Stagestruck: The Business of Theater in Eighteenth-Century France and Its Colonies

(Cornell University Press) In prerevolutionary France and its colonies, more than 80 cities opened their first public playhouses — Clay explores what caused the flourishing. The book argues that these theaters became the most prominent new cultural institutions of the 18th century and affected culture, society, and commerce. Lauren Clay is an assistant professor of history at Vanderbilt University focusing on Old Regime and Revolutionary France.