Performance histories /

This volume comprises reviews, interviews, speeches, and thoughts about the state of theater, and performance art as theater, originally published (and in some cases rewritten) in Performing Arts Journal and other sources. Marranca, who is cofounder and publisher of Performing Arts Journal, dedicates the collection to the late Susan Sontag (1933-2004) as a kind of thank you. The pieces address the idea of performance history, using narrative accounts of events to describe and think about where theater and performance art might go. A section of aural histories includes conversations with Peter Sellars, Meredith Monk, Robert Jay Lifton, and Marianne Weems, among others. Eschewing academic jargon and postmodern trendiness, and ruing the marginalization of the avant-garde, Marranca and her fellow contributors offer penetrating, opinionated, informative, perceptive critiques of performances in New York and a few other selected sites (Berlin, Barcelona, Istanbul). Narrating the engaged journey of a privileged participant from a particular perch, this volume makes a valuable contribution to both performance studies and the history of performance. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, professionals, and general readers. J. L. Erdman Columbia College Chicago