Remaking American Theater

An account of contemporary theater practice in its most collaborative and dynamic form, this is the first book-length study of two of the most important American theater artists at the start of the twenty-first century. For twenty-five years, Mee and Bogart have pursued independent but sympathetic visions of theater rooted in the avant-garde of the 1960s, guided by a view of art and culture as a perpetual process of ‘remaking’. Since 1992, the SITI Company has pioneered the unique combination of three training practices (Viewpoints, Suzuki, and Composition) as the basis for collective creations that layer language, gesture, and image in a complex and often stunning fashion. This study provides both a general introduction to Mee’s unorthodox playwriting, Bogart’s innovative directing, and the ensemble work of the SITI Company and an in-depth case study of their work together on bobrauschenbergamerica, a piece inspired by the art of Robert Rauschenberg.

• The first book about these important American theater artists • An unusual focus on the collaborative process and how a single work of art was made • Highly-illustrated and free of technical language

Introduction: of hiccups and fireflies; Part I. A Playwright, a Director, and a Company: 1. Mee: from accidental historian to citizen playwright; 2. Bogart: engendering space, or building a nest; 3. Mee: putting on the Greeks; 4. SITI: from toga to ‘new toga’ and beyond; 5. SITI: the trainings (Suzuki, Viewpoints, Composition); 6. Two metadramas: Bogart’s Cabin Pressure and Mee’s Full Circle; Part II. The Making of bobrauschenbergamerica: 7. Preliminaries: facing Rauschenberg, making lists, collecting stuff; 8. Summer 2000: messing around in Saratoga Springs; 9. Fall 2000: getting ready in New York; 10. Winter 2001: rehearsing in Louisville; 11. Spring 2001: the play in performance; 12. bobrauschenbergamerica forever; Appendices. A. bobrauschenbergamerica: personnel and performance history; B. SITI Company: production history; C. Charles L. Mee: plays and productions; D. Postscript: an email from Betty Bernhard.