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The Use of Asian Theatre for Modern Western Theatre: The Displaced Mirror (Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History)
by Min TianThis book is a historical study of the use of Asian theatre for modern Western theatre as practiced by its founding fathers, including Aurélien Lugné-Poe, Adolphe Appia, Gordon Craig, W. B. Yeats, Jacques Copeau, Charles Dullin, Antonin Artaud, V. E. Meyerhold, Sergei Eisenstein, and Bertolt Brecht. It investigates the theories and practices of these leading figures in their transnational and cross-cultural relationship with Asian theatrical traditions and their interpretations and appropriations of the Asian traditions in their reactional struggles against the dominance of commercialism and naturalism. From the historical and aesthetic perspectives of traditional Asian theatres, it approaches this intercultural phenomenon as a (Euro)centred process of displacement of the aesthetically and culturally differentiated Asian theatrical traditions and of their historical differences and identities. Looking into the displaced and distorted mirror of Asian theatre, the founding fathers of modern Western theatre saw, in their imagination of the 'ghostly' Other, nothing but a (self-)reflection or, more precisely, a (self-)projection and emplacement, of their competing ideas and theories preconceived for the construction, and the future development, of modern Western theatre.
The Uses of the Future in Early Modern Europe (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)
by Andrea Brady Emily ButterworthIs modernity synonymous with progress? Did the Renaissance really break with the cyclical, agrarian time of the Middle Ages, inaugurating a new concept of irreversible time in a secular culture defined by development? How does methodology affect scholarly responses to the idea of the future in the past? This collection of interdisciplinary essays from the fields of literary criticism, cultural studies, politics and intellectual history offers new answers to these commonplace questions. They explore elite and popular culture, women and men’s experiences, and the encounter between East and West, providing a comparative view on the range of personal, political and social practices with which early modern people planned for, imagined, manipulated or even rejected the future. Examining poetry, architecture, colonial exploration, technology, drama, satire, wills, childbirth and deathbed rituals, humanism, religious radicalism and republicanism, this collection provides new readings of canonical early modern texts and insights into popular culture. With a foreword by Peter Burke.
Using Open Scenes to Act Successfully on Stage and Screen
by Dan Carter Brant L. PopeUsing Open Scenes as a "way in" to scripted material, this book establishes a foundational actor training methodology that can be applied to the performance of film or television acting, commercials, and theatrical realism. Unlike other methodologies, this unique approach is devoid of casting considerations or imposed identity, providing actors opportunities that do not rely on nor are restricted by age, gender, race, ethnicity, regional accent, body type, identity, or other defining or delimiting aspects that come into play during the casting process. This allows the actor to focus on personal authenticity as they develop their skills. This book will appeal to undergraduate students, acting teachers, and the contemporary actor seeking a career in film, television, or other electronic media. Visit the companion website www.usingopenscenestoactsuccessful.godaddysites.com for additional Open Scenes and more.
Using Storytelling to Support Children and Adults with Special Needs: Transforming lives through telling tales
by Nicola GroveThis innovative and wide-ranging book shows how storytelling can open new worlds for learners with or without special educational needs. With sections that outline both therapeutic and educational approaches, the leading practitioners who contribute to this practical resource draw on their extensive experience, and distil their own approaches for the reader to use as inspiration for their own lessons. Providing a highly accessible combination of theory and practice, the contributors to this book: define their own approach to storytelling describe the principles and theory that underpin their practice demonstrate how they work with different types of story provide extensive case-studies and assessment frameworks for a range of different special needs and age ranges provide some ‘top tips’ for practitioners who want to start using stories in this way. Using Storytelling to Support Children and Adults with Special Needs will be of interest to all education professionals as well as therapists, youth workers, counsellors, and storytellers and theatre practitioners working in special education.
Utility
by Emily Schwend Nicholas WrightThe tenth winner of the Yale Drama Series centers on a young mother dealing with life’s many trials Marking the tenth anniversary of the Yale Drama Series for emerging playwrights, Emily Schwend’s powerful work centers on Amber, a young woman struggling to raise a family in East Texas. Amber is juggling two nearly full-time jobs and three kids. Her on-again, off-again husband Chris is eternally optimistic and charming as hell, but rarely employed. The house is falling apart and Amber has an eight-year-old’s birthday party to plan. Selected from more than 1,600 entries, Schwend’s newest play—produced by the Amoralists Theatre Company at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in 2016—vividly captures the economic hardships and relationship difficulties faced by so many Americans today. “Utility is a remarkable play: beautifully written and effortlessly powerful,” said contest judge Nicholas Wright. “At every moment the happiness of human lives is put at risk: is there any greater dramatic theme?”
Utopia in Performance
by Jill DolanLive performance can provide people with inspiration for an improved world, Dolan argues, one that seems to be slipping further away since 9/11. As examples, she analyzes autobiographical performances by feminists Holly Hughes, Peggy Shaw, and Deb Margolin; multiple- character monologues by Lily Tomlin, Danny Hoch, and Anna Deavere Smith; the political suggestions of Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and The Laramie Project; and radical humanism in Ann Carlson's Blanket, Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, and Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw's Medea. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Utpal Dutt and Political Theatre in Postcolonial India (Elements in Theatre, Performance and the Political)
by Mallarika Sinha RoyAmong the most significant playwrights and theatre-makers of postcolonial India, Utpal Dutt (1929–1993), was an early exponent of rethinking colonial history through political theatre. Dutt envisaged political theatre as part of the larger Marxist project, and his incorporation of new developments in Marxist thinking, including the contributions of Antonio Gramsci, makes it possible to conceptualise his protagonists as insurgent subalterns. A decolonial approach to staging history remained a significant element in Dutt's artistic project. This Element examines Dutt's passionate engagement with Marxism and explores how this sense of urgency was actioned through the writing and producing of plays about the peasant revolts and armed anti-colonial movements which took place during the period of British rule. Drawing on contemporary debates in political theatre regarding the autonomy of the spectator and the performance of history, the author locates Dutt's political theatre in a historical frame.
Utpal Dutt's Theatre: Continuities and Disjunctions in His Politics and Aesthetics (Performance Studies & Cultural Discourse in South Asia #1)
by Uddalak DuttaThis book offers the reader an in-depth understanding of Utpal Dutt’s entire career in drama. Covering Dutt’s career in proscenium, street theatre and Jatra, it analyzes the interesting exchange of dramatic art with politics in his theatre. Owing to a plethora of unsubstantiated opinions, Dutt is either revered by his followers or dismissed by his opponents, but hardly ever studied with necessary objectivity and intellectual rigour. The book attempts to bust the myth that Dutt was primarily a political propagandist who used theatre only as a means to achieve his political end. The remarkable range of Dutt’s subject matter makes him as internationally significant as he is loved by Indian theatre enthusiasts. His work has been discussed on various reputed international platforms. Yet there is a stark lacuna when it comes to intellectual attention devoted to Dutt’s theatre. This is the first book which attempts to introduce Dutt’s theatre comprehensively to an international readership. The book looks briefly at Dutt’s life, the impact of his politics on his theatre, the art of his characterization, his dramaturgy and stage technique, and the legacy of his work in theatre. It also offers the reader with a chronological list of the first performances of his original theatrical works and an exhaustive bibliography, which, it is hoped, shall prove especially useful for researchers. The book is designed for lay theatre enthusiasts as well as advanced students of theatre.
The Vagina Monologues (10th Anniversary Edition)
by Eve Ensler"I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them... So I decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews, which became vagina monologues. I talked with over two hundred women. I talked to old women, young women, married women, single women, lesbians, college professors, actors, corporate professionals, sex workers, African American women, Hispanic women, Asian American women, Native American women, Caucasian women, Jewish women. At first women were reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn't stop them." So begins Eve Ensler's hilarious, eye-opening tour into the last frontier, the forbidden zone at the heart of every woman. Adapted from the award-winning one-woman show that's rocked audiences around the world, this groundbreaking book gives voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, and thoroughly human stories, transforming the question mark hovering over the female anatomy into a permanent victory sign. With laughter and compassion, Ensler transports her audiences to a world we've never dared to know, guaranteeing that no one who reads The Vagina Monologues will ever look at a woman's body the same way again.
The Vakhtangov Sourcebook
by Andrei Malaev-Babel‘Scrupulously compiled and skillfully translated by Andrei Malaev-Babel, The Vakhtangov Sourcebook ... provides the most comprehensive addition to English readers’ knowledge of the philosophy, pedagogy, and legacy of Vakhtangov.’ – Modern Language Review 'An exceptionally valuable book that promises to be the definitive reference for Vakhtangov's work for years to come.' – Theatre Topics Yevgeny Vakhtangov was the creator of Fantastic Realism, credited with reconciling Meyerhold’s bold experiments with Stanislavski’s naturalist technique. The Vakhtangov Sourcebook compiles new translations of his key writings on the art of theatre, making it the primary source of first hand material on this master of theatre in the English speaking world. Vakhtangov’s essays and articles are accompanied by: Diary and Notebook excerpts His lectures to the Vakhtangov Studio In-depth accounts of Vakhtangov methods in rehearsal Production photographs and sketches Extensive bibliographies Director’s notes on key performances An extensive introductory overview from editor Andrei Malaev-Babel explains Vakhtangov‘s creative life, his groundbreaking theatrical concepts and influential directorial works.
The Valley
by Joan Macleod"MacLeod has a wonderful ear and eye for the everyday details."--Calgary HeraldInspired by the 2007 Tasering death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport, The Valley dramatizes the volatile relationship between law enforcement and people in the grip of mental illness. The play connects both sides of this relationship by portraying two families embattled with depression, each guided by good intentions but challenged by their own flawed humanity.Joan MacLeod is the author of numerous award-winning plays. Her work has been translated into more than eight languages with productions throughout the world, including a sold-out run in New York.
Valley Song
by Athol FugardRarely has a playwright been so closely identified with his country and his people as Athol Fugard has with South Africa. Valley Song, is a work of healing and of envisioning the future. This coming-of-age story about a young girl seeking the courage to embrace the future while her grandfather searches for the wisdom to let go of the past .
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.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Books That Changed the World)
by Christopher DurangTony Award Winner, Best Play: “Hugely entertaining…deliciously madcap…offers some keen insights into the challenges and agonies of 21st-century life.”—USA TodayNominated for six Tony Awards, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is one of the most lauded and beloved Broadway plays of recent years. Vanya and his adopted sister Sonia live a quiet life in the Pennsylvania farmhouse where they grew up, but their peace is disturbed when their movie star sister, Masha, returns unannounced with her twenty-something boy toy, Spike—and a weekend of rivalry, regret, and raucousness begins…Winner of the Outer Circle Critics Award for Best PlayWinner of the Drama League Award for Best Production of a PlayWinner of the Drama Desk Award for Best PlayWinner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best ProductionWinner of the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play
Varney the Vampire or the Feast of Blood
by Tim KellyMelodrama Spoof / 4m, 8f / Unit set / This wild and clever spoof is based on a melodramatic novel attributed to Thomas Prest, the creator of Sweeney Todd. In 1900 weary vampire Sir Francis Varney shows up at an inn in Italy. He plans to visit a haunted grotto and ask forgiveness from a lost love whose ghost is doomed to roam the landscape wearing a thin veil over her face. Varney forgets his mission and proceeds to snarl and snap at everyone in sight, especially an English damsel. Varney is shot, stabbed with a wooden stake and hanged. Still he survives! The action gets sillier and sillier (and funnier and funnier) as Inspector Balsadella seeks answers for the strange goings on. The tongue in cheek style is a howl, and there are many optional, corny stage effects as well as a zany cast of characters. Ultimately Varney manages to destroy himself.
Vaudeville and the Making of Modern Entertainment, 1890–1925
by David MonodToday, vaudeville is imagined as a parade of slapstick comedians, blackface shouters, coyly revealed knees, and second-rate acrobats. But vaudeville was also America's most popular commercial amusement from the mid-1890s to the First World War; at its peak, 5 million Americans attended vaudeville shows every week. Telling the story of this pioneering art form's rise and decline, David Monod looks through the apparent carnival of vaudeville performance and asks: what made the theater so popular and transformative? Although he acknowledges its quirkiness, Monod makes the case that vaudeville became so popular because it offered audiences a guide to a modern urban lifestyle. Vaudeville acts celebrated sharp city styles and denigrated old-fashioned habits, showcased new music and dance moves, and promulgated a deeply influential vernacular modernism. The variety show's off-the-rack trendiness perfectly suited an era when goods and services were becoming more affordable and the mass market promised to democratize style, offering a clear vision of how the quintessential twentieth-century citizen should look, talk, move, feel, and act.
"Vaudeville Indians" on Global Circuits, 1880s-1930s (The Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity)
by Christine BoldUncovering hidden histories of Indigenous performers in vaudeville and in the creation of western modernity and popular culture Drawing from little-known archives, Christine Bold brings to light forgotten histories of Indigenous performers in vaudeville and, by extension, popular culture and modernity. Vaudeville was both a forerunner of modern mass entertainment and a rich site of popular Indigenous performance and notions of Indianness at the turn of the twentieth century. Tracing the stories of artists Native to Turtle Island (North America) performing across the continent and around the world, Bold illustrates a network of more than 300 Indigenous and Indigenous-identifying entertainers, from Will Rogers to Go-won-go Mohawk to Princess Chinquilla, who upend vaudeville&’s received history. These fascinating stories cumulatively reveal vaudeville as a space in which the making of western modernity both denied and relied on living Indigenous presence, and in which Indigenous artists negotiated agency and stereotypes through vaudeville performance.
Vectorworks for Entertainment Design: Using Vectorworks to Design and Document Scenery, Lighting, and Sound
by Kevin Lee AllenThe first book in the industry tailored specifically for the entertainment professional, Vectorworks for Entertainment Design covers the ins and outs of Vectorworks software for lighting, scenic, and sound design. With a detailed look at the design process, from idea to development, to the documentation necessary for execution, Vectorworks for Entertainment Design will encourage you to create your own process and workflow through exercises that build on one another. The text stresses the process of developing an idea, visualizing it, and evolving it for presentation, documentation, or drafting. The author focuses on both the technical how-to and the art of design, giving you the tools you need to learn and then use the application professionally. Fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions, it contains inspirational work from Broadway, major regional companies, and non-theatrical, entertainment design.
Vectorworks for Entertainment Design: Using Vectorworks to Design and Document Scenery, Lighting, Rigging and Audio Visual Systems
by Kevin Lee AllenVectorworks for Entertainment Design is the first book in the industry tailored for the entertainment professional. This second edition has been extensively revised and updated, covering the most current details of the Vectorworks software for scenery, lighting, sound, and rigging. With a focused look at the production process from ideation to development to documentation required for proper execution, the book encourages readers to better create their own processes and workflows through exercises that build on one another. This new edition introduces Braceworks, SubDivision modeling, and scripting using the Marionette tool, and covers new tools such as Video Camera, Deform Tool, Camera Match, Schematic Views, and Object Styles. Fully illustrated with step-by-step instructions, this volume contains inspirational and aspirational work from Broadway, Concerts, Regional Theatre, Dance, and Experiential Entertainment. Exploring both the technical how-to and the art of design, this book provides Theatre and Lighting Designers with the tools to learn about the application and use it professionally. Vectorworks for Entertainment Design also includes access to downloadable resources such as exercise files and images to accompany projects discussed within the book.
Ventriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art (Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies)
by Jennie Hirsh Isabelle Loring WallaceVentriloquism, Performance, and Contemporary Art volume calls attention to the unexpected prevalence of ventriloqual motifs and strategies within contemporary art. Engaging with issues of voice, embodiment, power, and projection, the case studies assembled in this volume span a range of media from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation, performance, architecture, and video. Importantly, they both examine and enact ventriloqual practices, and do so as a means of interrogating and performatively bearing out contemporary conceptions of authorship, subjectivity, and performance. Put otherwise, the chapters in this book oscillate seamlessly between art history, theory, and criticism through both analytical and performative means. Across twelve essays on ventriloquism in contemporary art, the authors, who are curators, historians, and artists, shine light on this outdated practice, repositioning it as a conspicuous and meaningful trend within a range of artistic practices today. This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, contemporary art, media studies, performance, museum/curatorial studies, and theater.
Venue 2
by BrenkmanFirst Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Venus
by Suzan-Lori ParksSuzan-Lori Parks continues her examination of black people in history and stage through the life of the so-called "Hottentot Venus," an African woman displayed semi-nude throughout Europe due to her extraordinary physiognomy; in particular, her enormous buttocks. She was befriended, bought and bedded by a doctor who advanced his scientific career through his anatomical measurements of her after her premature death.
Venus’s Palace: Shakespeare and the Antitheatricalists (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama)
by Reut BarzilaiThis book lays bare the dialogue between Shakespeare and critics of the stage, and positions it as part of an ongoing cultural, ethical, and psychological debate about the effects of performance on actors and on spectators. In so doing, the book makes a substantial contribution both to the study of representations of theatre in Shakespeare’s plays and to the understanding of ethical concerns about acting and spectating—then, and now. The book opens with a comprehensive and coherent analysis of the main early modern English anxieties about theatre and its power. These are read against 20th- and 21st-century theories of acting, interviews with actors, and research into the effects of media representation on spectator behaviour, all of which demonstrate the lingering relevance of antitheatrical claims and the personal and philosophical implications of acting and spectating. The main part of the book reveals Shakespeare’s responses to major antitheatrical claims about the powerful effects of poetry, music, playacting, and playgoing. It also demonstrates the evolution of Shakespeare’s view of these claims over the course of his career: from light-hearted parody in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, through systematic contemplation in Hamlet, to acceptance and dramatization in The Tempest. This study will be of great interest to scholars and students of theatre, English literature, history, and culture.
Vera: or, The Nihilists
by Oscar WildeMich. No, Father Peter, not yet; 'tis a good three miles to the post office, and she has to milk the cows besides, and that dun one is a rare plaguey creature for a wench to handle. Peter. Why didn't you go with her, you young fool? she'll never love you unless you are always at her heels; women like to be bothered. Mich. She says I bother her too much already, Father Peter, and I fear she'll never love me after all. Peter. Tut, tut, boy, why shouldn't she? you're young and wouldn't be ill-favoured either, had God or thy mother given thee another face. Aren't you one of Prince Maraloffski's gamekeepers; and haven't you got a good grass farm, and the best cow in the village? What more does a girl want? Mich. But Vera, Father Peter- Peter. Vera, my lad, has got too many ideas; I don't think much of ideas myself; I've got on well enough in life without 'em; why shouldn't my children? There's Dmitri! could have stayed here and kept the inn; many a young lad would have jumped at the offer in these hard times; but he, scatter-brained featherhead of a boy, must needs go off to Moscow to study the law! What does he want knowing about the law! let a man do his duty, say I, and no one will trouble him.
Verbatim Theatre Methodologies for Community Engaged Practice: Perspectives from Australian Theatre
by Sarah Peters David BurtonVerbatim Theatre Methodologies for Community-Engaged Practice offers a framework for developing original community-engaged productions using a range of verbatim theatre approaches. This book's methodologies offer an approach to community-engaged productions that fosters collaborative artistry, ethically nuanced practice, and social intentionality. Through research-based discussion, case study analysis, and exercises, it provides a historical context for verbatim theatre; outlines the ethics and methods for community immersion that form the foundation of community-engaged best practice; explores the value of interviews and how to go about them; provides clear pathways for translating gathered data into an artistic product; and offers rehearsal room strategies for playwrights, producers, directors, and actors in managing the specific context of the verbatim theatre form. Based on diverse, real-world practice that spans regional, metropolitan, large-scale, micro, independent, commercial, and curriculum-based work, this is a practical and accessible guide for undergraduates, artists, and researchers alike.