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"Theater United States History."
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The Cambridge companion to American theatre since 1945
\"Despite global recognition of American drama afforded by Eugene O'Neill's 1936 Nobel Prize, it would not be until after World War II that American theatre took flight, came into its own, and developed its own distinctive identity. These post-war years through to 1960 can be viewed as a Golden Age for American drama as new plays, new staging, and new acting styles emerged that could be viewed as distinctly American, and would become increasingly influential, worldwide\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Ring Shout, Wheel About
In this ambitious project, historian Katrina Thompson examines the conceptualization and staging of race through the performance, sometimes coerced, of black dance from the slave ship to the minstrel stage. She shows how these performances informed white European and American understandings of race, influenced interactions between whites and blacks, and often held conflicting meanings in enslaved people's lives. Drawing on travel journals, slave narratives, popular literature, and historical sources, Thompson explicates how black dance was used by whites to justify enslavement, perpetuate the existing racial hierarchy, and mask the brutality of the domestic slave trade. Whether on slave ships, at the auction block, or on plantations, whites often used coerced performances to oppress and demean the enslaved. As Thompson explains, however, blacks' \"backstage\" dance often served quite a different purpose. Through creolization and other means, enslaved people preserved some native musical and dance traditions and invented or adopted new traditions that built community and even aided rebellion.Thompson shows how these traditions evolved into nineteenth-century minstrelsy and, ultimately, raises the question of whether today's mass media performances and depictions of African Americans are so very far removed from their troublesome roots.
eBook
On the performance front : US theatre and internationalism
\"On the Performance Front argues that US theatre in the twentieth century embraced the theories and practices of internationalism as a way to realize a better world and as part of the strategic reform of the theatre into a national expression. Live performance, theatre internationalists argued, could represent and reflect the nation like no other endeavour. On the Performance Front focuses on US theatre's international efforts without losing sight of either the ways these efforts mirrored those in other countries or the complex, often conflicting, relationship between internationalism and nationalism\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Rehearsing revolutions : the labor drama experiment and radical activism in the early twentieth century
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2019
George Freedley Memorial Award Finalist, 2020
Between the world wars, several labor colleges sprouted up across the U.S. These schools, funded by unions, sought to provide members with adult education while also indoctrinating them into the cause. As Mary McAvoy reveals, a big part of that learning experience centered on the schools' drama programs. For the first time, Rehearsing Revolutions shows how these left-leaning drama programs prepared American workers for the \"on-the-ground\" activism emerging across the country. In fact, McAvoy argues, these amateur stages served as training grounds for radical social activism in early twentieth-century America.
Using a wealth of previously unpublished material such as director's reports, course materials, playscripts, and reviews, McAvoy traces the programs' evolution from experimental teaching tool to radically politicized training that inspired overt—even militant—labor activism by the late 1930s. All the while, she keeps an eye on larger trends in public life, connecting interwar labor drama to post-war arts-based activism in response to McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement. Ultimately, McAvoy asks: What did labor drama do for the workers' colleges and why did they pursue it? She finds her answer through several different case studies in places like the Portland Labor College and the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
eBook
Local glories : opera houses on main street, where art and community meet
\"This book explores the creative, social, and communal roles of thousands of \"opera houses\" that appeared in towns in the late 1800s and flourished with an astounding array of cultural performances and public activities until the advent of movies. Now, these entertainment halls are now coming back to life as theaters and art centers, as people become increasingly aware of their potential for historic preservation and cultural activities\"-- Provided by publisher.
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The Great White Way
Broadway musicals are one of America's most beloved art forms and play to millions of people each year. But what do these shows, which are often thought to be just frothy entertainment, really have to say about our country and who we are as a nation?
The Great White Wayis the first book to reveal the racial politics, content, and subtexts that have haunted musicals for almost one hundred years fromShow Boat(1927) toThe Scottsboro Boys(2011). Musicals mirror their time periods and reflect the political and social issues of their day. Warren Hoffman investigates the thematic content of the Broadway musical and considers how musicals work on a structural level, allowing them to simultaneously present and hide their racial agendas in plain view of their audiences. While the musical is informed by the cultural contributions of African Americans and Jewish immigrants, Hoffman argues that ultimately the history of the American musical is the history of white identity in the United States.
Presented chronologically,The Great White Wayshows how perceptions of race altered over time and how musicals dealt with those changes. Hoffman focuses first on shows leading up to and comprising the Golden Age of Broadway (1927-1960s), then turns his attention to the revivals and nostalgic vehicles that defined the final quarter of the twentieth century. He offers entirely new and surprising takes on shows from the American musical canon-Show Boat(1927),Oklahoma!(1943),Annie Get Your
Gun(1946),The Music Man(1957),West Side Story(1957),A Chorus Line(1975), and42nd Street(1980), among others.New archival research on the creators who produced and wrote these shows, including Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Edward Kleban, will have theater fans and scholars rethinking forever how they view this popular American entertainment.
eBook
Broadway Goes to War
The American theater was not ignorant of the developments
brought on by World War II, and actively addressed and debated
timely, controversial topics for the duration of the war, including
neutrality and isolationism, racism and genocide, and heroism and
battle fatigue. Productions such as Watch on the Rhine
(1941), The Moon is Down (1942), Tomorrow the
World (1943), and A Bell for Adano (1944) encouraged
public discussion of the war's impact on daily life and raised
critical questions about the conflict well before other forms of
popular media.
American drama of the 1940s is frequently overlooked, but the
plays performed during this eventful decade provide a picture of
the rich and complex experience of living in the United States
during the war years. McLaughlin and Parry's work fills a
significant gap in the history of theater and popular culture,
showing that American society was more divided and less idealistic
than the received histories of the WWII home front and the
entertainment industry recognize.
eBook
Blue-Collar Broadway
Behind the scenes of New York City's Great White Way, virtuosos of stagecraft have built the scenery, costumes, lights, and other components of theatrical productions for more than a hundred years. But like a good magician who refuses to reveal secrets, they have left few clues about their work. Blue-Collar Broadway recovers the history of those people and the neighborhood in which their undersung labor occurred.Timothy R. White begins his history of the theater industry with the dispersed pre-Broadway era, when components such as costumes, lights, and scenery were built and stored nationwide. Subsequently, the majority of backstage operations and storage were consolidated in New York City during what is now known as the golden age of musical theater. Toward the latter half of the twentieth century, decentralization and deindustrialization brought the emergence of nationally distributed regional theaters and performing arts centers. The resulting collapse of New York's theater craft economy rocked the theater district, leaving abandoned buildings and criminal activity in place of studios and workshops. But new technologies ushered in a new age of tourism and business for the area. The Broadway we know today is a global destination and a glittering showroom for vetted products.Featuring case studies of iconic productions such as Oklahoma! (1943) and Evita (1979), and an exploration of the craftwork of radio, television, and film production around Times Square, Blue-Collar Broadway tells a rich story of the history of craft and industry in American theater nationwide. In addition, White examines the role of theater in urban deindustrialization and in the revival of downtowns throughout the Sunbelt.
eBook