The American Play
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1787-2000
Marc Robinson
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In this brilliant study, Marc Robinson explores more than two hundred years of plays, styles, and stagings of American theater. Mapping the changing cultural landscape from the late eighteenth century to the start of the twenty-first, he explores how theater has—and has not—changed and offers close readings of plays by O’Neill, Stein, Wilder, Miller, and Albee, as well as by important but perhaps lesser known dramatists such as Wallace Stevens, Jean Toomer, Djuna Barnes, and many others. Robinson reads each work in an ambitiously interdisciplinary context, linking advances in theater to developments in American literature, dance, and visual art.
The author is particularly attentive to the continuities in American drama, and expertly teases out recurring themes, such as the significance of visuality. He avoids neatly categorizing nineteenth- and twentieth-century plays and depicts a theater more restive and mercurial than has been recognized before. Robinson proves both a fascinating and thought-provoking critic and a spirited guide to the history of American drama.
Marc Robinson is professor of theater studies, English, and American studies at Yale University and adjunct professor of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama. He is the author of The Other American Drama and a frequent contributor to theater journals. He lives in Guilford, CT.
"Rarely has such a good writer on drama undertaken such a project, and even more rarely executed it with such panache."—Don B. Wilmeth, Editor,
“Marc Robinson is one of the most astute and sensitive critics of American drama, and The American Play is his major work to date . . . powerful and persuasive . . . essential reading for any serious student of US drama.”--Stephen Bottoms, New Theatre Quarterly
“Revelatory . . . Robinson's essays fulfill the lofty goal of giving close, interdisciplinary readings that liberally dip into new developments in American literature, dance, and visual art.”--Randy Gener, American Theatre
“Evocative and compelling . . . a worthy achievement.”
--George Hunka, Performing Arts Journal
Publication Date: May 19, 2009
20 b/w illus scattered
