Feature: A Playwright of Pragmatism: Susan Glaspell's Unity of Science and Religion
Michael Winetsky
Feature: The Living Theatre and Its Discontents: Excavating the Somatic Utopia of Paradise Now
James Penner
Penner calls for a more complete scholarly treatment of the Living Theatre’s influential 1968 production of Paradise Now. Although the pivotal avant-garde production is traditionally lauded as a utopian marriage of political commentary and sexual revolution, the group's efforts to transform audience consciousness often bred dystopic dysfunction. Penner reassesses performers and spectators’ experiences by examining how the production put into practice Wilhelm Reich’s theory that sexual expression mitigates violence. In contrast to academic treatments, first-hand accounts of Paradise Now imply that the production’s use of ritualistic movement, nudity, direct audience antagonization, and encouragement of spectator engagement facilitated gendered expressions of entitlement, power, and abuse. In his detailed and balanced description of the production, Penner argues that scholars are often problematically nostalgic about Paradise Now, and seeks to re-situate the production in its artistic, countercultural, historical, political, and philosophical contexts.
Feature: From Filth to Faith: Creating Holy Ground in New York's Five Points
Bradley Griffin
Feature:The Paradigms of Abundance and Scarcity: Theologial Subtext in David Edgar's Pentecost
Rhett Luedtke
Highlight: Interview with Ron Reed
Angela Konrad
Profile: Dzieci Theatre
Elizabeth Cawns
Profile: The Harry Ransom Center
Danielle Brune Sigler
Profile: The Life Stage Theatrical Troupe, Inc.
Rev. Bob Versteeg
Book & Performance Reviews:
Julie Burrell- Querying Difference in Theatre History, Scott Magelssen & Ann Haugo, Eds.
Kelly Carolyn Gordon- Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theatre. Fiorelli's Plaster, Odai Johnson
Adrianne Adderly- Kenneth Burke on Shakespeare, Scott L. Newstock, ed.
Milbre Burch- Performing Loss-Rebuilding Community Through Theater and Writing, Jodi Kanter
Steve Earnest- The Deadly Sins, Reykjavik City Theatre, Iceland
Special Issue
Volume 2.2: "Sex and Sacredness"
Letter from the Editor Carolyn D. Roark
Editorial: The “Don’t” Factor: Faith and Repressive Sexual Ethics John Fletcher, Guest Editor
Highlight: Love in the Time of Derrida Henry Bial
Feature: Demanding the Divine: Terrence McNally's Gay Passion Play CORPUS CHRISTI Thomas Fish
Feature: Goddess-Men: Nationalism, Brahminism and Female Impersonation in Indian Religious Theatre Patrick Murphree
Feature: 'A Greedie Desire': Performing Puritan Passion Simon duToit
Highlight: Under the Tamarind Tree Rebecca Nesvet
Profile: Tara Dhatu Jessica Zebrine Gray
Profile: The Passion of Saints Sergius and Bacchus Jacek Scarso
Profile: Stan Denman's EMBRACING Kari Hatfield
Book & Performance Reviews:
Jennifer A. Kokai—Sisters in Sin: Brothel Drama in America, 1900-1920, Katie N. Johnson
Brian Eugenio Herrera—The Viagra Ad Venture: Masculinity, Media, and the Performance of Sexual Health, Jay Baglia
Peter Novak—The Queerest Art: Esays on Lesbian and Gay Theater, Alisa Solomon and Framji Minwalla, Eds.
Jeff D. Grace—Tender Fires: The Spiritual Promise of Sexuality, Fran Ferder and John Heagle
Brett D. Johnson—The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, Mn
Dorothy Dodge Robbins—Phèdre, National Theatre, London
Laura Grace Pattillo—Next Fall, Playwrights Horizons
Kenneth Robbins—Death and the King’s Horseman, National Theatre, London
