Continuous Vaudeville

Cressy, Will M. (Will Martin), 1863-1930Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 151K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Continuous Vaudeville by Will M. CressyAuthor: Cressy, Will M. (Will Martin), 1863-1930,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Mar 14, 2009

Editor's review

Continuous Vaudeville is a text centered on vaudeville performance and stage experience. The author worked in the field for many years, and the book preserves a wealth of observations and tones drawn from performance practice. Its readability lies not in rigorous argument but in bringing readers close to the everyday atmosphere of early twentieth-century American variety theater: how programs were put together, how performers coped with the relentless pace of continuous shows, and what kind of interaction took shape between audience and stage. As a public-domain ebook, it is best suited as supplementary material for performance history, the history of popular entertainment, or American cultural studies, and as light reading for those interested in early stage art. Note that the text carries markedly period-specific language and trade slang, and some of the industry attitudes it reflects are remote from today's performing arts environment; it should be read with historical understanding, and its experience should not be applied directly to contemporary performance production.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of performance history or the history of American popular entertainment who need primary industry material
General readers interested in vaudeville and variety theater culture
Theater and film practitioners who want to learn about stage experience under early continuous-performance models
Readers who need short English industry texts for cultural-studies excerpt reading

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic theater theory or performance tutorials
Readers completely unfamiliar with early twentieth-century American entertainment-industry background who are unwilling to fill the gap
Leisure readers who prefer contemporary novel-style narrative and lack patience for industry essays

Reading tips

First learn the basic forms of vaudeville, then read the main text, to reduce obstacles caused by trade terminology.
Compare the performance rhythms described in the book with today's resident shows, and note similarities and differences.
When encountering trade slang, first infer meaning from context; after finishing a whole passage, look it up systematically.
Excerpt passages about performers' daily lives and audience reactions by chapter, as notes for cultural history.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What is vaudeville? Do I need to know about it first?

Vaudeville was a form of stage entertainment popular in the United States from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, typically made up of short acts such as songs, dances, comedy, and variety turns. Understanding this background first helps readers grasp the book's descriptions of continuous performance, program arrangement, and audience reaction; otherwise some industry details will seem fragmented and hard to follow.

Can this book be used as a performance-skills manual?

No. It is closer to industry observation and experiential essays than to a performance textbook organized by training steps. Although it contains remarks on stage experience, they are limited by a particular era and performance system. Those who want to learn performance skills should choose contemporary systematic textbooks; this book is suitable as supplementary reading for historical background and industry atmosphere.

Is the English original difficult to read?

The language has the features of early twentieth-century popular prose; it is not academic overall, but trade slang and period colloquial expressions do appear. Readers with general English proficiency can read it through. When encountering unfamiliar slang, it is advisable to grasp the general meaning from context first rather than pausing over every word, so as not to lose the reading rhythm.

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About the author

Cressy, Will M. (Will Martin), 1863-1930 Author

Will M. Cressy (born Will Martin Cressy, 1863–1930) is an author whose biography and writing background are poorly documented in publicly available sources. The one work confirmed to be his is Continuous Vaudeville. Set in the world of American vaudeville theaters, the book centers on the continuous-performance format of stage shows and records the interactions among vaudeville performers, theater managers, and audience tastes. Judging by its subject, Cressy was concerned with the day-to-day workings of the popular entertainment industry and with life behind the stage; his tone tends toward reportage and informal essay, with an observational and lightly humorous touch. Writing of this kind has some documentary value for early twentieth-century American popular literature and theater culture, and offers reference material for studying the forms of early vaudeville performance and the lives of its performers.