Richard Foreman

This wide-ranging anthology includes a collection of reviews tracing Foreman’s reception from the 1960s to today, a series of informative interviews, a section of critical essays and a selection of Foreman’s writings (including the complete text of My Head Was a Sledgehammer). The book also offers a detailed chronology of Foreman’s career, a current bibliography and 19 photographs from his plays.

The first critical edition devoted to Foreman's work.

Library Journal

These latest entries in the recent series from the editors of Performing Arts Journal shed light on two very different practioners of avant-garde theater. Foreman is in some ways the elder statesman of nonnarrative experimental theater, having produced his own plays continually for 30 years. While he often cites Brecht and Gertrude Stein as primary influences, his highly entertaining plays have their own unique form and relate his own philosophical and psychological probings acted out on the stage. Also a complete theater artist who wrote, directed, and designed his plays, Abdoh--who died of AIDS in 1995 at age 32--worked for fewer than ten years in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He received much attention for his angry, political work, which confronted such issues as race, class, and AIDS head on, but no other permanent record of his career exists. Rabkin, a Rutgers theater arts professor, and Mufson, a writer specializing in the theater, bring these disparate careers into focus through a wide variety of writings. After introductory essays (Rabkin's is particularly insightful), the editors present a wide selection of interviews, reviews, and analytic essays as well as a section of original texts (playscripts and/or theoretical writings) by the artists themselves. Although the bulk of the writing here has been previously published, the books gather scattered information and cohere to provide overviews that will be useful to experts and novices alike. Recommended for all academic libraries supporting any sort of theater or performance programs.--Douglas McClemont, New York Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Gerald Rabkin served as theater editor and principal critic for the SoHo Weekly News from 1976 to 1980 and has written for such publications as the London New Statesman, the Kansas City Star, Theatre Journal, and American Theatre. He has served as contributing editor for Performing Arts Journal since its inception. Richard Foreman founded the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968. The theater is currently in the historic St. Marks Church, where he rehearses and produces one of his new plays each year, each play performing for 16 weeks every winter.