This essay argues that national borders impede the flow of theatre around the globe. I examine nineteenth-century American disputes about tariffs on the importation of theatrical production materials as an example of theatrical protectionism. I argue that we must balance utopian visions of global theatrical culture against the real national culture industries that sometimes view international trade as a threat to their livelihoods. As these nineteenth-century tariff debates demonstrate, theatre is subject to the same pressures on the trans-national movement of goods and labour as other industries
