Theatre History Podcast # 3
Eric Swanson Discusses New Musical Edwin: The Story of Edwin Booth
One of the main reasons that theatre's so thrilling and vital is that, unlike movies or TV shows, it involves a live performance that happens right before our eyes. However, that same quality also makes it almost impossible to recapture that live experience, and it can make studying the history of the theatre difficult.
This podcast will try to help listeners understand and learn more about theatre history across a myriad of time periods and cultures. It features interviews with academics, artists, and others who are working to rediscover forgotten stories from the theatrical past and to create new art and scholarship from them.
Edwin Booth is a well-known figure among theatre historians, but he’s been virtually forgotten by everyone else, thanks to the actions of his brother, John Wilkes Booth. Playwright and librettist Eric Swanson and composer Marianna Rosett are hoping to change that with their new musical, Edwin: The Story of Edwin Booth. In this episode, Eric discusses Booth’s life and how he and Rosett have chosen to portray that life onstage.
Links:
- Find more material related to Edwin Booth from the New York Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Harvard Theatre Collection.
- Learn more about the show and Great Circle Productions here.
- Additional articles about Edwin here and here.
- Learn more about Eric Swanson and his work here.
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