The Janus Paradigm: American Academic Theatre, the Liberal Arts and the Massacre of Genius by Franklin J. Himes

From the Publisher

An increasing skepticism toward the value of academic theater, argues Franklin J. Himes, is threatening the dramatic arts' continuation as an independent discipline. "The Janus Paradigm" presents a gateway through which American academic theater and theater-derived media may enter upon a more socially vital course of training to meet the socio-economic demands of the 21st century. Himes reviews some formative ideologies and trends in the liberal arts and American theater education. He then explains the Janus paradigm, with its framework of six aspects and fourteen expectancies which support a cooperative system of interdisciplinary theory and coordinated practice. Himes applies the model to a sampling of textbooks in theater, film, and performance studies, and he discusses its potential impact on administrative structures, faculty values and attitudes, the production program, and curriculum design.

Author Biography: Franklin J. Himes earned his Ph.D in Theater and Directing from Bowling Green State University.

Booknews

Arguing that the state of training in the dramatic arts in the US has been drastically worsened in 20th century under the weight of scholastic businesses that count on high student turnover and stress narrow fields of study isolated from general knowledge and societal issues, the author explains a paradigm which connects social responsibility to the training of aspiring actors. The aim of the paradigm is to articulate the development of an interdisciplinary, cooperative program in theatre which promotes and nurtures individual genius. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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