Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement
ISBN: 9780472022212
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Michigan Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Off Off-Broadway theater -- History -- 20th century; American drama -- 20th century -- History and criticism;

In his elegaic history of the 1960s off-off-Broadway movement, Bottoms focuses on New York?s four leading ?OOB? theaters: Caffe Cino, the Judson Poets? Theater, La Mama and Theatre Genesis. The author, a professor in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, emphasizes that there was never a core leadership and scarcely a discernible movement, but simply a swelling desire among primarily young people for freedom of expression in the ?geographic proximity? of Manhattan?s Greenwich Village and East Village. He cheers the restored importance of the playwright. Featured players in this countercultural phenomenon include playwright Edward Albee, eccentric actress Julie Bovasso, the amiable coffee-house proprietor Joseph Cino, the wonderful Ellen Stewart and her La Mama Troupe. An appendix lists notable productions and events of the period. While this study will be of most interest to older theater lovers, younger fans will also appreciate this comprehensive look at a significant chapter in recent American theater history. Photos not seen by PW. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Stephen J. Bottoms is the Wole Soyinka Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds. He is the author of Albee: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Theatre of Sam Shepard: States of Crisis .


hidden image for function call