Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1990s - Voices, Documents, New Interpretations

The Decades of Modern American Playwriting series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.

The major playwrights and their plays to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include:
* Tony Kushner: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part One and Part Two (1991), Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness (1995) and A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds (1997);
* Paula Vogel: Baltimore Waltz (1992), The Mineola Twins (1996) and How I Learned to Drive (1997);
* Suzan-Lori Parks: The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1990), The America Play (1994) and Venus (1996);
* Terrence McNally: Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) and Corpus Christi (1998).

List of contents

Acknowledgements
Biographical Note and Notes on Contributors
General Preface: Brenda Murphy and Julia Listengarten

1. Introduction to the 1990s by Cherly Black, University of Missouri, USA; and Sharon Friedman, New York University, USA.
2. American theatre in the 1990s by Cherly Black, University of Missouri, USA; and Sharon Friedman, New York University, USA.
3. Terrence McNally by John M. Clum, Duke University, USA.
4. Paula Vogel by Joanna Mansbridge, Billkent University, Ankara, Turkey.
5. Tony Kushner by James Fisher, University of North Carolina, USA.
6. Suzan-Lori Parks by Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr, Loyola Marymount University, USA.

Afterword
Documents
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Sharon Friedman is Associate Professor of Literature and Drama at the Gallatin School, New York University, USA. She is the editor of Feminist Theatrical Revisions of Classic Works (2008) and author of numerous essays on twentieth century drama.Cheryl Black is professor of theatre at the University of Missouri, Coumbia, USA. She is the author of The Women of Provincetown, 1915-1922 (2002) and has written widely on twentieth-century drama and performance.Brenda Murphy is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where she has taught since 1989, following fourteen years as a faculty member and administrator at St Lawrence University. She is the author of many articles, books, and reviews on drama and American literature.Julia Listengarten is Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Florida, USA. She is an artist scholar and her research interests range from contemporary performance to socially engaged creative practices. Her recent books include Visual and Performing Arts Collaboration: Transdisciplinary Practices (2023, with Keri Watson) and Performing Arousal: Precarious Bodies and Frames of Representation (Methuen Drama, 2022, with Yana Meerzon).

Summary

The Decades of Modern American Playwriting series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.

The major playwrights and their plays to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include:
* Tony Kushner: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Part One and Part Two (1991), Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness (1995) and A Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds (1997);
* Paula Vogel: Baltimore Waltz (1992), The Mineola Twins (1996) and How I Learned to Drive (1997);
* Suzan-Lori Parks: The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1990), The America Play (1994) and Venus (1996);
* Terrence McNally: Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991), Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) and Corpus Christi (1998).

Foreword

This volume offers a detailed account of the cultural, social, political and economic context for the theatre produced in 1990s America, and offers an indepth study of the work of four of the decade's major playwrights.

Product details

• Authors: Cheryl Black, Cheryl (University of Missouri Black, Sharon Friedman, Sharon (Gallatin School Friedman
• Assisted by: Julia Listengarten (Editor), Brenda Murphy (Editor)
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9781472572479
• ISBN: 978-1-4725-7247-9
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: Decades of Modern American Drama: Playwriting from the 1930s to 2009; Decades of Modern American Dra
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet