How queer: Race, gender and the politics of production in contemporary gay, lesbian and queer theatre

This dissertation is a materialist critique of the benefits and limitations of contemporary queer politics as an ideological base for the production of gay, lesbian and queer theatre created in the United States during the post-Stonewall era. By analyzing the modes of production of six texts at economically diverse performance venues, the author argues for the value of community-based, grass-roots theatre venues where political theatre is viewed through a history of progressive political activism. Specifically, she argues that such sites provide an audience/performer relationship in which racial and gender differences are made visible in a localized political context. This mode of production and reception resists the commercialization of difference which provides cultural capital for the liberal pluralist spectator.;Likewise, the author argues for an historical revisioning of lesbian-feminist political theatre from the United States during the 1970s. Theatre identified as lesbian-feminist during this period played a crucial role in developing gender-based political activism within localized lesbian communities. Queer politics which have tended to be ahistorical and committed to the commodification of queer representation are read as limiting the potential for progressive-political activist theater. Yet an appreciative review is given to queer theoretical reading strategies which provide queer spectators with potentially subversive tools for the textual analysis of commodified queer production.;The plays analyzed--Chay Yew's A Language of Their Own, Gail Burton's Muses, Kate Kasten and Sandra de Helen's Clue in the Old Birdbath, Elinor Hakim's A Lesbian Play for Lucy, Christi Stewart-Brown's Morticians in Love and Tony Kushner's Angels in America--represent a range of theatrical venues from Broadway and off-off Broadway to small, local arts centers and recreation center basements. These selections provide a broad survey of contemporary theatrical production venues and the politics which tend to flourish at these sites.;The author gives special attention to a contemporary historical analysis of gay, lesbian and queer theatre. She not only places queer politics in the larger context of gay liberation and feminist organizing, but also attempts to create an historical record of theatrical productions which, as already marginalized theatrical productions, would otherwise go undocumented.