Reimagining American Theatre

by Brustein, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780809080588
• ISBN10: 0809080583
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781466805415
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-31
• Publisher: Hill and Wang
• More Book Details

Summary

Wide-ranging, discerning essays and reviews in which Mr. Brustein finds that the theatre has been quietly reinventing the nature of its art.

Author Biography

Robert Sanford Brustein (born April 21, 1927 in New York City) is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright and educator. He founded both Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remains a Creative Consultant, and has been the theatre critic for The New Republic since 1959. He comments on politics for the Huffington Post.

Brustein is a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Suffolk University in Boston. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999 and in 2002 was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2003 he served as a Senior Fellow with the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, and in 2004 and 2005 was a senior fellow at the National Endowment for the Arts Arts Journalism Institute in Theatre and Musical Theatre at the University of Southern California.

Robert Brustein is married to Doreen Beinart, and has one son, Daniel Brustein, and two stepchildren, Peter Beinart and Jean Beinart Stern.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Reimagining the American Stage	p. 3
Plays
Introduction: Reimagining the Drama	p. 19
Post-Naturalist Triumph (Balm in Gilead)	p. 33
One-Person Shows (Sex and Death to the Age 14; Mistero Buffo)	p. 36
The Hit of the Building (The World According to Me!)	p. 40
Look Back with Nostalgia (Anything Goes; Into the Woods)	p. 44
The Shape of the New (Geniuses; Edmond)	p. 49
Poisoned Airwaves (Talk Radio)	p. 52
The Shlepic (The Phantom of the Opera)	p. 54
Transcultural Blends (The Gospel at Colonus; M. Butterfly; Juan Darien)	p. 57
The Last Refuge of Scoundrels (Speed-the-Plow)	p. 62
The Best Play of Which Year? (A Walk in the Woods; Boys' Life)	p. 65
The Voice of the Eighties (Reckless; Without You I'm Nothing)	p. 69
Running on Empty (Miracolo d'Amore)	p. 72
An Evening of Last Rites (Jerome Robbins' Broadway)	p. 74
Women in Extremis (The Heidi Chronicles)	p. 78
Orpheus Condescending (Orpheus Descending)	p. 81
Plays for People Perhaps (Gypsy; Other People's Money)	p. 85
Political Theatre: The Havels and Have-Nots (Some Americans Abroad; Crowbar)	p. 89
Prelude to a Fairy Tale (Prelude to a Kiss)	p. 94
Soured Grapes (The Grapes of Wrath)	p. 96
The Lesson of The Piano Lesson (The Piano Lesson)	p. 99
She-Plays, American Style (Machinal; Abundance)	p. 104
End-of-Season Notes (The Tonys; Six Degrees of Separation)	p. 108
Productions
Introduction: Reimagining the Classics	p. 115
Three Years after "1984" (1984)	p. 123
A Tribute to Robert Penn Warren (All the King's Men)	p. 127
Headline Hunting (The Front Page)	p. 130
Clowns and Vaudevillians (The Comedy of Errors)	p. 134
The Longest Journey (The Mahabharata)	p. 136
Breaking the Frame (The Mistress of the Inn)	p. 140
The Definitive Production (A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Cherry Orchard)	p. 143
The Limits of the Auteur (The Cherry Orchard)	p. 147
The Ultimate Broadway Transfer (Our Town)	p. 151
Shakespeare with an American Accent (The Winter's Tale)	p. 155
Kid Coriolanus (Coriolanus)	p. 159
Much Ado about Something (Much Ado About Nothing)	p. 162
Diderot's Yuppie (Rameau's Nephew)	p. 164
Phedre with Pilaf and Pekoe Tea (Phaedra Britannica)	p. 167
Godot in LaLa Land (Waiting for Godot; Cafe Crown)	p. 171
Jewish Metaphysics (The Tenth Man)	p. 175
Fairy Tailspin (Cymbeline)	p. 178
The Hero of the Nursery (Peer Gynt)	p. 182
Transforming Actors and Star Personalities (The Death of Olivier; Twelfth Night)	p. 186
Actors Directing Actors (Macbeth)	p. 190
Post-Modern Prophecies (Woyzeck; Baal)	p. 194
In the Midst of Death (A Celebration of Samuel Beckett)	p. 197
How to "Serve" Shakespeare (On Directing Shakespeare)	p. 201
Polemics
Introduction: Reimagining the Process	p. 209
The Legacy of the Group Theatre	p. 217
Notes on the Bottom Line	p. 221
Theatre and the Individual Talent	p. 225
Lighten Up, America	p. 227
Designs for Living (Rooms) (The Theatre of Boris Aronson)	p. 230
An Actor Prepares (The 1988 Democratic National Convention)	p. 234
All in the Family Ties (The 1988 Republican National Convention)	p. 237
A Theatrical Declaration of Independence	p. 240
Dreams and Hard-back Chairs	p. 248
Dangerous Books	p. 252
Arts Wars	p. 257
Disaster at the NEA	p. 257
The NEA Belly-Up	p. 260
Artistic Freedom and Political Repression	p. 264
As the Globe Turns	p. 272
Politics and Theatre	p. 280
Acknowledgments	p. 293
Index	p. 295
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