Visiting Professor | Lectures on American Studies, American Musicals and Criticism Workshop (original) (raw)

The Cult of Newness in Twentieth-Century American Theatre

What is really particular about the American theater in the 20th century? In fact, it is only in this century that the American theater knew a brilliant and a new start; it ceased to be a show – only a spectacle – and became an art. To deal with the American theater is to talk about periods, schools, groups, figures, doings and undoings. Though it is not possible to talk about the whole American theater, even within the confines of the 20th century, in a paper like the present one, I consider it possible to render a short synopsis of its general trends and prominent figures, each pretending to be new, but each drawing to a close after a certain period of existence, and paving the stage for something new.

Challenges and Hopes for American Theatre in the Twenty-first Century

アメリカ学会英文ジャーナル, 2000

In this age of rapidly developing high technology and the invasion of corporate culture, American theatre is facing extraordinary challenges. Nevertheless, it seems to be bravely exploring and expanding its territory. This paper examines first the effects shown in actual productions of technological devices and corporate cultural sensibilities in the first and second sections. In the third and fourth sections, it investigates areas of hope for American theatre in the twenty-first century, taking examples from the work of two women playwrights who have courageously created an arena in which the role of drama in American society is reconsidered. Both playwrights deal with current social problems via theatre, in a way no other social institutions at present can do with the same impact. The works discussed here are: Anna Deavere Smith's 1992 play, Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities, and Paula Vogel's 1998 Pulitzer-Prize winning play, How I Learned to Drive. 1 I THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY American Theatre magazine, September 1999, includes a special section: "Theatre of Tomorrow," which covers the various impacts hightechnology devices have had on a number of American playwrights. Jennifer Tanaka reports on a "site-specific work in cyberspace" given in New York City in the summer of 1999. "In front of fifty or so New 91

“Community Theatre: The New York Season 2013–14”

T o give an account of current issues in contemporary New York theatre, PAJ convened three critics for a season review roundtable whose format was inspired by the critical dialogues that the journal hosted in the mid-eighties and early nineties (featuring Bonnie Marranca, Gerald Rabkin, Elinor Fuchs, and Johannes Birringer). The aim of the discussion was to conduct a general review of the overall season, highlighting its most noteworthy theatrical offerings. (This was a deliberately quixotic gesture in a year when the magazine ArtReview's list of the hundred most powerful figures in the contemporary art world notably included no critics at all. 1 ) We chose to attend and consider close to twenty-five productions from a pool of over fifty possibilities, narrowing these down to a final eight for the overview below. These works amount to a rich and ambitious variety of theatre projects representing some of the most outstanding artists of our generation. They testify to a host of contemporary concerns, perhaps none more pressing than a desire to reconsider "community" and "the social" under present political and economic circumstances -particularly the continuing fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and the aftermath of Occupy Wall Street. Over several hours in May 2014, our conversation ranged over a variety of topics. These included the newfound interest in participation as an aesthetic category; the increasingly pervasive use of non-professionals, volunteers, and what one arts organization has described as "locally sourced" performers; 2 new anxieties about authority, especially the power and credibility of experts; and new ideas concerning the writing and use of text in performance.