Book Talk

editorial Book Talk Dear PAJ Readers: It is with a very happy and renewed spirit that we return this Fall to regular publication of Performing Arts Journal, with our thirtieth issue. During the time that has lapsed since our last issue, we took a short leave to teach at the University of California-San Diego, and to rethink our publishing activities for the future. A major step we have taken is to initiate a line of fiction titles. Our primary interests will be European modernist work and contemporary American writing. For Fall and Spring we have scheduled over twenty titles of new books. (See inside front cover for listing.) Among them is a collection of plays and stories by the celebrated Soviet emigr writer Vassily Aksyonov. Ten years ago we published his dramatic work in the U.S. for the first time, when Your Murderer appeared in PAJ 4. Now with this new volume all of his plays are available. We are also bringing back into print-it has not been issued in English since the 1890s-Jules Barbey D'Aurevilly's classic book on the dandy, Dandyism, with a preface by Quentin Crisp. This is a book that challenges the separate genres of literature and theatre by the very nature of the dandy , a performer par excellence. Another forthcoming book, Madonna and Other Spectacles by Harold Jaffe, an excerpt of which is published in this issue, situates itself in the explosive edge of fiction and non-fiction. Here 5 real and make-believe characters interface in scenarios of global impact. One activity we're trying out is the publication of novels and stories by several of the playwrights we've published-Kenneth Bernard (The Maldive Chronicles), James Strahs (Queer and Alone), Richard Lees (Out of Sync), Harry Kondoleon (The Whore of Tiampuan). The latter three are represented by first novels; Bernard's book is a collection of short fiction. One of the highlights of the Spring will be the publication for the first time in the U.S. of Giorgio de Chirico's only novel, Hebdomeros, with a preface by John Ashbery. Our first fiction title has already appeared, Klaus Mann's first novel, The Pious Dance, set against the cabaret world of Weimar Berlin. Those of you who are regular PAJ readers know that we have always wanted to close the gap between theatre culture and the broader literary culture. In recent decades intellectual pursuits have become overly specialized, the result being that they are marginalized. Theatre, in particular , has suffered because of its separation from the literary world, and its own increased attachment to commercial interests, even under the guise of non-profitism. Our experiment in publishing is an attempt to find a cross-over audience for our books around the country. Now more than ever we need your support. To be honest, the present theatrical climate has made it difficult to specialize in theatre books because readers of serious works and the outlets to carry them are so few in number. The situation has not been helped by theatre programs in universities which are on their way to becoming trade schools for the profession. The smallest proportion of courses and faculty is in the more rigorous intellectual pursuits of criticism, theory and history, whereas the greatest number of faculty is in the areas of acting , directing and playwriting. We propose that visionary educators from theatre programs in the U.S. come forth to consider the possibility of establishing a general curriculum for students at all levels of study, in an effort to raise the standards of theatre education. For years fields that range from medicine to architecture have set standards in their own professions. Now the time has come to think of the same possibility for theatre training in the university which has gradually taken over the role of conservatory while also half-heartedly maintaining scholarly aspirations. Unless plans are undertaken to reverse this trend, and instead to combine all the perspectives-practice and reseach/scholarship--the study and practice of theatre may fall into irreversible decline. Already there is a drop in substantial work coming out of theatre departments, while English, Comparative Literature, and the...