Performing (Non)Profit, Race, and American Identity in the Nation's Capital: Arena Stage, 1950-2010

<p>Theatre socially reproduces and contests economic, racial, and national hierarchies. There is a dearth of scholarship on U.S. regional theatre because of middlebrow anxiety and yet, for that very reason, regional theatre demands attention as a fitting example of the site of struggle over different forms of capital. Located in Washington, D.C., Arena Stage is the ideal case study for both the invention of viable non-profit theatre and the negotiation of race and national identity in the United States. Arguably the closest institution the U.S. has to a national theatre, the company was the first regional theatre to send a profitable new play to Broadway and now brands itself as the largest theatre devoted to "American Voices." By capitalizing upon its location in the nation's capital; staging racially liberal dramas; and developing institutional practices that help the institution to accumulate economic, cultural, and symbolic capital, the theatre has thrived for more than sixty years.</p> <p>My dissertation is a critical history of Arena Stage from 1950 to 2010 and consists of three thematic sections that focus on how the company produced non-profit practices, African/Caribbean/American drama, and U.S. identity. While the history chapters provide context and theoretical underpinnings from Pierre Bourdieu's <em>Field of Cultural Production</em> to Michael Omi and Howard Winant's <em>Racial Formation in the United States</em>, the case study chapters perform close readings of Arena Stage's most successful productions that mark turning points: <em>The Great White Hope</em> (1968) inspired a trend toward Broadway transfers with attendant economic and symbolic capital; <em>Raisin</em> (1973), the musical adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry's <em>A Raisin in the Sun</em>, staged a liberal yet safe black theatre; and the multiracial production of <em>Oklahoma!</em> (2010) opened the company's new theatre center and symbolized a diverse, neoliberal nation. I draw from performance and American studies; sociology and critical race theory; archival materials; and interviews with artists and administrators. I argue that Arena's viability has been largely due to the theatre's progressive politics yet ultimate maintenance of hegemonic structures, namely of class, race, and nation.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Theatre

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Galella, Donatella

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Judith Milhous

• African American Studies
• American Studies
• American; Arena Stage; Black; Non-profit; U.S. Theatre Institutions

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/936

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-1950