Table Of ContentValerie Barnes Lipscomb
PERFORMING
AGE IN MODERN
DRAMA
Performing Age in Modern Drama
Valerie Barnes Lipscomb
Performing Age in
Modern Drama
Valerie Barnes Lipscomb
Liberal Arts
University of South Florida
Sarasota-Manatee
Sarasota, Florida, USA
ISBN 978-1-137-51251-2 ISBN 978-1-137-50169-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50169-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016936677
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For Kevin, Vanessa, Natalie—always, forever.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks go fi rst to the staff at Palgrave Macmillan for a smooth publish-
ing process. I also acknowledge the staffs of C omparative Drama and the
International Journal of Ageing and Later Life , which earlier published
portions of Chaps. 2 and 5, respectively (see Lipscomb, “Performing the
Aging Self ” and “The Play’s the Thing.”).
This project has been simmering on one of my burners for a decade,
but the gratitude I feel in completing it reaches back to mentors at all
phases of my academic life. Miriam Gilbert and David Hamilton mod-
eled the scholarly rigor and interpersonal warmth that I always hope to
emulate, and I would not have pursued an academic career without the
encouragement of Daniel Rutenberg. As I decided to focus on age stud-
ies and drama, I was fortunate to benefi t from the guidance of Lagretta
Lenker, Phillip Sipiora, Anthony Kubiak, Richard Dietrich, and especially
Sara Deats, who gave me valuable feedback about most of this manuscript
and continues to be an amazing role model.
So many outstanding scholars generously welcomed me to the fi eld
of age studies and can be counted on for kindness and advice; thanks to
Cynthia Port, Aagje Swinnen, Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Kate de
Medeiros, Teresa Mangum, Roberta Maierhofer, Erin Gentry Lamb, and
especially to Leni Marshall. Anthony Ellis also has been on that list, and
I mourn that he will never experience old age. I am grateful to Kathleen
Woodward for her encouragement when I fi rst ventured to enter this con-
versation, and to Anne Davis Basting for forging a path in aging and the-
atre. I will be eternally thankful for the conversation with Elinor Fuchs
at the European Network in Aging Studies conference that piqued her
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
curiosity about a dramaturgy of age; her gracious interest in reading and
sharing work is among the best developments in my professional life. The
scholars with whom I have served on the Modern Language Association
Age Studies Forum Executive Committee are truly inspirational; one
could not be in better academic company than E. Ann Kaplan, Michelle
Masse, Devoney Looser, Elizabeth Gregory, and Sally Chivers.
At the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, I am indebted fi rst
and foremost to Jane Rose for her leadership and unfl agging confi dence
in me, and to the collegial faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences.
I appreciate additional funding from the university for conference travel
that contributed to this manuscript. The staff at the Jane Bancroft Cook
Library cheerfully helped me track down books, articles and photos. I
also appreciate Bonnie Vorenberg and Irene Silver-Stender for going out
of their way to ensure I had access to senior-theatre materials. Thanks go
to all the undergraduate and graduate students who contributed to my
research; one after another, they would begin my project having not really
thought about age, and then slowly sound more and more disturbed that
the drama sources they read never mentioned performing age. My stu-
dents continually refresh the great joy I fi nd in teaching.
Finally, I am grateful every day for my family, the Barneses and
Lipscombs near and far who have unfailingly cheered me on. Not one
minute of any of this would matter without the love of my husband,
Kevin, and our daughters, Vanessa and Natalie—I am blessed indeed to be
sharing your lives.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
2 Classics of Modern Drama: The Sense of Essential Self 13
3 Contemporary Memory Plays I: The Fragmented Self 47
4 Contemporary Memory Plays II: The Midlife
Performative 77
5 The Continuum of Age: Performing Identity over
the Life Course 117
6 The Fullness of Self: Performing Identity in
Senior Theatre 157
Bibliography 1 83
Index 197
ix
Description:This book is the first to examine age across the modern and contemporary dramatic canon, from Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams to Paula Vogel and Doug Wright. All ages across the life course are interpreted as performance and performative both on page and on stage, including professional product
