When Tyrone Guthrie rescued Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great from three centuries of theatrical oblivion, he raised several issues—some intentionally, some not—touching on the play's, and Marlowe's, adaptability to the modern stage and pertinence to the modern temper.

The long stage life of A Midsummer Night's Dream as a leafy Victorian valentine, with all the traditions our era has so strained to be rid of, is all but gone—with few questions ever having been asked about its origins and development. That Victorian stage image of the play, still familiar to us, owes the most to the production of the remarkable Madame Lucia Elizabeth Vestris. Her A Midsummer Night's Dream opened on 16 November 1840, in the second of her three season management of Covent Garden with her new husband and lessee, Charles James Mathews. As well as restoring the text, for which Odell duly credited her, Vestris set many precedents in staging, casting, costuming, and music. Her production has never been studied in detail, either for itself or its considerable influence.

In September 1776, General Sir William Howe's troops took possession of New York City, having badly defeated Washington's forces in the Battle of Long Island. Howe, who had accepted his assignment in America with the greatest reluctance, set about making life as pleasant as possible for himself and for those around him. He had grown greatly concerned about the morale and comfort of his troops in a city that, compared to London, was little more than a backwater. Howe wrote to Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the American Colonies, in England: “The troops had been so much harassed in the course of the last campaign, that I could not but wish that no manoeuvre of the enemy might hinder them from enjoying that repose, in their winter quarters, which their late fatigues rendered necessary, and their services entitled them to expect.”

The drama critic for the Saturday Review began his column of 7 January 1882 by alluding to the "new and curious chapter" which was then being "added to the 'Calamities and Quarrels of Authors.'" He was referring to the furor which followed the production a week earlier of Arthur Wing Pinero's new play The Squire at the St. James's Theatre in London, and which was fast becoming the most publicized literary wrangle in years. Within hours of the fall of the curtain on opening night Pinero found himself accused by a number of newspaper reviewers of having stolen his plot, situations, and main characters from Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd (1874).

Ben Webster's management of the Haymarket Theatre from 1837 to 1853 was one of the longest and most successful theatrical ventures of the mid-nineteenth century. As one contemporary journalist put it, “the mere fact of a management lasting nearly sixteen years is in itself remarkable. At Drury Lane a management of as many months would approach the miraculous.” In addition to mere length, Webster's tenure was notable for the production of original plays, with 212 premièring under his management. These included such works, well-known in their time, as Tom Taylor and Charles Reade's Masks and Faces, Douglas Jerrold's Time Works Wonders, Westland Marston's Strathmore, and Bulwer-Lytton's Money. In fact, Webster's willingness to produce full-length original tragedies and comedies led the Theatrical Journal to label him one of the “few that have of late years laboured to uphold the legitimate drama.” Although Webster's management is remembered primarily for these original plays produced by a strong, balanced company, even a cursory examination of his managerial policies shows that he was plagued by that bane of all mid-nineteenth-century managers, the star system. In fact, his ability to cope with the system and eventually to master it was undoubtedly a major reason for his success, since Webster was then able to devote his energies to the original plays that brought him managerial fame. The purpose of this essay is to trace Webster's struggle with and mastery of starring actors.

One of the commonly propagated and accepted myths in 19th century theatre history relates to the origin of the box set. The impulse to name Madame Vestris and the first production of Dion Boucicault's London Assurance originates from broadly disseminated misinformation. Two contemporary American theatre historians have written extensively and with seeming authority on the origins of the box set: John H. McDowell and Orville K. Larson. McDowell in his article, “Historical Development of the Box Set,” established the basis for the wide acceptance of the Madame Vestris myth and is commonly quoted in support of that argument.

An inquiry into eighteenth-century American scene painting must draw upon sources other than painter's renderings, since few are known to survive. The most promising source other than printed descriptions, barren at best, are the non-theatrical landscape and topographical (view) paintings of America's early scenic artists. No employment of these materials is possible, however, until the parameters of the relationship between easel and scene painting have been established.

At 12:30 P.M. on Monday, 30 April 1764, the curtain parted on the stage of the Little Theatre in the Hay-Market in London and revealed George Alexander Stevens about to begin his celebrated Lecture on Heads. For the remainder of the century this presentation became a staple in the English speaking theatre. It amassed a fortune for its creator, was copied and adapted by dozens of performers, and went through 30 published editions, authentic and spurious.

To write about theatrical entertainment in Canada before the Confederation is to enter a relatively unfilled field. In the absence of a fully documented account of stage presentations, historians like Jean Beraud and Murray D. Edwards have tended to underrate the frequency and quality of performances in assembly rooms and makeshift theaters in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and slighted the crucial role of strolling players in the growth of the theater in British North American provinces. One of the topics still to be investigated is the pioneering work of a trio of actor-managers—Edward Allen, John Bentley and William Moore—who arrived in Montreal from the United States early in 1786 and deserve recognition for founding Canada's first professional company, which gave evenings of entertainment along the lines of London companies. In his history of Montreal theater, Franklin Graham recorded a performance by Allen and Company in 1786, and E. Z. Massicotte uncovered a lease signed by Edward Allen in 1787, but neither explored further. Pierre Georges Roy who compiled data about theatrical performances in Quebec City from the Quebec Gazette and Quebec Mercury began his investigations in 1790 and missed the earlier events.

William Gillette spent more than sixty of his eighty-three years on the American stage as an active playwright, actor, designer, and producer. A major figure between 1880 and 1910, the Age of Melodrama in American theatre, Gillette is remembered primarily for his portrayal of the master sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, and as the author of melodramas such as Held by the Enemy and Secret Service.

Love's Mistress, or The Queen's Masque, first produced in 1634, marks the triumphant conclusion to Thomas Heywood's prolific career as a dramatist. It is fitting, after Heywood's thirty-eight years of service to the London stage as both actor and playwright, that this play should have been "three times presented before their two excellent Majesties within the space of eight days."