Thunder at a Playhouse: Essaying Shakespeare and the Early Modern Stage

What happens when scholarship on the early modern stage is presented on a recreation of an early modern stage? This question, which at its heart is the question of the relationship between scholarship and performance, animates Thunder at a Playhouse: Essaying Shakespeare and the Early Modern Stage. The essays in this collection all began as papers given at the Blackfriars Conference, a biennial gathering that stages scholarship by asking presenters to use the space of the stage, the playhouse, the audience, and even actors to test out suppositions and hypotheses about early English theater. Recognizing the slipperiness of putting theory into practice and of having practice inform theory, the editors, Peter Kanelos and Matt Kozusko, committed to the root concept of the essay as attempt, asked the volume\u27s contributors to develop their positions as fully and as presently possible. The result is a collection of work by both distinguished and emerging scholars that engages critical issues of early modern performance in fresh and vital ways.The construction of early modern playhouses, such as the Blackfriars in Virginia and Shakespeare\u27s Globe in London, and the increasing interest in exploring original practices on the early modern stage, have provoked reflection, deliberation, and debate. What might we understand empirically about early modern theater, and what is the value of speculative reconstruction/speculation? How might this sort of knowledge be employed on the modern stage? And, critically, what are the purposes of such pursuits for scholars and theater practitioners? Intending to acknowledge the array of lively approaches to early modern theater and to encourage conversation and collaboration between scholars, the editors have compiled a wide-ranging selection of essays. Featuring new work by David Bevington, Roslyn Knutson, Lars Engle, Peter Hyland, Lois Potter and others, Thunder at a Playhouse offers insight into such varied topics as Hamlet\u27s highbrow conception of drama, the portrayal of barbers, babies, and angels on the early modern stage, the timing of quick changes in Jonson\u27s The Alchemist, Shakespeare\u27s reading of Marlowe, and James Burbage\u27s intentions in purchasing the Blackfriars.Thunder at a Playhouse will be of interest to anyone concerned with theatrical performance, the history of the stage, or early modern literary culture. This collection is particularly timely, speaking to and directly addressing the convergence of theory and practice in the study of early modern drama.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/faculty_books/1019/thumbnail.jp

Novel actuating system based on a composite of single-walled carbon nanotubes and an ionomeric polymer

We report the fabrication and characterization of a novel composite material based on single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT)s and the ionomeric polymer Nafion. SWNTs were airbrushed from a chloroform suspension onto both sides of a Nafion membrane (180 μm) and the electromechanical properties of the composite material were explored. The outer layers of carbon nanotubes acted as electrodes in order to pass electrical current through the system while the mechanical response was monitored. Under this design, the mechanical response could be characterized, with respect to the electrical signal, as a function of: voltage, waveform (AC vs. DC), and frequency (AC). Data was also compiled to gauge the effect of size and thickness of each individual layer of the system. The reference samples (graphite-Nafion and sputtered gold-Nafion) did not exhibit mechanical actuation at the same conditions. An analytical model for current decay was considered that is in agreement with the experimental data. Bi-exponential decay with a long time component was found for bias, which is above the actuating threshold. That was explained in terms of increasing of the water dielectric constant and polymer-SWNT interface area. The possible mechanisms of the actuation in this novel composite are discussed

Photoactuation from a carbon nanotube-nafion bilayer composite

A bilayer composite of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) deposited onto Nafion exhibits substantial mechanical motion upon exposure to visible or near-infrared light. The magnitude of the actuation parallels the absorption spectrum of the SWNTs in the near-infrared, but the actuation diminishes in the visible and disappears in the UV portions of the spectrum. In the near-infrared region, the photoactuation is linear with respect to the light intensity. The photoactuation also appears to be associated with a photocurrent across the nanotube/Nafion interface. The proposed mechanism for the actuation is that band bending of the semiconducting SWNTs induces polarization of mobile hydrogen ions at the Nafion interface, which then causes swelling of the polymer. © 2006 American Chemical Society

Photoactuation in nafion-carbon nanotube bilayer composites

Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT)-nafion bilayer composites have a significant mechanical response (photoactuation) upon exposure to near infrared or visible light. The composites are formed as cantilevers of a thick nafion film (tens to hundreds of microns) coated with a thin SWNT film (one to ten microns). This configuration leads to a bending response upon light exposure. The wavelength dependence of the magnitude of the photoactuation corresponds to the absorption spectrum of semiconducting SWNTs. The thickness of each film in the bilayer affects both the magnitude of the bending and the rate of the response. The mechanism of the photoresponse is proposed to be a result of the photocarriers migrating to the interface, attracting hydrated hydrogen ions from the nafion acid groups, which then induces swelling of the nafion substrate