This Month in Theatre History
Gilbert & Sullivan’s only U.S. world premiere, two theatre foundings (Dunbar Theatre in Philly, St. Nicholas in Chicago), a Broadway Y2K shutdown, and more.
Stories by The Oscar G. Brockett Center for Theatre History and Criticism
This Month in Theatre History
From British loyalist plays to Suzan-Lori Parks’s ‘Elements of Style,’ Edwin Booth’s ‘Hamlet’ to Lynn Nottage’s birth.
This Month in Theatre History
Bookended with plays by Black women writers across the span of a century, this month’s survey includes the founding of an influential political theatre, a path-breaking First Nations narrative, and more.
This Month in Theatre History
September is full of actors making their mark, from the downfall of a 19th-century working-class icon to one actor’s celebrated recreation of a Jazz Age star.
This Month in Theatre History
August has been a month of strikes, disagreement, recovery, the coming and going of influential festivals, and a belated Broadway triumph.
This Month in Theatre History
A non-theatrical venture by John Wilkes Booth, a Tupac musical, the founding of a legendary Off-Broadway company, a global Latin festival, and more.
This Month in Theatre History
June looks back on Frederick Douglass’s criticisms of blackface, Uta Hagen’s legacy, Eugene O’Neill’s nine-act ‘Interlude,’ Steppenwolf’s ‘Menagerie,’ and a Lynne Nottage premiere.
This Month in Theatre History
May recalls the Astor Place Riot, a vaudeville women’s rights advocate, the Moscow Art Theatre, a pioneer of Asian American drama, a Chicano performance troupe, and a beloved Tesori-Kushner musical.
This Month in Theatre History
April recalls the Hyers sisters, a prolific lyricist, a federal musical revue, a busy book writer, an August Wilson premiere, and an Anna Deavere Smith classic.
This Month in Theatre History
March looks back on a musical comedy duo, a Carolina laureate, A Cherry Lane icon, the Living Theatre, and a Fornés tetralogy.
