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Playwrights in Rehearsal: The Seduction of Company
by Susan Letzler ColePlaywrights in Rehearsal is an inside look at the writer's role in the creative process of bringing his or her words to life on stage. Susan Letzler Cole, granted rare access to some of the major playwrights of our time, recounts her participation in rehearsal with Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner and Suzan-Lori Parks, and others.
Playwrights On Playwriting: From Ibsen To Ionesco (PDF)
by Toby ColeFor anyone interested in drama, Playwrights on Playwriting: From Ibsen to Ionesco offers revealing and astute insights on modern theater and the creation of plays. The book gathers the opinions and theories of the greatest names in the past 200 years of drama, among them Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, Federico Garcia Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tenessee Williams, Sean O'Casey, and Arthur Miller, to name a few. In the first part of the book, "Credos and Concepts," the playwrights offer their differing philosophies on the dynamics of theatrical performance and the changes in drama since Aristotle. In the second part, "Creations," the same dramatists look at specific plays of their own, commenting on their intended goals and the works' overall success. A unique and enlightening collection, Playwrights on Playwriting is an essential resource for the enthusiast of theater.
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.
Pownall: Plays Two (Modern Playwrights Ser.)
by David PownallIncludes the plays Beef, The Viewing, My Father’s House and Black StarBeef, a winner of the John Whiting Award, has so far only been published in radio form. In The Viewing a family buy a house which is haunted by God, while My Father’s House, commissioned by Birmingham Rep, looks at British politics through the eyes of Joseph Chamberlain and family. Black Star centres around the black American actor Ira Aldridge, touring in Shakespeare in Poland in 1865.
Pre-1770 Drama: Elizabethan and Jacobean (EMC Advanced Literature Series) (PDF)
by David Kinder Juliet Harrison128-page photocopiable pack introduces the cultural, social, historical and literary contexts of the period through the study of substantial extracts from a range of set texts.
Profiles of African American Stage Performers and Theatre People, 1816-1960 (Non-ser.)
by Bernard L. Jr.This directory includes over 500 African American performers and theater people who have made a significant contribution to the American stage from the early 19th century to the beginning of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Entries provide succinct biographical and theatrical information gathered from a variety of sources including library theater and drama collections, dissertations and theses, newspaper and magazine reviews and criticism, theater programs, theatrical memoirs, and earlier performing arts directories. Among the professional artists included in this volume are performers, librettists, lyricists, directors, producers, choreographers, stage managers, and musicians. The individuals profiled represent almost every major category and genre of the professional, semiprofessional, regional, and academic stage including minstrelsy, vaudeville, musical theater, and drama. Persons of historical significance are included as well as those stars and theatrical personalities that were well known during their time but who are relatively forgotten today.This comprehensive volume will appeal to theater and musical theater, Black studies, and American studies scholars. Cross-referenced throughout, this reference also includes an extensive bibliography and appendices of other theater personalities excluded from the main text. Separate indexes list the personalities, teams and partnerships, and performing groups, organizations, and companies.
Psychoanalysis and Performance
by Patrick Campbell Adrian KearThe field of literary studies has long recognised the centrality of psychoanalysis as a method for looking at texts in a new way. But rarely has the relationship between psychoanalysis and performance been mapped out, either in terms of analysing the nature of performance itself, or in terms of making sense of specific performance-related activities. In this volume some of the most distinguished thinkers in the field make this exciting new connection and offer original perspectives on a wide variety of topics, including: · hypnotism and hysteria · ventriloquism and the body · dance and sublimation · the unconscious and the rehearsal process · melancholia and the uncanny · cloning and theatrical mimesis · censorship and activist performance · theatre and social memory. The arguments advanced here are based on the dual principle that psychoanalysis can provide a productive framework for understanding the work of performance, and that performance itself can help to investigate the problematic of identity.
Psychoanalysis and Performance
by Patrick Campbell Adrian KearThe field of literary studies has long recognised the centrality of psychoanalysis as a method for looking at texts in a new way. But rarely has the relationship between psychoanalysis and performance been mapped out, either in terms of analysing the nature of performance itself, or in terms of making sense of specific performance-related activities. In this volume some of the most distinguished thinkers in the field make this exciting new connection and offer original perspectives on a wide variety of topics, including: · hypnotism and hysteria · ventriloquism and the body · dance and sublimation · the unconscious and the rehearsal process · melancholia and the uncanny · cloning and theatrical mimesis · censorship and activist performance · theatre and social memory. The arguments advanced here are based on the dual principle that psychoanalysis can provide a productive framework for understanding the work of performance, and that performance itself can help to investigate the problematic of identity.
Ravenhill Plays: Mother Clap's Molly House; The Cut; Citizenship; Pool (no water); Product (Contemporary Dramatists)
by Mark RavenhillMark Ravenhill has established himself as one of the most important playwrights to emerge from the 1990s. Provocative, dark, witty and satirical, his plays consistently probe the debased culture of our times. This second volume of plays brings together five plays from 2001-07. It includes Mother Clap's Molly House, a black comedy and celebration of human sexuality that premiered at the National Theatre in 2001; Citizenship, a bitter-sweet comedy about growing up that was developed by the National Theatre's Shell Connections programme in 2005; The Cut, a disturbing political fable that opened at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006; Product, Ravenhill's one man satire on the media industry that since its premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005, has been produced around the world, and Pool (no water), a shocking examination of the fragility of friendship and the jealousy and resentment inspired by success.The volume features an introduction by the author and a chronology of his work.
Ravenhill Plays: Shopping and F***ing; Faust is Dead; Handbag; Some Explicit Polaroids (Contemporary Dramatists)
by Mark Ravenhill"Ravenhill has more to say, and says it more refreshingly and wittily, than any other playwright of his generation" Time Out "There are few stage authors writing more interestingly than Mark Ravenhill ... He is - it is now yet more evident - a searing, intelligent, disturbing sociologist with a talent for satirical dialogue and a flair for sexual sensationalism." - Financial Times Shopping and Fucking: "is a darkly humorous play for today's twenty-somethings ... a real coup de theatre" - Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard Faust: "...an intelligent and witty reappropriation of the legend ... alive, pertinent and disturbing" - Michael Coveney, Observer Handbag: "...combines urban grit with sly wit, and reveals Mark Ravenhill as a writer of real daring" - Daily Telegraph Some Explicit Polaroids: "laudably ambitious, pulsates with energy ... very funny" - Financial Times
Re: A Theoretical and Practical Guide (Worlds of Performance)
by Gabrielle Cody Rebecca SchneiderRe: Direction is an extraordinary resource for practitioners and students on directing. It provides a collection of ground-breaking interviews, primary sources and essays on 20th century directing theories and practices around the world. Helpfully organized into four key areas of the subject, the book explores: * theories of directing * the boundaries of the director's role * the limits of categorization * the history of the theatre and performance art. Exceptionally useful and thought-provoking introductory essays by editors Schneider and Cody guide you through the wealth of materials included here. Re: Direction is the kind of book anyone interested in theatre history should own, and which will prove an indispensable toolkit for a lifetime of study.
Re: A Theoretical and Practical Guide (Worlds of Performance)
by Gabrielle Cody Rebecca SchneiderRe: Direction is an extraordinary resource for practitioners and students on directing. It provides a collection of ground-breaking interviews, primary sources and essays on 20th century directing theories and practices around the world. Helpfully organized into four key areas of the subject, the book explores: * theories of directing * the boundaries of the director's role * the limits of categorization * the history of the theatre and performance art. Exceptionally useful and thought-provoking introductory essays by editors Schneider and Cody guide you through the wealth of materials included here. Re: Direction is the kind of book anyone interested in theatre history should own, and which will prove an indispensable toolkit for a lifetime of study.
Remembrance of Things Past: Combray (Classics Ser.)
by Monsieur Marcel ProustRecognized as one of the major literary works of the twentieth-century, Marcel Proust's monumental seven-volume novel brings together memories of childhood and Parisian society before and during the First World War.This new adaptation is based on Harold Pinter's screenplay, written at the request of the film director Joseph Losey in 1972.Remembrance of Things Past premièred at the Royal National Theatre in November 2000.
Rodney Ackland: Smithereens Strange Orchestra Before The Party - The Old Ladies (Oberon Modern Playwright's Ser.)
by Rodney AcklandNo other major playwright of the last 50 years has undergone such a reappraisal as Rodney Ackland. Interest in his work has renewed in the 1990s, starting at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, with further revivals at many theatres, including the Chichester Festival Theatre and the Royal National Theatre. In Plays Two, we are reminded once again of Ackland's dangerous gift. Includes the plays Smithereens, Strange Orchestra, Before The Party and The Old Ladies
Romeo and Juliet (New Casebooks)
by R. S. WhiteAs one of the world's greatest love stories Romeo and Juliet continues to excite new theatre-goers, readers and film-goers. Its depiction of tragic lovers strikes a chord in each generation of young people, and seems to speak in their own idiom. As such, it reflects, and allows us to analyse, changing attitudes to sex in a violent world. This collection of contemporary essays raises topical debates about the nature of love conventions, as well as offering new insights into Shakespeare's text.
Romeo and Juliet (New Casebooks)
by R. S. WhiteAs one of the world's greatest love stories Romeo and Juliet continues to excite new theatre-goers, readers and film-goers. Its depiction of tragic lovers strikes a chord in each generation of young people, and seems to speak in their own idiom. As such, it reflects, and allows us to analyse, changing attitudes to sex in a violent world. This collection of contemporary essays raises topical debates about the nature of love conventions, as well as offering new insights into Shakespeare's text.
Rose Rage: Adapted from Shakespeare's Henry VI plays (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by William Shakespeare Edward Hall Roger WarrenA startling adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry VI trilogy, presented by Propellor Productions at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury in 2001. It tells the exciting collapse of Henry V’s empire and the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, from which arises the anarchic figure of the future Richard III.
The Rose Tattoo and Other Plays (Penguin Modern Classics)
by Tennessee WilliamsIn these three exotic, steamy dramas Tennessee Williams portrays loss, faded lives and passionate love affairs.The Rose Tattoo is set in a bustling, Sicilian-American community, where newly widowed Serafina is paralysed by grief, until she has her romantic illusions about her dead husband shattered and rediscovers her true nature as a fiery prima donna, in a life-affirming celebration of love and sex. Tennessee Williams explores a new 'wild and unrestricted' theatrical form in the colourful tropical fantasy Camino Real, while Orpheus Descending, however, takes us into the dark territory of the Deep South: the corrupt hell of a small, brutal township, where a forbidden and tragic love affair sparks horrific violence.
School Play (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Suzy AlmondFifteen-year-old Charlie has serious ambitions - to mess with teachers' heads, to front a gang, to ride the motorbike that blows all competition out of the water. But when the new music teacher, Miss Fry, arrives, things start to change.
The Secret Love Life of Ophelia
by Steven BerkoffHamlet and Ophelia express the infinite variety of their passion in a work which takes the form of an epistolary play in verse. Steven Berkoff's startlingly original drama charts the lovers' story beneath the surface of Shakespeare's play. With a muscularity of language tempered with tenderness, Berkoff's play is shot through with images of courtly love, sexual desire and intimations of future tragedy. The chill of the ending perfectly offsets the preceding violent heat in what is another unique piece of work from the individual talent that is Steven Berkoff.The Secret Love Life of Ophelia was first performed at the King's Head Theatre, London, on 25 June 2001.
Shakespeare and Feminist Performance: Ideology on Stage (Accents on Shakespeare)
by Sarah WernerHow do performances of Shakespeare change the meanings of the plays? In this controversial new book, Sarah Werner argues that the text of a Shakespeare play is only one of the many factors that give a performance its meaning. By focusing on The Royal Shakespeare Company, Werner demonstrates how actor training, company management and gender politics fundamentally affect both how a production is created and the interpretations it can suggest. Werner concentrates particularly on: The influential training methods of Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg The history of the RSC Women's Group Gale Edwards' production of The Taming of the Shrew She reveals that no performance of Shakespeare is able to bring the plays to life or to realise the playwright's intentions without shaping them to mirror our own assumptions. By examining the ideological implications of performance practices, this book will help all interested in Shakespeare's plays to explore what it means to study them in performance.
Shakespeare and Feminist Performance: Ideology on Stage (Accents on Shakespeare)
by Sarah WernerHow do performances of Shakespeare change the meanings of the plays? In this controversial new book, Sarah Werner argues that the text of a Shakespeare play is only one of the many factors that give a performance its meaning. By focusing on The Royal Shakespeare Company, Werner demonstrates how actor training, company management and gender politics fundamentally affect both how a production is created and the interpretations it can suggest. Werner concentrates particularly on: The influential training methods of Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg The history of the RSC Women's Group Gale Edwards' production of The Taming of the Shrew She reveals that no performance of Shakespeare is able to bring the plays to life or to realise the playwright's intentions without shaping them to mirror our own assumptions. By examining the ideological implications of performance practices, this book will help all interested in Shakespeare's plays to explore what it means to study them in performance.