Michael Chekhov Technique in the Twenty-First Century: New Pathways ed. by Cass Fleming and Tom Cornford (review)

The plays featured in section six, “Articulating Intersections,” intersectionally explore social, political, and economic pressures within ongoing systemic inequality. Dominique Morisseau’s Blood at the Root, as analyzed by Juliet Guzzetta, riffs on the facts of the Jena Six case to expose multiple prejudices including racism, homophobia, and misogyny and suggests the importance of uniting against oppression for social justice. Xing Fan examines Frances YaChu Cowhig’s The World of Extreme Happiness, set in China during the transitional time between 1992 and 2012 in the “in-between” zone of Shenzhen, one of the earliest established Special Economic Zones. Courtney Elkin Mohler reads Lynn Nottage’s Sweat in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election, noting the play’s dramaturgy leverages affective audience response to the bitemporal setting, thus highlighting the tendency toward nostalgia during the Trump era.