Documentary trial plays in contemporary American theater [electronic resource] / Jacqueline O'Connor.
2013
PS338.H56 O25 2013eb
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Title
Documentary trial plays in contemporary American theater [electronic resource] / Jacqueline O'Connor.
Author
O'Connor, Jacqueline.
ISBN
9780809332366 paperback
0809332361 paperback
080933237X
9780809332373 electronic book
0809332361 paperback
080933237X
9780809332373 electronic book
Publication Details
Carbondale ; Edwardsville : Southern Illinois University Press, 2013.
Language
English
Description
xi, 225 p.
Call Number
PS338.H56 O25 2013eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
812/.051409
Summary
"The development of the documentary trial play in late-twentieth-century American theater From the Chicago Conspiracy Trial and the O. J. Simpson trial to the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill congressional hearings, legal and legislative proceedings in the latter part of the twentieth-century kept Americans spellbound. Situated on the shifting border between imagination and the law, trial plays edit, arrange, and reproduce court records, media coverage, and first-person interviews, transforming these elements into a performance. In this first book-length critical study of contemporary American documentary theater, Jacqueline O'Connor examines in depth ten such plays, all written and staged since 1970, and considers the role of the genre in re-creating and revising narratives of significant conflicts in contemporary history. Documentary theater, she shows, is a particularly appropriate and widely utilized theatrical form for engaging in debate about tensions between civil rights and institutional power, the inconsistency of justice, and challenges to gender norms. For each of the plays discussed, including The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Unquestioned Integrity: The Hill/Thomas Hearings, and The Laramie Project, O'Connor provides historical context and a brief production history before considering the trial the play focuses on. Grouping plays historically and thematically, she demonstrates how dramatic representation advances our understanding of the law's power while revealing the complexities that hinder society's pursuit of justice. "-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Series
Theater in the Americas
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