New Theatre Vistas

Book excerpt: First Published in 1996. Part of a series of ‘Studies in Modern Drama’, Volume 7 This volume Studies in Modern Drama collects essays on contemporary theatre which reveal the changing face of the world, as well as challenges to the boundaries of traditional stage production. Authors examine familiar texts in new settings, discovering what editor Judy Lee Oliva calls “the effect of cultural- specific gestures, stances and the nuance of words,” so that audiences and critics are forced to recognize stereotypes and re-evaluate older critical methods. Topics range from directing gay and working-class theatre in Scotland to producing American and British drama in Holland, Belgium, and Poland. New voices in the theatre are heard, and old ones are put to new tests. What remains is the power of performance to inspire emotional and intellectual response. Writers, directors, costume designers, producers, and critics provide an uncommon range of perspectives to the changing roles of theatre in an increasingly global community.