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This chapter argues that the physical presence of stage props in Renaissance playhouses encouraged a different way of thinking about economic circulation than did mercantile treatises. Specifically, the chapter reads attempts to frame royal finance in mercantile treatises against the staging of court economics in Philip Massinger's The Emperor of the East. Massinger's play works through questions about royal finance similar to those of treatises by Thomas Milles, Gerard Malynes, Thomas Mun, and Edward Misselden. Rather than championing one particular model of royal finance, however, The Emperor of the East continually draws attention to activities that are not accounted for in a succession of models. In the first three acts, characters voice competing descriptions of the transactions that take place in the court. The limits of each of these models are revealed in the last two acts with the introduction of an apple that circulates among the play's main characters, with each one understanding it according to a different frame. The tension between the materiality of the prop apple in the playhouse and the narratives by which it is described onstage suggests the reciprocal relationship between discourse and systems of exchange -- between ‘economics’ and ‘economies.’

This chapter provides a survey of Cantonese opera, its connection to other genres of Chinese opera, its music, repertoire, vocal style, accompanying instruments, etc. Because the performance practice changed over time, this chapter draws from a wealth of primary and secondary documents to offer a working knowledge of Cantonese opera as it was practiced in North American during the 1920s. Over 1000 Chinese playbills from San Francisco, New York City, Vancouver, Seattle and Havana between 1917 and 1929 provide the foundation for understanding the popular repertoire during the time. In addition, commentaries in Chinese newspapers, as well as memoirs and oral histories from veteran performers reveal much about the historical performance practice. Taken together, these resources form the basis of an understanding of the Cantonese opera in this period ranging from the increased usage of stage backdrops and stage props, a gradual shift of popular role types and vocal styles, and popular novel repertoire types. A reflection on the significance of daily opera playbill closes the chapter.

This chapter argues that the social life of “spectacular” maps contributed to the creation of the American public sphere between 1750 and 1860. Recovering the way in which materially overdetermined maps—that is, wall maps whose representational contents were enhanced or qualified by their visual design and material heft—stood out from the vast array of printed texts, it shows how wall maps became public spectacles. Marshalling inventories, public documents, and visual evidence, the chapter documents map placements inside architectural landscapes that included lecture halls, museums, and the meeting rooms of religious or reform societies. Frequently staged as theatrical props, large maps reconfigured the public sphere as a social space where public expressions of reason and passion became predicated on the spectacle of cartographic representation, with maps providing implicit or explicit support (or withholding it) during performances that ranged from political speeches and educational meetings to ballroom dances and art exhibitions.

By 1926, the Great China Theater in Seattle boasted a cast of performers from the top tier of the Cantonese opera profession, and performed different operas daily all year long without breaks. A roster of key professionals, such as playwrights, musicians, and scene painters, took up residence at the theater. The stage designs and theatrical spectacle grew bolder and grander, showing influences from other entertainment; a record label of Cantonese opera was started. The opera culture also bore fruit in the younger generation, as seen in the increased participation of native-born Chinese Americans. This chapter describes the ways in which the Great China Theater played an important role in that community until the end of the decade, when motion pictures and other forms of entertainment eroded opera’s popular appeal.