Mainstream AIDS Theatre, the Media, and Gay Civil Rights Making the Radical Palatable Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies Series
Auteur : Juntunen Jacob
This bookdemonstrates the political potential of mainstream theatre in the US at the end of the twentieth century, tracing ideological change over time in the reception of US mainstream plays taking HIV/AIDS as their topic from 1985 to 2000. This is the first study to combine the topics of the politics of performance, LGBT theatre, and mainstream theatre?s political potential, a juxtaposition that shows how radical ideas become mainstream, that is, how the dominant ideology changes. Using materialist semiotics and extensive archival research, Juntunen delineates the cultural history of four pivotal productions from that period?Larry Kramer?s The Normal Heart (1985), Tony Kushner?s Angels in America (1992), Jonathan Larson?s Rent (1996), and Moises Kaufman?s The Laramie Project (2000). Examining the connection between AIDS, mainstream theatre, and the media reveals key systems at work in ideological change over time during a deadly epidemic whose effects changed the nation forever. Employing media theory alongside nationalism studies and utilizing dozens of reviews for each case study, the volume demonstrates that reviews are valuable evidence of how a production was hailed by society?s ideological gatekeepers. Mixing this new use of reviews alongside textual analysis and material study?such as the theaters? locations, architectures, merchandise, program notes, and advertising?creates an uncommonly rich description of these productions and their ideological effects. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of theatre, politics, media studies, queer theory, and US history, and to those with an interest in gay civil rights, one of the most successful social movements of the late twentieth century.
Introduction 1. Repairing Reality 2. Resistance: The Normal Heart 3. Assimilation: Angels in America 4. Commercialization: Rent 5. Normalization: The Laramie Project 6. Conclusion: Does It Get Better?
Jacob Juntunen is Associate Professor in the Department of Theater and in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Southern Illinois University, USA.
Date de parution : 12-2020
15.2x22.9 cm
Date de parution : 02-2016
15.2x22.9 cm
Thèmes de Mainstream AIDS Theatre, the Media, and Gay Civil Rights :
Mots-clés :
Research; Performance; Theatre; Theater; AIDS; LGBT; Gender Studies; Sexuality; HIV; LGBT theatre; Political Peformance; Politics of Performance; Materialist Semiotics; Larry Kramer; Tony Kushner; Jonathan Larson; Moises Kaufman; The Normal Heart; Rent; Angels in America; The Laramie Project; Media Theory; Nationalism; Queer Theory; Queer Studies; Gay Civil Rights; Twentieth Century Theatre; 20th Century Theatre; US Theatre; American Theatre; Theatre and Social Change; Young Man; Social Justice; LGBT Bully; LGBT Citizen; Gay Theatre; Laramie Project; Gay Panic Defense; LGBTQ Youth; Radical Palatable; LGBT Character; Aid Virus; Emergent Ideology; Tectonic Theater Project; Shepard’s Death; Shepard’s Murder; LGBT Civil Right; LGBT Community; York Theatre Workshop; Broadway Premiere; Act III; Normal Heart; Gay Civil Rights Movement; Homeless LGBT Youth; Mainstream Aid; Mainstream HIV