Visiting Fellow Oenone Kubie

 

Oenone Kubie (left) is pictured above with the 57th Masked Rider Lyndi Starr.

All Play and No Work: Children on the Stage in the United States, 1870s-1910s

Children in the United States have always worked as performers, be it as acrobats, musicians, actors, dancers, or YouTube stars. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reformers worked against all aspects of child labor but often faced the most opposition and backlash when trying to take children off the stage. Both the advocates and opponents of child performers used the language of work and play. In fiercely fought debates child-savers, managers, parents, and children themselves defined, contested, and remade the distinctions between play and work. Successfully defending performance as play, advocates for child stage labor ensured that children's work on stage continued long after other forms of child labor were outlawed and reviled. In this talk, Oenone Kubie explores the history of the child stage labor controversy to question the seemingly natural distinction between labor and leisure, work and play, and to consider the legacy of the debates surrounding child stage labor on child performers.

Oenone comes to Texas Tech from the University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom. Her talk will take place on Thursday, April 25th in the Senate Room of the Student Union Building. The talk will begin at 5:30 pm followed by a reception in the Lubbock Room.

Nonie's talk may be viewed via live stream here: VISITING FELLOW TALK