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Dialects for the Stage
by Evangeline MachlinDialect work is one of the actor's most challenging tasks. Need to know a Russian accent? Playing a German countess or a Midwestern farmhand? These and more accents – from Yiddish to French Canadian – are clearly explained in Evangeline Machlin's classic work. Now available in a book-and-CD format, Evangeline Machlin's Dialects for the Stage is based on a method of dialect acquisition she developed during her years working with students at Boston University's Division of Theatre. During her long career, Evangeline Machlin trained such actors as Steve McQueen, Lee Grant, Suzanne Pleshette, Joanne Woodward, and Faye Dunaway.
A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer
by Eugenio Barba Nicola SavareseFirst Published in 2005. A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology subtly juxtaposes visual demonstrations of the performer’s craft, from a wealth of Eastern and Western sources. More than just a dictionary, this is a handbook for theatre practitioners and a guide for students and scholars of transcultural performance. It is the result of many years of research conducted by Eugenio Barba and the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) based in Denmark, and is now a classic foundational text. Whereas most Western research is concerned with naturalism and psychological realism in acting, the Dictionary focuses on the actor’s arduous and eclectic craft. The Dictionary aims to expand our knowledge of the possibilities of the scenic body, and of the spectator’s response to the dynamics of performance. The Dictionary has practical sections on balance, opposition and montage among other techniques, and discusses issues including The Text and the Stage, The Dilated Body and Energetic Language. This revised edition includes: three new chapters on Eurasian Theatre, Exercises and Organicity; 50 new photographs showing the performer’s craft in black and white and colour; and, for the first time, a useful bibliography and index.
A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer
by Eugenio Barba Nicola SavareseFirst Published in 2005. A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology subtly juxtaposes visual demonstrations of the performer’s craft, from a wealth of Eastern and Western sources. More than just a dictionary, this is a handbook for theatre practitioners and a guide for students and scholars of transcultural performance. It is the result of many years of research conducted by Eugenio Barba and the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) based in Denmark, and is now a classic foundational text. Whereas most Western research is concerned with naturalism and psychological realism in acting, the Dictionary focuses on the actor’s arduous and eclectic craft. The Dictionary aims to expand our knowledge of the possibilities of the scenic body, and of the spectator’s response to the dynamics of performance. The Dictionary has practical sections on balance, opposition and montage among other techniques, and discusses issues including The Text and the Stage, The Dilated Body and Energetic Language. This revised edition includes: three new chapters on Eurasian Theatre, Exercises and Organicity; 50 new photographs showing the performer’s craft in black and white and colour; and, for the first time, a useful bibliography and index.
Documentation, Disappearance and the Representation of Live Performance
by M. ReasonThe documentation of practice is one of the principle concerns of performance studies. Focusing on contemporary performance practice and with emphasis on the transformative impact of video, photography and writing, this book explores the ideological, practical, and representational implications of knowing performance through its documentations.
Don Juan in Hell: From Man and Superman (Dover Thrift Editions)
by George Bernard ShawUsing intriguing characters and sparkling dialogue, George Bernard Shaw explored ideas and issues that transformed the conventions of British theater. "Don Juan in Hell" showcases the master's art at its best.An episode from Act Three of Man and Superman, "Don Juan in Hell" is often presented independently of the rest of the play. Rooted in the Don Juan legend — particularly as it appears in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni — this dream sequence forms a play within a play. It consists of a dramatic reading in which three characters from Man and Superman appear in archetypal guises: Don Juan, the libertine turned moralist; Doña Ana, the eternal female; and the Commander, a hypocrite transformed into a statue. The Devil himself joins their spirited debate on the nature of heaven and hell, of good and evil, and of human purpose, for a captivating blend of Shavian wit and Nietzschean philosophy.
Donkeys' Years: Alphabetical Order; Donkeys' Years; Clouds; Make And Break; Noises Off (Modern Plays)
by Michael FraynMichael Frayn's 'gorgeous farce' about a university reunionpremiered thirty years ago at the Globe Theatre, London. Returning tothe West End in a sparkling new production, it remains a classiccomedy. Twenty years after graduation, six former students return totheir university college for a reunion dinner. Whilst their lives mayhave had varying degrees of success, all are connected by a commonpast. Once locked in college for the night, the graduates begin torelive their youth, and old friendships, feuds - and the much-desiredbut absurdly proper Master's wife - come tumbling back into the present. . . 'The show reaches that plateau of comic bliss when it becomes physically impossible to stop laughing' Daily Telegraph 'The West End's summer gets off to an exhilarating start withthe hilarious return of Michael Frayn's comedy Donkeys' Years' SundayExpress 'All the confidence of a serious comic masterpiece.Masterclass performances. This is one of the best revivals in the WestEnd for years. Unmissable!' Sunday Times
Drama Therapy and Storymaking in Special Education
by Paula CrimmensMany aspects of drama therapy make it an ideal technique to use with students with special learning needs. This practical resource book for professionals covers the broad spectrum of students attending special needs schools, including those with attention deficit disorder, autism and Asperger syndrome, and students with multiple disabilities. Paula Crimmens places therapeutic storymaking within the context of drama therapy and offers practical advice on how to structure and set up sessions to be compatible with special needs learning environments. She shows how story sessions can address issues of self-esteem and self-mastery, and how their use in groups is invaluable for building social and communication skills. The book includes traditional stories from around the world as session material, and includes guidance on how to devise stories relevant to older students, as well as a review of recent research into the effectiveness of drama therapy in engaging and retaining the attention of students with an intellectual disability.
Drama Therapy and Storymaking in Special Education (PDF)
by Paula CrimmensMany aspects of drama therapy make it an ideal technique to use with students with special learning needs. This practical resource book for professionals covers the broad spectrum of students attending special needs schools, including those with attention deficit disorder, autism and Asperger syndrome, and students with multiple disabilities. Paula Crimmens places therapeutic storymaking within the context of drama therapy and offers practical advice on how to structure and set up sessions to be compatible with special needs learning environments. She shows how story sessions can address issues of self-esteem and self-mastery, and how their use in groups is invaluable for building social and communication skills. The book includes traditional stories from around the world as session material, and includes guidance on how to devise stories relevant to older students, as well as a review of recent research into the effectiveness of drama therapy in engaging and retaining the attention of students with an intellectual disability.
The Early Bird: Made Of Stone; Redundant; Lucky Dog; The Early Bird (Modern Plays)
by Leo ButlerThe Early Bird taps into the darkest fears of any parent - what if your child simply disappears? Debbie and Jack blame each other and themselves, and in doing so reveal the inner secrets of their own relationship in this disturbing and darkly humorous play. Butler's language moves between naturalism and hyper-realism, brilliantly capturing the surreal quality of the worst time in this couple's life. The play premiered at the Belfast Theatre Festival in October 2006.
Eden's Empire: Eden's Empire; Alaska; A Day At The Racists; Shades; The Westbridge (Modern Plays)
by James GrahamFifty years ago, Britain propelled itself into a disastrous war inthe Middle East. Condemned by the UN and accused of falsifyingintelligence, the Prime Minister was left fighting for his politicallife against a Party disillusioned, a public betrayed, and a wilyChancellor with ambitions to take his place... With the pressure of opposition to his war, Prime MinisterAnthony Eden rapidly lost his grip on both the Empire and his health.Unable to control the growing power of both the United States and theArab world, nor his own failing body, history would mark him as theworst British Prime Minister of the twentieth century. A new, uncompromising political thriller exploring with electrifyingtheatricality the events of the Suez Crisis, and the tragic story ofits flawed hero - Churchill's golden boy and heir apparent, AnthonyEden.
Embers: Based on the novel by Sándor Márai
by Christopher HamptonA remote 18th-century Hungarian castle is the setting for a dramatic meeting. Forty-one years after a tragic event two former friends must confront each other in a devastating bid to lay the past to rest. Betrayal, love, truth and friendship all come to the fore in this unforgettable play based on Sándor Márai's bestselling novel.Embers premiered at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End in February 2006.
The Emergence of Dramatic Criticism in England: From Jonson to Pope
by P. CannanFocusing on dramatic criticism, this book explores the self authorizing strategies of writers such as Jonson, Dryden, Aphra Behn, Thomas Rymer, Jeremy Collier and Joseph Addison. Cannan focuses on how they established themselves as critics, and paved the way for the birth of dramatic criticism in seventeenth and early eighteenth-century England.
Equus (Penguin Modern Classics Ser. (PDF))
by Peter ShafferSelf-consciously staging itself in the psychotherapy sessions of a disturbed young man, Peter Shaffer's Equus is a shocking exploration of the limits of faith, of the intersecting worlds of the sacred and profane, and of the paltry value of a 'mundane' life, published in Penguin Modern Classics. When a deranged boy, Alan Strang, blinds six horses with a metal spike he is sentenced to psychiatric treatment. Dr Dysart is the man given the task of uncovering what happened the night Strang committed his crime, but in doing so will open up his own wounds. Dysart struggles in secret to define sanity, to justify his marriage, to account for his career, and finds himself questioning the 'normality' of his way of life. Ultimately, he must ask himself: is it patient or psychiatrist whose life is being laid bare? The most shocking play of its day, Equus uses an act of violence to explore faith, insanity and how the materialism of modern life can destroy humanity's capacity for pain and passion. Peter Shaffer (b. 1926), born in Liverpool, is an English playwright. Among his plays are The Salt Land (1954), Equus (1973) which won Shaffer the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play, as well as the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and Amadeus (1979) which won the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics Award for the London production, as well as being adapted into a 1984 film starring F. Murray Abraham and Simon Callow. If you enjoyed Equus, you might like Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Sensationally good' Guardian 'A very important play' The New York Times
The Estate (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Oladipo AgboluajeA powerful yet comic tale of explosive family secrets and the dead hand of a corrupt patriarchy. Inspired by Chekhov but set in contemporary Lagos, Nigeria, Chief (Mrs) Adeyemi is engulfed in burial arrangements for her recently deceased husband, an influential entrepreneur with an extended family scattered across the globe. His children arrive from abroad to hear their father’s Will. As they divide his estate an unnatural turn of events takes place and sparks begin to fly.The Estate toured in 2006 in a production by Tiata Fahodzi ('Theatre of the Emancipated') and directed by Femi Elufowoju, jr.
Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement
by Andre LepeckiThe only scholarly book in English dedicated to recent European contemporary dance, Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement examines the work of key contemporary choreographers who have transformed the dance scene since the early 1990s in Europe and the US. Through their vivid and explicit dialogue with performance art, visual arts and critical theory from the past thirty years, this new generation of choreographers challenge our understanding of dance by exhausting the concept of movement. Their work demands to be read as performed extensions of the radical politics implied in performance art, in post-structuralist and critical theory, in post-colonial theory, and in critical race studies. In this far-ranging and exceptional study, Andre Lepecki brilliantly analyzes the work of the choreographers: * Jerome Bel (France)* Juan Dominguez (Spain)* Trisha Brown (US)* La Ribot (Spain)* Xavier Le Roy (France-Germany)* Vera Mantero (Portugal) and visual and performance artists: * Bruce Nauman (US) * William Pope.L (US). This book offers a significant and radical revision of the way we think about dance, arguing for the necessity of a renewed engagement between dance studies and experimental artistic and philosophical practices.
Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement
by Andre LepeckiThe only scholarly book in English dedicated to recent European contemporary dance, Exhausting Dance: Performance and the Politics of Movement examines the work of key contemporary choreographers who have transformed the dance scene since the early 1990s in Europe and the US. Through their vivid and explicit dialogue with performance art, visual arts and critical theory from the past thirty years, this new generation of choreographers challenge our understanding of dance by exhausting the concept of movement. Their work demands to be read as performed extensions of the radical politics implied in performance art, in post-structuralist and critical theory, in post-colonial theory, and in critical race studies. In this far-ranging and exceptional study, Andre Lepecki brilliantly analyzes the work of the choreographers: * Jerome Bel (France)* Juan Dominguez (Spain)* Trisha Brown (US)* La Ribot (Spain)* Xavier Le Roy (France-Germany)* Vera Mantero (Portugal) and visual and performance artists: * Bruce Nauman (US) * William Pope.L (US). This book offers a significant and radical revision of the way we think about dance, arguing for the necessity of a renewed engagement between dance studies and experimental artistic and philosophical practices.
Feminist Futures?: Theatre, Performance, Theory (Performance Interventions)
by G. Harris E. AstonThis work is a timely contribution to the debates surrounding feminism, theatre and performance. The excellent, cross-generational mix of theatre scholars and practitioners engaging in lively, cutting-edge debates on critical topics make this essential reading for students and scholars in Theatre and Performance Studies as well as Gender Studies.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Selected Writings, Volume I, Plays
by Friedrich DürrenmattThe Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit. With these long-awaited translations of his plays, fictions, and essays, Dürrenmatt becomes available again in all his brilliance to the English-speaking world. Dürrenmatt’s concerns are timeless, but they are also the product of his Swiss vantage during the cold war: his key plays, gathered in the first volume of Selected Writings, explore such themes as guilt by passivity, the refusal of responsibility, greed and political decay, and the tension between justice and freedom. In The Visit, for instance, an old lady who becomes the wealthiest person in the world returns to the village that cast her out as a young woman and offers riches to the town in exchange for the life of the man, now its mayor, who once disgraced her. Joel Agee’s crystalline translation gives a fresh lease to this play, as well as four others: The Physicists, Romulus the Great, Hercules and the Augean Stables, and The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi. Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer—but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Selected Writings, Volume I, Plays
by Friedrich DürrenmattThe Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit. With these long-awaited translations of his plays, fictions, and essays, Dürrenmatt becomes available again in all his brilliance to the English-speaking world. Dürrenmatt’s concerns are timeless, but they are also the product of his Swiss vantage during the cold war: his key plays, gathered in the first volume of Selected Writings, explore such themes as guilt by passivity, the refusal of responsibility, greed and political decay, and the tension between justice and freedom. In The Visit, for instance, an old lady who becomes the wealthiest person in the world returns to the village that cast her out as a young woman and offers riches to the town in exchange for the life of the man, now its mayor, who once disgraced her. Joel Agee’s crystalline translation gives a fresh lease to this play, as well as four others: The Physicists, Romulus the Great, Hercules and the Augean Stables, and The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi. Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer—but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Selected Writings, Volume 1, Plays
by Friedrich DürrenmattThe Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit. With these long-awaited translations of his plays, fictions, and essays, Dürrenmatt becomes available again in all his brilliance to the English-speaking world. Dürrenmatt’s concerns are timeless, but they are also the product of his Swiss vantage during the cold war: his key plays, gathered in the first volume of Selected Writings, explore such themes as guilt by passivity, the refusal of responsibility, greed and political decay, and the tension between justice and freedom. In The Visit, for instance, an old lady who becomes the wealthiest person in the world returns to the village that cast her out as a young woman and offers riches to the town in exchange for the life of the man, now its mayor, who once disgraced her. Joel Agee’s crystalline translation gives a fresh lease to this play, as well as four others: The Physicists, Romulus the Great, Hercules and the Augean Stables, and The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi. Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer—but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Selected Writings, Volume 1, Plays
by Friedrich DürrenmattThe Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–90) was one of the most important literary figures of the second half of the twentieth century. During the years of the cold war, arguably only Beckett, Camus, Sartre, and Brecht rivaled him as a presence in European letters. Yet outside Europe, this prolific author is primarily known for only one work, The Visit. With these long-awaited translations of his plays, fictions, and essays, Dürrenmatt becomes available again in all his brilliance to the English-speaking world. Dürrenmatt’s concerns are timeless, but they are also the product of his Swiss vantage during the cold war: his key plays, gathered in the first volume of Selected Writings, explore such themes as guilt by passivity, the refusal of responsibility, greed and political decay, and the tension between justice and freedom. In The Visit, for instance, an old lady who becomes the wealthiest person in the world returns to the village that cast her out as a young woman and offers riches to the town in exchange for the life of the man, now its mayor, who once disgraced her. Joel Agee’s crystalline translation gives a fresh lease to this play, as well as four others: The Physicists, Romulus the Great, Hercules and the Augean Stables, and The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi. Dürrenmatt has long been considered a great writer—but one unfairly neglected in the modern world of letters. With these elegantly conceived and expertly translated volumes, a new generation of readers will rediscover his greatest works.
From Performance to Print in Shakespeare's England (Redefining British Theatre History)
by P. Holland S. OrgelWhat can the printed texts of plays from Shakespeare's time say about performance? How have printed plays been read and interpreted? This collection of essays considers the evidence of early modern printed plays and their histories of production and reception, examining a wide variety of cases, from early performance to the psychology of Hamlet.
Frost/Nixon
by Peter MorganIn 1972, a break-in was foiled at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC. Within days a connection had been made with the White House and President Nixon's closest aides. It unleashed one of the greatest scandals in modern American politics and ended with Nixon's humiliating resignation. David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon drew the largest audience ever for a news interview. Could this British talk-show host, with no known political convictions and a playboy reputation, be the one to elicit an apology from the man who committed one of the biggest felonies in American political history? Frost/Nixon premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in August 2006.
Germany, pacifism and peace enforcement (Europe in Change)
by Anja Dalgaard-NielsenGermany, pacifism and peace enforcement is about the transformation of Germany’s security and defence policy in the time between the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 war against Iraq. The book traces and explains the reaction of Europe’s biggest and potentially most powerful country to the ethnic wars of the 1990s, the emergence of large-scale terrorism, and the new US emphasis on pre-emptive strikes. Based on an analysis of Germany’s strategic culture it portrays Germany as a security actor and indicates the conditions and limits of the new German willingness to participate in international military crisis management that developed over the 1990s. It debates the implications of Germany’s transformation for Germany’s partners and neighbours and explains why Germany said 'yes' to the war in Afghanistan, but 'no' to the Iraq War.
Germany, pacifism and peace enforcement (Europe in Change)
by Anja Dalgaard-NielsenGermany, pacifism and peace enforcement is about the transformation of Germany’s security and defence policy in the time between the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 war against Iraq. The book traces and explains the reaction of Europe’s biggest and potentially most powerful country to the ethnic wars of the 1990s, the emergence of large-scale terrorism, and the new US emphasis on pre-emptive strikes. Based on an analysis of Germany’s strategic culture it portrays Germany as a security actor and indicates the conditions and limits of the new German willingness to participate in international military crisis management that developed over the 1990s. It debates the implications of Germany’s transformation for Germany’s partners and neighbours and explains why Germany said 'yes' to the war in Afghanistan, but 'no' to the Iraq War.