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Making One’s Mark in a Pagan and Christian World

Karen B. Stern

in Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity

This chapter examines graffiti associated with the public lives of Jews from Tyre and Asia Minor, showing that they serve as evidence of Jewish participation in public entertainments in the ... More

This chapter examines graffiti associated with the public lives of Jews from Tyre and Asia Minor, showing that they serve as evidence of Jewish participation in public entertainments in the Greco-Roman world. When Jews and their neighbors inscribed graffiti in structures such as theaters and hippodromes, they activated their participation in public spectacles and public life. Numerous examples of public graffiti can be found in theaters and in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, while commercial graffiti exist in the reused Sebasteion and the so-called South Agora, also in Aphrodisias. These markings, the chapter argues, reveal that during periods of burgeoning anti-Jewish legislation and religious polemic, Jews reserved seats for themselves as spectators of public entertainments and drew menorahs where they sold their wares in public markets. They even attest to the presence of Jewish women in commercial settings.Less

Playing the Provinces

Richard Stites

in Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power

This chapter examines the history of theater in the provinces in imperial Russia. It explains that during the imperial period, theater ruled provincial cultural life and reached out to many more ... More

This chapter examines the history of theater in the provinces in imperial Russia. It explains that during the imperial period, theater ruled provincial cultural life and reached out to many more consumers than did literature, classical music, or fine art. The chapter also discusses the transformation of the theater from an elite engine of amusement and enlightenment in the capitals and on rural estates to a network of public entertainment centers open to all in scores of provincial and district towns. It suggests that the network of provincial theaters represented an expansion of public cultural space at the expense of the private sphere.Less

The 1980s: Long Live the President—The President Is Dead!

Vibert C. Cambridge

in Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics of Controlling Creativity

This chapter examines the President Forbes Burnham administration, and how he recognized the importance of public entertainment as a vehicle for the citizenry to let off steam, for diverting ... More

This chapter examines the President Forbes Burnham administration, and how he recognized the importance of public entertainment as a vehicle for the citizenry to let off steam, for diverting attention, for mobilizing the society in times of crisis, and for the promotion of a political regime. Under Burnham's leadership, the state acquired a range of assets with which to execute the panis et circenses tradition. By 1980, the nation's calendar of holidays, festivals, and anniversaries provided the framework on which to organize and influence “entertainments.” After governing the Guyanese society for the first half of the 1980s, the impact of his decisions remained evident throughout the remainder of the decade. The chapter also shows how the 1980s was not a great decade for European classical music in Guyana.Less

Public Spectacles: 1931–1940

Vibert C. Cambridge

in Musical Life in Guyana: History and Politics of Controlling Creativity

This chapter demonstrates how the period between 1931 and 1940 was pervaded with a number of state-funded public entertainments that were organized to celebrate key events in the colony's history, or ... More

This chapter demonstrates how the period between 1931 and 1940 was pervaded with a number of state-funded public entertainments that were organized to celebrate key events in the colony's history, or in British imperial life. The celebrations to mark the Golden and Diamond Jubilees of Queen Victoria established the format for imperial public entertainments in the British Empire, including British Guiana. Special events during this decade included the British Guiana Centenary celebrations (1931), the Centenary of the Abolition of Slavery (1934), Georgetown's Centenary (1937), the Coronation of George VI (1937), and the Centenary of East Indian Immigration to British Guiana (1938). The music associated with these events identified the musical aesthetics of the ruling class, provided a snapshot of what was popular, demonstrated the musical proficiency of Guyanese musicians, and offered an opportunity to appreciate the thrust of contemporary Guyanese creativity.Less

Sex versus Violence in “I, Sister-in-Law” Operas

in Opera and the City: The Politics of Culture in Beijing, 1770–1900

This chapter concentrates on a series of performance scripts about the “sisters-in-law.” “I, Sister-in-Law” operas report the woman's estrangement from her husband, her thwarted attempt to seduce her ... More

This chapter concentrates on a series of performance scripts about the “sisters-in-law.” “I, Sister-in-Law” operas report the woman's estrangement from her husband, her thwarted attempt to seduce her husband's brother, her subsequent adultery with a different lover, and the final retribution inflicted upon the woman for her licentiousness. The plots of these operas developed out of the Water Margin story cycle. Commercial kunju “I, Sister-in-Law” plays have tended to evoke sympathy for the transgressive woman; later pihuang operas sided with the male bravos. Record of the Water Margin, Righteous Hero, and Cuiping Mountain had a formative effect on later performance versions of the plots. The roles performed by the dan actors in Water Margin have traversed a continuum from qing authenticity to comic burlesque. The study of the transformation of the sister-in-law episodes from this story kept currency in public entertainment genres through the end of the imperial era.Less

Singapore’s Cosmopolitan Identity and Its Theatrical Shadow

Catherine Diamond

in Communities of Imagination: Contemporary Southeast Asian Theatres

This chapter studies the formation of Singapore's national identity and how it became central to all cultural activity. Singapore theatre's “coming of age” was demonstrated in the 1980s with the ... More

This chapter studies the formation of Singapore's national identity and how it became central to all cultural activity. Singapore theatre's “coming of age” was demonstrated in the 1980s with the self-reflexive experimental dramas of Stella Kon and Kuo Pao Kun. As Singaporean theatre explored the nature of “Singaporeanness,” its trajectory was regulated by the police force's Public Entertainment Licensing Unit (PELU), which guarded the country's internal security by upholding taboos on discussion of race, religion, sexuality, and politics. The theatre challenges government presuppositions, but rarely adopts a confrontational approach. Playwrights began to distinguish between an “Old Singapore” of the 1990s, in which nearly everything was forbidden, and the “New Singapore,” where no one is sure about the limits of the acceptable.Less