The Decades of Modern American Drama series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material.
The major playwrights and their plays to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include:
* Theresa Rebeck:
Omnium Gatherum (2003),
Mauritius (2007), and
The Understudy (2008);
* Sarah Ruhl:
Eurydice (2003),
Clean House (2004), and
In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play) (2009);
* Lynn Nottage:
Intimate Apparel (2003),
Fabulation or Re-Education of Undine (2004), and
Ruined (2008);
* Charles Mee:
Big Love (2000),
Wintertime (2005), and
Hotel Cassiopeia (2006).
Listengarten, Julia: - Julia Listengarten is Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Florida, USA. She is an artist scholar and her research interests range from contemporary performance to socially engaged creative practices. Her recent books include Visual and Performing Arts Collaboration: Transdisciplinary Practices (2023, with Keri Watson) and Performing Arousal: Precarious Bodies and Frames of Representation (Methuen Drama, 2022, with Yana Meerzon).
Listengarten, Julia: - Julia Listengarten is Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Florida, USA. She is an artist scholar and her research interests range from contemporary performance to socially engaged creative practices. Her recent books include Visual and Performing Arts Collaboration: Transdisciplinary Practices (2023, with Keri Watson) and Performing Arousal: Precarious Bodies and Frames of Representation (Methuen Drama, 2022, with Yana Meerzon).
Murphy, Brenda: - Brenda Murphy is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Connecticut, where she has taught since 1989, following fourteen years as a faculty member and administrator at St Lawrence University. She is the author of many articles, books, and reviews on drama and American literature.
Rosenthal, Cindy: - Cindy Rosenthal is Professor of Drama and Dance at Hofstra University, New York, USA. She is co-editor of Restaging the Sixties: Radical Theatres and their Legacies (2006), Living on the Street: Plays of the Living Theatre 1989-92 (2008) and The Rise of Performance Studies: Re-thinking Richard Schechner's Broad Spectrum (2011).
