Reimagining American Theatre
, by Brustein, Robert- ISBN: 9780809080588 | 0809080583
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 12/31/2003
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.
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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