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This is the last of the books and articles I read as background for the Actresses/Stage tropes podcasts. (I had a bunch of posts lined up -- finished doing the reading a couple weeks ago and recorded the first of the two podcasts last weekend.) Just in time, since I'm flying out tomorrow evening for my Worldcon-related travels.

And speaking of which, I'll be on a panel at Worldcon titled "Sword Lesbians: Discuss". My co-panelists are Christina Orlando (moderator), Ellen Kushner, Em X. Liu, and Samantha Shannon. Here's the panel description:

Although appended to a book discussing theatrical cross-dressing, this catalog presents a contrast in how actual women (of the lower classes) were treated when found or accused of cross-dressing.

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 293 – Our F/Favorite Tropes Part 14a: Actresses and the Stage - transcript

(Originally aired 2024/08/17 - listen here)

Cross-gender play and disguise is rampant on Shakespearean comedies (and, as we have seen in recent material, in early modern drama generally across Europe). There are two ironies to scenarios of female homoeroticism on Shakespeare's stage. One is that among the professional acting companies staging them, all parts--even women romancing women--were played by male actors. But the other irony is that the scenarios of playful, protective, or adventurous gender disguise that audiences clearly loved to see on stage could be viewed very differently when carried out by ordinary women.

I'm sitting here, writing an introduction to a study of women claiming their voice and their place in salons and on stage in a historic setting and the sort of crap they got for being trailblazers. It seems oddly apropos on a day when we (unexpectedly) can envision a woman claiming her voice and her place in the White House and making new history.[1] And we all know the crap she's going to get for taking that trail. But frankly I'm tired of doom-sayers and Debbie Downers. It's even harder to win if you don't act like it's possible.

Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 291 – The Font of Liberty by Elizabeth Porter Birdsall - transcript

(Originally aired 2023/07/20 - listen here)

What it says on the tin.

Did you know that books of jokes and amusing tales were a popular staple of early modern English literature? In addition to published collections, people put together their own, like the one discussed in this article. Although "teller of jokes at private dinners" may not fall in the usual image of dramatic performers, at least this article is vastly redeemed by an anecdote illustrating that ordinary women were wearing mascjuline clothing for active pursuits on occasion.

This takes care of the less pertinent articles in the collection. There's one more article that to post from this collection, but it has enough interesting bits to get its own day.

Interesting, but not pertinent to my present purposes.

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