Conversations on art and performance / edited by Bonnie Marranca and Gautam Dasgupta.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Marranca, Bonnie.

Dasgupta, Gautam.

Series:

PAJ books

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Performing arts.

Physical Description:

xiv, 503 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [1999]

Summary:

In this fascinating collection of more than three-dozen conversations on contemporary art and ideas, Bonnie Marranca and Gautam Dasgupta bring together influential performers, video artists, playwrights, filmmakers, composers, and critics to talk about the artistic process, the perception of artworks by audiences, and the complex aesthetic, social, and political interrelationships that artworks reflect in the life of a culture. At the center of inquiry are issues that have preoccupied arts discussion in the last quarter of the century, addressed here by the very artists and thinkers responsible for extending the boundaries of their chosen fields in their search for new artistic and critical languages. Conversations takes up a broad range of key questions. What is the nature of presence? How does one see? Where does meaning reside? Topics include the creative process, the impact of criticism and historical legacies, arts funding and education, the modernism/postmodernism debates, and the special tensions between private and public spheres and between personal statement and the need for communication. This lively reader includes introductions, by the founders of PAJ, to each of the conversations, highlighting their original context and important themes. Organized into three sections -- "Art and Its Audience," "Writers and Composers," and "Bodies of Work" -- this volume includes more than fifty individual contributors in what amounts to a panoramic and polyvocal view of the American experimental arts scene. Contributors include John Cage, Gary Hill, Laurie Anderson, Edward Said, Susan Sontag, Umberto Eco, John Ashbery, Robert Jay Lifton, Philip Glass, Stanley Kauffmann, Edwin Denby, Mac Wellman, Maria Irene Fornes, Trisha Brown, Carolee Schneemann, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Herbert Blau, John Guare, Judith Malina, Elizabeth LeCompte, Wallace Shawn. In touchstones that are surprisingly similar, what emerge from these conversations are the high standards and intellectual rigor these artists bring to their work, commitment to artistic ideals, and the demands placed on the artists as well as the public.

Contents:

Preface: Aural History ix

Art and Its Audience

Art and Consciousness / Susan Sontag 2

Art and the Imagery of Extinction / Robert Jay Lifton 10

Theatre in America / Harold Clurman, Stanley Kauffmann 26

The Play of Thought / Herbert Blau 44

The Politics of Reception / Johannes Birringer, Bonnie Marranca, Gerald Rabkin 76

Radicalizing the Classics / Julian Beck, Judith Malina 102

Art in the Culture / John Cage, Richard Foreman, Richard Kostelanetz 114

The Modernism/Postmodernism Debate / Hilton Kramer 128

Criticism, Culture, and Performance / Edward Said 148

Interpretation and the Work of Art / Umberto Eco, Robert Wilson 170

Writers and Composers

The Theatre of History / Charles L. Mee 182

Composing for the Opera / Philip Glass 194

Figure of Speech / Mac Wellman 206

Poet in the Theatre / John Ashbery 216

The American Playwright / Gautam Dasgupta, Michael Earley, Bonnie Marranca 230

Playwrights Making Movies / John Guare, David Mamet, Wallace Shawn, Steve Tesich, Michael Weller 248

Music and Theatre / Richard Peaslee, Stanley Silverman 274

The Playwright as Director / Maria Irene Fornes 288

Theatre and the Ridiculous / Charles Ludlam 296

Bodies of Work

The Politics of Representation / Elinor Fuchs, Bonnie Marranca, Gerald Rabkin 310

Performance and the Body / Carolee Schneemann 330

Personal History / Rachel Rosenthal 338

Making Dances / Trisha Brown, Douglas Dunn 344

The Mind of Dance / Kenneth King 352

Liminal Performance / Gary Hill 360

Environmental Theatre / Jerry Rojo 384

Acting and Nonacting / Laurie Anderson, Scott Burton, Elizabeth LeCompte, Ruth Maleczech, Michael Smith 394

Reminiscences of a Dance Critic / Edwin Denby 410

A Lifetime of Dance / Bessie Schoenberg 420

La MaMa and the American Theatre / Ellen Stewart 432

The Search for a Universal Grammar / Joseph Chaikin 442

Interculturalism and Performance / Lee Breuer 452

Working with Puppets / Bruce D. Schwartz, Theodora Skipitares, Julie Taymor 460

United States / Laurie Anderson 472

Performance Strategies / Richard Elovich, Karen Finley, Ishmael Houston-Jones, John Kelly 480

The Real Charles Atlas / Charles Atlas 492.

Notes:

"A PAJ book."

ISBN:

0801859247

0801859255

OCLC:

39289838