ASECS at 50: Interview with Joseph Roach

Robinson, Terry F.

doi:10.1353/ecs.2020.0004

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“…One sometimes sees the study of 18th‐century theatre divided into two complementary processes of extraction and reintegration. The former, by cutting ‘the theatrical notices out of newspapers’ and other such work, has allowed the construction of vital calendars and profiles, now given new life as online databases (Burkert, 2019; Roach & Robinson, 2020, p. 188). The latter has endeavoured to return such data to its original place and freshly observe how they functioned ‘as significant elements within a wider social and cultural context’ (Roach & Robinson, 2020, p. 188).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The former, by cutting ‘the theatrical notices out of newspapers’ and other such work, has allowed the construction of vital calendars and profiles, now given new life as online databases (Burkert, 2019; Roach & Robinson, 2020, p. 188). The latter has endeavoured to return such data to its original place and freshly observe how they functioned ‘as significant elements within a wider social and cultural context’ (Roach & Robinson, 2020, p. 188). This second way of thinking about 18th‐century theatre has been particularly important for the recent study of 18th‐century acting theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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What James Boswell tells us about 18th‐century acting theory

Harriman-Smith

2020

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This article reads a series of essays on the actor by James Boswell through recent scholarship on the theory of acting in order to elaborate an expansive and historically grounded definition of what was and is meant by '18th-century acting theory'. I thus show how 18th-century texts on acting are important documents that should be read not as isolated phenomena but as works that can illuminate contemporary stage performance and the culture that produced it. In particular, I follow Boswell by placing a specific, illustrative emphasis on three key themes of professionalism, theatrical expression and ephemerality: each theme is both essential to thinking about the stage (and criticism on this topic) while also, like so much about the 18th-century theatre, applicable far more widely both then and now. K E Y W O R D S 18th-century, acting, Boswell, rhetoric, theatre 1 | INTRODUCTION One sometimes sees the study of 18th-century theatre divided into two complementary processes of extraction and reintegration. The former, by cutting 'the theatrical notices out of newspapers' and other such work, has allowed the construction of vital calendars and profiles, now given new life as online databases (Burkert, 2019; Roach & Robinson, 2020, p. 188). The latter has endeavoured to return such data to its original place and freshly observe how they functioned 'as significant elements within a wider social and cultural context' (Roach & Robinson, 2020, p. 188). This second way of thinking about 18th-century theatre has been particularly important for the This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What James Boswell tells us about 18th‐century acting theory

Harriman-Smith

2020

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Eighteenth‐century theater history and performance studies

Wessel

2021

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Over the last few decades, theater history has moved beyond a documentary and descriptive approach to become a field that increasingly embraces the “epistemological uncertainty” that comes with studying an unfixed medium. This shift owes much to the flourishing of performance studies in the 1990s and 2000s. This essay examines the effects of performance studies on 18th‐century theater history. Theater historians of earlier periods have long grappled with how to study a medium that is uncapturable by print alone. Performance's ephemerality and its embodiment, in particular, pose challenges to those working in the archives. This essay reviews the recent scholarship that brings together the archival work of theater history with newer performance‐oriented methodologies. The turn to performance studies allows us to better theorize the experiences and identities that archives have sometimes obscured, especially involving women and minorities. Moreover, taking the medium of performance seriously not just as an object of study, but as a mode of constructing and disseminating theater history enables us to experience vicariously sensory elements of performance that traditional print scholarship cannot fully capture.

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ASECS at 50: Interview with Joseph Roach

Cited by 2 publications

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What James Boswell tells us about 18th‐century acting theory

What James Boswell tells us about 18th‐century acting theory

Eighteenth‐century theater history and performance studies

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