OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHIC ENTRY
“Commedia dell’Arte,” In Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation. EIC Margaret King. NY: OUP, 2023-01-12. Oxford Bibliographies@oup.com
BOOKS
Flaminio Scala, THE FAKE HUSBAND EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY ROSALIND KERR
The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: the Toronto Series, 75
Iter Press, 2020
English translation of a fully scripted dramatic work by the actor, theater manager, and playwright Flaminio Scala, based on his earlier scenario “The Husband,” and featuring a lesbian marriage. The first actor/manager to publish commedia scenarios, Scala here translates the spontaneity of commedia dell’arte into a replicable theatrical document.
ISBN : 978086698628
Reviews of The Fake Husband
Renaissance Quarterly, LXXV, no.4: 1417-1419.
Renaissance and Reformation 45,3 (2020) 359-361.
EMW Vol 17 no 1, Fall 2022: 180-183.
THE RISE OF THE DIVA ON THE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE STAGE
University of Toronto Press 2015
This examination of the emergence of the professional actress from the 1560s onwards treats the revolutionary effects that occurred when the first female performers appeared on the western European stage. Tracing the historical progress of actresses from their earliest appearances as sideshow attractions to revered divas, it explores the ways in which actresses commodified their sexual and cultural appeal. Newly translated archival material, iconographic evidence, literary texts, and theatrical scripts provide a rich repertoire through which demonstrates how the actresses skillfully improvised roles such as the maidservant, the prima donna, and the transvestite heroine. Following the careers of early stars such as Flaminia of Rome, Vincenza Armani, Vittoria Piissimi, and Isabella Andreini, it shows how their fame arose from the combination of dazzling technical mastery and eloquent powers of persuasion.
ISBN 9781442649118
Reviews of Diva
Early Modern Women Journal, vol. 11, no.1 (Fall 2016): 234-236.
Renaissance Quarterly, LXIX, no.4: 1550-1552.
Theatre Survey, 58.1 (January 2017): 108-111;
Quaderni d’Italianistica, 37.2 (2016): 244-246.)
Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English, vol. 7
Edited by Rosalind Kerr
“While the material presented in these articles may appear to be too diverse to allow us to come to any conclusion as to where Canadian English queer theatre is today, I hope that I have at least set out a path to follow from those first gay liberation plays to the complex interrogations of the intersections of sexualities and nationalities which seem to inform so much of the work.”
—from the Introduction by Rosalind Kerr
Contributors:
Judith R. Anderson ~ David Bateman ~ Susan Bennett ~ Susan Billingham ~ Marcia Blumberg ~ Neil Carson ~ Peter Dickinson ~ Louise H. Forsyth ~ Reid Gilbert ~ Sky Gilbert ~ Darrin Hagen ~ J. Paul Halferty ~ Ann Holloway ~ Rosalind Kerr ~ David Allan King ~ Frances J. Latchford ~ J. Bobby Noble ~ Elaine Pigeon ~ Mariko Tamaki ~ Robert Wallace ~ B.J. Wray
ISBN 978-0-887548048
LESBIAN PLAYS: COMING OF AGE IN CANADA
Edited by Rosalind Kerr
“The plays that are included here serve the purpose of charting certain historically specific moments that represent a range of lesbian experiences over the past twenty years in various parts of Canada. In many ways they reflect the gradual changes that have brought lesbians into greater prominence within Canada.”
—from the Introduction by Rosalind Kerr
Includes:
Black Friday by Alec Butler
Growing Up Suites I and II; Object/Subject of Desire by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan
Dykes and Dolls by Lisa Lowe
Karla and Grif by Vivienne Laxdal
A Fertile Imagination by Susan G. Cole
Difference of Latitude by Lisa Walter
Swollen Tongues by Kathleen Oliver
Life and A Lover by Natalie Meisner
Random Acts by Diane Flacks
Smudge by Alex Bulmer
Privilege by Corrina Hodgson
ISBN 0-88754-864-4
STAGING ALTERNATIVE ALBERTAS
EXPERIMENTAL DRAMA IN EDMONTON
edited by Particia Demers and Rosalind Kerr
Plays include:
Surface Tension – Elyne Quan
Burnt Remains – Scott Sharplin
As Long As the Sun Shines – Christina Grant and Doug Dunn
Tales from the Hospital – Trevor Schmidt
Sacred Time – Brian Webb
Love’s Kitchen – Anne Marie Sewell and Cathy Sewell
My Perfect Heaven – Jonathan Christenson and Joey Tremblay
La Maison Rouge – Manon Beaudoin
ISBN O-88754-618-8
ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS
“The Commedia dell’Arte From Marketplace to Court,” for Routledge Studies in Cultural History, Audience and Reception in the Early Modern Period, eds. John R. Decker and Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, 81-107. New York: Routledge, 2022.
“Idealized Actresses: Rebellious Female Voices,” in Idealizing Women in the Italian Renaissance, eds. Marco Piana and Elena Brizio. 183 -205. CRRS: Iter Press. 2022.
“‘Boying Their Greatness’: Transnational Effects of the Italian Divas on the
Shakespearean Stage” in The Routledge Research Companion to Anglo
American Renaissance Literature and Culture, ed. Michele Marrapodi, 342-357, London:
Taylor and Francis, Routledge: 2019.
“Sex and the Satyr in the Pastoral Tradition: Isabella Andreini’s La Mirtilla as Pro-feminist Erotica” in Magic, Marriage, Midwifery: Eroticism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Ian Frederick Moulton, 141-168, Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers. 2015.
“The Fame Monster: Diva Worship from Isabella Andreini to Lady Gaga.” The Diva in Modern Italian Culture: Italian Studies, 70.3 (August 2015): 402-415.
“How the Commedia dell’Arte Actress Revolutionized the Early Modern Stage.”
Quaderni d’Italianistica. 36.1 (2015): 115-137.
“The Tragic Death of Carnival: Treatments of Romeo and Juliet in Scala and Shakespeare.” Intertestualità shakespeariane: cinquecento italiano e il rinascimento inglese, ed. Michele Marrapodi. Rome: Bulzoni, 2003. 183-206.
“Tra(ns)vesting the Laws of Gender and Genre in Flaminio Scala’s Il Finto Marito.” Queer Italia: Same Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film, ed. Gary Cestaro. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. 105-115.
“The Italian Actress and the Foundations of Early Modern European Theatre: Performing Female Sexual Identities on the Commedia dell’Arte Stage.” Early Theatre 11.2 (2008): 181-197.
“Isabella Andreini, Comica Gelosa 1562-1604: Petrarchism for the Theatre Public.” Quaderni d’Italianistica 27.2 (2006):71-92.
“The Imprint of Genius: Tasso’s Sonnet to Isabella Andreini.” Quaderni d’Italianistica 22.2 (2001): 81-96.
“Transgressive Transvestism in Three Scala Scenarios.” Gendered Contexts: New Perspecties in Italian Cultural Studies, eds. Laura Benedetti et al., New York: Peter Lange, 1996. 109-120.
Canadian Theatre Publications
“Swallowing the Lie in Betty Lambert’s Jennie’s Story.” Modern Drama 47.1 (Spring 2004): 98-113.
“Re-Surfacing: The Chinese-Canadian Body in Performance: Elyne Quan’s Surface Tension and What?.” Canadian Theatre Review 109 (Winter 2002): 32- 37.
“Trevor Schmidt Retells Tales from the Hospitial.” Theatre Research in Canada 22.1 (2001): 32 – 45.
“Constance Kerr Sissons 1900-1903.” The Small Details of Life: Twenty Diaries by Women in Canada, 1830-1996, ed. Kathryn Carter. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2002. 153-180.
“Reading My Grandmother’s Life Through Her Letters: Constance Kerr Sissons from Adolescence to Engagement.” Working Womens’s Archives, eds. Marlene Kadar and Helen Buss. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2001. 46-52.
“Withholding the Knife: Representing the Unrepresentable (Wo)man in Anna.” Modern Drama 39.4 (Winter 1996): 566-573.
“Borderline Crossings in Sharon Pollock’s Outlaw Genres: Blood Relations and Doc.” Theatre Research in Canada 17.2 (Fall 1996): 200-215.
“Once Were Lesbians … Re/Negotiating Re/Presentations in The Catherine Wheel and Difference of Latitude.” Modern Drama 39.1 (Spring 1996): 177-188.
“The Flag in her Flesh: A White Bride’s Life in Fort Frances 1901-1908.” Tessera 18 (Summer 1995): 21-30
“Maria Irene Fornes Recites/Resites Women’s Desires in Fefu and Her Friends.” Tessera 14 (Winter 1991): 119-127.
SELECTED REVIEWS Italian are starred*
Vosters, Helene. Unbecoming Nationalism: From Commemoration to Redress in Canada. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2019, 262pp.48 illus. TRIC/RTAC 42.1 (2021): 155-158.
Higginbotham, Jennifer and Mark Albert Johnston (eds.). Queering Childhood in Early Modern English Drama and Culture. London: Palgrave, 2018. Renaissance and Reformation 42.1 (Winter 2019): 390-392.
*Andreini, Isabella. Mirtilla, A Pastoral. A Bilingual Edition. Ed. Valeria Finucci, trans. Julia Kisacky. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe, Toronto series, 62. Renaissance and Reformation 41.4 (Fall 2018): 198-201.
*Domenico Pietropaolo. Semiotics and Pragmatics of Stage Improvisation. London: Bloomsbury, 2016. Quaderni d’Italianistica 38.1 (2017): 268-271.
*Elena Tamburini. Culture Ermetiche e Commedia dell’arte: Tra Giulio Camillo e Flaminio Scala. Rome: Aracne editrice, 2016. Toronto: Iter Academic Press / Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Renaissance and Reformation 40. 4 (Spring 2017): 248-250.
Radziwiŧŧowa, Franciszka Urszula. Selected Drama and Verse. Ed. Patrick John Corness and Barbara Judkowiak. Trans. Patrick John Corness. Trans. and ed. Aldona Zwerzyńska-Coldicotto. Intro. Barbara Judkowiak. Toronto: Iter Academic Press / Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Renaissance and Reformation 40.2 (Spring 2017): 224-226.
*Natalie Crohn Schmitt, Befriending the Commedia dell’Arte of Flaminio Scala: The Comic Scenarios, 2014. Renaissance Quarterly 68.4 (Winter 2015): 1502-1504.
“Women, Medicine and Theatre, 1 500-1750.” M.A. Katritzky. Early Theatre 12.1 (June 2009: 186-188.
“British Columbia Theatre at the Edge?.” Ginny Ratsoy, ed. Theatre in British Columbia, vol. 6. Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English. Canadian Literature. 197 (Summer 2008): 178-179.
“Feminist Theatres.” Susan Bennett, ed. Feminist Theatre and Performance, vol. 4. Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English. Canadian Literature 194 (Autumn 2007): 103-104.
“Donald B. Smith. Calgary’s Grand Story.” University of Toronto Quarterly 76.1 (Winter 2006/2007) : 523-25.
*“Robert Henke. Performance and Literature in the Commedia dell’Arte.” Comparative Drama 37. 3-4 (Fall/Winter 2003-4): 419-422.
“Diana Brydon and Irena R. Makaryk, eds. “Shakespeare in Canada: A World Elsewhere.” Theatre Research in Canada 23. 1-2 (2002): 161-164.
*“Francesco Cotticelli, Anne Goodrich Heck, and Thomas F. Heck, trans.and eds. The Commedia dell=Arte in Naples: A Bilingual Edition of the 176 Casamarciano Scenarios / La Commedia dell=arte a Napoli: Edizione Bilingue dei 176 Scenari Casamarciano, 2 vols.” Annali Italianistica. 21 (2003): 548-551.
“Jill Dolan. Geographies of Learning: Theory and Practice, Activism and Performance.” Modern Drama 45.3 (Fall 2002): 487- 489.
*“ Joseph Farrell and Antonio Scuderi, eds. Dario Fo: Stage Text and Tradition. Modern Drama 44.2 (Summer 2001): 249- 252.
“Anne F. Nothof, ed. Sharon Pollock: Essays on Her Works.”University of Toronto Quarterly 71.1 (Winter 2001/2002) : 374-5.
*“Maggie Gunsberg. Gender and the Italian Stage: From the Renaissance to the Present Day.” Modern Drama. XLI.3 (Fall 1998): 502 -504.
“Rita Much, ed. Women on the Canadian Stage: The Legacy of Hrotsvit. ” University of Toronto Quarterly 64.1 November (1994): 194-6.
PLAY AND PLAY TEXTS REVIEWS
“Theatre as a Weapon against Mass Delusion: The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axes of Evil.” Canadian Theatre Review 120 (Fall 2004): 91-93.
“Gordon Armstrong et al, Plague of the Gorgeous; Sky Gilbert, Painted, Sainted, and Tainted; Sue-Ellen Case, ed. Split-Britches. ” Canadian Theatre Review (Fall 1997) : 87-89.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES
“Betty Lambert” Literary Encyclopedia @ http:/www.Litencyc.com
Rosalind Kerr 