Performance reconstruction and Spanish golden age drama

"Taking into account the ephemeral nature of performance, this book develops innovative approaches to the reconstruction of historical staging practices through the lens of Spanish classical theater. Vidler emphasizes the need to take into account not only structures of culture, but also the human capacity to manipulate those structures for both individual and group expression. Through a detailed analysis of approaches to space, the body, the stage object, and the spectator in the comedia, it is possible to discern analyzable artifacts that permit us to reconstruct significant aspects of early modern stagings. Furthermore, because it actively engages and intertwines both objective and subjective modes of interpretation, Vidler argues that performance theory itself will be the locus of the next breakthroughs in interpretive studies"-- "Taking into account the ephemeral nature of performance, this book develops innovative approaches to the reconstruction of historical staging practices through the lens of the comedia, Spain's classical theater. While poststructuralism and other theories problematize previous studies, this book argues that an interdisciplinary approach to staging reconstruction produces illuminating conclusions"--