When movies replaced theatre as popular entertainment in the years
1910-20, the world of live drama was wide open for reform. American
advocates and practitioners founded theatres in a spirit of
anticommercialism, seeking to develop an American audience for
serious theatre, mounting plays in what would today be called
"alternative spaces," and uniting for the cause an eclectic group
of professors, social workers, members of women's clubs, bohemians,
artists, students, and immigrants. This rebellion, called the
Little Theatre Movement, also prompted and promoted the college
theatre major, the inclusion of theatre pedagogy in K-12 education,
prototypes for the nonprofit model, and the notion that theatre is
a valuable form of self-expression.
"Composing Ourselves: The Little Theatre Movement and the American
Audience" argues that the movement was a national phenomenon, not
just the result of aspirants copying the efforts of the
much-storied Provincetown Players, Washington Square Players,
Neighborhood Playhouse, and Chicago Little Theatre. Going beyond
the familiar histories of the best-known groups, Dorothy Chansky
traces the origins of both the ideas and the infrastructures for
serious theatre that are ordinary parts of the American cultural
landscape today; she also investigates the gender discrimination,
racism, and class insensitivity that were embedded in reformers'
ideas of the "universal" and that still trouble the rhetoric of
regional, educational, and community theatre.
An important piece of revisionist history, "Composing Ourselves
"shows how theatre reform, in keeping with other Progressive Era
activism, took on corporate, conservative society, but did so
inways that were sometimes contradictory. For example, women
constituted the majority of ticket buyers and the bulk of unsung
labor, yet plays by women were considered inferior. Most reformers
were comfortably middle class and sought change that would
eliminate the anomie of modernity but not challenge their
privileged positions.
Chansky deliberates on antifeminist images of women theatergoers in
literature and cartoons and considers the achievements and failures
of the Drama League of America, a network of women's clubs,
following up with a case study of the playwright Alice Gerstenberg
to point out that theatre history has not fully realized the role
of women in the Little Theatre Movement. Even as women were earning
the majority of degrees in newly minted theatre programs, their
paths were barred to most professional work except teaching.
Chansky also considers a blackface production of a play about rural
African Americans, which was a step towards sympathetic portrayals
of minority characters yet still a reinforcement of white upper-
and middle-class perspectives.
General
Imprint: |
Southern Illinois University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Theater in the Americas |
Release date: |
May 2005 |
First published: |
May 2005 |
Authors: |
Dorothy Chansky
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 21mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
320 |
Edition: |
New Ed |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8093-2649-5 |
Categories: |
Books >
Arts & Architecture >
General
|
LSN: |
0-8093-2649-3 |
Barcode: |
9780809326495 |
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