There’s so much to be learned from history, and theatre is no exception. If you’re looking to dive into theatre’s past, the Theatre History Podcast is the perfect place to start.
The Latest
Video
We Begin With Classics: How To Radically Impact the Theater Landscape
Monday 30 March 2026
New York City
Video
A Book Celebration of Late Stage
Theatre, Aging, and the Legacy of Elinor Fuchs
Thursday 19 March 2026
New York City
Video
A Book Celebration of Marc Robinson's American Performance in 1976
Professor Matthew McMahan talks about the importance of understanding comedy’s theatrical history: how it has evolved, what it says about a society, and why the genre shouldn’t be forgotten in the American theatre.
Gaven Trinidad examines the recent exhibition Dance We Must: Treasures from Jacob’s Pillow and wrestles with cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation when it comes to costume design throughout history.
The Theatre History Podcast is proud to partner with Stories from the Eastern West to present the first of a two-part episode on the life and work of revolutionary theatre director Jerzy Grotowski.
Performance and discussion of The Fall by Sister Sylvester
Monday 26 November 2018
New York City
The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in New York City presented the forum A Sit-In at the Library: ’68 Revisited and a performance of The Fall by Sister Sylvester livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Monday 26 November 2018 at 3:15 p.m. PST (Los Angeles) / 5:15 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 6:15 p.m. EST (New York).
The Restoration was an era of theatrical innovation and rebirth in England. It also saw a number of strikingly radical revisions of William Shakespeare's original plays. Dr. Amanda Eubanks Winkler joins us to talk about her work with the Performing Restoration Shakespeare project, which is studying these adaptations and helping to revive them for the stage.
In this week's Theatre History Podcast, Matt DiCintio on the origins of the freak show and its lasting influence on our perceptions of disability, race, and physical difference.
Theatre professor Robert Hubbard writes about Kit Bix’s recent adaptation of Louis Lantz and Oscar Saul’s 1937 play Revolt of the Beavers for the 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival.
Why is Mary Ann Yates the greatest actress you've never heard of? Dr. Elaine McGirr introduces us to this eighteenth-century star and recounts her fascinating career.
How do you depict pregnancy when you're working with an all-male cast? Dr. Sara BT Thiel joins us to discuss this and other issues connected to pregnancy on the Stuart stage.
David Dudley explores the story behind John Cage’s Theater Piece No. 1 and discuses SITI Company’s recent production of it, which was conceived and directed by Anne Bogart.
Could you make it as the manager of a New York City theatre in the 1840s? That's the question that Dr. Robert Davis's game and app Broadway:1849 poses to players. Robert joins us to talk about the rough-and-tumble world of New York's antebellum theatre.
Heather Jeanne Denyer interviews Cameroonian playwright Edouard Elvis Bvouma about the country’s theatrical landscape, touching on topics like the low number of companies that regularly produce work, female artists in the field, and building public interest in the art form. / Dans cet entretien, Heather Jeanne Denyer discute avec le dramaturge camerounais Edouard Elvis Bvouma de la scène théâtrale dans son pays, en abordant des sujets tels que le manque de compagnies, la création par les femmes, ainsi que le développement et l’intérêt du public pour cet art.
Dr. Cobina Gillitt joins the Theatre History Podcast to introduce us to the work of Putu Wijaya and his Teater Mandiri and to explain how modern Indonesian theatre has developed amid the turmoil of its recent history.
Writer Warren Hoffman dives into the history of God of Vengeance, the Yiddish play from 1907 that inspired Paula Vogel's Indecent, and the questions around language and sexuality the play raised and continues to raise.
How has the circus changed from its earliest origins to today? CarlosAlexis Cruz joins us to explain how acrobatics and storytelling have come to replace the big top and the three-ring circus.
How did Black theatre connect with the Civil Rights Movement? Dr. Julie Burrell of Cleveland State University joins the Theatre History Podcast to talk about William B. Branch's one-act play A Medal for Willie and the underappreciated radicalism of theatre in the 1950s.
Playwright Chantal Bilodeau joins us to discuss her essay "Why I'm Breaking Up with Aristotle," and how we need to explore new forms of storytelling in order to create theatre that engages with issues like climate change.
Rediscovering Weimar Operetta with Dr. Kevin Clarke
17 April 2018
Dr. Kevin Clarke of the Operetta Research Center introduces us to Weimar-era operetta, which pushed artistic and social boundaries and is finally enjoying an artistic and scholarly reappraisal after decades of neglect.
Arts educator Hannah Sachs talks about how introducing Theatre of the Oppressed to her students in the Czech Republic helped address xenophobia in the classroom, and slowly began to change the culture of the school for the better.
Dr. Nora Williams joins us to talk about Measure (Still) for Measure, a devised theatre project in the US that revises Shakespeare's infamous "problem play" in order to engage with issues such as sexual consent.
