Robert Brustein - Critical Writing

Critical Writing

Brustein has been the theatre critic for The New Republic since 1959 (now on leave), and contributes to the Huffington Post. He is the author of sixteen books on theatre and society:

• 1964: The Theatre of Revolt: An Approach to Modern Drama (Little, Brown) – essays on Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw, Brecht, Pirandello, O'Neill, and Artaud and Genet, considered a "standard critical text on modern drama"

• 1965: Seasons of Discontent: Dramatic Opinions 1959-1965 (Simon and Schuster) – "an assemblage of his best magazine pieces from 1959 to "

• 1969: The Third Theatre (Knopf) – "a collection of pieces written between 1957 and 1968 ... that deal not only with theatre but also with literature, culture, and the movies" (from the Preface).

• 1971: Revolution as Theatre: Notes on the New Radical Style (Liveright) – examines campus turmoil, radicalism versus liberalism, the fate of the free university, the new revolutionary life style, the decadence of American society, and the sentimentality and false emotionalism of radical alternatives

• 1975: The Culture Watch: Essays on Theatre and Society, 1969-1974 (Knopf) – "As far as these bristling exhortations go, well, you have to wish the gadfly well"

• 1980: Critical Moments: Reflection on Theatre & Society, 1973-1979 (Random House)

• 1981: Making Scenes: A Personal History of the Turbulent Years at Yale, 1966-1979 (Random House) – Brustein looks at his time at Yale as part "of a larger social and cultural pattern"

• 1987: Who Needs Theatre: Dramatic Opinions (Atlantic Monthly) – a collection of reviews and essays including "an assessment of hits like 'Cats' and '42nd Street', Polish theatre, drama on apartheid and the Broadway vogue for British imports."

• 1991: Reimagining American Theatre (Hill & Wang) – reviews and essays, mostly from The New Republic considering the state of American theater in the 1980s.

• 1994: Dumbocracy in America: Studies in the Theatre of Guilt, 1987-1994 (Ivan R. Dee) – "uses the prism of the American theatre to explore the motivating impulses behind rampant political correctness and to assess government efforts to regulate the arts"

• 1998: Cultural Calisthenics: Writings on Race, Politics, and Theatre (Ivan R. Dee) – "Many of these essays ... are concerned with how "extra-artistic considerations'" – multiculturalism, gay rights, women's issues and political correctness – impair current thought, including that of arts funding agencies."

• 2001: The Siege of the Arts: Collected Writings, 1994-2001 (Ivan R. Dee) – "The opening essays lead the charge against The Three Horsemen of the Anti-Culture: political, moral, and middlebrow aesthetic correctness ... allied with corporate capitalism and a rigid multiculturalism"

• 2005: Letters to a Young Actor: A Universal Guide to Performance (Basic Books) – "A guidebook for performers on stage and screen aims to inspire struggling dramatists and also reinvigorate the very state of the art of acting itself."

• 2006: Millennial Stages: Essays and Reviews 2001-2005 (Yale Univ. Press) – "examines crucial issues relating to theater in the post-9/11 years, analyzing specific plays, emerging and established performers, and theatrical production throughout the world"

• 2009: The Tainted Muse: Prejudices and Preconceptions in Shakespeare's Works and Times "an untainted lens through which to see Shakespeare as never before"

• 2011: Rants and Raves: Opinions, Tributes, and Elegies

Brustein was the writer and narrator of a WNET television series in 1966 called The Opposition Theatre. He also comments on contemporary social and political issues for the Huffington Post.

Conflict with August Wilson

In 1996 and 1997, Brustein was involved in an extended public debate – through their essays, speeches and personal appearances – with African-American playwright August Wilson about multiculturalism, color-blind casting, and other issues where race impacts on the craft and practice of theatre in America.