In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Editorial Comment:Pathologies, Performance, and Promiscuous Care Laura Edmondson Susan Sontag's "kingdom of the sick" is ever expanding.1 This special issue on pathologies and performance not only speaks to the COVID-19 pandemic, but was also inspired by my research on how theatre artists and cultural workers in eastern and central Africa

Abstract: This essay examines queer responses to the first wave of the HIV/AIDS epidemic alongside public health practices at a recent ASTR conference held during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors focus especially on the period between the identification of the HIV virus in 1983 and the first availability of protease inhibitors in 1996. Within this period, queer practices of care in the face of government

Abstract: This essay marks an intervention into Sweden's international image as a beacon of civil liberties, gender equality, and progressive LGBTQ+ politics. First, it asserts that theatre and performance became strategic tools to help regulate the sexuality and national health of the Swedish population at the height of the AIDS crisis. Second, it suggests the methodological concept of "viral networks"

Abstract: This essay investigates how spectators, performers, and those beyond the theatrical space negotiate the role of theatre during and after a public health crisis. In doing so, this essay interrogates how theatre—as an industry, a profession, a live medium, an art form, a cultural product, and as a physical space—is intertwined with the history of epidemics. Tracing how the 1832 cholera epidemic

Abstract: Following the cancellation of influential contemporary choreographer Bill T. Jones's highly anticipated return to the stage in spring 2020, Jones reflected that COVID-19 was his "second plague." In referencing the AIDS epidemic that upended his career and personal life, Jones located methods of enduring not in the "unprecedented" present, but in the past. This essay considers the irreverent

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Plautus and the English Renaissance of Comedy by Richard F. Hardin Sukanta Chaudhuri PLAUTUS AND THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE OF COMEDY. By Richard F. Hardin. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2018; pp. 206. This is less a book about Plautus than about the reception and utilization of Plautus. It offers many insights

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Games and Theatre in Shakespeare's England ed. by Tom Bishop, Gina Bloom, and Erika T. Lin Doyeeta Majumder GAMES AND THEATRE IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND. Edited by Tom Bishop, Gina Bloom, and Erika T. Lin. Cultures of Play series. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021; pp. 332. It has nearly been a century since the publication

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Open Wounds: Holocaust Theater and the Legacy of George Tabori ed. by Martin Kagel and David Z. Saltz Timothy B. Malchow OPEN WOUNDS: HOLOCAUST THEATER AND THE LEGACY OF GEORGE TABORI. Edited by Martin Kagel and David Z. Saltz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022; pp. 208. George Tabori (1914–2007) is best known

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Brecht in India: The Poetics and Politics of Transcultural Theatre by Dr. Prateek Kristen Rudisill BRECHT IN INDIA: THE POETICS AND POLITICS OF TRANSCULTURAL THEATRE. By Dr. Prateek (sic). Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021; pp. 200. Dr. Prateek's book is a nuanced analysis of Bertolt Brecht's influence in the Hindi belt of India

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Early English Performance: Medi Eval Plays and Robin Hood Games by John Marshall John T. Sebastian EARLY ENGLISH PERFORMANCE: MEDI EVAL PLAYS AND ROBIN HOOD GAMES. By John Marshall. Shifting Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies series. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2020; pp. 376. Early English Performance: Medieval Plays and

Abstract: This brief essay is excerpted from my State of the Profession plenary presentation, delivered at the American Society for Theatre Research conference on October 28, 2021. Patrick Anderson and I reference this presentation in our essay, "Is This Ballroom a Bathhouse? The Promise and Peril of Coming Together," which also appears in this issue of the journal. I offer it here to expand upon our

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: "A Period of Extreme Uncertainty":A Conversation on Pandemic Theatre by AAPI Companies in California Janine Sun Rogers (bio) and Sean Metzger (bio) The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to theatre, but it has also ushered in a wave of innovation.1 In its wake, performance-makers have reimagined the relationships between

Abstract: For seven decades, Theatre Journal’s broad array of scholarly articles and reviews has earned it an international reputation as one of the most authoritative and useful publications of theatre studies available today. Drawing contributions from noted practitioners and scholars, Theatre Journal features social and historical studies, production reviews, and theoretical inquiries that analyze

Abstract: This essay proposes a theory of (post)-pandemic performance that reconceives the theatre, via its buildings, as installation. Innovations designed to navigate theatre-making within the context of pandemic, and the imperatives of online and physically distanced productions, open new perspectives on theatre’s projects and venues. Taking installation as its primary optic, the essay reviews two

Abstract: The performativity of plant life in the museum space has opened new thinking around temporality and survival. This essay examines the installations Extinct in New York, an exhibition of extinct plant life once native to New York City but now unable to grow in the wild due to urbanization, and Ori Gersht’s Fragile Land, a photography project of native endangered Israeli flora shown at the

Abstract: This essay explores both the topological and historiographic dimensions of installation. Fully cognizant of installation’s transience, temporality, experiential character, or its political dimensions, the author wishes to add one more element to the current discourse: that is, spatial dialectics foregrounding contradictions in and of space, as elucidated by Henri Lefebvre in The Production

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: AGHDRA by Arthur Jafa Gwyneth Shanks AGHDRA. By Arthur Jafa. Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York City. December 5, 2021. Over the course of eighty-five minutes, AGHDRA, Arthur Jafa’s most recent film installation, unfolds. Or perhaps, more precisely, it enfolds, the churning movements of an abstracted seascape seeming to embrace

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Black Joy/White Fragility by Joy Mariama Smith Megan Hoetger BLACK JOY/WHITE FRAGILITY. By Joy Mariama Smith. Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. October 21, 2021. Occupying a small but central gallery on the main exhibition floor of Rotterdam’s Kunstinstituut Melly, Joy Mariama Smith’s provocatively titled Black

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Telepathic Improvisation (2017) by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz (Boudry/Lorenz) Farrah O’Shea TELEPATHIC IMPROVISATION (2017). By Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz (Boudry/Lorenz). Witch Hunt, Hammer Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. October 22, 2021. Entering a small, unlit room with black walls

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Utopian Hotline by Kayla Asbell et al Cati Kalinoski UTOPIAN HOTLINE. Created by Kayla Asbell, Denis Butkus, Cinthia Chen, Alex Hawthorn, Michael Littig, Dima Mikhayel Matta, Justin Nestor, Rubén Polendo, Scott Spahr, Corey Sullivan, Monica Sanborn, Isabella Uzcátegui, and Ada Westfall. Directed by Rubén Polendo. Theater Mitu

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Hang by Taylor Mac and Matt Ray Sean F. Edgecomb THE HANG. By Taylor Mac and Matt Ray. Directed by Niegel Smith. HERE Arts Center, New York City. February 27, 2022. Over the past two decades performance artist Taylor Mac has cemented their career as doyenne of downtown queer performance in New York City, following in the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Carla Rossi and Pepper Pepper are Gloop: An Evening of Spectacularly Unhinged Drag from Two Portland Favorites by Carla Rossi and Pepper Pepper Kate Bredeson CARLA ROSSI AND PEPPER PEPPER ARE GLOOP: AN EVENING OF SPECTACULARLY UNHINGED DRAG FROM TWO PORTLAND FAVORITES. By Carla Rossi and Pepper Pepper. Portland Center Stage

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Not About Race Dance by Gerald Casel Kate Mattingly NOT ABOUT RACE DANCE. By Gerald Casel. CounterPulse, San Francisco. December 15, 2021. Gerald Casel’s investigations into racial dynamics take many forms. Since 2018, Casel has organized Dancing Around Race gatherings, and, in 2021, Not About Race Dance had its premiere at

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating by Robert Wilson Loren Ringer I WAS SITTING ON MY PATIO THIS GUY APPEARED I THOUGHT I WAS HALLUCINATING. Written and directed by Robert Wilson. Théâtre de la Ville, Espace Cardin, Paris. October 25, 2021. Robert Wilson’s I was sitting opened progressively

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Dana H by Lucas Hnath, and: Is This a Room by Tina Satter Barbara Fuchs DANA H. By Lucas Hnath. Directed by Les Waters. The Vineyard Theatre, New York City. October 27, 2021. IS THIS A ROOM. Conceived and directed by Tina Satter. The Vineyard Theatre, New York City. October 27, 2021. In a piece written early in the Trump era

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Thinking Through Phenomena: Theatre Phenomenology in Theory and Practice Andrew Sofer (bio) THEATRE AND PHENOMENOLOGY: MANUAL PHILOSOPHY. By Daniel Johnston. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017; pp. 210. KINESTHETIC SPECTATORSHIP IN THE THEATRE: PHENOMENOLOGY, COGNITION, MOVEMENT. By Stanton B. Garner Jr. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Drama and Digital Arts Cultures by David Cameron, Michael Anderson and Rebecca Wotzko Alicia Corts DRAMA AND DIGITAL ARTS CULTURES. By David Cameron, Michael Anderson, and Rebecca Wotzko. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017; pp. 344. David Cameron, Michael Anderson, and Rebecca Wotzko have taken on an honorable task: linking

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Feeling the Future at Christian End-Time Performances by Jill Stevenson Stanton B. Garner Jr. FEELING THE FUTURE AT CHRISTIAN END-TIME PERFORMANCES. By Jill Stevenson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022; pp. 242. In Feeling the Future at Christian End-Time Performances, Jill Stevenson continues the exploration of

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler David Krasner THE METHOD: HOW THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LEARNED TO ACT. By Isaac Butler. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022; pp. 512. Isaac Butler’s engaging book aims to examine Method Acting as a significant cultural event during the twentieth century. According

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America by Jake Johnson David Mason MORMONS, MUSICAL THEATER, AND BELONGING IN AMERICA. By Jake Johnson. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2019; pp. 222. Jake Johnson’s book’s most intriguing element is its embodied performance theory. The same element of the book also underpins

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Race and Performance After Repetition ed. by Soyica Diggs Colbert, Douglas A. Jones Jr. and Shane Vogel James McMaster RACE AND PERFORMANCE AFTER REPETITION. Edited by Soyica Diggs Colbert, Douglas A. Jones Jr., and Shane Vogel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020; pp. 344. “Repetition is a God term in performance theory”

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Three Loves for Three Oranges: Gozzi, Meyerhold, Prokofiev ed. by Dassia N. Posner, Kevin Bartig and Maria De Simone Anna Muza THREE LOVES FOR THREE ORANGES: GOZZI, MEYERHOLD, PROKOFIEV. Edited by Dassia N. Posner and Kevin Bartig, with Maria De Simone. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021; pp. 460. The volume under

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Notes on the African Burial Ground National Monument, New York City Erich Kessel Jr. (bio) What does a national monument to a forgotten slave cemetery confer upon the history to which it refers? And what does the form of the monument itself do to how we are meant to grasp this history? In a germinal form, these questions occupied me as

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Boring! The Performative Invisibility and Non-theatricality of Asian Americans in Higher Education Daphne P. Lei (bio) Art objects occasionally perform an act of negation, some classic examples being Ce n’est pas une pipe (1929) by René Magritte and Le Vide (1958) by Yves Klein. The negation or lack of the object challenges the fundamental

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The Space of an Encounter: An Interview with Sharon Hayes Gwyneth Shanks (bio) and Sharon Hayes (bio) One of Philadelphia-based artist Sharon Hayes’s earliest works is The Lesbian from 1997. The solo performance is based on a three-and-a-half-month research project she conducted earlier that same year, in which she drove some 10,000 miles

Abstract: For seven decades, Theatre Journal’s broad array of scholarly articles and reviews has earned it an international reputation as one of the most authoritative and useful publications of theatre studies available today. Drawing contributions from noted practitioners and scholars, Theatre Journal features social and historical studies, production reviews, and theoretical inquiries that analyze

Abstract: This essay proposes a theory of (post)-pandemic performance that reconceives the theatre, via its buildings, as installation. Innovations designed to navigate theatre-making within the context of pandemic, and the imperatives of online and physically distanced productions, open new perspectives on theatre’s projects and venues. Taking installation as its primary optic, the essay reviews two

Abstract: The performativity of plant life in the museum space has opened new thinking around temporality and survival. This essay examines the installations Extinct in New York, an exhibition of extinct plant life once native to New York City but now unable to grow in the wild due to urbanization, and Ori Gersht’s Fragile Land, a photography project of native endangered Israeli flora shown at the

Abstract: This essay explores both the topological and historiographic dimensions of installation. Fully cognizant of installation’s transience, temporality, experiential character, or its political dimensions, the author wishes to add one more element to the current discourse: that is, spatial dialectics foregrounding contradictions in and of space, as elucidated by Henri Lefebvre in The Production

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: AGHDRA by Arthur Jafa Gwyneth Shanks AGHDRA. By Arthur Jafa. Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York City. December 5, 2021. Over the course of eighty-five minutes, AGHDRA, Arthur Jafa’s most recent film installation, unfolds. Or perhaps, more precisely, it enfolds, the churning movements of an abstracted seascape seeming to embrace

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Black Joy/White Fragility by Joy Mariama Smith Megan Hoetger BLACK JOY/WHITE FRAGILITY. By Joy Mariama Smith. Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. October 21, 2021. Occupying a small but central gallery on the main exhibition floor of Rotterdam’s Kunstinstituut Melly, Joy Mariama Smith’s provocatively titled Black

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Telepathic Improvisation (2017) by Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz (Boudry/Lorenz) Farrah O’Shea TELEPATHIC IMPROVISATION (2017). By Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz (Boudry/Lorenz). Witch Hunt, Hammer Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. October 22, 2021. Entering a small, unlit room with black walls

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Utopian Hotline by Kayla Asbell et al Cati Kalinoski UTOPIAN HOTLINE. Created by Kayla Asbell, Denis Butkus, Cinthia Chen, Alex Hawthorn, Michael Littig, Dima Mikhayel Matta, Justin Nestor, Rubén Polendo, Scott Spahr, Corey Sullivan, Monica Sanborn, Isabella Uzcátegui, and Ada Westfall. Directed by Rubén Polendo. Theater Mitu

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Hang by Taylor Mac and Matt Ray Sean F. Edgecomb THE HANG. By Taylor Mac and Matt Ray. Directed by Niegel Smith. HERE Arts Center, New York City. February 27, 2022. Over the past two decades performance artist Taylor Mac has cemented their career as doyenne of downtown queer performance in New York City, following in the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Carla Rossi and Pepper Pepper are Gloop: An Evening of Spectacularly Unhinged Drag from Two Portland Favorites by Carla Rossi and Pepper Pepper Kate Bredeson CARLA ROSSI AND PEPPER PEPPER ARE GLOOP: AN EVENING OF SPECTACULARLY UNHINGED DRAG FROM TWO PORTLAND FAVORITES. By Carla Rossi and Pepper Pepper. Portland Center Stage

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Not About Race Dance by Gerald Casel Kate Mattingly NOT ABOUT RACE DANCE. By Gerald Casel. CounterPulse, San Francisco. December 15, 2021. Gerald Casel’s investigations into racial dynamics take many forms. Since 2018, Casel has organized Dancing Around Race gatherings, and, in 2021, Not About Race Dance had its premiere at

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating by Robert Wilson Loren Ringer I WAS SITTING ON MY PATIO THIS GUY APPEARED I THOUGHT I WAS HALLUCINATING. Written and directed by Robert Wilson. Théâtre de la Ville, Espace Cardin, Paris. October 25, 2021. Robert Wilson’s I was sitting opened progressively

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Dana H by Lucas Hnath, and: Is This a Room by Tina Satter Barbara Fuchs DANA H. By Lucas Hnath. Directed by Les Waters. The Vineyard Theatre, New York City. October 27, 2021. IS THIS A ROOM. Conceived and directed by Tina Satter. The Vineyard Theatre, New York City. October 27, 2021. In a piece written early in the Trump era

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Thinking Through Phenomena: Theatre Phenomenology in Theory and Practice Andrew Sofer (bio) THEATRE AND PHENOMENOLOGY: MANUAL PHILOSOPHY. By Daniel Johnston. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017; pp. 210. KINESTHETIC SPECTATORSHIP IN THE THEATRE: PHENOMENOLOGY, COGNITION, MOVEMENT. By Stanton B. Garner Jr. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Drama and Digital Arts Cultures by David Cameron, Michael Anderson and Rebecca Wotzko Alicia Corts DRAMA AND DIGITAL ARTS CULTURES. By David Cameron, Michael Anderson, and Rebecca Wotzko. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017; pp. 344. David Cameron, Michael Anderson, and Rebecca Wotzko have taken on an honorable task: linking

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Feeling the Future at Christian End-Time Performances by Jill Stevenson Stanton B. Garner Jr. FEELING THE FUTURE AT CHRISTIAN END-TIME PERFORMANCES. By Jill Stevenson. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022; pp. 242. In Feeling the Future at Christian End-Time Performances, Jill Stevenson continues the exploration of

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act by Isaac Butler David Krasner THE METHOD: HOW THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LEARNED TO ACT. By Isaac Butler. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022; pp. 512. Isaac Butler’s engaging book aims to examine Method Acting as a significant cultural event during the twentieth century. According

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Mormons, Musical Theater, and Belonging in America by Jake Johnson David Mason MORMONS, MUSICAL THEATER, AND BELONGING IN AMERICA. By Jake Johnson. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2019; pp. 222. Jake Johnson’s book’s most intriguing element is its embodied performance theory. The same element of the book also underpins

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Race and Performance After Repetition ed. by Soyica Diggs Colbert, Douglas A. Jones Jr. and Shane Vogel James McMaster RACE AND PERFORMANCE AFTER REPETITION. Edited by Soyica Diggs Colbert, Douglas A. Jones Jr., and Shane Vogel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020; pp. 344. “Repetition is a God term in performance theory”

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Three Loves for Three Oranges: Gozzi, Meyerhold, Prokofiev ed. by Dassia N. Posner, Kevin Bartig and Maria De Simone Anna Muza THREE LOVES FOR THREE ORANGES: GOZZI, MEYERHOLD, PROKOFIEV. Edited by Dassia N. Posner and Kevin Bartig, with Maria De Simone. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021; pp. 460. The volume under

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Notes on the African Burial Ground National Monument, New York City Erich Kessel Jr. (bio) What does a national monument to a forgotten slave cemetery confer upon the history to which it refers? And what does the form of the monument itself do to how we are meant to grasp this history? In a germinal form, these questions occupied me as

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Boring! The Performative Invisibility and Non-theatricality of Asian Americans in Higher Education Daphne P. Lei (bio) Art objects occasionally perform an act of negation, some classic examples being Ce n’est pas une pipe (1929) by René Magritte and Le Vide (1958) by Yves Klein. The negation or lack of the object challenges the fundamental

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The Space of an Encounter: An Interview with Sharon Hayes Gwyneth Shanks (bio) and Sharon Hayes (bio) One of Philadelphia-based artist Sharon Hayes’s earliest works is The Lesbian from 1997. The solo performance is based on a three-and-a-half-month research project she conducted earlier that same year, in which she drove some 10,000 miles

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Editorial Comment:Specters, States, and Solidarities Laura Edmondson As Charles Kipng'eno Rono explores in this issue, Kenyan playwright Francis Imbuga's dedications to the deceased serve as portals to what lies beyond the text. In that spirit, I dedicate this issue to the memory of Tom Postlewait, our beloved colleague who passed from

Abstract: This essay explores the theatricalization of neoliberal violence in two Mexican plays, Las Chicas del 3.5 Floppies by LEGOM and Sin/con/Fianza by H. Iván Arizmendi Galeno. These two remarkable works delve into the lives of sex workers in unnamed Mexican border towns to stage the intimacy and pervasiveness of a transactional economy and index the incorporation of violence into the body itself