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Situating the theater as a site of broad cultural movements and conflicts, Lisa A. Freeman asserts that antitheatrical incidents from the English Renaissance to present-day America provide us with occasions to trace major struggles over the nature and balance of power and political authority. In studies of William Prynne's Histrio-mastix (1633), Jeremy Collier's A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698), John Home's Douglas (1757), the burning of the theater at Richmond (1811), and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998) Freeman engages in a careful examination of the political, religious, philosophical, literary, and dramatic contexts in which challenges to theatricality unfold. In so doing, she demonstrates that however differently "the public" might be defined in each epoch, what lies at the heart of antitheatrical disputes is a struggle over the character of the body politic that governs a nation and the bodies public that could be said to represent that nation.

Theater and society --- Art and society --- Theater --- Art --- Censorship --- Culture conflict --- Social conflict --- History --- Moral and ethical aspects --- Prynne, William, --- Collier, Jeremy, --- Home, John, --- Finley, Karen. --- Miller, Tim, --- Richmond Theater (Richmond, Va.) --- National Endowment for the Arts. --- Fire, 1811. --- Theatrical science --- drama [literature] --- Theater and society - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Theater and society - United States - History - Case studies --- Art and society - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Art and society - United States - History - Case studies --- Theater - Moral and ethical aspects - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Theater - Moral and ethical aspects - United States - History - Case studies --- Art - Moral and ethical aspects - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Art - Moral and ethical aspects - United States - History - Case studies --- Censorship - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Censorship - United States - History - Case studies --- Culture conflict - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Culture conflict - United States - History - Case studies --- Social conflict - Great Britain - History - Case studies --- Social conflict - United States - History - Case studies --- Prynne, William, 1600-1669. Histrio-mastix --- Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726. Short view of the immorality and profaneness of the English stage --- Home, John, 1722-1808. Douglas --- Finley, Karen --- Miller, Tim, 1958 --- -Theatrical science --- -Theater and society --- drama [discipline]