The Other American Drama
Condition: SECONDHAND
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"The Other American Drama" proposes an alternative to the received history of American drama, the Eugene O'Neill-Arthur Miller-August Wilson line of development so familiar to readers of standard drama surveys. Marc Robinson begins his book with a study of Gertrude Stein, whose prolific career as a playwright has been unjustly overshadowed by that of O'Neill. Subsequent essays rethink familiar figures such as Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, and make the case for such undervalued writers as Maria Irene Fornes, Adrienne Kennedy and Richard Foreman. An afterword suggests new directions in the work of several younger playwrights. Robinson's book is the first to discuss Stein, Fornes, Kennedy and Foreman as essential members of modern American theatre rather than as curious fringe figures. He shows how these writers direct attention away from plots, experiment with form, redefine emotion and psychology, and search for the essence of theatrical notions usually taken for granted, such as presence, speech and movement. Taken together, his essays trace the evolution of a truly innovative American drama.
Author: Marc Robinson
Format: Paperback, 216 pages, 152mm x 229mm, 340 g
Published: 1997, Johns Hopkins University Press, United States
Genre: Literary Theory
"The Other American Drama" proposes an alternative to the received history of American drama, the Eugene O'Neill-Arthur Miller-August Wilson line of development so familiar to readers of standard drama surveys. Marc Robinson begins his book with a study of Gertrude Stein, whose prolific career as a playwright has been unjustly overshadowed by that of O'Neill. Subsequent essays rethink familiar figures such as Tennessee Williams and Sam Shepard, and make the case for such undervalued writers as Maria Irene Fornes, Adrienne Kennedy and Richard Foreman. An afterword suggests new directions in the work of several younger playwrights. Robinson's book is the first to discuss Stein, Fornes, Kennedy and Foreman as essential members of modern American theatre rather than as curious fringe figures. He shows how these writers direct attention away from plots, experiment with form, redefine emotion and psychology, and search for the essence of theatrical notions usually taken for granted, such as presence, speech and movement. Taken together, his essays trace the evolution of a truly innovative American drama.