Humanities Research Centre
Transatlantic Fellowship Award
Final Report Form
APPLICANT DETAILS
Name:
David Coates
Department:
School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
Telephone:
07746 858692
024761 51693
Email:
D.J.Coates@warwick.ac.uk
DETAILS OF AWARD
Title:
Private and Amateur Theatricals in Britain, 1820-1914
Brief outline of Research
Objectives/Activities and Proposed
Outcomes:
First and foremost, I hoped that a Transatlantic Fellowship would allow me to join
my colleagues, Dr. Mary Isbell (University of New Haven) and Dr. Eileen Curley
(Marist College, New York State) to present a curated panel titled ‘The Material
Traces of Nineteenth Century Amateur Theatricals’ at the Nineteenth Century
Studies Association (NCSA) conference in Boston. The NCSA conference was
chosen for our curated panel because it provides RAPPT (Research into Amateur
Performance and Private Theatricals) with the opportunity to move beyond the
boundaries of Theatre and Performance Studies, instead locating our research
firmly in an interdisciplinary environment in the context of the long nineteenth
century. Through this conference we aimed to promote RAPPT and to find an
opportunity to discuss developments for the organisation (rappt.org), including:
a) Ways to develop the network to incorporate those working on ‘the
amateur’ in other disciplines, including work on amateur artists,
architects, dancers, musicians, historians and sportspeople.
b) Further opportunities to allow the organisation to move outside the UK.
c) Plans for the 2016 conference.
d) Plans to advance the rappt.org website and consider ways this website
may engage our existing membership, facilitate discussions, and aid new
scholars working in this field.
During the conference I also hoped to have a meeting with Mary Isbell to discuss
other collaborative projects, including a proposal for an edited collection of essays
on Amateur Theatre in the Nineteenth Century and a funding application for a
larger project, which would include building a database of nineteenth century
amateur performance resources and mapping social networks relating to amateur
theatricals.
While in Boston I intended to meet with Prof. Laurence Senelick to discuss my
research. As one of the world-leading academics in theatre history and
historiography, it was set to be a great privilege to discuss my project at length
with him during my stay. In addition, Prof. Senelick has the largest-known private
collection of theatrical ephemera and had offered to give me access to numerous
materials in his possession.
From Boston, I then hoped to travel to Washington DC where I hoped to make
arrangements to meet with Prof. Frank Hildy at the University of Maryland. Prof.
Hildy has created a database of historic theatres (theatre-finder.org) and has for
some time wanted to meet to discuss the British purpose-built private theatres I
have researched. While in Washington I hoped to create entries for each private
theatre for this database. Prof. Hildy had also offered to arrange access to two
archives on historic theatres (Gene A. Chesley papers and Joan Dillon papers),
had suggested a visit to a purpose-built private theatre constructed in the Garrett
family home in Baltimore, and had asked if I would present a paper at his home
institution during my visit.
Finally, if time and funding allowed, I hoped to undertake additional archival
work from the extensive list of materials housed in US archives which I have
amassed during the four years of my doctoral research. I wanted to see various
materials in the Harvard University Theatre Collections in Boston, in the Folger
Shakespeare Library in Washington, and also hoped to travel to New York to
visit significant collections held in the New York Public Library.
Timescale:
Duration: 2-3 weeks
Proposed Start Date: March
Proposed End Date: April
Actual Start Date: 21st March
Actual End Date: 13th April
Additional Information:
OUTPUTS & OUTCOMES
Have the original objectives of the
TF Project/Activity been achieved?
X Yes (please provide details under the sections below)
 No (please explain)
If applicable, please give details of
any collaborations developed as a
result of this TF award and any
plans to further develop those
collaborations:
Please see below.
If applicable, please give details of
specific research outputs, i.e.
monographs or papers published,
conference presentations given,
etc.:
Please see below.
Please give any additional
information regarding the
outcomes from your TF award (e.g.
personal/professional
development).
The Transatlantic Fellowship Award, received through the Humanities Research
Centre, has helped to fund a hugely productive research trip to Boston, New
York and Washington D.C. which has opened up a whole range of new
opportunities for me to embrace over the course of the final year of my
doctoral programme.
My research trip began in Boston where I spent the first three days doing
archival research in the Harvard Theatre Collections held at the Houghton
Library. I viewed a range of enlightening manuscript materials, including
playbills from the amateur theatricals of Charles Dickens and a scrapbook of
London-based middle-class amateur theatricals compiled by Thomas Francis
Dillon Croker in the mid-nineteenth century. Although archival research wasn’t
the focus of my application, a number of unexpected ouctomes have emerged
from engaging with librarians, archivists, curators and fellow researchers in the
Harvard Theatre Collections and other libraries and archives in the U.S.A.
The reference librarians for the Harvard Theatre Collections, Micah Hoggatt
and Dale Stinchcomb, proved to be a useful resource before my arrival and
warmly welcomed me on my first day at the Houghton Library. They catered to
my every need and introduced me to the acting curator, Susan Pyzynski, who
gave me special permissions to photograph Dillon Croker’s very fragile
scrapbook. All three members of staff will prove useful contacts in the future.
Micah Hoggatt has already been back in touch to encourage me to visit again
by applying for a Harvard Theatre Collections Fellowship and has asked if I
would mentor a Harvard University undergraduate who has started working on
parlour theatricals for her dissertation. I am due to meet this student back in
the UK in the next few months.
Fellow researchers in the theatre collections also proved to be useful future
contacts. I spent an afternoon discussing my research project with the
independent researcher Sharon Skeel, who is currently working on nineteenth
century dance. I also spoke extensively to Prof. Arnold Schmidt from the
California State University who was researching British toy theatres in the
nineteenth century. I have suggested a number of British contacts and archival
resources for Prof. Schmidt, as well as recommending that he joins the Society
for Theatre Research (an organisation for which I sit on the Executive
Committee).
During my first three days in Boston I was also able to arrange a meeting with
one of the world’s most respected theatre historians, Prof. Laurence Senelick
(Tufts University). We discussed my doctoral research and he has made
numerous suggestions for further reading and ideas for material to consult in
US archives during the rest of my trip. As a renowned collector, and as the
owner of the largest known theatre collection in private hands, Prof. Senelick
also agreed to give me access to numerous materials in his possession. He has
already sent images of a playbill mounted on a fan for the 5th Marquis of
Anglesey’s private theatricals at Plas Newydd and ticket designs for Sir Watkin
Williams Wynne’s theatricals at Wynnstay Park in the late eighteenth century.
For the second half of my week in Boston I was a delegate at the Nineteenth
Century Studies Association’s annual conference on the topic of Material
Worlds. I presented a paper titled ‘Amateur Networks, Amateur Celebrities and
an Amateur Repertoire: Reading the Archives of the Canterbury Old Stagers’ as
part of a curated panel with fellow colleagues from RAPPT (Research into
Amateur Performance and Private Theatricals). The aim of this panel was to
recruit new members to RAPPT, specifically those who were working on ‘the
amateur’ in other disciplines, including music, sport and art. This was hugely
successful and as well as speaking to a number of delegates who attended our
session, who now plan to engage with RAPPT, I have made two very useful
contacts for my current research. Rachel Johnson (Northern College of Music)
and Marie Sumnerlott (Georgia State University) are musicologists working on
amateur music in nineteenth century Britain. I look forward to future
exchanges with them about the similarities and differences in the development
of amateur music and amateur theatre in the early-mid nineteenth century and
hope that there may be the possibility of future collaborations.
Unfortunately Eileen Curley had to pull out of the conference at the last minute
due to ill health, which meant that some of our plans had to be put on hold.
However Eileen, Mary and I plan to arrange a meeting on Skype to talk about
the 2016 RAPPT conference, possible publications and further collaborations.
Beyond my own conference panel, I attended a series of papers which
contextualised my research and/or produced ideas to develop my
methodology. Rachel Johnson’s paper (Northern College of Music) on amateur
music societies in Manchester was particularly insightful when considering
alternative methodologies for studying the amateur arts in the period. Anna
Dempsey (University of Massachusetts) delivered a fascinating paper titled
‘Listening to Women’s Scrapbooks…’ which made me think critically about the
scrapbooks compiled by both men and women that I have consulted
throughout my doctoral study. Sabine Chaouche’s paper (New College,
University of Oxford) on the commodity culture of undergraduates at the
University of Oxford in the nineteenth century contextualised my research into
Oxford’s amateur theatricals and the participants’ costumes on and off stage.
Finally, Victoria Mills (University of Cambridge), Maeve O’Riordan (University of
Maynooth) and Mia Ritzenberg (University of California) encouraged me to
think more about fashion and dress and their significance to my own research.
These are only a few of the many engaging and thought-provoking papers I
engaged with during my time at the NCSA conference.
The second week of my fellowship was spent in New York. Although this didn’t
feature as a main aspect of my initial application, it proved to be very
productive. I took the opportunity to do archival research in three significant
collections belonging to the New York Public Library – the Berg, the
Pforzheimer and the Billy Rose. Once again I found some fascinating material to
develop my thesis, including manuscripts from Sir Percy Florence and Lady Jane
Shelley, a scrapbook relating to Pym’s Subscription Theatre and documents
relating to the heavily-criticised upper-class amateur actor, Robert ‘Romeo’
Coates. Once again a series of useful contacts were made during my time in the
archives, including the curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Collections, Annemarie
Van Roessel, and the Curator and Assistant Curator of the Pforzheimer
Collection, Elizabeth Campbell Denlinger and Charles Carter.
The third week of my trip was dedicated to research at the Folger Shakespeare
Library. These archives had significant untapped holdings on private and
amateur theatricals. Located in their collections were: a scrapbook on
metropolitan private theatricals in the early nineteenth century; plays written
specifically for private performances; the outline of a plan to set up a
subscription theatre; numerous scrapbooks containing records of private and
amateur theatricals; photographs and letters relating to Lady Archibald
Campbell’s private performances of As You Like It; sketches from British private
theatricals in Florence; letters written to the costumier Samuel May relating to
amateur theatricals; and the expenses for private theatricals at Windsor Castle.
While the archival research was particularly fruitful, so too were the
conversations with staff at the Folger Shakespeare Library and with fellow
researchers using the reading rooms. The library arranges a daily tea break
where researchers can gather together to discuss the materials they’re working
on. These afternoon sessions proved to be a fantastic opportunity to meet
other scholars, to make important connections and to share knowledge and
experience of using the collections.
Despite my meeting with Prof. Hildy not taking place in Washington due to his
family commitments overseas, ultimately this research trip has allowed me to
discuss my research on a range of platforms and to a variety of people. I have
delivered a formal conference paper to fellow academics; have had informal
discussions over tea, lunch and dinner with scholars from a range of disciplines;
have had formal meetings with world renowned academics; have met curators
and reading room staff at a number of significant collections which I will
undoubtedly need to engage with in the future; and have communicated with a
number of these individuals since returning to the UK. Although I have come
away from the USA with a huge volume of source materials from some of the
most important theatre collections in the world, more importantly I have made
connections with a range of people from across the world. I firmly believe
these connections will help to shape my future career and research long after
my doctoral study has been completed.
Signature
Date:
13.4.2015
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