Brings together for the first time essays which explore cross-dressing in theatre, cabaret, opera and dance. Essential reading for all those interested in performance and the representation of gender.

Crossing the Stage brings together for the first time essays which explore cross-dressing in theatre, cabaret, opera and dance. The volume contains seminal pieces which have become standard texts in the field, as well as new work especially commissioned from leading writers on performance. Crossing the Stage is an indispensable sourcebook on theatrical cross-dressing. It will be essential reading for all those interested in performance and the representation of gender.

Recent headlines attest to the apathy, absenteeism, and lost opportunity that are widespread among high school seniors. Senior year is harder than most of us remember, yet the author sees this period as an opportunity.

The Crossing is a powerful and haunting love story of surprising discovery set in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen during Prohibition. Irish-born Johnny Flynn, a former British soldier, is banished from his homeland and sent to America on a ship so riddled with disease that he realizes the voyage was meant to murder him. When he survives the trip, the captain forces him to walk the plank into the Hudson River. Miraculously, an Irish gang, the Swamp Angels, rescues Johnny and gives him a job running whiskey in Hell's Kitchen just as Prohibition makes liquor a hugely profitable, dangerous business. Fighting for his life and livelihood, Johnny is plagued by the memory of his lost lover, Nora, whose father, the famed Irish revolutionary, James Connolly, met his death by a firing squad that included a reluctant gunman named Johnny Flynn. Then, Johnny encounters Esme, an Irish singer who suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of the British.

Female-to-male crossdressing became all the rage in the variety shows of nineteenth-century America and began as the domain of mature actresses who desired to extend their careers. These women engaged in the kinds of raucous comedy acts usually reserved for men. Over time, as younger women entered the specialty, the comedy became less pointed and more centered on the celebration of male leisure and fashion. Gillian M. Rodger uses the development of male impersonation from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century to illuminate the history of the variety show. Exploding notions of high- and lowbrow entertainment, Rodger looks at how both performers and forms consistently expanded upward toward respectable—and richer—audiences. At the same time, she illuminates a lost theatrical world where women made fun of middle-class restrictions even as they bumped up against rules imposed in part by audiences. Onstage, the actresses' changing performance styles reflected gender construction in the working class and shifts in class affiliation by parts of the audiences. Rodger observes how restrictive standards of femininity increasingly bound male impersonators as new gender constructions allowed women greater access to public space while tolerating less independent behavior from them.

The book of Joshua forms the logical end point for much of the Pentateuch. It shows how Israel came to possess the land God had promised centuries before to Abraham and how God was faithful to his promises. It also portrays God’s demands that his covenant people forsake all other allegiances and follow him only and completely. The New American Commentary is for those who have been seeking a commentary that honors the Scriptures, represents the finest in contemporary evangelical scholarship and lends itself to the practical work of preaching and teaching. This series serves a minister’s friend and a student’s guide. The New American Commentary assumes the inerrancy of Scripture, focuses on the intrinsic theological and exegetical concerns of each biblical book, and engages the range of issues raised in contemporary biblical scholarship. Drawing on the knowledge and skills of over forty scholars and encompassing forty volumes, the NAC brings together scholarship and piety to produce a tool that enhances and supports the life of the church.