The biennial conference at the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton, Virginia provides an occasion for scholars of texts and of stages to share insights into the
early modern English theater. The 15 essays here are from the 2007 fourth sitting (standing, jumping, dancing, etc) of the conference. The topics include Hamlet's highbrow concept of acting and
theater, watching Shakespeare learn from Marlowe, scatological iconoclasm in Tudor evangelical comedy, early modern English barbers as panders, theatrical flexibility in Patient Grissil, the
implications for the first and second Blackfriars of Skelton's Magnificence and the monastic playing tradition, idolatry and the transformation at the Red Bull Playhouse, Blackfriars staging of
the quick change in Jonson's The Alchemist, something rotten on the stage in Chester, and a brief overview of early modern theatrical practice in the later modern playhouse. Distributed in the
US by Associated University Presses. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
