Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film goes to Venice!

Here I am (L-R) with Carolyn Williams, Sharon Weltman, David Mayer, Elisa Uffreduzzzi, Vito Adriaensens at the Palazzo Pesaro-Papafava, Venice, was a great setting for the 

City, Space, and Spectacle in Nineteenth-Century Performance Conference

organised by the University of Warwick and Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film. 

This conference was dedicated to the Memory of Michael Booth, 1931 - 2017

I presented 

In this presentation, I ask:

 Is the actress as significant as the flaneur in enabling new experiences across the city in late nineteenth century Paris? Is her subsequent movement into cinema important to twentieth century cinematic culture, particularly the modernity of movement, excess, stimulation, and distraction that so often defines the modern American city? 

I argue that Bernhardt's relationship to late nineteenth century Paris and to the city in early twentieth century America was a determinant and defining one. She was instrumental in pioneering new relationships between the theatre and the city precisely because she embraced and even drove the new reproductive technologies, media, and commercial opportunities that cities provided. The nineteenth century actress not only travelled and transformed across the visual and aural space of the city but helped drive the emerging role of the city itself as a performance site. 

At the conference, I also chaired the Dance, Movement, Public Space panel (with Elisa Uffreduzzi, Brian Hurwitz, and Craig Melhoff).

Presentations included: 

Michael Burden, New College, University of Oxford

Nicholas Daly, University College Dublin

Tracy C. Davis, Northwestern University

Baz Kershaw, University of Warwick

David Mayer, University of Manchester

Kate Newey, University of Exeter

Michael Pisani, Vassar College

Laurence Senelick, Tufts University

Shearer West, University of Nottingham