Modern American Drama: Playwriting in the 1970s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations - Paperback

by Michael Vanden Heuvel (Author), Brenda Murphy (Editor), Julia Listengarten (Editor)

The Decades of Modern American Drama series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.

Author Biography

Michael Vanden Heuvel is Professor and former Chair of Theatre and Drama, and current Chair of the Integrated Liberal Studies Program, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He is the author of Performing Drama/Dramatizing Performance: Alternative Theater and the Dramatic Text (1991) and Elmer Rice: A Research and Production Sourcebook (1996).