A reading and reception to celebrate the release of Murder Most Queer: The Homicidal Homosexual in the American Theater (University of Michigan Press) by Jordan Schildcrout

The “villainous homosexual” has long stalked America’s cultural imagination, most explicitly in the figure of the queer murderer, who has appeared as a character in dozens of plays. But as society’s understanding of homosexuality has changed, so has the significance of these controversial characters, especially when employed by LGBT theater artists themselves to explore darker fears and desires. Murder Most Queer examines the shifting meanings of murderous LGBT characters in American theater over a century, showing how these representations wrestle with and ultimately subvert notions of queer villainy. [www.murdermostqueer.com]

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Jordan Schildcrout is Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance at Purchase College-SUNY, where he teaches courses in theater history, theory, and dramaturgy, including seminars in LGBT Theater and American Drama. As a dramaturg and literary manager, he has worked for Manhattan Theatre Club, Adobe Theatre Company, and Denver Center Theatre Company. His articles on theater, film, and popular culture have appeared in Theatre Journal, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Journal of American Culture, and The Oxford Handbook of American Drama.