This stunning contribution to the filed of theatre history is the first in-depth look at avant-garde theatre in the United States from the early 1950s to the 1990s. American Avant-Garde Theatre offers a definition of the avant-garde, and looks at its origins and theoretical foundations by examining: Gertrude Stein John Cage the Beat writers avant-garde cinema Abstract Expressionism Minimalism. There are fascinating discussions and illustrations of the productions of the Living Theatre, the Wooster Group, Open Theatre, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre and Performance Group, among many others. Aronson also examines why avant-garde theatre declined and virutally disappeared at the end of the twentieth century.