Renaissance Women’s Performance and the Dramatic Canon: Theater History, Evidence, and Narratives

This introduction to the special issue, ‘Renaissance Women’s Performance and the Dramatic Canon’, sets out and places in context the concerns with which the remaining essays engage. Opening by discussing uses of the term ‘actress’ by Thomas Kyd, Lording Barry and Philip Massinger, it describes the special issue’s engagement with the work of Natasha Korda, Robert Henke, Rachel Poulsen and others. It argues that criticism of the canonical drama of the professional stage should not overlook women’s performance, suggesting that by doing so scholarship will gain an increased understanding of the ways in which commercial plays responded to an important aspect of theatrical culture.