In the last few years, North American authors like Anna Deavere Smith, Erik Jensen, and Jessica Blank have given a new impulse to the Documentary Theatre genre. Initiated by Erwin Piscator (1893-1966) and theorized by Peter Weiss (1916-1982), it has found one of its best contemporary exponents in playwright Emily Mann. As a dramatic writer, and also as an artistic director, Mann repeatedly poses one question to her audiences:

what to do with what we know

. Theatre, for her, has three main functions: entertainment, education, and inspiration. In her original scripts, her adaptations, and her productions, she respects this principle and makes a conscious effort to build a community around the stages she works on, most frequently the McCarter Theatre Centre. There she has worked as Artistic…

2212 words

Citation: Fernandez-Morales, Marta. "Emily Mann". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5735, accessed 24 November 2024.]

5735 Emily Mann 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.