Beyond the Boundaries: American Alternative Theatre (Theater: Theory/Text/Performance

by Theodore Shank

The experimental and alternative theater movement that began in the 1960s and 1970s continues to make an important contribution to the arts in the United States and has embraced a wide range of noteworthy performances. Many of these events have been concerned with social or political issues, some have explored unusual staging methods, and others have looked inward to examine the nature of consciousness, perception, or the structure of thought.
In his groundbreaking book, American Alternative Theatre , Theodore Shank was one of the first critics to describe and interpret the work of groups and individuals such as Spalding Gray, Elizabeth LeCompte,
El Teatro Campesino, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, and the Bread and Puppet Theater. That work continues to be a classic in the field of theater studies. Beyond the Boundaries enlarges and updates American Alternative Theatre , examining the ways that the genre continues to affect contemporary theater. It describes the young theater artists of the 1990s as looking to the 1960s for role models, and sees that the recent resurgence of derivations of 1960s and 1970s alternative theater have arrived with a sharper, more cynical edge.
Theodore Shank is Professor of Theatre and Dance, University of California, San Diego. His books include The Art of Dramatic Art, Contemporary British Theatre, Contemporary Experimental Theatre , and Theatre in Real Time .

376 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2002

Reviews

[Dollad Kenneth]

I found Beyond the Boundaries: American Alternative Theatre disappointing and difficult to engage with. While it aims to explore experimental and alternative theater, the writing feels overly academic and detached. Instead of bringing the energy and innovation of alternative performance to life, it reads more like a dense lecture with little emotional connection. The analysis often circles around ideas without clear conclusions, and I struggled to find new insights that weren’t already covered more clearly in other theatre studies texts. I expected a passionate, contemporary look at experimental performance—but instead got a dry, outdated academic summary.