UM Libraries Digital Exhibits | "His Image in Snow" · Past is Prologue : The Bard @ UM

Introduction

"His Image in Snow"

Shakespeare on the Stage

The works of Shakespeare have been performed continuously, from seventeenth-century England to the modern day. However, a notable interruption in this remarkable run took place during the English Interregnum (1642–1660), when Cromwell banned most public stage performances. Nevertheless, Shakespeare’s popularity overcame this hiatus and his work continues to inspire performances (and attract an audience) around the world. The materials here give a selected overview of staging Shakespeare abroad and locally.

The Tempest, as It is Now Acted at His Highness the Duke of York’s Theatre

London: J. Macock, 1676

This comedy was performed on numerous and varied stages and in many adaptations throughout the eighteenth century. This early Restoration-period playbill includes a preface signed by the poet John Dryden.

The Stage and Its Stars

Howard Paul

Philadelphia: Gebbie, 1890

This book includes 112 full-plate photogravures and several hundred additional lithographs of Shakespearean actors of the nineteenth century. The photogravure process is a late-nineteenth-century technique whereby paper reproductions are made from applying ink to an engraving on a metal plate. They are intended to resemble photographs such as that of William Terris as Romeo. As one could surmise, this process is painstaking and very expensive.

Fanny Kemble Playbill Collection

1809 – 1832

Fanny Kemble was born into a theatrical family; her mother was a famed actress and her father was the manager of the Covent Garden Theatre in London. Kemble established a reputation as one of the greatest actresses of her time in England and in America. These items from the Fanny Kemble Playbill Collection document Kemble’s early years on the English stage.