Thursday, 13 November 2021 (Week 5), 5.15-6.30 pm, Maison Française d’Oxford (2-10 Norham Road)

Lauren R. Clay (Vanderbilt) will be speaking about her recent book, ‘Stagestruck’, which was listed as a finalist for the George Freedley Award given by the Theatre Library Association. http://www.tla-online.org/awards/bookawards/

Between the reign of Louis XIV and the French Revolution, French theater experienced spectacular growth as more than eighty provincial and colonial cities celebrated the inauguration of their very first public playhouses and more than a dozen established resident theater troupes. Approaching these developments within the framework of an ongoing ‘consumer revolution,’ Lauren Clay goes behind the scenes to reconstruct the business of theatrical production during the late Old Regime, revealing the wide-ranging consequences of théâtromanie for the everyday lives of actors, directors, and their growing public in locales from Lyon to Le Cap, Saint-Domingue.