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One of America's most powerful and original dramatists, August Wilson offered an alternative history of the twentieth century, as seen from the perspective of black Americans. He celebrated the lives of those seemingly pushed to the margins of national life, but who were simultaneously protagonists of their own drama and evidence of a vital and compelling community. Decade by decade, he told the story of a people with a distinctive history who forged their own future, aware of their roots in another time and place, but doing something more than just survive. Wilson deliberately addressed black America, but in doing so discovered an international audience. Alongside chapters addressing Wilson's life and career, and the wider context of his plays, this 2007 Companion dedicates individual chapters to each play in his ten-play cycle, which are ordered chronologically, demonstrating Wilson's notion of an unfolding history of the twentieth century.

Historical drama, American --- African Americans in literature. --- History and criticism. --- Wilson, August --- Criticism and interpretation.

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Wilson, August --- Criticism and interpretation --- Domestic drama [American ] --- History and criticism --- African Americans in literature --- Historical drama [American ]

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"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. "--

PERFORMING ARTS / General. --- PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism. --- Trials in literature. --- Literature and history --- Theater --- Historical drama, American --- Dramatics --- Histrionics --- Professional theater --- Stage --- Theatre --- Performing arts --- Acting --- Actors --- History --- Production and direction --- History and criticism.

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"After August argues that August Wilson was foremost a bluesman working in drama, and that recognizing his blues techniques reveals American drama's fascination with the process of defining the self in collaboration with community. The book reads Wilson's Century Cycle plays alongside the cultural history of blues music, as well as the work of Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Katori Hall, Lynn Nottage, and Suzan-Lori Parks, examining these dramatists' efforts to establish a sustainable identity for the self within social terrain that is often oppressive of racial, gendered, and sexual identity"--

American drama --- Identity (Psychology) in literature. --- Blues (Music) in literature. --- African Americans in literature. --- Historical drama, American --- Afro-Americans in literature --- Negroes in literature --- History and criticism. --- Wilson, August --- Criticism and interpretation.

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African Americans in literature --- Afro-Americans in literature --- Afro-Amerikanen in de literatuur --- Afro-Américains dans la littérature --- Amerikaanse zwarten in de literatuur --- Black Americans in literature --- Negroes in literature --- Noirs américains dans la littérature --- Zwarte Amerikanen in de literatuur --- Historical drama, American --- Théâtre historique américain --- History and criticism --- Histoire et critique --- Wilson, August --- Criticism and interpretation --- Critique et interprétation --- Noirs américains dans la littérature --- Théâtre historique américain --- Critique et interprétation --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Historical drama [American ]