The Text in Play

Book excerpt: Many modern playwrights have dramatized the process of theatrical creation within their plays. In doing so, they have disregarded the "do not disturb" sign on the rehearsal room door, and have opened the art of theater to a particular kind of scrutiny. This scrutiny is unusual given the long-standing tradition of secrecy that surrounds theatrical rehearsal. Viewing modern drama generally as a drama that juxtaposes authority and freedom, and viewing contemporary criticism as essentially an extended debate on the issue of meaning's closure, this study invokes the critical perspectives M. M. Bakhtin, Roland Barthes, and Bertolt Brecht to create a general theory of rehearsal practice that differentiates it from the practice of performance. Working with notions of textual authority explored in a variety of critical contexts, this volume attempts to explore the theoretical ramifications of metatheatrical representations of rehearsal.