- Table View
- List View
Sideshow U.S.A.: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination
by Rachel AdamsA staple of American popular culture during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the freak show seemed to vanish after the Second World War. But as Rachel Adams reveals in Sideshow U.S.A., images of the freak show, with its combination of the grotesque, the horrific, and the amusing, stubbornly reappeared in literature and the arts. Freak shows, she contends, have survived because of their capacity for reinvention. Empty of any inherent meaning, the freak's body becomes a stage for playing out some of the twentieth century's most pressing social and political concerns, from debates about race, empire, and immigration, to anxiety about gender, and controversies over taste and public standards of decency. Sideshow U.S.A. begins by revisiting the terror and fascination the original freak shows provided for their audiences, as well as exploring the motivations of those who sought fame and profit in the business of human exhibition. With this history in mind, Adams turns from live entertainment to more mediated forms of cultural expression: the films of Tod Browning, the photography of Diane Arbus, the criticism of Leslie Fiedler, and the fiction Carson McCullers, Toni Morrison, and Katherine Dunn. Taken up in these works of art and literature, the freak serves as a metaphor for fundamental questions about self and other, identity and difference, and provides a window onto a once vital form of popular culture. Adams's study concludes with a revealing look at the revival of the freak show as live performance in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Celebrated by some, the freak show's recent return is less welcome to those who have traditionally been its victims. At the beginning of a new century, Adams sees it as a form of living history, a testament to the vibrancy and inventiveness of American popular culture, as well as its capacity for cruelty and injustice. "Because of its subject matter, this interesting and complex study is provocative, as well as thought-provoking."—Virginia Quarterly Review
Six Characters Looking For An Author (Modern Plays)
by Luigi Pirandello David HarrowerA new version of one of the most influential plays of the 20th centurySix people arrive in a theatre during rehearsals for a play. But they are not ordinary people. They are the characters of a play that has not yet been written. Trapped inside a traumatic event from which they long to escape, they desperately need a writer to complete their story and release them. Intrigued by their situation, the director and his company of actors listen as the characters begin to describe and argue over the key events of their lives...One of the most extraordinary and mysterious plays of the 20th century, Six Characters speaks directly to an age of uncertainty: where do we come from, where are we going, how do we become what we want to be?Six Characters Looking for an Author premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in February 2000.
Sovereign Amity: Figures of Friendship in Shakespearean Contexts
by Laurie ShannonRenaissance formulations of friendship typically cast the friend as "another self" and idealized a pair of friends as "one soul in two bodies." Laurie Shannon's Sovereign Amity puts this stress on the likeness of friends into context and offers a historical account of its place in English culture and politics. Shannon demonstrates that the likeness of sex and station urged in friendship enabled a civic parity not present in other social forms. Early modern friendship was nothing less than a utopian political discourse. It preceded the advent of liberal thought, and it made its case in the terms of gender, eroticism, counsel, and kingship. To show the power of friendship in early modernity, Shannon ranges widely among translations of classical essays; the works of Elizabeth I, Montaigne, Donne, and Bacon; and popular literature, to focus finally on the plays of Shakespeare. Her study will interest scholars of literature, history, gender, sexuality, and political thought, and anyone interested in a general account of the English Renaissance.
Tasso/Clavigo (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Robert David MacDonaldGoethe’s classical verse play Tasso (1790) examines, in his own words, ‘the disproportion of talent to life’ and the predicament of the artist at odds with the world around him. In Clavigo (1774), a play which Goethe claimed only took him a week to write, we find the first of the double-portraits which culminates in two souls wrestling for dominion in the breast of Faust. Both these translations were premiered at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.
Ted Whitehead: The Foursome,alpha,beta,the Sea Anchor,the Punishment (Oberon Modern Playwright's Ser.)
by Ted WhiteheadIncludes the plays The Foursome, Alpha Beta, The Sea Anchor and The Punishment. E. A. Whitehead's first play, The Foursome, had its premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in 1971, and subsequently transferred to the West End, winning the George Devine Award and Evening Standard Award for most promising playwright. Ostensibly a play about the battle of the sexes, it is actually an exploration of the assumptions that make such battles inevitable. Whitehead continued his exploration of sexual conflict in his next two plays, Alpha Beta and The Sea Anchor. The plays were widely produced and won Whitehead an international reputation. The Punishment, shown live on BBC2 in 1972, is a one-act play about authority and corruption.
The Theater of Tony Kushner (Studies in Modern Drama)
by James FisherThe Theater of Tony Kushner is a comprehensive portrait of the life and work of one of America's most important contemporary playwrights.
The Theater of Tony Kushner (Studies in Modern Drama)
by James FisherThe Theater of Tony Kushner is a comprehensive portrait of the life and work of one of America's most important contemporary playwrights.
Theatre and Ireland: Cultivating The People (Theatre And)
by Lionel Pilkington Fiona ShawWhat is the significance of theatre and performance within Irish culture and history? How do we understand the impact and political potential of Irish theatre? This innovative survey of theatre in Ireland covers a range of drama and performance, from the 17th century to the present. Expanding the field of Irish theatre to include mumming, wake games, prison protests and theatre riots, the book argues that Ireland's longstanding association with performance illuminates key aspects of its cultural history and politics.Foreword by Fiona Shaw.
Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the People
by Lionel PilkingtonThis major new study presents a political and cultural history of some of Ireland's key national theatre projects from the 1890s to the 1990s. Impressively wide-ranging in coverage, Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the People includes discussions on: *the politics of the Irish literary movement at the Abbey Theatre before and after political independence; *the role of a state-sponsored theatre for the post-1922 unionist government in Northern Ireland; *the convulsive effects of the Northern Ireland conflict on Irish theatre. Lionel Pilkington draws on a combination of archival research and critical readings of individual plays, covering works by J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, Lennox Robinson, T. C. Murray, George Shiels, Brian Friel, and Frank McGuinness. In its insistence on the details of history, this is a book important to anyone interested in Irish culture and politics in the twentieth century.
Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the People
by Lionel PilkingtonThis major new study presents a political and cultural history of some of Ireland's key national theatre projects from the 1890s to the 1990s. Impressively wide-ranging in coverage, Theatre and the State in Twentieth-Century Ireland: Cultivating the People includes discussions on: *the politics of the Irish literary movement at the Abbey Theatre before and after political independence; *the role of a state-sponsored theatre for the post-1922 unionist government in Northern Ireland; *the convulsive effects of the Northern Ireland conflict on Irish theatre. Lionel Pilkington draws on a combination of archival research and critical readings of individual plays, covering works by J. M. Synge, Sean O'Casey, Lennox Robinson, T. C. Murray, George Shiels, Brian Friel, and Frank McGuinness. In its insistence on the details of history, this is a book important to anyone interested in Irish culture and politics in the twentieth century.
Theatre/Archaeology: An Imperfect Archaeology
by Mike Pearson Michael ShanksTheatre/Archaeology is a provocative challenge to disciplinary practice and intellectual boundaries. It brings together radical proposals in both archaeological and performance theory to generate a startlingly original and intriguing methodological framework.
Theatre/Archaeology
by Mike Pearson Michael ShanksTheatre/Archaeology is a provocative challenge to disciplinary practice and intellectual boundaries. It brings together radical proposals in both archaeological and performance theory to generate a startlingly original and intriguing methodological framework.
The Theatre of Aphra Behn
by D. HughesDuring the nineteen years of her play-writing career, Aphra Behn had far more new plays staged than anyone else. This book is the first to examine all her theatrical work. It explains her often dominant place in the complex theatrical culture of Charles II's reign, her divided political sympathies, and her interests as a free-thinking intellectual. It also reveals her as a brilliant theatrical practitioner, who used the seen as richly and significantly as the spoken.
Theatre Of Conscience, 1939-53: A Study Of Four Touring British Community Theatres (PDF)
by Peter BillinghamTheatres of Conscienceoffers an invaluable and essential insight into four touring British theatre companies whose work and contributions to post-war British theatre have largely gone unnoticed. Combining a rigorous scholarly evaluation of their work and their broadly ideological and ethical contribution to wider post-war developments in British theatre. Peter Billingham offers the reader a unique insight into four companies which, motivated by enthusiasm, principles and creative innovation, sought to take the theatre of conscience to theatre-less communities in wartime Britain and during the following decade. Contemporaries of - amongst others - Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, the Pilgrim Players, the Adelphi Players, the Compass Playersand the Century Theatrerepresent a significant but rather overlooked phase in the development of twentieth-century British theatre.
Theatre of Conscience 1939-53: A Study of Four Touring British Community Theatres
by Peter BillinghamTheatres of Conscience offers an invaluable and essential insight into four touring British theatre companies whose work and contributions to post-war British theatre have largely gone unnoticed. Combining a rigorous scholarly evaluation of their work and their broadly ideological and ethical contribution to wider post-war developments in British theatre. Peter Billingham offers the reader a unique insight into four companies which, motivated by enthusiasm, principles and creative innovation, sought to take the theatre of conscience to theatre-less communities in wartime Britain and during the following decade. Contemporaries of - amongst others - Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, the Pilgrim Players, the Adelphi Players, the Compass Players and the Century Theatre represent a significant but rather overlooked phase in the development of twentieth-century British theatre.
Theatre of Conscience 1939-53: A Study of Four Touring British Community Theatres
by Peter BillinghamTheatres of Conscience offers an invaluable and essential insight into four touring British theatre companies whose work and contributions to post-war British theatre have largely gone unnoticed. Combining a rigorous scholarly evaluation of their work and their broadly ideological and ethical contribution to wider post-war developments in British theatre. Peter Billingham offers the reader a unique insight into four companies which, motivated by enthusiasm, principles and creative innovation, sought to take the theatre of conscience to theatre-less communities in wartime Britain and during the following decade. Contemporaries of - amongst others - Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, the Pilgrim Players, the Adelphi Players, the Compass Players and the Century Theatre represent a significant but rather overlooked phase in the development of twentieth-century British theatre.
Theatre Sound
by John A. LeonardTheatre Sound includes a brief history of the use of sound in the theatre, discussions of musicals, sound effects, and the recording studio, and even an introduction to the physics and math of sound design. A bibliography and online reference section make this the new essential work for students of theatre and practicing sound designers.
Theatre Sound
by John A. LeonardTheatre Sound includes a brief history of the use of sound in the theatre, discussions of musicals, sound effects, and the recording studio, and even an introduction to the physics and math of sound design. A bibliography and online reference section make this the new essential work for students of theatre and practicing sound designers.
Tiny Dynamite (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Abi MorganWhen memory takes hold, when chaos takes over and when the electricity between us becomes overwhelming. An impossible love story is given a second chance and three scorched characters are about to learn that lightning does strike twice.
Titus Andronicus: With The Trve Tragedie Of Richard The Third .
by Jacques Berthoud William ShakespeareAn embittered Roman General returns from war, having captured the Queen of the Goths and her three sons. Sacrificing the eldest, in memory of his own sons killed in battle, he provokes the queen's unending hatred. And when she is made empress by the new emperor of Rome, she quickly begins to plot a murderous revenge of barely conceivable cruelty.
Tragedy: A Tragedy (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Will EnoThe sun has set over streets of houses, government buildings and American backyards everywhere. The world is dark. A news team is on the scene. Their report: someone left the lawn sprinklers on; someone’s horse is loose; a seashell is lying in the grass; dogs run by. The Governor issues excited statements appealing for calm. It is night-time in the world. Everyone’s afraid. Everyone doesn’t know if the sun, once down, will ever rise again. But there is a witness, and the witness will speak.
True West (Sparknotes Literature Guide Ser.)
by Sam ShepardAustin, working on his Hollywood screenplay, is disturbed by the arrival of his estranged brother, Lee, just returned from three months in the desert. During a brief spell of uneasy cohabitation in their absent mother's house, Lee employs himself as a door-to-door burglar before killing his brother's film idea by pitching his own to Austin's producer. But Lee is no writer and the brothers must strike a deal, escalating sibling rivalry to fever pitch in the blazing Californian heat. Sam Shephard's True West was first performed at the Magic Theatre, San Francisco, in 1980 and has since become recognised as an American classic.
Twentieth Century Scottish Drama (Canongate Classics #98)
by Cairns Craig Randall StevensEdited and introduced by Cairns Craig and Randall Stevenson. Ever since the major revival of dramatic writing and production in the 1970s, the style and the subject matter of Scottish writing for stage and screen has been a continuing influence on our contemporary culture, exciting, offending and challenging audiences in equal measure. Yet modern Scottish drama has a history of controversy, conflict and entertainment going back to the 1920s, notable at every turn for the vigour of its language and its direct confrontation with telling issues. The plays in this anthology offer a unique chance to grasp the different topics and also the recurrent themes of Scottish drama in the twentieth century. Gathered together in a single omnibus volume, there is the poetic eeriness of Barrie and the political commitment of Joe Corrie and Sue Glover; there is the Brechtian debate of Bridie and the verbal brilliance of John Byrne and Liz Lochhead; there is working-class experience and feminist insight; broad Scots and existential anxiety; street realism and a meeting with the devil; social injustice and raucous humour; historical comedy and tragic loss. Here is both the breadth and the continuity of the modern Scottish tradition in a single volume.
Two Jewish Plays: The Jews And Nathan The Wise (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Gotthold LessingGotthold Lessing (1729-81), playwright, critic, humanist philosopher and polemicist was a leading figure of the German enlightnement era. From his immense literary output two plays stand out - The Jews and Nathan the Wise - for the passion of the writing and the timeless urgency of the message. Though differering greatly in form and content, both plays are eloquent pleas for human beings to desist from mutual persecution on racial or religious grounds. The relevance of Lessing's thinking in today's world is all too clear. They are published here in new English versions by the award-winning translator, Noel Clark.
Voice-Overs: A Practical Guide with CD
by Bernard Graham ShawVoice-Overs is an insider's guide to voicing radio and television commercials. Bernard Graham Shaw draws upon his nearly 20 years of voice-work experience to teach valuable studio skills and offers practical advice on how to build a voice-over career.