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Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond
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Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
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.
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.
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Contributor: Melinda Gough
Melinda J. Gough is a professor of English and cultural studies at McMaster University.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
v -
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Illustrations
ix -
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Acknowledgments
xi -
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Abbreviations
xiii - Part One: Setting the Stage
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Introduction
1 -
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1. The Meeting of Art and Academia
41 - Part Two: Beyond the Globe
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Beyond the Globe
58 -
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2. Architectures of Gender
59 -
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3. We Tell Our Stories. We Continue to Exist
69 - Part Three: Energies, Evidence, Emergent Practices
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4. Potential Energies in the Early Modern French Repertoire
81 -
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5. The PaRchive and Scraps: Archiving Process in Practice as Research and the Work of Theatre History
97 -
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6. A Note to Mary Frith
115 - Part Four: Skill, Power, and Swordplay
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7. Drawing Your Weapon
129 -
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8. Casting The Roaring Girl: Embodied Skill, History, and Lived Experience
139 - Part Five: Stepping Beyond Binaries
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9. “Mincing Steps” and “Manly Strides”: Practising Gendered Footwork on the Early Modern Stage
165 -
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10. Performing Gender “From the Ground Up”
185 -
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11. Playing with Gender: Stance, Gesture, Embodiment, and Prosthetics
203 - Part Six: Disruptive Boys
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Boi-Actrx #1 and #2
218 -
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12. Disruptive Affects: Portraiture, Staging, and Drag
221 -
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13. A Question to Be Asked: Boy Actors, Performance as Research, and Theatre History
233 - Part Seven: Rehearsing, Teaching, Translating
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14. Calling Across from Our Difference: Teaching (Gender)-Nonconforming Characters in Early Modern English Drama
253 -
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15. Rehearsing The Lieutenant Nun: Translation in Action
263 - Part Eight: Dreaming PaR Futures
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16. To Degender Is to Decolonize
283 -
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(Non)Conclusions
301 -
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Bibliography
313 -
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Contributors
337 -
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Index
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
eBook ISBN:
9781487541927
Keywords for this book
gender performance; early modern theatre; Shakespearean drama; casting practices; trans histories; Two-Spirit representation; queer theatre; all-male stage myth; European playwrights; Stratford Festival
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
