W.B. WORTHEN is Professor and Chair of the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He is the author of a range of articles on modern drama, performance theory and Shakespeare, and of several books including The Idea of the Actor: Drama and the Ethics of Performance (1984), Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater (1992), Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance (1997) and Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance (2003). He has served as editor of Theatre Journal, and as co-editor of Modern Drama; he has also edited several widely-used teaching anthologies. - PETER D. HOLLAND is the McMeel Family Professor of Shakespeare Studies in the Department of Film, Television and Theater in the University of Notre Dame, USA. From 1997 to 2002 he was Director of the Shakespeare Institute and Professor of Shakespeare Studies in the University of Birmingham. Among his publications are The Ornament of Action: Text and Performance in Restoration Comedy (1979) and English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s (1997), as well as editions of Wycherley and a number of Shakespeare plays. He is Editor of Shakespeare Survey and General Editor (with Stanley Wells) of Oxford Shakespeare Topics.

• List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Series Introduction - Redefining British Theatre History; P.Holland Volume Introduction - Theorizing Practice; W.B.Worthen PART I: HISTORIOGRAPHIES A History of Histories: From Flecknoe to Nicoll; P.Holland Confessions of an Encyclopedist; D.Kennedy The Criteria for Evidence: Anecdotes in Shakespearean Biography, 1709-2000; T.Postlewait PART II: OBJECTIVITIES Decomposing History (Why Are There So Few Women in Theatre History?); S.Bennett Photography, Theatre, Mnemonics; or, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Still; B.Hodgdon Vicarious: Theatre and the Rise of Synthetic Experience; J.Roach Zoo Stories: "Boundary Work" in Theatre History; U.Chaudhuri PART III: DIS/CONTINUITIES History Plays (in) Britain: Dramas, Nations, and Inventing the Present; L.Kruger Deus ex machina in the Modern theatre: Theatre, History, and Theatre History; F.Rokem PART IV: ABSENCES Improvising/ History; S.L.Foster The Imprint of Performance; W.B.Worthen Index

'This charming mosaic - each piece having been placed by a different hand - is still worthwhile reading, with some wonderful essays.' - Leslie Barcza, Consciousness, Literature and the Arts 'There is much to offer in this volume and I would heartily recommend it to anyone working in theatre and performance history.' - New Theatre Quarterly