Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century

Sep 18, 2026

Uploaded by Eliana

John Houchin explores the impact of censorship on twentieth-century American theatre, linking theatrical censorship to major pressures affecting religious, political, and cultural systems. The study first summarizes theatre censorship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, then analyzes key episodes from 1900 to 2000. It covers efforts to suppress productions, responses to controversy and public disorder, politically motivated assaults in the 1930s and 1940s, and later effects of racial violence and the Vietnam War, concluding with reactions to gay activist plays such as Angels in America.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages344

Reading Time14 h 27 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

Introduction

Overture: theatrical censorship from the Puritans to Anthony Comstock

Bad girls, tough guys, and the changing of the guard

Flappers and fanatics

Have you now or have you ever ...

Bye, bye American pie

The past is prologue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

This page intentionally left blank Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century John Houchin explores the impact of censorship in twentieth-century American theatre. He argues that theatrical censorship coincided with signiﬁcant challenges to religious, political, and cultural systems. Arranged in chronological order, this study provides a summary of theatre censorship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and then analyzes key episodes from 1900 to 2000. These include attempts tocensure Olga Nethersole for her production of Sapho in 1901 and the theatre riots of 1913 that greeted the Abbey Theatre’s production of Playboy of the Western World. Houchin explores the efforts to suppress plays in the 1920s that dealt with transgressive sexual material and investigates Congress’ politically motivated assaults on plays and actors during the 1930s and 1940s. He investigates the impact of racial violence, political assassinations, and the Vietnam War on the trajectory of theatre in the 1960s and concludes by examining the response to gay activist plays such as Angels in America. John Houchin is Associate Professor of Theatre at Boston College, Massachusetts. He is the editor of The Critical Response to Eugene O’Neill (1993) . His work has also been published in The Drama Review, The New England Theatre Journal, The Journal of American Theatre and Drama, Theatre History Studies, and the Eugene O’Neill Review. General editor Don B. Wilmeth, Brown University Advisory board C. W. E. Bigsby, University of East Anglia Errol Hill, Dartmouth College C. Lee Jenner, Independent critic and dramaturge Bruce A. McConachie, University of Pittsburgh Brenda Murphy, University of Connecticut Laurence Senelick, Tufts University The American theatre and its literature are attracting, after long neglect, the crucial attention of historians, theoreticians, and critics of the arts. Long a ﬁeld for isolated research yet too frequently marginalized in the academy, the American theatre has always been a sensitive gauge of social pressures and public issues. Investigations into its myriad of shapes and manifestations are relevant to students of drama, theatre, literature, cultural experience, and political development. The primary intent of this series is to set up a forum of important and original scholarship in and criticism of American theatre and drama in a cultural and social context. Inclusive by design, the series accommodates leading work in areas ranging from the study of drama as literature to theatre histories, theoretical explorations, production histories, and readings of more popular or para-theatrical forms. While maintaining aspeciﬁc emphasis on theatre in the United States, the series welcomes work grounded broadly in cultural studies and narratives with interdisciplinary reach. Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama thus provides a crossroads where historical, theoretical, literary, and biographical approaches meet and combine, promoting imaginative research in theatre and drama from a variety of new perspectives. BOOKS IN THE SERIES 1. Samuel Hay, African American Theatre 2. Marc Robinson, The Other American Drama 3. Amy Green, The Revisionist Stage: American Directors Re-Invent the Classics 4. Jared Brown, The Theatre in America during the Revolution 5. Susan Harris Smith, American Drama: The Bastard Art 6. Mark Fearnow, The American Stage and the Great Depression 7. Rosemarie K. Bank, Theatre Culture in America, 1825–1860 8. Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World 9. Stephen J. Bottoms, The Theatre of Sam Shepard 10. Michael A. Morrison, John Barrymore, Shakespearean Actor 11. Brenda Murphy, Congressional Theatre: Dramatizing McCarthyism on Stage, Film, and Television 12. Jorge Huerta, Chicano Drama: Performance, Society and Myth 13. Roger A. Hall, Performing the American Frontier, 1870–1906 14. Brooks McNamara, The New York

FAQs

How does the book frame the relationship between censorship and broader social systems?

It argues that theatrical censorship coincided with significant challenges to religious, political, and cultural systems, using those pressures to contextualize specific censorship actions.

Which time periods are covered in the study?

The work summarizes censorship in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and then analyzes key episodes from 1900 to 2000, moving through multiple decades and turning points.

What kinds of episodes does Houchin analyze from the early 1900s onward?

The book addresses attempts to censor particular productions and analyzes major public reactions, including theatrical riots and efforts to suppress plays connected to transgressive sexual material.

How does the book conclude regarding later theatre activism?

It examines responses to gay activist plays such as Angels in America, connecting late-century cultural change to the longer trajectory of theatre under pressure.

Sep 18, 2026

Uploaded by Eliana

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