A Special Issue of Comparative Drama
Living as we do in an age dominated by such mechanically reproducible media as television, cinema, and photography, we are often hard-pressed to recall that for most Americans prior to 1900, the most widely available and accessible medium of visual entertainment was theater (and theater-like productions). From Royall Tyler to Augustin Daly, from Uncle Tom?s Cabin to P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill, the late 18th- and 19th- centuries offered a stunning array of staged performances that not only offered idle amusement
but also crafted and reflected the very frameworks within which knowledge of the world could be organized or produced.
This special issue of Comparative Drama seeks to illuminate and explore the wide range of theatrical productions in the United States before 1900. Topics may include (but need not be limited to): popular melodrama; minstrelsy; touring performers and performances; Wild West shows, historical reenactments, and Indian plays; museums and traveling circuses; the rise of the Broadway impresario; the development of stage realism; technological innovation and stagecraft; race and gender as factors in popularity and/or
appeals to specific audience(s); humbugs and hoaxes; regionalism and theater; the relationship of theater with other arts (i.e., the contributions and/or representations crafted by painters, photographers, and novelists); social and cultural performance beyond the formal stage. Send completed essays (25 pages max., double-spaced) to:
Nicolas S Witschi
Dept. of English
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331.
Any queries may be directed to Nicolas Witschi at nicolas.witschi@wmich.edu
http://www.wmich.edu/compdr/Pages/submissi.html
Deadline: July 31, 2005
