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4 books match the query 'Johnson, Odai'
London in a Box
Englishness and Theatre in Revolutionary AmericaOdai Johnson
University of Iowa Press, 2017
If one went looking for the tipping point in the prelude to the American Revolution, it would not be the destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor, or the blockade of Boston by British warships, or even the gathering of the first Continental Congress; rather, it was the Congress’s decision in late October of 1774 to close the theatres. In this remarkable feat of historical research, Odai Johnson pieces together the surviving fragments of the story of the first professional theatre troupe based in the British North American colonies. In doing so, he tells the story of how colonial elites came to decide they would no longer style themselves British gentlemen, but instead American citizens.
London in a Box chronicles the enterprise of David Douglass, founder and manager of the American Theatre, from the 1750s to the climactic 1770s. The ambitious Scotsman’s business was teaching provincial colonials to dress and behave as genteel British subjects. Through the plays he staged, the scenery and costumes, and the bearing of his actors, he displayed London fashion and London manners. He counted among his patrons the most influential men in America, from British generals and governors to local leaders, including the avid theatre-goers George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. By 1774, Douglass operated a monopoly of theatres in six colonies and the Anglophone Caribbean, from Jamaica to Charleston and northward to New York City. (Boston remained an impregnable redoubt against theatre.)
How he built this network of patrons and theatres and how it all went up in flames as the revolution began is the subject of this witty history. A treat for anyone interested in the world of the American Revolution and an important study for historians of the period.
Ruins
Classical Theater and Broken MemoryOdai Johnson
University of Michigan Press, 2018
Much of the theater of antiquity is marked by erasures: missing origins, broken genres, fragments of plays, ruins of architecture, absented gods, remains of older practices imperfectly buried and ghosting through the civic productions that replaced them. Ruins: Classical Theater and Broken Memory traces the remains, the remembering, and the forgetting of performance traditions of classical theater. The book argues that it is only when we look back over the accumulation of small evidence over a thousand-year sweep of classical theater that the remarkable and unequaled endurance of the tradition emerges. In the absence of more evidence, Odai Johnson turns instead to the absence itself, pressing its most legible gaps into a narrative about scars, vanishings, erasures, and silence: all the breakages that constitute the ruins of antiquity.
In ten wide-ranging case studies, theater history and performance theory are brought together to examine the texts, artifacts, and icons left behind, reading them in fresh ways to offer an elegantly written, extended meditation on “how the aesthetic of ruins offered a model for an ideal that dislodged and ultimately stood in for the historic.”
Theatre History Studies 2009, Vol. 29
Edited by Rhona Justice-Malloy, with contributions from Christin Essin, Carolyn D. Roark, Meredith Lowe, Valleri J. Hohman, Fonzie D. Geary II, Robert B. Shimko, Robert B. Theatre History Studies, Elizabeth Osborne, Paul Cornwell, Harry J. Elam Jr., etc.
University of Alabama Press, 2009
Reimagining the archive, one performance at a time.
Theatre History Studies is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to excellence in theatre historiography. Volume 29, edited by Rhona Justice-Malloy, includes essays that span a wide range of historical periods, geographic regions, and thematic concerns. Highlights include explorations of pain and torment in performance, the aesthetics of American modernity through Belasco and Jones, and the cultural politics of prohibition on stage. The volume also features visual and archival studies, including an interview with playwright Wendy Wasserstein and analyses of Shakespeare’s reception in Restoration theatre. With contributions from over thirty scholars, this edition offers a rich and multifaceted view of how theatre reflects, resists, and reshapes historical narratives.
Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol 40
Edited by Lisa Jackson-Schebetta
University of Alabama Press, 2021
A peer-reviewed journal of theatre history and scholarship published annually since 1981 by the Mid-America Theatre Conference
Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol. 40, edited by Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, marks the fortieth volume of the respected, peer-reviewed journal published by the Mid-America Theatre Conference, a leading forum for innovative scholarship in theatre and performance studies. Bringing together a diverse collection of essays from established and emerging scholars, this volume examines the intersections of theatre history, cultural memory, performance, identity, race, gender, and social change across a wide range of historical and contemporary contexts.
The volume opens with a series of studies that challenge conventional narratives of theatre history and performance. Contributors explore topics including Voltaire and Enlightenment thought, the contributions and erasure of African American artists within the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, questions of empathy and historical consciousness in contemporary drama, and the influence of Asian aesthetics on the work of modern dance innovator Alwin Nikolais. Together, these essays demonstrate the ongoing importance of theatre history as a lens through which to understand cultural power, representation, and artistic expression.
A special section,"Witch Characters and Witchy Performance," investigates the enduring cultural fascination with witches on stage and in popular performance. Essays examine witchcraft in the works of Joanna Baillie and Shakespeare, representations of female bodies and power in Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom, the feminist dimensions of Wicked, and the immersive theatrical worlds of productions such as Sleep No More and Then She Fell. Through these studies, the collection highlights how witch figures continue to serve as powerful symbols for exploring gender, authority, resistance, and cultural imagination.
The volume also features the recipient of the Robert A. Schanke Award, recognizing outstanding scholarship presented at the Mid-America Theatre Conference. This essay examines the evolving relationship between Broadway and high school musical theatre in the 2010s, offering valuable insight into theatre education, performance culture, and the transmission of theatrical traditions to new generations.
In addition to original research articles, Theatre History Studies 2021, Vol. 40 includes scholarly book reviews, contributor notes, and discussions of recent publications in the field, making it an essential resource for researchers, educators, students, and theatre practitioners. By bringing together rigorous historical inquiry and contemporary critical perspectives, this landmark volume showcases the breadth, vitality, and continuing relevance of theatre and performance scholarship in the twenty-first century.