My First Blog Post

The ‘last chapter’ in the study of British provincial performance traditions before the closing of the London theatres in 1642.

This is the first post on my blog introducing what I plan to include/cover in future installments of the textual blog:

— A survey of the history of previous forays into the provincial performance records, their collection and analysis, looking first at individual scholars, and next at organized attempts to survey and collect data.

— Pursuing an answer to a particular question, we’ll look at strengths and limitations of attempts to analyze and query the records.

— We’ll compare and contrast records of performances with patrons, vs performances without patrons. How did patrons come to be excluded/not recorded?

— The main types of records with no patrons: performances/prohibitions/regulations/non-performances.

— Quasi-theatrical types of entertainments, and what they show about British social history

— We’ll return to that ‘particular question’ asked above, and ask if we can ever have sufficient data to answer it with confidence.