From Shakespeare's gender-bending play Twelfth Night to the critically-acclaimed Broadway hit Angels in America, from 17th century kabuki theatre of Japan - performed by cross-dressing prostitutes - to the NEA-denounced performance art of Holly Hughes, theatre has long been - as co-editor Alisa Solomon terms it - the queerest art. The Queerest Art is a pioneering collection of essays by and conversations among a diverse range of leading theatre academics and artists. The first anthology to bring scholars and makers of queer theatre into direct dialogue, the volume explores such subjects as same-sex desire in Restoration comedy, the racialized impact of colonial Shakespeare, the cuerpo politizado of a performance artist in contemporary Los Angeles, and the nitty-gritty of getting a queer show presented in Peoria. The Queerest Art rereads the history of performance as a celebration and critique of dissident sexualities, exploring the politics of pleasure and the pleasure of politics that drive the theatre. Lively and accessible, The Queerest Art will be useful to scholars, students, artists, and theatre-goers alike interested in what makes queer theatre ...and what makes theatre queer.
Contributors include: Jill Dolan, Brian Freeman, Randy Gener, George E. Haggerty, Holly Hughes, Ania Loomba, Tim Miller, Jose Esteban Munoz, Deb Parks-Satterfield, Lola Pashalinski, Everett Quinton, David Roman, David Savran, Laurence Senelick, Don Shewey, Carmelita Tropicana, Valerie Traub, Paula Vogel, Doric Wilson, and Stacy Wolf.
