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The Theatre of Luis Valdez (4x45)
by Michael M. ChemersThe Theatre of Luis Valdez focuses on the life and work of American playwright and director Luis Valdez, probably best known for his landmark 1979 play Zoot Suit – the first play by a Latinx playwright to appear on Broadway – and founder of El Teatro Campesino, the oldest surviving community theatre in the United States. Built around first-hand discussions of Valdez’s work, this collection gives an in-depth understanding of where ‘the godfather of Chicano theatre’ fits in the grand scheme of American drama and performance. Collaborators Edward James Olmos and Alma Martinez talk about working with Valdez and El Teatro Campesino; scholar Leticia Garcia interviews Jorge Huerta, the leading authority on Chicanx and Latinx theatre on the impact of Valdez work; and Luis Valdez himself contributes a lecture on all aspects of his craft from political resistance and the migrant experience to actor training and dramatic form. A concise and accessible study, 4x45 || Luis Valdez is the go-to resource for scholars, students and theatre practitioners looking for an introduction to this seminal figure in modern American performance.
Theatre of Movement and Gesture
by Jacques LecoqPublished in France in 1987, this is the book in which Lecoq first set out his philosophy of human movement, and the way it takes expressive form in a wide range of different performance traditions. He traces the history of pantomime, sets out his definition of the components of the art of mime, and discusses the explosion of physical theatre in the second half of the twentieth century. Interviews with major theatre practitioners Ariane Mnouchkine and Jean-Louis Barrault by Jean Perret, together with chapters by Perret on Étienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau, fill out the historical material written by Lecoq, and a final section by Alain Gautré celebrates the many physical theatre practitioners working in the 1980s.
The Theatre Of Naomi Wallace
by Scott T. Cummings Erica Stevens AbbittNaomi Wallace, an American playwright based in Britain, is one of the more original and provocative voices in contemporary theatre. Her poetic, erotically-charged, and politically engaged plays have been seen in London's West End, off-Broadway, at the Com#65533;die-Fran#65533;aise, in regional and provincial theaters, and on college campuses around the world. Known for their intimate, sensual encounters examining the relationship between identity and power, Wallace's works have attracted a wide range of theatre practitioners, including such important directors as Dominic Dromgoole, Ron Daniels, Jo Bonney, and Kwame Kwei-Armah. Drawing on scholars, activists, historians, and theatre artists in the United States, Canada, Britain, and the Middle East, this anthology of essays presents a comprehensive overview of Wallace's body of work that will be of use to theatre practitioners, students, scholars, and educators alike.
The Theatre of Nuclear Science: Weapons, Power, and the Scientists Behind it All (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Jeanne P TiehenThe Theatre of Nuclear Science theoretically explores theatrical representations of nuclear science to reconsider a science that can have consequences beyond imagination. Focusing on a series of nuclear science plays that span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and including performances of nuclear science in museums, film, and media, Jeanne Tiehen argues why theatre and its unique qualities can offer important perspectives on this imperative topic. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre, politics, and literature.
The Theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Sarah GormanThe theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players has received significant international recognition over the past ten years. The company has received three OBIEs, for House (1999), Drummer Wanted (2002) and Good Samaritans (2005). Maxwell received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010 and has been commissioned by venues in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland. Although his productions generate a plethora of reviews, there is a deficit of material providing a critical and sustained engagement with his work. The aim of this book is to provide a critical survey of Maxwell’s work since 1992, including his early participation in Cook County Theater Department. Touching upon the acting, production and rehearsal processes of NYC Player’s work, and Maxwell's representations of space, community, race, and gender, this volume provides scholars with an important overview of a key figure in contemporary drama.
The Theatre of Sa'dallah Wannous: A Critical Study of the Syrian Playwright and Public Intellectual (Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre)
by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi Robert MyersThe Theatre of Sa'dallah Wannous is the first book in English to provide a clear sense of the significance and complexity of Wannous' life and work. It is unique in bringing cross-disciplinary scholarship on Wannous together and aligning it with cultural practice and memory by including contributions from leading academics as well as renowned cultural figures from the Arab world. This volume should be of interest to literary and theatre studies scholars, cultural historians, theatre practitioners and anyone who cares about contemporary theatre, Syria and the Arab world. Collectively, the contributions demonstrate the role of cultural production - especially dramatic literature - in providing a portrait of and shaping a culture in the throes of profound transformation.
The Theatre of Societas Raffaello Sanzio
by Nicholas Ridout Joe Kelleher Claudia Castellucci Chiara Guidi Romeo CastellucciThe Theatre of Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio chronicles four years in the life of an extraordinary Italian theatre company whose work is widely recognized as some of the most exciting theatre currently being made in Europe. In the first English-language book to document their work, company founders, Claudia Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, discuss their approach to theatre making with Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout. At the centre of the book is a detailed exploration of the company's eleven episode cycle of tragic theatre, Tragedia Endogonida (2002–2004,) including: production notes and extensive correspondence giving insights into the creative process essays by and conversations with company members alongside critical responses by their two co-authors seventy-two photographs of the company's work. This is a significant collection of theoretical and practical reflections on the subject of theatre in the twenty-first century, and an indispensible written and visual document of the company's work.
The Theatre of the Absurd
by Martin EsslinIn 1953, Samuel Beckett’sWaiting for Godotpremiered at a tiny avant-garde theatre in Paris; within five years, it had been translated into more than twenty languages and seen by more than a million spectators. Its startling popularity marked the emergence of a new type of theatre whose proponents—Beckett, Ionesco, Genet, Pinter, and others—shattered dramatic conventions and paid scant attention to psychological realism, while highlighting their characters’ inability to understand one another. In 1961, Martin Esslin gave a name to the phenomenon in his groundbreaking study of these playwrights who dramatized the absurdity at the core of the human condition. Over four decades after its initial publication, Esslin’s landmark book has lost none of its freshness. The questions these dramatists raise about the struggle for meaning in a purposeless world are still as incisive and necessary today as they were when Beckett’s tramps first waited beneath a dying tree on a lonely country road for a mysterious benefactor who would never show. Authoritative, engaging, and eminently readable,The Theatre of the Absurdis nothing short of a classic: vital reading for anyone with an interest in the theatre.
The Theatre of the Bauhaus: The Modern and Postmodern Stage of Oskar Schlemmer (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies #16)
by Melissa TriminghamFocusing on the work of painter, choreographer and scenic designer Oskar Schlemmer, the "Master Magician" and leader of the Theatre Workshop, this book explains this "theatre of high modernism" and its historical role in design and performance studies; further, it connects the Bauhaus exploration of space with contemporary stages and contemporary ethics, aesthetics and society. The idea of "theatre of space" is used to highlight twentieth-century practitioners who privilege the visual, aural, and plastic qualities of the stage above character, narrative and, themes (for example Schlemmer himself, Robert Wilson, Tadeusz Kantor, Robert Lepage). This impressive volume will be of use to students and academics involved in the areas of twentieth-century performance, the history of performance art, the history of avant-garde theatre, modern German theatre, and Weimar-era performance.
The Theatre Of The Occult Revival
by Edmund B. LinganBased on field research and archival study, this book offers an in-depth exploration of the religious foundations, political and social significance, and aesthetic aspects of the theatre created by several of the most influential leaders of the Occult Revival: Katherine Tingley, Rudolf Steiner, Marie Steiner-von Sivers, Aleister Crowley, Alexander Mathews, and Gerald Gardner. The Occult Revival was an international surge of interest in the supernatural, magic, and Eastern mysticism that thrived in Europe and the United States between the late nineteenth-century and the mid-twentieth-century. By studying the theatre that was developed in affiliation with occult movements, this book shows how theatre contributed to the complication and fragmentation of Western religious culture during the turn-of-the-century Occult Revival and how theatre continues to play a part in the development of occult rituals and beliefs.
Theatre of the Oppressed
by Augusto Boal Charles A. McbrideThe innovative Brazilian playwright, director and international lecturer explicates Aristotle's poetics and the philosophies of Machiavelli, Hegel and Brecht to determine the extent to which their chief components--imitation, catharsis and, ultimately, audience control--serve up to support the status quo of a society rather than facilitate change.
Theatre of the Oppressed and its Times
by Julian BoalPolitical theatre, like any kind of political action, can only be judged in relation to the political moment in which it tries to intervene. Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) was created to fight against dictatorship and an extremely centralized conception of politics. How does it function now, in a time of social media and so-called participatory democracies? Providing an in-depth account of the political and cultural context in which TO emerged, this book asks: How do contemporary understandings of concepts like oppression, representation, participation, and emancipation shape TO today? Highlighting the pitfalls of reducing oppression to one-to-one relationships, the book proposes a version of Forum Theatre dramaturgy that portrays oppression as a defining structure of societies. The author also shares specific examples of movements and other organizations that use Theatre of the Oppressed to construct themselves. Theatre of the Oppressed and Its Times is an essential text for practitioners and scholars of TO, applied theatre practitioners, students, and anyone interested in how theatre can concretely assist in the transformation of the world.
Theatre of the Real
by Carol MartinAt an unparalleled time of the construction of reality across the fields of the science and humanities on a variety of platforms, theatre and performance participates in the current obsession with the problems and possibilities of the epistemologies of the real by using and revising the conventions of dramatic writing and performance to create and recreate personal, national, historical, and virtual realities. Theatre of the Real examines a wide range of international theatre and performance that claims a special relationship to contemporary reality in order to theorize how theatre and performance participates in how we come to know, experience, and understand the important events of our personal, social and political lives. The wide range of works discussed include Kamp and History of the World - Part Eleven by Hotel Modern, Is. Man by Adelheid Roosen, I am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, Southern Exposure by JoAnne Akalaitis, My Name is Rachel Corrie by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner and Via Dolorosa by David Hare.
Theatre of the Sphere: The Vibrant Being
by Luis ValdezTheatre of the Sphere is Luis Valdez’s exploration of the principles that underlie his innovations as a playwright, teacher, and theatrical innovator. He discusses the unique aesthetic, more than five decades in the making, that defines the work of his group El Teatro Campesino—from shows staged on the backs of flatbed trucks by the participants in the Delano Grape Strike of the 1960s to international megahits like Zoot Suit. Opening with a history of El Teatro Campesino, rich with Valdez’s insights and remembrances, the book’s first part provides context for the development of the Theatre of the Sphere acting method. The second part delivers the conceptual framework for Valdez’s acting theory and practice, situating it in Mayan mathematics and metaphysics. The third part of the book applies this methodology to describe the "viente pasos," the 20-element exercise sequence that comprises the core practice of El Teatro Campesino—strengthening the body, balance, precision, and flexibility but also leadership, collaboration, observation, vulnerability, trust, and expression of passion; of consciousness of time, place, self, community, language, and belief; of honour, faith, morality, and commitment. The book concludes with the full text of Valdez’s poem, "El Buen Actor/El Mal Actor," and a comprehensive bibliography for further study. This is a vital and indispensable text for today’s actor, as well as scholars and students of contemporary theatre, American and Chicano performance, and the process of theatre-making, actor training, and community performance.
Theatre of the Unimpressed
by Jordan TannahillA lot of plays are bad. And one bad play, it seems, can turn us off theater for good. So, what can we learn from the bad play? Jordan Tannahill, after talking to theater heavy-hitters from Australia to Berlin, offers a roadmap for a renewed theater, one that is less insular, less insulting, with better infrastructure. In reconsidering dramaturgy, programming strategies, and alternative models for producing, he aims to turn theater from an obligation to a destination.Jordan Tannahill is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto. His production of Sheila Heti's All Our Happy Days Are Stupid will be performed in New York in 2015.
Theatre of the Unimpressed
by Jordan TannahillHow dull plays are killing theatre and what we can do about it. Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he'd become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendence that kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between? A lot of plays are dull. And one dull play, it seems, can turn us off theatre for good. Playwright and theatre director Jordan Tannahill takes in the spectrum of English-language drama - from the flashiest of Broadway spectacles to productions mounted in scrappy storefront theatres - to consider where lifeless plays come from and why they persist. Having travelled the globe talking to theatre artists, critics, passionate patrons and the theatrically disillusioned, Tannahill addresses what he considers the culture of 'risk aversion' paralyzing the form. Theatre of the Unimpressed is Tannahill's wry and revelatory personal reckoning with the discipline he's dedicated his life to, and a roadmap for a vital twenty-first-century theatre - one that apprehends the value of 'liveness' in our mediated age and the necessity for artistic risk and its attendant failures. In considering dramaturgy, programming and alternative models for producing, Tannahill aims to turn theatre from an obligation to a destination. '[Tannahill is] the poster child of a new generation of (theatre? film? dance?) artists for whom "interdisciplinary" is not a buzzword, but a way of life.'- J. Kelly Nestruck, The Globe and Mail 'Jordan is one of the most talented and exciting playwrights in the country, and he will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.'- Nicolas Billon, Governor General's Award-winning playwright (Fault Lines)
The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier
by Peter M Boenisch Thomas OstermeierThomas Ostermeier is the most internationally recognised German theatre director of the present. With this book, he presents his directorial method for the first time. The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier provides a toolkit for understanding and enacting the strategies of his advanced contemporary approach to staging dramatic texts. In addition, the book includes: Ostermeier’s seminal essays, lectures and manifestos translated into English for the first time. Over 140 photos from the archive of Arno Declair, who has documented Ostermeier’s work at the Schaubühne Berlin for many years, and by others. In-depth ‘casebook’ studies of two of his productions: Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People (2012) and Shakespeare’s Richard III (2015) Contributions from Ostermeier’s actors and his closest collaborators to show how his principles are put into practice. An extraordinary, richly illustrated insight into Ostermeier’s working methods, this volume will be of interest to practitioners and scholars of contemporary European theatre alike.
Theatre on the American Frontier
by Thomas A. BogarFor two centuries, nearly all historical accounts of American theatre have focused on New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. As a result, the story of theatre on the frontier consists primarily of regional studies with limited scope. Thomas A. Bogar’s Theatre on the American Frontier provides an overdue, balanced treatment of the accomplishments of the troupes working in the trans-Appalachian West.From its origins in late eighteenth-century Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Louisville, frontier theatre grew by the close of the nineteenth century to encompass more than a dozen centers of vibrant theatrical activity. Audiences—mainly pioneers struggling with the hardships of establishing a life in the backcountry—enjoyed thrilling melodramas, the comedies of George Colman the Younger and John O’Keeffe, and even the tragedies of William Shakespeare. Theatre companies that ventured into this challenging and unfamiliar territory did so with a combination of daring and determination. Bogar’s comprehensive study brings this neglected history into the spotlight, cementing these figures and their theatrical productions and practices in their rightful place.
Theatre Pedagogy in the Era of Climate Crisis (Research and Teaching in Environmental Studies)
by Conrad Alexandrowicz David FancyThis volume explores whether theatre pedagogy can and should be transformed in response to the global climate crisis. Conrad Alexandrowicz and David Fancy present an innovative re-imagining of the ways in which the art of theatre, and the pedagogical apparatus that feeds and supports it, might contribute to global efforts in climate protest and action. Comprised of contributions from a broad range of scholars and practitioners, the volume explores whether an adherence to aesthetic values can be preserved when art is instrumentalized as protest and considers theatre as a tool to be employed by the School Strike for Climate movement. Considering perspectives from areas including performance, directing, production, design, theory and history, this book will prompt vital discussions which could transform curricular design and implementation in the light of the climate crisis. Theatre Pedagogy in the Era of Climate Crisis will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of climate change and theatre and performance studies.
Theatre, Performance And Analogue Technology
by Kara ReillyThis trans-historical collection explores analogue performance technologies from Ancient Greece to pre-Second World War. From ancient mechanical elephants to early modern automata, Enlightenment electrical experiments to Victorian spectral illusions, this volume offers an original examination of the precursors of contemporary digital performance.
Theatre, Performance, and Memory Politics in Argentinay
by Brenda WerthSince Argentina's transition to democracy, the expression of human fragility on the stage has taken diverse forms. This book examines the intervention of theatre and performance in the memory politics surrounding Argentina's return to democracy and makes a case for performance's transformative power.
Theatre/Performance Historiography
by Rosemarie K. Bank Michal KobialkaHow do the ethical implications of writing theatrical histories complicate the historiographical imperative in our current sociopolitical context? This volume investigates a historiography whose function is to be a mode of thinking and exposes the inner contradictions in social and ideological organizations of historical subjects.
Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style and Other Writings
by Michel Saint-DenisMichel Saint-Denis was one of twentieth century theatre’s most influential directors and theorists. This book combines his seminal Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style with material from Training for the Theatre, newly edited to create a work which moves seamlessly from theory to practice. Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style collects five of Saint Denis’ key lectures, given during his time in America, and perfectly encompasses his synergy of classical theatre and modern realism Training for the Theatre is a key practical resource for actors, directors and teachers alike. It covers crucial areas such as understanding a play’s context, training schedules, improvisation and dealing with stage space, as well as a section on Saint-Denis’ use of masks in actor training Theatre: The Rediscovery of Style and Other Writings benefits from Jane Baldwin’s new biographical introduction and annotations, that put Saint-Denis into context for a contemporary audience. It brings a wealth of inspirational material both to the rehearsal space and the classroom.
Theatre Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons (Routledge Series in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Theatre and Performance)
by Ellen W. KaplanThis book is a collection of chapters by playwrights, directors, devisers, scholars, and educators whose praxis involves representing, theorizing, and performing social trauma.Chapters explore how psychic catastrophes and ruptures are often embedded in social systems of oppression and forged in zones of conflict within and across national borders. Through multiple lenses and diverse approaches, the authors examine the connections between collective trauma, social identity, and personal struggle. We look at the generational transmission of trauma, socially induced pathologies, and societal re-inscriptions of trauma, from mass incarceration to war-induced psychoses, from gendered violence through racist practices. Collective trauma may shape, protect, and preserve group identity, promoting a sense of cohesion and meaning, even as it shakes individuals through pain. Engaging with communities under significant stress through artistic practice offers a path towards reconstructing the meaning(s) of social trauma, making sense of the past, understanding the present, and re-visioning the future.The chapters combine theoretical and practical work, exploring the conceptual foundations and the artists’ processes as they interrogate the intersections of personal grief and communal mourning, through drama, poetry, and embodied performance.
Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual: Exploring Forms of Political Theatre
by Erika Fischer-LichteIn this fascinating volume, acclaimed theatre historian Erika Fischer-Lichte reflects on the role and meaning accorded to the theme of sacrifice in Western cultures as mirrored in particular fusions of theatre and ritual. Theatre, Sacrifice, Ritual presents a radical re-definition of ritual theatre through analysis of performances as diverse as: Max Reinhardt's new people's theatre the mass spectacles of post-revolutionary Russia American Zionist pageants the Olympic Games. In offering both a performative and a semiotic analysis of such performances, Fischer-Lichte expertly demonstrates how theatre and ritual are fused in order to tackle the problem of community-building in societies characterised by loss of solidarity and disintegration, and exposes the provocative connection between the utopian visions of community they suggest, and the notion of sacrifice. This innovative study of twentieth-century performative culture boldly examines the complexities of political theatre, propaganda and manipulation of the masses, and offers a revolutionary approach to the study of theatre and performance history.