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List of contents
List of illustrations; Notes on the contributors; Preface Ron Engle and Tice L. Miller; Acknowledgements; Introduction: American theatre history scholarship Oscar G. Brockett; 1. The theatre and its audience: changing modes of social organisation in the American theatre Douglas McDermott; 2. Puritan mercantilism and the politics of anti-theatrical legislation in colonial America Peter A. Davis; 3. 'Lady-managers' in nineteenth-century American theatre Vera Mowry Roberts; 4. Hustlers in the house: the Bowery Theatre as a mode of historical information Rosemarie K. Bank; 5. Museum theatre and the problem of respectability for mid-century urban Americans Bruce A. McConachie; 6. Social awareness on stage: tensions mounting, 1850-1859 Walter J. Meserve; 7. The development of the American theatre program Marvin Carlson; 8. The Hyers Sisters: pioneers in black musical comedy Errol Hill; 9. Money without glory: turn-of-the-century America's women playwrights Felicia Hardison Londré; 10. 'For laughing purposes only': the literature of American popular entertainment Brooks McNamara; 11. E pluribus unum: Bernhardt's 1905-1906 farewell tour Stephen M. Archer; 12. Commercialism glorified and vilified: 1920s theatre and the business world Ronald H. Wainscott; 13. Quicksilver revisited: a portrait of the American stage in the 1930s Charles H. Shattuck; 14. The economic structure of the Federal Theatre Project Barry B. Witham; 15. The American Repertory Theatre (1946-1947) and the repertory ideal, a case study Daniel J. Watermeier; 16. Sojourning in Never Never Land: the idea of Hollywood in recent theatre autobiographies Thomas Postlewait; 17. Consuming the past: commercial American theatre in the Reagan era Alan Woods; 18. Narrative strategies in selected studies of American theatre economies Margaret M. Knapp; 19. Multiculturalism versus technoculturalism: its challenge to American theatre and the functions of arts management Stephen Langley; 20. Checklist of selected books on American theatre, 1960-1990 Don B. Wilmeth; Index.
Summary
This book focuses on the economic and social forces which shaped American theatre throughout its history. Alone or as a collection, these essays, written by leading theatre historians and critics of the American theatre, will stimulate discussions concerning the traditionally held views of America's theatrical heritage.
