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New perspectives and rigorous scholarship shaping the histories of theatre and performance.

Theatre History Studies 2022, Vol. 41 presents a dynamic collection of peer‑reviewed essays that exemplify current directions in theatre and performance historiography. Edited by Lisa Jackson‑Schebetta, this volume brings together scholars whose work spans diverse periods, geographies, and performance traditions, demonstrating the field’s continued expansion in scope and methodology. As the official journal of the Mid‑America Theatre Conference, Theatre History Studies remains a vital venue for rigorous historical inquiry grounded in archival research, critical theory, and historiographic reflection.

Volume 41 engages pressing questions about how theatre histories are constructed, narrated, and mobilized in relation to social, political, and cultural contexts. Contributors explore performance as a site of embodied knowledge, identity formation, resistance, and memory, with essays that address race, gender, sexuality, labor, migration, and transnational exchange. The volume reflects a historiographic turn toward interdisciplinary approaches, drawing from dance studies, performance studies, critical race theory, and cultural history to reconsider established narratives and recover overlooked voices.

Together, the essays in this volume demonstrate the continued relevance of theatre history as both a scholarly practice and a critical framework for understanding performance’s role in shaping—and being shaped by—broader historical forces. Theatre History Studies 2022, Vol. 41 will be of particular value to scholars, educators, and graduate students in theatre and performance studies, as well as researchers in related fields who are interested in innovative historical methods and the evolving contours of performance scholarship.

CONTRIBUTORS
Angela K. Ahlgren / Samer Al-Saber / Kelly I. Aliano / Gordon Alley-Young / Melissa Blanco Borelli / Trevor Boffone / Jay Buchanan / Matthieu Chapman / Joanna Dee Das / Ryan J. Douglas / Victoria Fortuna / Christiana Molldrem Harkulich / Alani Hicks-Bartlett / Jeanmarie Higgins / Lisa Jackson-Schebetta / Erin Rachel Kaplan / Heather Kelley / Patrick Maley / Karin Maresh / Lisa Milner / Courtney Elkin Mohler / Heather S. Nathans / Heidi L. Nees / Sebastian Samur / Michael Schweikardt / Teresa Simone / Dennis Sloan / Guilia Taddeo / Kyle A. Thomas / Alex Vermillion / Bethany Wood

 

Illustrates how theatre’s engagement with politics changes over time

For the thirtieth volume of Theatre Symposium, the editors return to a topic first proposed over twenty years ago in volume 9 (theatre and politics in the twentieth century), reimaged for a broader, more comprehensive time frame. In this volume on theater and politics, scholars explore what constitutes the political, how the political is performed, and how theatre engages with politics over time, drawing on the following framing questions: What is the historical and ongoing role of theatre in framing our ideas and conversations about politics? How do politics and theatre engage one another in an increasingly mediated landscape? From theatrical analysis of the political arena to political analysis of the theatrical stage, discussions of theatre and politics can challenge ethical, theoretical, and artistic considerations of our world.

The current moment presents a compelling opportunity to revisit, revise, and reengage. Certainly, in the twenty-one volumes since volume 9, the political landscape both nationally and internationally has shifted dramatically. The past two years specifically have seen an increase in the already prevalent presence of the political in our daily discourse. The COVID-19 global pandemic and ongoing racial reckonings have further unmoored many systems and structures, requiring action and change. Rather than a moment of pause or passivity, pandemic times have seen an increase in political activity and political discourse on the local, national, and global levels. Within the theatre and performance communities, these calls to action have resulted in movements like #weseeyouWAT and other calls to break down old systems and create new ones, to privilege access for those of the global majority, and to explicitly demand advocacy and activism. Organizations like the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) itself crafted new ethos statements and engaged in the necessary work of boldly foregrounding equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility at the center of all its efforts.

The editors and contributors to this volume respond to the immediacy of this moment and the clarion call for change. From Shakespeare to new productions like Alabama Love Stories, presented at Auburn University, contributors grapple with a range of examples, contemporary and historical, and argue with renewed urgency for the importance of intentionally interrogating the interplay of performance and politics. The essays in this volume demonstrate that theatre and performance cannot rise to this moment or even begin to address it without doing that substantial work to clean its own house and create accessible new spaces.

Contributors
Chase Bringardner / Tessa Carr / Lily Climenhaga / Abena Foreman-Trice / Emma Givens / TK Manwill / Boomie Pederson / Royal Shirée / Teresa Simone / Tony Tambasco / Jonathon W. Taylor / Justice von Maur / Patricia Ybarra