Wayne State University Press Staging Fairyland: Folklore, Children's Entertainment, and Nineteenth-Century Pantomime (Series in Fairy-Tale Studies)

Review Jennifer Schacker's highly focused study of fairy-tale pantomimes in nineteenth-century England is both a study of specific productions of fairy tales in dramatic form and their social context, as well as a methodological argument about the need to extend folkloristic research into theater history. The two aspects of the study reinforce each other, although they probably will appeal to different groups of readers. Readers interested in fairy tales will be reminded how they have been influenced by popular dramatizations in Walt Disney films-what folklorist Jack Zipes has called the Disney spell-and other non-textual forms these tales have taken. The other group of readers would consist of folklorists curious about the development of their discipline, as well as Schacker's critique about the limitations posed by certain assumptions about transmission of fairy tales, which she argues have resulted in fairy-tale studies ignoring the very influential presence of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century pantomimes, an artistic tradition which continues in England to the present day.--Don Riggs "Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts" (9/1/2020 12:00:00 AM)By recognizing the popular importance of fairy tale pantomime in the nineteenth century, Schacker also offers stimulating ground for the study of its influence in fancy dress, masquerade costumes, novelty fashions and other stage costumes during the same period. The work she does on showing how pantomime costumes underpinned many fairy tale illustrations, and commercial fancy dress designs opens new areas for costume research in related areas. The effect of live pantomime performance on audiences is reconstructed through its textual and visual responses, while highlighting the importance of this medium to wider cultural conceptions of stock character visualizations. Throughout, the complex interrelationships between stage, page and fashion are considered in fresh, invigorating ways. Staging Fairyland is innovative, inspiring, challenges some established wisdom and is highly recommended.--Hilary Davidson "Studies in Costume & Performance" (6/11/2021 12:00:00 AM)Staging Fairyland tells the engrossing story of two disciplines, folklore studies and theater studies, that ought to have partnered long ago but haven't even been properly introduced to one another until now. Had they found each other earlier, they certainly would have discovered what Jennifer Schacker has so convincingly proved: long before Victorians coined the word folklore and ushered in the 'golden age' of children's literature, fairy tales abounded onstage in the fantastic plots and magical characters of English pantomime, and they continued to thrive there even as folklorists sought for greater authenticity in the field, eschewing the limelight and tinsel but hearing essentially the same tales. This is interdisciplinary research of the highest order and a dream come true for scholarly specialists and general readers alike.--Joseph Roach "Sterling Professor of Theater, Yale University" (7/24/2018 12:00:00 AM)Staging Fairyland is a stimulating contribution to debates within folklore studies on the transmission of narratives and the roles of multiple media in folk tradition. Schacker presents a deep analysis of a neglected dimension of British fairy lore in an important interdisciplinary volume that will be of interest to scholars of both folklore and the history of drama alike.-- "Folklore" (12/9/2020 12:00:00 AM)Staging Fairyland is discipline-crossing, horizon-expanding scholarship at its imaginative best. Schacker's wide-ranging exploration of the experience of fairy tales across media and modalities of performance, from print to pantomime, scholarly imagining to popular entertainment, offers a powerful critical corrective to conventional disciplinary divisions of intellectual labor. This book has the potential to revolutionize the historiography of folklore.--Richard Bauman "Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Fo