Book contents
- Los Angeles: A LITERARY HISTORY
- Los Angeles
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Temporalities
- Part II Identity, Resistance, Representation
- Part III Place and Space
- Part IV Genre and Form
- Chapter 18 The Hard-Boiled City
- Chapter 19 Tomorrowlands and New Frontiers
- Chapter 20 A City (Recorded) in Verse
- Chapter 21 Stage and Street in the Situated Theater of Los Angeles
- Chapter 22 LA Confidentials
- Chapter 23 Looking for Los Angeles
- Chapter 24 Cultural Desert to Cultural Capital
- Index
- References
Chapter 21 - Stage and Street in the Situated Theater of Los Angeles
from Part IV - Genre and Form
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2026
Book contents
- Los Angeles: A LITERARY HISTORY
- Los Angeles
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I Temporalities
- Part II Identity, Resistance, Representation
- Part III Place and Space
- Part IV Genre and Form
- Chapter 18 The Hard-Boiled City
- Chapter 19 Tomorrowlands and New Frontiers
- Chapter 20 A City (Recorded) in Verse
- Chapter 21 Stage and Street in the Situated Theater of Los Angeles
- Chapter 22 LA Confidentials
- Chapter 23 Looking for Los Angeles
- Chapter 24 Cultural Desert to Cultural Capital
- Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter, Guy Zimmerman identifies innovative situated theater as a defining feature of LA drama, rebutting misperceived clichés about LA as a “placeless” city. Offering both a social history of 1980s and 1990s LA theater and extended readings of work by Reza Abdoh and John Steppling (alongside engagement with Luis Alfaro and Anna Deavere Smith), Zimmerman places LA theater within the broader context of the city’s unique cultural geography. He articulates how exemptions from union pay scales via the “Equity Waiver” partially liberated LA’s vibrant independent theater scene from market forces at a time when the rise of neoliberalism seemed to render such escape impossible, while also acknowledging how more recent years have applied yet greater economic and political pressures on artists attempting theatrical innovation in Los Angeles.
Keywords
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- Information
- Los AngelesA Literary History, pp. 340 - 354Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
References
Works Cited
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Puchner, Martin. Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes. Princeton UP, 2006.Google Scholar
Saez, Emmanuel and Zucman, Gabriel. “Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 131, no. 1, 1996, pp. 519–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulman, Sarah. The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination. U of California P, 2013.Google Scholar
Stayton, Richard. “LA Dramatists Unfold New Tableaux.” The Herald Examiner, 22 Apr. 1988.Google Scholar
Steppling, John. “Storyland.” The Best of the West: An Anthology of Plays from the 1989 & 1990 Padua Hills Playwrights Festivals, edited by Mednick, Murray, Raden, Bill, and Slean, Cheryl. Padua Hills Press, 1991, pp. 245–266.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Dan. “Trysting with Art Theater at a Hollywood Motel.” Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1988, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-19-ca-1081-story.html. Accessed 24 May 2025.Google Scholar
Vangelisti, Paul. “Off-Off-Broadway West: On Guy Zimmerman’s ‘Outlaw Theatre.’” Los Angeles Review of Books, 3 July 2023, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/off-off-broadway-west-on-guy-zimmermans-outlaw-theatre-field-notes-from-the-padua-hills-playwrights-workshop-and-festival/. Accessed 7 May 2025.Google Scholar
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