Theatre History Studies 2024, Vol 43

Edited by Jocelyn L. Buckner; Introduction by Jocelyn L. Buckner

SERIES: Theatre History Studies

University of Alabama Press

The official journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference

Theatre History Studies (THS) is a peer-reviewed journal of theatre history and scholarship published annually since 1981 by the Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), a regional body devoted to theatre scholarship and practice. The conference encompasses the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The purpose of the conference is to unite persons and organizations within the region with an interest in theatre and to promote the growth and development of all forms of theatre. THS is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and is included in the MLA Directory of Periodicals. THS is indexed in Humanities Index, Humanities Abstracts, Book Review Index, MLA International Bibliography, International Bibliography of Theatre, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, IBZ International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, and IBR International Bibliography of Book Reviews. Full texts of essays appear in the databases of both Humanities Abstracts Full Text as well as SIRS.

Along with books reviews on the latest publications from established and emerging voices in the field, this issue of Theatre History Studies contains four sections with two introductions, nine essays, and eleven book reviews total. In the general section, three essays offer an array of insights, methods, and provocations. In the special section titled “Manifestos for Black Theatre, Then and Now,” contributors capture their moment, their ways of working, and their experience as scholars, humans, and citizens in 2023. In part III, Ariel Nereson’s Robert A. Schanke Research Award-winning paper from the 2023 MATC conference examines collective dance histories through the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s Continuous Replay. Taken together, volume 43 captures how this journal serves theatre historians as scholars and laborers as they work to attend and tend to their field.

CONTRIBUTORS

Daniel E. Atkinson / Ashlyn K. Barnett / David Bisaha / Jocelyn L. Buckner / Julie Burrell / Jordana Cox / Jordan Ealey / Eric M. Glover / Adam Goldstein / Chao Guo / Amy B. Huang / Ariel Nereson / Zachary F. Price / Danielle Rosvally / Letica L. Ridley / Bradford G. Sadler / Richard Sautter / Michael Schweikardt / Margo Skornia / Dennis Sloan / Josh Stenberg / Paul Michael Thomson / Scott Venters / Isaiah Matthew Wooden

Editor
Contents

Jocelyn L. Buckner is associate professor of theatre at Chapman University. She is editor of A Critical Companion to Lynn Nottage. Her scholarship and reviews have been published in African American Review, American Studies Journal, Ecumenica Journal, Journal of American Drama and Theatre, HowlRound, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Popular Entertainment Studies, Theatre History Studies, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, and Theatre Topics. She is the immediate past president and a current board member of the American Theatre and Drama Society.

Contents
List of Illustrations

Introduction
JOCELYN L. BUCKNER

PART I
Studies in Theatre History

2 Training Aztlán to Act: Chicanx Theatre, TENAZ, and Theatre as Social Change
DENNIS SLOAN

3 Revisiting Mei Lanfang’s 1930 USA Tour: Triumphs of Curation
CHAO GUO and JOSH STENBERG

4 Robey Theatre Company’s “Bronzeville”: Critical Historical Performance of Afro Asian Political Economy in Los Angeles
ZACHARY F. PRICE

PART II
Manifestos for Black Theatre, Then and Now

5 Introduction to the Special Section
ISAIAH MATTHEW WOODEN and ERIC M. GLOVER

6 “Cake Walks and Culture”: The Black Struggle for Sovereignty at the Dawn of Jim Crow
DANIEL E. ATKINSON

7 “I thought I loved him, [ . . . ] the pale coward”: The Politics of Interracial Love in W. E. B. Du Bois’s “Seven-Up”
PAUL MICHAEL THOMSON

8 When, Where, and “How” We Enter: Early Black Feminist Ruminations on Black Dramaturgies
JORDAN EALEY

9 Histories of the Counter-Future: Theodore Ward, Alice Childress, and the Manifestos of the People’s Theatre
JULIE BURRELL

10 Seen/Scene: Suzan-Lori Parks’s Manifesto for Black People Onstage Revisited
LETICIA L. RIDLEY

PART III
Essay From The Conference

11 The Robert A. Schanke Award-Winning Essay, MATC 2023

A Manifesto in Motion: Reimagining Collective Dance Histories Through Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company’s “Continuous Replay”
ARIEL NERESON

PART IV
Book Reviews

Katrina M. Phillips, Staging Indigeneity: Salvage Tourism and the Performance of Native American History
REVIEWED BY ASHLYN KING BARNETT

Josh Langman, Standby: An Approach to Theatrical Design
REVIEWED BY DAVID BISAHA

Ryan Claycomb, In the Lurch: Verbatim Theater and the Crisis of Democratic Deliberation
REVIEWED BY JORDANA COX

Bradley Rogers, THE SONG IS YOU: Musical Theatre and the Politics of Bursting into Song and Dance
REVIEWED BY ADAM GOLDSTEIN

Esther Kim Lee, Made-Up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era
REVIEWED BY AMY B. HUANG

Ambereen Dadabhoy and Nedda Mehdizadeh, Anti-Racist Shakespeare
REVIEWED BY DANIELLE ROSVALLY
Jackson R. Bryer, Robert M. Dowling, and Mary C. Hartig, Editors, Conversations with Sam Shepard REVIEWED BY BRADFORD G. SADLER

Jeffery Kennedy, Staging America: The Artistic Legacy of the Provincetown Players
REVIEWED BY RICHARD SAUTTER

David Bisaha, American Scenic Design and Freelance Professionalism
REVIEWED BY MICHAEL SCHWEIKARDT

Meredith Conti and Kevin J. Wetmore. Jr, Editors, Theatre of the Macabre
REVIEWED BY MARGO SKORNIA

Julie Stone Peters, Law as Performance: Theatricality, Spectatorship, and the Making of Law in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Europe
REVIEWED BY SCOTT VENTERS

Books Received

Contributors

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