This book provides a brief yet informative evaluation of the variety and complexity of theatrical endeavours in the United States, embracing all epochs of theatre history and situating American theatre as a lively, dynamic and diverse arena.
Volume Two begins in the post-Civil War period and traces the development of American theater up to 1945. It discusses the role of vaudeville, European influences, the rise of the Little Theater movement, changing audiences, modernism, the Federal Theater movement, major actors and the rise of the star system, and the achievements of notable playwrights. This volume places American theater in its social, economic, and political context.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopted the vocal and theatrical traditions of American musical theater as important theological tenets. As Church membership grew, leaders saw how the genre could help define the faith and wove musical theater into many aspects of Mormon life. Jake Johnson merges the study of belonging in America with scholarship on voice and popular music to explore the surprising yet profound link between two quintessentially American institutions. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Mormons gravitated toward musicals as a common platform for transmitting political and theological ideas. Johnson sees Mormons using musical theater as a medium for theology of voice--a religious practice that suggests how vicariously voicing another person can bring one closer to godliness. This sounding, Johnson suggests, created new opportunities for living. Voice and the musical theater tradition provided a site for Mormons to negotiate their way into middle-class respectability. At the same time, musical theater became a unique expressive tool of Mormon culture.
Composed of sixteen essays and fifteen illustrations, Angels in the American Theater explores not only how donors became angels but also their backgrounds, motivations, policies, limitations, support, and successes and failures.
As America passed from a mere venue for English plays into a country with its own nationally regarded playwrights, William Dunlap lived the life of a pioneer on the frontier of the fledgling American theatre, full of adventures, mishaps, and close calls. He adapted and translated plays for the American audience and wrote plays of his own as well, learning how theatres and theatre companies operated from the inside out. Dunlap's masterpiece, A History of American Theatre was the first of its kind, drawing on the author's own experiences. In it, he describes the development of theatre in New York, Philadelphia, and South Carolina as well as Congress's first attempts at theatrical censorship. Never before previously indexed, this edition also includes a new introduction by Tice L. Miller.
Not every presidential visit to the theatre is as famous as Lincoln's last night at Ford's, but American presidents attended the theatre long before and long after that ill-fated night. In 1751, George Washington saw his first play, The London Merchant, during a visit to Barbados. John Quincy Adams published dramatic critiques. William McKinley avoided the theatre while in office, on professional as well as moral grounds. Richard Nixon met his wife at a community theatre audition. Surveying 255 years, this volume examines presidential theatre-going as it has reflected shifting popular tastes in America.
[A] long overdue retrospective of the major playwrights, theatre companies, and professional organizations which have sustained the children's theatre movement in this country. . . . Part One of McCaslin's book is a historical overview of the significant trends and changes which have characterized children's theatre and influenced the art and craft of playwriting. . . . Part Two, the bulk of McCaslin's guide, contains an alphabetical listing of over 350 educational, community, and commercial theatre companies as wella s national and regional organizations--some no longer operating--which have made children's theatre the main thrust of their work. . . . Several appendixes augment the usefulness of this altogether practical and meticulously researched reference book. Children's Literature Association Quarterly An authoritative reference for children's theater professionals, educators, and enthusiasts, McCaslin's historical guide will be frequently used in public, college, and university libraries. ARBA Those who are associated with children's theater in any way will want to study this book thoroughly and keep it as a handy reference guide. . . . Thanks to Nellie McCaslin, the history of children's theater can take its rightful place beside all other theater history. Applause Professor McCaslin, a leading authority in the field, examines the history of the companies and organizations that struggled to bring live theatrical entertainment to children from 1903, beginning with a theater founded by a settlement house on New York's Lower East Side, to the present day. She begins with an overview of children's theatre history. The main text consists of alphabetically arranged profiles of both early and current producing companies and associations that have made a significant contribution to the field. Appendixes to the volume supply a Personalities Roster, a Geographical Index, and a Chronology of Events significant in the history of the children's theatre movement.