Encore: Thomas Postlewait
Professor
(Profile)

Current Research and Creative Activity

Thomas Postlewait, Professor of theatre history, is stepping down as Director of Graduate Studies, after serving in this position for five years. He will continue to serve on the Faculty Concerns Committee in the College of the Arts, and on the Executive Committee of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in the College of the Humanities. He also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Federation for Theatre Research, and he heads two committees in the American Society for Theatre Research. During the last twelve months four new books appeared in his award-winning series, "Studies in Theatre History and Culture," published by the University of Iowa Press: Shakespeare on the American Yiddish Stage by Joel Burkowitz; Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing, 1840-1880 by Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow; The Theatrical Event: Dynamics of Performance and Perception by Willmar Sauter; and Fangs of Malice: Hypocrisy, Sincerity, and Acting by Matthew H. Wikander. The book by Davis and Emeljanow was chosen the best book of the year by the Society for Theatre Research (London). During the last year Professor Postlewait has directed two dissertations, one by Valleri Robinson ("Russian Modernism on the American Stage") and the other by Amy Taipale Canfield ("Women, Performance, and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago"). And Mark Evans Bryan is finishing his dissertation this summer ("The Cultural Functions of the 'Rube' Figure in American Popular Entertainment, 1880-1930"). Professor Postlewait has served as a reader on two other dissertations, one by Karin Maresh on Irish theatre, completed in March, and another by Tonia Krueger on Jessica Tandy, to be finished this summer. He is also directing Jennifer Schleuter's M.A. thesis of the theatre of Charles Mee. And during the last year he served on four General Examination committees of doctoral students. In March he was one of twelve international scholars who participated in an invited symposium at the Huntington Museum (San Marino, CA) on Redefining British Theatre History; his paper was on "The Function of Anecdotes in Shakespearean Biography, 1709 to 2000." He also published two new essays: (1) "The Idea of the Political in Our Histories of Theatre: Texts, Contexts, Periods, and Problems." Contemporary Theatre Review [Amsterdam] 12.3 (2001): 1-25; (2) "Theatre Autobiographies: A Preliminary Taxonomy of Types." Assaph: Studies in the Theatre [Tel Aviv, Israel] 16 (2002): 157-72. In addition, he and Tracy C. Davis (Northwestern University) have finished a co-edited book called Theatricality (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). And he wrote 55 entries for the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, edited by Dennis Kennedy. Tonia Krueger provided invaluable help as his research assistant on the Oxford Encyclopedia project.