8 articles in this issue
Mary Luckhurst,Sandra Mayer
Theatre, with its focus on live performance and the particular interest it places on the performer as creative agent, undoubtedly brings a distinctive set of enriching perspectives to the field of persona studies, which has often acknowledged its debt to ... see more
PETER HOLLAND
This article explores a number of perspectives on the creation of very different Shakespeares as personas by first examining the celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 2016 and Shake, Mr Shakespeare, a remarkable... see more
SOPHIE DUNCAN
Dame Judi Dench’s twenty-first-century theatrical career has defied the expectation that her performance as the Countess in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2003 All’s Well That Ends Well would signal the culmination and conclusion of her stage acting care... see more
SANDRA MAYER
This article examines the fashioning of the authorial persona of British playwright, screenwriter, and director David Hare through autobiographically inflected extra-theatrical interventions. Both exploratory and explanatory companion pieces that frame hi... see more
MARY LUCKHURST
This essay examines the work of stand-up performer Hannah Gadsby in relation to persona, extending the conventional reach of persona studies to the realm of live performance and comedy. The author analyses Hannah Gadsby’s risky decision to kill off her wi... see more
MATT HARGRAVE
This article addresses the subject of stand-up and mental health through the prism of comic persona, generating new, non-diagnostic discourses around mental illness. The article focuses on British and Australian comedians whose material addresses conditio... see more
EMILY COLLETT
This essay considers the archived costume in relation to the concept of the celebrity performer’s persona. It takes as its case study the Shakespearean costume of Indigenous actress Deborah Mailman, housed in the Australian Performing Arts Collection. It ... see more
KIRSTY SEDGMAN
This article proposes a definition and terminology for identifying and analysing a concept of institutional persona in relation to theatre. The essay posits the theatre institution as an example of a ‘composite persona’, whereby cultural value is produced... see more