The Theatrical Gamut

This collection of original essays in honor of American drama critic Ruby Cohn captures the rich mixture of discourses on the act of theater. The variety of approaches- from formalist to feminist- pays tribute to the centrality of Beckett in any evaluation of just what constitutes the "modern" in modern, contemporary, postmodern, and experimental drama. The essays devote attention to playwrights like Sam Shepard, Caryl Churchill and David Hare, Jane Bowles, Arthur Miller, and Suzan-Lori Parks, and urge us as well to reconsider Shakespeare, Strindberg, and such visionary theater practitioners as Antonin Artaud and Joseph Chaikin. They also investigate the dynamics of actor, character, and audience, and offer insights into contemporary German theater, Noh drama, and Balinese theatrical practices. Whatever their subject, these suggestive and original pieces always bring us back to Beckett in fresh and surprising ways. The contributors are H. Porter Abbott, Linda Ben-Zvi, Herbert Blau, John Russell Brown, Sue-Ellen Case, William Coco, Elin Diamond, Bernard Dort, James Eigo, Martin Esslin, Carla Locatelli, John Orr, Janelle Reinelt, Antonia Rodriguez-Gago, Yasunari Takahashi, and Hersh Zeifman. "Any enthusiastic student of drama--whether professor or undergraduate, theater historian or theater critic, member of acting company or member of an audience--will find The Theatrical Gamut both enlightening and provocative."--Jill Levenson, University of Toronto Enoch Brater is Professor of English and Theater, University of Michigan.