Holy Terrors

“The editors have done a remarkable job in assembling an important group of women playwrights and performers whose work remains terribly under publicized. The work included in this volume provides an excellent introduction to the diverse ways Latin American women have used the performing arts to engage the particular political and cultural conditions under which they live.”—David Román, author of Acts of Intervention: Performance, Gay Culture, and AIDS
“We can’t have theater if we have nothing to say. I was told that we wouldn’t have Coltrane if Miles Davis hadn’t let him play at his own gig, and that Miles let him play a long time, because he could see that Coltrane had a lot to say. Traveling with Diana, which I have had the great fortune to do, and being introduced to these extraordinary performers, both on these pages, and live and in person was flat-out a life-altering experience. This book turns us on to our cousin Americans and to their passion, their skill, their intellect, their purpose, their resolve. To go to music again, I think of Thelonius Monk, who said, ‘The cats I like are the cats who take chances.’  These are chancing cats, and enrapturing ones.”—Anna Deavere Smith
“Holy Terrors . . . reaches beyond the major metropoles where many of its artists work, into various political squabbles throughout the hemisphere. . . . [I]nnovative scholarship. Its emergence marks just how much the landscape of Latin American theater and performance has changed over the past ten years and signals how much it could change in the next ten.” -- Patricia Ybarra * Theater *
“[A]n imaginary Latin America that might otherwise go unnoticed outside of the region has been made available for the first time to English-speaking readers. . . . A key accomplishment of this collection is its capacity to bring together, within the utopian space of the printed page, women from different social, ethnic, and class backgrounds, giving voice to their experience as it emerges in the most contrasting settings. . . . As an ultimate political act, the editors of Holy Terrors have sought to bridge the gap between artist and critic, thus positioning the artists’ work as an open field in which women circulate, not only as commodities, but also as agents of change.” -- Rita De Grandis * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *
“[T]he book signals new departures in the field of theatrical and performance criticism. . . .” -- Beatriz J. Rizk * Latin American Research Review *
“For anyone interested in theatre and performance art—and most particularly in women’s theatre—in Latin America, this will be a fascinating collection.” * British Bulletin of Publications on Latin America *
“For the reader who wants a broad overview of women performing in Latin America, Holy Terrors provides a sampling of some of Latin America’s most important playwrights and performers, as well as some new voices.” -- Alexandra Fitts * Bulletin of Spanish Studies *
"[A] crazy quilt account of women performing theater in Latin America. . . . Holy Terrors is a work rich in ideas, history and personalities, and an important source book for learning, not only about theater in these eight Latin American countries, but also about key political issues, the risks of free expression, and the health and nearly unchartable diversity of the women's movement." -- Martha Gies * Women's Review of Books *