This thesis explores how literary editing for the dramatic publication was developed in seventeenth-century England. Chapter 1 discusses how the humanist scholars embraced the concept of textual editing and put it into practice about a half century after the invention of the press. Chapter 2 addresses the development of the concept of literary editing in seventeenth-century England by investigating the editorial arguments preserved in the paratextual matter. Chapter 3 explores Jonsonian convention of textual editing which was established in imitation of classical textual editing of the humanist scholars and which eventually furnished a model for dramatic editing to the later editors who were to be commissioned to reproduce play texts for a reading public. Chapter 4 looks at Thomas Middleton’s The Mayor of Quinborough published by Herringman in 1661 which signals the restoration of the Jonsonian editorial convention. Chapter 5 will attempt to identify the printer of the play and considers the division of the editorial work between the editor and the printer. Chapter 6 addresses the reflection of the Jonsonian textual editing in the 1664 Killigrew folio and assesses its establishment of literary editing of seventeenth-century English drama as a herald of the 1709 Shakespeare edition by Nicholas Rowe.

An analysis of Webster’s dramatic method in the two plays The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil. Aspects discussed include his dramatic method, verbal patterns, style and vocabulary, and his wit and satire.

The vocal demands on teachers in UK classrooms are explored in this mixed methods research which notes how little voice support teachers receive. The study draws on information from a range of fields: literature on voice problems, voice science, actor training, and the perspectives of teachers themselves. First-hand evidence collected through a survey questionnaire and individual interviews gives information of teachers ' voice problems. The study provides also an exploration of how voice quality is influenced by psychophysical use as defined in the Alexander Technique. The Technique was discovered by F.M. Alexander (1869-1955) and is well-known in the preparation of actors for performance. There are different understandings of what Alexander taught; what I set out in this study is the particular basis he passed on which influences my own use and voice. Detailed exploration taking place in a biomechanical laboratory replicated general vocal demand. Considerable quantitative data emerged with results showing that it is feasible to measure voice quality and other changes occurring when the teacher follows a procedure of the Technique to adjust their stance. The research aims to contribute towards knowledge of the teacher's voice, to inform provision for UK teachers, and to demonstrate further research is warranted.

This thesis explores dissident theatre in East Central Europe during the second half of the Cold War (1964-1989). Contextualised within the discussion of individual theatrical and performance cultures and practices in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and The German Democratic Republic, it examines how theatre was used to subvert the dominant ideologies and dissent from the status quos in these countries. It establishes a framework that addresses the divergences between Anglo-American political theatre and Eastern Bloc dissident theatre, and discusses the necessity of considering the work of subcultural and subversive artists when analysing work of this kind. The core chapters discuss the theatrical and dramatic techniques, and the intention of the artists with regards to the work itself and to audience interpretation and response in the plays and performances of Václav Havel (Czechoslovakia), Theatre of the Eighth Day (Poland) and Autoperforationsartisten (East Germany). Further, these chapters demonstrate the significant differences in the ways dissident theatre and performance was conceptualised and staged. This thesis also analyses similarities in the theoretical and philosophical motivations for the work of the artists, and the development of ‘second’ or ‘parallel’ societies as a result of the performances.

This thesis explores the ways in which theatrical performances that take place within cathedrals are indelibly shaped by the space of the cathedral from the very beginning of the production process through to audience reception. Drawing on extensive archival research, the Records of Early English Drama, personal interviews, first hand experience as an audience member, and rehearsal observations, this work seeks to understand how these impacts are made and how best to understand the role of the cathedral in shaping such performances. Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the monument will be presented as a way in which one may look at cathedral performance, helping to explain how and why the space acts upon the production. Lefebvre’s theory also helps to situate the cathedral as a social identifier, showing how such performances can act to bring a community together, thereby further influencing the production. This thesis offers insights into how not only the tangible aspects of space affect performance (architecture, art, et cetera), but also how intangible qualities such as history, social identity, emotions, and spirituality/religion impact productions to the same, or similar, degree. Such performances leave indelible marks on the production including the shaping of texts, designs, staging, and the audience’s reception of the final piece; all of which are discussed in detail, with particular attention to case studies. The research concludes by demonstrating that one must not view the cathedral as a neutral vessel, but one that acts upon all aspects of the production of theatre, and in so doing unavoidably alters the performance in a way not possible in other spaces.

This thesis investigates the contribution and significance in performance of supernumeraries in British court masques, 1594-1640. The six selected masques include a variety of performance venues and authors, with offerings by an assortment of monarchs (and others). There is also a range of performance dates between 1594 and 1640, including: a Scottish court masque and an Elizabethan court masque, two Jacobean masques, and two Caroline court masques, which were performed for or with a variety of monarchs or their consorts. The thesis is driven by practice-based research in relation to the venue, staging, costumes, props, lighting, and blocking with a view to determine the contribution and significance of these performers. Whilst mute roles are the focus of the analysis, this does not include either musicians or the main masquers. The investigation suggests the non-speaking supernumeraries were significant roles in performance and offered a contribution to the genre.

This thesis examines and re-evaluates what interculturality means and how it manifests itself in contemporary Asian Shakespeare performances. The thesis is organised into four chapters. The first three chapters focus on the distinctive theatre cultures of South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore respectively. Each of these three chapters includes brief historical surveys that trace the development of Shakespeare production, and contextualises the diverse approaches to, and concepts of, intercultural Shakespearean performativity in these countries. These chapters also contain performance case studies that are representative of twenty-first century Asian Shakespeare productions from South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. The close analysis of these selected Shakespeare performances explores the larger topics of authenticity, translation and identity. These performances also demonstrate how theatrical interculturalism impacts and complicate the ways in which we understand these common subjects in Shakespeare performance studies. Through these historical reviews and in-depth performance analysis, the thesis reassesses the value and validity of existing intercultural theory, and attempts to expand this field of study by suggesting alterative ways of thinking about intercultural Shakespeare performance. Chapter Four puts forward a proposed model of theatrical interculturalism that can be used to consider and discuss different types of (inter)cultural exchanges that materialise in Shakespeare performance.

This thesis considers how visual art is expressed within English drama during the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods, through studying how portraits are used in performance and narrative. The first part of the thesis, consisting of Chapters One and Two, is concerned with the stage. It explores the range of different functions that a portrait could have in a play, and considers the challenges of bringing these objects onto the stage. The following three chapters make up the second part of the thesis; which shifts focus from the way portraits were used on stage as signifiers, to a consideration of what they signify. Chapter Three explores how characters use portraiture to promote their identity and advertise individuality. It argues for a re-thinking of the significance of ‘life-like’ painting, arguing that portraits can be markers of identity even without necessarily capturing likeness accurately. Chapter Four is about the functions that portraits have as love tokens and within courtship narratives, arguing that they expose the often-flimsy distinction between lust and love. The final chapter addresses the magical and metaphysical aspects of portraiture, and considers their role in witchcraft and murder narratives, but also their metaphorical potential to ‘hold’ the soul of the person that they depict, and therefore function as commemorative objects.

This thesis comparatively and critically examines the connections between Shakespeare and the drama of Samuel Beckett that have been established in British adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays for the stage, screen and page. Beckett’s distinct dramatic style has become an alternative method for the interpretation of such Shakespeare plays as King Lear and Timon of Athens for stage and screen. The first part of this thesis focuses on the assimilation of dramatic elements characteristic of Beckett’s theatre into four productions of King Lear and Timon by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The affinities between Shakespeare and Beckett’s theatre established at the RSC gained significance in relation to wider theatrical contexts. Chapters Three and Four form the second part of this thesis. These chapters examine the various ways in which the Beckettian method employed at the RSC was further explored and used in different media. The Beckettian overtones in Brook’s film of Lear (1971), and Jonathan Miller’s television adaptation of Timon (1981) indicate a strong affiliation between these adaptations and stage traditions associated with the RSC and Beckett’s absurdist theatre. Chapter Four investigates the Beckettian influence in two Hamlet offshoots produced in the 1960s: Charles Marowitz’s Hamlet, and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The intermingling of Beckett’s theatre with Shakespeare’s plays across different media not only reveals distinct modes of engagement with the Shakespearean plays, but also provides a broader understanding of how audiences respond to and interpret diverse methods of adapting Shakespeare.

The PhD examines the web of meanings elicited by and constructed around the act and concept of massacre in English Renaissance drama. The study is underpinned by two contentions. The first is that the enactment of massacre, both on and off-stage, is often predicated upon the same kinds of fictive and imaginative processes inherent to dramatic practice. The second is that the 1572 St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in Paris was instrumental to conceptualisations of Renaissance massacre. Bartholomew, along with its most flagrant dramatic depiction, Christopher Marlowe’s The Massacre at Paris (1593), anchors every part of the study. The thesis is split thematically into three sections, each of which contains two chapters. The first part explores the language of massacre. Chapter 1 examines the denotations and connotations of the word massacre in French and English. Chapter 2 looks at the means through which the rhetoric of massacre reports prompt emotional responses in readers and spectators. Part two investigates the relationship between massacre and the state. Chapter 3 explores massacres committed from ‘above’ by ruling or de facto powers. Chapter 4 considers inverse phenomena – massacres committed from ‘below’ – by usurpers, lesser magistrates, and private individuals. The final part examines the relationship between massacre and warfare. Chapter 5 explores massacres committed by external forces – from ‘without’ – and explores the contribution of massacre to wars of conquest, sieges, and sacks. Chapter 6 addresses massacres committed ‘within’, examining inter-state conflicts and the internal logic of battle. The thesis concludes by gesturing to the continuation of key theorisations of massacres after the closure of the theatres in 1642.