Five Ways to Stretch Theatrical Space on Contemporary American Stages (US)

Abstract

This article seeks to outline and define a number of arresting tendencies in contemporary playwriting in the United States, particularly when it comes to the poetics of space. Starting from an analysis of theater centered on spatial modalities (Chaudhuri, Foucault, Brook, Schechner), I delineate five innovative trends in 21st-century theater, with regards to their use of material and metaphorical space. I begin with an exploration of multilingual space, broadening the stage world to accommodate otherness in the plays of Quiara Alegría Hudes, Nilo Cruz, Virginia Grise or Jeff Augustin. A second highlighted tendency emphasizes the instability of space and its liminal, porous quality in the works of Sarah Ruhl, Lindsey Ferrentino, Annie Baker and Sarah DeLappe. A third trend reframes and disrupts theatrical space, in palimpsestic and explosive ways (Lucas Hnath, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Young Jean Lee, Aleshea Harris), and a fourth further overturns this space in politically-charged, shocking reversals which threaten the audience’s comfort (Jeremy O. Harris, Young Jean Lee, Jackie Sibblies Drury). Finally, collaborative performance projects by Erika Chong Shuch and Andrew Schneider provide an opportunity to delve into paradoxically private, almost invisible forms of theater.