European Theatre Migrants in the Age of Empire Personal Experiences, Transnational Trajectories, and Socio-Political Impacts

This open access volume explores the crucial yet insufficiently addressed phenomenon of European theatre migration in the long nineteenth century. It argues that theatre migration went far beyond the popular phenomenon of touring, significantly shaping the historical discourse on theatre and mobility. The hidden and multifaceted histories of European theatre migration that this book seeks to explore allow us to rethink national theatre histories as histories of mobility, entanglements, and negotiations. They also allow the reader to challenge and to decenter a European self-understanding of insularity and a European cosmopolitanism ignorant of its imperial and colonial roots.

INTRODUCTION (Berenika Szymanski-Düll, Lisa Skwirblies, LMU Munich, Germany).-PART I: MIGRATION TRAJECTORIES AND TRANSNATIONAL LIFEWORLDS.- Chapter 1: Who is a “theatre migrant”? (Berenika Szymanski-Düll, LMU Munich, Germany).-Chapter 2: “Russia in Paris and Theatre Laws in Transylvania – On Migration, Mobility and Transnational Female Theatre Historiography” (Martina Groß, University of Hildesheim, Germany).-Chapter 3: “The Times and Toils of Moyshe Hurwitz” (Ruthie Abeliovich, University of Haifa, Israel).-Chapter 4: “Travelling Along ‘Untrodden Tracts’: Joachim Stocqueler and the Making of Early Colonial Theatre in India” (Priyanka Basu, King’s College London, UK).-PART II: SETTLER IMPERIALISM AND HOMES ABROAD.-Chapter 5: “From Cape Workers and Carriers of Culture: Migration, Citizenship, and Race in the German Empire” (Lisa Skwirblies, LMU Munich, Germany).-Chapter 6: “Icelandic ‘Divas’ in North America” (Magnus Thorbergsson, University of Iceland, Iceland).-Chapter 7: “Actor Migration from Britain to Australia” (Jim Davis, University of Warwick, UK).-PART III: IMAGINED COMMUNITIES AND MIGRATORY NETWORKS.-Chapter 8: “Polishness Through Otherness: How Polish Migrant Artists in the Nineteenth Century Created Polish National Imaginary?” (Kasia Lech, University of Amsterdam, NL).- Chapter 9: “Migration and National Theatre in Argentina (1870-1890): From Multicultural Complexities to Theatre Networks” (Vanesa Cotroneo, LMU Munich, Germany).-Chapter 10: “Agents of the State? Migration Networks of Theatre Professionals and their Role in the Habsburgian Expansion to the East“ (Jorit Jens Hopp, LMU Munich, Germany).-PART IV: AESTHETIC ENTANGLEMENTS AND SPACES OF NEGOTIATION.-Chapter 11: “An Italian, a Texan and a Scot walk into a pathshala: Migration and Circus Narratives in South Asia” (Anirban Ghosh, Shiv Nadar University, India).-Chapter 12: “Transnationality as an Advantage or a Hindrance for a Theatre Career? Swedish Actors in Finland during the Struggle for National Independence” (Rikard Hoogland, University of Stockholm, Sweden).-Chapter 13: “Theatre Migrants in the Habsburg Monarchy - A Contribution to the Transnational Expansion of German-speaking Theatre in the 19th Century” (Danijela Weber-Kapusta, LMU Munich, Germany).-Chapter 14: “From Barcelona to Buenos Aires and Beyond: The Millanes Sisters as Theater Migrants, 1880-1920” (Kristen McCleary, James Madison University, USA).

Berenika Szymanski-Düll is Professor in Theatre Studies with a focus on transnational theatre history at LMU Munich, Germany, and leads the research project T-MIGRANTS funded by the European Research Council. She is also the editor of the peer-reviewed journal Forum Modernes Theater. Berenika’s research is characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach and situated at the crossroads of theatre, history and society. Recent publications include Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War (2017), and Methoden der Theaterwissenschaft (2020), both co-edited with Christopher Balme.

Lisa Skwirblies is Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC project T-Migrants at the LMU Munich. Her research focusses on postcolonial and decolonial approaches towards theatre historiography. Recent publications include Theaterwissenschaft postkolonial/dekolonial (transcript 2022, co-edited with Azadeh Sharifi) and 'Colonial Theatrical' in the Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance (2020, edited by Gluhovic et al.).