EDWARD ALBEE AND EMERGENCE OF DIF - 1950s-1970s

This collection of essays seeks to present articles that examine the early ventures of the 1960s and 1970s in the progressive theatre of identity with a new contemporary view considering the intersection of race, gender, ethnicity, economic class, and sexual orientation.

List of contents

Introduction
PART I: Albee & LGBTQ Theatre & Performance, Ageism, and Latinx Drama
Chapter 1. The New Conservatory Theatre Story: Activist Action Moments in Progressive Theatres of Identity
Chapter 2. Reviving Medusa's Revenge, New York City's First Lesbian Theater Space
Chapter 3. "Different Rewards": Queer Gerontological Models in the Dramaturgy of Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, and Lanford Wilson
Chapter 4. The Making of an American Master Playwright: A History of Lanford Wilson's Home Free! and the Albee-Barr-Wilder Playwrights Unit
Chapter 5. Whatever happened to Grandma?: Women and Aging in Edward Albee's The Sandbox (1960) and The American Dream (1961)
Chapter 6. "I know this game, you're playing. I know it very well": Albee as Influence and Counterpoint to Crowley's The Boys in the Band
Chapter 7. Albee, Fornés, and the Next Generation of Grotesque Theater
PART II: Albee and the Emergence of African-American Theatre
Chapter 8. Staging Politics of the Black Blues Bodies: Edward Albee's The Death of Bessie Smith in Conversation with August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Chapter 9. Visited by a Phantom: Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse Encounter with Edward Albee
Chapter 10. The Emergence of Identity and Protest through the Rhetorical Genre of American Absurdism
Chapter 11. "I am an American Writer Too": James Baldwin as Emergent Playwright
Chapter 12. Lorraine Hansberry and Anti-Colonial Drama on the Broadway Stage
Chapter 13. Student as Citizen: Illuminating Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun with Albee's Plays of 1959
Chapter 14. As a Black Woman Speaks and Dances: Embracing Intersectionality in Richards' A Black Woman Speaks (1950) and Shange's (1976)

About the author

David A. Crespy is a Professor of Playwriting, Acting, Theatre History, and Dramatic Literature at the University of Missouri, USA.
Les Gray is a dramaturg, collaborator, writer, and occasional performer. Their work has been featured in 'Youth Theatre Journal' and 'The Professor Is In'.

Product details

• Authors: David A. Gray Crespy
• Assisted by: Crespy David A. (Editor), Les Gray (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 08.09.2025
• EAN: 9781032770796
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3277079-6
• No. of pages: 366
• Series: Routledge Studies in Edward Albee and American Theatre
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Miscellaneous; History, DRAMA / General, PERFORMING ARTS / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism, PERFORMING ARTS / Television / Genres / Drama, Industrial / commercial art & design, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Performance Art, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, Acting techniques, Design, Industrial and commercial arts, illustration, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Theatre;Edward Albee