This is the first collection of critical essays to appear about the Wooster Group. Since the
1970s this groundbreaking New York-based performance company has led the way in crystallizing
the conditions of contemporary stage practice at the intersection of several cultural and
artistic traditions. As demonstrated by the assembled critics each of them an authority in the
field these traditions extend into the past as well as into the future through the Wooster
Group's impact on the latest generation of performance artists. The company's consequent
institutionalization is posited and challenged in the essays constituting Part I of the
collection. Part II tackles the work-in-progress mapping its idiomatic stage vocabulary and
providing case studies ranging from Frank Dell's The Temptation of St. Antony to To You The
Birdie! (Phèdre). Part III presents productions by kindred artists such as Elevator Repair
Service the Builders Association Cannon Company and Richard Maxwell. Lavishly illustrated
with photographs this collection should prove invaluable to anyone with an interest in the
current theatrical scene and its place in the wider institutional artistic and historical
contexts.
