History of the North American Theater
History of the North American Theater

Author: Felicia Hardison Londré

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 1998-01-01

Total Pages: 550

ISBN-13: 9780826412331

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The third and final volume of Continuum's set on the History of World Theater. All the world's a stage! Yet the multicultural dimension of the American continent's stage remained an untold story until Felicia LondrT and Daniel Watermeier raised the curtain on the entire North American theatrical scene. This volume will fascinate scholar, student, and casual reader alike. With some 300 illustrations-many rare and previously unpublished-an extensive index, and separate bibliographies for each historical period, this volume is the perfect companion for anyone interested in the theater.>

Indigenous North American Drama
Indigenous North American Drama

Author: Birgit Däwes

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2013-01-01

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1438446616

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Traces the historical dimensions of Native North American drama using a critical perspective.

The Theater in Colonial America
The Theater in Colonial America

Author: Hugh F. Rankin

Publisher: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press

Published: 1965

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13:

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The impact of the theater on colonial culture is approached in this study from the viewpoint of the historian rather than the dramatist. From the faded prints of playbills, newspaper advertisements, and court records, the men, women, and children who brought theater to America come to life with their great and petty problems. Originally published in 1965. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater
Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater

Author: James Fisher

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 1003

ISBN-13: 0810879506

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From legends like Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller to successful present-day playwrights like Neil LaBute, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet, some of the most important names in the history of theater are from the past 80 years. Contemporary American theater has produced some of the most memorable, beloved, and important plays in history, including Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Barefoot in the Park, Our Town, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Odd Couple. Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater presents the plays and personages, movements and institutions, and cultural developments of the American stage from 1930 to 2010, a period of vast and almost continuous change. It covers the ever-changing history of the American theater with emphasis on major movements, persons, plays, and events. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 1,500 cross-referenced dictionary entries. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the history of American theater.

Forgeries of Memory and Meaning
Forgeries of Memory and Meaning

Author: Cedric J. Robinson

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 1469606755

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Cedric J. Robinson offers a new understanding of race in America through his analysis of theater and film of the early twentieth century. He argues that economic, political, and cultural forces present in the eras of silent film and the early "talkies" firmly entrenched limited representations of African Americans. Robinson grounds his study in contexts that illuminate the parallel growth of racial beliefs and capitalism, beginning with Shakespearean England and the development of international trade. He demonstrates how the needs of American commerce determined the construction of successive racial regimes that were publicized in the theater and in motion pictures, particularly through plantation and jungle films. In addition to providing new depth and complexity to the history of black representation, Robinson examines black resistance to these practices. Whereas D. W. Griffith appropriated black minstrelsy and romanticized a national myth of origins, Robinson argues that Oscar Micheaux transcended uplift films to create explicitly political critiques of the American national myth. Robinson's analysis marks a new way of approaching the intellectual, political, and media racism present in the beginnings of American narrative cinema.

The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre
The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre

Author: Harvey Young

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 1009359584

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This new edition provides an expanded, comprehensive history of African American theatre, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Including discussions of slave rebellions on the national stage, African Americans on Broadway, the Harlem Renaissance, African American women dramatists, and the New Negro and Black Arts movements, the Companion also features fresh chapters on significant contemporary developments, such as the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the mainstream successes of Black Queer Drama and the evolution of African American Dance Theatre. Leading scholars spotlight the producers, directors, playwrights, and actors who have fashioned a more accurate appearance of Black life on stage, revealing the impact of African American theatre both within the United States and around the world. Addressing recent theatre productions in the context of political and cultural change, it invites readers to reflect on where African American theatre is heading in the twenty-first century.

The Necropolitical Theater
The Necropolitical Theater

Author: Jeffrey K. Coleman

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 2020-05-15

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 0810141876

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The Necropolitical Theater: Race and Immigration on the Contemporary Spanish Stage demonstrates how theatrical production in Spain since the early 1990s has reflected national anxieties about immigration and race. Jeffrey K. Coleman argues that Spain has developed a “necropolitical theater” that casts the non-European immigrant as fictionalized enemy—one whose nonwhiteness is incompatible with Spanish national identity and therefore poses a threat to the very Europeanness of Spain. The fate of the immigrant in the necropolitical theater is death, either physical or metaphysical, which preserves the status quo and provides catharsis for the spectator faced with the notion of racial diversity. Marginalization, forced assimilation, and physical death are outcomes suffered by Latin American, North African, and sub-Saharan African characters, respectively, and in these differential outcomes determined by skin color Coleman identifies an inherent racial hierarchy informed by the legacies of colonization and religious intolerance. Drawing on theatrical texts, performances, legal documents, interviews, and critical reviews, this book challenges Spanish theater to develop a new theatrical space. Jeffrey K. Coleman proposes a “convivial theater” that portrays immigrants as contributors to the Spanish state and better represents the multicultural reality of the nation today.

Female Spectacle
Female Spectacle

Author: Susan A. Glenn

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0674037669

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When the French actress Sarah Bernhardt made her first American tour in 1880, the term feminism had not yet entered our national vocabulary. But over the course of the next half-century, a rising generation of daring actresses and comics brought a new kind of woman to center stage. Exploring and exploiting modern fantasies and fears about female roles and gender identity, these performers eschewed theatrical convention and traditional notions of womanly modesty. They created powerful images of themselves as ambitious, independent, and sexually expressive New Women. Female Spectacle reveals the theater to have been a powerful new source of cultural authority and visibility for women. Ironically, theater also provided an arena in which producers and audiences projected the uncertainties and hostilities that accompanied changing gender relations. From Bernhardt's modern methods of self-promotion to Emma Goldman's political theatrics, from the female mimics and Salome dancers to the upwardly striving chorus girl, Glenn shows us how and why theater mattered to women and argues for its pivotal role in the emergence of modern feminism.

Starring Women
Starring Women

Author: Sara E. Lampert

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2020-11-09

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 0252052234

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Women performers played a vital role in the development of American and transatlantic entertainment, celebrity culture, and gender ideology. Sara E. Lampert examines the lives, careers, and fame of overlooked figures from Europe and the United States whose work in melodrama, ballet, and other stage shows shocked and excited early U.S. audiences. These women lived and performed the tensions and contradictions of nineteenth-century gender roles, sparking debates about women's place in public life. Yet even their unprecedented wealth and prominence failed to break the patriarchal family structures that governed their lives and conditioned their careers. Inevitable contradictions arose. The burgeoning celebrity culture of the time forced women stage stars to don the costumes of domestic femininity even as the unsettled nature of life in the theater defied these ideals. A revealing foray into a lost time, Starring Women returns a generation of performers to their central place in the early history of American theater.