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(More customer reviews)This book is a valuable source for the variety of performances that have accompanied the appearance of AIDS in the United States. Roman carefully evaluates how theatre and performative events, from the activism of ACT-UP to Magic Johnson's announcement of his HIV status, have shaped the way that AIDS has been portrayed. In his introduction, Roman outlines his positionality within his subject, remaining critically responsible while acknowledging the impossibility of "objectivity." An important aspect of his critical approach is his "generosity" towards the performances he analyzes. He states that his purpose in the book is not to evaluate the performances for their artistic merit, but to show their position within the overall field of AIDS performance. He shows how performances that may have been "bad" nonetheless had an impact on their audience. Roman never succumbs to romanticism or nostalgia, but approaches his subject with reverence and respect. Roman's book leaves room for others to continue within the subject of AIDS performance and will continue to be a valuable source for those working in the field.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Acts of Intervention: Performance, Gay Culture, and AIDS (Unnatural Acts: Theorizing the Performative)
Acts of Intervention examines the ways that gay men have used theatre andperformance to intervene in the AIDS crisis. It discusses dramatic texts and publicperformances -- from cabarets and candlelight vigils to full-scale Broadwayproductions such as Angels in America and Rent -- that have shaped, and been shapedby, the history of AIDS in national, regional, and local contexts. Román examinesmainstream as well as alternative and activist forms of theatre, including soloperformance, community-based projects, mixed-media events, activist demonstrations,and AIDS educational theatre initiatives.Acts of Interventiontraces the ways in which performance and theater have participated in and informedthe larger cultural politics of race, sexuality, citizenship, and AIDS in the UnitedStates during the last fifteen years. The book discusses not only how the theaterhas provided a forum for gay male response to the epidemic but also the degree towhich those responses have in turn shaped the ideological formulation of AIDS.Román offers a new method for mapping the relation between AIDS and representationby combining interpretive strategies from performance theory, gay and lesbianstudies, critical race discourse, and cultural studies.This bookis dedicated to writing the history of theatrical interventions in the AIDSepidemic, including performances whose official history has been largely neglectedor forgotten. Because many early performances about AIDS left little or nodocumentation, the task of constructing an AIDS theatre historiography confrontsimmediate problems and limitations.Acts of Intervention arguesthat the history of AIDS performance is located at the juncture of memory anddisappearance, of mourning and survival, of representation and its impossibility inthe context of epidemic loss.
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