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The Great Gatsby (Modern Plays)
by F. Scott Fitzgerald Stephen SharkeyMercurial Jay Gatsby's destructive passion for Daisy Buchanan is played out against the background of Long Island high society. Viewed through the eyes of an outsider, Gatsby's life is the story of a generation – glitz and glamour turning sour, and the high life turning to ashes.Immersing you in the decadence of America's Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby is brought to life in this sizzling new stage adaptation. Recreating the sights, sounds and feel of America's 'Roaring Twenties' as seen through the eyes of Nick Carraway, F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece is a brilliant evocation of a society obsessed with wealth and status.This masterful adaptation by Stephen Sharkey was first published to coincide with the premiere and national tour by Blackeyed Theatre, opening in September 2015.
Octagon (Modern Plays)
by Kristiana Rae ColónSome poems are better written in flesh . . .After Wall Street and Tahrir Square, after ISIS and the NSA, after Ferguson and Eric Garner: here come the poets.In a downtown poetry slam with a place on the team to be won, eight young poets prepare to do battle. But backstage it's all kicking off with love triangles, families to feed and wounds to rip open. And in the end, is it about winning – or finding the words that need to be said?Octagon received its world premiere at the Arcola Theatre, London, on 16 September 2015.
Modernism and the Law (New Modernisms)
by Robert SpooExploring critical legal issues and cases of the period-from Oscar Wilde's prosecution for gross indecency to legal bans on such publications as D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, and James Joyce's Ulysses-Modernism and the Law is the first book to survey the legal contexts of transatlantic Anglo-American modernist culture. Written by one of the leading authorities on the subject, the book covers such topics as: · Obscenity laws and censorship · Copyrights, moral rights, and the public domain · Patronage and literary piracy · Privacy, defamation, publicity, and blackmail Including an annotated list of relevant statutes, treaties, and cases, this is an essential read for scholars and students coming to the subject for the first time as well as for experienced scholars.
Liberian Girl (Modern Plays)
by Diana Nneka AtuonaEvery single one of you has been chosen for this great moment, you are revolutionary freedom fighters, changing your future, one day at a time. This is for you, it's all for you and don't you ever forget that!Set during the early years of the First Liberian Civil War (1989 – 1996), this startling debut play by Diana Nneka Atuona tells the story of fourteen-year-old Martha who flees her country, disguised as a boy, when it's invaded by rebels. Investigated and cruelly interrogated, she is separated from her grandmother as they attempt to escape the conflict under false identities and, convincing in her boy's apparel, Martha is forced to join the rebels' army. Exposed to the violence of this brutal and seemingly misguided conflict, both as victim and perpetrator, Martha's experience of the First Liberian Civil War is one of excessive cruelty and, in particular, abuse against female prisoners of war.Liberian Girl received its world premiere at the Royal Court Upstairs, London in December 2014. This second edition was published post-production with some changes to the original script.
Orpheus and Eurydice: A Graphic-Poetic Exploration (Beyond Criticism)
by Tom De Freston Kiran Millwood HargraveThe story of Orpheus's tragic quest into the underworld to rescue his true love Eurydice back from the dead is one that has haunted the western imagination for over 2,000 years through many tellings, re-tellings, appropriations and adaptations.A unique coming together of poetry, art and criticism, Orpheus and Eurydice explores the myth's impact through a graphic-poetic reconstruction of the story. Including critical reflections from leading thinkers, writers and critics, this is a compelling exploration of the enduring power of this tale.
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.
Telling the Story of Translation: Writers who Translate (Bloomsbury Advances in Translation)
by Judith WoodsworthScholars have long highlighted the links between translating and (re)writing, increasingly blurring the line between translations and so-called 'original' works. Less emphasis has been placed on the work of writers who translate, and the ways in which they conceptualize, or even fictionalize, the task of translation. This book fills that gap and thus will be of interest to scholars in linguistics, translation studies and literary studies. Scrutinizing translation through a new lens, Judith Woodsworth reveals the sometimes problematic relations between author and translator, along with the evolution of the translator's voice and visibility. The book investigates the uses (and abuses) of translation at the hands of George Bernard Shaw, Gertrude Stein and Paul Auster, prominent writers who bring into play assorted fictions as they tell their stories of translations. Each case is interesting in itself because of the new material analysed and the conclusions reached. Translation is seen not only as an exercise and fruitful starting point, it is also a way of paying tribute, repaying a debt and cementing a friendship. Taken together, the case studies point the way to a teleology of translation and raise the question: what is translation for? Shaw, Stein and Auster adopt an authorial posture that distinguishes them from other translators. They stretch the boundaries of the translation proper, their words spilling over into the liminal space of the text; in some cases they hijack the act of translation to serve their own ends. Through their tales of loss, counterfeit and hard labour, they cast an occasionally bleak glance at what it means to be a translator. Yet they also pay homage to translation and provide fresh insights that continue to manifest themselves in current works of literature. By engaging with translation as a literary act in its own right, these eminent writers confer greater prestige on what has traditionally been viewed as a subservient art.
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.
The Semiotics of Caesar Augustus (Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics)
by Elina PyyGaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, better known as Augustus, was the first Roman emperor and is one of the most iconic figures in world history. Two thousand years after his death, Augustus remains a strong presence in modern culture. The Semiotics of Caesar Augustus examines the meanings and significances of Augustus in Western literary and popular culture, from the 1960s until the turn of the millennium. Drawing on the theoretical background of semiotics and classical reception studies, Elina Pyy investigates the representation of Augustus in the postmodern novels of Kurt Vonnegut and Christoph Ransmayr, as well as in the genre of historical fiction, and in screen representations from both sides of the Atlantic.Scrutinizing what Caesar Augustus stood for in the postmodern world, and the main factors that influenced (and still influence) the modern reader's interpretation of him, this book is grounded on the premise that the past, being a system of signs based on our culturally shared understanding of them, is continuously created and reconstructed by the modern audience. Arguing that the 'many faces of the emperor' can be considered to be reactions to contemporary cultural, socio-political or emotional needs, The Semiotics of Caesar Augustus shows how his character was recurrently utilized to explain and understand the ways in which the discourses of power, liberty, oppression and humanity operated in the postmodern world.
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.
Charles Henri Ford: Between Modernism and Postmodernism (Historicizing Modernism)
by Alexander HowardThe first American surrealist poet, a prolific literary editor and a seminal influence on the New York School of poetry, Charles Henri Ford was a key figure in the transition from late modernist to postmodern culture in America. Charles Henri Ford: Between Modernism and Postmodernism is the first book-length scholarly study of this important literary figure. Drawing on new archival research – including explorations of Ford's correspondence with the likes of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Parker Tyler, and many others – the book explores the full impact of Ford's contribution to 20th-century American literary culture.
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.