Performance in America

“Performance in America invites readers to contemplate the role of the performing arts—theater, standup comedy, dance, cabaret shows, and more—in shaping national politics. His timely work on the contemporary—an understudied aspect of work on temporality—stresses the production of temporary affective audiences that come together in a ‘now’ to perform and create communities.” - Jennifer DeVere Brody, GLQ

“At every step, Román shows a gift for presenting a complex thesis in an accessible style, making this book an important resource for undergraduates as well as specialist readers.” - Mary Brewer, New Theatre Quarterly

“In fifty years, at the one-hundredth ASTR conference, I hope Román's book will be honored as one that broke with convention to acknowledge those ‘queer’ (surprising, communal, deviant) acts that cite the past, but differently.” - Theresa Smalec, Theatre Journal

“It’s refreshing to read a critique of the performing arts in American that situates performance at the centre of ‘current national enquiries and debates’ and as vital to shaping the national imaginary.” - Australasian Journal of American Studies

“Rather than attempt an exhaustive summary of ‘contemporary U.S. culture and the performing arts’ (the book’s subtitle), Performance in America provides short, focused looks at a variety of artists in different contexts. Considering them together, one is persuaded that contemporary American performance is not only vibrant and varied, but an integral component in the construction of national identity and culture.” - Natka Bianchini, Theatre Survey

“Román makes a persuasive case for the centrality of performance in contemporary U.S. culture. . . . In its analyses, tone, and scope, this book succeeds in achieving what its subjects accomplish: a critical reassessment of performance in America.” - Debora Paredez, Theatre Research International

“Román’s book testifies to the power of performance through a passion that leaves the reader energized and even inspired.” - Jason Fitzgerald, Theater

“Since one of book’s critical interventions is to make visible and explicit the (often) unacknowledged conversations that take place between American studies and theatre and performance studies, this last point is worth underscoring: Performance in America will do much to help bridge the perceived divide between the disciplines.” - Kathleen M. Gough, Journal of American Studies

“Coming together to lift a celebratory glass to their peculiarities, as if they have suddenly found themselves together again in Nick’s Pacific Street bar from Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life (1939), the carefully assembled guests of David Román’s Performance in America add up to an improbable but exhilarating ensemble. Anyone who can make Elaine Stritch feel right at home at a party with the ghost of Sarah Siddons will show you the time of your life, and Román is that kind of host, entertaining the divas of stage, screen, dance, and cabaret while cordially welcoming his readers.” - Joseph Roach, author of Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance

“In a work of immediate political relevance and lasting theoretical importance, David Román forcefully establishes live performance at the center of America’s cultural life, showing how its unique capacity to mobilize ‘provisional collectivities’ in the here and now allows it to express and inform crucial national debates. Román’s brilliant readings of various undervalued genres of popular performance are themselves a tour de force of critical performance, teaching us how to engage the vast ‘embodied archive’ in which American publics and counter-publics understand themselves.” - Una Chaudhuri, Professor of English and Drama, New York University