Chicago's Goodman Theatre: Plays and cultural work in an institutional theater
Appler, Gilbert Keith
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22229
Description
Title
Chicago's Goodman Theatre: Plays and cultural work in an institutional theater
Author(s)
Appler, Gilbert Keith
Issue Date
1994
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Hurt, James R.
Department of Study
English
Discipline
English
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
American Studies
Theater
Literature, American
Language
eng
Abstract
During the cultural war of the 1990s, a major institutional theater presented socially-serious art which represented multiple positions on important topics while striving for artistic excellence. Chicago's Goodman Theatre sought social relevance, though its productions, in representing and conciliating people in its diverse audience, adopted a parodic strategy instead of taking clear points of view.
"Since the 1960s, regional theaters have distinguished themselves from commercial Broadway as cultural leaders committed simultaneously to ""art"" and to social progress. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, as art became more politically engaged, regional theaters have adopted strategies to maintain their legitimacy and funding. Theaters, while giving classic plays professional performances, demonstrated their social commitment by producing classics in relevant ways and by selecting and developing new plays on serious topics. At the same time, theaters strove to include diverse people in their audiences and to represent their serious concerns. This meant that these theaters engaged with controversial issues but avoided clear positions to maintain their community, and represented differing positions of their diverse audience members. The resulting plays and performance texts were structurally parodic, or double- or multicoded."
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