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2 books match the query 'Political Theater'
Staging Resistance
Essays on Political TheaterJeanne Colleran and Jenny S. Spencer, Editors
University of Michigan Press, 1998
Staging Resistance interrogates political performance in a variety of cultural and national contexts. The book's essays examine work by artists ranging from the Bread and Puppet Theatre to Théatre du Soleil to Athol Fugard to lesser-known grassroots organizations across the globe. The contributors' broad survey of work, as varied as the contexts in which it occurs, indicates that older paradigms for the study of political theater may no longer be viable. As the essays show, a wide variety of theoretical approaches and political assumptions must be actively and self-consciously negotiated in order to make sense of the theater's relevance to the social sphere.
Focused studies of individual plays complement broad-based discussions of the place of theater in a radically democratic society. Staging Resistance is particularly strong in its concern with the intersection of gender and national politics; the collection specifically engages work by and about women in relation to broader geopolitical issues. Resisting the urge to be representative, the editors smartly highlight the divergent interests and concerns of authors who envision their work as an active form of cultural struggle. This consistently challenging collection of essays describes an art of change confronting the processes of change itself.
Jeanne Colleran is Associate Professor and Chair of the English Department, John Carroll University.
Jenny S. Spencer is Associate Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
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Stone Tower
The Political Theater of Arthur MillerJeffrey D. Mason
University of Michigan Press, 2008
Jeffrey D. Mason's Stone Tower sets out to enrich -- and challenge --traditional views of playwright Arthur Miller. While Miller has long been acclaimed as a social dramatist, this fresh appraisal clearly establishes him as an essentially political playwright. The book pays close attention not only to the public and private power relations in Miller's dramatic works but also in his nondramatic writings. Stone Tower begins with a detailed critique of Miller's 1956 testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and of his published essays on topics ranging from Nazism to the contested presidential election of 2000. Mason moves on to explore Miller's dramatic works, presenting All My Sons and Death of a Salesman as plays that stage the political in personal terms, then offering The Crucible and The Archbishop's Ceiling as explorations of the personal in political terms. The book provides invaluable insights on Miller's theatrical response to the Holocaust in Incident at Vichy, Broken Glass, Playing for Time, and After the Fall. It offers revealing analyses of Miller's treatment of women throughout his plays and aspects of male domination in The Ride Down Mt. Morgan. Mason concludes with Miller's late satire Resurrection Blues as evidence that the playwright's mistrust of authority and social power remained unresolved. With attention to staging issues, social history, and dramatic analysis, the book explores the impact of this canonical American dramatist, breaks new ground in Miller studies, and suggests the deeper implications and extensive engagement of the American theater of the latter twentieth century. Stone Tower opens up new territory in Miller studies by exploring the political impact of this canonical American dramatist. This book should be useful to theater scholars and students, as well as readers who want to familiarize themselves with Miller's work.
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