Derbyshire, Henry ORCID: 0000-0002-1373-1166, Holden, Nicholas ORCID: 0000-0002-3437-1702, O'Thomas, Mark ORCID: 0000-0001-9264-8813 and Knapper, Daniel (eds.) (2022) Comparative Drama. Special Issue on London's Theatre: Places, Communities, Futures, 56 (1&2). University of Western Michigan, Michigan, USA. ISBN 56, Number 1 & 2, Spring & Summer 2022 ISSN 0010-4078 (Online)

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Abstract

This special issue of Comparative Drama entitled: London’s Theatre: Places; Communities; Futures, brings into sharp focus the current landscape of theatre in contemporary London through three distinct lenses. The opening section reflects on London’s relationship with places outside of the city and uses examples from both the UK (Saunders) and across the Atlantic in the USA (MacDonald) and Europe (Goodling and Mark), with articles discussing plays and musical theatre to explore how London is situated within National and International theatrical ecologies. The central section is concentrated more explicitly on theatres from within London itself and uses a series of case studies from well-established theatres such as the Royal Court (O’Thomas), to lesser-known fringe venues like the Finborough (Healy) to explore the impact of some of the most pressing issues facing the British theatre industry, today. This section is supported by a broader examination of the London theatre scene through recent shifts in leadership within some of the capital’s pre-eminent sites (Derbyshire). The section assesses the impact of these developments on the capital’s current theatre landscape and theorises how they could shape its future. The issue concludes with an article that again draws on case-study material, this time to confront the widespread issue of gentrification on the capital’s historic communities and analyses how artists are responding to these threats on the population (Beswick). What emerges therefore, is a timely and multi-faceted special issue that uses contributions from scholars at all stages of their careers to investigate London: its role in the broader theatrical ecology; its function as a place for artists to make work; and its responsibility as a leader in cultural, social and economic policy making moving into a new decade.

Item Type:	Edited Book
Uncontrolled Keywords:	London; theatre; wast end; musical theatre; new writing; royal court; playwriting; hip hop theatre; British Drama; American Musical; Capitalism; neoliberalism; housing; funding; artistic directors
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > Drama, Theatre & Performance (DTP)
Related URLs:	https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2022 15:03
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/36622

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