What is it about?
This book takes a fresh look at the first actresses permitted to perform on the public stage when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660. It follows the careers of two particular actresses, Elizabeth Barry and Ann Bracegirdle and looks at the plays and the playwrights who wrote parts for them. It takes a new look at the relationship between the first female playwrights and the actresses and shows what good business brains they had, as well as being early celebrities on the London stage.
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Why is it important?
Women are often forgotten in the big stories about early theatre. This book thinks about why this might be and works to ensure that the early women theatre-makers are remembered for rather more than being the King's mistress. For anyone interested in the history of women's performance making, for teaching a course on Restoration theatre, this book offers new ways of thinking about actresses and female playwrights from Aphra Behn to Susannah Centlivre with William Congreve and a few others you will heard of.
Perspectives
This book reflects my ongoing interest in the history of women's performance. From the moment the actress stepped on the stage in 1660 she has been talked about, desired, reviled and all too often, written out of the histories. As someone who spent the first 25 years of my professional life as an actress, I have been, and am still interested in taking a fresh look at the stories we tell about women in theatre. Giving future generations of theatre makers and theatre goers new role models from history is vital if we are to make futures that are different for women making and hearing stories from our public stages.
Professor Gilli Bush-Bailey
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Treading the Bawds, July 2006, Manchester University Press,
DOI: 10.7228/manchester/9780719072505.001.0001.
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