Description
Book SynopsisMany professional theatre artists attempt to use live performances in formal theater spaces to disrupt racism and create a more equitable society.
Privileged Spectatorship: Theatrical Interventions in White Supremacy examines the impact of such projects, looking at how and why they do and do not intervene in white supremacy.
Trade Review“Through a rich set of case studies,
Privileged Spectatorship explores the power of American theatrical performance to interrupt the enduring strength of white supremacy. Dani Snyder-Young insightfully examines how such productions about race actively engage white spectators in ways that are at times transformative. Seeking to decolonize the white gaze, this book foregrounds the existence of white privilege and racism as it considers theatrical practices that might disrupt them. Accordingly, this is a work not only of theater criticism but also of theater activism that should appeal to theater scholars, practitioners, and spectators across the color lines.” —Harry J. Elam Jr., author of
The Past as Present in the Drama of August WilsonTable of Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Mainstream Theater and Privileged Spectatorship
- Part I. Come Closer
- 1. Making Whiteness Visible
- 2. Critical Catharsis
- Part II. Rage Against the Machine
- 3. Peeling Back the Veneer of Decorum
- 4. Outrage and the Boundaries of Community
- Part III. Decolonizing Gazes and Spaces
- 5. Maintaining White Racial Comfort
- 6. Building Diverse Community
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
