Drama, Onstage and Off, at the Public Theater
A new book documents Oskar Eustis’s regime at the pivotal New York theatre, with its heady mix of idealism, triumph, compromise, and controversy.
The weather may be cold, but what better to time to curl up with some fresh reading? Our Winter Books Supplement offers an assortment of reviews, excerpts, and essays about and from new theatre books and their authors, from Asian American theatre history to Broadway’s takes on history, from the current state of the Public Theater to a tour of SoHo theatres in the 1970s, and more. Read on, and tell us what you think!
A new book documents Oskar Eustis’s regime at the pivotal New York theatre, with its heady mix of idealism, triumph, compromise, and controversy.
The theatre is one place where the disparate, diverse Asian American experience has found common expression, as a new entry in Routledge’s Milestones series shows.
John Lahr’s new biography recounts the story of a playwright who met his historical moment like few before or since, then struggled for a second act.
A new guide to musicals about American history, and a new biography of the crucial figure Oscar Hammerstein II, make new cases for taking the form seriously.
A look back at SoHo in the 1970s, where theatrical experimentation by Meredith Monk, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, the Performance Group, and Mabou Mines defined an era.
Cruising Utopia with the Good Gay Poet.
For all its faults, the form (and its fans) can’t help but stand up and sing for the underdog, for the awakened conscience, for moments of joyful liberation.
In this excerpt from a new book by the founder of Movement Theatre International, the author reflects on the crucial 1988 gathering in Philadelphia.