Tennessee Williams and Erwin Piscator
influences, divergences and the Dramatic Workshop collaboration
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13740839Keywords:
Epic theatre, Plastic theatre, Battle of angels, The glass menagerie, North American dramaAbstract
In the early 1940s, Tennessee Williams had a learning and working experience at the Dramatic Workshop, a theatre school directed by the political theatre exponent Erwin Piscator in New York. This article intends to briefly explore the relationship and debates between the two artists and, by analyzing the dropped staging project for the Battle of angels in the Dramatic Workshop’s Studio Theatre and the stylistic procedures originated in the epic theatre used in The glass menagerie, reflect on the influences of Piscator’s theatrical thinking and practice on William’s work, as well as how those were appropriated and reshaped by him.
References
BETTI, Maria Silvia. Dramaturgia comparada Estados Unidos/Brasil: três estudos. São Paulo: Cia. Fagulha, 2017.
COSTA, Iná Camargo. Panorama do rio vermelho: ensaios sobre o teatro americano moderno. São Paulo: Nankin Editorial, 2001.
DURMIŠEVI?, Nudžejma. Plastic theatre and selective realism of Tennessee Williams. Anafora – Journal of Literary Studies, v. 5, n. 1, 2018. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325669106_Plastic_Theatre_and_Selective_Realism_of_Tennessee_Williams. Access: Jul 20, 2022.
KRAMER, Richard E. The sculptural drama: Tennessee Williams’s plastic theatre. The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, n. 5, 2002. Available at: tennesseewiliamsstudies.org/journal/work.php?ID=45. Access: Jul 22, 2022.
LEY-PISCATOR, Maria. The Piscator experiment. The political theatre. New York: James H. Heineman, 1967.
MALINA, Judith. The Piscator notebook. London: Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2012.
MARX, Karl. Crítica da filosofia do direito de Hegel. Tradução: Rubens Enderle Leonardo de Deus. São Paulo: Boitempo, 2010.
MURPHY, Brenda. The theatre of Tennessee Williams. London/New York: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2014.
PISCATOR, Erwin. Erwin Piscator: teatro, política, sociedad. Organizado por: Cesar de Vicente Hernando. Madrid: Asociacion de directores de escena de Espana, 2013.
PROBST, Gerhard F. Erwin Piscator and the American theatre. New York, San Francisco, Bern etc., 1991.
SMITH-HOWARD, Alycia; HEINTZELMAN, Greta. Critical companion to Tennessee Williams. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Preface. In: WILLIAMS, Tennessee. Orpheus descending and Battle of angels. New York: New Directions, 1957.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The glass menagerie. New York: New Directions, 1999.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The selected letters of Tennessee Williams – Volume 1. Editado por DEVLIN, Albert J.; TISCHLER, Nancy M. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2000.
WILLIAMS, Tennessee. The selected letters of Tennessee Williams – 1945-1957 (volume 2). Editado por DEVLIN, Albert J.; TISCHLER, Nancy M. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2000a.
