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Positive Stories For Negative Times: Five Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely (Plays for Young People)
by Chris Thorpe Stef Smith Sabrina Mahfouz Bea Webster Jack Nurse Robbie GordonFive exciting new plays for young people written specifically in response to a world in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by a handbook from Wonder Fools theatre company with guidance for staging the plays either online or live in the space.Commissioned as part of Wonder Fools' national participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times, these five plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 8-25. These original and innovative plays are:Is This A Fairytale? by Bea WebsaterA new play that rips apart the traditional fairy tale canon and turns it on its head in a surprising, inventive and unconventional way. Ages 8+Hold Out Your Hand by Chris ThorpeA dynamic text asking questions about place, where we are now and the moment we are living through. Ages 13+The Pack by Stef SmithA playful and poetic exploration about getting lost in the loneliness of your living room and trying to find your way home. Ages 13+Ozymandias by Robbie Gordon and Jack NurseA contemporary story inspired by Percy Shelley's 19th century poem of the same name, exploring power, oppression and racism through the eyes of young people. Ages 16+Bad Bored Women of the Rooms by Sabrina MahfouzA storytelling adventure through the centuries of women and girls who have spent a lot of time stuck in a room. Ages 18+The accompanying handbook includes step-by-step guidance on how to produce the plays either online or live in the space, and bespoke exercises and instructions on how to approach directing each play.
Positive Stories For Negative Times: Five Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely (Plays for Young People)
by Chris Thorpe Stef Smith Sabrina Mahfouz Bea Webster Jack Nurse Robbie GordonFive exciting new plays for young people written specifically in response to a world in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by a handbook from Wonder Fools theatre company with guidance for staging the plays either online or live in the space.Commissioned as part of Wonder Fools' national participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times, these five plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 8-25. These original and innovative plays are:Is This A Fairytale? by Bea WebsaterA new play that rips apart the traditional fairy tale canon and turns it on its head in a surprising, inventive and unconventional way. Ages 8+Hold Out Your Hand by Chris ThorpeA dynamic text asking questions about place, where we are now and the moment we are living through. Ages 13+The Pack by Stef SmithA playful and poetic exploration about getting lost in the loneliness of your living room and trying to find your way home. Ages 13+Ozymandias by Robbie Gordon and Jack NurseA contemporary story inspired by Percy Shelley's 19th century poem of the same name, exploring power, oppression and racism through the eyes of young people. Ages 16+Bad Bored Women of the Rooms by Sabrina MahfouzA storytelling adventure through the centuries of women and girls who have spent a lot of time stuck in a room. Ages 18+The accompanying handbook includes step-by-step guidance on how to produce the plays either online or live in the space, and bespoke exercises and instructions on how to approach directing each play.
Positive Stories For Negative Times, Volume Three: Six Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely (Plays for Young People)
by Tim Crouch Sara Shaarawi Bryony Kimmings Lewis Hetherington Robert Softley Gale Leyla JosephineSix exciting new plays by some of the best artists working in the UK today written with and for young people. Created as part of Wonder Fools' international participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times which has reached over 8000 young people from 16 different countries including UK, South Africa, India, USA, Canada, Italy and Sweden. Co-commissioned by Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre these six plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 10 to 25. These original and innovative plays are: The Day the Stampers United by Sara ShaarawiAges 12+Ms Campbell's Class Fifth Period by Leyla JosephineAges 14+And The Name for That Is?... by Robert Softley GaleAges 16+Are You A Robot? by Tim CrouchAges 10+Revolting by Bryony KimmingsAges 13+Thanks for Nothing by The PappyShow with Lewis HetheringtonAges 11+Positive Stories For Negative Times was initially created in response to the lack of physical spaces for young people to participate in creative activities due to the pandemic, and instead allowing them to come together and be inspired through making new work. The project has now grown into a programme of work that includes hundreds of participating groups across the world, a youth board who dramaturg all the commissioned plays from inception to final draft, a continuing professional development programme for group leaders and four regional Scottish youth theatre festivals taking place in summer 2023.Supported by Creative Scotland, the Gannochy Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, William Syson Foundation, Trades House of Glasgow Commonweal Fund and Gordon Fraser Foundation. www.positivestories.scot
Positive Stories For Negative Times, Volume Three: Six Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely (Plays for Young People)
by Tim Crouch Sara Shaarawi Bryony Kimmings Lewis Hetherington Robert Softley Gale Leyla JosephineSix exciting new plays by some of the best artists working in the UK today written with and for young people. Created as part of Wonder Fools' international participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times which has reached over 8000 young people from 16 different countries including UK, South Africa, India, USA, Canada, Italy and Sweden. Co-commissioned by Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre these six plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages 10 to 25. These original and innovative plays are: The Day the Stampers United by Sara ShaarawiAges 12+Ms Campbell's Class Fifth Period by Leyla JosephineAges 14+And The Name for That Is?... by Robert Softley GaleAges 16+Are You A Robot? by Tim CrouchAges 10+Revolting by Bryony KimmingsAges 13+Thanks for Nothing by The PappyShow with Lewis HetheringtonAges 11+Positive Stories For Negative Times was initially created in response to the lack of physical spaces for young people to participate in creative activities due to the pandemic, and instead allowing them to come together and be inspired through making new work. The project has now grown into a programme of work that includes hundreds of participating groups across the world, a youth board who dramaturg all the commissioned plays from inception to final draft, a continuing professional development programme for group leaders and four regional Scottish youth theatre festivals taking place in summer 2023.Supported by Creative Scotland, the Gannochy Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, William Syson Foundation, Trades House of Glasgow Commonweal Fund and Gordon Fraser Foundation. www.positivestories.scot
Positive Stories For Negative Times, Volume Two: Seven Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely (Plays for Young People)
by Wonder FoolsSeven exciting new plays for young people written specifically in response to a world in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by a handbook from Wonder Fools with guidance for staging the plays, and other creative responses, either online or live in the space.Commissioned as part of Wonder Fools' national participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times: Season 2, these plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages between 6 and 25.Spyrates 2 (Spies vs Pirates): Journey to the Forbidden Island by Robbie Gordon & Jack NuseFeaturing spies, pirates, robots, talking animals and everything in between, 'Spyrates' is an interactive, playful and imaginative adventure story. Ages 6+At First I Was Afraid… (I Was Petrified!) by Douglas Maxwell A feel-good comedy drama about a girl who keeps a diary of all her anxieties; but as she moves from Primary School to Secondary, from normal life to Lockdown, all of her worries appear to come true. Ages 11 +The Raven by Hannah Lavery A play full of adventure and an exploration of what shapes and what divides us, exploring issues of blended families, bullying, overeating, depression and isolation. Ages 11 +Thanks For Nothing by The PappyShowThis not a play, but a process. It explores what it means to be thankful in this world we live in today. It's a mix of games, challenges and exercises for you to tell your own stories, in your own way. Ages 11 +Revolting by Bryony KimmingsA series of tasks and actions that make a narrative to be performed with props. We are agents of the revolution. How do we revolt? How do we not get into trouble? Where do we get power, and then how do we use it for good? Ages 13 +The Skirt by Ellen BannermanAn absurdist feminist fable for the next generation of feminists. Ages 16+ Write To Rave: Step Pon by Debris StevensonA play about the political power of a rave. Who has the right to rave, to dance and move freely? What is it to feel truly free in your own skin? It tells the story a queer group of humans trying their best to rave whilst the world tries it's best to stop them. Ages 18 +The accompanying handbook includes an exploration of Wonder Fools' theatre-making process, step-by-step guidance in how to produce the plays either online or live in the space, and bespoke exercises and instructions in how to approach directing each play.
Positive Stories For Negative Times, Volume Two: Seven Plays For Young People to Perform in Real Life or Remotely (Plays for Young People)
by Wonder FoolsSeven exciting new plays for young people written specifically in response to a world in the midst of a pandemic, accompanied by a handbook from Wonder Fools with guidance for staging the plays, and other creative responses, either online or live in the space.Commissioned as part of Wonder Fools' national participatory project Positive Stories for Negative Times: Season 2, these plays offer a variety of stories, styles and forms for ages between 6 and 25.Spyrates 2 (Spies vs Pirates): Journey to the Forbidden Island by Robbie Gordon & Jack NuseFeaturing spies, pirates, robots, talking animals and everything in between, 'Spyrates' is an interactive, playful and imaginative adventure story. Ages 6+At First I Was Afraid… (I Was Petrified!) by Douglas Maxwell A feel-good comedy drama about a girl who keeps a diary of all her anxieties; but as she moves from Primary School to Secondary, from normal life to Lockdown, all of her worries appear to come true. Ages 11 +The Raven by Hannah Lavery A play full of adventure and an exploration of what shapes and what divides us, exploring issues of blended families, bullying, overeating, depression and isolation. Ages 11 +Thanks For Nothing by The PappyShowThis not a play, but a process. It explores what it means to be thankful in this world we live in today. It's a mix of games, challenges and exercises for you to tell your own stories, in your own way. Ages 11 +Revolting by Bryony KimmingsA series of tasks and actions that make a narrative to be performed with props. We are agents of the revolution. How do we revolt? How do we not get into trouble? Where do we get power, and then how do we use it for good? Ages 13 +The Skirt by Ellen BannermanAn absurdist feminist fable for the next generation of feminists. Ages 16+ Write To Rave: Step Pon by Debris StevensonA play about the political power of a rave. Who has the right to rave, to dance and move freely? What is it to feel truly free in your own skin? It tells the story a queer group of humans trying their best to rave whilst the world tries it's best to stop them. Ages 18 +The accompanying handbook includes an exploration of Wonder Fools' theatre-making process, step-by-step guidance in how to produce the plays either online or live in the space, and bespoke exercises and instructions in how to approach directing each play.
Post-Cinematic Theatre and Performance (Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology)
by P. WoycickiA cinema without cameras, without actors, without screen frames and without narratives almost seems like an antithetical impossibility of what is usually expected from a cinematic spectacle. This book defines an emergent field of post-cinematic theatre and performance, challenging our assumptions and expectations about theatre and film.
Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics
by Helen Gilbert Joanne TompkinsPost-Colonial Drama is the first full-length study to address the ways in which performance has been instrumental in resisting the continuing effects of imperialism. It brings to bear the latest theoretical approaches from post-colonial and performance studies to a range of plays from Australia, Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean and other former colonial regions. Some of the major topics discussed in Post-Colonial Drama include: * the interactions of post-colonial and performance theories * the post-colonial re-stagings of language and history * the specific enactments of ritual and carnival * the theatrical citations of the post-colonial body Post-Colonial Drama combines a rich intersection of theoretical approaches with close attention to a wide range of performance texts.
Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics
by Helen Gilbert Joanne TompkinsPost-Colonial Drama is the first full-length study to address the ways in which performance has been instrumental in resisting the continuing effects of imperialism. It brings to bear the latest theoretical approaches from post-colonial and performance studies to a range of plays from Australia, Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean and other former colonial regions. Some of the major topics discussed in Post-Colonial Drama include: * the interactions of post-colonial and performance theories * the post-colonial re-stagings of language and history * the specific enactments of ritual and carnival * the theatrical citations of the post-colonial body Post-Colonial Drama combines a rich intersection of theoretical approaches with close attention to a wide range of performance texts.
Post-colonial English Drama: Commonwealth Drama Since 1960 (PDF)
by Bruce KingPost-Colonial English Drama is the first critical survey of contemporary Commonwealth drama. Besides essays on such individual dramatists as Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, David Williamson, Louis Nowra, Athol Fugard, George Walker, Sharon Pollock and Judith Thompson there are surveys of the dramatic literature and developments in the theatre in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica and Trinidad. Canadian woman dramatists and the new radical South African theatre are also among the topics.
Post-Colonial English Drama: Commonwealth Drama since 1960
by Bruce KingPost-Colonial English Drama is the first critical survey of contemporary Commonwealth drama. Besides essays on such individual dramatists as Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, David Williamson, Louis Nowra, Athol Fugard, George Walker, Sharon Pollock and Judith Thompson there are surveys of the dramatic literature and developments in the theatre in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica and Trinidad. Canadian woman dramatists and the new radical South African theatre are also among the topics.
Post-Show Discussions in New Play Development (Palgrave Pivot Ser.)
by T. FisherMany theatres host post-show discussions, or talkbacks, as part of their season. This book is a critical examination of what has/has not worked with post-show discussions utilized in new play development, providing a framework for understanding discussions, steps for building the foundation of them, and various strategies for structuring them.
Post-war British Drama: Looking Back in Gender
by Michelene WandorIn this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years. Repositioning the text at the heart of hteatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses: *the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination *the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives *the impact of socialism and feminism on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama *differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968 *the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content. 9780415138550 9780203451113 9786610068159
Post-war British Drama: Looking Back in Gender (PDF)
by Michelene WandorIn this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years. Repositioning the text at the heart of hteatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses: *the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination *the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives *the impact of socialism and feminism on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama *differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968 *the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content. 9780415138550 9780203451113 9786610068159
Post-war British Drama: Sexuality And The Family In Post-war British Drama (Routledge Revivals Ser.)
by Michelene WandorIn this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years. Repositioning the text at the heart of hteatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses: *the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination *the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives *the impact of socialism and feminism on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama *differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968 *the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content.
Post-war British Drama: Looking Back in Gender
by Michelene WandorIn this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years. Repositioning the text at the heart of hteatre studies, Wandor surveys plays by Ayckbourn, Beckett, Churchill, Daniels, Friel, Hare, Kane, Osborne, Pinter, Ravenhill, Wertenbaker, Wesker and others. Her nuanced argument, central to any analysis of contemporary drama, discusses: *the imperative of gender in the playwright's imagination *the function of gender as a major determinant of the text's structural and narrative drives *the impact of socialism and feminism on post-war British drama, and the relevance of feminist dynamics in drama *differences in the representation of the fmaily, sexuality and the mother, before and after 1968 *the impact of the slogan that the 'personal is political' on contemporary form and content.
Postdigital Performances of Care: Technology & Pandemic (Performance and Digital Cultures)
by Liam Jarvis Karen SavageCovid-19 has been described as a 'digital pandemic'. But who might the characterisation of the pandemic as 'digital' leave behind? This timely book reconsiders the pandemic as 'postdigital', examining tensions between a growing postdigital attitude of disenchantment with digital technologies and the increasing reliance on adapted modes of online practice mid-lockdown in both performance-making and healthcare.What emerged amidst the pandemic restrictions was a theatre that was unable to show its face, instead adapting into a variety of 'covid-safe' remote forms of engagement, from 'Zoom plays' to self-generating experiences sent by post. This book explores the ways that both performances and healthcare practices found proxies for direct touch and face-to-face encounters, deconstructing the way that care and resilience were spectacularized by political actors online.Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage explore aspects of care in relation to technology, spectacle and facilitation, and how new modes of delivery and the repurposing of theatre spaces that were displaced amidst the mass migration online have been enabling as well as controversial. The variety of case studies assessed includes internet memes, online films, performances of everyday resilience through social media and participatory theatre productions, including Thaddeus Phillips' Zoom Motel, Coney's Telephone and Nightcap's Handle with Care.
Postdigital Performances of Care: Technology & Pandemic (Performance and Digital Cultures)
by Liam Jarvis Karen SavageCovid-19 has been described as a 'digital pandemic'. But who might the characterisation of the pandemic as 'digital' leave behind? This timely book reconsiders the pandemic as 'postdigital', examining tensions between a growing postdigital attitude of disenchantment with digital technologies and the increasing reliance on adapted modes of online practice mid-lockdown in both performance-making and healthcare.What emerged amidst the pandemic restrictions was a theatre that was unable to show its face, instead adapting into a variety of 'covid-safe' remote forms of engagement, from 'Zoom plays' to self-generating experiences sent by post. This book explores the ways that both performances and healthcare practices found proxies for direct touch and face-to-face encounters, deconstructing the way that care and resilience were spectacularized by political actors online.Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage explore aspects of care in relation to technology, spectacle and facilitation, and how new modes of delivery and the repurposing of theatre spaces that were displaced amidst the mass migration online have been enabling as well as controversial. The variety of case studies assessed includes internet memes, online films, performances of everyday resilience through social media and participatory theatre productions, including Thaddeus Phillips' Zoom Motel, Coney's Telephone and Nightcap's Handle with Care.
Postdramatic Dramaturgies: Resonances between Asia and Europe (Theater #143)
by Kai TuchmannThis book compiles lectures by the world's leading practitioners of postdramatic theatre from East Asia and the German-speaking world, which were given at Asia's only dramaturgy degree program at The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing 2018/19. It includes first-time English-language scripts of the discussed plays. The material is complemented by contextualizing essays by the program founder Li Yinan and its co-developer Kai Tuchmann. Hans-Thies Lehmann contributes the foreword to this volume. This rare compilation enables the reader to gain a unique insider's impression of postdramatic theatre's artistic thinking and working methods and informs about its manifold manifestations. With contributions from Hans-Werner Kroesinger, Lee Kyung-Sung, Li Yinan, Boris Nikitin, Kai Tuchmann, Wang Mengfan, Wen Hui, Zhao Chuan and Zhuang Jiayun.
Postdramatic Theatre
by Hans-Thies LehmannNewly adapted for the Anglophone reader, this is an excellent translation of Hans-Thies Lehmann’s groundbreaking study of the new theatre forms that have developed since the late 1960s, which has become a key reference point in international discussions of contemporary theatre. In looking at the developments since the late 1960s, Lehmann considers them in relation to dramatic theory and theatre history, as an inventive response to the emergence of new technologies, and as an historical shift from a text-based culture to a new media age of image and sound. Engaging with theoreticians of 'drama' from Aristotle and Brecht, to Barthes and Schechner, the book analyzes the work of recent experimental theatre practitioners such as Robert Wilson, Tadeusz Kantor, Heiner Müller, the Wooster Group, Needcompany and Societas Raffaello Sanzio. Illustrated by a wealth of practical examples, and with an introduction by Karen Jürs-Munby providing useful theoretical and artistic contexts for the book, Postdramatic Theatre is an historical survey expertly combined with a unique theoretical approach which guides the reader through this new theatre landscape.
Postdramatic Theatre
by Hans-Thies LehmannNewly adapted for the Anglophone reader, this is an excellent translation of Hans-Thies Lehmann’s groundbreaking study of the new theatre forms that have developed since the late 1960s, which has become a key reference point in international discussions of contemporary theatre. In looking at the developments since the late 1960s, Lehmann considers them in relation to dramatic theory and theatre history, as an inventive response to the emergence of new technologies, and as an historical shift from a text-based culture to a new media age of image and sound. Engaging with theoreticians of 'drama' from Aristotle and Brecht, to Barthes and Schechner, the book analyzes the work of recent experimental theatre practitioners such as Robert Wilson, Tadeusz Kantor, Heiner Müller, the Wooster Group, Needcompany and Societas Raffaello Sanzio. Illustrated by a wealth of practical examples, and with an introduction by Karen Jürs-Munby providing useful theoretical and artistic contexts for the book, Postdramatic Theatre is an historical survey expertly combined with a unique theoretical approach which guides the reader through this new theatre landscape.
Postdramatic Theatre and Form (Methuen Drama Engage)
by Michael Shane Boyle Matt Cornish Brandon Woolf Enoch Brater Mark Taylor-BattyPostdramatic theatre is an essential category of performance that challenges classical elements of drama, including the centrality of plot and character. Tracking key developments in contemporary European and North American performance, this collection redirects ongoing debates about postdramatic theatre, turning attention to the overlooked issue on which they hinge: form. Contributors draw on literary studies, film studies and critical theory to reimagine the formal aspects of theatre, such as space, media and text. The volume expands how scholars think of theatrical form, insisting that formalist analysis can be useful for studying the ways theatre is produced and consumed, and how theatre makers engage with other forms like dance and visual art. Chapters focus on a range of interdisciplinary artists including Tadeusz Kantor, Ann Liv Young and Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, as well as theatre's enmeshment within institutional formations like funding agencies, festivals, real estate and healthcare. A timely investigation of the aesthetic structures and material conditions of contemporary performance, this collection refines what we mean, and what we don't, when we speak of postdramatic theatre.
Postdramatic Theatre and Form (Methuen Drama Engage)
by Michael Shane Boyle Matt Cornish Brandon Woolf Enoch Brater Mark Taylor-BattyPostdramatic theatre is an essential category of performance that challenges classical elements of drama, including the centrality of plot and character. Tracking key developments in contemporary European and North American performance, this collection redirects ongoing debates about postdramatic theatre, turning attention to the overlooked issue on which they hinge: form. Contributors draw on literary studies, film studies and critical theory to reimagine the formal aspects of theatre, such as space, media and text. The volume expands how scholars think of theatrical form, insisting that formalist analysis can be useful for studying the ways theatre is produced and consumed, and how theatre makers engage with other forms like dance and visual art. Chapters focus on a range of interdisciplinary artists including Tadeusz Kantor, Ann Liv Young and Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, as well as theatre's enmeshment within institutional formations like funding agencies, festivals, real estate and healthcare. A timely investigation of the aesthetic structures and material conditions of contemporary performance, this collection refines what we mean, and what we don't, when we speak of postdramatic theatre.
Postdramatic Theatre and India: Theatre-Making Since the 1990s (Methuen Drama Engage)
by Ashis SenguptaThis book revisits Hans-Thies Lehmann's theory of the postdramatic and participates in the ongoing debate on the theatre paradigm by placing contemporary Indian performance within it. None of the Indian theatre-makers under study built their works directly on the Euro-American model of postdramatic theatre, but many have used its vocabulary and apparatus in innovative, transnational ways. Their principal aim was to invigorate the language of Indian urban theatre, which had turned stale under the stronghold of realism inherited from colonial stage practice or prescriptive under the decolonizing drive of the 'theatre of roots' movement after independence. Emerging out of a set of different historical and cultural contexts, their productions have eventually expanded and diversified the postdramatic framework by crosspollinating it with regional performance forms. Theatre in India today includes devised performance, storytelling across forms, theatre solos, cross-media performance, theatre installations, scenographic theatre, theatre-as-event, reality theatre, and so on. The book balances theory, context and praxis, developing a new area of scholarship in Indian theatre. Interspersed throughout are Indian theatre-makers' clarification of their own practices vis-à-vis those in Europe and the US.
Postdramatic Theatre and India: Theatre-Making Since the 1990s (Methuen Drama Engage)
by Ashis SenguptaThis book revisits Hans-Thies Lehmann's theory of the postdramatic and participates in the ongoing debate on the theatre paradigm by placing contemporary Indian performance within it. None of the Indian theatre-makers under study built their works directly on the Euro-American model of postdramatic theatre, but many have used its vocabulary and apparatus in innovative, transnational ways. Their principal aim was to invigorate the language of Indian urban theatre, which had turned stale under the stronghold of realism inherited from colonial stage practice or prescriptive under the decolonizing drive of the 'theatre of roots' movement after independence. Emerging out of a set of different historical and cultural contexts, their productions have eventually expanded and diversified the postdramatic framework by crosspollinating it with regional performance forms. Theatre in India today includes devised performance, storytelling across forms, theatre solos, cross-media performance, theatre installations, scenographic theatre, theatre-as-event, reality theatre, and so on. The book balances theory, context and praxis, developing a new area of scholarship in Indian theatre. Interspersed throughout are Indian theatre-makers' clarification of their own practices vis-à-vis those in Europe and the US.