Originally posted on March 15, 2021 It looks now as if this blog entry will not be posted until mid-March, however I am writing it on the...

Originally posted on March 1, 2021 Parlor theatricals were a popular culture phenomenon of the Victorian era. As such they have received...

Originally published Feb. 8, 2021 Without doubt, the most famous parlor theatrical in the history of literature is the “operatic tragedy”...

Originally posted Jan. 25, 2021 Victorian tableaux vivant existed in a gauzy liminal safe space halfway between games and theatre. In the...

Originally published Jan. 18, 2021 [Librivox’s recording of this play can be heard here.] Although she was called upon to play the...

Originally posted Jan. 4, 2021 Dear Reader, pure of heart and mind as doubtlessly you are, I know you do not waste much time pondering...

Originally published on Dec. 28, 2020 (Listen to a full cast recording of "Armand" at Librivox) Perhaps the most incredible thing that I...

Originally published Dec. 21, 2020 (Listen to a full cast recording of "Armand" at Librivox) Last week, I talked about the triumph of...

Originally posted on Dec. 7, 2020 Anna Cora Mowatt’s success as a playwright in the spring of 1845 was as unprecedented as it was...

Originally published Nov. 30, 2020 As a woman who simultaneously achieved international fame as both a playwright and an actress, Anna...

Originally published Nov. 16, 2020 There is perhaps no more perfect encapsulation of the ambiguity of the Victorian stance towards the...

Originally published Nov. 6, 2020 Last week, listening to several interviews with Tana Wojczuk, author of a new book on the life of...

Originally published Nov. 2, 2020 After reading up on the historical Matthew Hopkins, I think we’re remiss not to number “witch-finder”...

Originally published Oct. 26, 2020 I hope that by now you have had an opportunity to listen to our recording of Henry Spicer’s...

Originally posted Oct. 19, 2020 For the next two weeks, I’ve planned to write about a drama written expressly as a starring vehicle for...

Originally Posted Oct. 12, 2020 Actors say, “I never read reviews.” This declaration is almost never literally true. What they actually...

Originally published July 27, 2020 I want to start today’s entry with a complaint about standard volumes of nineteenth century theater...

Originally published June 29, 2020 At the time of this writing, I am working on a recording of an audiobook of Mowatt’s novel Fairy...

Originally posted Feb. 10, 2020 Last week, I know that I said that I thought Anna Cora Mowatt had used “Harlequin Fairy-land,” a...

Originally published Feb. 3, 2020 While researching for this blog, I found a newspaper advertisement that ran in the Sunday edition of...