American Drama Since 1960: A Critical HistoryTwayne Publishers, 1996 - 298 páginas "In the early 1960s two leaders of the New York performance group Living Theatre were asked to define its purpose. In this survey of contemporary American drama, Matthew C. Roudane argues that the response of these two pioneers in experimental theater - Julian Beck and Judith Malina - goes a long way toward explaining the purpose of all of the rich and varied dramas to appear on the stage since 1960: "To increase conscious awareness, to stress the sacredness of life, to break down the walls."" "African-American playwrights (Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka), women playwrights (Marsha Norman, Wendy Wasserstein, Beth Henley), gay playwrights (Harvey Fierstein, Tony Kushner), and others have over the past three and a half decades entreated audiences to acknowledge the persistence of racism, sexism, homophobia, and a host of other societal ills. Other playwrights have asked audiences to confront their own mortality (Edward Albee), their compromised morality (David Mamet), their unfulfilled American Dream (Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, and countless others)." "Whatever the particularities of these playwrights' personal identities, politics, of dramatic style, they share a willingness to confront uncomfortable truths about the human condition in America since 1960. Ironically, it is in their very rebellion against any number of things American that they identify themselves and their literature as such." "Roudane takes no scattershot approach to his subject. Favoring clusters of themes and the broad sweep of movements to linear chronology, he develops a carefully aimed analysis of the work of about two dozen of the hundreds of playwrights whose dramas have, since 1960, been performed in every venue, from regional and university theaters to Off-Off-Broadway to Off-Broadway to Broadway."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Página 140
... Heart , succeeds in tran- scending local southern place and setting . Her themes embrace the essen- tial modernist notion that struggle , absurdity , and vulnerability remain normative forces in human experience . Henley's theater finds ...
... Heart , succeeds in tran- scending local southern place and setting . Her themes embrace the essen- tial modernist notion that struggle , absurdity , and vulnerability remain normative forces in human experience . Henley's theater finds ...
Página 141
... Heart in New York City , where , after an Off- Broadway run in 1980 , it opened at the John Golden Theatre on 4 November 1981. Henley's first major success , Crimes of the Heart ran for 535 performances and earned her a Pulitzer Prize ...
... Heart in New York City , where , after an Off- Broadway run in 1980 , it opened at the John Golden Theatre on 4 November 1981. Henley's first major success , Crimes of the Heart ran for 535 performances and earned her a Pulitzer Prize ...
Página 150
... hearts go out to the innocent victims of this . " By juxtaposing the war in Vietnam against the butchering of Native ... heart is sick and sad ! From where the sun now stands , I will fight no more , forever . " In Wings ( 1977 ) , for ...
... hearts go out to the innocent victims of this . " By juxtaposing the war in Vietnam against the butchering of Native ... heart is sick and sad ! From where the sun now stands , I will fight no more , forever . " In Wings ( 1977 ) , for ...
Índice
The Contours of Contemporary | 1 |
Rejuvenating the American Stage | 23 |
AfricanAmerican Theater | 49 |
Página de créditos | |
Otras 7 secciones no se muestran.
Otras ediciones - Ver todo
American Drama Since 1960: A Critical History Matthew Charles Roudané No hay ninguna vista previa disponible - 1997 |
Términos y frases comunes
action Adrienne Adrienne Kennedy Afraid of Virginia African-American Albee American Buffalo American dramatists American stage Amiri Arlene Arthur Miller artistic audience Baraka becomes Beth Bigsby Broadway brother Bullins Buried Child characters cited in text contemporary critics cultural David death Dream Edward Albee Edward Albee's emerges experience father feels Fefu feminist film Fuller Gellburg Glengarry Glen Ross Hansberry hereafter cited heroes human identity Jessie Kennedy killed Kopit language lives Mamet Marsha Marsha Norman Megan moral mother murder myth Norman performance play play's end playwright Prize for drama Pulitzer Prize Rabe Rabe's racial relationship remains Ride Down Mt Sam Shepard says scene script seems sense sexual Shepard social spiritual struggle symbolic Tennessee Williams's Terry Terry's theatergoers theatrical Three Tall Women tragic True West Uncommon Women Vietnam Virginia Woolf Wasserstein Wendy Wasserstein Who's Afraid Willy Wilson wins Pulitzer Prize woman writing York City Zoo Story