Off-Off-Broadway Explosion: How Provocative Playwrights of the 1960's Ignited a New American Theater

Foreword by Edward Albee



The off-off-Broadway movement of the 1960s remains one of the most dynamic periods in the history of American theater. Filled with one-on-one interviews and entertaining anecdotes, Off-Off-Broadway Explosion explores the backstage stories and captivating history of the unusual venues and legendary personalities of the era.



Readers will discover intimate accounts of the innovative Beat Generation playwrights who transformed the New York stage, such as Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Amiri Baraka, Jean-Claude van Itallie, and many other artists whose legacy is still felt within theater halls today. They ll learn about the Greenwich Village visionaries who allowed emerging playwrights to showcase experimental works not welcome on the traditional stage, such as Joseph Cino, the wildly eccentric papa who sired Caffe Cino, and Al Carmines, the radical minister of Judson Memorial Church, whose Judson Poets Theater was known for the avant-garde musicals conceived by the pastor himself.



Finally, a special chapter, Your Own Off-Off-Broadway, advises today s playwrights and theater artists how give voice to their own work and find progressive audiences to appreciate it.



Playwrights Discussed:




Edward Albee

Sam Shepard

Amiri Baraka

Landford Wilson

Maria Irene Forn s

Jean-Claude van Itallie

Robert Patrick

Megan Terry

Rochelle Owens

Doric Wilson

and many others





Documents the origins of innovative
off-off-broadway plays and their writers

Includes archival, rarely seen photos

Personal interviews with leading playwrights

Applicable advice for theater groups in any city