Bringing History to Life

Published Articles and Book Chapters

  • On February 14, 1870 there were six Hamlets playing in New York City. Spurred by the success of Edwin Booth’s production, Hamlet burlesques were played from Broadway to the Bowery. Clown George L. Fox’s success as Hamlet was “attributed first to the popularity of Booth’s Hamlet.” But this essay will also demonstrate that Booth’s success as Hamlet was simultaneously signaled by Fox’s parody.

  • As the leading actress of Augustin Daly’s theatre company, Ada Rehan (1857–1916) was the most popular American actress of the late nineteenth century. Her performances charmed audiences and critics in both the United States and Europe. She was celebrated for her comic versatility, as she shone in everything from contemporary drawing-room comedies and farces, to eighteenth-century comedies of manners, to Shakespearean comedies, particularly Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. The late nineteenth century featured four renowned international actresses: Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and Ada Rehan. Yet, today, Rehan has disappeared from this litany. The three European actresses continue to be enshrined for their contributions to the art of theatre, but Rehan has gone missing. This chapter seeks to discover why Ada Rehan vanished from the ranks of the great actresses of the late nineteenth century.

  • In this article, I examine three of the major Shakesfears stimulating the Play on! controversy and place those anxieties in historical context to demonstrate how these concerns have fueled the Shakespeare industry since the Restoration.

  • William Winter (1836-1917) was the most influential American theatre critic in the late nineteenth century. In this article I demonstrate that in the many tasks Winter performed for Augustin Daly’s Theatre in the 1880s and ’90s, he fulfilled the roles of literary manager and production dramaturg. I argue that through his dramaturgical labor, Winter contributed materially to the repertory, casting, staging, and editing of plays for Daly’s Theatre and should therefore be considered one of the first dramaturgs in the United States.

  • In 1866 amateur scholar Horace Howard Furness began work on a new American edition of Shakespeare which he designed to be the ultimate resource for all students of the plays. Unlike most of his predecessors, contemporaries and successors, Furness integrated the history of theatrical production with that of textual editing and criticism. In this article, I argue that Furness’s serious treatment of textual choices by actors and producers and critical writings by and about actors anticipated the shift in editorial theory in the mid-twentieth century which admitted stage practice as valid scholarly material.

  • Hamlet’s iconic pose, pondering the skull of Yorick, has become synonymous with the role. The contemplation of this inanimate object, this prop, has become the ultimate symbol of human mortality. And yet, while we are readily able to identify the Hamlet in each image, few people consider the identity of Hamlet’s co-star in the scene. No one asks: “Who or what is Yorick?”

    This article chronicles the mysterious history of one skull which “appeared again” as Yorick for many nineteenth-century actors and audiences.

  • Director Bill Rauch's choice to casr deaf actor Howie seago as the elder Hamlet in his 2010 production of Hontletat the oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was an inregral part of his vision for the play, to emphasize the themes of hearing, listening, and eavesdropping.

    The place beyond spoken language is where Seago's translations reside: in a language that marries the textual, the verbal, the emotional, and the gestural. In creating his interpretation of this role, Seago reinscribed Shakespeare, transforming written text to physical expression. Through this process he creates what I am calling kinetic textuality.

  • Columbia’s Roll Call, a patriotic pageant that traced the history of the United States, was first produced on February 8, 1892 at the biracial Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. Hampton, dedicated to the education of both black and native Americans, was driven by a pedagogical goal of assimilation. Hampton students were trained to become selfsufficient Christian workers. The pageant was the centerpiece of the annual commemoration of “Indian Day” at the school. This particular “Indian day” also marked the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery” of America. Compiled by teacher Helen Ludlow, the pageant was a purposefully crafted narrative of the past, the present, and the future of the United States.

Lectures and Invited Talks

“Edwin Booth's Quest to Solve the Hamlet Problem.” UNLV Opera Theatre Hamlet Festival. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. May 3, 2017. 

“Capturing Shakespearean Performance in Print: The Edwin Booth Prompt Books.” First Folio Colloquium. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. September 20, 2016.

“‘There was a star danced’: Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing and Female Celebrity.” University Forum Lecture Series. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. September 30, 2015.

“‘Speak Scholarly and Wisely’: William Winter and the Nineteenth-Century Stage.” Folger Shakespeare Library Fellows Speaker Series. July 18, 2014.

See Lezlie speak at the First Folio Colloquium

Editorial Experience

Advisory Board Member, Shakespeare and Social Justice Series from Arden Bloomsbury, 2020-present.

Editorial Board Member, LMDA Review, 2022-present.

Co-editor. “The Embodied Arts.” The Journal of American Drama and Theatre. 2019.

Article Reviews: Review, 2022 and 2023; Theatre Topics, 2019; Journal of American Drama and Theatre, 2019; Theatre History Studies, 2019.

Monograph Reviews: University Press of Colorado, 2023; Arden Bloomsbury, 2022; Open Book Publishers, 2019.

Book Reviews

Shakespeare’s Guide to Hope, Life, and Learning by Lisa Dickson, Shannon Murray and Jessica Riddell. International Journal of Education and the Arts. (Forthcoming)

Edwin Booth: A Biography and Performance History. By Arthur W. Bloom and American Tragedian: The Life of Edwin Booth. By Daniel J. Watermeier. Theatre Survey. 57.2. (May 2015)

Women on Southern Stages, 1800-1865: Performance, Gender, and Identity in a Golden Age of American Theater by Robin O. Warren. Theatre Annual. 71 (2018)

Conference Presentations

Panelist. “New Paths & Methods: The Crossroads of Translation at Play On Shakespeare.” Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of America. Kansas City, KS. June, 2024.

“Tony Pastor’s Shakespeare Burlesques.” Seminar: Writing Like Shakespeare. Shakespeare Association of America. Portland, OR. April 2024.

“Mutable Hamlet: The Chaotic History of Edwin Booth’s Theatrical Editions.” Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing. Online International Conference. June 2023.

Panelist. Roundtable Session “Household Critics” (sponsored by the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies). Renaissance Society of America. San Juan, PR. March 2023.

“The Sign of a Revolution.” Mid-America Theatre Conference. Cleveland, OH. March 2022.

#"Playing with the Players: Traditional Repertory, Untraditional Casting." Seminar: Playing in Rep. Shakespeare Association of America. Denver, CO. April, 2020. Conference cancelled due to COVID-19.

“Cast Off the Shackles of Yesterday:” Shakespeare’s Beatrice on the Nineteenth Century Stage.” Mid-America Theatre Conference. Chicago, IL. March 2020.

“Inventing the World of the Play: Theorizing about Theatrical Readers.” Paper Presentation. Mid-America Theatre Conference. Cleveland, OH. March 2019.

“Spinning the Idea of ‘Shakespeare’ in Eighteenth Century Acting Editions.” Paper Presentation. Mid-America Theatre Conference. Milwaukee, MN. March 2018.

“The d/Deaf Body on Stage: Shakespeare in American Sign Language.” Curator and Moderator. Curated Panel. American Society for Theatre Research Conference. Atlanta, GA. November 2017.

“A Natural Woman: A Definitional and Historiographical Problem.” Paper Presentation. Mid-America Theatre Conference. Houston, TX. March 2017.

“Mimesis and Alterity: Richard Hotaling and the Edwin Booth Prompt Books.” Working Group: Amateur Acts. American Society for Theatre Research Conference. Minneapolis, MN. November 2016.

“Play On! Labor and Controversy in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Shakespeare Translation Project.” Panel Member. Association for Theater in Higher Education. Chicago, IL. August 2016.

“Shakesfear: ‘Translating’ Shakespeare for Stage Production.” Seminar: The Shakespearean Text and Contemporary Performance. Shakespeare Association of America. New Orleans, LA. March 2016.

“A Multiplicity of Texts: Edwin Booth and Richard III.” Paper Presentation. Mid-America Theatre Conference. Minneapolis, MN. March 2016.

“Supporting the Union: Two Theatrical Benefits for the Sanitary Commission.” Working Group: “For the Benefit of”: The Stakes of Theatrical Benefits as Social Activism. American Society for Theatre Research Conference. Portland, OR. November 2015.

“‘For the Benefit of’: The Stakes of Theatrical Benefits as Social Activism.” Co-convener. Working Group. American Society for Theatre Research Conference. Portland, OR. November 2015.

“Something New: The Moving Company’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.” Paper Presentation. Shakespearean Theatre Conference. Stratford, ON. June 2015.

“Remediating the Nineteenth-Century Theatre: Augustin Daly’s Promotion of Shakespeare.” Seminar: Re-Mediating Shakespeare. Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Vancouver, BC. April 2015.

“Inspired by the Past: The Aesthetics of Augustin Daly’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Paper Presentation. Mid-America Theatre Conference. Kansas City, MO. March 2015.

“Surviving and Thriving During the Dissertation.” Convener. Career Session. American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Baltimore, MD. November 2014.

“Revising ‘The Savage Child’: The Indian Princess at the Rapid City Indian School.” Paper Presentation. Mid-American Theatre Conference. Cleveland, OH. March 2014.

“Sweating the Small Stuff: Shared Lines in Shakespeare.” Working Group: Shakespeare in Performance. American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Dallas, TX. November 2013.

“Inscribing the Intellectual Myth: Edwin Booth’s Othello.” Paper Presentation. Mid-American Theatre Conference. St. Louis, MO. March 2013.

“‘Has this thing appeared again?’: The History of an American Yorick.” Articles in Progress Workshop. Mid-American Theatre Conference. St. Louis, MO. March 2013.

“‘I Knew Him’: The History of an American Yorick.” Working Group: Objects and Things: The Histories of Theatrical Actants. American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Nashville, TN. November 2012.

“Go West Young Bard: Shakespearean Pioneers in the American West.” Seminar: Voluntary Sector Shakespeare. Shakespeare Association of America Conference, Boston, MA. April 2012.

“Working it: Garrick and the Creation of Celebrity Branding.” Paper Presentation. Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, IL. March 2012.

“A ‘divine’ economy: Sarah Bernhardt in Seattle.” Working Group: Economies of Popular Entertainment. American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Toronto, ON. November 2011.

“"Nor wink, Nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign…": deaf performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.” Paper Presentation. Blackfriars Conference, Staunton, VA. October 2011.

“A Return to a Player’s Text?: Actors, Editors and the Plays of Shakespeare.” Paper Presentation. The Society for Textual Scholarship Conference, State College, PA. March 2011.