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Emergence in Interactive Art
by Jennifer SeevinckThis book is concerned with emergence, interaction, art and computing. It introduces a new focus for emergence in interactive art: the emergent experience. Emergence literature is discussed and an organising framework, the Taxonomy of Emergence in Interactive Art (TEIA) is provided together with case studies of digital, interactive art systems that facilitate emergence. Evidence from evaluations of people interacting with the works is analysed using the TEIA. Artworks from across the world are also reviewed to further illustrate the potential for emergence. Interactive art is, itself, still a young domain where audience influence, or interaction with the work is a defining aspect. Emergence in Interactive Art explores the rich opportunities for interactive experiences of digital art systems that are provided by looking through a 'lens' of emergence. And what better way to explore these potentials than through the open-ended domain of emergence, with its inherent affinity to the natural world? Through an integrated approach of practice, research and theory this book reveals design and analytical insights relating to emergence, interaction and interactive art to benefit artists, researchers and designers alike.
Paris is Out!
by Richard SeffHortense and Daniel, a married couple of over 40 years, plan to embark on their first European vacation, but the two have very different outlooks on travel. Daniel is convinced he will be unimpressed by the other side of the pond. His conditions for the trip are: no Paris, no Venice, no shopping, sightseeing, or speaking in French. Hortense, on the other hand, is full of life and eager to experience Europe fully. When Daniel embarrasses Hortense in front of family and friends, she announces that the trip is cancelled. As her adult children try to convince her to forgive Daniel, Hortense must decide how she feels about the man with whom she has shared a life for 40 years. Daniel, in turn, to save his marriage must show how much he appreciates Hortense.
Shine!: The Horatio Alger Musical
by Richard SeffCharacters: 13 male, 6 female. . Various sets. Winner! 2010 New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for ExcellenceWinner! National Music Theatre Network Award!. This charming rags to riches romp with a melodic score follows Ragged Dick, Horatio Alger's first best selling hero, from penniless bootblack to budding Wall Street entrepreneur. His adventures bring him face to face with scheming ex convicts, vicious comic villians, kind benefactors and a world of colorful street characters. Set in the New York Centennial summer of 1876, this full of hopes and dreams musical is perfect for the whole family. "A charming, feel-good musical. The work's tremendous heart and unabashed celebration of Alger's popular stories are in ample evidence in this appealing musical about the rise from rags to riches." - Meredith Lee, Theatermania"SHINE! is one of those wonderful musicals where an audience cares deeply for the hero. Richard Seff's book and Lee Goldsmith's lyrics perfectly capture the Horatio Alger spirit ...Composer Roger Anderson's ballads are strikingly beautiful. As for his up-tempo songs, to call each a toe-tapper would only be 10% accurate ..." - Peter Filichia, The Star-Ledger"Awfully close to the sort of musical that made the form nationally beloved in the Rodgers and Hammerstein era." - Marc Miller, Backstage"Highly tuneful...A friendly show of considerable good humor." - Playbill
The Whole Ninth Floor
by Richard SeffComedy / 6m, 5f / Interior / Across the street from the ‘mad men’ of Madison Avenue live the Ten Percenters of the National Talent Agency. It’s the same time, 1962, a secretary is still a toy, boys will still be boys, but the times they are a changin’. Audiences will love to hear what’s happening on The Whole Ninth Floor / “First impression is that it is a string of jokes tied together rather loosely. A moment’s concentration brings home however the basic fact that Seff weaves a story based on the young man’s intense and insistent desire to do the right thing. The laughs come fast, and they are plentiful.” - The Patterson Call
Euripides and the Poetics of Sorrow: Art, Gender, and Commemoration in Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba
by Charles SegalWhere is the pleasure in tragedy? This question, how suffering and sorrow become the stuff of aesthetic delight, is at the center of Charles Segal's new book, which collects and expands his recent explorations of Euripides' art. Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba, the three early plays interpreted here, are linked by common themes of violence, death, lamentation and mourning, and by their implicit definitions of male and female roles. Segal shows how these plays draw on ancient traditions of poetic and ritual commemoration, particularly epic song, and at the same time refashion these traditions into new forms. In place of the epic muse of martial glory, Euripides, Segal argues, evokes a muse of sorrows who transforms the suffering of individuals into a "common grief for all the citizens," a community of shared feeling in the theater. Like his predecessors in tragedy, Euripides believes death, more than any other event, exposes the deepest truth of human nature. Segal examines the revealing final moments in Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba, and discusses the playwright's use of these deaths--especially those of women--to question traditional values and the familiar definitions of male heroism. Focusing on gender, the affective dimension of tragedy, and ritual mourning and commemoration, Segal develops and extends his earlier work on Greek drama. The result deepens our understanding of Euripides' art and of tragedy itself.
Sophocles' Tragic World: Divinity, Nature, Society
by Charles SegalIn a series of engagingly written interconnected essays, Segal studies five of Sophocles' seven extant plays: Ajax, Oedipus Tyrannus, Philoctetes, Antigone, and the often neglected Trachinian Women.
Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation (Polish Theatre Archives Ser. #Vol. 5)
by Harold B. SegelThis is the first volume in English to be devoted entirely to Polish Romantic drama. It contains translations of three major plays: Forefathers; Eve, Part III, by Adam Mickiewics; The Un-Divine Comedy by Zygmunt Krasinski; and Fantazy by Juliusz Slowacki. In his highly informative introduction, Professor Segel discusses the plays against the background of the Romantic movement in Poland and points out their ideological and artistic importance. As products of a revolutionary Poland; they were written and published in Paris by writers who either resettled there after the Insurrection of 1830 or otherwise identified with the Great Emigration; they are permeated with the spirit of Romantic Rebellion, with pleas for universial justice, and with queries concerning the role of the poet in society. Brillant productions of the plays in Poland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries gave impetus to an entire tradition of modern Polish theatrical experimentation as well as dramatic writing which extends to the present day.
The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction Into Film (Owl Books Ser.)
by Linda SegerAdaptations have long been a mainstay of Hollywood and the television networks. Indeed, most Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning films have been adaptations of novels, plays, or true-life stories. Linda Seger, author of two acclaimed books on scriptwriting, now offers a comprehensive handbook for screenwriters, producers, and directors who want to successfully transform fictional or factual material into film. Seger tells how to analyze source material to understand why some of it resists adaptation. She then gives practical methods for translating story, characters, themes, and style into film. A final section details essential information on how to adapt material and how to protect oneself legally
Whose Improv Is It Anyway?: Beyond Second City (Studies in Popular Culture Series)
by Amy E. SehamOn both sides of the stage improv-comedy's popularity has increased exponentially throughout the 1980s and '90s and into the new millennium. Presto! An original song is created out of thin air. With nothing but a suggestion from the audience, daring young improvisers working without a net or a script create hilarious characters, sketches, and songs. Thrilled by the danger, the immediacy, and the virtuosity of improv-comedy, spectators laugh and cheer. American improv-comedy burst onto the scene in the 1950s with Chicago's the Compass Players (best known for the brilliant comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May) and the Second City, which launched the careers of many popular comedians, including Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and Mike Myers. Chicago continues to be a mecca for young performers who travel from faraway places to study improv. At the same time, the techniques of Chicago improv have infiltrated classrooms, workshops, rehearsals, and comedy clubs across North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Improv's influence is increasingly evident in contemporary films and in interactive entertainment on the internet. Drawing on the experiences of working improvisers, Whose Improv Is It Anyway? provides a never-before-published account of developments beyond Second City's mainstream approach to the genre. This fascinating history chronicles the origins of "the Harold," a sophisticated new "long-form" style of improv developed in the '80s at ImprovOlympic and details the importance and pitfalls of ComedySports. Here also is a backstage glimpse at the Annoyance Theatre, best known on the national scene for its production of The Real Live Brady Bunch. Readers will get the scoop on the recent work of players who, feeling excluded by early improv's "white guys in ties," created such independent groups as the Free Associates and the African American troupe Oui Be Negroes. There is far more to the art of improv than may be suggested by the sketches on Saturday Night Live or the games on Whose Line Is It Anyway? This history, an insider's look at the evolution of improv-comedy in Chicago, reveals the struggles, the laughter, and the ideals of mutual support, freedom, and openness that have inspired many performers. It explores the power games, the gender inequities, and the racial tensions that can emerge in improvised performance, and it shares the techniques and strategies veteran players use to combat these problems. Improv art is revealed to be an art of compromise, a fragile negotiation between the poles of process and product. The result, as shown here, can be exciting, shimmering, magical, and not exclusively the property of any troupe or actor.
Stigmas of the Tamil Stage: An Ethnography of Special Drama Artists in South India
by Susan SeizerA study of the lives of popular theater artists, Stigmas of the Tamil Stage is the first in-depth analysis of Special Drama, a genre of performance unique to the southernmost Indian state of Tamilnadu. Held in towns and villages throughout the region, Special Drama performances last from 10 p. m. until dawn. There are no theatrical troupes in Special Drama; individual artists are contracted "specially" for each event. The first two hours of each performance are filled with the kind of bawdy, improvisational comedy that is the primary focus of this study; the remaining hours present more markedly staid dramatic treatments of myth and history. Special Drama artists themselves are of all ages, castes, and ethnic and religious affiliations; the one common denominator in their lives is their lower-class status. Artists regularly speak of how poverty compelled their entrance into the field. Special Drama is looked down upon by the middle- and upper-classes as too popular, too vulgar, and too "mixed. " The artists are stigmatized: people insult them in public and landlords refuse to rent to them. Stigma falls most heavily, however, on actresses, who are marked as "public women" by their participation in Special Drama. As Susan Seizer's sensitive study shows, one of the primary ways the performers deal with such stigma is through humor and linguistic play. Their comedic performances in particular directly address questions of class, culture, and gender deviations--the very issues that so stigmatize them. Seizer draws on extensive interviews with performers, sponsors, audience members, and drama agents as well as on careful readings of live Special Drama performances in considering the complexities of performers' lives both on stage and off.
Saving Juliet
by Suzanne SelforsMimi Wallingford, Great Granddaughter of Adelaide Wallingford, has the life that most girls dream about, playing Juliet opposite teen heartthrob Troy Summer on Broadway in Shakespeare's famous play. Unfortunately, she has no desire to be an actress, a fact her mother can't seem to grasp. But when she and Troy are magically thrust into Shakespeare's Verona, they experience the feud between the Capulets and Montagues first hand. Mimi realizes that she and Juliet have more in common than Shakespeare's script -- they are both fighting for futures of their own choosing. Mimi feels compelled to help her and with Troy's unexpected help, hopes to give Shakespeare's most famous tragedy a happily-ever-after ending.
Shakespeare's Sublime Ethos: Matter, Stage, Form (Routledge Studies in Shakespeare)
by Jonathan P. SellShakespeare’s Sublime Ethos: Matter, Stage, Form breaks new ground in providing a sustained, demystifying treatment of its subject and looking for answers to basic questions regarding the creation, experience, aesthetics and philosophy of Shakespearean sublimity. More specifically, it explores how Shakespeare generates a sublime mood or ethos which predisposes audiences intellectually and emotionally for the full experience of sublime pathos, explored in the companion volume, Shakespeare’s Sublime Pathos. To do so, it examines Shakespeare’s invention of sublime matter, his exploitation of the special characteristics of the Elizabethan stage, and his dramaturgical and formal simulacra of absolute space and time. In the process, it considers Shakespeare’s conception of the universe and man’s place in it and uncovers the epistemological and existential implications of key aspects of his art. As the argument unfolds, a case is made for a transhistorically baroque Shakespeare whose "bastard art" enables the dramatic restoration of an original innocence where ignorance really is bliss. Taken together, Shakespeare’s Sublime Ethos and Shakespeare’s Sublime Pathos show how Shakespearean drama integrates matter and spirit on hierarchical planes of cognition and argue that, ultimately, his is an immanent sublimity of the here-and-now enfolding a transcendence which may be imagined, simulated or evoked, but never achieved.
Shakespeare's Sublime Pathos: Person, Audience, Language (Routledge Studies in Shakespeare)
by Jonathan P. SellShakespeare’s Sublime Pathos: Person, Audience, Language breaks new ground in providing a sustained, demystifying treatment of its subject and looking for answers to basic questions regarding the creation, experience, aesthetics and philosophy of Shakespearean sublimity. More specifically, it explores how Shakespeare generates experiences of sublime pathos, for which audiences have been prepared by the sublime ethos described in the companion volume, Shakespeare’s Sublime Ethos. To do so, it examines Shakespeare’s model of mutualistic character, in which "entangled" language brokers a psychic communion between fictive persons and real-life audiences and readers. In the process, Sublime Critical platitudes regarding Shakespeare’s liberating ambiguity and invention of the human are challenged, while the sympathetic imagination is reinstated as the linchpin of the playwright’s sublime effects. As the argument develops, the Shakespearean sublime emerges as an emotional state of vulnerable exhilaration leading to an ethically uplifting openness towards others and an epistemologically bracing awareness of human unknowability. Taken together, Shakespeare’s Sublime Pathos and Shakespeare’s Sublime Ethos show how Shakespearean drama integrates matter and spirit on hierarchical planes of cognition and argue that, ultimately, his is an immanent sublimity of the here-and-now enfolding a transcendence which may be imagined, simulated or evoked, but never achieved.
Avant-Garde Performance and Material Exchange
by Mike SellAssembling a remarkable group of scholars, these essays explore how the circulation and exchange of 'vectors of the radical' shape the avant-garde. Mapping the movement of scripts, theatre activists, performances, and other material entities, they provide unprecedented perspectives on the transnational performance culture of the avant-garde.
Mientras Escucho Sentada Aquí
by Lilian G. Selvaggio Valerie HockertUna mujer de mediana edad, a quien le gusta entretener, había perdido a su esposo recientemente, y pensó que su vida ya no tenía valor y que ella era inservible. Habia estado recolectando recuerdos y fotos en una caja y en un álbum, recordando, cuando tuvo la idea de organizar una fiesta y pedirle a cada invitada que trajera algo viejo y nostálgico--un pañuelito, una joya, una herramienta pequeña, un suvenir, un botón, un programa de teatro, u otro ítem pequeño. La idea era que cada invitada tendría que contar la historia detrás del objeto. La mujer no sabía que algunas invitadas tendrían sorprendentes secretos a los cuales estaba atado su recuerdo. Una vida anterior, un hijo perdido, un accidente--muchas tenían tristeza atada a sus recuerdos, pero los conservaban para mantenerse sujetas a la realidad. Tras escuchar todas las historias, la mujer decide que su vida después de todo no era tan mala, y que tenía el propósito de ser amiga de esas personas.
Relevance and Marginalisation in Scandinavian and European Performing Arts 1770–1860: Questioning Canons
by Randi Margrete SelvikRelevance and Marginalisation in Scandinavian and European Performing Arts 1770–1860: Questioning Canons reveals how various cultural processes have influenced what has been included, and what has been marginalised from canons of European music, dance, and theatre around the turn of the nineteenth century and the following decades. This collection of essays includes discussion of the piano repertory for young ladies in England; canonisation of the French minuet; marginalisation of the popular German dramatist Kotzebue from the dramatic canon; dance repertory and social life in Christiania (Oslo); informal cultural activities in Trondheim; repertory of Norwegian musical clocks; female itinerant performers in the Nordic sphere; preconditions, dissemination, and popularity of equestrian drama; marginalisation and amateur staging of a Singspiel by the renowned Danish playwright Oehlenschläger, also with perspectives on the music and its composers; and the perceived relevance of Henrik Ibsen’s staged theatre repertory and early dramas. By questioning established notions about canon, marginalisation, and relevance within the performing arts in the period 1770–1860, this book asserts itself as an intriguing text both to the culturally interested public and to scholars and students of musicology, dance research, and theatre studies.
The Marvels
by Brian SelznickDon't miss Selznick's other novels in words and pictures, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck, which together with The Marvels, form an extraordinary thematic trilogy!A breathtaking new voyage from Caldecott Medalist Brian Selznick.Two stand-alone stories--the first in nearly 400 pages of continuous pictures, the second in prose--create a beguiling narrative puzzle.The journey begins at sea in 1766, with a boy named Billy Marvel. After surviving a shipwreck, he finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage.Nearly a century later, runaway Joseph Jervis seeks refuge with an uncle in London. Albert Nightingale's strange, beautiful house, with its mysterious portraits and ghostly presences, captivates Joseph and leads him on a search for clues about the house, his family, and the past.A gripping adventure and an intriguing invitation to decipher how the two stories connect, The Marvels is a loving tribute to the power of story from an artist at the vanguard of creative innovation.
Kaputnik
by Frank Semerano3m, 3f / Comedy / Unit set / Dr. Myles Stanton is an astronomer stationed at a lonely observatory in the desert, but his job isn't the only thing that keeps him in the dark. For Dr. Stanton is about to lose his wife, Hali, to Blaine, his lab assistant and best friend. Why Hali would find the luckless and accident prone Blaine to be preferable to Dr. Stanton bewilders this egocentric astronomer more than any mystery he has ever viewed through his telescope. It's not just that Blaine's obsession with an impending invasion from Mars makes him seem such an odd choice for the sophisticated and lovely Hali. But what is it about Blaine that has also earned the attention of three strangers in trench coats, fedoras and dark glasses? Dr. Myles Stanton, left in charge of an obsolete observatory he was sure everyone had forgotten about, takes center stage in an international game of cat and mouse. It is the evening of the launch of Sputnik. World tensions are high. Spies and sleeper cells are suspected to be everywhere. Invaders could come from anywhere. / "It's been some fifty years when the "Russies" were thought to excel and lead when it came to the space race. Kaputnik shows how these "reds" were just red in the face-- the same way that the theater audience will be after having a few good belly laughs!...They may have been first in space, but they still can't write a play as funny as this one!" - Accessibly Live
Next Stop, Murder
by Frank Semerano3m, 3f / Comedy, Murder Mystery - Thriller / Unit set / Myron Amberworth, a professor of paleontology at the local city college, is about to lose his job. It is only through what he believes is the fortuitous recruitment of two additional students, Dena and Knuckles, that he is allowed to keep his class. But Dena and Knuckles are in fact two members of a street gang known as the Scorpions, whose only motivation in enrolling is to heist the contents of a museum scheduled in a field trip. But Dena is enjoying her new life as a student much to the dismay of her father, Knuckles and Tilly, Myron's jealous girlfriend. Dena, thrown out of her house by her temperamental father, is forced to take up temporary residence at Myron's run down apartment. Dena's father, devoted as he is stubborn, practically moves in himself to keep an eye on his daughter and an increasingly distraught Myron. As Dena goes "good", Myron's colleague and department head goes "bad", and entrusts a stolen gem to the unknowing Myron. Lilah Davenport, a journalist, is murdered while chasing down the stolen gem and her ghost has fallen in love with the mortal Myron and searches desperately for a way to communicate the danger he now faces.
A Vampire Reflects
by Frank Semerano5m, 2f / Comedy / Unit set / Count Zescu, a Vampire from the old country, takes up residence in the American southwest accompanied only by his coffin and Mattie, who is an all too amorous co-ed he can't seem to lose. Hot on the heels of this colorful entourage is Joyce Lyonhartt, a plucky and determined reporter who excels in disguises to get close to what seems to be a once in lifetime story. The Count settles down in dreary house near a secret army base, and witnesses a bat seemingly explode spontaneously. He stumbles upon a weapons experiment, which involves turning living bats into flying bombs, headed by old foe, Dr. Gunter. An escaped war criminal ironically hiding out in the country whose army is pursuing him, Dr. Gunter continues to wage his private little war, though now aware that his new nemesis may inform on him. On his way to challenging the commander of the Army base, however, the Count discovers he is the uncle of Mattie, and is himself looking to do in the "older man" his niece has run off with. New and old accounts are on their way to being settled during a late night dinner at the Count's estate.
A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction
by Lydia Semler Jana Hill Ilea Magdelina BonnerA History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction explores pregnancy clothing worn throughout the decades, providing historical information, images, and patterns. Filled with photos showing extant attire, with intricate details and sample patterns that can be recreated to scale, this book examines how maternity clothes were constructed, provides historical context, and aids readers in designing their own maternity garments. Each chapter includes examples of commonly worn maternity styles from a number of regions of the English-speaking world, with information from the United States, Britain, Australia, and Canada. The book concludes with a chapter on historically accurate underpinnings from the 17th century to the present day. A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction is written for costume professionals looking to research historically accurate characters and costumes for production, as well as fashion historians and costume enthusiasts.
A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction
by Lydia Semler Jana Hill Ilea Magdelina BonnerA History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction explores pregnancy clothing worn throughout the decades, providing historical information, images, and patterns.Filled with photos showing extant attire, with intricate details and sample patterns that can be recreated to scale, this book examines how maternity clothes were constructed, provides historical context, and aids readers in designing their own maternity garments. Each chapter includes examples of commonly worn maternity styles from a number of regions of the English-speaking world, with information from the United States, Britain, Australia, and Canada. The book concludes with a chapter on historically accurate underpinnings from the 17th century to the present day.A History of Maternity Wear: Design, Patterns, and Construction is written for costume professionals looking to research historically accurate characters and costumes for production, as well as fashion historians and costume enthusiasts.
"Evil" Arabs in American Popular Film: Orientalist Fear
by Tim Jon SemmerlingLooking at their narrative structures and visual tropes, he analyzes how the films portray Arabs as threatening to subvert American "truths" and mythic tales—and how the insecurity this engenders causes Americans to project evil character and intentions on Arab peoples, landscapes, and cultures. Semmerling also demonstrates how the "evil" Arab narrative has even crept into the documentary coverage of 9/11. Overall, Semmerling's probing analysis of America's Orientalist fears exposes how the "evil" Arab of American popular film is actually an illusion that reveals more about Americans than Arabs.
Rabindranath Tagore's Theatre: From Page to Stage
by Abhijit SenThis book analyses Rabindranath Tagore’s contribution to Bengali drama and theatre. Throughout this book, Abhijit Sen locates and studies Rabindranath’s experiments with drama/theatre in the context of the theatre available in nineteenth-century Bengal, and explores the innovative strategies he adopted to promote his ‘brand’ of theatre. This approach finds validation in the fact that Rabindranath combined in himself the roles of author-actor-producer, who always felt that, without performance, his dramatic compositions fell short of the desired completeness. Various facets of his plays as theatre and his own role as a theatre-practitioner are the prime focus of this book. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in Theatre and Performance Studies and most notably, those focusing on Indian Theatre and Postcolonial Theatre.
Digital Shakespeares from the Global South (Global Shakespeares)
by Amrita SenDigital Shakespeares from the Global South re-directs current conversations on digital appropriations of Shakespeare away from its Anglo-American bias. The individual essays examine digital Shakespeares from South Africa, India, and Latin America, addressing questions of accessibility and the digital divide. This book will be of interest to students and academics working on Shakespeare, adaptation studies, digital humanities, and media studies.Included in this volume, the chapter on “Finding and Accessing Shakespeare Scholarship in the Global South: Digital Research and Bibliography” by Heidi Craig and Laura Estill is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.