About The Book

In recent seasons, theater has witnessed one of the fiercest examinations yet of its art, as playwrights and performance artists continue to re-form image and language. In this collection, editor Michael Feingold has gathered the works of six contemporary and frequently controversial authors, all of whom have won acclaim for their originality and accomplishment. They have challenged , delighted, antagonized, entertained, and fascinated audiences–often with explosive results. Some have faced censorship, loss of funding, and threats of violence. But despite changing political climates, the scripted play has become over recent years an ever more flexible phenomenon, as this representative anthology so provocatively reveals.

Includes:

David Gordon, “The Mysteries and What’s So Funny?”
Mac Wellman, “Sincerity Forever”
Richard Greenberg, “The American Plan”
Karen Finley, “The Theory of Total Blame”
Ethyl Eichelberger, “Dasvedanya Mama”
David Greenspan, “Dead Mother, or Shirley Not All in Vain”

Praise for the Contributors

Ethyl Eichelberger: “A rare and idiosyncratic comic spirit . . . [He] punctured pretension while retaining his sense of the ridiculous.” –The New York Times

Karen Finley: “Mesmerizing and brilliant.” –Newsweek

David Gordon: “Gordon [has the] wit and canny ability to seek out vulnerables and demystify them, to lay out the commonalities of living and help us come to terms with them.” –Back Stage

Richard Greenberg: “A major playwriting talent.” –Associated Press

David Greenspan: “Hard to like, but even harder to dismiss.” –Newsday

Mac Wellman: “A word spinner…He writes a kind of rapturous rap–street language mixed with metaphorical flights of fantasy.” –The New York Times