Under the artistic direction of Alex Timbers, Les Freres Corbusier has carved out a niche for itself as a purveyor of an anarchic, hyper-literate variety of what Timbers calls post-ironic theatre, an “aggressively visceral theatre combining historical revisionism, multimedia excess, found texts, sophomoric humor, and rigorous academic research.”

In 2007, Routledge published Theory for Performance Studies as part of its Theory 4 series, listing Philip Auslander as author. When, in August, The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that much of the book was lifted word-for-word from the template for the series, Theory for Religious Studies by Timothy K. Beal and William E. Deal, TDR editor Richard Schechner convened via email and phone conversations a “ TDR Forum,” asking leaders in the field to respond to the book and the series. Schechner and other respondents address issues of plagiarism, corporate takeovers of academic publishing, and the dumbing down of performance studies, asking why a notable scholar such as Auslander would undertake such an egregious piece of “scholarship.” Deal and Beal answer some questions put to them by Schechner, and Routledge's Claire L'Enfant and Talia Rodgers offer their perspectives.

Despite the disappearance of the historical avantgarde before WWII, both scholars and the popular press are reluctant to relinquish the belief in a radical, American, theatrical avantgarde. No other artists epitomize this avantgarde more than the Wooster Group, which, in its 30 years of work, has gradually become recognized as the emblematic avantgarde company. But was the avantgarde that developed in the 1970s ever really an avantgarde at all?