Approaches to the Contemporary American Theatre

In this engaging study, theatre scholar Robert J. Andreach argues, in what will be his final book, that the contemporary American theatre merits appreciation for dramatizing experiences in genres that jostle the audience into thinking about the experiences in new ways, based on five units of analysis: the naturalistic play, modernist theatre, trilogies, tragedy, and comedy. Andreach’s insights maintain that familiarity with these five units should stimulate thinking about the experiences and what they reveal about contemporary American life and the ways in which the theatre can dramatize that life.