Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond

Peter Cockett; Melinda Gough

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Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond

Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2025

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About this book

Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond centres dialogue between scholars, students, and professional theatre practitioners to rethink gender on the early modern stage and its resonance for casting, staging, and design in contemporary classical theatre. Its scope extends beyond the confines of Shakespeare’s Globe and the myth of the all-male stage to explore the exciting possibilities of gendered performance evident on the stages of Europe and in the work of less-famous playwrights.
Women and queer and trans artists and artisans were central to the theatres of early modern Europe, and this book’s collaborative exploration of this historical evidence opens exciting new avenues for theatrical production and research. It mobilizes shared insights by scholars and theatre practitioners who hold deep investments in gender equity in their respective workplaces and explores Two-Spirit and trans histories typically excluded in both theatre history studies and present-day performance repertoires.
Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond offers provocations arising from a five-day Performance as Research (PaR) workshop at the Stratford Festival. Featuring guest artist and actor commentary, a poem, a zine, scholarly essays and reflections, and three specially commissioned visual art pieces, the book adapts to print form the open and exploratory spirit of the workshop itself, inviting readers to embrace the possibilities of trans-disciplinary, provisional knowledges and knowledge dissemination that are central to PaR methodologies.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Peter Cockett Peter Cockett is an associate professor of integrated arts at McMaster University. --- Contributor: Melinda Gough Melinda Gough is a professor of English and cultural studies at McMaster University.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Part One: Setting the Stage
Introduction Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
1. The Meeting of Art and Academia Keira Loughran Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	41
Part Two: Beyond the Globe
Beyond the Globe E. M. Parry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	58
2. Architectures of Gender E. M. Parry, Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	59
3. We Tell Our Stories. We Continue to Exist Carmen Alvis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	69
Part Three: Energies, Evidence, Emergent Practices
4. Potential Energies in the Early Modern French Repertoire Ellen R. Welch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	81
5. The PaRchive and Scraps: Archiving Process in Practice as Research and the Work of Theatre History Callan Davies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	97
6. A Note to Mary Frith Sl Grange Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	115
Part Four: Skill, Power, and Swordplay
7. Drawing Your Weapon Peter Cockett, Melinda Gough, Carmen Alvis, Emma Frankland, Lily McEvenue and Denise Oucharek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	129
8. Casting The Roaring Girl: Embodied Skill, History, and Lived Experience Clare McManus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	139
Part Five: Stepping Beyond Binaries
9. “Mincing Steps” and “Manly Strides”: Practising Gendered Footwork on the Early Modern Stage Natasha Korda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	165
10. Performing Gender “From the Ground Up” Peter Cockett, Melinda Gough, Emma Frankland, Lily McEvenue, André Morin, Marcus Nance and Denise Oucharek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	185
11. Playing with Gender: Stance, Gesture, Embodiment, and Prosthetics E. M. Parry, Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	203
Part Six: Disruptive Boys
Boi-Actrx #1 and #2 E. M. Parry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	218
12. Disruptive Affects: Portraiture, Staging, and Drag E .M. Parry, Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	221
13. A Question to Be Asked: Boy Actors, Performance as Research, and Theatre History Roberta Barker and Lucy Munro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	233
Part Seven: Rehearsing, Teaching, Translating
14. Calling Across from Our Difference: Teaching (Gender)-Nonconforming Characters in Early Modern English Drama Jessica Swain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	253
15. Rehearsing The Lieutenant Nun: Translation in Action Edward McLean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	263
Part Eight: Dreaming PaR Futures
16. To Degender Is to Decolonize Madeleine Krusto and Kitoko Mai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	283
(Non)Conclusions Peter Cockett and Melinda Gough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	301
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	313
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	337
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	345

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

November 5, 2025

eBook ISBN:

9781487541927

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

320

https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487541927

eBook ISBN: 9781487541927

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

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