In 1998, Kim Marra and Robert A. Schanke published Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History. Informed by contemporary gay and lesbian studies, the dozen or so essays in this pioneering anthology cast new light on the lives, same-sex relationships, and desires of a number of historically important actors and actresses from Edwin Forrest to Mary Martin. Taken as a whole, Passing Performances argued persuasively for sexuality as an important factor in the on- and offstage lives of the actors the volume scrutinized. In passing, so to speak, it also offered a perceptive account of sexism and homophobia in American theatre and American culture in general from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries.