Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Double Shakespeares
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/cary-mazer * http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/cv.html * http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/home.html * https://newplayexchange.org/users/4895/cary-mazer
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 81091344
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n81091344
HEADING: Mazer, Cary M.
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010 __ |a n 81091344
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca00636538
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |d TxCM |d IEN
046 __ |f 1953-02
100 1_ |a Mazer, Cary M.
370 __ |c United States |e Elkins Park (Pa.) |f Philadelphia (Pa.) |2 naf
371 __ |m cmazer@english.upenn.edu
373 __ |a University of Pennsylvania |2 naf |s 1979
670 __ |a His Shakespeare and Edwardian scenography, c1981: |b t.p. (Cary M. Mazer)
670 __ |a Poel, Granville Barker, Guthrie, Wanamaker, 2013: |b title page (edited by Cary M. Mazer) page xi (Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and English, University of Pennsylvania; for many years he chaired the undergraduate Theatre Arts Program; research areas: Victorian and Edwardian drama and theatre, Shakespeare performance history, dramaturgy, rehearsal, 20th- and 21st-century Shakespearean acting)
670 __ |a OCLC, viewed November 19, 2014 |b (access points: Mazer, Cary M.; Mazer, Cary; usage: Cary M. Mazer, Cary Mazer, Cary Merrill Mazer)
670 __ |a Poel, Granville Barker, Guthrie, Wanamaker, 2013: |b ECIP t.p. (Cory Mazer) data view (Cory M. Mazer; no DOB provided by publisher; assoc. prof. of theatre arts and English, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
670 __ |a University of Pennsylvania, website, viewed November 19, 2014: |b Faculty Directory (Cary Mazer (cmazer@english.upenn.edu; Ph.D., Columbia University) link to personal home page, which is entitled Cary M. Mazer’s Home Page C.V. (Cary M. Mazer; education: AB, Princeton University, English, 1974; MA, Columbia University, theatre, 1976; Ph.D., Columbia University, theatre, 1980; experience: Columbia University, preceptor in theatre, 1979; University of Pennsylvania, lecturer in English (1979-1980), assistant professor in English (1980-1987), associate professor of English (1987-2002), associate professor of theatre arts and English (2002-present); has served as director and/or dramaturg for many theatrical productions; theater criticism, including serving as theatre critic, Philadelphia City Paper, 1986-present)
670 __ |a PeopleSmart, website, viewed November 19, 2014 |b (Cary M. Mazer; born February 1953; current address: Elkins Park, PA; previous address: Philadelphia, PA)
953 __ |a bc08
PERSONAL
Born February, 1953.
EDUCATION:Princeton University, A.B. (with honors), 1974; Columbia University, M.A., 1976, Ph.D. (with distinction), 1980.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, theater director, dramaturge, and educator. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, assistant to theater librarian, 1974; Delacorte Theatre, New York, NY, production assistant, 1976; WNET, New York, NY, project coordinator, 1977-78; Columbia University, New York, NY, preceptor in theatre, 1979; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, lecturer, 1979-80, assistant professor, 1980-87, associate professor, 1987-2016, professor of theatre arts and English, 2016–; Folger Institute, Washington, DC, assistant director, 1982, resident scholar, 1990, instructor, 1995-96; Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, PA, academic consultant, 1982, 1984; Philadelphia City Paper, PA, theater critic, 1986–. Consultant for organizations, including Philadelphia Alliance for Teaching Humanities in the Schools, Farleigh Dickinson University, Philadelphia Symposium on the Arts. Director of plays at the University of Pennsylvania and other locations.
MEMBER:International Federation for Theatre Research, American Society for Theatre Research (executive secretary, 1983-92), American Theatre Critics Association, Shakespeare Association of America, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Modern Language Association, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs Association, Society for Theatre Research.
AWARDS:Outstanding Article Award, American Theatre Association, 1984, for “Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils”; Dean’s Award for Mentoring Undergraduate Research, University of Pennsylvania, 2001; Award for Excellence in Playwriting, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2016, for Shylock’s Beard. Grants and fellowships from organizations, including the University of Pennsylvania and the American Council of Learned Societies.
WRITINGS
Author of the plays Swing Set, Pinchas Vontz, Seven Lectures on Hamlet, Shylock’s Beard, and A Puppeteer with the Palsy Performs Scenes from Shakespeare; or, The Ghost in the Machine. Contributor of chapters to many books. Contributor of articles and reviews to publications, including SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies, Theatre Survey, Nineteenth Century Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin, Shakespeare Quarterly, and Theatre Journal.
SIDELIGHTS
Cary M. Mazer is a writer, theatre director, and educator. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. At the beginning of his career, Mazer held a variety of positions, including assistant to the theater librarian at Princeton University, production assistant at New York’s Delacorte Theatre, project coordinator at the WNET radio station, and preceptor in theatre at Columbia University. He joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1979 as a lecturer. Mazer was promoted through the ranks at the university, holding the positions of assistant professor, associate professor, and, finally, professor of theatre arts and English, a position he obtained in 2016. He has served as a consultant to organizations including the Annenberg Center, the Philadelphia Alliance for Teaching Humanities in the Schools, Farleigh Dickinson University, and the Philadelphia Symposium on the Arts.
Mazer has written, directed, or served as a dramaturge on numerous plays. Many of the productions he has worked on have been presented at the theater at the University of Pennsylvania. Among the plays Mazer has written are Swing Set, Pinchas Vontz, Seven Lectures on Hamlet, and Shylock’s Beard, which won the Award for Excellence in Playwriting from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Double Shakespeares
In 2015, Mazer released Double Shakespeares: Emotional-Realist Acting and Contemporary Performance. Writing in Theatre Survey, Katherine Steele Brokaw discussed the volume’s main point, stating: “Cary Mazer’s book argues that, for more than a century, techniques of emotional realism have inexorably influenced the way actors on both sides of the Atlantic have approached Shakespearean acting, and the ways audiences have received it. As such, this phenomenon is worth examining, which Mazer does in this insightful book.” In the volume, Mazer discusses the so-called doubleness that is inherent in acting. He explains that the audiences realize that the person on stage is an actor, and they are also aware of the character’s fictional reality. Mazer analyzes the concept of doubleness in regards to the plays of Shakespeare.
The book’s first chapter focuses on the history of emotional realism and cites the work of actors such as Stanislavski and Edmund Sean. Mazer goes on to discuss thoughts on acting in Shakespearean plays from David Mamet, a playwright, and John Barton, a director. He also highlights productions that use camp or other methods which distract from doubleness, though he notes that it is possible to give an emotionally realistic performance while still exploring gender or other aspects of one’s experience. In the book’s second section, Mazer analyzes various films and television shows whose narratives are somehow connected to Shakespeare, including the Slings and Arrows television series and both fiction and documentary films, including Stage Beauty and Shakespeare behind Bars. He concludes the second section of the book by recalling his own particularly difficult experiences as a dramaturge for a production of the Merchant of Venice. He and his wife were devastated from having tried and failed to adopt a child on two occasions; Mazer suggests that his own emotional state at that time helped him to understand the play in a different way. The final section finds him examining various recent theatrical productions, including all-female productions of Julius Caesar and Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Double Shakespeares received favorable assessments from critics. F.H. Londre, contributor to Choice, commented: “The chapters on rehearsal journals and actor memoirs and on the fad for ‘framed’ productions of Shakespeare bring lucid insights.” Londre categorized the volume as “recommended.” Brokaw, the writer in Theatre Survey, suggested: “Mazer brings the important voice of a scholar-practitioner to the subject: insights gleaned from his own work in the theatre spur some of the book’s best arguments.” Brokaw went on to describe the volume as a “thought-provoking book on the practices of today’s Shakespearean theatre.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, April, 2016, F.H. Londre, review of Double Shakespeares: Emotional-Realist Acting and Contemporary Performance, p. 1178.
Theatre Survey, fall, 2016, Katherine Steele Brokaw, review of Double Shakespeares, p. 473.
ONLINE
New Play Exchange, https://newplayexchange.org/ (April 3, 2017), author profile.
University of Pennsylvania Web site, https://www.english.upenn.edu/ (April 3, 2017), author profile.
Education:
AB, Princeton University, 1974: English
MA, Columbia University, 1976: Theatre
PhD, Columbia University, 1980: Theatre
Academic Employment:
Preceptor in Theatre, Columbia University, summer 1979.
Lecturer in English, University of Pennsylvania, 1979-80.
Assistant Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania, 1980-87.
Associate Professor of English (with tenure), University of Pennsylvania, 1987-2002.
Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and English, 2002-2016.
Professor of Theatre Arts and English, University of Pennsylvania, 2016-present. (see "courses taught" below)
Related Employment and Teaching:
Assistant to Theatre Librarian, Seymour Theatre Collection, Princeton University, summer 1974.
Production Assistant to Joseph Papp, Henry V, Delacorte Theatre, 1976.
Project Coordinator, Shakespeare Task Force for Post-Secondary Eduction, WNET, 1977-78 (towards preparing an educational program to support the BBC/PBS Shakespeare television series).
Assistant Director, NEH Humanities Institute on Shakespeare in Performance, Folger Institute, 1982 (see "publications: Books" below).
Academic Consultant, Annenberg Center outreach programs for secondary school teachers on Shakespeare in Performance, 1982, 1984.
Guest Lecturer, Philadelphia Alliance for Teaching Humanities in the Schools (PATHS) Colloquium, Rosenbach Collection, 1985.
Theatrical Consultant/Coordinator/Lecturer, PATHS summer Institute on Shakespeare and his World, LaSalle University, summer 1985.
Consultant, PATHS Shakespeare Project, West Philadelphia High School, 1985-86.
Consultant, "Activating Shakespeare" seminars for New Jersey teachers, Farleigh Dickinson University, 1987.
Consultant, "Voices of Dissent," Symposium on the Arts as a Force in Social Change, Philadelphia, 1987.
Resident Scholar, NEH Humanities Institute on Shakespeare for Secondary School Teachers, Folger Institute/Stratford-upon-Avon, 1990.
Faculty, Folger Institute on "Shakespeare Examined Through Performance," 1995-96.
Guest lecturer, NEH-funded "Theatre History Initiative," Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC, 2003, 2005.
Administrative Experience:
Member, Graduate Committee, English Department, University of Pennsylvania, 1980-81.
Co-Chair, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1980-87;
Chair, 1987-2004.
For the Theatre Arts Program:
Chair, Sub-Committee for Program Planning, 1979-80; Performance Sub- Committee, 1983-84, 1987-89.
Member, Undergraduate Communications Committee, University of Pennsylvania, 1982-87.
Chair, Junior Faculty Committee, English Department, University of Pennsylvania, 1984-85.
Member, Faculty Senate Executive Committee and University Council, University of Pennsylvania, 1987-89.
Member, Governing Board, WXPN Radio, 1988-90.
Member, Women's Studies Advisory Committee, 1990-present.
Member, Graduate Committee, English Department, University of Pennsylvania, 1992-93.
Member, School of Arts and Sciences Admissions Committee, 1994-5.
Member, School of Arts and Sciences Committee on Individualized Study, 1997-99.
Member, School of Arts and Sciences Teaching Awards Committee, 2003-4.
Member, School of Arts and Sciences Curiculum Committee, 2006-7.
Member, Faculty Senate Committee on Publication Policy for the Almanac, 2008-2009.
Professional Responsibilities:
Executive Secretary, American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), 1983- 92.
Also for ASTR:
Member, Ad Hoc Committee for Budget and Development, 1981.
Member, Treasurer Search Committee, 1984-85.
Member, Ad Hoc Bernard Beckerman Memorial Committee.
Member, Research Committee, 1986-89.
Member, Special Committee for Finance.
Member, Special By-laws Committee, 1992-93.
Member, Secretary Search Committee, 1992.
Member, Special Committee to redefine the position of Secretary, 1994.
Acting Delegate to ACLS, 1994.
Liaison with American Theatre Critics Association, 1995-97.
Local Arrangements Chair, Philadelphia Meeting, 2002
Chair, Awards Committe, 2003-5
Member, Executive Committee, 2003-2005.
ASTR delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies Conference of Administrative Officers (formerly the Conference of Secretaries), 1983-92.
For ACLS Conference of Administrative Officers:
Nominating Committee, 1985, 1986, 1989.
Executive Committee, 1988-90.
Juror, competitive panel on Shakespearean Theatre in honor of Bernard Beckerman, Theatre History Program of the University and College Theatre Association, American Theatre Association, 1986.
Juror, Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting, 1989.
Member, Board of Directors, The Red Heel Theatre, 1991-1994.
Judge, National Critics Institute, Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Region II, Pennsylvania State University, 1994.
Academic Advisory Council, The Mint Theatre, New York City, 2007-present.
Professional Memberships:
American Society for Theatre Research
Shakespeare Association of America
Association for Theatre in Higher Education
Modern Language Association
The Society for Theatre Research (U.K.)
International Federation for Theatre Research
American Theatre Critics Association
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs Association
Awards and Honors:
Honors in English, Princeton University, 1974.
Pearl Hickman Dramatic Arts Fellowship, Berkeley, 1974-75.
American Society for Theatre Research Venice Scholarship, 1977.
Distinction, Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University, 1980.
Summer Research Grant, University of Pennsylvania, 1981.
ACLS Fellowship for Recent Recipients of the PhD, 1982-83.
Summer Research Grant and Grant-in-Aid, University of Pennsylvania, 1984.
ACLS Travel Grant, 1984.
American Theatre Association Award for the Outstanding Article on Theatre Published in English in 1984, for "Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils," (see "Publications: Articles" below)
Summer Grant-in-Aid, University of Pennsylvania, 1988.
International Programs Fund grant, University of Pennsylvania, 1989.
Dean's Award for Mentoring Undergraduate Research, University of Pennsylvania, 2001.
Award for Excellence in Playwriting, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, for Shylock's Beard, 2016.
Publications:
Books:
Shakespeare Refashioned: Elizabethan Plays on Edwardian Stages (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981).
Shylock's Beard [In progress: a first-person narrative of the process of rehearsing The Merchant of Venice at People's Light & Theatre Company, with scholarly reflections on Shakespeare in Performance, dramaturgy, Jewish identity, communities of reception, and adoption; see articles: "Solanio's Coin: Excerpts from a Dramaturg's Journal."]
Editor, volume 15 (William Poel, H. Granville Barker, Tyrone Guthrie, Sam Wanamaker) of Great Shakespeareans, general editors Peter Holland and Adrian Poole (London: Bloomsbury., 2013)
Double Shakespeares: Emotional-Realist Actng and Contemporary Performance, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015. Reviewed in Theatre Suvey 57 (2016), 473-5; Shakespeare Survey 59 (2016), 462-3.
Plays:
Pinchas Vontz: an original adaptation of Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen. Script-in-hand readings: University of Pennsylvania, 2013, People's Light & Theatre Company, 2013.
Shylock's Beard: winner of the Award fo Excellence in Playwriting, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), 2016. Script-in-hand reading: ATHE Conference, Chicago, 2016.
Seven Lectures on Hamlet.
A Puppeteer with the Palsy Performs Scenes from Shakespeare, or, The Ghost in the Machine.
Editing
Guest editor, Performance in Review Section, special issue of Shakespeare Bulletin (31:4, Winter 2013) on "Early Modern Drama and Realist Performance on the Contemporary Stage."
Articles
"Bill Walker's Sovereign: A Note on Sources" Shaw: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies 3 (1983), 117-119.
"Treasons, Stratagems, and Spoils: Edwardian Actor-Managers and the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre," Theatre Survey 24 (1983), 1-33. Recipient of the American Theatre Association Award for the Outstanding Article on Theatre Published in English in 1984.
"Actors or Gramophones: The Paradoxes of Granville Barker," Theatre Journal 36 (1984), 5-23.
"Ibsen and the Well-Made Play," in Approaches to Teaching Ibsen's A Doll House, ed. Yvonne Shafer (New York: Modern Language Association, 1985), pp. 69-75. (see also pp. 17-18).
"Shakespeare, the Reviewer, and the Theatre Historian," Shakespeare Quarterly 36 (1985), 648-661.
"Shakespeare and the Theatre of Illustration," in A Brush with Shakespeare: The Bard in Painting, 1780-1910, ed. Ross Anderson (Montgomery: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1985), pp. 23-34 (Catalogue for an exhibition of paintings on Shakespearean subjects, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Chicago Public Library).
"The Criminal as Actor: H.B. Irving as Criminologist and Shakespearean," in Shakespeare and the Victorian Stage, ed. Richard Foulkes, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 106-119.
"Finders Keepers: Recent Scholarship on Granville Barker," a review essay, Nineteenth Century Theatre 15 (1987) 34-49.
"The (Historical) Actor and the Text," Shakespeare Bulletin, 10, no. 1 (Winter 1992), 18-20.
"The Voysey Inheritance," Harley Granville Barker: An Edinburgh Retrospective, ed. Jan MacDonald and Leslie Hill (Glasgow: Theatre Studies Publications, 1993), pp. 50-68.
"On Heroes and Dramatic Hero-Worship," a review essay on Anthony Jenkins, The Making of Victorian Drama, Review 15 (1993), 85-92.
"Loose Canons: Recent Scholarship on Victorian Drama," a review essay, Nineteenth Century Theatre 22 (1994), 56-72.
"Historicizing Alan Dessen: Scholarship, Stagecraft and the `Shakespeare Revolution,'" in Shakespeare, Theory, and Performance, ed. James C. Bulman, (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 149-167.
"Rebottling: Dramaturgs, Scholars, Old Plays, and Modern Directors," in Dramaturgy in American Theatre: A Sourcebook, ed. Susan Jonas, Geoffrey Proehl, and Michael Lupu,(Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997), pp. 292-307.
"Master Class and the Paradox of the Diva," in Terrence McNally: A Casebook, ed. Toby Silverman Zinman (New York: Garland Publishing, 1997), pp. 167-179; reprinted in Modern Dramatists: A Casebook of Major British, Irish, and American Playwrights, ed. Kimball King (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 153-166; reprinted in Drama Criticism 27 (Farmington Hills: Thomson Gale, 2006) pp. 81-88; reprinted in Drama for Student E-Book Bundle, ed. Mark Milne (Thomson Gale, 2007)
"Playing the Action: Building an Interpretation from the Scene Up," in Shakespeare Through Performance, ed. MillaCozart Riggio (New York: Modern Language Association, 1999), pp. 155-168.
"Statues: Mary Anderson, Shakespeare, and Statuesque Acting," in Shakespearean Illuminations: Essays in Honor of Marvin Rosenberg, ed. Jay Halio (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998), pp. 297-308.
"New Theatres for a New Drama," in The Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre, ed. Kerry Powell (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2004), pp. 207-221.
"Dramaturgy in the Classroom: Teaching Undergraduate Students not to be Students," Theatre Topics 13 (2003) 135-141. (Rpt. in Theatre Quarterly, (Tehran) 39 [summer 2005], trans. Behzad Ghaderi.)
"Solanio's Coin: Excerpts from a Dramaturg's Journal," Shakespeare Bulletin 21 (2003), no. 3, 7-46, and no. 4 ("Solanio's Coin: A Postscript"), 28-29.
"Not Not Shakespeare: Directorial Adaptation, Authorship, and Ownership," Shakespeare Bulletin 23:3 (Fall, 2005), pp. 23-42.
"Granville Barker and the Court Dramatists," in The Blackwells Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama, ed. Mary Luckhurst (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006) pp. 75-86.
"The Intentional-Fallacy Fallacy," in Staging Shakespeare: Essays in Honor of Alan C. Dessen, ed. Lena Cowan Orlinand Miranda Johnson-Haddad (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007), pp. 99-113.
Rosalind’s Breast," in Shakespeare Re-Dressed: Cross-Gender Casting in Contemporary Performance, ed. James C. Bulman (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2008), pp. 96-115.
"The Play Within the Play Outside the Play," in Shakespearean Performance: New Studies, ed. Frank Occhiogrosso (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2008), pp. 129-146.
"Two Cheers for the Intentional Fallacy: Intention, Theatre Practice, and Performance History," invited contribution to an on-line SHAKSPER forum on Shakespeare and Intention, moderated by Cary di Pietro (http://www.shaksper.net/archives/2008/0349.html); published in revised form as "Intentionality, the Theatre Artist, and the Performance Historian," Style 44 (2010), 404-411.
"Sense/Memory/Sense-Memory: Reading Narratives of Shakespearean Rehearsals," Shakespeare Survey 62 (2009), 328-348.
"Miss Julie at the University of Pennsylvania: A Case Study in Shared Student-Faculty Theatre Research," New England Theatre Journal, 20 (2009), 104-111.
"Historicizing Spontaneity: The Illusion of the First Time of 'The Illusion of the First Time,'" in Shakespeare's Sense of Character: On the Page and From the Stage, ed. Yu Jin Ko and Michael W. Shurgot (Farnham: Ashgate 2012), pp. 85-98. (The volume includes a response from Tiffany Stern: "(Re:)Historicizing Spontaneity: Original Practices, Stanislavski, and Characterization"; my response to her response, commissioned by the editors, is available here,)
"Echoes: Shakespeare, the Reviewer, and the Theatre Historian, Revisited," forthcoming in a special issue of Shakespeare, ed. Paul Prescott.
Introduction and Chapter Two: Granville Barker, in The Great Shakespeareans 15, ed. Cary M. Mazer (London: Bloomsbury., 2013), pp. 1-6, 55-97.
Roberta Barker and Kim Solga, with Cary Mazer, "'Tis Pity She's a Realist: A Conversational Case Study in Realism and Early Modern Theatre Today," Shakespeare Bulletin 31:4 (Winter 2013) 571-97.
"Documenting the Demotic: Actor Blogs and the Guts of the Opera Singer," forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Performance, ed. James C. Bulman, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Reviews:
"Shakespeare in Philadelphia," Shakespeare Quarterly 32 (1981), 200-202.
"Shakespeare in Philadelphia," Shakespeare Quarterly 33 (1982), 224-225.
George Rowell, Theatre in the Age of Irving, and J.P. Wearing, ed. The London Stage, 1900-1909, Theatre Journal 35 (1983), 136-137.
"Shakespeare in Philadelphia," Shakespeare Quarterly 34 (1983), 109-110.
Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, Theatre Journal 35 (1983) 556-558.
J.L. Styan, Max Reinhardt, Comparative Drama 17 (1983) 386- 387.
Elmer W. Salenius, Harley Granville-Barker, Comparative Drama 18 (1984), 190-191.
John MacNicholas, ed., Twentieth Century American Dramatists (Dictionary of Literary Biography v. 7), Modern Language Review 79 (1984), 694-695.
Dennis Bartholomeusz, The Winter's Tale in Performance, Comparative Drama 18 (1984), 285-287.
A.D. Nutall, A New Mimesis, Theatre Journal 36 (1984), 557- 559.
Rinda F. Lundstrom, William Poel's Hamlets: The Director as Critic, Theatre Journal 37 (1985), 388-390.
Allan Wade, The London Theatre 1900-1914, Nineteenth Century Theatre Research 13 (1985), 106-108.
Philip Highfill, ed., Shakespeare's Craft, Theatre Studies 31/32 (1984-85/1985-86), 114-116.
Margot Peters, Mrs. Pat: The Life of Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Theatre Survey 26 (1985), 207-209.
James Thomas, The Art of the Actor-Manager: Wilson Barrett and the Victorian Theatre, Theatre Survey 26 (1985), 210-212.
Ann Marie Koller, The Theatre Duke: Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen and German Stage, Ibsen News and Comment.
Donald Mullin, ed., Victorian Actors and Actresses in Review, J.P. Wearing, ed., The London Stage, 1910-1919, and J.P. Wearing, ed., The London Stage, 1920-1929, Theatre Survey 28 (1987), 93-96.
Dennis Kennedy, Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre, Theatre Journal 38 (1986), 505-507.
Gary Taylor, To Analyze Delight: A Hedonist Criticism of Shakespeare, South Atlantic Review 52 (1987), 102-104.
Thomas Postlewait, William Archer on Ibsen, and Prophet of the New Drama, Theatre Research International 12 (1987), 174-177.
Joseph R. Roach, The Player's Passion, Theatre Research International 13 (1988), 175-177.
Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare and the English Romantic Imagination, Richard Allen Cave, ed., The Romantic Theatre: An International Symposium, Keats-Shelley Journal 37 (1988), 206-209.
Paul Schlicke, Dickens and Popular Entertainment, Dickens Quarterly 5 (1988), 195-197.
Sidney Homan, Shakespeare's Theater of Presence: Language, Spectacle, and the Audience, Theatre Research International 14 (1989), 194- 195.
Susan Carlson, Women of Grace: James's Plays and the Comedy of Manners, Theatre Research International 14 (1989) 203-205.
Charles H. Shattuck, Shakespeare on the American Stage, Volume 2: From Booth and Barrett to Sothern and Marlowe, Essays in Theatre 7 (1988), 83-85.
J.S. Bratton, ed., King Lear, Julie Hankey, ed., Othello, Jill L. Levenson, Shakespeare in Performance: Romeo and Juliet, Theatre Survey 28 (1987), 119-122 .
Review of Hamlet, People's Light and Theatre Company, Shakespeare Bulletin 6 (March/April 1988), 14.
Review of Julius Caesar, Philadelphia Drama Guild, Shakespeare Bulletin.
John Stokes, Michael R. Booth, and Susan Basnett, Bernhardt, Terry, Duse: The Actress in Her Time, English Literature in Transition, 1880- 1920 32 (1989), 355-357.
Review of The Winter's Tale, ACTER, Shakespeare Bulletin 8 (Winter, 1990), 27.
Review of As You like It, ACTER, Shakespeare Bulletin.
Review of Shakespeare productions in Philadelphia, 1991, Shakespeare Bulletin.
James P. Lusardi and June Schlueter, Reading Shakespeare in Performance: King Lear, Shakespeare on Film and Video Newletter.
Irvin Leigh Matus, Shakespeare: the Living Record, Theatre Research International 17 (1992), 160.
Review of The Tempest, ACTER, Shakespeare Bulletin (v. 11, no. 3), 26-27.
Joel H. Kaplan and Sheila Stowell, Theatre and Fashion: Oscar Wilde to the Suffragettes, Theatre Survey 36 (1995), 120-122.
Attilio Favorini, Voicings: Ten Plays from the Documentary Theatre, Theatre Survey 37 (1996), 143-146.
J. Ellen Gainor, ed., Imperialism and Theatre: Essays on World Theatre, Drama And Performance, and David Mayer, ed., Playing Out The Empire: Ben-Hur and other Toga Plays and Films, 1883-1908, Theatre Survey 37 (1996), 149-152.
Alan C. Dessen, Recovering Shakespeare's Theatrical Vocabulary, American Notes and Queries 11 (1998) 43-46.
Marvin Rosenberg, The Masks of Hamlet, Shakespeare Bulletin. (v. 14. no. 4) 41.
Barbara Hodgdon, Henry IV, Part Two (Shakespeare in Performance), Shakespeare Bulletin (v. 14, no. 4) 44-45.
W. B. Worthen, Shakespeare and the Authority of Performance, forthcoming in Shakespeare Studies.
Gary Jay Williams. Our Moonlight Revels: A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Theatre, and Trevor R. Griffiths, ed., M,A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare in Production), Shakespeare Quarterly 50 (1999), 91-94.
Peter Holland, English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990s, Essays in Theatre/...tudes Thêátrale 17 (1999), 180-183.
Richard Foulkes, Church and Stage in Victorian England, and Richard W. Schoch, Shakespeare's Victorian Stage: Performing History in the Theatre of Charles Kean, Theatre Survey 40:1 (1999) 113-116.
Kerry Powell, Women and Victorian Theatre, and Gail Marshall, Actresses on the Victorian Stage: Feminine Performance and the Galatea Myth, Theatre Survey 40:2 (1999), 88-92
James L. Harner, ed., The World Shakespeare Bibliography, 1980-1996, Theatre Survey 42:2 (2001), 223-224.
Tracy C. Davis, The Economics of the British Stage, 1800-1914, Theatre Survey 43:1 (2002), 91-94.
Alan C. Dessen, Rescripting Shakespeare: The Text, the Director, and Modern Productions, Shakespeare Quarterly 55 (2004), 77-80.
Roslyn Lander Knutson, Playing Companies and Commerce in Shakespeare's Time, and Steven Adler, Rough Magic: Making Theatre at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre Survey 44:1 (2003), 142-145.
Richard W. Schoch, Not Shakespeare: Bardolatry and Burlesque in the Nineteenth Century, Theatre Survey 44:1 (2003), 148-150.
Stanley Wells and Sarah Stanton, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage, Theatre Survey 44:2 (2003), 313-315.
Gillian Day, Shakespeare at Stratford: King Richard III; Miriam Gilbert, Shakespeare at Stratford: The Merchant of Venice; Patricia E. Tatspaugh, Shakespeare at Stratford: The Winter's Tale, Theatre Survey 45 (2004), 155-158.
W. B. Worthen, Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance, Theatre Survey 45 (2004), 305-307.
Adrian Poole, Shakespeare and the Victorians; Gail Marshall and Adrian Poole, eds., Victorian Shakespeare, Volume I: Theatre, Drama and Performance, forthcoming in Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film.
Virginia Mason Vaughan and Alden T. Vaughan, eds., Shakespeare in American Life; Frances Teague, Shakespeare and the American Popular Stage; Jacob Gordin, The Jewish King Lear: A Comedy in America, translated by Ruth Gay, American Literary History 21 (2009), 316-323.
Miscellaneous
Contribution to Marvin Rosenberg, "Hamlet in the Theatre," Hamlet Studies 5, p. 93.
Five entries in Shakespeare Around the Globe: A Guide to Notable Postwar Revivals, ed. Samuel L. Leiter (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 13-14, 442-444, 446-447, 576-577, 586-587.
23 entires in The Shakespeare Encyclopedia, ed. Patricia Parker, forthcoming from Greenwood Press.
Journalism:
Theatre Critic for Philadelphia City Paper, 1986-present.
Guest theatre critic, Philadelphia Inquirer and American Theatre.
Several reviews of Shakespeare productions have been reprinted in Shakespeare Bulletin.
Post-Performance discussion leader, Symposium speaker, etc: Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, Wilma Theatre, Women's Ensemble Theatre, Philadelphia Hospitality, Delaware Theatre Company, Annenberg Center, Mint Theatre (NY), Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre.
Papers:
"Shakespeare in Performance and the Study of Theatre History," NEH Symposium on Shakespeare in Performance, University of Illinois, 1977.
"The 1909 Haymarket Production of King Lear," Ohio State University Theatre Institute Conference on Shakespeare on Stage, 1980.
"Shakespeare on Broadway, 1930-1980," American Society for Theatre Research Annual Meeting, New York, 1981.
"Shakespeare Production, Society and Culture," seminar paper, Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Minneapolis, 1982.
"The Actor-Manager as Metaphor: Shakespearean Acting and the Art of Self- Presentation," seminar paper, Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Cambridge, 1984.
"The Criminal as Actor: H.B. Irving as Criminologist and Shakespearean," Conference on Shakespeare and the Victorian Stage, Victorian Studies Institute, University of Leicester, 1984. (see "Publications: Articles" above).
"The Play-Doctor as Director: Joseph Papp Directs Henry V, 1976," seminar paper, Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Nashville, 1985.
Chair, seminar on "The Scholar as Dramaturg and Rehearsal Eye-Witness," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Montreal, 1986. (Also: respondent, seminar on "Renaissance Perceptions of the Actor").
"Mr. Wopsle's Successors," Dramatic Dickens Symposium, University of Pennsylvania, 1986.
"Edwardian Acting and Self-Portraiture," Symposium on Icon~ography and the Theatre, in honor of the retirement of Kalman A. Burnim, Tufts University, 1987.
"Svengali's Portrait, or, Edwardian Shakespeare Reanimated," University of Pennsylvania Graduate English Association annual Collation, 1987. (Other versions: University of Pittsburgh, 1988).
"Shakespeare, Ideology, and Performance: The Case of a Radical Right-Wing Hamlet," seminar paper, Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Boston, 1988. (Other versions: University of California, Santa Cruz, 1990).
Chair, seminar on "Shakespeare and the American Actor," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Austin, 1989.
"Male Jekyll, Female Hyde: Victorian Acting Theory, Gender,and the Divided Self," English Department, University of Washington, 1989.
"Edwin Forrest: Acting and the Image of the New Republic," Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1989.
"Theatre History, Theatre Historiography, and Theatre Studies: ASTR's Response to New Methodologies," ACLS Conference of Administrative Officers, Wye Woods, 1989.
Respondent, seminar on "Acting Funny," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Philadelphia, 1990.
Chair, seminar on "Theatre from 1660-1945," Shakespeare Institute Conference, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1990.
"The New Elizabethanism and the Old: Theatre Research and the Construction of Historical Narrative," Panel on "Digging it Up Again: The Globe Project and the Historians," American Society for Theatre Research annual meeting, Toronto, 1990.
"The (Historical) Actor and the Text," workshop on "Working with Actors on Shakespeare's Language," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Vancouver, 1991. (see "Publications: Articles" above).
"Acting in Utopia: The Theatrical Revolution of 1923 in `The Theatrical Revolution' of 1893," American Society for Theatre Research annual meeting, Seattle, 1991.
Panelist, Dramaturgy sub-group, East Central Theatre Conference, Baltimore, 1992
Respondent, seminar on "After the Shakespeare Revolution," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Kansas City, 1992.
"Historicizing Alan Dessen: Scholarship, Stagecraft and the `Shakespeare Revolution,'" seminar on "Performance since 1945," Shakespeare Institute Conference, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1992. (see "Publications: Articles" above).
"Reading the Performance: Production Styles and Aesthetics," Colloquium on "Shakespeare in Performance, Then and Now," Farleigh Dickenson University, 1992.
Panelist, Dramaturgy sub-group, East Central Theatre Conference, Philadelphia, 1993.
"Mapping Actorly Reading: A Retrospective Baedeker," seminar on "Actorly Reading," Shakespeare Association of America, Atlanta, 1993.
"Desperate Measures: Politics and the Process of Performance," New Jersey Shakespeare Festival Colloquium, 1993.
"Statues: Mary Anderson, Shakespeare, and Statuesque Acting," seminar on "Nineteenth-Century Shakespeare," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Albuquerque, 1994.
Participant, seminar on "Living in the Gap," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Chicago, 1995.
"Shakespearean Acting Within and Against Emotionalist Paradigms or, How Many Super-Objectives Had Lady Macbeth?," panel on "Early-Modern Subjectivity, Twentieth-Century Acting," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Chicago, 1995.
Oscar Wilde and Society Drama," seminar for teachers, Delaware Theatre Company, 1995.
Chair, panel on "The Theatre of Ideas," with Tom Stoppard and members of the Philadelphia Theatre Community, Steinberg Symposium, University of Pennyslvania, 1996.
Co-Chair, seminar on "Shakespeare and the Twentieth-Century Director: "Populist" Shakespeare, International Shakespeare Assocaition Conference, Los Angeles, 1996.
"When Paradigms Change: Writing about the Actor," seminar on "Writing about Performance," Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Washington, DC, 1997.
"Beside Oneself: Self-Address, Pronouns and Personation in Shakespearean Representations of Character," seminar on "Addressing the Envelope," Shakespeare Association of America, Cleveland, 1998.
"'Wounds Invisible': Personation and Empathy in As You Like It," Seminar on "'A lover or a tyrant?': The Early Modern Subject as Actor," Shakespeare Association of America, San Francisco, 1999.
"'The Teares of Ten Thousand Spectators': Historicizing Emotion and Audience Response in Early-Modern Theatre," Seminar on "Laughter and Tears: Historicizing Emotion and Audience Response," Shakespeare Association of America, Montreal, 2000.
"Learning to love Fallacious Characterology,"" Columbia Shakespeare Seminar, 2001.
Chair, Seminar on "Personation," Shakespeare Association of America, Miami, 2001.
"The Intentional-Fallacy Fallacy: The Dramaturg, the Director, and the Script," conference on "The Invisible Art: Dramaturgy in American Theatre" in honor of the retirement of Lee Devin, Swarthmore College, 2003. (See Publications: Articles.)
"Confidence Men: The Dramaturg and the Theatre Historian," Seminar on
"Documenting Performance/Performing the Document," American Society for Theatre Research, Durham, 2003.
"Rosalind's Breast," Seminar on "Cross-Dressing in Contemporary Performances of Shakespeare," Shakespeare Association of America, New Orleans, 2004. (See Publications: Articles)
"Not Not Shakespeare: Directorial Adaptation, Authorship, and Ownership," Seminar on "Altering the Past, Directing thePresent: Adaptations and Appropriations of the Early Modern Canon," Shakespeare Association of America, Bermuda, 2005. (See Publications: Articles)
"Frames: The Play Within the Play Outside the Play," conference on Shakespeare in Performance II, Drew University, 2005. (See Publications: Articles)
"The Spear-Carrier under the Platform, or, the Perils of Documentation," Shakespeare Association of America, Philadelphia, 2006.
"Dramaturgy, Scholarship, and the Ethics of the Rehearsal Room," seminar on "Live Subjects: The Pleasures and Perils of Field Research," American Society for Research, Chicago, 2006.
"Shakespeare, the Reviewer, and the Theatre Historian, Revisited," seminar on "Performance Criticism: The State of the Art," Shakespeare Association of America, San Diego, 2007.
"Echo Chambers," Shakespearean Performance Research Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Phoenix, 2007.
"What Directors Can’t/Won’t Teach Scholars, What Scholars Can/Can’t/Do/Don’t Learn From Directors," seminar on "What Can Scholars Learn from Play Directors/ What Can Directors learn from Scholars?" Shakespeare Association of America, Dallas, 2008.
"The First Thing We Do is Kill All the Editors: Towards a Rehearsal-friendly Shakespeare Script," Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas conference, San Diego, 2008.
"Performance without Performativity," seminar on "Shakespeare and Performance Theory," Shakespeare Association of America conference, Washington, DC, 2009.
"Historicizing Spontaneity: The Illusion of the First Time of 'The Illusion of the First Time,'" Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Rearch, San Juan, 2009.(se publication: articles)
Co-Chair, seminar on "Shakespeare and Emotional Realism on the Modern Stage," Shakespeare Association of America conference, Chicago, 2010.
"Transhistoricizing Affect: Empathic Spectatorship Then and Now, " Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Seattle, 2010.
"Shakespeare and Stanislavski 2.0, " Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Montreal, 2011.
"Performer, Identity, Performance: The Emotionally-Realist Actor in the Post-Modern Role," Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Nashville, 2012.
Chair, Seminar on "Contemporary Actors and Evidence, " Shakespeare Association of America, Toronto, 2013.
"Our Frames, Ourselves," Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Dallas, 2013.
"Annabella's Bed and Juliet's Chair, "Seminar on "Exhibiting the Early Modern: Gestus, Memory, Space," Shakespeare Association of America, St. Louis, 2014.
"'Original Practices' and Modernism: the case of Granville Barker," Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Baltimore, 2014.
"Double Shakespeares," Stockton Performing Arts Center, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, 2015; Fairleigh Dickinson University, 2015; University of Scranton, 2016.
"Self-Evidence: Performance as Research," Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Portland, 2015.
"Transactions: Not, Not-Not, and Not-Not-Not Shakespeare," Shakespeare and Performance Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Minneapolis, 2016.
Directorial Experience: Productions
Pericles, Shakespeare, Theatre Division, Columbia University, 1978.
The Devil's Disciple, Shaw, Princeton Summer Theatre, 1980.
Not I and Rockaby, Beckett, Intuitons, University of Pennsylvania, 198l.
As You Like It, Shakespeare, Penn Players, University of Pennsylvania, 1982.
Electra, Euripides, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1983.
Richard II, Shakespeare, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1989. Reviewed in Shakespeare Bulletin 7 no. 3 (May/June 1989) 15-16.
Playing with Peter (incorporating the text of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie), Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1990.
The Duchess of Malfi, Webster, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1992. Reviewed in Shakespeare Bulletin 12 no. 2 (Spring 1994) 29-30, along with "Space, Signs, and Voyeurism in The Duchess of Malfi: An Interview with Cary M. Mazer," by Jean Peterson, pp. 28-29.
Miss Julie, August Strindberg, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1995.
A Dream Play, after the play by August Strindberg, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1996 (also at the 1996 Edinburgh Fringe Festival).
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, William Shakespeare, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1999. Analyzed in Sarah Werner, Shakespeare and Feminist Performance: Ideology on Stage (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 96-104.
Old Times, by Harold Pinter, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
Major Barbara, G. Bernard Shaw, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 2003.
Transfixed, an original documentary theatre piece conceived and compiled by Elisa Asencio, Nikhil Dhingra, Ali-Reza Mrsajadi, and Richard Norman, University of Pennsylvania, 2010.
Look/Alive, an original adaptation of stories by Ovid, Grimm, Anderson, and others, conceived and adapted with the cast, Theatre Arts Program, 2011 (and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival).
Directorial Experience: semi-staged script-in-hand readings
The Spanish Tragedy, Thomas Kyd, The Red Heel Theatre, Philadelphia, 1993.
The Good Person of Szechwan, Bertolt Brecht, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1996.
Spring Awakening, Frank Wedekind, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.
Engaged, William S. Gilbert, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 2008.
Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand, translated by Michael Hollinger, adapted by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 2011.
The Octoroon, Dion Boucicault, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 206.
Dramaturgy:
The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Michael McCallion, People's Light & Theatre Company, 1993.
Misalliance, directed by Abigail Adams, People's Light & Theatre Company, 1994.
Heartbreak House, directed by Abigail Adams, People's Light & Theatre Company, 1998.
The Merchant of Venice, directed by James J. Christy, People's Light & Theatre Company, 2002.
Courses Taught
Columbia University:
The Theatre of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries (scene study).
University of Pennsylvania:
Script analysis (on freshman, upperclass, and graduate levels)
Theatre History
Modern Drama: Ibsen to WWI
Modern Drama: WWI to the Present
Twentieth Century Theatrical Theory and Dramaturgy
Shakespeare
Shakespeare in Performance
Shakespeare Performance History
Shaw and his Contemporaries (graduate)
Tudor and Stuart Drama
Nineteenth Century Drama and Theatre (graduate, co-taught with Nina Auerbach)
London: The City and the Theatre (London)
The London Theatre Experience (London)
Shakespeare: Methods of Stage-Centered Analysis (graduate)
Ibsen and the English Ibsenites (graduate)
Shakespeare: Performance History, 1660-Present (graduate)
Introduction to Theatre
Topics in Theatre History: Romanticism, Melodrama, and Realism
Topics in Theatre History: Commedia dell'Arte and its Legacy
Topics in Theatre History: American Theatre
Topics in Theatre History: Baroque and Neoclassical
Topics in Theatre History: Victorian Theatre
Topics in Theatre History: "Realisms"
Creating, Managing, and Presenting the Arts (co-taught with Larry Robbins, joingtly offered with the Wharton School)
Modern Scholarship, Contemporary Performance, Early-Modern Scripts (graduate)
Dramaturgy
Theatre Criticism
Topics in Theatre History: Comparative Cross-Dressing
Topics in Theatre History: Popular Comic Theatres
Acting Shakespeare
Topics in Theatre History: Theatre in Times of Social Crisis.
Theories of Theatre
Shakespeare: Text, Script, Performance, Performance History (graduate)
Topics in Theatre History: American Theatre Left and Right: Performance, Culture, and Politics in the 1930s, 50s, and 80s
Theatre, History, Culture III: Modernism to Post-Modernism
Directing.
Topics in Theatre History: Blackface, Yellowface, Redface, Jewface: Theatrical Representations of "Others."
Additional teaching fields: Contemporary Drama and Theatre, Writing about Performance.
Cary Mazer is Professor of Theatre Arts and English at the University of Pennsylvania; he is active in the Theatre Arts Program, the University's interdepartmental undergraduate major in Theatre, which he chaired for many years.
His play Shylock's Beard won the Award for Excellence in Playwriting from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).
For a feature about the play from the University of Pennsylvania website, click here.
He is author of Shakespeare Refashioned: Elizabethan Plays on Edwardian Stages (UMI Research Press, 1981), editor of Great Shakespeareans XV: Poel, Granville Barkeer, Guthrie, Wanamaker (Bloomsbury-Arden, 2013), and author of Double Shakespeares: Emotional-Realist Acting and Contemporary Performance (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015).
To see a c.v., click here.
At Penn, Mazer teaches courses in various periods of Theatre History and Dramatic Literature. He is on sabbatical in spring, 2017. For syllabi from past courses, click here.
Among the theatre productions he has directed are:
Pericles, by William Shakespeare, Theatre Division, Columbia University, 1978.
The Devil's Disciple, by G. Bernard Shaw, Princeton Summer Theatre, 1980.
Not I and Rockaby, by Samuel Beckett, Intuitons, University of Pennsylvania, 198l.
As You Like It, by William Shakespeare, Penn Players, University of Pennsylvania, 1982.
and, for the Theatre Arts Program at Penn:
Electra, by Euripides, 1983.
Richard II, by William Shakespeare, 1989.
Playing with Peter, based on, and incorporating the text of, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, 1990.
The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster, 1992.
Miss Julie, by August Strindberg, 1995.
A Dream Play, by August Strindberg, at the University of Pennsylvania and at the 1996 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona, by William Shakespeare, 1999
Old Times, by Harold Pinter, 2000.
Major Barbara, by G. Bernard Shaw, 2003.
Transfixed, an original documentary theatre piece, 2010.
Look/Alive, an original adaptation of stories by Ovid, Grimm, Anderson, and others, 2011, at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
And semi-staged script-in-hand readings:
The Spanish Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, The Red Heel Theatre, 1993.
The Good Person of Szechwan, by Bertolt Brecht, Theatre Arts Program, University of Pennsylvania, 1996.
Spring Awakening, by Frank Wedekind, Theatre Arts Program, 1999.
Engaged, by William S. Gilbert, Theatre Arts Program, 2008.
Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, translated by Michael Hollinger, adapted by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner, Theatre Arts Program, 2011.
The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault, Theatre Arts Program, 2016.
He has written four plays:
Pinchas Vontz, after Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen.
Shylock's Beard.
Seven Lectures on Hamlet.
A Puppeteer with the Palsy Performs Scenes from Shakespeare, or, The Ghost in the Machine.
In addition, he has acted (as Kadmos) in the Theatre Arts Program production of The Bacchae by Euripides, directed by Jim Schlatter (1992); and served as guest dramaturg for productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde (1993), Misalliance, by G. Bernard Shaw (1994), Heartbreak House, by Shaw (1998), and The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (2002), at People's Light & Theatre Company.
From 1986 to 1999, he was a theatre critic for the Philadelphia City Paper. To read reviews from past issues of the City Paper, click here. Click here to read his valedictory essay in City Paper, September 16, 1999).
cmazer@english.upenn.edu
CARY MAZER
Professor of English and Theatre Arts
cmazer@english.upenn.edu
Annenberg Center 519
215-573-2659
Fisher-Bennett Hall 113
215-898-5145
OFFICE HOURS
Fall 2016
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-10:30 am and 1:30 by appointment in 519 Annenberg Center.
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/home.html
Cary Mazer received his PhD in Theatre from Columbia University. He has published a book on Shakespeare, focusing on production history, and has written articles on Shaw, Ibsen, Granville Barker, and Edwardian Theatre. He regularly teaches courses in theatre history, Shakespeare, and modern drama, and has been involved with a number of Penn theatre productions. For many years he chaired the Theatre Arts Major.
Professor Cary Mazer's New Book: Double Shakespeares
October 12, 2015
Professor Cary Mazer's new book, Double Shakespeares: Emotional-Realist Acting and Contemporary Performance is now available from Rowman and Littlefield.
Double Shakespeares examines contemporary performances of Shakespeare plays that employ the "emotional realist" traditions of acting that were codified by Stanislavski over a century ago. These performances recognize the inescapable doubleness of realism: that the actor may aspire to be the character but can never fully do so. This doubleness troubled the late-nineteenth-century actors and theorists who first formulated realist modes of acting; and it equally troubles theorists and theatre practitioners today. The book first looks at contemporary performances that foreground the doubleness of the actor's body, particularly through cross-dressing. It then examines narratives of Shakespearean rehearsal—both fictional representations of rehearsal in film and video, and eye-witness narratives of actual rehearsals—and how they show us the process by which the actor does or does not "become" the character. And, finally, it looks at modern performances that "frame" Shakespeare's play as a play-within-a-play, showing the audience both the character in the Shakespeare play-within and the actor in the frame-play acting that character.
Cary Mazer
Cary Mazer is a scholar, dramaturg, critic, and director who has taught in the Theatre Arts Program at the University of Pennsylvania for over 30 years.
PLAYS
Swing Set by Cary Mazer
Cast: 3
Genre: dark comedy, drama, political, satire
Keyword: state of the nation, rust belt, Donald Trump, 2016 election, urban planning, community
Leslie wants the township council to build a playground for their economically depressed American town, and two new friends offer to help: a lawyer for the council who has recently moved back from the city; and the entrepreneurial owner of a local wine shop with big plans. Which will Leslie choose and whom can Leslie trust, after lies are exposed, and her friends reveal their true characters?
A Puppeteer with the Palsy Performs Scenes from Shakespeare, or, The Ghost in the Machine by Cary Mazer
Cast: 2
Genre: drama, movement/physical, period
Keyword: puppetry, Acting Theory, Parkinson's Disease, elements of shakespeare, Garrick
Instead of his usual performance of his favorite scenes from Shakespeare, the master puppeteer, along with his troupe of inanimate thespians, shows us why and how he became a puppeteer. Then, for one night only, he puts on a performance unlike any he has given before.
Seven Lectures on Hamlet by Cary Mazer
Cast: 1
Genre: drama, political
Keyword: colonialism, post-colonialism, literary theory, genocide, war crimes, war crimes trial, elements of shakespeare
While her country is emerging from colonialism, a young graduate student travels to Europe to study Shakespeare. Will she notice—after she returns to her homeland to become a professor—that the stakes are higher in the real world than in any of the literary theories she likes to lecture about? (The politics of the play's setting will fit the race and ethnicity of the actor, which is open [non-white].)
Shylock's Beard by Cary Mazer
Cast: 4
Genre: dark comedy
Keyword: elements of shakespeare, Jewish identity, rehearsal process
Dan, a Jewish Shakespeare professor, never liked Shylock. Things were bad enough when he agreed to dramaturg a production of The Merchant of Venice. But then he started seeing Shylock in his bathroom mirror.
Pinchas Vontz by Cary Mazer
Cast: 8
Genre: adaptation, adventure, dark comedy, fable/folktale, faith-based, fantasy, period, tragedy
Keyword: Jewish, shtetl, Jewish identity, Jewish history, Jewish folklore, Jewish folktales, Ibsen, Peer Gynt, Holocaust
After Ibsen's Peer Gynt. A young Jew in an eastern European shtetl in the 1890s gets out of scrapes by telling traditional Jewish folktales and making himself the hero. After a dream-like encounter with various folk-tale demons, he flees the shtetl for America. His travels take him to interwar Palestine and finally to post-Holocaust Europe, where, in his effort to evade his own Jewish identity, he loses and ultimately rediscovers his self.
QUOTED: "The chapters on rehearsal journals and actor memoirs and on the fad for 'framed' productions of Shakespeare bring lucid insights."
"recommended."
Mazer, Cary M.: Double Shakespeares: emotional-realist acting and contemporary performance
F.H. Londre
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1178. From Book Review Index Plus.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
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Full Text:
Mazer, Cary M. Double Shakespeares: emotional-realist acting and contemporary performance. Fairleigh Dickinson, 2015. 201p bibl index afp ISBN 9781611478433 cloth, $70.00; ISBN 9781611478440 ebook, $69.99
(cc) 53-3449
PR3091
2015-22065 CIP
How to achieve emotional truth on stage is a persistent, complicated issue in actor training; how audiences recognize such truth through the innate doubleness of performance--that is, inescapable awareness of both actor and character--is similarly complicated. Bringing to bear his scholarship on Shakespeare and his experience as a director and dramaturg, Mazer (theater arts and English, Univ. of Pennsylvania) tackles multiple aspects of double awareness with a view to conveying the emotional realism of 16th-century characters for often-jaded contemporary theatergoers. He examines historical theories of acting and modern concepts of cross-gendered, cross-racial, and multifaceted representation, grounding his discussion in a wealth of examples from Shakespeare plays and productions. Mazer's wide-ranging allusions are most telling when he describes Shakespeare on stage, less interesting when he pulls from television or pop culture. Though the writing in early chapters is somewhat belabored (one remarkable sentence on pages 77-8 incorporates seven commas, two colons, and two sets of parentheses!), the chapters on rehearsal journals and actor memoirs and on the fad for "framed" productions of Shakespeare bring lucid insights. Seven production photos and chapter endnotes enhance the volume. Summing Up: ** Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.--F. H. Londre, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Londre, F.H. "Mazer, Cary M.: Double Shakespeares: emotional-realist acting and contemporary performance." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, Apr. 2016, p. 1178. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449661580&it=r&asid=b3a1485617b5a9e1b431ff957c83f54a. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449661580
QUOTED: "Cary Mazer’s book argues that, for more than a century,
techniques of emotional realism have inexorably influenced the way actors on both sides of the Atlantic have approached Shakespearean acting, and the ways audiences have received it. As such, this phenomenon is worth examining, which Mazer does in this insightful book."
"Mazer brings the important voice of a scholar-practitioner to the subject: insights gleaned from his own work in the theatre spur some of the book’s best arguments."
"thought-provoking book on the practices of today’s Shakespearean theatre."
Double Shakespeares: Emotional-Realist Acting and Contemporary
Performance. By Cary M. Mazer. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 2015; pp. xii + 201, 6 illustrations. $70 cloth, $69.99 e-book.
doi:10.1017/S004055741600051X
Reviewed by Katherine Steele Brokaw, University of California, Merced
“The Method,” the emotional-realist acting paradigm ushered in by
Stanislavsky and perpetuated by Strasberg and his disciples, is derided by theatre
scholars and in popular culture, often in ways that betray little understanding of its
continuing pervasiveness. Cary Mazer’s book argues that, for more than a century,
techniques of emotional realism have inexorably influenced the way actors on both
sides of the Atlantic have approached Shakespearean acting, and the ways audiences
have received it. As such, this phenomenon is worth examining, which Mazer
does in this insightful book. He posits that in emotional-realist acting, the audience
simultaneously experiences the phenomenological realness of the actor and the
fictional reality of the character, creating a “doubleness” (9). Mazer brings the important
voice of a scholar-practitioner to the subject: insights gleaned from his own
work in the theatre spur some of the book’s best arguments. Double Shakespeares
engages with practical books on how to act Shakespeare (e.g., by Cicely Berry),
collections that compile actors’ thoughts on doing Shakespeare (e.g., Jonathan
Holmes’s Merely Players?), and scholarly work on early modern acting (e.g.,
by Tiffany Stern), synthesizing these materials with performance theories, New
Historicist accounts of early modern subjectivity, and theatre histories and fashioning
a wide-ranging exploration of emotional realism’s crucial role in the acting and
interpretation of Shakespeare over the past century.
Chapter 1 gives a prehistory of Stanislavskian emotional realism, detailing
everything from eyewitness accounts of Edmund Kean’s acting to representations
of acting in novels. Mazer argues that the Victorian anxiety about doubleness is
morally judgmental, displaying a concern that actors emote with their “real selves”
too much (35). The second chapter limns twentieth-century discussions of acting
that are more specifically Shakespearean, such as critiques of naturalism by director
John Barton and playwright David Mamet, who respectively emphasize a character’s
reality and the author’s text over an actor’s authority. Mazer points out that
these practitioners “believe that they are completely rejecting (or at least significantly
modifying) Stanislavski while continuing to operate within a paradigm of
emotional realism” (53). Similarly, emotional-realist orthodoxies are far more pervasive
among those who espouse so-called Original Practices—a method prioritizing
the conditions of early modern playacting—than those practitioners admit.
Mazer ends by proposing “Stanislavski 2.0,” based on Declan Donnellen’s notion
of external “targets” (63–4), which allows Shakespearean theatre to be both representational
(in a Brechtian sense) and emotionally grounded.
Analyzing productions like Cheek by Jowl’s As You Like It in Chapter 3,
Mazer suggests that theories of performativity, camp, and queerness potentially
distract from the intrinsic doubleness of performance. Against postmodern critiques
of emotional realism and New Historicism’s skepticism about the
473
Book Reviews
personhood of early modern subjects and characters, Mazer conjectures that it is
possible to represent destabilized early modern dramatic characters using emotional
realism, for example, through actorly cross-dressing or audience interaction. He
posits that such performances may have wide political and social implications,
allowing productions to explore “the way gender, behavior, and identity are
constructed” (84).
Part II of the book looks at narratives of acting. In analyzing films like Stage
Beauty and the television series Slings and Arrows, Mazer argues in Chapter 4 that
films depicting Shakespeare in rehearsal “both enable and neutralize the doubleness
inherent in the actors’ performances,” creating stories of struggling actors
being redeemed as they find their character (95). Such stories of transformation
condition the expectations of practitioners and audiences alike. This chapter
ends with Mazer’s critique of the documentary Shakespeare behind Bars, which
he derides as “pander[ing] to this myth of Shakespearean redemption” (109).
Although all documentaries are artfully constructed, this film is perhaps unfairly
lumped with the fictional material discussed in the chapter; some readers may
not share Mazer’s skepticism as to theatre’s transformative power. The next chapter
looks at the tropes of rehearsal journals and their aesthetic and narratological
agendas: here Mazer is less interested in the “truth” of these accounts than in
the way these narratives get crafted to perpetuate master narratives of actors making
discoveries and being transformed. Mazer ends with his account of dramaturging
Merchant of Venice while he and his wife went through the painful process of
two failed adoptions, one of which was prompted by anti-Semitism. He explains
how personal experience helped him understand and experience Merchant in new
ways while also overdetermining how he crafted his rehearsal journal.
Mazer is most persuasive when close reading productions, as he does in the
two chapters of Part III. Chapter 6 gives a longer history of frame productions,
analyzing the way this format sometimes heightens and sometimes sidesteps questions
of gender, race, and early modern subjectivity. The book’s final chapter looks
closely at three productions: the National Theatre of Scotland’s Macbeth, starring
Alan Cumming and set in a mental ward; the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female
Julius Caesar, starring Harriet Walter and set in a prison; and an all-female production
of Two Gentlemen of Verona that Mazer himself directed at Penn and
set in a gym. He argues that productions like the Macbeth and Caesar tend to
answer questions about the story created for the frame-play characters (e.g., the inmates
in the Donmar Caesar) but that they don’t bring new insight to the
Shakespearean characters. He offers his Two Gents as a model for productions
that focus explicitly on actor–role doubleness. Although he began his production
process thinking he was going to create a Brecht-inspired alienation effect, he realized
that emotional realism was the way to unlock the sexual politics of
Shakespeare’s play and that the “emphatic link that lies at the very center of the
emotional-realist project lies at the heart of Shakespeare’s characters” (181).
The book’s key insight, which I wish had been better foregrounded, is that
empathy—the ability for characters and actors and audiences to understand each
other—is paramount to successful Shakespearean theatre, and that such empathy
is the link between early modern scripts and contemporary performance. That
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he comes to this insight through experience is in and of itself an important
revelation of this thought-provoking book on the practices of today’s
Shakespearean theatre.
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