Forbidden Acts
(Applause Books). Applause Theatre & Cinema Books is proud to announce the publication of the first collected anthology of gay and lesbian plays from the entire span of the twentieth century, sure to find wide acceptance by general readers and to be studied on campuses around the world. Among the ten plays, three are completely out of print. Included are The God of Venegeance (1918) by Sholom Ash, the first play to introduce lesbian characters to an English-language audience; Lillian...
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Himself an actor, director, and producer, Hodges offers the text of ten plays that illustrate the growth of an influential movement in the theater through the course of the century. They range from Sholom Asch's 1910 The God of Vengeance to Terrance McNally's 1994 Love! Valour! Compassion!. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, ORLibrary JournalIn this anthology, Hodges, an actor, producer, and director, shows that the theater has been a powerful force in bringing gays and lesbians out of the closet and into the public's consciousness. The ten selections (all of which have been performed on or off Broadway) share themes of oppression and suppression countered by love, fear, anger, and humor so that the characters come to be seen as universally human-not gay or lesbian. Sholom Asch's The God of Vengence (1918), a Yiddish lesbian romance, was declared obscene by a New York judge and closed down because of a seduction scene in a brothel, while Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour-about two teachers at an all-girls' school in New England-was banned in Boston in 1933. An autobiographical look at his attraction to boys, Andr Gide's The Immoralist hit the New York stage in 1954, featuring Louis Jordan, Geraldine Page, and the young James Dean. The Boys in the Band (1968) was called the "first homosexual play" for its very frank and revealing picture of a group of "queer friends." Bent (1979) is a powerful story of gay love in a Nazi concentration camp. The last two plays, As Is (1985) and Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994), brought the topic of AIDS to the stage. This strong survey of 20th-century gay/lesbian drama is recommended for theater arts and gay/lesbian collections.-Howard Miller, St. Louis Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Acknowledgments9Editor's Note11Introduction13God of Vengeance25The Captive83The Children's Hour173Oscar Wilde239The Immoralist303The Killing of Sister George361Boys in the Band443Bent519As Is593Love! Valour! Compassion!653
\ Library JournalIn this anthology, Hodges, an actor, producer, and director, shows that the theater has been a powerful force in bringing gays and lesbians out of the closet and into the public's consciousness. The ten selections (all of which have been performed on or off Broadway) share themes of oppression and suppression countered by love, fear, anger, and humor so that the characters come to be seen as universally human-not gay or lesbian. Sholom Asch's The God of Vengence (1918), a Yiddish lesbian romance, was declared obscene by a New York judge and closed down because of a seduction scene in a brothel, while Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour-about two teachers at an all-girls' school in New England-was banned in Boston in 1933. An autobiographical look at his attraction to boys, Andr Gide's The Immoralist hit the New York stage in 1954, featuring Louis Jordan, Geraldine Page, and the young James Dean. The Boys in the Band (1968) was called the "first homosexual play" for its very frank and revealing picture of a group of "queer friends." Bent (1979) is a powerful story of gay love in a Nazi concentration camp. The last two plays, As Is (1985) and Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994), brought the topic of AIDS to the stage. This strong survey of 20th-century gay/lesbian drama is recommended for theater arts and gay/lesbian collections.-Howard Miller, St. Louis Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \
