Dr. Vicki L. Hoskins is a scholar, educator, and practitioner whose research focuses on musical theatre, Broadway commercialism, and the history of theatrical institutions. Her teaching experience includes courses in theatre history, dramatic literature, contemporary theory, and musical theatre, as well as practical courses on playwriting, dramaturgy, and acting.
Dr. Hoskins is an experienced professional dramaturg with a particular interest in new works development and musical theatre dramaturgy, as well as an intimacy choreographer with expertise in LGBTQ+ intimacy. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, an MA in Theatre History and Criticism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a BA in Drama from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Hoskins is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance at San Francisco State University.
Dr. Hoskins is currently working on a book project about Playbill, the theatrical program publisher in New York. Titled, Playbill’s Broadway: Monopolies, Branding, and Audience Life, the book investigates how Playbill’s brand strategies and company structure led to a capitalistic monopoly in the program printing industry. As Playbill has remained the longest running and most pervasive program printer in the United States, the company serves as a case study for exploring the larger ramifications of the capitalistic Broadway scene over a long period of time.
Book In Progress
Among these theatrical institutions, none is perhaps more pervasive than Playbill, the theatrical program company based in New York City since approximately 1884. As the chief provider of playbills to all Broadway theatres, and increasingly, a majority of American regional theatres, Playbill provides a distinctive angle into the history of and cultural shifts within American theatre production.
Titled, Playbill’s Broadway: Monopolies, Branding, and Audience Life, my book project investigates how Playbill’s brand strategies and company structure led to a capitalistic monopoly in the program printing industry that services the needs of its white owners. Playbill has remained the longest running and most pervasive program printer in the United States; as such, the company serves as a case study for exploring the larger ramifications of the commercial Broadway scene over a long period of time. A materialist history of Playbill, my book project interrogates the business strategies that Playbill has utilized over the years to crush their competition, earn fan adoration, and in general, become a Broadway icon.
Arguably a mainstay of the commercial American theatre, Playbill’s staff takes pride in the company’s long history and relative importance in the larger schema of American theatre. Newspaper pieces about the company discusses Playbill reverently, referring to its striking yellow and black logo as being “synonymous” with or representative of Broadway. Playbill’s current CEO, Phil Birsh, attributes fan loyalty to the company’s longevity and its reputation as both a “legitimate” and “good” company. Theatre fans seem to love Playbill, and Playbill relishes in this attention, while minimizing the company’s overall influence under a patina of good-naturedness. My book project interrogates this playbill-theatergoer relationship as one element of Playbill's brand as a "good" company.
Grounded in archival research, theatre history, and cultural studies, my book project presents a chronological history of Playbill’s development alongside other commercial institutions and the Broadway theatre. The book begins with the company’s foundations in 1884-1885 and presents key moments in the company’s history, ending with the contemporary use of social media and playbill digitization.
These conversations continue in my published work, which interrogate the use of marketing and audience engagement in commercial theatre ventures.
“This is Not a Moment, It’s a Movement: Why Millennials are Hamiltrash.” Kevin Wetmore, ed. Hamilton: History, Hip-Hop and Politics: Essays on the Afterbirth of a Nation. McFarland and Company, 2021. (Forthcoming)
“Death is the Wages of Sin: Murder and the True Crime Musical.” Coup de Théâtre, 32 (2018).
“Marketing Musicals: Commercializing the Avant-Garde in Spring Awakening.”Studies in Musical Theatre, 7.3 (2013), 359-368.
Undergraduate:
Global Theatre History I & II
Graduate:
Research Methods and Writing
Seminar: Contemporary Global Theatre and Performance
Undergraduate Courses:
Theatre, Culture, and Society
The Business of the Performing Arts
Performance Studies
Acting I
Undergraduate Courses:
Theatre History (Pre-Greeks to 20th Century)
Theatre Arts
Playwriting
Acting: Studio Study
Modern World Drama
Critical Interventions in Musical Theatre
Graduate Courses:
Contested Bodies: Asian Americans in Theatre and Performance
Undergraduate Courses:
Theatre History III (1890-Present)
Introduction to Dramatic Art
Contemporary Global Stages
Introduction to Performance
Undergraduate Courses:
Theatre History I (Pre-Greeks to 1800)
Introduction to Theatre
From the New York Public Library digital collections
