The Dramatic Arts and Cultural Studies: Educating Against the Grain (Garland Reference Library of Social Science)

This book presents a wide range of contemporary theories borrowed from Cultural Studies augmented with practical implications that support dramatic artists in their struggle to create possible multiple realities for a postmodern future. Teachers, directors, writers, students, and many others involved in the dramatic arts will benefit from the discussions of Cultural Studies and the connections to the Dramatic Arts. The first chapters mix theory and practice while the last chapter provides questioning strategies and conventions that can be used in actual sessions to deconstruct scripted or improvised dramatic texts. This is a useful introductory text for artists, directors, teachers, students, and others involved in the Dramatic Arts who would like to energize their work through contemporary theories and practices of Cultural Studies. With the current, fast-paced, major philosophical challenges to modern life and its institutional constructs, artists and teachers involved in the dramatic arts are faced with demands to create a lucid postmodern play of ideas and forms. This text presents a wide range of contemporary theories borrowed from cultural studies augmented with practical implications that support dramatic artists in their struggle to create possible multiple realities for a postmodern future Arts Education Book Cover 1 Title 4 Contents 5 Preface by Shirley Steinberg 10 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction by Dorothy Heathcote 16 A Modern World in Crisis 22 Cultural Studies through Theater 56 Major Tenets of Cultural Studies 76 Deconstruction of Cultural Constructions 98 Hegemonic Resonances 130 Acting against the Grain 152 Bibliography 192 Index 198 About the Author 202 Dorothy Heathcote (Wagner, 1976), the leading drama educator, once stated: "Drama is about humans in a mess."