Transatlantic Broadway / Transnational Theatre Histories (PDF)

Marlis Schweitzer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at York University, Canada. Her publications include When Broadway Was the Runway: Theater, Fashion, and American Culture and Performing Objects and Theatrical Things (co-edited with Joanne Zerdy, 2014). Her articles have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Theatre Research International, and TDR. She is the editor of Theatre Research in Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada.

“Transatlantic Broadway makes an important contribution to theatre and performance studies, American cultural history, histories of capitalism, and studies of print and material culture. … Essential for scholars and teachers of theatre history, Schweitzer’s study prompts readers to envision historiography as competing and overlapping threads or networks. … Transatlantic Broadway attends to performers, spaces, and archives that have been neglected in previous studies of the theatre, thus encouraging scholars to rethink the literal and disciplinary borders of US theatre history.” (Nicole Berkin, Theatre Survey, Vol. 58 (1), January, 2017)

“This finely wrought book significantly expands the fields of US theatre history and performance studies by mapping a new historiographical framework for understanding Broadway’s formation. … Schweitzer’s combined application of ANT and ‘scriptive thing’ theory to transatlantic Broadway offers an inspiring historiographical model for performance scholars.” (Kim Marra, Theatre Journal, Vol. 68 (4), December, 2016) 

“Transatlantic Broadway examines a wide range of theatrical media, tracing their circuits through Europe and the United States and considering the ways that they establish communities. … Though the book will be most immediately valuable to scholars of performance and mobility, it will also be useful to mobility studies scholars interested in media, business, and urban geography.” (Sunny Stalter-Pace, Transfers Review, Vol. 5 (3), Winter, 2015)