Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States

An Actor's Tale: Theater, Culture, and Everyday Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Hughes, Amy E.

Hardcover

Theater HistoryPlaywriting

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ISBN10: 0472077686
ISBN13: 9780472077687
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: Sep 24 2025
Pages: 246
Weight: 0.92
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.10
Language: English
Harry Watkins was no one special. During a career that spanned four decades, this nineteenth-century actor yearned for fame but merely skirted the edges of it. He performed alongside the brightest stars, wrote scores of plays, and toured the United States and England, but he never became a household name. Inspired by this average performer's life and labor, An Actor's Tale offers an alternative history of nineteenth-century theater, focusing on the daily rhythms and routines of theatrical life rather than the celebrated people, plays, and exceptional events that tend to dominate histories of US theater and performance. In the process, Hughes asks uncomfortable questions about the existence, predominance, and erasure of White male mediocrity in US culture, both in the past and present. When historians focus only on performers and plays with artistic merit, what communities, perspectives, and cultural trends remain invisible? How did men like Watkins advance themselves professionally, despite their mediocrity? Why did men like Watkins embrace and perpetuate myths like the American Dream, the self-made man, and meritocracy, and how have these ideals shaped casting, producing, and celebrity worship in today's US entertainment industry?

Ultimately, Hughes reveals how this actor's tale illuminates the widespread tendency to ignore, deny, and forgive White male mediocrity in US culture, and how a deeper understanding of people like Watkins can transform our understanding of the past--and our understanding of ourselves.

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