Cuba Inside Out: Revolution and Contemporary Theatre

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CUBA INSIDE OUT REVOLUTION AND CONTEMPORARY THEATRE Yael Prizant Prizant CUBA INSIDE OUT REVOLUTION AND CONTEMPORARY THEATRE Southern Illinois University Press Theater “A wonderfully succinct and yet profound meditation on the changing meanings of revolution in Cuba and how they have been brought to life on the stage. Truly an engaging and thoughtful book.” —Ruth Behar, Perera Collegiate Professor of Anthropology and editor of Bridges to Cuba/Puentes a Cuba and The Portable Island: Cubans at Home in the World “Only in the deft hands of Prizant could the history of Cuba’s theatre come so vibrantly to life. In this tour de force journey, Prizant brilliantly shows the different social and historical contexts that led Cuban playwrights to their delicate dances between form and content to ensure creative innovation and expression. Not since the great Mexican playwright and theatre historian Rodolfo Usigli have we had such a vital, comprehensive—thrilling even—story of theatrical production in the Americas.” —Frederick Luis Aldama, Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, and author of The Routledge Concise History of Latino/a Literature The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 drastically altered life in Cuba. Theatre artists were faced with new economic and social realities that changed their day-to-day experiences and ways of looking at the world beyond the island. The Cuban Revolution’s resistance to and intersections with globalization, modernity, emigration, and privilege are central to the performances examined in this study. The first book-length study in English of Cuban and Cuban-American plays, Cuba Inside Out provides a framework for understanding texts and performances that support, challenge, and transgress boundaries of exile and nationalism. Prizant reveals the intricacies of how revolution is staged theatrically, socially, and politically on the island and in the Cuban diaspora. This close examination of seven plays written since 1985 seeks to alter how U.S. audiences perceive Cuba, its circumstances , and its theatre. Yael Prizant is a translator, dramaturg, and assistant professor of theatre at the University of Notre Dame. Her translation of Chamaco by Abel González Melo was published by the University of Miami Press. Her essay “Ninety Miles Away: Identity and Exile in Recent Cuban-American Theater” appears in the collected volume Performance, Exile, and “America.” Southern Illinois University Press www.siupress.com Cover illustration: Ausencia. Shoeshine bench, Santiago de Cuba. Photograph by Christopher Stackowicz. Printed in the United States of America Prizant cvr mech.indd 1 10/9/13 9:10 AM ...