Overview

An insider's spirited history of Yale Repertory Theatre In this serious and entertaining chronicle of the first fifty years of Yale Repertory Theatre, award-winning dramaturg James Magruder shows how dozens of theater artists have played their parts in the evolution of a sterling American institution. Each of its four chapters is dedicated to one of the Yale Rep's artistic directors to date: Robert Brustein, Lloyd Richards, Stan Wojewodski Jr., and James Bundy. Numerous sidebars—dedicated to the spaces used by the theater, the playwrights produced most often, casting, the prop shop, the costume shop, artist housing, and other topics—enliven the lavishly illustrated four-color text. This fascinating insider account, full of indelible descriptions of crucial moments in the Rep's history, is based in part on interviews with some of America's most respected actors about their experiences at the Rep, including Paul Giamatti, James Earl Jones, Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep, Courtney B. Vance, Dianne Wiest, and Henry Winkler—among many others. More than just a valentine to an important American theater, The Play's the Thing is a story about institution-building and the force of personality; about the tug-of-war between vision and realpolitik; and about the continuous negotiation between educational needs and artistic demands.

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9780300215007

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Reviews

“Gorgeous. James Magruder’s account of the theater’s first fifty years is enthralling, suspenseful, very funny, very moving, elegantly and lucidly organized, and beautifully written. Much more than a chronological account of an institution, Magruder offers brilliant readings of classic and contemporary plays, summarizing the work and careers of important playwrights, directors, actors, designers, dramaturgs, technicians, managers, and even drama critics with insight, discernment, and generosity. He makes his readers almost see what audiences once saw in long-gone, legendary productions, while evoking the aching impermanence and haunted loss that’s an essential aspect of theater. Few significant American theater artists are missing from The Play’s the Thing; these pages constitute one of the most thoughtful, thought-provoking, seriously delightful and entertaining books about theater I’ve read.”—Tony Kushner “This is an elegantly conceived and beautifully written book. Magruder’s wit, rooted in his deep understanding of the Rep’s repertoire and in the human comedy of artistic collaboration, gives the book its momentum and deceptively light touch.”—Marc Robinson, Yale University “The Play’s the Thing is a chronicle of joy, vision and knowledge, gossip and witty truths, a party with August Wilson and Sarah Ruhl and Anton Chekhov, and no one who loves theater, history or human beings will want to leave before the last page.”—Amy Bloom “James Magruder’s The Play’s the Thing is THE guide to the past fifty years of Yale Repertory Theater. The highs, the lows, the sublime, the ugly—nothing escapes his shrewd storytelling. Like the best evenings at the theater, it makes you think and it makes you feel too.”—Rachel Shteir, author of Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter “James Magruder uses the voice of an idiosyncratic but amusing theater crony—but one so well informed and tartly opinionated that he remains enjoyable company throughout the remarkable fifty-year journey of Yale Repertory Theatre.”—Allen J. Kuharski, Swarthmore College

Author Information

James Magruder has long-standing Yale ties: three advanced degrees; an award-winning dissertation, Three French Comedies, published by Yale University Press in 1996; two adaptations produced at Yale Repertory Theatre; and fourteen years’ teaching translation and adaptation at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. He has also published four novels, among them Love Slaves of Helen Hadley Hall, set at Yale in 1983–84, and had two musicals reach the Broadway stage.

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