Portrayals of Americans on the World Stage

Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., is a professional actor and director whose previous books have covered topics ranging from Star Wars to Renaissance faires. He is a professor and chair of the theater department at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Introduction: Staging the Ugly American / America the Beautiful(KEVIN J. WETMORE, JR.)      Part I. Historical Depictions of America and Americans on World Stages1. Satire and Sentiment: Images of America and Americans in German Drama to 1800 (SABINE MACRIS KLEIN)      2. Throwing Insults Across the Ocean: Charles Mathews and the Staging of “the American” in 1824(MAURA L. JORTNER)      3. Gunboat Diplomacy on the Kabuki Stage: Okamoto Kidō’s Construction of America and Japan’s Deconstruction of Pacific Overtures(KEVIN J. WETMORE, JR.)      4. “Gringo” Agency and Revolutionary Disillusionment in Rodolfo Usigli’s El gesticulador (JESSICA C. LOCKE)      Part II. Contemporary America and Americans in World Theatre5. Srbljanović’s Ugly American: Simultaneously Constructing Serbian and American Identities(MELISSA RYNN PORTERFIELD)      6. The American Hyphen in Modern Irish Theatre: Irish-, Academic-, and American-Americans in the Plays of Brian Friel and Beyond(THOMAS B. COSTELLO)      7. Of Human Rights and Playwriting Against Empire(NEILESH BOSE)      8. KATHY’s Parody of Singin’ in the Rain(NOBUKO ANAN)      9. Motherland and Mothers-in-Law: African-American Wives in African Plays(KEVIN J. WETMORE, JR.)      10. Marking the Nation from the Outside: Vietnamese Americans as Abject in the Vietnamese Play Dạ Cổ Hoài Lang(KHAI THU NGUYEN)      Part III. America through Musicals on the World Stage11. Hair in Sarajevo: Doing Theatre Under Siege(NENAD “NENO” PERVAN)      12. Japanese Women/American Men: National Identities and the Takarazuka Revue (JESSICA HESTER)      13. Taiwan Style I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change by Lancreators(LLYN SCOTT)      14. The Great White Way Revived in Seoul: Korean Productions of The Producers (2006) and Assassins (2005)(JI HYON [KAYLA] YUH)      Bibliography      About the Contributors      Index

“solid... offers a tantalizing analysis of what it meant (and means) to be American from the early days of the republic to the present day. Recommended”—Choice.