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The Theater of Terrence McNally

Name: The Theater of Terrence McNally
Brand: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS
SKU: 9781683932178
Price: 83.99 AUD
Availability: InStock

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERSISBN: 9781683932178

Something about Grace

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By Raymond-Jean Frontain
Imprint: FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Release Date: November 15, 2021
Format: PAPERBACK
Pages: 374

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Terrence McNally's canon of plays, books for musicals and opera libretti possesses such a breadth of subject matter and diversity of dramatic modes that critics have had difficulty assessing his accomplishment. This book is the first critical study to identify the four major stages of McNally's development in terms of his understanding of how theater helps the modern person trapped in a seemingly profane existence to find a gateway to the transcendent. Drawing upon such diverse religious thinkers as Martin Buber, Mircea Eliade, Ilia Delio and Carter Heyward, Frontain analyzes the evolution of McNally's understanding of grace, not as a gift bestowed by an all-powerful deity upon a desperate soul, but as the unwarranted-and, thus, all the more unusual-"act of devotion" (McNally's phrase) that one person performs for another. By seeking to foment community, most importantly at the height of the AIDS pandemic, McNally's theater itself proves to be a channel of grace. McNally's greatest success is shown to be the creation of a theater of empathy and compassion in contradistinction to Artaud's "theater of cruelty" and Albee's Americanization of the theater of the absurd.

Raymond-Jean Frontain is professor of English and former director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Central Arkansas.

Preface Introduction: Something about Grace: McNally's Religious Humanism Chapter One: Someone is Out There: Existential Angst in And Things That Go Bump in the Night Chapter Two: "I Can't Believe This Whole Night": Redemption by Farce in The Ritz Chapter Three: Long Night's Journey into Day: Frankie and Johnny as Sexual Eucharist Chapter Four: The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Swimmer: Lips Together, Teeth Apart Chapter Five: "Allow, Accept, Be": McNally's Engagement with Hindu Spirituality in A Perfect Ganesh Chapter Six: Communal Survival and the Dance of Death in Love! Valour! Compassion! Chapter Seven: "All Men Are Divine": Religious Mystery and Homosexual Identity in Corpus Christi Chapter Eight: McNally on the Cross: Dead Man Walking, Crucifixion, and A Man of No Importance Chapter Nine: Discovering the Authentic Self: Dedication and the Salvific Function of Theater Chapter Ten: Sing for Your Supper, Sing for Your Salvation: Golden Age, Master Class, and The Lisbon Traviata Conclusion: The Music of Forgiveness: The Visit and Mothers and Sons Appendix: A Calendar of the Works of Terrence McNally Works Cited Index About the Author

The Theater of Terrence McNally

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