Ebooks
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American Theatre : History, Context, Form
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ISBN: 9780748625925Publication Date: 2011-10-11Argues for the recognition of American theatre history as long, rich, diverse and critically compelling.Embracing all epochs of theatre history, from pre-colonial Native American performance rituals and the endeavours of early colonisers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to the end of the twentieth century, Theresa Saxon situates American theatre as a lively, dynamic and diverse arena. She considers the implications of political manoeuvrings, economics - state-funding and commercial enterprises - race and gender, as well as material factors such as technology, riot and fire, as major forces in determining the structure of America's playhouses and productions. She goes on to investigate critical understandings of the term 'theatre,' and assesses ways in which the various values of commerce, entertainment, education and dramatic production have informed the definition of theatre throughout America's history. -
Anthropocosmic Theatre: Rite in the Dynamics of Theatre
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ISBN: 9783718657117Publication Date: 1996-05-01First published in 1997. ‘Anthropocosmic Theater is a name which covers a deep theatrical proposition which gives back to dramatic space its participatory capacity. The research, design and production of participatory theatre offers the spectator a cultural dynamic which, with five minutes of instruction, trains him and sustains him so that he can have his own experience because at this stage of evolution we cannot ignore the fact that the vitality and internal spell of any artist manifestation is no longer the heritage of any particular group or clan, but rests beneath the skin of any human being. The participatory dynamics contained in this book are the fruit of fifteen years work at the UNAM's Taller de Investigacion Teatral'- Nicolas Nunez. This text traces Nunez's research with Grotowski and Strasberg, at the Old Vic in London and in Nahuatlan and Tibetan theatre, to arrive at his design for a unique participatory theatre form. A textbook for students of theatre in Mexico, this volume provides a practical guide to Nunez's ritual/theatrical'actions 'as well as supplying a philosophical context for a work which has resounding implications for theatre in contemporary life. -
Applied Theatre: Aesthetics
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ISBN: 9781472513557Publication Date: 2015-04-23Applied Theatre: Aesthetics re-examines how the idea of 'the aesthetic' is relevant to performance in social settings. The disinterestedness that traditional aesthetics claims as a key characteristic of art makes little sense when making performances with ordinary people, rooted in their lives and communities, and with personal and social change as its aim. Yet practitioners of applied arts know that their work is not reducible to social work, therapy or education. Reconciling the simultaneous autonomy and heteronomy of art is the problem of aesthetics in applied arts. Gareth White's introductory essay reviews the field, and proposes an interdisciplinary approach that builds on new developments in evolutionary, cognitive and neuro-aesthetics alongside the politics of art. It addresses the complexities of art and the aesthetic as everyday behaviours and responses. The second part of the book is made up of essays from leading experts and new voices in the practice and theory of applied performance, reflecting on the key problematics of applying performance with non-performers. New and innovative practice is described and interrogated, and fresh thinking is introduced in response to perennial problems. -
Applied Theatre: Development
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ISBN: 9781472509864Publication Date: 2015-04-23At once both guide book and provocation, this is an indispensable companion for students and practitioners of applied theatre. It addresses all key aspects: principles, origins, politics and aesthetics in a concise and accessible style designed to appeal both to those who have recently discovered this sub-discipline and to experienced practitioners and academics. Part 1 is divided into two chapters. The first introduces the sub-discipline of Theatre for Development, covering its origins, principles and history, and providing an overview of theatre for development in Western contexts as well as in Africa, Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Latin America. The second focuses upon theoretical and philosophical issues confronting the discipline and its relationship to contemporary politics, as well as considering its future role. Part 2 consists of seven chapters contributed by leading figures and current practitioners from around the world and covering a diverse range of themes, methodologies and aesthetic approaches. One chapter offers a series of case studies concerned with sexual health education and HIV prevention, drawn from practitioners working in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Southern Africa, and China. Other chapters include studies of intercultural theatre in the Peruvian Amazon; a programme of applied theatre conducted in schools in Canterbury, New Zealand, following the 2010 earthquake; an attempt to reinvigorate a community theatre group in South Brazil; and an exchange between a Guatemalan arts collective and a Dutch youth theatre company, besides others. -
Applied Theatre: Ethics
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ISBN: 9781350161320Publication Date: 2022-02-24Applied Theatre: Ethics explores what it means for applied theatre practice to be conducted in an ethical way and examines how this affects the work done with communities and participants. It considers how practitioners can balance aesthetics and ethics when creating performance, particularly with relatively inexperienced and often vulnerable groups of people who are being asked to both tell and stage their stories. The two sections bring together theoretical and practical ways for theatre-makers to examine the ethics of their applied theatre projects. Part One offers an overview of critical debates and the editors' reflections on their own practice. It introduces readers to ethics in applied theatre, informed by the thinking of philosophers, scholarly literature and the editors' own experience, including Indigenous perspectives on ethics and theatre. For applied theatre practitioners, it provides recommendations for community-based ethical approaches working with principles of voice, agency, care, service, collaboration, presence, relationality and reciprocity. Part Two presents a range of international case studies that explore how the theories and issues are worked out in a variety of diverse practices. It considers ethics from varying critical perspectives and contexts, including projects in Greece, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Canada. Covering work with participants of many ages, the case studies include the work of a professional dance theatre company working with people in substance abuse recovery in the UK, interactive drama used in an educational context in Nigeria, and the complexities around an applied theatre project on race in the US. -
Circle in the Square Theatre: A Comprehensive History
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ISBN: 9781476670584Publication Date: 2020-11-01Based on years of research as well as interviews conducted with Circle in the Square's major contributing artists, this book records the entire history of this distinguished theatre from its nightclub origins to its current status as a Tony Award-winning Broadway institution. Over the course of seven decades, Circle in the Square theatre profoundly changed ideas of what American theatre could be. Founded by Theodore Mann and Jose Quintero in an abandoned Off-Broadway nightclub just after WWII, it was a catalyst for the Off-Broadway movement. The building had a unique arena-shaped performance space that became Circle in the Square theatre, New York's first Off-Broadway arena stage and currently Broadway's only arena stage. The theatre was precedent-setting in many other regards, including operating as a non-profit, contracting with trade unions, establishing a school, and serving as a home for blacklisted artists. It sparked a resurgence of interest in playwright Eugene O'Neill's canon, and was famous for landmark revivals and American premieres of his plays. The theatre also fostered the careers of such luminaries as Geraldine Page, Colleen Dewhurst, George C. Scott, Jason Robards, James Earl Jones, Cecily Tyson, Dustin Hoffman, Irene Papas, Alan Arkin, Philip Bosco, Al Pacino, Amy Irving, Pamela Payton-Wright, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie, John Malkovich, Lynn Redgrave, and Annette Bening. -
A Concise Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes
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ISBN: 9781138577435Publication Date: 2019-11-05For a concise edition of his legendary arts dictionary of information and opinion, the distinguished critic and arts historian Richard Kostelanetz selects entries from the 2018 third edition. Typically he provides intelligence unavailable anywhere else, no less in print than online, about a wealth of subjects and individuals. Focused upon what is truly innovative and excellent, Kostelanetz also ranges widely with insight and surprise, including appreciations of artistic athletes such as Muhammad Ali and the Harlem Globetrotters and such collective creations as Las Vegas and his native New York City. Continuing the traditions of cheeky high-style Dictionarysts, honoring Ambrose Bierce and Samuel Johnson (both with individual entries), Kostelanetz offers a "reference book" to be enjoyed, not only in bits and chunks but continuously as one of the ten books someone would take if he or she planned to be stranded on a desert isle. -
Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener's Companion
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ISBN: 9780810889002Publication Date: 2016-09-29Experiencing Broadway Music: A Listener's Companion explores approximately the last century of American musical theater, beginning with the early-twentieth-century shift from European influenced operettas and bawdy variety shows to sophisticated works of seamlessly integrated song and dance that became uniquely American. It concludes with an examination of current musical trends and practices on Broadway. As a musician who works on Broadway and in developmental musical theater, Kat Sherrell draws on her knowledge both as a historian of Broadway musical form and as a professional Broadway musician to offer an insider's perspective on the development and execution of the past and present Broadway scores. Despite its enormous breadth, and given the historical significance of the musical in modern popular culture, Experiencing Broadway Music provides listeners--whether they know musical theater well or not at all--with the tools and background necessary to gain an understanding of the highly variegated structure and character of the Broadway musical over the past century. -
The First Oscar Hammerstein and New York's Golden Age of Theater and Music
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ISBN: 9780786496150Publication Date: 2020-04-23Oscar Hammerstein I came to New York in the 1860s, a Prussian runaway with $1.50 in his pocket, and found work at a cigar factory. A decade later he was publishing the nation's leading tobacco trade journal and held dozens of patents for cigar-rolling machinery. He made a fortune and turned his efforts to theater. He built eight of them, including four around Longacre Square--later Times Square--which became a thriving theater district. A daring impresario, he was involved at all levels, from booking to composition to stagecraft. Throughout the Gay Nineties and early 20th century, he billed the world's top actors, prima donnas and vaudeville acts. Then, as now, show business was speculation and high adventure, with rivalries fought in the headlines. Always a storm center, Hammerstein played a skillful chess game with both partners and performers while staging first-class shows for capacity crowds. This biography--from an unfinished manuscript by the son of one of his stage managers--recounts the heyday of his bold productions, his often turbulent relationships with associates, and the birth of Broadway. -
Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America's Past
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ISBN: 9780813590301Publication Date: 2018-05-09America has gone Hamilton crazy. Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning musical has spawned sold-out performances, a triple platinum cast album, and a score so catchy that it is being used to teach U.S. history in classrooms across the country. But just how historically accurate is Hamilton? And how is the show itself making history? Historians on Hamilton brings together a collection of top scholars to explain the Hamilton phenomenon and explore what it might mean for our understanding of America's history. The contributors examine what the musical got right, what it got wrong, and why it matters. Does Hamilton's hip-hop take on the Founding Fathers misrepresent our nation's past, or does it offer a bold positive vision for our nation's future? Can a musical so unabashedly contemporary and deliberately anachronistic still communicate historical truths about American culture and politics? And is Hamilton as revolutionary as its creators and many commentators claim? Perfect for students, teachers, theatre fans, hip-hop heads, and history buffs alike, these short and lively essays examine why Hamilton became an Obama-era sensation and consider its continued relevance in the age of Trump. Whether you are a fan or a skeptic, you will come away from this collection with a new appreciation for the meaning and importance of the Hamilton phenomenon. -
Immersive Theater and Activism: Scripts and Strategies for Directors and Playwrights
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ISBN: 9781476672045Publication Date: 2018-12-11Immersive theater calls upon audience members to become participants, actors and "others." It traditionally offers binary roles--that of oppressor or that of victim--and thereby stands the risk of simplifying complex social situations. Challenging such binaries, this book articulates theatrical "grey zones" when addressing juvenile detention, wartime interventions and immigration processes. It presents scripts and strategies for directors and playwrights who want to create theatrical environments that are immersive and pedagogical; aesthetically evocative and politically provocative; simple and complex. -
Performing Opera: A Practical Guide for Singers and Directors
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ISBN: 9781474239073Publication Date: 2016-02-25In Performing Opera: A Practical Guide for Singers and Directors Michael Ewans provides a detailed and practical workbook to performing many of the most commonly produced operas. Drawing on examples from twenty-four operas ranging in period from Gluck and Mozart to Britten and Tippett, it illustrates exactly how opera functions as dramatic form. Grounded in close analyses of performances of thirty scenes and five whole operas by first-rate singers and celebrated directors, Performing Opera provides readers with an appreciation of the unique challenges and skills required by performers and directors. It will assist them in their own performance and equip them with detailed knowledge of works most commonly featured in the repertoire. In the first part of the book the analysis progresses from scenes in which the singers are silent, via arias and monologues, duets and confrontations, up to ensembles. Wider issues are subsequently addressed: encounters with offstage events, encounters with the numinous, characterization, and the sense of inevitability in tragic opera. -
Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater
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ISBN: 9780253049964Publication Date: 2020-10-06Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater is the first systematic exploration of how sung forms of drama tell stories. Through examples from opera's origins to contemporary musicals, Nina Penner examines the roles of character-narrators and how they differ from those in literary and cinematic works, how music can orient spectators to characters' points of view, how being privy to characters' inner thoughts and feelings may evoke feelings of sympathy or empathy, and how performers' choices affect not only who is telling the story but what story is being told. Unique about Penner's approach is her engagement with current work in analytic philosophy. Her study reveals not only the resources this philosophical tradition can bring to musicology but those which musicology can bring to philosophy, challenging and refining accounts of narrative, point of view, and the work-performance relationship within both disciplines. She also considers practical problems singers and directors confront on a daily basis, such as what to do about Wagner's Jewish caricatures and the racism of Orientalist operas. More generally, Penner reflects on how centuries-old works remain meaningful to contemporary audiences and have the power to attract new, more diverse audiences to opera and musical theater. By exploring how practitioners past and present have addressed these issues, Storytelling in Opera and Musical Theater offers suggestions for how opera and musical theater can continue to entertain and enrich the lives of 21st-century audiences. -
Theater Appreciation
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ISBN: 9781423234807Publication Date: 2017-05-01Premier study tool for those merely seeking an elective credit for the course - more importantly an incredibly well written guide that is pouring over with facts so entirely that it reads like an ode to the theater covering it's importance in society and human creativity. With history, the types of theater, companies and popular plays this is an all-encompassing portrait of theater and why it has been appreciated for thousands of years. -
The Theatre of August Wilson
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ISBN: 9781472530486Publication Date: 2018-05-17The first comprehensive study of August Wilson's drama introduces the major themes and motifs that unite Wilson's ten-play cycle about African American life in each decade of the twentieth century. Framed by Wilson's life experiences and informed by his extensive interviews, this book provides fresh, coherent, detailed readings of each play, well-situated in the extant scholarship. It also provides an overview of the cycle as a whole, demonstrating how it comprises a compelling interrogation of American culture and historiography. Keenly aware of the musical paradigms informing Wilson's dramatic technique, Nadel shows how jazz and, particularly, the blues provide the structural mechanisms that allow Wilson to examine alternative notions of time, property, and law. Wilson's improvisational logics become crucial to expressing his notions of black identity and resituating the relationship of literal to figurative in the African American community. The final two chapters include contributions by scholars Harry J. Elam, Jr. and Donald E. Pease -
What Playwrights Talk about When They Talk about Writing
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ISBN: 9780300211443Publication Date: 2017-02-21The art and craft of playwriting as explored in candid conversations with some of the most important contemporary dramatists Edward Albee, Lanford Wilson, Lynn Nottage, A. R. Gurney, and a host of other major creative voices of the theater discuss the art of playwriting, from inspiration to production, in a volume that marks the tenth anniversary of the Yale Drama Series and the David Charles Horn Foundation Prize for emerging playwrights. Jeffrey Sweet, himself an award-winning dramatist, hosts a virtual roundtable of perspectives on how to tell stories onstage featuring extensive interviews with a gallery of gifted contemporary dramatists. In their own words, Arthur Kopit, Marsha Norman, Christopher Durang, David Hare, and many others offer insights into all aspects of the creative writing process as well as their personal views on the business, politics, and fraternity of professional theater. This essential work will give playwrights and playgoers alike a deeper and more profound appreciation of the art form they love.
Print Books
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A Concise History of Theatre
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ISBN: 9780205209828Publication Date: 2013-01-04Focuses on the cultural significance of theatre This streamlined, engaging text helps students understand the events, places and people that have influenced the history of theatre. Learning Goals Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Identify the major time periods and geographic areas associated with the history of theatre Distinguish relevant characteristics of theatre in diverse times and places. Describe the underlying cultural, economic, and political environments as they affected theatre in different times and places. Associate major participants who made theatre within their historical and regional context. -
Designing Broadway
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ISBN: 9780762480364Publication Date: 2022-11-22In this richly illustrated and information-packed celebration of Broadway set design, Tony Award-winning designer Derek McLane explores the craft while reflecting on some of the greatest stage productions of the past few decades. Together with other leading set design and theatre talents, McLane invites us into the immersive and exhilarating experience of building the striking visual worlds that have brought so many of our favorite stories to life. Discover how designers generate innovative ideas, research period and place, solve staging challenges, and collaborate with directors, projectionists, costume designers, and other artists to capture the essence of a show in powerful scenic design. With co-writer Eila Mell, McLane and contributors discuss Moulin Rouge!, Hamilton, Hadestown, Beautiful, and many more of the most iconic productions of our generation. Among the Broadway luminaries who contribute are John Lee Beatty, Danny Burstein, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Moisés Kaufman, Carole King, Kenny Leon, Santo Loquasto, Kathleen Marshall, Lynn Nottage, David Rabe, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Wallace Shawn, John Leguizamo, and Robin Wagner. Filled with personal sketches and photographs from the artists' archives, this stunningly designed book is truly a behind-the-scenes journey that theatre fans will love. -
The Group Theatre: An Eduring Legacy by Mark Connelly
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ISBN: 9781476677118Publication Date: 2024-05-20This book examines the history and influence of the Group Theatre, the most significant acting company in America. Founded during the Great Depression, the Group presented the first plays of Clifford Odets, Sidney Kingsley, and William Saroyan, and launched the careers of Franchot Tone, John Garfield, Elia Kazan, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Martin Ritt, and Luther Adler. The intense realism of their performances inspired generations of writers, actors, and directors in both theater and film. After the Group closed, its former members directed or produced the Broadway plays Brigadoon, A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Camino Real, Bus Stop, The Music Man, Equus, and Yentl. In Hollywood, Group alumni produced, directed, or starred in the award-winning films On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Twelve Angry Men, Hud, Fail-Safe, 1776, Serpico, Network, Norma Rae, and The Verdict. Four of the nation's best-known acting teachers--Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, Robert Lewis, and Stella Adler--came from the Group. The studios they established remain the most highly regarded acting schools in the world, with venues on four continents. -
Theatre and Feminism
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ISBN: 9781137463005Publication Date: 2015-11-03Theatre & Feminism tells the story of the movement known as feminist performance theory. It explores key debates from its 40-year history, engages with the work of groundbreaking thinkers including Elin Diamond, Jill Dolan, Peggy Phelan and Elaine Aston, and includes case studies of recent performances by established and emerging feminist artists. -
Theatre in Practice: A Student's Handbook by Nick O'Brien, with Annie Sutton and Mikhaela Mahony
ISBN: 9781032420820Publication Date: 2024Theatre in Practice, third edition, is an accessible and wide-ranging exploration of the central practices and key practitioners covered on the various syllabi at A level, IB, and at undergraduate level. Exploring Stanislavski, Brecht, Artaud, Lecoq, Berkoff, Bogart, Mitchell and Craig, as well as work from innovative theatre companies such as Tamasha, Sh!T Theatre, Complicite, Gecko and The Paper Birds, it combines an informal, unpretentious tone with a wealth of practical exercises. Revised and updated to include some of the latest practices in theatre, this new edition offers a step-by-step approach to developing key skills such as devising, improvising, rehearsing mono/duologues and directing plays. New for this edition are chapters on key female and global majority practitioners; a chapter offering a unique insight into the acting practice of award-winning actress Indira Varma; and updated information throughout. Written by specialists with extensive experience leading workshops at post-16 and undergraduate level, Theatre in Practice is a thorough and imaginative resource that speaks directly to students and teachers. This book offers students a range of exercises to experience and explore key practitioners enabling them to understand theatre how it should be understood: through practice.
