Waste: Capitalism and the Dissolution of the Human in Twentieth-Century Theater

Waste: Capitalism and the Dissolution of the Human in Twentieth-Century Theater by Jessica Rizzo ’11 traces the 20th-century theater’s movement from dramaturgies of efficiency to dramaturgies of waste. By examining theatrical representations of capitalism, war, climate change, and the permanent refugee crisis, Waste traces the ways in which these human-driven events signal a tendency toward prodigality that terminates with self-destruction. Defying its promise of abundance for all, capitalism poisons all relationships with competition and fear. (Punctum Books, 2020)

Jessica Rizzo is an American writer, director, and dramaturge. She holds a D.F.A. in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the Yale School of Drama, where she served as associate editor of Theater magazine and was awarded the John W. Gassner Prize for Criticism. She has taught at the Yale School of Drama, Yale College, and Bryn Mawr College.