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Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama
by David PalmerThis volume responds to a renewed focus on tragedy in theatre and literary studies to explore conceptions of tragedy in the dramatic work of seventeen canonical American playwrights. For students of American literature and theatre studies, the assembled essays offer a clear framework for exploring the work of many of the most studied and performed playwrights of the modern era. Following a contextual introduction that offers a survey of conceptions of tragedy, scholars examine the dramatic work of major playwrights in chronological succession, beginning with Eugene O'Neill and ending with Suzan-Lori Parks. A final chapter provides a study of American drama since 1990 and its ongoing engagement with concepts of tragedy.The chapters explore whether there is a distinctively American vision of tragedy developed in the major works of canonical American dramatists and how this may be seen to evolve over the course of the twentieth century through to the present day. Among the playwrights whose work is examined are: Susan Glaspell, Langston Hughes, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, Marsha Norman and Tony Kushner. With each chapter being short enough to be assigned for weekly classes in survey courses, the volume will help to facilitate critical engagement with the dramatic work and offer readers the tools to further their independent study of this enduring theme of dramatic literature.
The Sonnets: The State of Play (Arden Shakespeare The State of Play)
by Hannah Crawforth Elizabeth Scott-Baumann Clare WhiteheadShakespeare's Sonnets both generate and demonstrate many of today's most pressing debates about Shakespeare and poetry. They explore history and aesthetics, gender and society, time and memory, and continue to invite divergent responses from critics and poets. This freeze-frame volume showcases the range of current debate and ideas surrounding these still startling poems. Each chapter has been carefully selected for its originality and relevance to the needs of students, teachers, and researchers. Key themes and topics covered include:Textual issues and editing the sonnetsReception, interpretation and critical history of the sonnetsThe place of the sonnets in teachingCritical approaches and close readingMemorialisation and monument-makingContemporary poetry and the SonnetsAll the essays offer new perspectives and combine to give readers an up-to-date understanding of what is exciting and challenging about Shakespeare's Sonnets. The approach, based on an individual poetic form, reflects how the sonnets are most commonly studied and taught.
Song from Far Away (Modern Plays)
by Simon StephensI drank three glasses of scotch and ginger ale before we'd even cleared Coney Island. I didn't want to come home. It was then that I decided to write you these letters.On a crisp winter day in New York, Willem gets the call. It's Mum. Pauli's died. Come back to Amsterdam.An unforgettable homecoming to an estranged family, a lost love, unsettling sex and an unexamined life.One of Stephens's most poetic plays to date, Song from Far Away received its UK premiere at the Young Vic, London, on 2 September 2015.
Waste (Modern Plays)
by Harley Granville BarkerA scandal half-stifled is worse than a scandal. One is at everybody's mercy.Backstage at a hung parliament, visionary Independent Henry Trebell is co-opted by the Tories to push through a controversial Bill. Pursuing his cause with missionary zeal, he's barely distracted by his brief affair with a married woman until she suffers a lethal backstreet abortion. Threatened by public scandal, the Establishment closes ranks and coolly seals the fate of an idealistic man.Famously banned by the censors in 1907, Harley Granville Barker's controversial masterpiece gathers a large ensemble to expose a cut-throat, cynical world of sex, sleaze and suicide amongst the political elite of Edwardian England.This edition was published for the National Theatre's revival in November 2015.
Contemporary Australian Plays: The Hotel Sorrento; Dead White Males; Two; The 7 Stages of Grieving; The Popular Mechanicals (Play Anthologies)
by Ron Elisha Wesley Enoch Deborah Mailman Hannie Rayson Keith Robinson Tony Taylor David Williamson Russell VandenbrouckeSaturday night, small town Wales, one pub, one party and three lads stuck with their school reputations - the gimp, the geek and the bully. Their dream - to get the hell outDead White Males: "Triumphant...The neatly lined up ducks of academic absolutism are ruthlessly, and hilariously, assassinated" - Sydney Morning Herald; "Swain is a wonderful creation" - GuardianThe 7 Stages of Grieving: "A subtle and complex invitation to experience something of the depth of Aboriginal grieving" - Melbourne Age.Hotel Sorrento: "Has a moody, evocative, literary sweep and scope to it" - Sydney Morning HeraldTwo: In 1948, in a German town, Anna comes to Rabbi Chaim Levi for Hebrew lessons. As the two study the language, their stories are gradually revealed, raising fundamental moral questions as they try to reconcile their tormented pasts and accept and renew their lives.The Popular Mechanicals: "One of the most rollickingly entertaining nights in the theatre" (Sydney Morning Herald)
Edgar Plays: Jail Diary of Albie Sachs; Mary Barnes; Saigon Rose; O Fair Jerusalem; Destiny (Contemporary Dramatists)
by David EdgarThis volume contains the best of David Edgar's work from the seventiesThe Jail Diary of Albie Sachs is an adaptation of the famous South African writer's diaries and deals with solitary confinement and loneliness - "a remarkable, persuasive picture." (Observer); Mary Barnes is based in a commune in the sixties and focuses on schizophrenia "promulgating the theory that schizophrenia can be effectively treated through behaviourist methods alone"; Saigon Rose tackles venereal disease and is "intriguing and entertaining...Edgar handles his themes - loss of innocence and a sense of betrayal - in a bitty, playful style laced with black comedy" (Independent); Oh Fair Jerusalem deals with the black death and Destiny deals with the loss of Empire and the rise of fascism in contemporary Britain "A play which astonished me with its intelligence, density, sympathy and finely controlled anger." Dennis Potter (Sunday Times).
Destiny (Modern Plays)
by David EdgarThe production of this play established David Edgar as a major playwright, one of the most important of the young generation of dramatists to emerge out of the 'portable' theatre movement of the late sixties.
Gorky Plays: The Zykovs; Egor Bulychov; Vassa Zheleznova (The Mother); The Last Ones (World Classics)
by Maxim Gorky Cathy PorterFour key new translations of plays (including three previously unpublished works) written at the turn of the 20th century, charting the descent of Russia into revolutionHailed by Chekhov as the voice of his time, Gorky's four plays offer a panoramic view of Russia in the throes of revolution.THE ZYKOVS is set shortly before the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917. Antipa Zykov is a merchant adventurer. His young wife, Pavla is an unworldly convent-bred girl, too weak to realise these ideals in her stormy marriage.EGOR BULYCHOV is set on the eve of revolution as the rich businessman of the title is given power, after the Tsar's abdication. But the songs of the demonstrating crowds outside his window show that his days are numbered.Subtitled 'The Mother' and hugely controversial at the time of its first production VASSA ZHELEZNOVA, is a tragic portrait of a woman with an iron will determined to root out the corruption in her family in order to keep control of the family business.Written during his most religious phase, THE LAST ONES is about a corrupt police chief and his family who face death at the hands of revolutionaries as he tries to fight back by lynching a young man.
Ibsen Plays: Rosmersholm; Little Eyolf and Lady from the Sea (World Classics)
by Henrik Ibsen"Meyer's translations of Ibsen are a major fact in one's general sense of post-war drama. Their vital pace, their unforced insistence on the poetic centre of Ibsen's genius, have beaten academic versions from the field" (George Steiner)Includes three of Henrik Ibsen's most important works from his middle period. Generally regarded as the father of modern theatre, Ibsen's 'influence on contemporaries and following generations, whether directly or indirectly...can hardly be overestimated' (John Russell Taylor). The three plays in this volume show how Ibsen gradually turned from the study of social problems to a closer concern with the sickness of individuals. In Rosmersholm (1886), 'this most enthralling of Ibsen's works' (George Bernard Shaw), he explores the hypnotic hold one person may gain over another, a theme he took up in his next play, The Lady from the Sea (1888), and which reappears in Little Eyolf (1894), which William Archer ranked 'beside, if not above, the very greatest of Ibsen's works'.Michael Meyer's translations are 'crisp and cobweb-free, purged of verbal Victoriana' (Kenneth Tynan)
Modern Catalan Plays: The Quarrelsome Party; The Audition; Desire; Fourplay (Play Anthologies)
by John LondonFour plays from the rich theatrical world of Catalan drama. Since the early 1990s, Catalonia has proven to the world that its rich heritage and artistic tradition are worthy of focus and study. The plays in the volume reflect the post-Franco era during which Barcelona and other parts of Catalonia have become the focal point for new dramatic expression.Joan Brossa (1919-1998) was the spiritual father of this new wave of artistic revolution in writing. His play The Quarrelsome Party is a dark family drama as surreal as any bad dream. The Audition by Rodolf Sirera has its roots in the author's anti-Franco stance. This in-the-theatre drama has the mystery cat-and-mouse playfulness of Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth. Benet i Jornet's play Desire is a Beckettian mystery play about four unnamed characters. Sergi Belbel represents the new generation of Catalan playwrights and his plays have had wide appeal abroad. In Fourplay he experiments with the idea of a sex farce and the play's 38 scenes lead to wild conclusions.
Ostrich Boys: Improving Standards in English through Drama at Key Stage 3 and GCSE (Critical Scripts)
by Keith Gray Carl MillerShortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2010, Keith Gray's hit novel features a group of three friends who embark on a remarkable journey from Cleethorpes to Scotland with a stolen urn containing the ashes of their best friend... Now adapted for the stage by Birmingham Rep for a production by their Youth Theatre in 2011, Ostrich Boys is ideal for KS3 and KS4 English and will appeal strongly to boys as well as girls. This educational edition in Methuen Drama's Critical Scripts series has been prepared by national Drama in Secondary English experts Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan. Building on a decade of highly effective work and publications endorsed by national organisations and supported by teachers and consultants across Britain, each book in the series: meets the new requirements at KS3 and GCSE (2010) features detailed, structured schemes of work utilising drama approaches to improve literary and language analysis places pupils' understanding of the learning process at the heart of the activities will help pupils to boost English GCSE success and develop high-level skills at KS3 will save teachers considerable time devising their own resources.
'Talk About The Passion' & 'Rattlesnakes' (Modern Plays)
by Graham FarrowTwo hard-hitting plays linked by the theme of retribution, exploring the media's fascination with serial killers, and the fall-out from infidelity in marriageTalk about the Passion: A young child is horrifically murdered; the autobiography of the serial killer is a hit publication. Jason Carroway is forced to endure the guilt at failing to protect his son and the subsequent media attention that accompanies the controversial release of the killer's autobiography. The play is a moving and powerful exploration of loss, society's collusion in the glamorisation of evil, and the desire for justice.Rattlesnakes examines the seedy world of the gigolo providing sex to bored and lonely wives. A vigilante group of betrayed husbands seek retribution in this hard-hitting study of betrayal and personal failure.Talk about the Passion has been produced in the US, Australia and New Zealand and has been adapted by the author for the screen.Published to tie in with productions at the New End Theatre, Hampstead and Arc, Stockton in September 2004.
Six Characters in Search of an Author (Student Editions)
by Luigi Pirandello John LinstrumSix people arrive in a theatre during rehearsals for a play. But theyare not ordinary people. They are the characters of a play that has notyet been written. Trapped inside a traumatic event from which they longto escape, they desperately need a writer to complete their story andrelease them. Intrigued by their situation, the director invites themto act out the key events of their lives ...Pirandello's best-known play and oneof the most extraordinary and mysterious plays of the 20th century, SixCharacters speaks directly to an age of uncertainty: where do we comefrom, where are we going, how do we become what we want to be?
Stanislavski: An Introduction (Performance Books)
by Jean Benedetti'A small jewel of a book, a knowleageable introduction to bothStanislavski's personal development and to the content and range of hiswritings' Theatre Journal'...shows the System to be a practical process - drama school students and actors will be grateful for it' Times Eductational Supplement'A carefully documented study of peak interest and value to every serious student of acting theory' ChoiceThe Stanislavski 'system' is still the only comprehensive method ofactor training we possess. His theories can be hard to grasp and manyacademic books are impenetrable on the subject. This is a concise bookfor students that presents a readable introduction to the life and workof Stanislavski. It shows the slow growth of the 'system', from itsroots in the tradition of Russian realism, to the various phases itwent through until the final emergence of the Method of Physical Actionin the years before his death. It also provides a short account of thewriting, publication and translation of Stanislavski's books on acting.In this edition, Jean Benedetti makes several important updates inthe light of new material and new translations becoming available.
The Gambler (Screen and Cinema)
by F. M. DostoevskyThe film script for a major film from Channel Four Films and Canal+ Image International, from director Karoly Makk and producer Marc Vlessing. Starring Michael Gambon, Jodhi May, Polly Walker, Dominic West and Luise Rainer.Dostoevsky, impoverished by gambling debts and desperate, makes a Faustian contract with his publisher: In return for an advance he agrees to deliver a novel within a year or lose all rights to his existing and future works. Twenty-seven days before the manuscript is due, he has still not begun work. Despairing, he hires a stenographer, Ann Snitkina, whose passionate determination urges him on to finish the book, saving his career.This true story of Dostoevsky's love affair with Anna Snitkina, the woman he later married is interwoven with scenes from his novella, The Gambler, as he dictates it.
Harvey Plays: Guiding Star; Hushabye Mountain; Out in the Open (Contemporary Dramatists)
by Jonathan HarveyA new collection of the latest plays from the writer of Beautiful Thing and TV's Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"JONATHAN HARVEY has an athletic and fantastical imagination, bawdy, funny and joyously blasphemous" Sunday TimesGUIDING STAR: "Dry, funny, truthful, the writing buzzes with graceful perception and Scouse sarcasm...one of the best new plays of the year" Daily MailHUSHABYE MOUNTAIN: "You would have to have a heart hewn from granite not to respond warmly to Jonathan Harvey's latest play" GuardianOUT IN THE OPEN: "A touching exploration of grief, the secrets and lies that evolve in friendships and the difficulty of telling the truth to those we love" The Times
The Passion Of Jerome (Modern Plays)
by Dermot BolgerAn ordinary man is forced to confront both his own demons and the manifestation of the supernatural beyond his comprehension and controlJeremy Furlong is a successful businessman, whose life has been carefully constructed from layer upon layer of lies. That is until now, when he is confronted by the trapped poltergeist spirit of a dead boy in the squalid flat he using to have an affair. The Passion of Jerome premiered at the Peacock stage of the Abbey Theatre in February 1999."A writer of frenetic energy and imagination." (Sunday Times)
Directing with the Michael Chekhov Technique: A Workbook with Video for Directors, Teachers and Actors (Theatre Arts Workbooks)
by Mark MondayDirecting with the Michael Chekhov Technique explores the collaborative process between a play's director and the entire production team, making the journey of a production process cohesive using the Michael Chekhov Technique. No other technique provides the tools for both actor and director to communicate as clearly as does Michael Chekhov. Directing with the Michael Chekhov Technique is the first book to apply the insights of this celebrated technique to the realities of directing a theatrical production. The book chronicles the journey of a play, from conception through production, through the eyes of the director. Drawn from the author's rehearsal journals, logs and notes from each performance, the reader is shown how to arrive at a concept, create a concept statement and manage the realization of the play, utilizing specific techniques from Michael Chekhov to solve problems of acting and design. As with all books in the Theatre Arts Workbook series, Directing with the Michael Chekhov Technique will include online video exercises, "Teaching Tip†? boxes which streamline the book for teachers, and a useful Further Reading section.Directing with the Michael Chekhov Technique is the perfect guide to the production process for any director.
King Henry V: A Critical Reader (Arden Early Modern Drama Guides)
by Line Cottegnies Karen BritlandArden Early Modern Drama Guides offer students and academics practical and accessible introductions to the critical and performance contexts of key Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Essays from leading international scholars give invaluable insight into the text by presenting a range of critical perspectives, making the books ideal companions for study and research. Key features include: Essays on the play's critical and performance history A keynote essay on current research and thinking about the play A selection of new essays by leading scholars A survey of resources to direct students' further reading about the play in print and online This volume offers a thought-provoking guide to King Henry V, surveying the play's rich critical and performance history, with a particular emphasis on its reputation in France as well as Britain and the US. A chapter on non-Anglophone reactions to the play, alongside new essays on British identity, religion, medieval warfare and the questioning of Henry V's heroism, open up ground-breaking perspectives on the play. The volume also includes discussions of King Henry V's rich theatrical and filmic heritage, and a guide to learning and teaching resources and how these might be integrated into effective pedagogic strategies in the classroom.
Romeo and Juliet: Arden Performance Editions (Arden Performance Editions)
by William Shakespeare Paul MenzerIn the heat of renaissance Italy two houses are at war. One son and one daughter from the opposing families break this bitter conflict by falling in love. Yet, in this whirlwind of enmity, Romeo and Juliet's passion agitates rather than unites the clashing houses, causing a trail of destruction. Locked in a burning embrace, the two young lovers are tragically doomed to live or die together.For the first time, the world-renowned Arden Shakespeare is producing Performance Editions, aimed specifically for use in the rehearsal room. Published in association with the Shakespeare Institute, the text features easily accessible facing page notes – including short definitions of words, key textual variants, and guidance on metre and pronunciation; a larger font size for easier reading; space for writing notes and reduced punctuation aimed at the actor rather than the reader. With editorial expertise from the worlds of theatre and academia, the series has been developed in association with actors and drama students. The Series Editors are distinguished scholars Professor Michael Dobson and Dr Abigail Rokison-Woodall and leading Shakespearean actor, Simon Russell Beale.
The Revenger's Tragedy: The State of Play (Arden Shakespeare The State of Play)
by Gretchen E. MintonThe Revenger's Tragedy (1606), now widely attributed to Thomas Middleton, is a play that provides a dark, satirical response to other revenge tragedies such as Hamlet. With its over-the-top and highly theatrical approach to revenge, The Revenger's Tragedy has emerged as one of the most compelling examples of a drama by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries. This collection of ten newly-commissioned essays situates the play with respect to other Middleton and Shakespeare works as well as repertory, showcasing recent research about the play's engagement with issues such as religion, genre, race, language and performance.
A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes (Modern Plays)
by Marcus GardleyThis fresh take on Molière's Tartuffe, set in a world of fast-food tycoons and megachurches is a wicked new comedy that rocks the foundations of trust, faith and redemption.Given just days to live, multi-millionaire Archibald Organdy rejects costly experimental treatment and opts to face his end surrounded by his loving family. However, things could be about to change.Arriving in Atlanta the flamboyant Archbishop Tardimus Toof, a prophet, preacher and part-time masseur promises to absolve Archibald's sins and heal his disease. But his family suspects there's more to this healer than faith, virtue and snakeskin shoes.This programme text was published to coincides with the world premiere at the Tricycle Theatre, London, which opened on 8 October 2015.
Fiery Temporalities in Theatre and Performance: The Initiation of History (Methuen Drama Engage)
by Maurya Wickstrom Enoch Brater Mark Taylor-BattyFiery Temporalities in Theatre and Performance: The Initiation of History takes up the urgent need to think about temporality and its relationship to history in new ways, focusing on theatre and performance as mediums through which politically innovative temporalities, divorced from historical processionism and the future, are inaugurated. Wickstrom is guided by three temporal concepts: the new present, the penultimate, and kairos, as developed by Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, and Antonio Negri respectively. She works across a field of performance that includes play texts by Aimé Césaire and C.L.R. James, and performances from Ni'Ja Whitson to Cassils, the Gob Squad to William Kentridge and African colonial revolts, Hofesh Schechter to Forced Entertainment to Andrew Schneider and Omar Rajeh. Along the way she also engages with Walter Benjamin, black international and radical thought and performance, Bruno Latour, Stefano Harney and Fred Moten's logistics and the hold, and accelerationism. Representing a significant contribution to the growing interest in temporality in Theatre and Performance Studies, the book offers alternatives to what have been prevailing temporal preoccupations in those fields. Countering investments in phenomenology, finitude, ghosting, repetition, and return, Wickstrom argues that theatre and performance can create a fiery sense of how to change time and thereby nominate a new possibility for what it means to live.
Barbarians (Modern Plays)
by Barrie KeeffeIt's 1977. Youth unemployment is at an all-time high and the pound is at an all-time low. Paul, Jan and Louis are bored, broke and demoralized by the hand that they've been dealt. How will these young lads fair with the odds stacked against them? How will they cope?Cut off from society with no-where to turn, the play resonates with a modern audience who will no doubt recognize the disaffected youth of 1970s Britain. Barrie Keeffe's tragically dark play crackles with tension throughout, building to a twisted and dramatic end.This programme text edition was published to coincide with the revival of the play by Tooting Arts Club on 3rd October 2015, staged at the former Central St Martins School of Art on the Charing Cross Road, London.
Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art (Applied Theatre)
by Nick Rowe Matthew Reason Sheila Preston Michael BalfourApplied Practice: Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art engages with a diversity of contexts, locations and arts forms – including theatre, music and fine art – and brings together theoretical, political and practice-based perspectives on the question of 'evidence' in relation to participatory arts practice in social contexts. This collection is a unique contribution to the field, focusing on one of the vital concerns for a growing and developing set of arts and research practices. It asks us to consider evidence not only in terms of methodology but also in the light of the ideological, political and pragmatic implications of that methodology.In Part One, Matthew Reason and Nick Rowe reflect on evidence and impact in the participatory arts in relation to recurring conceptual and methodological motifs. These include issues of purpose and obliquity; the relationship between evidence and knowledge; intrinsic and instrumental impacts, and the value of participatory research. Part Two explores the diversity of perspectives, contexts and methodologies in examining what it is possible to know, say and evidence about the often complex and intimate impact of participatory arts. Part Three brings together case studies in which practitioners and practice-based researchers consider the frustrations, opportunities and successes they face in addressing the challenge to produce evidence for the impact of their practice.