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• Starring Women: Celebrity, Patriarchy, And American Theater, 1790-1850 by Sara E. Lampert
• J. K. Curry

The development of the star system and expansion of theatrical markets in the early nineteenth-century United States provided a new economic opportunity for a number of performers drawn from the London stage and elsewhere in Europe. Demand for itinerant stars grew to the point that homegrown talent also found an opening. In Starring Women: Celebrity, Patriarchy, and American Theater, 1790-1850, Sara E. Lampert focuses her attention on the women who booked starring engagements in this period. Like their male counterparts, women were drawn to itinerant starring in pursuit of potential rewards, including high income, enhanced reputations, and greater control of their repertoire. However, women faced significant challenges to succeeding in this arena.

Beyond considering the difficulties starring women faced in negotiating contracts with male managers or maintaining the approval of male critics, Lampert argues the experiences of starring women illuminate the patriarchal organization of the US in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The circumstances of individual female performers varied, but their careers were impacted by issues unlikely to affect male stars, including the hardship of traveling as an unmarried woman or expectations that a father or husband would control business arrangements. Further, Lampert explores the ways starring women navigated an emerging celebrity culture and participated in the creation of a new middle-class and female theatre audience. Both as stars and audience members, women's activities were informed by the respectability politics of the day, with starring women helping make contested theatre spaces more hospitable to a certain class of white female spectator. At the same time, starring women, especially during the 1820s and '30s, embodied the contradictions of being women with high visibility careers while serving as champions of an ideal of domestic femininity. Female celebrities attempted to maintain a suitable public image within narrow bounds of respectability, with serious risk of suffering career damage from malicious gossip or exposure of their private lives.

Starring Women's organization is thematic and roughly chronological. Chapter 1, "Between Stock and Star: Theater and Touring in the United States, 1790-1830," considers the career strategies of several women, including Anne Brunton Merry, Agnes Holman, Lydia Kelly, Clara Fisher, and Mary Ann Duff, [End Page 584] who attempted starring engagements during the years when this professional opportunity was just opening up. These actresses faced various challenges such as disapproval from critics when choosing to perform roles in genres outside of the "legitimate" drama, including, in Kelly's case, breeches roles in melodramatic spectacles. Women's opportunities to enjoy career independence through itinerant starring could also be constrained by family obligations and social expectations that business matters would be handled by men, as detailed in chapter 2, "(Dis) Obedient Daughters and Devoted Wives: The Family Politics of Stock and Star." The implications for starring as a daughter or single, married, or widowed adult are examined via the experiences of Mary Rock, Ellen Johnson Hilson, Frances Denny Drake, and Elizabeth Blanchard Hamblin, along with Fisher and Holman.

An extended examination of the adulation and subsequent vilification of a single touring star is the subject of chapter 3, "The Promise and Limits of Female Stage Celebrity: Fanny Kemble in America, 1832-1835." The appearance on US stages of members of the leading London theatre family was a source of great excitement when Fanny Kemble first arrived in New York with her father Charles. Lampert notes that "during a period of fierce contestation over the terms of women's engagement with public life" (84), Kemble had the potential to appeal to genteel white women and elevate the stage through both her artistry and personal character. However, the publication of Kemble's journal, with leaked pages first appearing in print in January 1835, led to a swift backlash against the writer due to both the perceived Trollopesque critique of her US hosts and the revelation of private thoughts at odds with a carefully cultivated public persona as starring...

 校订者：

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  主演女性：名人、父权制和美国剧院，1790-1850 年，萨拉·兰珀特 （Sara E. Lampert）
•  JK 库里

19 世纪初美国明星系统的发展和戏剧市场的扩张为来自伦敦舞台和欧洲其他地方的许多表演者提供了新的经济机会。对巡回演出明星的需求增长到本土人才也找到了机会。在《主演女性：名人、父权制和美国戏剧，1790-1850 年》中，萨拉·兰珀特 （Sara E. Lampert） 将注意力集中在这一时期预订主演活动的女性身上。与男性同行一样，女性被吸引到巡回主演中，以追求潜在的回报，包括高收入、提高声誉和更好地控制自己的剧目。然而，女性要在这个领域取得成功，面临着重大挑战。

除了考虑女性主演在与男性经理谈判合同或维持男性评论家的认可时面临的困难之外，兰珀特还认为，女性主演的经历阐明了 18 世纪末和 19 世纪美国的父权组织。女性表演者个体的情况各不相同，但她们的职业生涯受到不太可能影响男明星的问题的影响，包括作为未婚女性旅行的困难，或者期望父亲或丈夫会控制商业安排。此外，兰珀特还探讨了由女性主演主导的新兴名人文化如何驾驭，并参与创造新的中产阶级和女性戏剧观众。作为明星和观众，女性的活动都受到当时体面政治的影响，由女性主演帮助使有争议的剧院空间更友好地接待特定类别的白人女性观众。与此同时，由女性主演的电影，尤其是在 1820 年代和 30 年代，体现了作为女性在职业生涯中拥有高知名度的矛盾，同时又是国内女性气质理想的拥护者。女明星试图在受人尊敬的狭窄范围内维护合适的公众形象，冒着因恶意流言或私生活曝光而遭受职业损害的严重风险。

Starring Women's organization 是主题性的，大致按时间顺序排列。第 1 章“在股票与明星之间：1790-1830 年在美国的剧院和巡演”，考虑了几位女性的职业策略，包括安妮·布伦顿·梅里、艾格尼丝·霍尔曼、莉迪亚·凯利、克拉拉·费舍尔和玛丽·安·达芙，[完第 584 页]，她们在这个职业机会刚刚开放的那些年里试图主演。这些女演员面临着各种挑战，例如在选择在“合法”戏剧以外的类型中扮演角色时遭到评论家的反对，包括在凯利的情况下，在情节剧中扮演马裤角色。女性通过巡回主演享受职业独立的机会也可能受到家庭义务和社会期望的限制，即商业事务将由男性处理，如第 2 章“（Dis） 听话的女儿和忠诚的妻子：股票和明星的家庭政治”中所述。通过玛丽·洛克、艾伦·约翰逊·希尔森、弗朗西斯·丹尼·德雷克和伊丽莎白·布兰查德·汉布林以及费舍尔和霍尔曼的经历，研究了出演女儿或单身、已婚或丧偶成人的影响。

第 3 章“女性舞台名人的承诺和限制：范妮·肯布尔在美国，1832-1835 年”的主题是对单个巡演明星的奉承和随后的诋毁的深入研究。当 Fanny Kemble 与她的父亲 Charles 第一次来到纽约时，伦敦著名戏剧家族的成员在美国舞台上的亮相令人非常兴奋。兰珀特指出，“在关于女性参与公共生活的条件的激烈争论时期”（84），肯布尔有可能吸引上流社会的白人女性，并通过她的艺术和个人品格提升舞台。然而，肯布尔的日记于 1835 年 1 月首次出版，泄露的页面首次出现在印刷品上，导致对这位作家的迅速反弹，因为她对美国东道主的特罗洛普式批评被认为是特罗洛普式的批评，以及私人想法与精心培养的公众形象不一致的揭露......