Western Theatre Research Articles

Staging Desire Androgynously: An Alternative Vision of Identity

This article examines the intersection of sexualities and identities, with a particular focus on the ways these elements can be transgressed in Western theater. The study postulates that theater represents a distinctive forum for challenging established societal structures, thereby enabling actors and, by proxy, spectators to perform multiple identities that challenge conventional constraints and break traditional expectations. The research demonstrates the dynamic nature of identity formation on the modern stage, illustrating that identity can both reflect societal norms and serve as an alternative to them. This allows for the expression of diverse sexual identities that deviate from the heteronormative order. Consequently, the theater becomes a site for subverting conventional codes and for negotiating with mainstream society the potential for exploring a plethora of non-standardized identities. This process culminates in the crystallization of norm-divergent gender identities.

Risk factors for ICU-acquired weakness in sepsis patients: A retrospective study of 264 patients

BackgroundSepsis is a common critical illness in intensive care unit (ICU) and an important risk factor for intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICU-AW). The objective of the study is to analyze the risk factors of ICU-AW in septic patients. MethodsA total of 264 septic patients admitted to the General Hospital of the Western Theater Command from January 2018 to April 2022 were included in this study. The cohort was divided into 2 groups according to the presence or absence of ICU-AW. Clinical characteristics included age, sex, body mass index, length of ICU stay, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ (APACHE Ⅱ), mechanical ventilation time, intubation, tracheotomy, protective constraint, lactic acid, fasting blood glucose, etc. The clinical characteristics of sepsis were evaluated using logistic regression analysis. ResultsA total of 114 septic patients suffered ICU-AW during their ICU stay. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis showed that APACHE Ⅱ score, mechanical ventilation time, protective constraint, and lactic acid were independent risk factors for ICU-AW in septic patients. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) were 0.791, 0.740 and 0.812, all P < 0.05, and the optimal cut-off values were 24 points, 5 days and 2.12 mmol/L, respectively. ConclusionsA high APACHE Ⅱ score, long mechanical ventilation time, protective constraint and high lactate concentration are independent risk factors for ICU-AW in septic patients. An APACHE Ⅱ score greater than 24 points, mechanical ventilation time longer than 5 days and lactate concentration higher than 2.12 mmol/L are likely to cause ICU-AW.

Utility of gadoxetate disodium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in evaluating liver failure risk after major hepatic resection.

Post-hepatectomy liver failure (PHLF) is still a predominant cause of hepatectomy-related mortality. However, it is difficult to evaluate the remnant liver functional reserve accurately before surgery to prevent PHLF. In this study, we aimed to explore the role of gadoxetate disodium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in evaluating remnant liver functional reserve. For this cross-sectional study, the sample retrospectively included 56 patients undergoing liver resections of at least three segments between June 2019 and September 2022 at The General Hospital of the Western Theater Command. Pre-surgery assessments involved liver computer tomography (CT), an indocyanine green (ICG) clearance test, the Child-Pugh scoring system, and liver function serum biochemical indicators. Each patient underwent a gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI before the hepatectomy, and we measured the remnant hepatocellular uptake index (rHUI) as well as the standard remnant hepatocellular uptake index (SrHUI). We examined the diagnostic utility of rHUI, SrHUI, indocyanine green retention rate of 15 minutes (ICG R15), and Albumin for PHLF. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analyses were used to measure the preoperative liver function parameters (namely, rHUI, SrHUI, ICG R15, and Albumin) for predicting PHLF. The areas under the curve (AUCs) were calculated and compared between different preoperative liver function parameters using the Wilson/Brown method. The Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficient was used for correlation analysis between ICG R15, Albumin, and rHUI and between ICG R15, Albumin, and SrHUI, respectively. Twelve patients (21.43%) had complications of PHLF. We found significant differences in rHUI, SrHUI, ICG R15, and Albumin between the non-PHLF and PHLF groups. The pooled r between ICG R15 and rHUI was -0.591 [95% confidence interval (CI): -0.740 to -0.389, P<0.001], and between ICG R15 and SrHUI was -0.534 (95% CI: -0.703 to -0.308, P<0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) values of rHUI, SrHUI, ICG R15, and Ablumin were 0.871 (sensitivity 81.82%; specificity 91.67%), 0.878 (sensitivity 79.55%; specificity 83.33%), 0.835 (sensitivity 99.73%; specificity 66.67%), and 0.782 (sensitivity 88.64%; specificity 58.33%), respectively. We found that the rHUI and SrHUI calculated using the gadoxetate disodium-enhanced MRI reflected a combination of remnant hepatocyte function and liver volume, and these were useful as a quantitative assessment indicator of remnant liver functional reserve and can be a better predictor of PHLF after major hepatic resection.

Characteristic of Western and Kannada Absurd Dramas

In the literary heritage of modern Kannada theatre, innovative methods of writing such as stories, poetry, novels, etc., which are limited only to plays, should be taken into consideration. After the 19th century, modern Kannada theatre under the influence of Western theatre took a path of innovation and expanded its range of features. Along with the Kannada Renaissance literature, the modern Kannada dramas that came to light are mostly imitations of Western and Indian Sanskrit dramas. Apart from that, important Western plays like Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamov, Harold Pinter, Sart, Albert Camus, Brecht, are found to have built upon modern dramas on a satvika basis. Following this Kannada Absurd dramatists can be divided into two groups. The material portrays incongruous things through a coherent technique using coherent language. Playwrights like Kirtinath Kurta Koti, G.B. Joshi, Girish Karnad can be identified. The second group includes Chandrasekhar Patil, P. Lankesh, Chandrasekhar Kambar can be named. Kalyan Karnataka dramatist Chandrakant Kusunur is popular among Absurd dramatists. He wrote the most plays among the Absurd plays. We did not see any western influence in many of his plays. He has written Ani Bantani, Dindi, Mane, Rekke, Vidushaka. Ratto Ratto Rayana Magale etc. play an important role in the development of Kannada anomaly. Western Kannada Absurd plays can thus be observed in a geographically adequate traditional setting. This article attempts to analyse the different types of dramas, and dramatists, who contributed to the field of Absurd dramas in Kannada theatre due to the influence of western Absurd dramas in Kannada drama literary tradition.

Research on predicting hematoma expansion in spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage based on deep features of the VGG-19 network.

To construct a clinical noncontrastive computed tomography (NCCT) deep learning joint model for predicting early hematoma expansion (HE) after cerebral hemorrhage (sICH) and evaluate its predictive performance. All 254 patients with primary cerebral hemorrhage from January 2017 to December 2022 in the General Hospital of the Western Theater Command were included. According to the criteria of hematoma enlargement exceeding 33% or the volume exceeding 6ml, the patients were divided into the HE group and the hematoma non-enlargement (NHE) group. Multiple models and the 10-fold cross-validation method were used to screen the most valuable features and model the probability of predicting HE. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to analyze the prediction efficiency of each model for HE. They were randomly divided into a training set of 204 cases in an 8:2 ratio and 50 cases of the test set. The clinical imaging deep feature joint model (22 features) predicted the area under the curve of HE as follows: clinical Navie Bayes model AUC 0.779, traditional radiology logistic regression (LR) model AUC 0.818, deep learning LR model AUC 0.873, and clinical NCCT deep learning multilayer perceptron model AUC 0.921. The combined clinical imaging deep learning model has a high predictive effect for early HE in sICH patients, which is helpful for clinical individualized assessment of the risk of early HE in sICH patients.

Construction and validation of a nomogram for predicting lateral lymph node metastasis in pediatric and adolescent with differentiated thyroid carcinoma

BackgroundLimited research has been conducted to specifically investigate the identification of risk factors and the development of prediction models for lateral lymph node metastasis (LNM) in pediatric and adolescent differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) populations, despite its significant association with unfavorable prognosis.MethodsThis study entails a retrospective analysis of the clinical characteristics exhibited by pediatric and adolescent patients who have been diagnosed with DTC. The data utilized for this analysis was sourced from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, spanning the time frame from 2000 to 2020. Furthermore, the study incorporates patients who were treated at the Departments of Breast and Thyroid Surgery in the Second Clinical Medical College, Affiliated Fifth People’s Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as The General Hospital of Western Theater Command, during the period from 2010 to 2020.ResultsA cohort of 2631 patients from the SEER database, along with an additional 339 patients from our departments who met the specified inclusion criteria, were included in this study. Subsequently, four clinical variables, namely age, tumor size, multifocality, and extrathyroidal invasion, were identified as being significantly associated with lateral LNM in pediatric and adolescent DTC patients. These variables were then utilized to construct a nomogram, which demonstrated effective discrimination with a concordance index (C-index) of 0.731. Furthermore, the performance of this model was validated through both internal and external assessments, yielding C-index values of 0.721 and 0.712, respectively. Afterward, a decision curve analysis was conducted to assess the viability of this nomogram in predicting lymph node metastasis.ConclusionThe current investigation has effectively constructed a nomogram model utilizing visualized multipopulationsal data. Our findings demonstrate a significant association between various clinical characteristics and lateral LNM in pediatric and adolescent DTC patients. These outcomes hold substantial significance for healthcare practitioners, as they can employ this model to inform individualized clinical judgments for the pediatric and adolescent cohorts.

Factors influencing social avoidance and distress after radical lung cancer resection: a mediation analysis.

To investigate factors influencing social avoidance and distress (SAD) in patients following radical resection of lung cancer (RRLC) and analyze the mediating effects among these factors. Clinical data from 320 patients who underwent RRLC between January 2022 and December 2023 at the General Hospital of Western Theater Command PLA were analyzed. Data were collected using the General Information Questionnaire, Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Perceived Social Support Scales (PSSS), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), and Consumer Experiences of Stigma Questionnaire (CESQ). Spearman correlation analysis explored the relationships between SAD, anxiety and depression, social support, self-efficacy, and stigma. Multiple linear regression identified factors influencing SAD. The PROCESS tool was used to test the mediating effects of these factors. The mean SADS score was 16.73±4.69. SAD was positively correlated with anxiety, depression, and stigma (r=0.662, P<0.001; r=0.687, P<0.001) and negatively correlated with self-efficacy and social support (r=-0.682, P<0.001; r=-0.705, P<0.001). Multiple linear regression indicated that anxiety, depression, social support, self-efficacy, and stigma were significant influencers of SAD (β=0.132, P<0.001; β=-0.078, P<0.001; β=-0.178, P<0.001; β=0.115, P=0.002). Mediation analysis revealed that anxiety and depression directly affected SAD and indirectly influenced SAD through social support, stigma, and self-efficacy, both independently and via chain mediation (P<0.05). Patients post-RRLC generally exhibit moderate SAD levels. Anxiety and depression directly influence SAD and also indirectly through the mediating effects of social support, stigma, and self-efficacy. Therefore, reducing depression and stigma while enhancing social support and self-efficacy is crucial for alleviating SAD in these patients.

SIMEON POLOTSKY’S DRAMA NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE TSAR AND ITS WESTERN-EUROPEAN DRAMA SOURCES

Тhis paper aims to reconsider the influences of Western-European drama of the XVII century on the creation of Russian baroque and the first drama writer in Russia Simeon Polotsky. During the initial period, Russian theatre, especially during the XVI and XVII centuries, was under the strong influences of Western theatre culture. This paper reconsiders the influence of German, French, English and Polish theatre plays. Plots of his playwright were popular and well known in Western European literature from the XII century. In this paper, we tried to reconsider those influences on the example of his drama Nebuchadnezzar the Tsar. This drama plot was well-known in Western European theatre, and Simeon Polotsky knew some of them.

Development and validation of prognostic nomograms for overall survival in patients with locally advanced colorectal cancer

BackgroundMany colorectal cancer (CRC) patients are initially diagnosed at an advanced stage. Some evidence indicating that TNM staging may not be entirely reliable in forecasting survival outcomes. The research aims to develop accurate prediction models that can determine the survival outcomes of patients with clinically locally advanced colorectal cancer (LACRC). The study aims to provide valuable insights for clinical professionals to make right clinical decisions. MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed 636 LACRC patients admitted to the General Hospital of Western Theater Command between Jan 1, 2017, and Dec 31, 2019. Significant factors determining the prognosis of LACRC patients screened by lasso regression and multifactorial cox regression analysis. These factors were utilized to develop a nomogram model, which serves as a valuable predictive tool for estimating the overall survival (OS) of LACRC patients. Next, we validated the nomogram in the validation group. ResultsThe nomogram emphasized that the TNM stage holds the most prognostic value, followed by CA19–9 levels, smoking history, and MLR. Multiple assessments confirmed the superior discriminatory ability of the nomograms. ConclusionsWe have developed and verified nomograms that can predict OS cohort 635 LACRC patients. The survival nomogram may assist clinicians in better strategizing the therapeutic options for patients with LACRC.

Влияние театра танца Пины Бауш на творчество современного китайского режиссера Тянь Циньсинь

Tian Qinxin remains one of the most active theater directors in China, and her works have always been categorized as mainstream productions that have had a great influence on the Chinese theater scene. Tian Qinxin also continues to make pioneering attempts within the mainstream of Chinese theater, constantly challenging new forms of expression. In this process, the master of German neo-expressionist dance, an iconic figure in the history of modern dance in the world — Pina Bausch's concept of dance theater has had a profound influence on Tian Qinxin's directorial language. This influence is not only individual, but also a concrete manifestation of the fusion of the spirit of traditional Oriental aesthetics with modern Western theater aesthetics, the fusion of nationalism and modernity.

Psychological Growth of the Protagonist in Pygmalion from Ecological System Theory

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics has extended all over the world from 1880s up until now. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With the great capacity of using play to reflect the reality, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his era. Shaw’s Pygmalion is one of the most popular of his plays. It has been staged all over the English speaking world. And even a film based on the play called My Fair Lady has proved to be an immense success, and has made everyone knows about this play. Its popularity has been perennial and universal.Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, one day overhears a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle and mocks the common way she talks. The next day, Eliza shows up and asks Higgins to teach her talk properly. But his friend Colonel Pickering bets him that he can’t make Eliza talk like a lady in six months’ time. During the time that he accepts the challenge and teaches Eliza, Eliza has many psychological growth. Based on the ecological system theory, this paper makes an analysis of the positive influences of the environment on Eliza from different people and society in reference with five dimensions—microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. The influence from Eliza’s original family, especially from her father, the guidance and deeds of Higgins, and some effects from the society as the microsystem provide positive help for the psychological growth of Eliza. And the interactions among the microsystem, which construct the mesosystem, together with the exosystem and macrosystem make Eliza, a flower girl, grows into a Duchess Eliza with pride and self-consciousness.

Analysis of high-risk factors for failure of autologous arteriovenous fistula in hemodialysis patients

To investigate the high risk factors of failure of autologous arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in hemodialysis patients. A retrospective study was conducted, patients with maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) undergoing AVF admitted to General Hospital of Western Theater Command from January 2021 to December 2022 were enrolled, including 107 patients with normal AVF and 168 patients with AVF dysfanction. According to the causes of AVF failure, the patients were divided into AVF stenosis group (n = 103) and AVF thrombosis group (n = 65). Age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease) and other clinical data of all patients were collected. Hemoglobin, hematocrit, white blood cell count, neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, platelet count, C-reactive protein (CRP), high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) within 1 month of AVF use in normal dialysis patients and 1 week before AVF failure. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the independent risk factors of AVF dysfuction in MHD patients. The receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of risk factors on AVF dysfuction in MHD patients. (1) There were significant differences in age, BMI, hypertension, hemoglobin, hematocrit, PLR and CRP [age (years): 56.94±14.32, 58.83±14.05, 51.57±13.19; BMI (kg/m2): 22.83±3.10, 21.27±4.98, 23.35±2.72; hypertension: 93.20%, 64.62%, 86.92%; hemoglobin (g/L): 110.82±22.16, 88.70±24.00, 87.95±23.45; hematocrit: 0.350±0.069, 0.282±0.076, 0.275±0.071; PLR: 197.35±113.59, 192.55±138.25, 162.12±73.25; CRP (mg/L): 10.01±4.02, 8.18±5.42, 3.17±1.30, all P < 0.05], among AVF stenosis group, AVF thrombosis group and AVF normal group, there were statistically significant differences no statistically significant difference was found in other indexes among three groups. (2) Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that hypertension [odds ratio (OR) = 4.849, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 1.278-18.397, P = 0.020], elevated CRP levels (OR = 2.104, 95%CI was 1.533-2.888, P = 0.000) were associated with AVF stenosis. Elevated CRP levels (OR = 1.984, 95%CI was 1.442-2.730, P = 0.000) was an independent risk factor for AVF thrombosis. Analysis of ROC curve showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of AVF dysfunction predicted by CRP was 0.712, 95%CI was 0.637-0.786, P = 0.000; CRP cut-off value was 1.8 mg/L, the sensitivity was 67.0%, the specificity was 83.7%. Elevated CRP is an independent risk factor for AVF failure in hemodialysis patients, which can be used to predict the occurrence of AVF failure.

Regulation of "Right Ankle Dorsiflexion" Motor Imagery on Brain Function of Spinal Cord Injury: A FOCA-Based Prospective Study.

Motor dysfunction is the main functional disability after spinal cord injury (SCI), seriously affecting the life and work of patients. In addition to spinal cord damage, the brain undergoes structural and functional plastic changes. This study explored brain function remodeling in patients with SCI and the effect of right ankle dorsiflexion motor imagery task on brain function. This prospective study enrolled 11 patients with SCI and dyskinesia of the right lower limb and 12 healthy subjects at the General Hospital of Western Theater Command PLA (January 2015 to December 2016). They underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the resting state and the "right ankle dorsiflexion" motor imagery task state. Four-dimensional (spatiotemporal) concordance (FOCA) of local neuronal activity was used for fMRI image analysis. The differences between SCI patients and healthy subjects were compared using the two-sample t-test. In the resting state, compared with healthy subjects, patients with SCI showed decreased FOCA in the left putamen, right caudate nucleus, and right superior occipital gyrus and increased FOCA in the left precentral gyrus. In the right ankle dorsiflexion motor imagery task state, FOCAs in the right inferior temporal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule were decreased in patients with SCI. After SCI, a series of changes in the structure and function of the brain occur. Research on brain plasticity after SCI might help explore the central mechanisms underlying functional recovery after treatments, providing more therapeutic strategies for SCI.

Stanislavski versus the Peasant Woman

In ‘Stanislavski versus the Peasant Woman: Acting habits beyond the neutral’, Ilinca Todoruț analyses Western theatre’s fraught relationships with acting habits by reading between the lines of Konstantin Stanislavski’s short account of a daring casting experiment gone awry. In a slippery two-page text, Stanislavski narrates how he attempted to cast an unnamed peasant woman in the 1902 production of Leo Tolstoy’s The Power of Darkness. Prying open what went wrong at the Moscow Art Theater, despite the best of intentions, helps guide a critique of contemporary performance training methods geared towards eliminating habit.

"Membingkai Melayu" Perancangan Metode Akting Berbasis Tradisi Untuk Pembelajaran Makyong di Program Studi Seni Pertunjukan UNIMED

Theatrical discourse in Indonesia is still dominated by Western theater discourses, both theoretically and practically. This domination ordains theater as an art that is distant from the audience, including Makyong. As an effort to bring theater closer to the community, the development of acting methods based on ethnic traditions can be an alternative. The research method that will be used in this study is the Research and Development method developed by Thiagarajan, et al. The stages of implementing the research are as follows: Defining, Designing, Developing. The theory used as a basis in this study is the theory of postcolonial acting put forward by Asrul Sani and concept of theater anthropology from Eugenio Barba. The results of this study are Malay acting training methods arranged in the order of spiritual knowledge based on Tunjuk Ajar Melayu, pantun skills and body training based on Malay dance techniques. The development of the acting training method, which the author calls Framing Malay, aims to collect things that can help actors in creating Malay behavior.

Crossroads of Culture: The African Storyteller and The Western Theatre (Drama) Actor, Director, Producer

The paper argues that in Africa, the storyteller discursively functions as an actor, director, a producer, and all. It investigates the point of emergence and the point of departure between the storyteller in Ghana and that of the Western theatre stage performer, director and producer. The study regards the storytelling art as a literary theory which is an intellectual knowledge paradigm grounded in values derived from indigenous cultural experiences of the storyteller. By analysing and drawing particular attention to roles of the storyteller, this article expresses perspectives, based upon the values of using all the necessary communication skills as a viable medium to spur people into action for self-actualisation. The paper attempts to show the strong intertextual and interconnection between both Ghanaian (African) theatre and the Western theatre experiences. The selected areas in the paper suggest direct and indirect identical traits and weighing strength of thoughts and practices of the storyteller’s various roles, and also to fix those roles into various functions in the Western theatre. Implications are drawn on the basis of the critically examined experiences and through analysis of the utilisation of the oral Ghanaian (African) storytelling traditions as a methodological framework. This study, therefore, highlights the basic functions and roles in the Western theatres which the storyteller performs through the development of the dramatic storytelling theatre.

“We Gave Them Thunder”: Marmaduke’s Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas by William Garrett Piston and John C. Rutherford

Reviewed by: “We Gave Them Thunder”: Marmaduke’s Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas by William Garrett Piston and John C. Rutherford Andrew Fialka “We Gave Them Thunder”: Marmaduke’s Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas. By William Garrett Piston and John C. Rutherford. (Springfield: Ozarks Studies Institute of Missouri State University, 2021. Pp. xiv, 343. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-7346290-1-9; cloth, $39.95, ISBN 978-1-7321222-3-9.) “We Gave Them Thunder”: Marmaduke’s Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Arkansas is a refreshing take on traditional military history. Grounded in up-to-date secondary literature and straightforward about slavery’s role in causing the Civil War, this monograph brings modern scholarship to its intended audience—“descendants” in Missouri and Arkansas to whom Marmaduke’s Raid still matters (p. 2). William Garrett Piston and John C. Rutherford note how simultaneous events in the western theater, such as the battle of Stones River, overshadowed the raid’s importance and how the larger and better-preserved site of the battle of Wilson’s Creek still dominates Civil War memory in southwest Missouri. The raid has not fared much better in academia—no other monograph-length treatment exists, and the raid receives scant coverage in applicable syntheses, including James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York, 1988), Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones’s How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War (Urbana, 1983), and Jay Monaghan’s Civil War on the Western Border, 1854–1865 (Boston, 1955). In addition to bringing the raid’s larger story to light, Piston and Rutherford illustrate the logistical chess game played by Union and Confederate commanders attempting to control the St. Louis–Fort Smith corridor—a possible “back door” for Confederates to capture St. Louis and turn the tide in the trans-Mississippi theater—while constantly having their troops siphoned off to larger battlefields in the East (p. 22). Military matters take up the bulk of the book. Piston and Rutherford expertly summarize Missouri’s unique, and often confusing, position both on the American frontier and as a border state. Chapters 1–2 explain Missouri’s multiple governors—the ousted secessionist Claiborne Fox Jackson and provisional Unionist Hamilton Rowan Gamble. They also detail the state’s many fighting forces, including volunteer regiments, which focused on opening the Missouri River to the Union navy and controlling the aforementioned St. Louis–Fort Smith corridor; the Missouri State Militia, a homegrown state security and counterguerrilla force; and the Enrolled Missouri Militia, which called all able-bodied and loyal men into emergency service (without making a particularly good distinction between those who were loyal and disloyal). The narrative peaks in chapters 6 and 8, which offer blow-by-blow accounts of the battles of Springfield and Hartville, complete with corresponding battle maps. Union forces held off fierce attacks in Springfield thanks to hastily constructed fort defenses and a clever use of cavalry units to buy additional time for preparation. In Hartville, outnumbered Union forces again held off Confederate raiders, this time thanks to securing the high ground northwest of the town and utilizing brush to hide their lack of strength. The attention to detail in this book’s presentation makes it particularly enjoyable to read. The maps, created by Jim Coombs, a maps and GIS librarian at Missouri State University, are very helpful. The numerous color images [End Page 367] are vivid and will be appreciated by anyone enthusiastic about material culture. The lack of academic jargon in the prose makes even lengthy tactical passages easy to follow. This is accessible scholarship. “We Gave Them Thunder” has few shortcomings. I took issue with how Piston and Rutherford justify not including more stories of women and children, white or Black. The authors assert that “very few sources detail their experiences” (p. 2). Yet there are nearly three thousand records from Missouri’s Union Provost Marshal Papers for Greene, Webster, and Wright Counties alone (an area that includes Springfield, Hartville, and their connecting road). Civil War historians focused on Missouri have utilized the Provost Marshal Papers to uncover the histories...

Phosphorescence and Potential Antibiosis Secondary to Photorhabdus Luminescens Wound Contaminations at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee 1862

During the American Civil War, contemporary accounts describe a peculiar luminescence phenomenon associated with untreated injuries sustained by fallen troops after the Battle of Shiloh (6-7 April 1862). While not experienced by all soldiers, field surgeons observed that the glow was somehow linked to reduced rates of wound infection and better outcomes. Given the wet springtime weather and unsheltered overnight conditions of the injured, it is plausible that some lacerations or punctures were incidentally infected with microscopic contaminants, including common soil nematodes. One endemic group likely present on riverbank groundcover is fam. Heterorhabditidae, a symbiotic host to Photorhabdus luminescens. Classified within the Morganellaceae, this Gram-negative pathogen is characterized by its unusual life cycle. With particular relevance to Shiloh, this sequence includes a blue-green phosphorescence phase accompanied by release of protein toxins having local antibiotic properties. Here, natural progression of this microbe from nematode symbiont to lethal secondary insect parasite lodged in an unclean wound is considered. Photorhabdus life-cycle is discussed as a component of the Martin-Curtis Hypothesis (2001), with new information on fluorophore isolation and recent genomic sequencing data. The Shiloh campaign is also placed within the context of the larger Western Theatre, noting that the engagement marked the heaviest Civil War casualty toll up to that point.

From the Editor

From the Editor Siyuan Liu This issue starts with two long-planned articles in ATJ’s “founders of the field” series that started with two clusters of articles in 2011 (28.2) and 2013 (30.2), followed by a number of “founding mothers” articles between 2014 and 2017 (31.1, 32.2, 33.2, 34.1), continuing in this issue with Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei’s profile of Betty Bernhard and Julie Iezzi’s article on Jonah Salz. Sorgenfrei focuses on Bernard’s extraordinary capacity in discovering and promoting aspects of Indian performance to the world through fundraising and sponsoring international engagements by India artists, students training and productions of India plays with Indian artists at Pomona College, as well as several research-based films and videos, all of which made Bernard, as Sorgenfrei puts it, “an important influencer well before that concept became a social media meme.” The second “founder” article, written by Julie Iezzi, focuses on Jonah Salz, who stands out, in comparison to other founders profiled in this series, as a Western theatre director, producer, teacher, scholar, and translator primarily based in an Asian country, in his case Kyoto, Japan. Among Salz’s wide-ranging accomplishments, Iezzi focuses on his co-founded Noho Theatre Group that has produced hundreds of shows and toured internationally over forty years; his co-established Traditional Theatre Training (TTT) program that since 1984 has trained hundreds of artists in noh, kyōgen, and nihon buyō; and his research and publications, most notably as editor-in-chief of A History of Japanese Theatre, a monumental achievement via international collaboration. These two pieces are followed by six articles covering both traditional and modern theatrical forms in East, South, and Southeast Asia, starting with two articles on modern Chinese spoken drama huaju. In “History as Farce and the Intellectual as Comedian: Li Jing’s Metahistorical Drama Comedies from the State of Qin,” Andreea Chirita analyzes contemporary Chinese playwright Li Jing’s 2017 [End Page iii] metahistorical play Qinguo xiju (Comedies from the State of Qin). After a survey of historical plays that turned into metafiction in the post-Mao era, Chirita focuses on “the dramatic techniques used by Li Jing to articulate the role of the intellectuals as comedians and spiritual healers in contemporary China and their power to debunk and rethink history from a perspective that challenges the country’s political status quo.” The second article on huaju offers new evidence on China’s National Theatre Movement of the mid 1920s that has prompted several recent publications, including one in ATJ (33.1). In her “A Missing Piece of the Collage: The Stage Practice in the National Theatre Movement,” Barbara Jiawei Li discusses three productions of the movement, starting with one in New York’s International House that is generally believed to be the impetus for the movement’s transition back to China. Li’s discussion is made possible by a newly discovered contemporaneous report. She also draws our attention to the close relationship between the National Theatre Movement’s performance focus and the American New Stagecraft Movement. The next two articles also focus on East Asia, starting with Tove Solander’s “Mortal Bromance: Homoeroticism on the Takarazuka Stage,” which also offers a new take on a familiar topic. Through close reading of original productions, Solander challenges current framing of the revue’s main appeal as female homosociality, arguing instead for the productions’ specific invocation of male homoerotic themes. In the next article, titled “Yakiniku Dragon as Prophecy and Reflection,” Seungmoo Paik analyzes the success of a 2008 joint Korea-Japan production in both countries, about the sufferings of a Zainichi (Koreans in Japan) family as part of the forced migration during Japanese occupation (see the play’s translation in ATJ 31.1). Refuting Korean reviews’ excessive admiration of the production as expression of guilt by the Korean people, Paik’s analysis focuses on the son’s suicide as emblematic of national yearning for a real father figure and the dispersion of the three daughters to South Korea, North Korea, and Japan as offering a solution to end the bondage of the war in East Asia. Moving on to India, Prateek’s “Towards a Definition...

Esther Fernández. To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain

Esther Fernández. <i>To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain</i>