Description
Book SynopsisFrom Shakespeare''s gender-bending play Twelfth Night to the the critically-acclaimed Broadway hit Angels in America, from 17th century kabuki theater of Japan?performed by cross-dressing prostitutes?to the NEA-denounced performance art of Holly Hughes, theater has long been?as co-editor Alisa Solomon terms it?the queerest art.
The Queerest Art is a pioneering collection of essays by and conversations among a diverse range of leading theater academics and artists. The first anthology to bring scholars and makers of queer theater into direct dialogue, the volume explores such subjects as same-sex desire in Restoration comedy, the racialized impact of colonial Shakespeare, the cuerpo politizado of a performance artist in contemporary Los Angeles, and the nitty-gritty of getting a queer show presented in Peoria. The Queerest Art rereads the history of performance as a celebration and critique of dissident sexualities, exploring the politics of pleasure
Trade Review
"A rich and varied collection, featuring the voices both of academics and theatre practitioners." * American Theatre *
"The panel discussions...contributes a warm, witty and deliciously rhetorical piece." * Lambda Book Report *
"This stimulating collection of essays critically examines and celebrates what, for centuries, many have deeply feared and many others have known and cherished to be true-that theatre is, indeed, the queerest art. The special ephermerality and perilousness of queer existence on- and offstage make this volume's excellently rendered project of documentation through performance, writing, and publication not only admirable and necessary but urgent." * The Drama Review *
"Eclectic array of essays." * Theater Journal *
Table of Contents
1 Great Sparkles of Lust: Homophobia and the Antitheatrical Tradition 2 The Queer Root of Theater 3 "Porno-Tropics": Some Thoughts on Shakespeare, Colonialism, and Sexuality 4 Setting the Stage behind the Seen: Performing Lesbian History 5 "The Man I Love": The Erotics of Friendship in Restoration Theater 6 "Be True to Yearning": Notes on the Pioneers of Queer Theater 7 From the Invisible to the Ridiculous: The Emergence of an Out Theater Aesthetic 8 Queer Theater and the Disarticulation of Identity 9 Out across America: Playing from P.S. 122 to Peoria 10 "Being" a Lesbian: Apple Island and the Performance of Community 11 "Preaching to the Converted" 12 Queer Theater, Queer Theory: Luis Alfaro's Cuerpo Politizado 13 When We Were Warriors 14 The Kids Stay in the Picture, or, Toward a New Queer Theater 15 Goodnight Irene: An Endnote
