Theatre Appreciation (43-101)

Theatre Culture in America, 1825-1860 examines how Americans staged their cultures in the decades before the Civil War, and advances the idea that cultures are performances which take place both inside and outside of playhouses. Americans imaginatively expanded conventional ideas of performance as an activity restricted to theatres in order to take up the staging of culture in other venues - in issues of class, race and gender, in parades and the visits of dignitaries, in rioting and the denomination of prostitutes, and in views of the town, the city and the frontier. Joining historical research with a firm and clear-headed grasp of contemporary critical theory, Theatre Culture in America offers an interesting approach to the complex intersections of American theatre and culture.

Plays by Early American Women: 1775-1850 provides a comprehensive view of American women's engagement with drama. Standard histories and anthologies of American theater and drama have paid scant attention to women although they actively participated in the formation of a distinctively American drama and were vital in the production of that drama before the twentieth century. The plays in this collection- The Group (1775) by Mercy Otis Warren, Slaves in Algiers (1794) by Susanna Haswell Rowson, The Traveller Returned (1796) by Judith Sargent Murray, The Female Enthusiast (1807) by Sarah Pogson, The Fair Americans (1815) by Mary Carr Clarke, Altorf (1819) by Frances Wright, Ernest Maltravers (1838) by Louisa Medina, and The Forest Princess (1844) by Charlotte Barnes Conner- amply demonstrate the range, strength, popularity, and importance of women's dramatic writing during that period. Running the gamut of subject and style these plays, several of them exceptionally stageworthy, indicate the ways in which early American women defined themselves and serve to highlight common patterns in their experience of day-to-day life. At the same time, they construct ideal images of the American woman that were often explicitly held up for emulation by playwrights who evinced a lively concern with defining what it meant to be American. The book includes an introduction that discusses historical context and presents a short biography of each playwright and bibliography of American women playwrights to 1900, with over a thousand entries. This anthology is thus a valuable resource for historians, researchers, and students of American literature, American drama, and women's studies. "The selection of works is excellent. I can't imagine teaching a nineteenth-century American theater history course without it. With this book, such courses can set female dramatists side-by-side with novelists, essayists, and poets."--Rosemarie K. Bank, Kent State University Amelia Howe Kritzer is Assistant Professor of Theater, West Virginia University. She is author of The Plays of Caryl Churchill: Theatre of Empowerment (Macmillan).

In this program, Brooks McNamara, expert on 19th-century theater at New York University; theater historian and author Mary Henderson; playwright Michael Dinwiddie; and New York City historian George Thompson examine the efforts at theater-making in America from the 1750s to the eve of the Civil War. Among the topics discussed are actor training; the stage careers of Ira Aldridge, Edwin Forrest, and William Macready; the African Theater Company; the Astor Place Opera House riots; and issues such as immigration and segregation. The program also sets the stage for the entire series by asking questions that are explored over the course of the six episodes. (52 minutes, full transcript)

Patriotism, xenophobia, and World War I -- The musicals of the roaring twenties -- Coping with Depression -- World War II and the Rodgers and Hammerstein years -- From isolationism to idealism in the Cold War years -- Black and Jewish musicals since the 1960s -- Issue-driven musicals of the turbulent years -- Fragmented society, fragmented musicals -- "A recycled culture," nostalgia, and spectacle -- New voices, new perspectives

"The American century" -- Before the revolutions -- The challenge of power -- The inflation of moral possibilities -- The generational chasm -- Affluence -- From isolation to international hegemonic power -- The rise of the military in American society -- The reorganization of American business -- The revolution in racial relations -- The revolution in gender-based roles -- Revolution in sexual behavior -- The demise of privacy -- Liberalism: ascension and declension -- The liberal democratic coalition -- The failure syndrome -- The rise of the new left and the birth of neoconservatism -- Right-wing ascendancy -- The Reagan revolution -- "The new American century."

Chronology of 1960s American culture -- Introduction. Intellectual context -- 1. Music and performance -- 2. Film and television -- 3. Fiction and poetry -- 4. Art and photography -- 5. New social movements and creative dissent -- Conclusion. Sixties and its cultural legacy

Chronolgy of 1970s American culture -- Introduction: The intellectual context -- Fiction and poetry -- Television and drama -- Film and visual culture -- Popular music and style -- Public space and spectacle -- Conclusion: Rethinking the 1970s

Chronology of 1980s American Culture; Introduction The Intellectual Context; Chapter 1 Fiction and Poetry; Chapter 2 Art and Photography; Chapter 3 Film and Television; Chapter 4 Music and Performance; Chapter 5 American Culture and Globalization; Conclusion The Cultural Legacy of the 1980s

Chronology of 1990s American Culture -- Introduction The Intellectual Context -- Chapter 1 Fiction and Poetry -- Chapter 2 Music and Radio -- Chapter 3 Film and Television -- Chapter 4 Art and Architecture -- Chapter 5 Digital Culture -- Conclusion Towards a New Millennium

Full text from Drama Online

v. 1. Gem of the ocean / foreword by Phylicia Rashad -- v. 2. Joe Turner's come and gone / foreword by Romulus Linney -- v. 3. Ma Rainey's black bottom / foreword by Frank Rich -- v. 4. The piano lesson / foreword by Toni Morrison -- v. 5. Seven guitars / foreword by Tony Kushner -- v. 6. Fences / foreword by Samuel G. Freedman -- v. 7. Two trains running / foreword by Laurence Fishburne -- v. 8. Jitney / foreword by Ishmael Reed -- v. 9. King Hedley II / foreword by Marion McClinton -- v. 10. Radio golf

Drama article. History of African American Drama.

Article on the role of experimental theater in African American performing arts history.

The role of Minstrels/Minstrelsy in African American performing arts history.

Full Text Online

Play analysis and plot and biography of Zora Neale Hurston.

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