Full Description
According to Robert Brustein, the theater should be taken seriously as one of the fine arts, but it should also be considered a means to reflect on our world, times, and culture from a different perspective. However, this presents a great challenge—the masses must come to appreciate the theater as a means of leisure, but also one of learning. If Word Plays tickles your funny bone as well as touches your mind, then Brustein will have achieved his goal.
Word Plays, a collection of Brustein's articles, satires, and skits, is his attempt to both entertain and educate about the current political and cultural environment in America. Openly positioning himself as a left-leaning political observer, Brustein's material is wide-ranging and witty. His provocative views on contemporary politics and his ease with a broad range of subjects, from Shakespeare to The Sopranos, makes this an enjoyable, engaging, and reflective volume.
The book is divided into three sections. The first is a set of short essays, many of which link political themes to the dramatic arts and others that are purely political commentary. The second includes a series of "dramatic commentaries"—short skits— lampooning contemporary politics and modern American life. The final section consists of "elegies and eulogies" honoring recently deceased icons of the American theater.
Contents
Introduction
I Literary Word Plays
1 The Contemporary American Theater
2 Arab Spring Forward, Fall Back
3 Theater and the University: Marriage or Misalliance
4 How to Love Your Country
5 Shakespeare's Absent Queen
6 School for Crime
7 Dynasties
II Dramatic Word Plays
1 Broken News
2 Poker Face
3 Airport Hell
4 Sex for a Change
5 Kosher Kop
6 Allies in Blunderland
7 The Comfort Zone
8 Gun Play
9 The Press Assess the Gettysburg Address
10 Moses and the Deep Red Sea
III Commendatory Word Plays
1 Wendy Wasserstein
2 Austin Pendleton
3 Justin Kaplan
4 Jonathan Miller
5 Blushing
6 Lewis Black
7 Mark Rylance
8 Todd London
9 Robert Kiley
Coda
Index
