Description
Book SynopsisDorinne Kondo draws on critical ethnographic work and over twenty years of experience as a dramaturge and playwright to theorize how racialized labor, aesthetics, affect, genre, and social inequity operate in contemporary theater.
Trade Review"A timely publication. . . [that] keenly reflects the complexity and entanglements of race, history, politics, representation and contemporary identities in North America." -- David J. Scott * The Australian Journal of Anthropology *
"Working across disciplines, Kondo reverses the imperative of many scholars to read theory onto performance by instead focusing on the emergence of theory in theater, how it is deployed by theater artists and comes into contact with audiences. . . . For theater makers,
Worldmaking serves as another kind of reparative, as it de-centers Eurocentric theatrical models in exchange for processes that enact the minoritarian, the non-hegemonic, the reparative." -- Kristen Holfeuer * Women & Performance *
“This book … suits courses on theatre, race, and performance, and on ethnographic methods. Crucially, this book expands necessary conversations on race and dramaturgy, and ways in which ‘dramaturgical critique’—conscious of racial logics and embodied meanings—might make and repair theatrical and racial worlds.”
-- Jasmine Mahmoud * TDR: The Drama Review *
“
Worldmaking is a stunning contribution to discussions of racial representation, affect, ethnography, and practice-led research in our post-racial world. Working to ‘defamiliarize’ American theatre for artists and scholars, the book re-evaluates the dichotomies of theory/practice, artistic passion/compensation, and resistance/complicity that are firmly ingrained in our thinking about the arts. The rigour with which Kondo encourages us to reassess artistic practices and scholarly enquiry, however, never verges on harsh criticism. Instead, it is with stirring generosity that she opens up avenues for further enquiry and redress.” -- Jessica Nakamura * Modern Drama *
“Kondo demonstrates the power of theatre to address the complexities of race in contemporary America not only through what is seen onstage but also in the processes of rehearsal, revision, and reception, as artists question representational authority and negotiate collaboration.”
-- Josephine Lee * Theatre Journal *
"Kondo’s
Worldmaking explores how artistic approaches might add to anthropological research and offers a multi-layered ethnography of US theatre. This book is also insightful for theatre practitioners and could be used for teaching undergraduates." -- Cassis Kilian * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Overture 1
Entr'acte 1. Racial Affect and Affective Violence 17
Act I. Mise-en-Scène
1. Theoretical Scaffolding, Formal Architecture 25
2. Racialized Economies 56
Entr'acte 2. Acting and Embodiment 93
Act II. Creative Labor
3. (En)Acting Theory 97
4. The Drama behind the Drama 130
5. Revising Race 167
Entre'acte 3. The Structure of the Theater Company 205
Act III. Reparative Creativity
6. Playwriting as Reparative Creativity 209
7.
Seamless, A Full-Length Play 237
Notes 311
Works Cited 325
Index 349
