UW Drama Library Featured Books: Featured Books

A first-of-its-kind anthology that explores adaptations of 17th-century Hispanic comedia within contemporary Los Angeles theater. Performed outdoors for audiences of all classes and genders, comedias questioned orthodox ideologies and power systems of the 17th-century Hispanic world: 400 years later, these stories are still being used to call for change, but within modern-day America. Golden Tongues: Adapting Hispanic Classical Theater in Los Angeles explores how adaptations of source texts by authors such as Lope de Vega, Calderón, and María de Zayas harness their energy and themes. Touching on key modern issues like the intersection of power and sexuality, gentrification, and Black identities, this anthology bridges the gap between the classical and the contemporary. Featuring seven plays, each with an introduction that situates the adaptation in relation to its source and contextualizes its performance, this play collection both highlights the longevity of Hispanic classic theater and celebrates the diversity of modern day performance.

Dom has had a rough go of things so far. At fourteen, he has the hardened look of someone who's had to fight for everything. And he's sick of pronouns, but when push comes to shove, he uses he. Fred has just moved to Not-The-City, a new place where he can try to disappear. But he didn't expect to actually make friends. He just hopes he's accepted for how he looks. When Dom and Fred meet on a hill overlooking a bridge that connects Not-The-City to The City, a place where anyone can be anything they want, the two find a refuge in one another and make a pact: they'll cross the bridge at the end of the school year. They'll be free. What could happen by then? Who will they be? And will the bridge even let them cross?

Joy Harjo's play Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light is the centerpiece of this collection that includes essays and interviews concerning the roots and the reaches of contemporary Native Theater. Harjo blends storytelling, music, movement, and poetic language in Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light--a healing ceremony that chronicles the challenges young protagonist Redbird faces on her path to healing and self-determination. This text is accompanied by interviews with Native theater artists Rolland Meinholtz and Randy Reinholz, as well as an interview with Harjo, conducted by Page. Essays on Harjo's work are provided by Mary Kathryn Nagle--an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee nation, playwright, and attorney who shares her insights on the legal and historical frameworks through which we can better understand the significance of Harjo's play; and Priscilla Page--writer, performer, and educator (of Wiyot heritage), who looks at indigenous feminism, jazz, and performance as influences on Harjo's theatrical work.

Starting in 1966, African American activist Stokely Carmichael and other political leaders adopted the phrase "Black Power!" The slogan captured a militant, revolutionary spirit that was already emerging in the work of playwrights, poets, musicians, and visual artists throughout the Black Arts movement of the mid-1960s. But the story of those theater artists and performers whose work helped bring about the Black Arts revolution has not fully been told. Readying the Revolution: African American Theater and Performance from Post-World War II to the Black Arts Movement explores the dynamic era of Black culture between the end of World War II and the start of the Black Arts Movement (1946-1964) by illuminating how artists and innovators such as Jackie Robinson, Lorraine Hansberry, Ossie Davis, Nina Simone, and others helped radicalize Black culture and Black political thought. In doing so, these artists defied white cultural hegemony in the United States, and built the foundation for the revolutionary movement in Black theater that followed in the mid 1960s. Through archival research, close textual reading, and an analysis of performance artifacts, Shandell demonstrates how these artists negotiated a space on the public stage for cultivating radical Black aesthetics and built the foundation for the revolutionary movement in Black theater that followed in the mid-1960s.

 

Sustainable Fashion, Migrants, Embroidery: Ateliers of 'Social Integration' tells of community-led 'solidarity ateliers' engaged in sewing and embroidery activities which, in the Global North and Global South, are providing a vital alternative to neoliberal and neo-colonial fashion paradigms. On encountering several ateliers solidaires/sartorie sociali during her immersive fieldwork, for which she travelled to Morocco and Southern Italy, and contrasting her findings with her knowledge of parallel and analogous initiatives in London, Alessandra Lopez y Royo suggests that despite their different outlook and approach these ateliers can be inscribed within an ever-growing economy of solidarity and sharing. With a uniquely combined focus on sustainability, fashion and migration, Lopez y Royo examines how the ateliers foreground a powerful social inclusion agenda, encouraging migrants (and refugees) to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and foster communities on a level playing field with locals. Questioning widely accepted notions of 'empowerment' and 'social integration', and drawing on her background in archaeology and material culture studies, Lopez y Royo uses micro-studies to illuminate a broader path to a more inclusive, sustainable, and socially conscious industry, presenting a fresh perspective on repurposing and upcycling. In a world grappling with the need to shift away from fast fashion's wasteful practices, this thought-provoking exploration shows how slow-growth 'solidarity ateliers' can challenge the widely accepted notions of both 'fashion' and 'social integration.'