Among the most commercially successful female playwrights of all times, Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) is best remembered as the author of "The Women" (1936), a biting social comedy. Beginning in 1942, she spent less of her time writing plays and turned instead to the wider stage of politics and world affairs. She was the editor of Vanity Fair magazine, a congresswoman, and an ambassador to Italy during the Eisenhower administration.

This book traces her transition from playwright to politician to Catholic apologist. It uncovers for the first time plays, both early and late, that dramatize her spiritual and artistic journey. A comprehensive survey of her plays and the world's reception to them, the book provides a thorough treatment of Luce's published and unpublished work. For each play, the volume includes a plot summary, critical commentary, and production information. The book also includes an exhaustive and generously-annotated bibliography of both popular reviews and scholarly criticism.

The American Stage and the Great Depression: A Cultural History of the Grotesque proposes a correlation between the divided "mind" of America during the depression and popular stage works of the era. Theatre works such as Jack Kirkland's comic-horrific adaptation of Tobacco Road, Olsen and Johnson's "scream-lined revue", Hellzapoppin, and successful plays by Robert E. Sherwood, Clare Boothe Luce, and S. N. Behrman are interpreted as theatrical reflections of depression culture's sense of being trapped between a discredited past and a nightmarish future. The author analyzes the America of the 1930s as an era of the "grotesque", in which the irreconcilable were forced into tense and dynamic coexistence, and by examining these works of theatre as products of particular historical circumstances, argues for a strong connection between cultural history and theatre history.

The American Stage and the Great Depression: A Cultural History of the Grotesque proposes a correlation between the divided "mind" of America during the Depression and popular stage works of the era, which are interpreted as theatrical reflections of Depression culture's sense of being trapped between a discredited past and a nightmarish future. The author analyzes the 1930s as an era of the grotesque, in which the irreconcilable were forced into tense and dynamic coexistence.

What hath Rash wrought? And wherefore blasts he gas? This Python-esque mock-epic traces the life and career of a WHOLLY FICTITIOUS and fully engorged gas-bag of a right-wing radio hero. From mysterious birth to glorious expansion, this rhyming masterpiece parodies poems from "Jabberwocky" to "Casey at the Bat" and ponders: will Rash's gas light up our world?

Surprisingly little has been published on the questions of what theatre actually is and what participants in theatre derive from the experience. This book investigates theatre as a means of social connection. It begins by establishing a context drawn from contemporary research in public health, sociology, and political science on the decline of personal interactions, civic organizations, and the network of organizations that create "social capital." It then offers theatre participation as a means of overcoming the growing alienation of a technological society. Theatre and the Good examines the roots of theatre from an anthropological perspective, as well as theatre's capacity for liberation, using models of theatre in prison, dramatherapy, and a spiritual opening felt by many who have participated in performance and which has previously been only fractionally described. The book argues that the ancient needs for which theatre arose are still relevant and that theatre is a much needed and effective pathway to meaning. This book enters into the discussion of "performance" and, using terms accessible to any educated person, links that discussion to matters of social science, literature, philosophy and religious studies. An interdisciplinary study, Theatre and the Good will be of interest to theatre practitioners as well as academics in theatre, performance studies, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, and literature.