Jack Gelber: Consider This explores the works of American playwright Jack Gelber (1932–2003), whose groundbreaking, immersive play The Connection (produced by The Living Theatre in 1959) served as the link between the Art Theatre/Beat Generation and the Off-Off-Broadway movement.With The Connection, Gelber provided a Pirandellian framework in which actors playing junkies demonstrated what it was like to wait for a fix. This play forever cemented Gelber’s ...

Playwrights have always demonstrated an incredible adaptability, able to nimbly adjust to new circumstances and media. This was never in greater evidence than during the coronavirus pandemic, when—with venues shuttered and stages darkened—writers and performers across the world scrambled to sustain the art of theater via remote video. Even today, it is clear that the experiences of 2020–21 have dramatically altered the landscape of theatermaking, as artists continually refine and deploy th...

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel once said that theater helps us learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable with each other. Revolving around the theme of "this is who we are," the one-act plays in this latest edition of the Best American Short Playsseries (now in its ninth decade) explore the thoughtful ways in which playwrights are wrestling to make sense of our world today.The selected plays reflect how we perform our identities (private and public) and ho...

That theatre is a business remains a truth often ignored by theatre insiders and consumers of the performing arts alike. The essays in Theatre Symposium, Volume 22 explore theatre as a commercial enterprise both historically and as a continuing part of the creation, production, and presentation of contemporary live performance.The eleven contributors to this fascinating collection illuminate many aspects of commercial theatre and how best to examine it. George Pate analyze...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist?"A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things" —Vanity Fair • "[D...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning "landmark biography" of the towering 20th century intellectual, exploring the hidden struggles behind the formidable public face ( The New York Times).Named one of the Best Books of the Year by O Magazine , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel , and Seattle TimesFinalist for the Lambda Literary Award and PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for BiographyNo writer is as emblematic of the American...

This "standard text of the defining era of gay literati" tells the cultural history of the interconnected lives of the 20th century's most influential gay writers ( Philadelphia Inquirer).In the years following World War II a group of gay writers established themselves as major cultural figures in American life. Truman Capote, the enfant terrible, whose finely wrought fiction and nonfiction captured the nation's imagination. Gore Vidal, the wry, withering c...

From the New York Times's former Op-Ed art director, the true story of the world's first Op-Ed page, a public platform that prefigured the blogosphere.Jerelle Kraus, whose thirteen-year tenure as Op-Ed art director far exceeds that of any other art director or editor, unveils a riveting account of working at the Times. Her insider anecdotes include the reasons why artist Saul Steinberg hated the Times, why editor Howell Raines stopped the...

From award-winning writer Sarah Schulman, a longtime social activist and outspoken critic of the Israeli war on Gaza, comes a brilliant examination of the inherent psychological and social challenges to solidarity movements, and what that means for the futureFor those who seek to combat injustice, solidarity with the oppressed is one of the highest ideals, yet it does not come without complication. In this searing yet uplifting book, award-winning writer and cultur...

A provocative look at the rise of youth culture, the worship of perpetual adolescence, and the sorry spectacle of adults shirking the responsibilities of maturity. Firebrand conservative columnist Diana West looks at the mess America is in and wonders "Where did all the grown-ups go?"Diana West sees a US filled with middle-age guys playing air guitar and thinks "No wonder we can't stop Islamic terrorism." She sees a landscape littered with Baby Britneys, Moms Who M...

Take pride in who you are! This inspiring history of the LGBTQ+ community enlightens young readers on the true timeline of LGBTQ+ history around the world, the lives of important figures like Harvey Milk, and iconic events like Stonewall.The LGBTQ+ community is so much more than rainbow flags and the month of June. In this beautifully designed dynamic book, young readers will learn about groundbreaking events, including historic pushes for equality and the legaliza...

The novel is alive and well, thank you very muchFor the last fifteen years, whenever a novel was published, John Freeman was there to greet it. As a critic for more than two hundred newspapers worldwide, the onetime president of the National Book Critics Circle, and the former editor of Granta, he has reviewed thousands of books and interviewed scores of writers. In How to Read a Novelist, which pulls together his very best profiles (many of them n...