THE VIETNAM WAR EXPERIENCE AS REFLECTED IN AMERICAN DRAMA

Abstract

AB it was in the fighting, a war of the younger generation, the Vietnam War was theirs in the writing as well: While the experimental theatre companies were overtly politicized and radicalized by the war, the traditional theatre and the established playwrights remained curiously silent and distanced from the subject. Of course, it is understandable that the established theatre, in a broad sense, is conservative in nature and, as J.W. Fenn explains, "normally relies on support and funding from establishment institutions such as corporate bodies, civic bodies, private endowments, . foundations, and other grant-awarding organizations."1 Hence, this theatre and its practitioners often rely on the patronage of powerful and influential agencies whose ·interests are usually closely allied to those of the establishment. \

As a result, the Vietnam War had to wait for some new voices from among the emerging "alternative theatre" groups and individuals to take it to the stage. It had to wait for Megan Terry, Barbara Garson, David Rabe and others to raise voices of anger against it. It had also to wait for returning veterans like David Rabe, Amlin Gray, Tom Cole, John DiFusco who all had a firsthand experience in Vietnam.

The Vietnam War dramatists, as individuals or as members of theatrical groups, are part and parcel of what is known as "alternative theatre." Initially, this new theatre, as Theodore Shank explains, was generated out of the social and political upheavals in the United States during the 1960s and early 1970s and was expressive of those who aligned themselves with the various social movements of the time--civil