How are Black artists, activists, and pedagogues wielding acts of rebellion, activism, and solidarity to precipitate change? How have contemporary performances impacted Black cultural, social, and political struggles? What are the ways in which these acts and artists engage varied Black identities and explore shared histories?
Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance investigates these questions to illuminate the relationship between performance, identity, intersectionality, and activism in North America and beyond. It features contributions from scholars, artists, and activists from across disciplines who explore the nuances and varied forms of Black performance in the 21st century while incorporating performance-based methodologies and queer and black feminist theories.
Among the many topics addressed by contributors are antiracist pedagogy, Black queer identity formation in Black playwriting, digital blackface, and Black women's subversive practices within contemporary popular culture. It encompasses dramatic analysis of Lynn Nottage's
Sweat, Tarell Alvin McCraney's
Choir Boy, and acts of resistance during the Black Lives Matter summer 2020 highway protests. A series of conversations with artists and scholars are woven throughout the book's three sections, including with playwrights Christina Anderson and Donja R. Love, and Willa Taylor, Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago.
Boles, William C.: - William C. Boles holds the Hugh F. and Jeannette G. McKean Chair of English at Rollins College, USA. He edited Theater in a Post-Truth World: Text, Performance, and Politics and After In-Yer-Face: Remnants of a Theatrical Revolution and authored The Argumentative Theatre of Joe Penhall, Understanding David Henry Hwang and Mike Bartlett.
Green-Rogers, Martine Kei: - Martine Kei Green-Rogers is the Dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University, USA, freelance dramaturg, and Past-President of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). Her publications include "Talkbacks for 'Sensitive Subject Matter' Productions: The Theory and Practice" in The Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy and "A New Noble Kinsmen: The Play On! Project and Making New Plays Out of Old" in Theatre History Studies.
Hartl, Anja: - Anja Hartl is Assistant Professor at the Department of English at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She is the author of Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama: Dialectical Theatre Today and editor of the Methuen Drama Student Edition of The Threepenny Opera. Her research focuses on contemporary British theatre, Victorian fiction and adaptation studies. She co-edits the Methuen Drama Agitations Series.
Long, Khalid Y.: - Khalid Y. Long is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies and the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Georgia, USA. He has published work in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre & Performance, Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama, Theatre and Performance, and is a regular contributor to Black Masks.
Williams, Deron S.: - DeRon S. Williams is Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago, USA, and a freelance director and dramaturg. He has published in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama. His directing credits include both new and canonical works, including Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brothers Size, Regina Taylor's Crowns, Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, and Africa to America: A Celebration of Who We Are, an interdisciplinary performance written by Wendy R. Coleman.
