-
Queer Performance and Radical Possibilities: Bill Butler and the Post-Stonewall Roller Disco Theatre Survey Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Melissa Lin Sturges
The preface of Bill Butler and Elin Schoen's 1979 skating instruction manual, Jammin’, teems with encouragement, but offers one slight warning. Welcoming his first-time skaters, Butler tells the reader, “chances are, once you've roller-discoed, you won't want to stop. You'll want to stay on wheels. And there's no reason why you shouldn't, even if you're not in a rink.” With the tagline “[everything
-
Yeats's Photographs and the World Theatre of Images Theatre Survey Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Kevin Riordan
W. B. Yeats's dramatic career was transformed in the 1910s through a series of collaborations in London. In an essay from the period, “Certain Noble Plays of Japan,” he writes: “I have invented a form of drama, distinguished, indirect and symbolic.” This form, like many other modernist inventions, is better understood as something else, in this case the alchemy of his earlier work, some eclectic influences
-
An Endless Capacity for Dissembling: Representing Teenage Girls on the American Stage from The Children's Hour through If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka Theatre Survey Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Bess Rowen
One day in 2018, I arrived at Playwrights Horizons in New York City excited to see a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino called This Flat Earth. I did not know much about the story aside from the fact that it had teenage actors playing teenager characters, but I quickly realized that it was about two teens trying to make sense of a recent mass shooting event as their school. The most striking part of this
-
Editorial Comment: Informal Archives, Remediations, and Disciplinary Desires Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Laura Edmondson
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Editorial Comment: Informal Archives, Remediations, and Disciplinary Desires Laura Edmondson The 75th anniversary issue of Theatre Journal is replete with pleasure, praise, critique, and desire. The journal’s invitation to think through the past, present, and future of the journal as articulated in the Call for Papers generated a robust
-
Theatre and Capital Once Again: An Essay on an Informal Archive Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Loren Kruger
Abstract: This essay reviews Theatre Journal articles that examine the intersections of theatre and capital, to highlight the challenge of analyzing neoliberal transformations of global and glocal economies, in particular, the trend to financial speculation to the detriment of investment in public resources, and the impact on theatre and performance. Commentators in the “global” North can better understand
-
"Moving Through and Beyond": Asian American Theatre and Performance Studies Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Josephine Lee
Abstract: For decades, Theatre Journal has deeply engaged with different aspects of Asian American theatre and performance. This essay surveys a range of Theatre Journal articles published from the 1990s in order to map out this distinctive area of theatre and performance studies. Key articles by James Moy, Karen Shimakawa, and Daphne Lei grapple with the legacy of racial stereotypes and the aesthetics
-
A Set of Questions for a Field in Motion: Susan Leigh Foster's "Choreographies of Protest" and Dance Studies in Theatre Journal Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alison Bory, Ariel Nereson
Abstract: In her landmark essay “Choreographies of Protest,” Susan Leigh Foster articulated the central concerns of the (at the time) developing field of dance studies. Foster’s following analysis, embedded in her argument about the compositional elements of social action, advanced core dance studies methodologies. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Theatre Journal, this essay revisits “Choreographies
-
The Digital Turn: Research and Publishing in Theatre Journal Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Joanne Tompkins
Abstract: For the seventy-fifth anniversary special issue of Theatre Journal, it is appropriate to look back to a transition moment in the journal’s history, even if that moment is not very far in the journal’s past. This essay outlines the history behind the establishment of Theatre Journal’s online platform which was launched in 2016. It explores the ways in which Theatre Journal is prepared for
-
In Praise of Performance Reviews Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Abstract: For decades, Theatre Journal has served as an important venue for documenting what made past theatrical productions or performances compelling and significant. As the journal commemorates its achievements over its first seventy-five volumes, this essay reflects on the vital contributions of the performance review section by considering its enduring impact on the field. In addition to tracing
-
Passing Theatre Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 W. B. Worthen
Abstract: As a technology, theatre both absorbs and represents the technologies it deploys, and so is defined by the multiple temporalities of its instruments. The signifying embodiments, signifying materialities, and signifying narratives constitutive of theatre as rhetoric and practice articulate, depend on, and are altered by the changing emergence of a conceptual “human” (or the dispersion of a
-
Catastrophe Practices and the Ontological Gambit: Nicholas Mosley's Plays for Not Acting Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Andrew Sofer
Abstract: This article explores three experimental closet dramas by British writer Nicholas Mosley, part of the novel Catastrophe Practice (1979), which deserve wider recognition in the context of theatre studies’ current focus on catastrophe and futurity. Mosley’s enigmatic “Plays for Not Acting” promote a leap in consciousness, fostering fresh mental patterns to invigorate humanity. This evolutionary
-
Revisiting (and Revising) West Side Story's Parahistories Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Brian Eugenio Herrera
Abstract: This essay returns to the author’s 2012 Theatre Journal article, “Compiling West Side Story’s Parahistories, 1949–2009,” to reassess the utility of “parahistory” as a critical or historiographic device to evince how “revisals” of canonical theatrical works might chart, illuminate, and document changes in the historical conditions of creative possibility. The essay then considers three notable
-
"Hold on to That Feeling": Disciplinary Formations and Asian B-Sides Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Broderick Chow
Abstract: This essay is a personal and self-reflective account of how disciplinary and sub-disciplinary formations operate within the field of theatre and performance studies materially, politically, and economically. Reflecting on the five years since the publication of the author’s Theatre Journal article, “Feeling in Counterpoint” (2018), the article addresses how disciplinary formations work to
-
On Inclusion and Resurgence: The State of North American Indigenous Theatre and Performance Scholarship Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Bethany Hughes
Abstract: This article follows the structure of a pop song—verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus—to put into relationship scholarship on North American Indigenous theatre and performance, the current state of academia, the politics of Indigeneity, and critiques of recognition and inclusion from Indigenous Studies. Historicizing Indigenous theatre scholarship and production alongside Peter Morin
-
Seeking Critical Frameworks for Global Majority Theatre Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Anita Gonzalez
Abstract: The essay advocates for expanding theater studies publications to more effectively engage with global majority epistemologies as core methodologies for analyzing theatrical phenomena. Academic theatre classes often incorporate performance studies paradigms, but most theater programs remain centered around practice-based exercises for acting, directing, designing, and producing Eurocentric
-
Power and Theory: Structural Racism and Zones of Sanctioned Ignorance Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Dorinne Kondo
Abstract: Through a case study of the creative process on the thirtieth anniversary revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum in 2023, this essay argues for centering theories of power in theatre practice as well as scholarship. The limits of mainstream US theatre models manifested in the workings of structural racism and what Gayatri Spivak calls “zones of
-
Nonhuman Futures Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jennifer Parker-Starbuck
Abstract: As a contribution to Theatre Journal’s 75th anniversary issue, this article poses questions and reflections about the inclusion of the more-than-human in theatre and performance studies. Surveying shifts in the field across the past few decades, the essay engages with the complex valences of the terms “human,” “nonhuman,” and “animal” to argue for greater intersectional, interdisciplinary
-
Afterword: Performance Studies Reorient Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Sean Metzger
Abstract: Drawing on the print contributions to the seventy-fifth anniversary issue of Theatre Journal, this essay argues for a performance studies reorient. Rather than stabilize the field, this gambit attempts to encourage continual disciplinary reinvention that would expand the parameters of critical concern as theatre and performance studies scholars attend to widening geographies, new modes of
-
The Burnt City by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jonathan Chambers
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Burnt City by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle Jonathan Chambers THE BURNT CITY. Directed by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle. Punchdrunk, One Cartridge Place, Woolwich, London. March 8, 2023. Over the course of the last twenty years, Punch-drunk has proven itself a producer of immersive theatre par excellence. Under the direction
-
1776 (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jennifer A. Low
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: 1776 Jennifer A. Low 1776. Book by Peter Stone. Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards. Directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus. Roundabout Theatre Company at the American Airlines Theatre, New York. December 23, 2022. A row of shoes on the lip of an empty stage was all there was for spectators to look at while waiting for
-
Some Like It Hot (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Emily G. Furlich
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Some Like It Hot Emily G. Furlich SOME LIKE IT HOT. Book by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin. Music by Marc Shaiman. Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman. Directed by Casey Nicholaw. Shubert Theatre, New York. January 19, 2023. Following Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire, Some Like It Hot is the third musical adapted from a man-in-a-dress
-
The Porch on Windy Hill (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Heather Grimm
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Porch on Windy Hill Heather Grimm THE PORCH ON WINDY HILL. Written and directed by Sherry Lutken. Northlight Theatre, Skokie, Illinois. May 5, 2023. In spring 2023, Northlight Theatre in Skokie, Illinois produced The Porch On Windy Hill: a new play with old music, written by director Sherry Lutken in collaboration with
-
New-Illusion (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Kyueun Kim
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: New-Illusion Kyueun Kim NEW-ILLUSION. Written and directed by Okada Toshiki (chelfitsch). Video directed by Yamada Shimpei. Singapore International Festival of Arts, SOTA Studio Theatre, Singapore. June 3–4, 2023. The lonely stage had an electric bass and an amplifier to one side, but otherwise, it was empty. Woman (Shiibashi
-
Metamorphosis of a Living Room (Ribingu Rūmu Metamoruflshizu) (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Beri Juraic
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Metamorphosis of a Living Room (Ribingu Rūmu Metamoruflshizu) Beri Juraic METAMORPHOSIS OF A LIVING ROOM (RIBINGU RŪMU METAMORUFLSHIZU). By chelfitsch and Dai Fujikura with Klangforum Wien. Directed by Okada Toshiki. Holland Festival, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam. June 8, 2023. Renowned director and playwright Okada Toshiki
-
Prague Quadrennial (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Alicia Corts
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Prague Quadrennial Alicia Corts PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL. Multiple venues, Prague. June 8–18, 2023. While the Prague Quadrennial has been billed as a festival of design since its first iteration in 1968, part of its charm lies in how performances are integrated into the festival. The 2023 edition of the PQ—centered around the theme
-
Kate (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Daniel Sack
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Kate Daniel Sack KATE. By Kate Berlant. Directed by Bo Burnham. Connelly Theater, New York. September 29, 2022. If a tear is, as William Archer wrote in his 1888 treatise against Diderot, the “external, visible, sensible fact” of the “most important emotion” for an actor, then one can understand how an actor’s failure to produce
-
Institutional Theatrics: Performing Arts Policy in Post-Wall Berlin by Brandon Woolf (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 James R. Ball III
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Institutional Theatrics: Performing Arts Policy in Post-Wall Berlin by Brandon Woolf James R. Ball III INSTITUTIONAL THEATRICS: PERFORMING ARTS POLICY IN POST-WALL BERLIN. By Brandon Woolf. Performance Works. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2021; pp. 280. Brandon Woolf’s Institutional Theatrics: Performing Arts
-
Dream Projects in Theatre, Novels and Films: The Works of Paul Claudel, Jean Genet, and Federico Fellini by Yehuda Moraly (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Clare Finburgh Delijani
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Dream Projects in Theatre, Novels and Films: The Works of Paul Claudel, Jean Genet, and Federico Fellini by Yehuda Moraly Clare Finburgh Delijani DREAM PROJECTS IN THEATRE, NOVELS AND FILMS: THE WORKS OF PAUL CLAUDEL, JEAN GENET, AND FEDERICO FELLINI. By Yehuda Moraly, translated by Melanie Florence. Brighton, Chicago, Toronto:
-
The Lines Between The Lines: How Stage Directions Affect Embodiment by Bess Rowen (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Tyler Graham
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Lines Between The Lines: How Stage Directions Affect Embodiment by Bess Rowen Tyler Graham THE LINES BETWEEN THE LINES: HOW STAGE DIRECTIONS AFFECT EMBODIMENT. Bess Rowen. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021; pp 248. Samuel Beckett’s 35-second Breath makes it easy to see how stage directions can be seen as constraints
-
To Be Nsala's Daughter: Decomposing the Colonial Gaze by Chérie N. Rivers (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Rachel Kabukala
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: To Be Nsala’s Daughter: Decomposing the Colonial Gaze by Chérie N. Rivers Rachel Kabukala TO BE NSALA’S DAUGHTER: DECOMPOSING THE COLONIAL GAZE. Chérie N. Rivers. Durham: Duke University Press, 2023; pp. 128. To Be Nsala’s Daughter: Decomposing the Colonial Gaze is the second book from interdisciplinary scholar Chérie N. Rivers
-
Baroque Modernity: An Aesthetic of Theater by Joseph Cermatori (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 David Krasner
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Baroque Modernity: An Aesthetic of Theater by Joseph Cermatori David Krasner BAROQUE MODERNITY: AN AESTHETIC OF THEATER. By Joseph Cermatori. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2021; 298 pp. In Thornton Wilder’s inaugural 1938 production of Our Town, director Jed Harris staged a moment in the play where over a dozen
-
Rising Up, Living On: Re-Existences, Sowings, and Decolonial Cracks by Catherine E. Walsh (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Maryam Ivette Parhizkar
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Rising Up, Living On: Re-Existences, Sowings, and Decolonial Cracks by Catherine E. Walsh Maryam Ivette Parhizkar RISING UP, LIVING ON: RE-EXISTENCES, SOWINGS, AND DECOLONIAL CRACKS. By Catherine E. Walsh. On Decoloniality series. Durham: Duke University Press, 2023; pp. 334. Catherine Walsh’s richly braided contribution to
-
Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew by Jeremy Dauber (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Brynn W. Shiovitz
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew by Jeremy Dauber Brynn W. Shiovitz MEL BROOKS: DISOBEDIENT JEW. By Jeremy Dauber. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2023; pp. 201. It seems fitting that a biography of Mel Brooks would be published the same week that the comedian auteur released History of the World, Part II on Hulu, a sequel
-
Disappearing Rooms: The Hidden Theaters of Immigration Law by Michelle Castañeda (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jennifer Tyburczy
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Disappearing Rooms: The Hidden Theaters of Immigration Law by Michelle Castañeda Jennifer Tyburczy DISAPPEARING ROOMS: THE HIDDEN THEATERS OF IMMIGRATION LAW. By Michelle Castañeda. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023; pp. 200. Michelle Castañeda’s book Disappearing Rooms: The Hidden Theaters of Immigration Law is a tour
-
Trans Care by Hil Malatino (review) Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Dan Paz
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Trans Care by Hil Malatino Dan Paz TRANS CARE. By Hil Malatino. Forerunner Series. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2020; pp. 79. Trans Care, written in the context of western, queer, trans and non-binary experience, is part of University of Minnesota Press’s Forerunners: Ideas First series. These books, short
-
Index to Volume 75 Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Index to Volume 75 CONTRIBUTORS’ INDEX ARTICLES Arfara, Katia. A Museum of Human Hunting: Thomas Bellinck’s Speculative Documentary. 277–299. Barclay, Kari. Erotic Returns: Sleeping with the Ancestors in Contemporary Plays about Sexual Violence. 41–59. Bory, Alison and Ariel Nereson. A Set of Questions for a Field in Motion: Susan Leigh
-
Four Notes on Six Conversations Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Carla Neuss
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Four Notes on Six Conversations Carla Neuss (bio) In June 2023, I had the unexpected privilege of being able to sit down, in person, with six scholars in our field for a series of open-ended and wide-ranging conversations. The occasion was, nominally, a chance to reflect on the seventy-five years of Theatre Journal’s contribution to theatre
-
On Editing, Paying it Forward, and Having Energy: A Conversation with Jean Graham-Jones, Former Editor Theatre Journal Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Jean Graham-Jones, Carla Neuss
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: On Editing, Paying it Forward, and Having Energy: A Conversation with Jean Graham-Jones, Former Editor Jean Graham-Jones (bio) and Carla Neuss (bio) This interview was conducted in June 2023 at Yale University through the support and generosity of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, UCLA, and ATHE; it has been edited for clarity and length
-
Introduction: Text & Presentation Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Amy Muse, Victoria Scrimer
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Introduction:Text & Presentation Amy Muse and Victoria Scrimer Often, especially of late, great changes seem to come upon us suddenly. We awake one day and the world is altered, for better or worse, demanding of us a new normal. But anyone who studies drama knows that long before any big reveal on stage, change is afoot just beneath the
-
"Only Write the Good Parts": Playwright Lucas Hnath in Conversation with Jay Malarcher Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: "Only Write the Good Parts":Playwright Lucas Hnath in Conversation with Jay Malarcher The keynote address at the 2023 Comparative Drama Conference was a conversation with playwright Lucas Hnath. His plays, known for their striking intellectual-tennis match-style dialogue, include Death Tax (2012), A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay
-
Arthur Miller's Suicidology of the Stage: Suicide and Dramatic Form in Death of a Salesman Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Nicholas Duddy
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Arthur Miller's Suicidology of the Stage:Suicide and Dramatic Form in Death of a Salesman Nicholas Duddy (bio) On August 5, 1962, the body of Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller's exwife, was found in the bedroom of her Brentwood home. Tangled bedsheets, bottles of pills, a rotary phone receiver by her hand—the room resembled the mise-en-scène
-
"In this show let me an actor be": Joining in with Doctor Faustus Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Mark Scott
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: "In this show let me an actor be":Joining in with Doctor Faustus Mark Scott (bio) Theatre is a fundamentally collaborative artform. Any successful live performance depends upon the participation of—and cooperation between—actors and spectators. On the Elizabethan stage, this axiom was most famously pronounced by the Chorus in William Shakespeare's
-
Art Acts: Reframing the White Gaze in Claudia Rankine's The White Card Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Carla J. McDonough
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Art Acts:Reframing the White Gaze in Claudia Rankine's The White Card Carla J. McDonough (bio) "Until we are willing to look at the ways in which white Americans are culpable in the suffering of the people of color, and understand that culpability needs to be present in the representation of that, suffering will continue." Claudia Rankine1
-
Institutionalized Violence and Oppression: Ambiguity, Complicity and Resistance in El Campo and The Conduct of Life Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Araceli González Crespán
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Institutionalized Violence and Oppression:Ambiguity, Complicity and Resistance in El Campo and The Conduct of Life Araceli González Crespán (bio) Argentinian playwright Griselda Gambaro's El Campo, written in 1967 and first performed in 1968, is a play that portrays institutionalized violence through ambiguity, double meanings, duplicity
-
Keeping the Violence Out of Sight: Representing Systems of Oppression with Offstage Violence Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Richard Gilbert
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Keeping the Violence Out of Sight:Representing Systems of Oppression with Offstage Violence Richard Gilbert (bio) Sometimes what we don't see with our own eyes can hit harder than what we do, and for those who create theatre that challenges the potent imbedded systems of violence by which our society oppresses so many of its people, hitting
-
The Perfect Joke: Autopathography and Humor in Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Jeffrey M. Brown
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: The Perfect Joke: Autopathography and Humor in Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House Jeffrey M. Brown (bio) An Aesthetics of Anesthetics: The Problem of Humor in Medicine In spite of that old adage—"laughter is the best medicine"—it is hard to overcome the feeling that illness and humor are fundamentally incompatible. Indeed, this basic assumption
-
Under the Influence: Adaptation, Adultery, and Acceptance in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Paul D. Reich
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Under the Influence:Adaptation, Adultery, and Acceptance in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car Paul D. Reich (bio) In A Theory of Adaptation, Linda Hutcheon defines adaptation in three ways: "an acknowledged transposition of a recognizable other work or works; a creative and an interpretative act of appropriation/salvaging;
-
Euphoria in Unhappiness: Technology and Revelation in Jennifer Haley's Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom and The Nether Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 M. Scott Phillips
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Euphoria in Unhappiness:Technology and Revelation in Jennifer Haley's Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom and The Nether M. Scott Phillips (bio) Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral;
-
Torvald's Question: Italo Svevo and James Joyce Stage Modern Masculinity Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Christine Froula
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Torvald's Question:Italo Svevo and James Joyce Stage Modern Masculinity Christine Froula (bio) Nora! Nora! … Empty. She's gone. (A sudden hope leaps in him.) The greatest miracle—?! Torvald in Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House (1879) I have peeped into a great many doll's houses; and I have found that the dolls are not all female. Nora in George
-
Noël Coward: The Playwright's Craft in a Changing Theatre by Russell Jackson, and: Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward by Oliver Soden (review) Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Laura Milburn
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Noël Coward: The Playwright's Craft in a Changing Theatre by Russell Jackson, and: Masquerade: The Lives of Noël Coward by Oliver Soden Laura Milburn (bio) Russell Jackson, Noël Coward: The Playwright's Craft in a Changing Theatre. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022. Pp 232. Hardcover $115.00 and Oliver Soden, Masquerade:
-
Let the Right One In by Jack Thorne (review) Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Judith Saunders
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Let the Right One Inby Jack Thorne Judith Saunders (bio) Let the Right One In, by Jack Thorne, directed by John Tiffany Berkeley Repertory Theatre (05 20– 06 25, 2023) The West Coast premiere of Let The Right One Inopened May 20, 2023 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This production was headed by the original British creative
-
Contributors Comparative Drama Pub Date : 2024-03-06
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Contributors Jeffrey M. Brown is Associate Professor of English at Saint Joseph's University, where he teaches courses in modern literature, theatre, and the medical humanities. His current research considers the ways in which the theatre both models and elicits modes of affective engagement that are central to medical education, narrative
-
Queer Street Scenes: Interruption, Exception, Orientation Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 DAVID CALDER
How might we think queerly about the politics of performance in public space? Inspired by ‘queer’ as a straying from the straight-and-narrow and by the street as a site of chance meetings and awkward run-ins, I stage in this essay an encounter between two different approaches to thinking the politics of performance in public space. The first approach follows a familiar path: Bertolt Brecht's ‘street
-
‘Looking at the Wider World’: Global Engagement, Political Activism and Polemical Storytelling in Watchlist, Prima Facie and Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 ALEX VICKERY-HOWE, LISA HARPER CAMPBELL
This article focuses on Watchlist, a new play written by Alex Vickery-Howe, placing it in a context of contemporary Australian political writing for the stage which sees playwrights, such as Stephen Sewell and Suzie Miller, adopt an international outlook in order to tell stories of activism. By creating nuanced characters and engaging with the popular, these playwrights are inspiring activism in their
-
‘Why Were Our Yemenite Brothers Insulted?’: Love as Strong as Death as a Prequel to Mizrahi Presence in Israeli Theatre Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 YAIR LIPSHITZ, NAPHTALY SHEM-TOV
The article traces the production and reception of Love as Strong as Death, a dramatization of the Song of Songs that was performed in Mandatory Palestine in the years 1940–42 by a group of Yemenite Jewish actors. We argue that the tensions between the actors’ amateur status and their image as embodying a long-lost Biblical heritage were emblematic of the inherent contradictions within the hegemonic
-
Scenography of the Unimaginable: Exploring Trauma of Others in 872 days. Voices of the besieged city Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 OLGA NIKOLAEVA
The article explores the scenographic rendering of trauma in the theatre performance 872 days. Voices of the besieged city staged by a small theatre, Subbota, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The performance delves into the complex issues of private narratives of traumatic experiences, which, for decades, were deemed unimportant and even disruptive within the context of victory and glory of The Great Patriotic
-
Dossier—Negotiating Urban Spaces: Access, Care and Confinement in Contemporary Gendered Performance Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 INDU JAIN, TRINA NILEENA BANERJEE
This dossier explores the ways in which theatre and performance practitioners across the globe have addressed the deeply gendered modes of differential access to public spaces, institutional support, and resources through their creative as well as activist work, during the pandemic and its aftermath. In the last three years, the pandemic has transformed experiences of urban space globally. Access to
-
Performing Womanhood and Carefare in Hungary Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 KORNÉLIA DERES
In the present article,1 I will examine how topics of domestic work, care and family values were critically addressed by female performers in 2022 on various Hungarian stages. Two short analyses will show that the notion of womanhood is deconstructed through questioning superficial and populist images of traditional female roles. While Baby Bumm – Propinquity Effect, a community theatre production
-
Viral Interstitiality and Unlikely Resources: Gender and Labour in Turkish Public Theatre During the Covid-19 Pandemic Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 CHRISTINA BANALOPOULOU
The growing literature on Covid-19 and theatre has demonstrated how the pandemic has intensified gendered precarities in theatrical labour.1 However, the pandemic has also provided feminist theatre makers with unexpected or unlikely resources, albeit with limitations. The Istanbul Municipal Theatre's (İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Şehir Tiyatroları or İBBŞT) production of Melek that premiered in 2020
-
Subway Crush Theatre Research International Pub Date : 2024-02-26 KELLEY HOLLEY
An attendant exerts all his strength to squeeze in as many passengers as possible into a car at the 28th Street Station in New York. The most prominent passenger feature is the contorting face of a Black man. He is surrounded by white riders, one of whom is trying his best to read the newspaper, a little girl, who stands with her legs akimbo, and a white woman, obscured by the window. The hectic scene