The Cambridge Companion to the Actress
Part of Cambridge Companions to Literature
- Editor: Maggie B. Gale, University of Manchester
- Author: John Stokes, King's College London
- Date Published: February 2007
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521608541
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This Companion brings together sixteen new essays which examine, from various perspectives, the social and cultural role of the actress throughout history and across continents. Each essay focuses on a particular stage in her development, for example professionalism in the seventeenth century; the emergence of the actress/critic during the Romantic period and, later on, of the actress as best selling autobiographer; the coming of the drama schools which led to today's emphasis on the actress as a highly-trained working woman. Chapters consider the image of the actress as a courtesan, as a 'muse', as a representative of the 'ordinary' housewife, and as a political activist. The collection also contains essays on forms, genres and traditions - on cross dressing, solo performance, racial constraints, and recent Shakespeare - as well as on the actress in early photography and on film. Its unique range will fascinate, surprise and instruct theatre-goers and students alike.
Read more- Includes interview material with leading practitioners
- Encourages readers to make revealing comparisons between different periods and cultures
- Explains how changes in playwriting and in the art of acting have often been led and implemented by female performers
Reviews & endorsements
'From an impressive group of scholars, the essays are distinguished by a consistent effort to move beyond traditional critical and artistic boundaries and offer original investigations of the actress and the systems, conventions, and communities that contributed to a career.' Theatre Survey
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×Product details
- Date Published: February 2007
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521608541
- length: 364 pages
- dimensions: 228 x 152 x 22 mm
- weight: 0.49kg
- contains: 25 b/w illus.
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Introduction Maggie B. Gale and John Stokes
Part I. Turning Points:
1. Revolution, legislation and autonomy Gilli Bush-Bailey
2. Spectacle, intellect and authority: the actress in the eighteenth century Elizabeth Eger
3. Cultural formations: the nineteenth-century touring actress and her international audiences Gail Marshall
4. The actress as photographic icon: from early photography to early film David Mayer
5. The actress and the profession: training in England in the twentieth century Lucie Sutherland
6. 'Out of the ordinary': exercising restraint in the post-war years John Stokes
7. Icons and labourers: some political actresses Tony Howard
Part II. Professional Opportunities:
8. The actress as manager Jo Robinson
9. By herself: the actress and autobiography, 1755–1939 Viv Gardner
10. The screen actress from silence to sound Christine Gledhill
11. 'Side doors and service elevators': racial constraints for actresses of colour Lynette Goddard
Part III. Genre, Form and Tradition:
12. Mirroring men: the actress in drag Jacky Bratton
13. 'Studies in hysteria': actress and courtesan, Sarah Bernhardt and Mrs Patrick Campbell Elaine Aston
14. Beyond the muse: the Spanish actress as collaborator Maria M. Delgado
15. Going solo: an historical perspective on the actress and the monologue Maggie B. Gale
16. Changing Shakespeare Penny Gay.
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