Amateur Biographies: Attempting to Fill Archival Gaps
Abstract
The biography of nineteenth-century amateur performers defies typical biographical formulae due to the paucity of information available about these performers and their productions. The story of the Lawrence sisters added another layer of challenge: determining how to contextualize an ephemeral art form within the biographical history of two women when one of them left an autobiography that, interestingly, attempts to follow typical biographical structure and yet, upon deeper analysis, only introduces yet more unverifiable knowledge gaps. By acknowledging and analyzing those gaps and the challenges they present, an organic narrative can develop—a narrative which speaks to the complexities of this work and the challenges of telling the lives of those whom history might otherwise neglect. The biography becomes, thus, the story of women whose history is imperfectly recorded and a vehicle for a discussion of a popular art form which does not readily lend itself to being archived, while also providing a narrative of the historiographical and historical possibilities that the past presents through its gaps.
Keywords:
amateur theatricals, amateur theatre, Rita and Alice Lawrence, biographyReferences
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Authors
Eileen Curleyeileencurley@gmail.com
Marist College United States
Eileen Curley - Associate Professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she teaches a wide range of theatre and drama courses. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Theatre History, Theory, and Literature from Indiana University and a B.A. in Theatre from Grinnell College. She has also designed props, scenery, or projections for more than 50 productions in Indiana, New York, and Iowa. She is also the Editor in Chief of USITT’s quarterly journal Theatre Design & Technology. Her current research focuses on nineteenth-century amateur theatricals in the United States and the United Kingdom, although her interests also include classical antiquity, the British Restoration, and theatrical architecture and audiences. Her research on nineteenth-century amateur theatre has appeared in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Popular Entertainment Studies, Theatre Symposium, Performing Arts Resources, and edited collections.
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