Staging Gay Lives: An Anthology of Contemporary Gay Theater

By John M. Clum

Book Overview

Created for general and scholarly audiences alike, this volume offers ten of the best recent plays by and about gay men, all of which have been successfully produced and critically acclaimed in the United States and England. The playwrights, who reflect multicultural origins ranging from Anglo to African American and Latino, have crafted powerful and insightful depictions of the roles gay men play in gender politics.Each play is explosive, politically and socially relevant, and enlightening, whether it be Martin Sherman's much-praised A Madhouse in Goa or the avante-garde Pomo Afro Homos' Dark Fruit. The first to offer such a diversity of voices, this collection also crosses generational borders. Included are two of the first and most important modern gay playwrights?Martin Sherman and Peter Gill?as well as exciting younger dramatists who have emerged in the ?gay nineties.?Illustrating the sexual politics and events that have swirled through mainstream society since the Stonewall rebellion in the 1960s?AIDS, homophobia, transgendering, discrimination, violence?these plays offer essential and direct articulation of the human lives involved. Each of these plays in its own unique way deeply investigates the pain, sorrow, joy, and beauty of being gay in a predominantly heterosexual world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813325056
• ISBN13: 9780813325057
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 488 Pages
• Weight: 1.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A must read for any theatre lover!

I stumbled across this "Staging Gay Lives" when I was despertley looking for the play, "What's Wrong With Angry?" by Patrick Wilde. This play became the base for a very popular queer film called, "Get Real". This book of 10 queer themed plays was the only place I could find this play. After getting the book, I also enjoyed the other 9 plays that were in the book. This book of plays, is a must read for any theatre lover out there. Weather gay or straight, I think that anyone can appreciate the sincere realism of these 10 beautifuly written plays.