Folger Friday: Mimi Yiu (2014)

The talk Folger Friday: Mimi Yu (2014) occurred on February 28, 2014, one of the Talks and Screenings at the Folger, in the Folger's Elizabethan Theatre. Mimi Yiu, Georgetown professor, presented a talk entitled "Richard's Kingdom, Shakespeare's Globe: Theatre, Power, and Built Space."

C. Walter Hodges. Sketch of the Globe Playhouse: the stage and 'tiring house' arrangement viewed from above. Drawing, 20th cent. Call number ART Box H688 no.10.1 pt.3.

Yiu, author of the upcoming Architectural Involutions: Writing, Staging, and Building Space, c. 1435-1650, discusses the connections between early modern architecture and staging in the context of the Folger's current in-the-round production of Richard III.

Yiu's work took her audience on an inward journey from façades to closets, from physical to psychic space, and reveals how innovations in architectural writing and practice transformed the world of Elizabethan theater. An intriguing mix of architecture, theory, and history, Yiu's lecture explored the changing world of English theater in its greatest era.

Mimi Yiu

Mimi Yiu is an early modern scholar who teaches in the English department at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on the cultural history of space, design, visuality, and performance. Her monograph Architectural Involutions: Writing, Staging, and Building Space c. 1435-1650 was published by Northwestern University Press in spring 2014.

New works include a book-length project on the transmission of objects and patterns deemed "arabesque" and an article in REAL: Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature entitled "Prospero's Book of Architecture."