From Script to Stage in Early Modern England

by Stephen Orgel (Editor), Peter Holland (Editor)

This collection brings together a group of distinguished and original theatre historians engaged in rethinking the nature of early modern theatre history as a discipline. Whether focusing on the relation between scripts and performance practice, the structure of theatrical companies, the social dimensions of drama, or the archaeology of the stage, all are concerned with basic questions of evidence and interpretation, and offer significant, and often startling, revisions of our view of the early modern theatre.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2004

Reviews

[Amaan Ahmad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped reading after the first few pages.

[Candy Wood]

Peter Holland's introduction to this Redefining British Theatre History series proposes a need for a theory of theatre history as distinct from either performance theory or history of drama, but I'm relieved to discover that the essayists in this volume offer much practical consideration of early modern plays and playhouses. The four sections--Questions of Evidence, Interrogating Data, What is a Play?, and Women's Work--raise useful questions about method but still provide many specific examples. While some of the essayists are clearly not fans of the reconstructed Globe on London's Bankside (Orgel, Foakes), others are more convinced that the project can offer some insights into early modern stage practice (Gurr, Smith). Some show how new information may be buried in archives (Stern especially), while others suggest that the printed texts can still reveal more, for example, about how the boy actors might have learned their craft from master actors (McMillin). Readable and informative.