The Play’s the Thing
Yale University Press has published The Play’s the Thing: 50 Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966–2016) by award-winning dramaturg, playwright, and novelist James Magruder ’92DFA. In the book, Magruder shows how dozens of theater artists have played their parts in the evolution of Yale Rep. Each of the four chapters is dedicated to one of Yale Rep’s artistic directors: Robert Brustein, Lloyd Richards, Stan Wojewodski Jr., and James Bundy ’95MFA.
Illustrated with photographs from historic productions and from behind the scenes, the book also covers the performance spaces, the playwrights produced most often, casting, set design, the prop shop, the costume shop, artist housing, and other topics—bringing to life a contentious, and utterly human, crucible of creativity.
Throughout, Magruder shows how Yale Rep both responded to and reflected historical events and creative trends in American culture and the world at large. Broadway producer and former NEA chair Rocco Landesman ’76DFA offers both deeply personal reflections and sweeping context in his foreword to the book. Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, whose collaboration with Maurice Sendak entitled Brundibar/Comedy on the Bridge was presented at Yale Rep in 2006, called The Play’s the Thing “one of the most thoughtful, thought-provoking, seriously delightful, and entertaining books about theater I’ve read.”
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