A Cultural History of Theatre in the Early Modern Age, edited by Robert Henke, Professor of Drama, was published in September

"A Cultural History of Theatre" presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes covers a span of 2,500 years, tracing the complexity of the interactions between theatre and culture.


For both producers and consumers of theatre in the early modern era, art was viewed as a social rather than an individual activity.  Emerging  in the context of new capitalistic modes of production, the birth of the nation state and the raise of absolute monarchies, theatre also proved a highly mobile medium across geolinguistic boundaries.  This volume provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the cultural history of theatre from 1400 to 1650, and examines the socioeconomically heterodox nature of theatre and performance during this period. 

Robert Henke is a professor of Drama and Comparative Literature, and Co-director of the Washington University Prison Education Project.

See also theSOURCE from Washington University in St. Louis article "Henke edits 'A Cultural History of Theatre' volume".