Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T13:29:06.130Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 4 - Shaping Broadway and Off-Broadway Plays through Collaborations

Playwrights, Directors, Designers, and Companies

from Part I - Commercial and Mainstream Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2021

Julia Listengarten
Affiliation:
University of Central Florida
Stephen Di Benedetto
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Get access

Summary

A decentralization of power in new play development and production reflects the rebellion and unrest that swept American society in the 1960s and 1970s. US dramaturgy began to reflect a diversity of voices from a wider range of racial and cultural backgrounds, genders, and sexual orientations. Productions resulting from the collaborations discussed in this chapter, such as between August Wilson and Llyod Richards, unearth and confront uncomfortable American histories or grapple with an increasingly diverse fabric of family and society. For playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, content dictated stylistically ambitious form, though productions of her plays directed by Liz Diamond have tended toward a traditional division of labor. Meanwhile, writer/director Maria Irene Fornes aligned stagings of her highly visual feminist plays closely with designers. For playwright Paula Vogel and director Rebecca Taichman, inclusive, unconventional collaborative processes fostered work that engages difficult subjects. The nuances of the collaborative relationships and processes that moved new plays from page to stage in post-1960 America are as varied as the diverse backgrounds of the artists themselves.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Select Bibliography

Delgado, M., and Svich, C. (eds.). Conducting a Life: Reflections on the Theatre of Maria Irene Fornes. Smith and Kraus, 1999.Google Scholar
Fliostos, A., and Vierow, W.. American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century. University of Illinois Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Oumano, E. Sam Shepard: The Life and Work of an American Dreamer. St. Martin’s Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Parks, S.-L.From Elements of Style.” In The America Play and Other Works. Theatre Communications Group, 1995.Google Scholar
Robinson, M. (ed.). The Theater of Maria Irene Fornes. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Schneider, A. Entrances: An American Director’s Journey. Viking Penguin, 1986.Google Scholar
Shannon, S. G. Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1980s, Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. Bloomsbury Methuen, 2018.Google Scholar
Sweet, J. The O’Neill: The Transformation of Modern American Theater. Yale University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Vanden Heuvel, M. Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1970s, Voices, Documents, New Interpretations. Bloomsbury Methuen, 2018.Google Scholar
Young, H. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre. Cambridge University Press, 2012.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×