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The Bungler
by Richard Wilbur Molière"A mischievous new translation by the poet Richard Wilbur, [The Bungler] is great good fun and should open the gate for the play to be presented with the regularity it deserves."--Bruce Weber, The New York Times"My notion of translation is that you try to bring it back alive. Speak-ability is so important. . . . I came to see that a line that simply says 'I love you,' at the right point in the show, is entirely adequate, that a great deal of verbal sophistication is not necessarily called for."--Richard WilburPoet Richard Wilbur's translations of Molière's plays are loved, renowned, and performed throughout the world. This volume is part of Theater Communications Group's new series (with cover designs by Chip Kidd) to complete trade publication of these vital works of French neoclassical comedy. The Bungler is Molière's first recognizably great play, and the first to be written in verse. The charming farce is set in Sicily and born of the great Italian tradition of the commedia dell'arte: Loyal valet Mascarille schemes to win the lovely Celie away from rival Leadre, and into the arms of his master Leslie. Molière himself originated the role Mascarille, self-described as "the rashest fool on earth," who naturally bungles the job along the way.Richard Wilbur is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a former Poet Laureate of the United States. His publications include six volumes of poetry and two collections of selected verses, a collection of prose, and two books for children.
Bunny
by Hannah Moscovitch“In one school year she kissed nineteen boys and won all the science awards.” From one of Canada’s boldest playwrights comes an intimate look into the sexual life of a young woman as she struggles with the power of her desires. Sorrel grew up with professor parents, where carob was dessert, reading passages of Canadian poetry aloud was entertainment, and canoeing was the only sport encouraged. No one really noticed the studious Sorrel until she turned seventeen, when late puberty suddenly transformed her into a hot dork. Boys wanted her and girls loathed her, and all at once Sorrel discovered the joys of sexuality and the pain of social rejection. Sorrel enters college as a self-proclaimed loser with no female friends, but then she meets Maggie. Maggie’s unwavering friendship helps her shed her inhibitions and become more truly herself. The two women grow older, but when Maggie is diagnosed with cancer, Sorrel must choose between raw feeling and devotion.
The Bunyip: A Play Based on an Australian Folktale
by Pat BetteleyIn search of food for their families, some men go hunting. When one man catches a strange creature, he ignores his fellow hunters who tell him to release the creature. The young creature's mother, eager to reclaim her baby, floods the land and turns the hunter and his people into black swans.
The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone
by Seamus HeaneySophocles' play, first staged in the fifth century B.C., stands as a timely exploration of the conflict between those who affirm the individual's human rights and those who must protect the state's security.
The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone
by Sophocles Seamus HeaneySophocles' play, first staged in the fifth century B.C., stands as a timely exploration of the conflict between those who affirm the individual's human rights and those who must protect the state's security. During the War of the Seven Against Thebes, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, learns that her brothers have killed each other, having been forced onto opposing sides of the battle. When Creon, king of Thebes, grants burial of one but not the "treacherous" other, Antigone defies his order, believing it her duty to bury all of her close kin. Enraged, Creon condemns her to death, and his soldiers wall her up in a tomb. While Creon eventually agrees to Antigone's release, it is too late: She takes her own life, initiating a tragic repetition of events in her family's history.In this outstanding new translation, commissioned by Ireland's renowned Abbey Theatre to commemorate its centenary, Seamus Heaney exposes the darkness and the humanity in Sophocles' masterpiece, and inks it with his own modern and masterly touch.
Buried Child
by Sam ShepardA newly revised edition of an American classic, Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize--winning Buried Child is as fierce and unforgettable as it was when it was first produced more than twenty-five years ago.A scene of madness greets Vince and his girlfriend as they arrive at the squalid farmhouse of Vince's hard-drinking grandparents, who seem to have no idea who he is. Nor does his father, Tilden, a hulking former All-American footballer, or his uncle, who has lost one of his legs to a chain saw. Only the memory of an unwanted child, buried in an undisclosed location, can hope to deliver this familyFrom the Trade Paperback edition.
The Burlesque Handbook
by Jo WeldonThe Burlesque Handbook is the essential manual to understanding and performing both classic and neo-burlesque. Written by Jo Weldon, award-winning founder of the New York School of Burlesque, this book features easy-to-follow suggestions and exercises for developing stage-worthy confidence, presence, and sexiness. You'll learn about the fabulous makeup, costumes—including pasties!—moves, grooves, and attitudes of burlesque. The Burlesque Handbook is the must-have guide for everyone interested in this vibrant and wildly popular performance art, providing inspiration and practical information that readers can take straight from the page to the stage!
Burlesque Humor Revisited
by Dick PostonReview / 2m, 1f / Bare stage Three burlesque type performers (a straight man, a comic and a talking lady) "demonstrate" newly adapted versions of 12 classic burlesque standards. Compiled from authentic skits, the sketches have been edited and updated by Joey Faye's former straight man to retain the flavor of burlesque while catering to today's tastes and values. Individual sketches can be incorporated into vaudeville or musical variety shows or the entire collection can provide an evening's hilarious entertainment.
Burning Man: Learning from Heterotopia (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Linda Noveroske-TrittenThis book centres on a philosophical analysis of creative acts in the Burning Man Festival and their roles in wider social change. With particular focus on the Ten Principles of Burning Man, Linda Noveroske posits a re-interpretation of common notions of “self” and “other” as they apply to identity, difference, and the ways that these personal impulses ripple outward from changing individuals into changing societies. Such radical re-imagination of ideology can be most powerful when it occurs in spaces of otherness, of heterotopia. This study casts Burning Man as a heterotopia to not only destabilizes what we think we know about visual art, performance, and creative encounters, but also bring these acts into an attitude of immediacy that facilitates previously unimagined behaviour and opens out artistic drive into the unknown. This book would be of value for scholars and practitioners in Performance Studies, Theatre and Dance, Art History, Psychology, Phenomenology, Architecture and Urban Studies.
Burning Mom
by Mieko OuchiThis is a true story!The show will premiere at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg in April 2023.First produced by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg, in April 2023
Burning Vision
by Marie ClementsBurning Vision sears a dramatic swath through the reactionary identity politics of race, gender and class, using the penetrating yellow-white light, the false sun of uranium and radium, derived from a coal black rock known as pitchblende, as a metaphor for the invisible, malignant evils everywhere poisoning our relationship to the earth and to each other.
The Business of American Theatre
by William GrangeThe Business of American Theatre is a research guide to the history of producing theatre in the United States. Covering a wide range of subjects, the book explores how traditions of investment, marketing, labor union contracts, advertising, leasing arrangements, ticket scalping, zoning ordinances, royalties, and numerous other financial transactions have influenced the art of theatre for the past three centuries. Yet the book is not a dry reiteration of hits and flops, bankruptcies and bamboozles. Nor does it cover "everything about it that's appealing, everything the traffic will allow" (as Irving Berlin did in the song "There's No Business Like Show Business"). It is instead a highly readable resource for anyone interested in how money, and how much money, is critical to the art and artists of theatre. Many of those artists make appearances in the book: Richard Rodgers and his keen eye for investment, Jacob Shubert and his construction of "the bridge of thighs" for his showgirls at the Winter Garden, the significance of the Disney Souvenir Shop near the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, and the difference between a Broadway show losing millions of dollars or making billions in one night. Consider this book a go-to resource for readers, students, and scholars of the theatre business.
The Business of Broadway: An Insider?s Guide to Working, Producing, and Investing in the World?s Greatest Theatre Community
by Mitch Weiss Perri GaffneyNew York’s Broadway theatre scene has long been viewed as the "top of the heap” in the world theatre community. Taking lessons from the very best, this innovative guide delves into the business side of the renowned industry to explain just how its system functions. For anyone interested in pursuing a career on Broadway, or who wants to grow a theatre in any other part of the world, The Business of Broadway offers an in-depth analysis of the infrastructure at the core of successful theatre. Manager/producer Mitch Weiss and actor/writer Perri Gaffney take readers behind the scenes to reveal what the audience--and even the players and many producers--don’t know about how Broadway works, describing more than 200 jobs that become available for every show. A variety of performers, producers, managers, and others involved with the Broadway network share valuable personal experience in interviews discussing what made a show a hit or a miss, and how some of the rules, regulations, and practices that are in place today were pioneered.
The Business of English Restoration Theatre, 1660–1700
by Deborah C. PayneDeborah C. Payne's ground-breaking study traces the historical origins of a dilemma still bedevilling theatre companies: how to reconcile audience demand for novelty with profitability. As a solution, English acting companies in 1660 adopted an unprecedented theatrical duopoly. Implicit to its economic logic were scarcity, prestige, and innovation: attributes that, it was hoped, would generate wealth and exclusivity. Changes to playhouse architecture, stagecraft, dramatic repertory, and company practices were undertaken to create this new, upmarket theatre of “great expences.” So powerful was the promise of the duopoly and so enthralling the wholesale transformation of the theatrical marketplace that management—despite dwindling box office—resisted change for 35 years. Drawing upon network and behavioural economic theory, Professor Payne shows why the acting companies clung to an economic model inimical to their self-interest. Original archival research further bolsters this radically new perspective on an exciting and crucial period in English theatre. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The Business of Theatrical Design
by James MoodyFor theatrical design students and theater professionals, here is the essential guide to marketing your skills, furthering your career, and operating a successful business! In The Business of Theatrical Design, design veteran James Moody shares his proven techniques to help costume, scenic, and lighting designers become successful businesspeople. Here is the latest information regarding IRS, state, and business liabilities; salary and fee scales; equipment costs; professional organizations; union and contract issues; and much more. Plus dozens of working producers, promoters, and designers share their insights and offer a thorough, true-to-life profile of this competitive industry. An indispensable resource for anyone looking to pursue a career in the theater!
The Business of Theatrical Design, Second Edition
by James MoodyWritten by a leading design consultant and carefully updated with the latest information on the industry, this is the essential guide to earning a living, marketing skills, furthering a design career, and operating a business. With more than thirty years of backstage and behind-the-scenes experience in theater, film, television, concerts, and special events, James Moody shares his success secrets for the benefit of design students and working designers. Topics include: Finding and landing dream assignmentsNegotiating feesSetting up ideal working spacesBuilding the perfect staffOvercoming fears of accounting and record-keepingChoosing the right insuranceJoining the right unions and professional organizationsAnd more In addition to revealing how to get the great design jobs in traditional entertainment venues, the author shows designers how to think outside the box and seize creative, lucrative opportunities—such as those in theme parks, in concert halls, and with architectural firms. Providing the keys for passionate, talented designers to become successful businesspeople, The Business of Theatrical Design is a must-read for novices and established professionals alike.
"But He Doesn't Know the Territory": The Story behind Meredith Willson's The Music Man
by Meredith WillsonChronicles the creation of Meredith Willson&’s The Music Man—reprinted now as the Broadway Edition Composer Meredith Willson described The Music Man as &“an Iowan&’s attempt to pay tribute to his home state.&” Now featuring a new foreword by noted singer and educator Michael Feinstein, this book presents Willson&’s reflections on the ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, and finally successes of making one of America&’s most popular musicals. Willson&’s whimsical, personable writing style brings readers back in time with him to the 1950s to experience firsthand the exciting trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway masterpiece. Fresh admiration of the musical—and the man behind the music—is sure to result.
But He Doesn't Know the Territory
by Meredith WillsonComposer Meredith Willson once described The Music Man as &“an Iowan&’s attempt to pay tribute to his home state.&” Never once forgetting his roots, Willson reflects on the ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, and finally successes of the making of one of America&’s most popular musicals. His whimsical, personable writing style will bring readers back in time with him to the 1950s to experience firsthand the exciting trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway masterpiece. A newfound admiration for The Music Man—and the man behind the music—is sure to follow.
But Why Bump Off Barnaby
by Rick AbbotMystery Farce / 4m, 6f / This lunatic show poses a fascinating mystery. When Barnaby Folcey is murdered at a family gathering at Marlgate Manor, it transpires that he had a motive to murder everybody else but no one had a reason to want him dead. While dying, he scrawled the letters "b- a-r," which can implicate everyone. While the bizarre group frantically tries to unmask the murderer, people vanish, poison is found in the sherry and the police take forever to arrive. Meanwhile, there's a secret treasure to be found, a mystifying limerick to decode and all sorts of doom to be avoided before the killer is finally unmasked and destroyed using one of the funniest methods ever seen on a stage.
Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit
by Marlon M. BaileyButch Queens Up in Pumpsexamines Ballroom culture, in which inner-city LGBT individuals dress, dance, and vogue to compete for prizes and trophies. Participants are affiliated with a house, an alternative family structure typically named after haute couture designers and providing support to this diverse community. Marlon M. Bailey's rich first-person performance ethnography of the Ballroom scene in Detroit examines Ballroom as a queer cultural formation that upsets dominant notions of gender, sexuality, kinship, and community.
Butcher
by Nicolas BillonAn old man in a military uniform is dumped at the police station--he won't speak English but has a lawyer's card in his pocket. A seemingly innocuous encounter gets stranger and stranger as we gradually realize no one is who they seem and the Balkan wars' traumas continue to play out. The "It Kid" of Canadian theater, award-winning playwright Nicolas Billon, returns with a devastating parable.Nicolas Billon's plays and translations have been produced at the Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, and Canadian Stage. Fault Lines won the Governor General's Award, and his first play, The Elephant Song, is being developed into a film starring Catherine Keener.
Butoh America: Butoh Dance in the United States and Mexico from 1970 to the early 2000s (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Tanya CalamoneriButoh America unearths the people and networks that popularized Butoh dance in the Americas, through a focused look at key artists, producers, and festivals in United States and Mexico. This is the first book to gather these histories into one narrative and look at the development of American Butoh. From its inception in San Francisco in 1976, American Butoh aligned with avant-garde performance art in alternative venues such as galleries and experimental theaters. La MaMa in New York and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato both served to legitimize the form as esteemed experimental performance. A crystalizing moment in each of the three locations—San Francisco, New York, and Mexico City—has been a grand-scale festival featuring prominent Japanese and numerous other international artists, as well as fostering local communities. This book stitches together the flow of people and ideas, highlights the connections in the Butoh diaspora, and incorporates interviewee perspectives regarding future directions for the genre in the Americas.
Butoh, as Heard by a Dancer (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Dominique Savitri BonarjeeThis book explores the origins of Butoh in post-war Japan through orality and transmission, in conjunction with an embodied research approach. The book is a gathering of seminal artistic voices – Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, Yukio Waguri, Moe Yamamoto, Masaki Iwana, Ko Murobushi, Yukio Suzuki, Takao Kawaguchi, Yuko Kaseki, and the philosopher, Kuniichi Uno. These conversations happened during an extended research trip I made to Japan to understand the context and circumstances that engendered Butoh. Alongside these exchanges are my reflections on Butoh’s complex history. These are primarily informed by my pedagogical and performance encounters with the artists I met during this time, rather than a theoretical analysis. Through the words of these dancers, I investigate Butoh’s tendency to evade categorization. Butoh’s artistic legacy of bodily rebellion, plurality of authorship, and fluidity of form seems prescient and feels more relevant in contemporary times than ever before. This book is intended as a practitioner's guide for dancers, artists, students, and scholars with an interest in non-Western dance and dance history, postmodern performance, and Japanese arts and culture.
Butterscotch
by Barbara L. SmithComedic drama / 3m, 2f / Interior / Butterscotch is a candy yellow 1947 Ford at the center of an unlikely friendship between a New York restaurant critic and a man who loves roadside diners. The critic has come to a small Pennsylvania town to persuade his fiancee's father to attend their wedding in New York. The bride, a news correspondents off on assignment, has not even told her cantankerous, ailing father she is getting married. Adding to the bucolic fray are an elderly neighbor who has her fading eyesight on the widowed father, dad's hunting buddy and a nervous ex New Yorker whose condo ruined a favorite hunting spot. Father and future son in law share only a dislike for each other, but the vintage car brings about a surprising end to a seemingly hopeless impasse.
Buyer & Cellar: The Original Script for the Off Broadway Hit
by Jonathan TolinsThe original script of the award-winning off-Broadway play—&“irresistibly entertaining [and] surprisingly moving&” (Paul Rudnick). Alex More has a story to tell. A struggling actor in LA, he takes a job working in the Malibu basement of a beloved megastar. One day, the Lady Herself comes downstairs to play. It feels like real bonding in the basement—but will their relationship ever make it upstairs? A winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, Buyer & Cellar is an outrageous comedy about the price of fame, the cost of things, and the oddest of odd jobs. &“Jonathan Tolins has concocted an irresistible one-man play from the most peculiar of fictitious premises . . . This seriously funny slice of absurdist whimsy creates the illusion of a stage filled with multiple people, all of them with their own droll point of view.&” —The New York Times &“A gorgeous play: funny and beautifully observed and richly insightful.&” —Moisés Kaufman &“Tolins&’s writing is smart, sharp, and hilarious—and he paints a vivid picture that even a perfectionist like Barbra would have to applaud.&” —James Lapine