Wearing the breeches
Subtitle: gender on the antebellum stage
By: Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 373
Subjects: Breeches parts.; Male impersonators.; Impersonation.; Theater -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Description: "Wearing the Breeches explores the theatre's most celebrated transvestite: the antebellum breeches actress. Established as a popular convention during the English Restoration, the practice of women playing male roles reached its peak in America during the first half of the nineteenth century as actresses regularly donned tunics, tights, and trousers in theatres throughout the country.

This feminist history takes a gendered look at a phenomenon that has, until now, been widely regarded by theatre scholars as a form of entertainment exclusively designed to titillate a male audience, and demonstrates that breeches performance revealed much more than a shapely leg."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [357]-367) and index.