Bleam, Jeffrey Robert, «The silver stage: Theatre in the age of mechanical reproduction». Ph.D., , Ann Arbor, United States 2005 Abstract Implicit in its subtitle (“Theatre in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”), this study begins with a rejection of Walter Benjamin’s assurance that the theatrical arts are immune from the ideological processes inherent in mechanical reproduction. I seek to argue that as theatre artists and encultured subjects in general, we process information and form perceptual strategies through a series of frames created and encouraged by the representational field of the larger visual culture at specific times and societies. I contend that these frames and strategies do not change over time…