000			03127nam a22003857a 4500
001			sulb-eb0011956
003			BD-SySUS
005			20160404144753.0
008			121219s2013 ilu o 00 0 eng d
020			_a9780809332373
020			_a080933237X
020			_z9780809332366 (pbk.)
020			_z0809332361 (paperback)
040			_aMdBmJHUP _cMdBmJHUP
050	0	0	_aPS338.H56 _bO25 2013
082	0	0	_a812/.051409 _223
100	1		_aO'Connor, Jacqueline.
245	1	0	_aDocumentary trial plays in contemporary American theater _h[electronic resource] / _cJacqueline O'Connor.
260			_aCarbondale and Edwardsville : _bSouthern Illinois University Press, _c[2013] _e(Baltimore, Md. : _fProject MUSE, _g2015)
300			_a1 online resource (pages cm)
490	0		_aTheater in the Americas
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_a"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. "-- _cProvided by publisher.
588			_aDescription based on print version record.
650		7	_aPERFORMING ARTS / General. _2bisacsh
650		7	_aPERFORMING ARTS / Theater / History & Criticism. _2bisacsh
650		0	_aTrials in literature.
650		0	_aLiterature and history _zUnited States _xHistory _y20th century.
650		0	_aTheater _xProduction and direction _zUnited States _xHistory _y20th century.
650		0	_aHistorical drama, American _xHistory and criticism.
655		7	_aElectronic books. _2local
710	2		_aProject Muse.
856	4	0	_zFull text available: _uhttps://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780809332373/
942			_2Dewey Decimal Classification _ceBooks
999			_c33247 _d33247