Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage

This book explores the struggle of Greek tragedy to find its place on the American stage. Despite the thousands of years' difference and the stark cultural contrasts between our world and theirs, Greek tragedy has been a surprisingly fertile and rich source for American theater. Helene Foley shows how certain plays, when re-imagined for modern audiences, resonated deeply with contemporary concerns over slavery, race, the status of women, immigration, and questions of the self. Although Greek tragedy was at first embraced mainly for its melodramatic possibilities, by the twentieth century it had become a vehicle for not only the most innovative developments in the history of American theater and dance, but also the expression of some of the deepest tensions in American social and political life.