International academic arenas: shaping Shakespeare and his contemporaries at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and the Blackfriars Playhouse

<p dir="ltr">This thesis examines the interrelationship between two indoor reconstructed theatres: the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London, UK and the Blackfriars Playhouse in Virginia, USA. It is divided into two sections: the history of the sites and their genesis figures – Sam Wanamaker and Ralph Alan Cohen and how the spaces function today as academic arenas and performance venues. I critique how the sites continue to shape and reshape their image through the marketing of their productions and the wider discourses and practices surrounding the spaces themselves.</p><p dir="ltr">The final chapter examines the playhouses’ responses to Covid-19, and the pandemic’s impact on their theatrical and educational output. Previous scholarship on the sites focuses on them in isolation and is traditionally carried out by affiliated scholars. Using a performance studies framework, I analyse the academic and professional dialogue between the sites, its origins, and the impact it has on the continued development of the institutions.</p><p dir="ltr">The study is supported by a mixture of archival research, interviews, and performance critique. I identify a trio of frictions between the artistic, the academic and the commercial and discuss the way these tensions continue to construct and develop two successful institutions driven by reconstruction. I argue that examining the theatres together enables a greater understanding of their continuing contributions to reconstructed theatre and performance.</p>