Parlour conflagrations: science and special effects in manuals for amateur theatricals

The article analyses the special effects advice contained in nineteenth-century guidebooks for amateur theatricals. Most of the guidebooks include instructions for potentially explosive effects while simultaneously steering amateurs away from technologically complex productions. The article thus analyses the guidebooks within commercial theatrical and popular science publishing traditions, arguing that the technological advice is included to appeal to a broader popular science readership as well as theatre patrons who are interested in the technology of the stage. Eileen Curley is an Associate Professor of English and Theatre at Marist College in Poughkeepsie NY. Her current research focuses on women who used amateur theatricals at the turn of the twentieth century to manipulate proscribed gender roles and gain public power through performance. She has worked on more than fifty shows at academic and professional venues in New York, Iowa and Indiana, primarily as a designer or props master. Her research has appeared in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Theatre Symposium, Performing Arts Resources, and in edited collections.