Download or read book The Muse Upon My Shoulder written by Sylvia Skaggs McTague and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Muse upon My Shoulder an exceptionally diverse group of writers (including Evan S. Connell, Anthony Piccione, David Trinidad, William Stafford, Jean Thompson, Vance Bourjaily, E. L. Doctorow, Stanley Elkin, Jay McInerney, Beth Henley, David Hwang, Bud Schulberg, and Mary Gordon) discuss the creative process. They entertain self-revealing questions about their status as writers, their inspiration to write, and their relationship to an audience. The conversational form of the interview allows for candid answers that readers rarely hear to questions that seldom are answered. The final chapter lets readers participate in the conflicts that surround the production of a good interview. Sylvia Skaggs McTague is a lecturer at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Download or read book The Facts on File Companion to American Drama written by Jackson R. Bryer and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features a comprehensive guide to American dramatic literature, from its origins in the early days of the nation to the groundbreaking works of today's best writers.

Download or read book Understanding David Henry Hwang written by William C. Boles and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2013-12-15 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Henry Hwang is best known as the author of M. Butterfly, which won a 1988 Tony Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, and he has written the Obie Award-winners Golden Child and FOB, as well as Family Devotions, Sound and Beauty, Rich Relations, and a revised version of Flower Drum Song. His Yellow Face won a 2008 Obie Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Understanding David Henry Hwang is a critical study of Hwang's playwriting process as well as the role of identity in each one of Hwang's major theatrical works. A first-generation Asian American, Hwang intrinsically understands the complications surrounding the competing attractiveness of an American identity with its freedoms in contrast to the importance of a cultural and ethnic identity connected to another country's culture. William C. Boles examines Hwang's plays by exploring the perplexing struggles surrounding Asian and Asian American stereotypes, values, and identity. Boles argues that Hwang deliberately uses stereotypes in order to subvert them, while at other times he embraces the dual complexity of ethnicity when it is tied to national identity and ethnic history. In addition to the individual questions of identity as they pertain to ethnicity, Boles discusses how Hwang's plays explore identity issues of gender, religion, profession, and sexuality. The volume concludes with a treatment of Chinglish, both in the context of rising Chinese economic prominence and in the context of Hwang's previous work. Hwang has written ten short plays including The Dance and the Railroad, five screenplays, and many librettos for musical theater. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, Hwang was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Download or read book The Theatre of David Henry Hwang written by Esther Kim Lee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-12-17 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the premiere of his play FOB in 1979, the Chinese American playwright David Henry Hwang has made a significant impact in the U. S. and beyond. The Theatre of David Henry Hwang provides an in-depth study of his plays and other works in theatre. Beginning with his "Trilogy of Chinese America", Esther Kim Lee traces all major phases of his playwriting career. Utilizing historical and dramaturgical analysis, she argues that Hwang has developed a unique style of meta-theatricality and irony in writing plays that are both politically charged and commercially viable. The book also features three essays written by scholars of Asian American theatre and a comprehensive list of primary and secondary sources on his oeuvre. This comprehensive study of Hwang's work follows his career both chronologically and thematically. The first chapter analyzes Hwang's early plays, "Trilogy of Chinese America," in which he explores issues of identity and cultural assimilation particular to Chinese Americans. Chapter two looks at four plays characterised as "Beyond Chinese America," which examines Hwang's less known plays. Chapter three focuses on M. Butterfly, which received the Tony Award for Best Play in 1988. In chapter four, Lee explores Hwang's development as a playwright during the decade of the 1990s with a focus on identity politics and multiculturalism. Chapter five examines Hwang's playwriting style in depth with a discussion of Hwang's more recent plays such as Yellow Face and Chinglish. The sixth chapter features three essays written by leading scholars in Asian American theatre: Josephine Lee on Flower Drum Song, Dan Bacalzo on Golden Child, and Daphne Lei on Chinglish. The final section provides a comprehensive compilation of sources: a chronology, a bibliography of Hwang's works, reviews and critical sources.

Download or read book American Theatre written by Thomas S. Hischak and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-02-08 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume Four of the distinguished American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama series offers a thorough, candid, and fascinating look at the theater in New York during the last decades of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre written by Colin Chambers and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2006-05-14 with total page 892 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International in scope, this book is designed to be the pre-eminent reference work on the English-speaking theatre in the twentieth century. Arranged alphabetically, it consists of some 2500 entries written by 280 contributors from 20 countries which include not only top-level experts, but, uniquely, leading professionals from the world of theatre. A fascinating resource for anyone interested in theatre, it includes: - Overviews of major concepts, topics and issues; - Surveys of theatre institutions, countries, and genres; - Biographical entries on key performers, playwrights, directors, designers, choreographers and composers; - Articles by leading professionals on crafts, skills and disciplines including acting, design, directing, lighting, sound and voice.

Download or read book Reading the West written by Michael Kowalewski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-02-23 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American West of myth and legend has always exerted a strong hold on the popular imagination, and the essays in Reading the West examine some of the basis of that fascination. Reading the West, first published in 1996, is a collection of critical essays by writers, independent scholars and critics on the literature of the American West in the last two centuries. It showcases new ways of reading and understanding western writing. Arguing for the importance of 'place' in literature, these essays explore what makes representative literary works 'western'. They also explore the multicultural and ecological dimensions of western writing. This volume helps enrich our understanding of a distinguished body of literary work which has sometimes been unjustly ignored. It deals not only with literature but with the changing conception of the West in the American imagination.

Download or read book Golden Child written by David Henry Hwang and published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.. This book was released on 1999 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY: In the winter of 1918, progressive Chinese landowner Eng Tieng-Bin's interest in Westernization and Christianity sets off a power struggle among his three wives, which will determine the future of his daughter, Ahn, Tieng-Bin's favorite,

Download or read book Yellow Face TCG Edition written by David Henry Hwang and published by Theatre Communications Group. This book was released on 2009-11-01 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A thesis of a play, unafraid of complexities and contradictions, pepped up with a light dramatic fizz. It asks whether race is skin-deep, actable or even fakeable, and it does so with huge wit and brio.” -TimeOut London “A pungent play of ideas with a big heart. Yellow Face brings to the national discussion about race a sense of humor a mile wide, an even-handed treatment and a hopeful, healing vision of a world that could be” –Variety “It’s about our country, about public image, about face,” says David Henry Hwang about his latest work, a mock documentary that puts Hwang himself center stage. An exploration of Asian identity and the ever-changing definition of what it is to be an American, Yellow Face “is by turns acidly funny, insightful and provocative” (Washington Post). The play begins with the 1990s controversy over color-blind casting for Miss Saigon before it spins into a comic fantasy, in which the character DHH pens a play in protest and then unwittingly casts a white actor as the Asian lead. Yellow Face also explores the real-life investigation of Hwang’s father, the first Asian American to own a federally chartered bank, and the espionage charges against physicist Wen Ho Lee. Adroitly combining the light touch of comedy with weighty political and emotional issues, Hwang creates a "lively and provocative cultural self-portrait [that] lets nobody off the hook” (The New York Times).

Download or read book 100 Greatest American Plays written by Thomas S. Hischak and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theatre in America has had a rich history—from the first performance of the Lewis Hallam Troupe in September 1752 to the lively shows of modern Broadway. Over the past few centuries, significant works by American playwrights have been produced, including Abie’s Irish Rose, Long Day’s Journey into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, and Angels in America. In 100 Greatest American Plays, Thomas S. Hischak provides an engaging discussion of the best stage productions to come out of the United States. Each play is discussed in the context of its original presentation as well as its legacy. Arranged alphabetically, the entries for these plays include: plot details production history biography of the playwright literary aspects of the drama critical reaction to the play major awards the play’s influence cast lists of notable stage and film versions The plays have been selected not for their popularity but for their importance to American theatre and include works by Edward Albee, Harvey Fierstein, Lorraine Hansberry, Lillian Hellman, Tony Kushner, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, Gore Vidal, Wendy Wasserstein, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson. This informative volume also includes complete lists of Pulitzer Prize winners for Drama, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for American Plays, and the Tony Award for Best Play. Providing critical information about the most important works produced since the eighteenth century, 100 Greatest American Plays will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural history of theatre.

Download or read book A Literary History of the American West written by Western Literature Association (U.S.) and published by TCU Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 1408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary histories, of course, do not have a reason for being unless there exists the literature itself. This volume, perhaps more than others of its kind, is an expression of appreciation for the talented and dedicated literary artists who ignored the odds, avoided temptations to write for popularity or prestige, and chose to write honestly about the American West, believing that experiences long knowns to be of historical importance are also experiences that need and deserve a literature of importance.

Download or read book The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights written by Christopher Innes and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unrivalled in its coverage of recent work and writers, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights surveys and analyses the breadth, vitality and development of theatrical work to emerge from America over the last fifty years. This authoritative guide leads you through the work of 25 major contemporary American playwrights, discussing more than 140 plays in detail. Written by a team of 25 eminent international scholars, each chapter provides: · a biographical introduction to the playwright's work; · a survey and concise analysis of the writer's most important plays; · a discussion of their style, dramaturgical concerns and critical reception; · a bibliography of published plays and a select list of critical works. Among the many Tony, Obie and Pulitzer prize-winning playwrights included are Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson, Paula Vogel and Neil LaBute. The abundance of work analysed enables fresh, illuminating conclusions to be drawn about the development of contemporary American playwriting.

Download or read book The Creolization of Theory written by Françoise Lionnet and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This bold intervention in debates about the role of theory in the humanities advocates the development of a reciprocal, relational, and intersectional critical methodology attentive to the legacies of colonialism.

Download or read book The Asian Pacific American Heritage written by George J. Leonard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meeting the challenge of teaching multiculturalism Students-and their teachers-encountering literature and arts from unfamiliar cultures will welcome the special help this book provides. Instructors who are unfamiliar with Asian Pacific cultures are now being asked to explain a reference to the Year of the Rat, Obon Season, or to interpret a haiku. When Amy Tan refers to the Moon Lady or the Kitchen God, what does she mean? Is Confucianism actually a religion? This book answers these and many other questions, for students, teachers, and the librarians to whom they turn for help. Provides sound information on in-demand topics The Companion presents lengthy articles-written specifically for this book-on the topics that unlock the work of a number of contemporary Asian Pacific American writers and artists, for example: Asian naming systems, the "model minority" discourse, Chinese diaspora, Filipino American values, the Confucian family and its tensions, Japanese internment, Mao's Great Cultural Revolution, the Korean alphabet, food and ethnic identity, religious traditions, Fengshui and Chinese medicine, Filipino folk religion, Hmong needlework, and reading Asian characters in English, just to name a few. Covers major contemporary writers The articles are coupled with in-depth studies of the authors most likely to be part of the multicultural curriculum during the next decade, among them Maxine Hong Kingston, Frank Chin, Amy Tan, Younghill Kang, Carlos Bulosan, Jessica Hagedorn, Lawson Fusao Inada, Garret Hongo, David Henry Hwang, Kim Ronyoung, and Cathy Song. Expert contributors This volume was created under the supervision of distinguished Advisory Editors from the Asian Pacific American community. The contributors, a Who's Who of Asian Pacific American humanistic scholarship, are frequently the founders of their disciplines, and most are from the ethnic group being written about. Helps students understand arts and literature Multicultural courses are generally taught by exposing students to literature or arts, with reference to their political, sociological, and historical contexts. This book is designed to help students reading novels, watching films, and confronting artworks with information needs quite different from those of social scientists and historians.

Download or read book Modern American Drama Playwriting in the 1980s written by Sandra G. Shannon and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Decades of Modern American Playwriting series provides a comprehensive survey and study of the theatre produced in each decade from the 1930s to 2009 in eight volumes. Each volume equips readers with a detailed understanding of the context from which work emerged: an introduction considers life in the decade with a focus on domestic life and conditions, social changes, culture, media, technology, industry and political events; while a chapter on the theatre of the decade offers a wide-ranging and thorough survey of theatres, companies, dramatists, new movements and developments in response to the economic and political conditions of the day. The work of the four most prominent playwrights from the decade receives in-depth analysis and re-evaluation by a team of experts, together with commentary on their subsequent work and legacy. A final section brings together original documents such as interviews with the playwrights and with directors, drafts of play scenes, and other previously unpublished material. The major playwrights and their plays to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include: David Mamet: Edmond (1982), Glengarry Glen Ross (1984), Speed-the-Plow (1988) and Oleanna (1992); David Henry Hwang: Family Devotions (1981), The Sound of a Voice (1983) and M. Butterfly (1988); Maria Irene Fornès: The Danube (1982), Mud (1983) and The Conduct of Life (1985); August Wilson: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984) and Fences (1987).

Download or read book Critical Theory and Performance written by Janelle G. Reinelt and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive survey of the major critical currents and approaches in the lively field of performance studies

Download or read book The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature written by James D. Hart and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-21 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly half a century, James D. Hart's Oxford Companion to American Literature has offered a matchless guided tour through American literary culture, both past and present, with brief biographies of important authors, descriptions of important literary movements, and a wealth of information on other aspects of American literary life and history from the Colonial period to the present day. In this second edition of the Concise version, Wendy Martin and Danielle Hinrichs bring the work up to date to more fully reflect the diversity of the subject. Their priorities have been, foremost, to fully represent the impact of writers of color and women writers on the field of American literature, and to increase the usefulness of the work to students of literary theory. To this end, over 230 new entries have been added, including many that cover women authors; Native American, African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and other contemporary ethnic literatures; LGBT, trans, and queer studies; and recent literary movements and evolving areas of contemporary relevance such as eco-criticism, disability studies, whiteness studies, male/masculinity studies, and diaspora studies.