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History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Ofosuwa M. AbiolaThe field of history is founded on the interrogation of written documents from the past. However, culture is the center of life in Africa. As a result, in the past – and to a degree in the present – the process for documenting events in Africa was not written, it was performed. History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance argues that a wealth of information is housed within traditional Mandinka dance and, consequently, the dances can be used as an African-derived primary source for writing African history. Ofosuwa M. Abiola highlights the overall value of studying Mandinka dance history specifically, and African dance history generally, as well as addressing the issue of scarcity with regard to primary sources for writing African history. History Dances proves to be a vital read for both undergraduate students and scholars in the fields of dance history, African history, performance studies, and cultural anthropology.
History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Ofosuwa M. AbiolaThe field of history is founded on the interrogation of written documents from the past. However, culture is the center of life in Africa. As a result, in the past – and to a degree in the present – the process for documenting events in Africa was not written, it was performed. History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance argues that a wealth of information is housed within traditional Mandinka dance and, consequently, the dances can be used as an African-derived primary source for writing African history. Ofosuwa M. Abiola highlights the overall value of studying Mandinka dance history specifically, and African dance history generally, as well as addressing the issue of scarcity with regard to primary sources for writing African history. History Dances proves to be a vital read for both undergraduate students and scholars in the fields of dance history, African history, performance studies, and cultural anthropology.
Attack of the Monster Musical: A Cultural History of Little Shop of Horrors
by Adam AbrahamHow many hit musicals are based on films that were shot in two days at a budget of $30,000? The answer is one: Little Shop of Horrors. Roger Corman's monster movie opened in 1960, played the midnight circuit, and then disappeared from view. Two decades later, Little Shop of Horrors opened Off-Broadway and became a surprise success. Attack of the Monster Musical: A Cultural History of Little Shop of Horrors chronicles this unlikely phenomenon. The Faustian tale of Seymour and his man-eating plant transcended its humble origins to become a global phenomenon, launching a popular film adaptation and productions all around the world. This timely and authoritative book looks at the creation of the musical and its place in the contemporary musical theatre canon. Examining its afterlives and wider cultural context, the book asks the question why this unlikely combination of blood, annihilation, and catchy tunes has resonated with audiences from the 1980s to the present. At the core of this in-depth study is the collaboration between the show's creators, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Told through archival research and eyewitness accounts, this is the first book to make extensive use of Ashman's personal papers, offering a unique and inspiring study of one of musical theatre's greatest talents.
Black British Women's Theatre: Intersectionality, Archives, Aesthetics
by Nicola AbramThis book marks a significant methodological shift in studies of black British women’s theatre: it looks beyond published plays to the wealth of material held in archives of various kinds, from national repositories and themed collections to individuals’ personal papers. It finds there a cache of unpublished manuscripts and production recordings distinctive for their non-naturalistic aesthetics. Close analysis of selected works identifies this as an intersectional feminist creative practice. Chapters focus on five theatre companies and artists, spanning several decades: Theatre of Black Women (1982-1988), co-founded by Booker Prize-winning writer Bernardine Evaristo; Munirah Theatre Company (1983-1991); Black Mime Theatre Women’s Troop (1990-1992); Zindika; and SuAndi. The book concludes by reflecting on the politics of representation, with reference to popular postmillennial playwright debbie tucker green. Drawing on new interviews with the playwrights/practitioners and their peers, this book assembles a rich, interconnected, and occasionally corrective history of black British women’s creativity. By reproducing 22 facsimile images of flyers, production programmes, photographs and other ephemera, Black British Women’s Theatre: Intersectionality, Archives, Aesthetics not only articulates a hidden history but allows its readers their own encounter with the fragile record of this vibrant past.
Walk Through Walls: A Memoir
by Marina Abramovic'Her bravest work of performance art to date . . . Rawly intimate' ObserverThis memoir spans Marina Abramovic's five decade career, and tells a life story that is almost as exhilarating and extraordinary as her groundbreaking performance art. Taking us from her early life in communist ex-Yugoslavia, to her time as a young art student in Belgrade in the 1970s, where she first made her mark with a series of pieces that used the body as a canvas, the book also describes her relationship with the West German performance artist named Ulay who was her lover and sole collaborator for 12 years.
Samuel Beckett: New Critical Essays (Plays and Playwrights)
by Chris Ackerley Graley Herren Peter Fifield Ulrika Maude Matthew Feldman David Wheatley Mark Nixon Andrew Gibson Iain Bailey David Addyman Yoshiki TajiriPublished in association with the seminar series of the same name held by the University of Oxford, Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies presents the best new scholarship addressing the sources, development and ongoing influence of Samuel Beckett's work. Edited by convenors Dr Peter Fifield and Dr David Addyman, the volume presents ten research essays by leading international scholars ranging across Beckett's work, opening up new avenues of enquiry and association for scholars, students and readers of Beckett's work.Among the subjects covered the volume includes studies of:·Beckett and the influence of new media 1956-1960·the influence of silent film on Beckett's work·death, loss and Ireland in Beckett's drama - tracing Irish references in Beckett's plays from the 1950s and 1960s, including Endgame, All That Fall, Krapp's Last Tape and Eh Joe·a consideration of Beckett's theatrical notebooks and annotated copies of his plays which provide a unique insight into his attitude toward the staging of his plays, the ways he himself interpreted his texts and approached theatrical practice.·the French text of the novel Mercier et Camier, which both biographically and aesthetically appeared at a very significant moment in Beckett's career and indicates a crucial development in his writing·the matter of tone in Beckett's drama, offering a new reading of the ways in which this elusive property emerges and can be read in the relationship between published text, canon and performance
Samuel Beckett: New Critical Essays (Plays and Playwrights)
by Chris Ackerley Graley Herren Peter Fifield Ulrika Maude Matthew Feldman David Wheatley Mark Nixon Andrew Gibson Iain Bailey David Addyman Yoshiki TajiriPublished in association with the seminar series of the same name held by the University of Oxford, Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies presents the best new scholarship addressing the sources, development and ongoing influence of Samuel Beckett's work. Edited by convenors Dr Peter Fifield and Dr David Addyman, the volume presents ten research essays by leading international scholars ranging across Beckett's work, opening up new avenues of enquiry and association for scholars, students and readers of Beckett's work.Among the subjects covered the volume includes studies of:·Beckett and the influence of new media 1956-1960·the influence of silent film on Beckett's work·death, loss and Ireland in Beckett's drama - tracing Irish references in Beckett's plays from the 1950s and 1960s, including Endgame, All That Fall, Krapp's Last Tape and Eh Joe·a consideration of Beckett's theatrical notebooks and annotated copies of his plays which provide a unique insight into his attitude toward the staging of his plays, the ways he himself interpreted his texts and approached theatrical practice.·the French text of the novel Mercier et Camier, which both biographically and aesthetically appeared at a very significant moment in Beckett's career and indicates a crucial development in his writing·the matter of tone in Beckett's drama, offering a new reading of the ways in which this elusive property emerges and can be read in the relationship between published text, canon and performance
Against Theatre: Creative Destructions on the Modernist Stage (Performance Interventions)
by A. Ackerman M. PuchnerAgainst Theatre shows that the most prominent writers of modern drama shared a radical rejection of the theatre as they knew it. Together with designers, composers and film makers, they plotted to destroy all existing theatres. But from their destruction emerged the most astonishing innovations of modernist theatre.
A Student Handbook to the Plays of Arthur Miller: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Broken Glass
by Alan Ackerman Susan C. Abbotson Stephen Marino Toby Zinman Enoch BraterA Student Handbook to the Plays of Arthur Miller provides the essential guide to Miller's most studied and revived dramas. Authored by a team of leading scholars, it offers students a clear analysis and detailed commentary on five of Miller's plays: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge and Broken Glass. A consistent framework of analysis ensures that whether readers want a summary of the play, a commentary on the themes or characters, or a discussion of the work in performance, they can readily find what they need to develop their understanding and aid their appreciation of Miller's artistry. A chronology of Miller's life and work helps to situate his oeuvre in context and the introduction reinforces this by providing a clear overview of his writing, its recurrent themes and how these are intertwined with his life and times. For each play the author provides a summary of the plot, followed by commentary on the context, themes, characters, structure and language, and the play in production - both on stage and screen adaptations; there are questions for further study and detailed notes on words and phrases in the text. The wealth of authoritative and clear commentary on each play, together with further questions that encourage comparison across Miller's work and related plays by other leading writers, ensures that this is the clearest and fullest guide to Miller's greatest plays.
A Student Handbook to the Plays of Arthur Miller: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, Broken Glass
by Alan Ackerman Susan C. Abbotson Stephen Marino Toby Zinman Enoch BraterA Student Handbook to the Plays of Arthur Miller provides the essential guide to Miller's most studied and revived dramas. Authored by a team of leading scholars, it offers students a clear analysis and detailed commentary on five of Miller's plays: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A View from the Bridge and Broken Glass. A consistent framework of analysis ensures that whether readers want a summary of the play, a commentary on the themes or characters, or a discussion of the work in performance, they can readily find what they need to develop their understanding and aid their appreciation of Miller's artistry. A chronology of Miller's life and work helps to situate his oeuvre in context and the introduction reinforces this by providing a clear overview of his writing, its recurrent themes and how these are intertwined with his life and times. For each play the author provides a summary of the plot, followed by commentary on the context, themes, characters, structure and language, and the play in production - both on stage and screen adaptations; there are questions for further study and detailed notes on words and phrases in the text. The wealth of authoritative and clear commentary on each play, together with further questions that encourage comparison across Miller's work and related plays by other leading writers, ensures that this is the clearest and fullest guide to Miller's greatest plays.
Absolute Hell (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Rodney AcklandSet in a Soho drinking Club just after World War II, this savage, witty slice of Bohemian life in London was reviled by one critic as ‘an insult to the British people’. Its title then was The Pink Room, as close as the law would allow for a play in which one of its central characters is a drunken homosexual writer. Despite these obstacles, Absolute Hell is now regarded as a twentieth-century classic, following a sumptuous revival at the National Theatre, starring Dame Judi Dench. Earlier the play had been televised by Channel 4 after being rediscovered by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, near to where the author Rodney Ackland was living in virtual obscurity. The play is remarkable for two reasons: It offers a realistic view of postwar London, in contrast to the nostalgic memories of the blitz and buzz bombs; Ackland’s craft is consummate, weaving together the lives of 20 speaking characters, many of them lost souls as they drift in and out of the bar in search of a more meaningful life. Ackland died in poverty, having written some of the finest plays of our time.
After October: The Dark River After October (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Rodney Ackland‘Listen: things will be different after the play comes on – completely different… Only a few more weeks, Francie, and you’ll see. Your whole life will change. I promise you it will.’ Hampstead, 1936. In a shabby basement flat, aspiring playwright Clive Monkhams dreams of a West End hit and winning Francie’s heart. His bankrupt mother Rhoda, a faded actress, frets about the bills and the fortunes of her penniless daughters while reminiscing about her glory days. Clive’s family and an entourage of bohemian dependants all need him to make it big. With opening night approaching and finances fast running out, everything rides on the success of the play and, for Clive, the future looks all too glittering… From the acclaimed writer of Absolute Hell and Before the Party, After October is Rodney Ackland’s most autobiographical play, both a bittersweet homage to the theatre and a fascinating portrait of an impoverished family on the brink of a glamorous new life. This rediscovery marks the first Central London production since its premiere in 1936.
Before the Party: Smithereens Strange Orchestra Before The Party - The Old Ladies (Oberon Modern Playwright's Ser.)
by Rodney Ackland‘But darling what will people think if the sister’s wearing mourning and the widow’s dressed in pink?’ The war is over and the Skinner family are trying to return to normal. If only the blasted Government weren’t such a nuisance about the rations and Cook could get some more of those delicious delicacies. With daughter Laura returned from Africa, widowed but not alone, they prepare for the latest social gathering. Amidst the never-ending whirl of hats and dresses and below-stairs skirmishes, Laura reveals a shocking secret that threatens to ruin more than one party on the climb to social success.
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
Rodney Ackland: The Dark River After October
by Rodney AcklandRodney Ackland is belatedly acknowledged as a master of the British stage, now captivating new audiences. In The Dark River, set in the late thirties, the flamboyant characters are cocooned in a Thames backwater ignoring the turbulent events of a politically unstable Europe. After Octoberntroduces us to Clive, a young playwright struggling to make ends meet, find love and complete his masterpiece. Not easy whilst being hounded by bailiffs and a feckless family.
Drama Lessons: Ages 7-11
by Judith Ackroyd Jo Barter-BoultonDrama Lessons: Ages 7–11 offers an exciting and varied range of tried and tested lessons tailor-made for busy teachers. Drama Lessons: Ages 7–11 emerges from the continuing positive responses to Drama Lessons for Five to Eleven Year Olds (2001). In this book you will find a carefully chosen selection of the best lessons from the original book, plus some exciting new material – a combination of brand new and classic lessons. This new collection introduces Literacy Alerts which identify how the drama activities develop aspects of literacy and suggest additional literacy activities. For each lesson plan, essential resources and timing information are provided. The lessons cover a range of themes and curriculum areas. Full of pick-up-and-go lesson plans, this book will be of enormous interest to specialists and non-specialists of drama alike. All primary teachers, literacy coordinators and teaching assistants should have this book in their hands and it will give all trainee teachers a flying start in their school placements.
Drama Lessons: Ages 7-11
by Judith Ackroyd Jo Barter-BoultonDrama Lessons: Ages 7–11 offers an exciting and varied range of tried and tested lessons tailor-made for busy teachers. Drama Lessons: Ages 7–11 emerges from the continuing positive responses to Drama Lessons for Five to Eleven Year Olds (2001). In this book you will find a carefully chosen selection of the best lessons from the original book, plus some exciting new material – a combination of brand new and classic lessons. This new collection introduces Literacy Alerts which identify how the drama activities develop aspects of literacy and suggest additional literacy activities. For each lesson plan, essential resources and timing information are provided. The lessons cover a range of themes and curriculum areas. Full of pick-up-and-go lesson plans, this book will be of enormous interest to specialists and non-specialists of drama alike. All primary teachers, literacy coordinators and teaching assistants should have this book in their hands and it will give all trainee teachers a flying start in their school placements.
Child Actors on the London Stage, Circa 1600: Their Education, Recruitment and Theatrical Success
by Julie AckroydA legal document dated 1600, for a Star Chamber case titled Clifton versus Robinson, details how boys were abducted from London streets and forcibly held in order to train them as actors for the Blackfriars theatre. No adults were seen on-stage in this theatre, which was stocked solely by acting boys, resulting in a satirical and scurrilous method of play presentation. Were the boys specifically targeted for skills they may have possessed which would have been applicable to this type of play presentation? And, was this method of recruitment typical or atypical of Elizabethan theatre? Analysis of the background of the boy subjects of the legal case indicate that several had received grammar-school tuition and, as a result, would have possessed skills in oration and rhetoric. Indeed, a significant number of the grammar schools in London provided regular public disputations and theatrical performances which would have made these boys an attractive proposition for inclusion in a theatrical company. The styles of play-texts which the boys performed and their manner of presenting characters helps to assess why child acting companies were commercially viable and popular. Their portrayal of all roles in a performance; young and old, male and female, clearly demonstrated their versatility and skill in mimicry and the adoption of other personas. Therefore the taking of grammar-school boys for re-training as actors was not opportunistic; their abductions were planned. The theatre owners undertook this method of recruitment as they felt that they were immune from prosecution due to holding royal commissions which they used to recruit boys. However, the Clifton vs. Robinson case clearly demonstrates that a determined parent whose child had been taken could challenge this and demand reparation.
A Brief Guide to William Shakespeare (Brief Histories)
by Peter AckroydAn accessible and entertaining journey through the life, times, and work of the Bard - Enigma. Master of language. The greatest comedian in history? The most famous writer in the world. But isn't he a little bit boring? This is an essential guide for anyone who has previously avoided the Bard, and is the perfect introduction for first time students or seasoned theatre lovers. The book contains a full commentary of all the plays by bestselling and reknowned writer Peter Ackroyd as well as full descriptions of the cast and the drama; not forgetting the best speeches, and the wit and wisdom from across the works. There is also an opportunity to explore the poems and a complete set of sonnets, as well as an investigation of who the dark lady might have been.Contains:The complete sonnets; the greatest speeches; the best lines.Perfect for students struggling through their first play or for theatre lovers anywhere.Entertaining, accessible, Shakespeare without the boring bits.
Merce Cunningham: Creative Elements (Choreography and Dance Studies Series #Vols. 4, Pts. 2.)
by Joan Acocella Elliot Caplan Marilyn Vaughan Drown William Fetterman John Holzaepfel Gordon Mumma Nelson Rivera Thecla Schiphorst David VaughanMerce Cunningham reached the age of 75 in 1994, an age at which many creative artists are content to rest on their laurels, or at least to leave behind whatever controversies they may have caused during their careers. No so Cunningham. In the first place, his 70s have been a time of intense creativity in which he has choreographed as many as four new works a year. Cunningham is a strongly committed as ever to the discovery of new ways of moving and of making movement, refusing to be hampered by the physical limitations that have come with age. Since 1991 every new work has been made at least in part with the use of the computer program Life Forms, which enables him to devise choreographic phrases that he himself would be unable to perform - and which challenge and develop the virtuosity of the young dancers in his company.The essays collected in this special issue of Choreography and Dance were written over the last few years and discuss various aspects of the work of Cunningham as seen both from the outside and the inside.
WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature: Macbeth (PDF)
by Paula Adair William ShakespeareConfidently teach Macbeth using classroom-ready, manageable schemes of work that ensure you cover the full text in 10-12 weeks. This Set Text Teacher Guide: - Enables you to navigate efficiently through Macbeth, improving your students' textual understanding and analytical skills week by week - Reduces your planning time by providing explanatory teaching notes and photocopiable student worksheets that are closely aligned to the Assessment Objectives - Caters for students of varying abilities with extra support for the less able and suitably challenging activities to stretch high achievers - Helps you map student progress across the course through a mix of short activities and more formal assessments - Includes a dedicated section on exam preparation with practice questions, student-friendly mark schemes and advice on writing high-level answers in timed conditions
Decadent Plays: Salome; The Race of Leaves; The Orgy: A Dramatic Poem; Madame La Mort; Lilith; Ennoïa: A Triptych; The Black Maskers; La Gioconda; Ardiane and Barbe Bleue or, The Useless Deliverance; Kerria Japonica; The Dove
by Adam Alston and Jane DesmaraisPoisoned cigars, seductive apparitions, minds and empires in the last of their decline and the most notorious kiss in dramatic history – decadent plays challenged the moral as much as the dramatic imagination of their own day, and continue to probe horizons of taste and the possibilities of stagecraft. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many writers reacted to urban modernity by embracing decadent themes and styles, and dramatists were no exception. Decadence offered these writers a framework for exploring nonconformist identities and beliefs that challenged behavioural norms as much as the desirability of modern progress. Decadent plays were at once behind the times in their celebration of antiquity, and forward-thinking in their staging of themes that have become all the more timely in the 21st century, including queerness, unconventional eroticism, and critiques of empire and industrial progress. Equally, the diversity of decadent drama cannot be pigeon-holed; many of these plays still have the capacity to offend worldviews, and invite us to interrogate present-day conventions and propriety. International in scope and eclectic in content, this edited anthology is an authoritative and accessible introduction to a fast-expanding field of decadent literature. The first publication of its kind to deal with decadent drama, and featuring plays translated into English for the first time, Decadent Plays: 1890 to 1930 breaks new ground by foregrounding decadence as a dramatic sensibility in this most pivotal of periods in the history of modern drama. Featuring canonical and little-known works by Oscar Wilde, Michael Field, Lesya Ukrainka, Rachilde, Remy de Gourmont, Jean Lorrain, Leonid Andreyev, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Maurice Maeterlinck, Izumi Kyoka, and Djuna Barnes, this anthology is an essential introduction to decadent drama that will pique the interest of specialists and non-specialists alike.
Performing Authorship in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Lecture Tour (Ashgate Series in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Studies)
by Amanda AdamsExpanding our understanding of what it meant to be a nineteenth-century author, Amanda Adams takes up the concept of performative, embodied authorship in relationship to the transatlantic lecture tour. Adams argues that these tours were a central aspect of nineteenth-century authorship, at a time when authors were becoming celebrities and celebrities were international. Spanning the years from 1834 to 1904, Adams’s book examines the British lecture tours of American authors such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain, and the American lecture tours of British writers that include Harriet Martineau, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Matthew Arnold. Adams concludes her study with a discussion of Henry James, whose American lecture tour took place after a decades-long absence. In highlighting the wide range of authors who participated in this phenomenon, Adams makes a case for the lecture tour as a microcosm for nineteenth-century authorship in all its contradictions and complexity.
Performing Authorship in the Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Lecture Tour (Ashgate Series in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Studies)
by Amanda AdamsExpanding our understanding of what it meant to be a nineteenth-century author, Amanda Adams takes up the concept of performative, embodied authorship in relationship to the transatlantic lecture tour. Adams argues that these tours were a central aspect of nineteenth-century authorship, at a time when authors were becoming celebrities and celebrities were international. Spanning the years from 1834 to 1904, Adams’s book examines the British lecture tours of American authors such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Mark Twain, and the American lecture tours of British writers that include Harriet Martineau, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Matthew Arnold. Adams concludes her study with a discussion of Henry James, whose American lecture tour took place after a decades-long absence. In highlighting the wide range of authors who participated in this phenomenon, Adams makes a case for the lecture tour as a microcosm for nineteenth-century authorship in all its contradictions and complexity.
Out For Blood: A Cultural History of Carrie the Musical
by Chris AdamsFeaturing contributions from over eighty original cast members, creatives, crew and audience members, Out For Blood pieces together the surprising, hilarious and often-moving inside story of Carrie The Musical to discover how this 'horror of a Broadway musical' lived, died and was subsequently resurrected as a mainstream success story.In 1988, following the success of its production of Les Misérables and in the wake of the commercial success of mega-musicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Chess, the Royal Shakespeare Company agreed to co-produce a musical based on Stephen King's Carrie, written by the team behind Fame. The result was one of Broadway's most infamous disasters. Plagued by technical problems, on-stage chaos and a critical savaging, Carrie would soon become the by-word for musical theatre flops. But thanks to the efforts of a vocal army of fans and the impact of bootleg trading and emerging online communities, the show reinvented itself as a mainstream success story with thousands of productions worldwide.Patching together memories, archive material and contemporary reports, Out For Blood dives into the origins and development of this infamous show and examines how a promising entertainment product can swiftly gain a notorious reputation, what makes or breaks a Broadway show, and how even the most unlikely of musicals can find its place in the hearts of fans around the world.Based on the hit ten-part podcast, Out For Blood will delight theatregoers, flop aficionados and 'Friends of Carrie' alike.