Theater and Violence

As violence escalates around the world, its victims and perpetrators struggle to develop comprehensible narratives to present truthful accounts of history and experience. This special issue of Theatera collection of theater artists responses to contemporary eventsexamines the human psyche and its capacity for violence and explores theaters possibilities for political dissent.In Theater and Violence, through interviews, play excerpts, and full-length playsincluding the first American publication of two major German playwrights and directorstheater artists offer their own narratives for humankinds violent psychologies. One full-length play, Falk Richters Seven Seconds (In God We Trust), probes the mind of an American pilot moments before he releases a bomb on a city below. Another, Ren Polleschs 24 Hours Are Not a Day, humorously explores the ironies and pathologies of globalization after September 11. The issue also includes a commentary on the National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare presentations for the U.S. military; interviews with Russian theater artists on the first anniversary of the Chechen rebels siege of a Moscow theater; and Jonathan Kalbs powerful adaptation of Heiner Mllers Mauser, set in Tikrit. Contributors. Josh Fox, Gitta Honegger, Jonathan Kalb, Anna Kohler, James Leverett, Mark Lord, Marlene Norst, Ren Pollesch, Falk Richter, Yana Ross, Scott Saul, Tom Sellar, Catherine Sheehy, Robert Woodruff