The Siege of the Arts: Collected Writings 1994-2001

Mr. Brustein turns his witty, penetrating, and sometimes scathing gaze on the various scourges afflicting high art in America, from the Supreme Court's endorsement of NEA content restrictions, through the breakdown of taste and standards as a consequence of political correctness, to the failure of arts education and the exaltation of amateurism. Mr. Brustein also celebrates the best that is being thought and written in America, analyzing the major theatrical achievements of the decade. A collection of essays and theatre reviews that were, for the most part, first published in The New Republic . While the bulk of the material is devoted to the reviews of plays, a number of essays look at such issues as the National Endowment for the Arts funding for controversial art, the politica Robert Sanford Brustein is an American theatrical critic, producer, playwright, writer, and educator. He founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, and the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remains a creative consultant, and was the theatre critic for The New Republic. He comments on politics for the Huffington Post.