“Anonymous”

This essay examines a 34-page handwritten prompt manuscript for a play entitled “Nance Oldfield: The Tragedy Queen: A Comic Drama in One Act” (c.1848), housed at the Women's Theatre Collection at the University of Bristol. The script portrays an off-stage encounter between a theatregoer and the composite figure of the famous eighteenth-century actresses, Anne Bracegirdle and Anne Oldfield, as Nance. With its emphasis on artificiality and its dearth of technical directions, this prompt manuscript, I suggest, might have been written by a woman and used more for verbal prompting than for the stage managing associated with men. Both the female performer of Oldfield lore and the anonymous adapter of this script theoretically assert a disorderly presence in a theatre enterprise controlled by men and intent on achieving primarily masculine pleasure. They adroitly expose the sacrifices women make to engage in theatrical productions, whether performing a scripted part or adapting a prompt script.