Engendering the Stage in the Age of Shakespeare and Beyond

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.

Peter Cockett is an associate professor of integrated arts at McMaster University. Melinda J. Gough is a professor of English and cultural studies at McMaster University.