitations of Gertrude Hoffmann with Dr. Sunny Stalter-Pace

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2021 31:06


    "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.

    Episode 76: Voyage to the Planet of the Grapes with Pete Marino

    Play Episode Listen Later May 31, 2021 23:41


    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.

    Episode 75: "Our Town" in the 21st Century: Howard Sherman's "Another Day's Begun"

    Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2021 57:03


    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.

    Episode 74: Discovering Teresa Deevy with Drs. Una Kealy and Kate McCarthy

    Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2021 50:36


    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.

    Episode 73: Introducing the Theatre 2020 Collection with Dr. Eric Colleary

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2021 22:29


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

    Episode 70: Restoring An Alternate Version of Shakespeare’s Works

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 36:22


    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.

    Episode 69: Tracing the Origins of the Freak Show with Dr. Matt DiCintio

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 25:31


    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.

    Episode 68: Learning About Mary Ann Yates with Dr. Elaine McGirr

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 18:51


    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.

    Episode 67: Dr. Derek Miller on the History of Performance and Copyright

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 38:49


    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?

    Episode 66: Dr. Sara B.T. Thiel on Pregnancy on the Stage in Early Modern English Drama

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 34:23


    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.

    Episode 65: Playing Around with Nineteenth-Century Theatre in Dr. Robert Davis’s Broadway 1849

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 24:36


    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.

    Episode 64: Learning About Modern Indonesian Theatre with Dr. Cobina Gillitt

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 34:25


    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.

    Episode 63: After the Big Top: Carlos Alexis Cruz on the Evolution of Modern Circus

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 23:54


    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.

    Episode 62: Theatre and Civil Rights: Dr. Julie Burrell on the Importance of A Medal for Willie

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 17:13


    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.

    Episode 61: Chantal Bilodeau on “Breaking Up with Aristotle” and Finding New Ways to Tell Stories Onstage

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 13:22


    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.

    Episode 60: Lost Worlds and “Pansexual Extravaganzas”: Rediscovering Weimar Operetta with Dr. Kevin Clarke

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 36:26


    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.

    Episode 59: Taking Shakespeare’s Measure in the Twenty-First Century: Dr. Nora Williams and Measure (Still) for Measure

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 20:57


    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.

    Episode 58: What We Think About When We Think About Casting: Dr. Amy Cook’s Building Character: The Art and Science of Casting

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 25:28


    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.

    Episode 57: Dr. Claudia Orenstein on the Evolving Art of Tolpavakoothu

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2019 30:52


    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.

    Claim The Theatre History Podcast

    In order to claim this podcast we'll send an email to with a verification link. Simply click the link and you will be able to edit tags, request a refresh, and other features to take control of your podcast page!

    Claim Cancel