Repertory studies: A survey

ReadingCritical Practiceand Macherey

“…22 The organisation of theatre intersects vitally with pressures and limits of social stability and change -and with remarkable caches of documentary materials to be researched. The unearthing of theatre companies may amount to 'a way of historicizing dramatic texts that, although eclectic, is able to posit tangible relationships between plays and other aspects of early modern society'.…”

Moving Targets: Constructing Canons, 2013–2014

“…Collected works editions, 'acting editions', 'dramatic-history anthologies', 'numerous [but unnamed] other small series', 'bibliographical editions' (is any edition not bibliographical? ), the 'great many small or genrespecific anthologies', 'collections of medieval drama', Shakespeare, and 'the Shakespeare "apocrypha"', are all excluded (14)(15)(16). The result is a canon of early modern drama bereft of Shakespeare, closet drama, university drama, early Tudor drama, and plays by women.…”

“…'The author', Lucy Munro observed, 'is a useful organising principle, but it is not the only one available' 14 and 'repertory studies' -as it has come to be known -shifted the focus away from individual, named dramatists and their plays toward the playing companies for whom they wrote and were written respectively, considered alongside 'other contributors to a company's dramatic output, such as actors, sharers, playhouse owners (and the buildings themselves), audiences, and patrons'. 15 Proposals of canons without recourse to the singular, named 'author' as the traditional touchstone for inclusion or exclusion were now feasible:…”

Lost Plays from Early Modern England: Voyage Drama, A Case Study

“…Henslowe kept records of expenses (payments to playwrights; purchases of properties and costumes) and revenue from each day’s performance – much of this information pertains to plays which are no longer extant. Using evidence like Henslowe’s diary, proponents of the branch of early modern scholarship known as ‘repertory studies’ have long recognised that ‘plays presented on early modern stages were shaped not just by the genius of individual dramatists, but by patterns of company commerce’ (Rutter 337). This premise leads to some interesting conclusions about how and why plays were performed.…”