Playing underground : a critical history of the 1960s off-off-Broadway movement / Stephen J. Bottoms.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bottoms, Stephen J. (Stephen James), 1968- author.

Series:

Theater--theory/text/performance.

Theater--theory/text/performance

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Off Off-Broadway theater--History--20th century.

Theater--History--20th century.

American drama--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (401 pages).

Edition:

First paperback edition.

Other Title:

History of the 1960s off-off-Broadway movement

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2004.

Summary:

Scrupulously researched, critically acute, and written with care, Playing Underground will become a classic account of an era of hard-won free expression. -William Coco "At last---a book documenting the beginnings of Off-Off Broadway theater. Playing Underground is an insightful, illuminating, and honest appraisal of this important period in American theater." -Rosalyn Drexler, author of Art Does (Not!) Exist and Occupational Hazard "An epic movie of an epic movement, Playing Underground is a book the world has waited for without knowing it. How precisely it captures the evolution of our revolution! I am amazed by the book's scope and scale, and I bless its author especially for giving two greats, Paul Foster and H. M. Koutoukas, their proper, polar places, and for memorializing such unjustly forgotten masterpieces as Irene Fornes's Molly's Dream and Jeff Weiss's A Funny Walk Home. Stephen Bottoms's vivid evocation of the grand adventure of Off-Off Broadway has woken and broken my heart. It is difficult to believe that he was not there alongside me to breathe the caffeine-nicotine-alkaloid-steeped air." -Robert Patrick, author of Kennedy's Children and Temple Slave Few books address the legendary age of 1960s off-off Broadway theater. Fortunately, Stephen Bottoms fills that gap with Playing Underground---the first comprehensive history of the roots of off-off Broadway. This is a theater whose legacy is still felt today: it was the launching pad for many leading contemporary theater artists, including Sam Shepard, Maria Irene Fornes, and others, and it was a pivotal influence on improv comedy and shows like Saturday Night Live. Off-off Broadway groups such as the Living Theatre, La Mama, and Caffe Cino captured the spirit of nontraditional theater with their edgy, unscripted, boundary-crossing subjects. Yet, as Bottoms

discovers, there is no one set of truths about off-off Broadway to uncover; the entire scene was always more a matter of competing perceptions than a singular, concrete reality. No other author has managed to illuminate this shifting tableau as Bottoms does. Through interviews with dozens of the era's leading playwrights, performers, directors, and critics, he unearths a countercultural theater movement that was both influential and transforming-yet ephemeral and quintessentially of its moment. Playing Underground will be a definitive work on the subject, offering a complete picture of an important but little-studied period in American theater.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

1. Digging (Up) the Scene: An Introduction

2. Setting the Scene: A Look at the Fifties

Part One: Emerging Venues, Emerging Playwrights, 1960-66

3. Caffe Cino: The Birth of a Movement

4. Judson Poets' Theater: Verse Plays and Vaudeville Skits

5. La Mama ETC: Hurrah for the Playwright

6. Theatre Genesis: Urban Prophecy

7. In One Act: On the Aesthetics of Off-Off-Broadway Playwriting

Part Two: Present Collaborations, 1963-68

8. The Judson "Musical": Sublimely Ridiculous?

9. The Open Theatre: Transformations

10. La Mama Troupe: The Kernel of Craziness

11. The Play-House of the Ridiculous: Beyond Absurdity

12. Other Kinds of Cruelty: Ritual, Participation, and the Plague

Part Three: Changing Times, 1966-73

13. Going Overground: Changing Profiles in the Later 1960s

14. Death and Disaster: Leaving the Caffe Cino

15. The Absence of Peace: Changing Politics, Changing Communities

16. Going Solo: Auteurs, Poseurs, and La Mama

17. Signals through the Flames: The Afterlife of a Movement

Appendix A: Chronology of Notable Events and Productions

Appendix B: Interviewees, Correspondents, and Discussants

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 377-388) and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9786612437656

9781282437654

1282437658

9780472022212

0472022210

OCLC:

593239831