| This dissertation investigates elements of the American avant-garde theatre from 1992 to the present (2009). At the core of this study are two assertions: first, that the avant-garde theatre, in spite of various recent scholarly and critical denials, remains a vital part of the American theatre landscape, and second, that the artists who practice in this genre have by necessity adopted means of survival in an economic and cultural landscape which resists and co-opts efforts at artistic revolution. I consider specific case studies including the International WOW Company (NY), Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf (NY), Theatre In My Basement (AZ), Frank Theatre (MN), and Salvage Vanguard Theater (TX), as well as other theatre companies, artists, and movements which have comprised the American avant-garde theatre of the past two decades. I undertake closer investigations into the economics of the contemporary American avant-garde theatre, the rising phenomenon of fringe theatre festivals in the U.S., and the respective avant-garde theatre scenes in contemporary New York City and other American cities, in an effort to illustrate the complexity of the intersection of art and commerce in the context of the avant-garde theatre in contemporary America. There are two major factors which led toward a shifting of priorities for the avant-garde theatre in the early 1990s: the ending of the Cold War and the rhetorical establishment of a U.S.-centric global "new world order," and the dissolving of available public funds from the National Endowment of the Arts. In the wake of the former event, American avant-garde theatre artists turned away from countercultural perspectives and moved toward postcultural perspectives. As a consequence of the latter event, avant-garde theatre artists were forced to find new means of funding and become more pragmatic about their relationships with the artistic marketplace, publicity, and capitalist economic structures. Through this millennial era, the American avant-garde theatre has altered its intentions from previous generations that were aligned with countercultural ideologies, but the essential opposition to the commercial mainstream theatre scene that marks the avant-garde theatre has not changed. |
