My dissertation argues that certain continuities among U.S. theatre collectives in the 20th and 21st centuries have gone unnoticed largely because the aesthetics and politics of these companies are seemingly so unrelated. These continuities, which connect the 1960s' anarcho-pacifist spectacles of the Living Theatre to the contemporary "community" theatre of Cornerstone Theater Company and the 1990s' anti-narrative performance art of SITI Company to the 21st century pop-culture commedia of the Actors' Gang, are revealed only when the collectively written drama texts of these theatres are analyzed alongside the companies' rehearsal processes, performances, and organizational histories. Through the application of an interdisciplinary methodology (part history, part performance analysis, part textual reading), it is made apparent that these collectives all challenge hierarchical authority within their creative processes while at the same time specifically challenging the concept of authorship as a necessary assumption behind any work of art. These challenges to authority, my dissertation argues, are made possible through these theatres' creative methods of quotation which not only allow for a democratic writing process (in which no member of the collective is required to act as playwright) but also model, on the pages of the drama text and in performance, types of collectivity that are then shared with the communities attending these productions. However, as each of these case studies reveals, quotation proves as problematic for these collectives in terms of challenging "author-ity" (both authorship and authority) as it appears initially liberating. Quotation evokes and invokes the authority of those being quoted even if the quotations are being used ironically or to opposite ends as the words traditionally have been read. Quotation--particularly the technique of pastiche--can also prove problematic to theatre collectives attempting to distance themselves from those figures of authority depicted in their productions. Unlike parody, which holds that which is quoted at arm's length, enabling criticism, pastiche draws those quoting closer to those texts, and therefore those authorities, quoted. Broadening this argument beyond collectives, my last chapter looks back at Eugene O'Neill's use of quotation in his composition of Long Day's Journey Into Night (1941). This reading re-imagines U.S. drama in general as, from this traditional "beginning," a category best defined by its dedication to collective creation.

Last modified

• 09/18/2018

Creator

• Scott Proudfit

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N26J0W

Subject

• English

Keyword

• O'Neill
• Living Theatre
• Cornerstone
• SITI Company

Date created

• 2008-09-23

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright