Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality In Modern Drama

Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality In Modern Drama

Product Description Still Acting Gay is a revision and expansion of Clums celebrated book, Acting Gay. The book focuses on the relationship between American and British dramas written by and about gay men and the changing gay culture those plays reflect, from the carefully enforced closet to liberation politics to AIDS to the qualified security of the present. Still Acting Gay chronicles the transition of the gay man as subject for sensational melodrama to creator of many of the most powerful and celebrated plays of the late 20th century. Amazon.com Review This reprint (with some revision and a new chapter) of John Clums classic 1991 study should be shelved beside Alan Sinfields Out on Stage (1999) in the library of anyone interested in theater or gay culture. In his introduction to this new edition, Clum offers his work as a testament to the importance of gay playwrights in the history of American and British theatre, while acknowledging that in the 21st century, the stage no longer holds a central role in gay cultural life, especially for young urban queers: Were the subjects of serious, gay-created movies. Gay writers and pundits are on chat shows. There are celebrated openly gay rock stars. Which is to say that gay men no longer need to go to the theater to see ourselves and our lives and that gay dramatic writers no longer see the theater as the only medium open to us. Nevertheless, as Clum argues, gay drama of the past 70 years is a good place to look for both sanctioned and unsanctioned representations of homosexual characters and gay life, and perhaps (given the historical association of queers and theater) the best place to trace these changing images. His section on Tennessee Williams (updated here) is especially good, as is his long and celebratory treatment of Tony Kushners Angels in America. --Regina Marler Review An excellent book . . . Its about time someone dealt with these issues in the theater. Rozanne Seelen, Drama Bookshop This first major study of homosexuality in modern plays conducts a whirlwind survey of texts...An important study of drama which ought to change thinking, performance, and teaching. Library Journal About the Author John M. Clum is professor of English and professor of the practice of drama at Duke University. His most recent book is Something for the Boys: Musical Theater and Gay Culture. He is also a playwright, whose play Randys House has been produced in a number of theaters, and a director of more than 60 professional and university productions.