Performing Objects and Theatrical Things

Nicole Berkin, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USALeo Cabranes-Grant, University of California, Santa Barbara, USALezlie C. Cross, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USAMinty Donald, University of Glasgow, UKBenjamin Gillespie, The Graduate Center, CUNY, USAChandra Owenby Hopkins, Converse College, USAKaren Jean Martinson, Chicago State University, USAKee-Yoon Nahm, Yale University, USAAileen Robinson, Northwestern University, USAChristopher Swift, New York City College of Technology, CUNY, USAJoanne Tompkins, University of Queensland, AustraliaHelene Vosters, York University, CanadaMargaret Werry, University of Minnesota, USA

'This valuable collection approaches performance through a focus on objects, and objects through a focus on performance. Across a variety of engaging essays, the book makes evident the range of new materialisms taking shape in and as performance studies as well as the contribution performance studies can make to the new materialist criticism.' - Rebecca Schneider, Brown University, USA 'Performing Objects and Theatrical Things is a stimulating, multifaceted intercisciplinary exploration of the theatrical and performance life of everyday objects in light of recent new materialist, actor network, 'thing' and other theories, held together by the conviction, as the editors say, that matter matters. It will be essential reading for students of theatre and performance for years to come.' - Ric Knowles, Editor, Theatre Journal 'This timely book offers multiple perspectives on the intersection between performance and materiality. With precision and daring, the essays analyze objects onstage, in archives, and in everyday life, as well as the material textures of performance itself. Marlis Schweitzer and Joanne Zerdy's masterful Introduction provides an ideal overview of the theoretical terrain, thus making the anthology accessible to those new to the field. This is a lively, useful, deeply interesting book.' Robin Bernstein, author of Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights

• Introduction: Object Lessons; Marlis Schweitzer and Joanne Zerdy PART I: ARCHIVAL DIGS 1. Technology and Wonder in Thirteenth-Century Iberia and Beyond; Christopher Swift 2. 'Nothing but a string of beads': Maud Allan's Salomé Costume as a 'choreographic thing'; Marlis Schweitzer 3. Cartomania and the Scriptive Album: Cartes-de-Visite as Objects of Social Practice; Nicole Berkin 4. The Linguistic Animation of an American Yorick; Lezlie C. Cross 5. House Arrest: Museological Performance and the Everyday; Margaret Werry PART II: EMBODIED RESEARCH PRACTICES 6. The Unfolding Roles of a Walking Map within NVA's Half Life; Joanne Zerdy 7. Military Memorialization and its Object(s) of Period Purification; Helene Vosters 8. Entided, Enwatered, Enwinded: Human/More-than-Human Agencies in Site-specific Performance; Minty Donald PART III: MATERIALIST SEMIOTICS 9. 'All Transparent': Pepper's Ghost, Plate Glass, and Theatrical Transformation; Aileen Robinson 10. Que(e)rying Theatrical Objects; Benjamin Gillespie 11. Making the Invisible Visible: Virtual Stage Props and Christopher Marlowe's Dr Faustus; Joanne Tompkins 12. Relic, Souvenir, or Just Hair?: Exploring the Complexities of Objects as Actants and Things as Mementos in the Merchandise of El Vez, The Mexican Elvis; Karen Jean Martinson PART IV: EXCAVATING BETWEEN THE LINES 13. Props Breaking Character: The Performance and Failure of Real Objects on the Naturalist Stage; Kee-Yoon Nahm 14. Bodied Objects: An Analysis of the Whip in George Aiken's Uncle Tom's Cabin and Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man; Chandra Owenby Hopkins 15. Translocalized Drums: Mobilizing the Intercultural in the Cantares Mexicanos; Leo Cabranes-Grant Endnotes Works Cited Index