Edward Albee and the Emergence of Difference and Diversity in US and World Theatre: 1950s-1970s(Routledge Studies in Edward Albee and American Theatre)

This collection of essays seeks to present articles that examine the early ventures of the 1960s and 1970s in the progressive theatre of identity with a new contemporary view, considering the intersection of race, gender, ethnicity, economic class, and sexual orientation. In 1964, Edward Albee and his producers, Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder, produced Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy, and Dutchman by Amiri Baraka (then, Leroi Jones), and by 1968, had produced the seminal gay drama, The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley. No other major American playwright of this period (including Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, or William Inge) produced the plays of their junior colleagues with a specific focus on difference and diversity. For most scholars, these productions and Albee’s involvement in them are a somewhat obscure footnote in theatre history. But they remain important for their early support of diverse voices. Even as Albee’s career was skyrocketing, he and his producers had begun a producing project that sowed the seeds of diversity, equity, and inclusion in a decidedly anti-racist, decolonizing, and progressive move that still resonates powerfully today. While this book is not a hagiography and does not intend to paint Albee as without his own critical failings in terms of diversity in his own work and that of others, this volume of theatre history, dramatic literature, and performance essays takes a detailed, critical approach to Albee’s engagement with other initiating plays, productions, producers, theatre companies, theatre artists, and performances in the United States that pushed the dial toward difference and diversity in the late 1950s through the late 1970s, beginning the formations of new theatres of identity across the United States. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction PART I: Albee & LGBTQ Theatre & Performance, Ageism, and Latinx Drama Chapter 1. The New Conservatory Theatre Story: Activist Action Moments in Progressive Theatres of Identity Chapter 2. Reviving Medusa’s Revenge, New York City’s First Lesbian Theater Space Chapter 3. “Different Rewards”: Queer Gerontological Models in the Dramaturgy of Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, and Lanford Wilson Chapter 4. The Making of an American Master Playwright: A History of Lanford Wilson’s Home Free! and the Albee-Barr-Wilder Playwrights Unit Chapter 5. Whatever happened to Grandma?: Women and Aging in Edward Albee’s The Sandbox (1960) and The American Dream (1961) Chapter 6. “I know this game, you're playing. I know it very well”: Albee as Influence and Counterpoint to Crowley’s The Boys in the Band Chapter 7. Albee, Fornés, and the Next Generation of Grotesque Theater PART II: Albee and the Emergence of African-American Theatre Chapter 8. Staging Politics of the Black Blues Bodies: Edward Albee’s The Death of Bessie Smith in Conversation with August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Chapter 9. Visited by a Phantom: Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse Encounter with Edward Albee Chapter 10. The Emergence of Identity and Protest through the Rhetorical Genre of American Absurdism Chapter 11. “I am an American Writer Too”: James Baldwin as Emergent Playwright Chapter 12. Lorraine Hansberry and Anti-Colonial Drama on the Broadway Stage Chapter 13. Student as Citizen: Illuminating Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun with Albee’s Plays of 1959 Chapter 14. As a Black Woman Speaks and Dances: Embracing Intersectionality in Richards’ A Black Woman Speaks (1950) and Shange’s for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (1976)

About the Author :
David A. Crespy is Professor of Playwriting, Acting, Theatre History, and Dramatic Literature at the University of Missouri, USA. Les Gray is a dramaturg, collaborator, writer, and occasional performer. Their work has been featured in “Youth Theatre Journal” and “The Professor Is In.”