| FT-53632-05 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Lauren Reynolds Clay | Theater and the Commercialization of Culture in France and the Colonies, 1680-1789 | 5/1/2005 - 7/31/2005 | $5,000.00 | Lauren | Reynolds | Clay | | | | Texas A & M University, College Station | College Station | TX | 77843-0001 | USA | 2005 | European History | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 5000 | 0 | 5000 | 0 |
Between 1680 and 1789, at least seventy French cities inaugurated their first municipal playhouse, and more than a dozen engaged resident theater companies. My book manuscript examines the rapid expansion of professional theater in eighteenth-century France, when provincial and colonial cities embraced the performing arts as a central aspect of urban culture. I address why and how this investment in cultural life took place, as well as the consequences for audiences, governing elites, and actors. The successful expansion of theater outside of Paris, I argue, involved a transition from a culture of patronage to a modern commercial culture. |