Visualising Lost Theatres: Virtual Praxis and the Recovery of Performance Spaces (Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre)

This pioneering study harnesses virtual reality to uncover the history of five venues that have been 'lost' to us: London's 1590s Rose Theatre; Bergen's mid-nineteenth-century Komediehuset; Adelaide's Queen's Theatre of 1841; circus tents hosting Cantonese opera performances in Australia's goldfields in the 1850s; and the Stardust showroom in 1950s Las Vegas. Shaping some of the most enduring genres of world theatre and cultural production, each venue marks a significant cultural transformation, charted here through detailed discussion of theatrical praxis and socio-political history. Using virtual models as performance laboratories for research, Visualising Lost Theatres recreates the immersive feel of venues and reveals performance logistics for actors and audiences. Proposing a new methodology for using visualisations as a tool in theatre history, and providing 3D visualisations for the reader to consult alongside the text, this is a landmark contribution to the digital humanities. "Visualising Lost Theatres argues that once a theatre is demolished, its theatrical, social, and cultural worlds are also at risk. Yet venues are living systems, not than passive containers of performance. A visualisation-or virtual reconstruction-can provide the visual and immersive feel of a venue, revealing performance logistics for actors and audience. We examine virtual models of the Rose Theatre in 1590s London where Christopher Marlowe's plays were performed; Komediehuset in Bergen, Norway, where Henrik Ibsen learned how to be a playwright in the 1850s; the Queen's Theatre, built in 1841, which represents an empire-building movement in Adelaide, South Australia; Cantonese opera touring in circus tents in Australia's goldfields from the 1850s; and the Stardust showroom in 1950s Las Vegas which shaped commercial theatre for a tourist audience. Each reveals new knowledge about the venues themselves, theatrical form, and performer-audience relationships. The book overall offers a methodology for this new technology in theatre studies: it illustrates how the virtual models can, in conjunction with performers and designers, be performance laboratories to test out the written archive"-- Provided by publisher The Rose Theatre and stage movement in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus -- Komediehuset and Henrik Ibsen's in his First Theatre -- A colonial audience watching Othello at the Queen's Theatre -- Cantonese opera and the layering of space on the Australian goldfields -- The design of attraction at the Stardust Showroom in Las Vegas -- Visualizing the future of theatre research Drawing on cutting-edge virtual reality, this book unearths the social-political histories and theatrical praxis of five 'lost' theatres