Performing history

My dissertation explores how a new wave of American dramatists--Suzan-Lori Parks, Anna Deavere Smith, Naomi Wallace, and Charles Mee--use theater as a laboratory to investigate history. Suzan-Lori Parks explores the uses and abuses of historical narrative; Anna Deavere Smith historicizes the contemporary event; Naomi Wallace explores history through a Marxist lens; Charles Mee uses the stage to integrate big and small histories. The four artists differ in age, race, gender, and regional affiliation; they differ in training and aesthetic style. However, they share a commitment to revealing how history and philosophies of history come alive in the present moment. The format of the theater is different from formats traditionally used by nonfiction writers and historians. These artists use the theater to make sense of history not only linguistically, but corporeally and non-linearly. Ultimately, each writer shows that histories exist in the body as much as on the page. For this reason the kind of historical awareness afforded by theater is critical to a fuller understanding of our past, present, and possible futures.