Rehearsing Revolutions: The Labor Drama Experiment and Radical Activism in the Early Twentieth Century - Couverture souple

McAvoy, Mary

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1609386418 ISBN 13 : 9781609386412

Editeur : University of Iowa Press, 2019

Synopsis

Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2019

George Freedley Memorial Award Finalist, 2020

Between the world wars, several labor colleges sprouted up across the U.S. These schools, funded by unions, sought to provide members with adult education while also indoctrinating them into the cause. As Mary McAvoy reveals, a big part of that learning experience centered on the schools' drama programs. For the first time, Rehearsing Revolutions shows how these left-leaning drama programs prepared American workers for the "on-the-ground" activism emerging across the country. In fact, McAvoy argues, these amateur stages served as training grounds for radical social activism in early twentieth-century America.

Using a wealth of previously unpublished material such as director's reports, course materials, playscripts, and reviews, McAvoy traces the programs' evolution from experimental teaching tool to radically politicized training that inspired overt--even militant--labor activism by the late 1930s. All the while, she keeps an eye on larger trends in public life, connecting interwar labor drama to post-war arts-based activism in response to McCarthyism, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement. Ultimately, McAvoy asks: What did labor drama do for the workers' colleges and why did they pursue it? She finds her answer through several different case studies in places like the Portland Labor College and the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Mary McAvoy is assistant professor in the School of Film, Dance, and Theatre at Arizona State University. She is the coauthor of Drama and Education: Performance Methodologies for Teaching and Learning and coeditor of Youth and Performance: Perceptions of the Contemporary Child.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Iowa Press
• Date d'édition: 2019
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1609386418
• ISBN 13: 9781609386412
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 266
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Buchpark GmbH; https://www.buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Allemagne