Peter A. Davis is an associate professor of theatre at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he chairs the Theatre Studies program and is director of graduate studies. He specializes in the economic and cultural history of theatre in early America and eighteenth-century England. His articles and reviews have appeared in most of the major theatre history journals. He was also a contributor to the Cambridge History of the American Theatre, winner of the 1999 Barnard Hewitt Award from the American Society for Theatre Research. He is a professional actor and director, and is an ensemble member with the award-winning Remy Bumppo Theatre Company of Chicago. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.