Celebrities and the stage: theatrical stardom in early modern Spain

Abstract

This article seeks to apply a number of concepts and approaches developed by celebrity studies during the past decades in the field of early modern theatre. More specifically, I will focus on the commercial theatre that developed in Spain from the 1560s onwards. This dramatic practice represents a privileged vantage point from which to observe how a number of key dynamics related to celebrity culture came into play within the context of early modern society, as the characteristics of this business and its cultural impact allowed for the emergence of processes of celebrification among performers. This study focuses on the characteristics of this theatre that made it possible for an early modern version of celebrity to emerge, such as the large role that actresses played in its success or the contact with performers that a wide variety of audiences enjoyed all along the country. I also analyse how actors and actresses were subject to forces of commodification, eroticization and the public's attention to their private lives, which led them to become early modern stars.

History of celebrity branching out

“…However, there has been a growing body of research that examines the manifestations of celebrity culture in eighteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century Europe beyond these regions. Historians of Spain have shown a prompt response to the concept, particularly in discussing the early modern era and the nineteenth century (Burdiel, 2022; Garcia‐Reidy, 2018; Shubert, 2015; Wood, 2012; Zanardi, 2012), followed by some delay by scholars from other Romance‐language countries (Papadia, 2020; Vieira & Guerra Santos, 2021).…”

Caminhos do Entretenimento: correspondências dramatúrgicas entre o Século de Ouro Espanhol e a Era de Ouro de Hollywood

“…: 102). Havia, deste modo, uma espécie de star system no teatro dos corrales (GARCÍA REIDY, 2016), no qual os espectadores não apenas idolatravam os intérpretes, com considerável carga sexual no caso das atrizes, 11 mas se fascinavam, negativa ou positivamente, com os fatos da vida pessoal dos ídolos que, falsos ou verdadeiros, podiam ser casamentos, adultérios, decadência pessoal ou tão só o estilo de vida, caracterizado por vultosos gastos voluptuários, como roupas de luxo (MCKENDRICK, 1992: 189).…”