Reviewed by:

• Staging America: The Artistic Legacy of the Provincetown Players by Jeffery Kennedy
• Beth Wynstra (bio)

Chapter 19 of Jeffery Kennedy's Staging America: The Artistic Legacy of the Provincetown Players is titled "'Unorganized, Amateur, Purely Experimental,' but Still Standing" (291). The adjectives in this chapter title come from an article that Edna Kenton, chronicler the Provincetown Players, wrote for the Boston Transcript in 1918 to introduce the Players and their goals. These descriptors, however, require much unpacking and contextual detail, for "unorganized," "amateur," and "purely experimental," when taken at face value, cannot explain the positive connotations of such goals nor the work required to keep such goals intact. Enter Jeffrey Kennedy, who is more than up for the task of analyzing the complex history and contributions of the Provincetown Players as well as detailing why their goals were significant for American theatre.

At the heart of Kennedy's study is what he points out was missing from Kenton's 1918 article (and much scholarship that followed): a focus on George Cram Cook as the founder and driving force of the Provincetown Players. As Kennedy argues, "no one but Cook could have initiated the Provincetown Players and then maintained their experiment as long as he did with the resulting vital contributions to American theatre" (6). Utilizing letters, interviews, board meeting minutes, archival materials as well as providing crisp summaries of the 93 plays produced by the Players, Kennedy offers a multifaceted and voluminous study of Cook and the artists with whom he worked. While Kennedy keeps a close eye on the Players' artistic innovations on the stage, he continuously links the dramatic works with the momentous events happening outside the theatre walls such as the outbreak of World War I, first-wave feminism, and, more than anything, the development of a distinct Bohemian sensibility in Greenwich Village at the start of the 20^th century. Staging America is an essential sourcebook for those interested in the Players and the birth of a truly American theatre, and it will continue to be a resource for the seasoned scholar or curious student looking for a fascinating study of American modernism, the interconnected web of artists working at the first part of the 20^th century, and the "purely experimental" spirit that pulsed through much of the dramatic, visual, and literary work of the time.

The early chapters of Staging America trace George Cram Cook's childhood and student days in Iowa. Cook graduated from the State University of Iowa (later known as the University of Iowa) and was named as class poet along with other prophetic monikers in the yearbook like "Philosopher" and "Proctor" (57). His scholarly interests in philosophy and Greek history, nurtured during graduate school at Harvard, coupled with a desire to mentor were all early indicators of [End Page 281] lifelong pursuits and the passion he brought to the Provincetown Players. Kennedy argues that when Cook returned to his alma mater in Iowa to teach, he developed a pedagogy for his writing courses that favored collaboration, discussion, and revision, all hallmarks of the famed and soon-to-be-developed Iowa Writer's Workshop. As Cook ended his first marriage and his teaching career at the university, his focus turned to the writing of novels and frequent visits to Chicago, where he came to know writers and artists of the city's Literary Renaissance, one of whom was fellow Iowan and journalist Susan Glaspell. Cook felt a connection to Glaspell and her sharp mind and artistic sensibilities, despite his impending nuptials to his second wife. In these early chapters of Staging America, Kennedy shows what will be a continuous thread throughout the volume: a reverence for Cook but never at the expense of revealing the destructive behavior of the man, which included infidelity and alcoholism.

Both in Chicago and later in New York (where he and Glaspell moved in 1912 before getting married), Cook witnessed the groundbreaking work and innovative acting styles of the Irish Players on their American tour, the 1913 Paterson Pageant, and the...

审阅者：

• 《舞台美国：普罗温斯敦演员的艺术遗产》作者：杰弗里·肯尼迪
• 贝丝·温斯特拉 (简介)

杰弗里·肯尼迪的《舞台美国：普罗温斯敦演员的艺术遗产》第 19 章的标题是“‘无组织、业余、纯粹实验’，但仍然屹立不倒”(291)。本章标题中的形容词来自普罗温斯敦球员队编年史家埃德娜·肯顿 (Edna Kenton) 于 1918 年为《波士顿记录》撰写的一篇文章，介绍了球员们及其目标。然而，这些描述符需要大量的解包和上下文细节，因为“无组织”、“业余”和“纯实验”，从表面上看，无法解释这些目标的积极内涵，也无法解释保持这些目标完整所需的工作。杰弗里·肯尼迪 (Jeffrey Kennedy) 登场，他完全有能力分析普罗温斯敦演员的复杂历史和贡献，并详细说明为什么他们的目标对美国戏剧具有重要意义。

肯尼迪研究的核心是他指出肯顿 1918 年的文章（以及随后的许多学术文章）中缺失的内容：关注乔治·克拉姆·库克作为普罗温斯敦球员队的创始人和推动力。正如肯尼迪所说，“除了库克之外，没有人能够发起普罗温斯敦演员团，然后像他一样坚持他们的实验，并为美国戏剧做出重要贡献”（6）。肯尼迪利用信件、采访、董事会会议纪要、档案材料以及对演员们创作的 93 部戏剧的清晰总结，对库克以及与他共事的艺术家进行了多方面、大量的研究。在肯尼迪密切关注舞台上演员们的艺术创新的同时，他不断地将戏剧作品与剧院墙外发生的重大事件联系起来，例如第一次世界大战的爆发、第一波女权主义，最重要的是20^世纪初，格林威治村形成了独特的波西米亚情感。对于那些对演员和真正的美国戏剧的诞生感兴趣的人来说，《舞台美国》是一本重要的资料书，对于那些寻求对美国现代主义、艺术家相互联系的网络进行有趣研究的经验丰富的学者或好奇的学生来说，它将继续成为一个资源创作于 20^世纪上半叶，“纯粹实验”精神贯穿于当时的戏剧、视觉和文学作品中。

《舞台美国》的前几章追溯了乔治·克拉姆·库克在爱荷华州的童年和学生时代。库克毕业于爱荷华州立大学（后来的爱荷华大学），并在年鉴中被评为班级诗人，并与“哲学家”和“普罗克托”等其他预言性绰号一起出现（57）。他在哈佛大学研究生院期间培养的对哲学和希腊历史的学术兴趣，加上对指导的渴望，都是[结束第281页]终生追求和他给普罗温斯敦球员带来的热情的早期指标。肯尼迪认为，当库克回到爱荷华州的母校任教时，他为自己的写作课程开发了一种教学法，有利于合作、讨论和修改，这些都是著名的、即将发展的爱荷华作家工作室的标志。库克结束了他的第一次婚姻和大学教书生涯后，他的注意力转向了小说写作和经常访问芝加哥，在那里他结识了该市文学文艺复兴时期的作家和艺术家，其中一位是爱荷华州同胞和记者苏珊·格拉斯佩尔。尽管库克即将与第二任妻子举行婚礼，但他还是感受到了与格拉斯佩尔以及她敏锐的头脑和艺术敏感性的联系。在《舞台美国》的前几章中，肯尼迪展示了贯穿全书的一条连续线索：对库克的崇敬，但绝不以揭露这个人的破坏性行为为代价，其中包括不忠和酗酒。

在芝加哥和后来的纽约（他和格拉斯佩尔于 1912 年结婚前搬到了纽约），库克亲眼目睹了爱尔兰选手们在美国巡演、1913 年帕特森选美比赛和……中的开创性工作和创新表演风格。