Mama Dada: Gertrude Stein's Avant-Garde Theatre

by Bay-Cheng; Sarah

• ISBN13: 9780415977234
• ISBN10: 0415977231
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-09-29
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Mama Dadais the first book to examine Gertrude Stein's drama within the history of the theatric and cinematic avant-gardes. It explores her development of a unique playwriting esthetic based in avant-garde drama, cinema, and queer identity. This is the first study to examine in detail Stein's major plays--Four Saints in Three Acts(1927),They Must. Be Wedded. To Their Wife.(1931),Listen to Me(1936),Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights(1938),Yes Is for a Very Young Man(1944-46), and The Mother of Us All(1945-46)--and to distinguish between her major and minor dramatic works. It is also the first book to consider Stein's impact as a major influence on the American avant-garde, in particular her influence on The Living Theater, Richard Foreman, and Robert Wilson. Through close examination of her career and work (as text and in performance), Sarah Bay-Cheng aims to demystify Stein's drama and to connect her achievements to a larger historical and theoreticaltradition in European and American theater.

Table of Contents

General Editor's Note	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(26)
``Eyes are a Surprise'': The Origins of Gertrude Stein's Drama in Cinema	27	(19)
``Listen to Me'': Stein and Avant-Garde Theater	46	(25)
Atom and Eve: Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights	71	(22)
``My Long Life'': Final Works	93	(21)
``America is My Country'': Gertrude Stein and the American Avant-Garde	114	(27)
Appendix A A Chronological List of Gertrude Stein's Plays	141	(6)
Appendix B A Chronological List of Professional Productions	147	(19)
Appendix C A Chronological List of Dramatic Adaptations	166	(11)
Notes	177	(8)
Bibliography	185	(16)
Index	201