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Monsters, Dinosaurs, Ghosts (Modern Plays)
by Jimmy McAleaveyWe wanted to be someone. Some . . . I dunno . . . thing.Nig and Wee Joe used to be soldiers. They have done monstrous things. Now nobody is listening and nobody gives a fuck either way. Their lives are full of cognitive behavioural therapy, valium and guilt.One last operation offers the chance to bring meaning to their actions. It also brings them face to face with 'L', who represents the new and unpredictable reality of war in Northern Ireland.This tense and darkly funny play from Jimmy McAleavey takes a fearless look at why men go to war. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 4 June 2015.
Mastering the Shakespeare Audition: A Quick Guide to Performance Success (Performance Books)
by Donna Soto-MorettiniMastering the Shakespeare Audition is a handbook for actors of all ages and experience, whether auditioning for a professional role or a place in drama school.Many actors have no idea where to start in preparing a Shakespeare audition speech. Yet many auditions – professional or drama school – require a well-delivered classical monologue.Mastering the Shakespeare Audition shows performers how to focus rehearsal time and spend it well. Starting with how to choose a piece that plays to each actor's particular strength, casting director Donna Soto-Morettini provides a series of timed exercises and rehearsal techniques that will allow any actor to feel confident and truly prepared for performance – in sessions totalling just 35 hours.Offering progressive and clearly marked exercises detailing the time necessary both to read and complete the work, Mastering the Shakespeare Audition also features extended exercises for those with more time to spare, allowing a deeper understanding of the ideas and skills involved.
Musical Theatre: A History
by John KenrickMusical Theatre: A History is a new revised edition of a proven core text for college and secondary school students – and an insightful and accessible celebration of twenty-five centuries of great theatrical entertainment. As an educator with extensive experience in professional theatre production, author John Kenrick approaches the subject with a unique appreciation of musicals as both an art form and a business. Using anecdotes, biographical profiles, clear definitions, sample scenes and select illustrations, Kenrick focuses on landmark musicals, and on the extraordinary talents and business innovators who have helped musical theatre evolve from its roots in the dramas of ancient Athens all the way to the latest hits on Broadway and London's West End. Key improvements to the second edition: · A new foreword by Oscar Hammerstein III, a critically acclaimed historian and member of a family with deep ties to the musical theatre, is included · The 28 chapters are reformatted for the typical 14 week, 28 session academic course, as well as for a two semester, once-weekly format, making it easy for educators to plan a syllabus and reading assignments. · To make the book more interactive, each chapter includes suggested listening and reading lists, designed to help readers step beyond the printed page to experience great musicals and performers for themselves. A comprehensive guide to musical theatre as an international phenomenon, Musical Theatre: A History is an ideal textbook for university and secondary school students.
Devising Theatre with Stan’s Cafe (Theatre Makers)
by Mark Crossley James YarkerSince it was founded in 1991, British theatre company Stan's Cafe has garnered an international reputation for artistic innovation, and prolific, eclectic performance projects. Their work has toured nationally and internationally, with 2003's Of All The People In All The World having been performed in over fifty cities around the world. Embracing site-specific, immersive, durational, non-text-based as well as scripted work, Stan's Cafe's portfolio defies simple categorization. Running through all their work however is a collaborative devising process that champions a playful experimentation with form. Devising Theatre with Stan's Cafe reveals and reflects on their theatre-making process, providing an illuminating and accessible account of their work and the approaches, techniques and philosophies which underpin and inspire it. Co-authored by artistic director James Yarker and Dr Mark Crossley, the book is places their work within wider context of contemporary theatre and is the perfect companion to anyone looking to make their own original theatre or performance work. For theatre students, fans and theatre-makers, Devising Theatre with Stan's Cafe is an inspiring account and practical guide to contemporary performance practice.
Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre: Politics, Affect, Responsibility (Methuen Drama Engage)
by Marissia Fragkou Enoch Brater Mark Taylor-BattyPresenting a rigorous critical investigation of the reinvigoration of the political in contemporary British theatre, Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre provides a fresh understanding of how theatre has engaged with precarity, affect, risk, intimacy, care and relationality in recent times. The study makes a compelling case for reading precarity as a 'sticky' theatrical trope which carries the potential to re-animate our understanding of identity politics and responsibility for the lives of Others in an age of uncertainty. Approaching precarity as an ecology cutting across various practices, themes and aesthetics, the book features a comprehensive selection of theatre examples staged in the UK since the 1990s. Works by debbie tucker green, Alistair McDowall, Complicite, Simon Stephens, Stan's Cafe, Mike Bartlett, Caryl Churchill, The Paper Birds, and Belarus Free Theatre are put in dialogue with interdisciplinary feminist vocabularies developed by Judith Butler, Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant and Isabell Lorey. In focusing on areas such as children and youth at risk, human rights, environmental ethics and the politics of debt, the study makes a vital contribution to the burgeoning field of politics and theatre in the 21st century.
Antigone
by Slavoj ŽižekAntigone is universally celebrated as the ultimate figure of ethical resistance to the state power which oversteps its legitimate scope and as the defender of simple human dignity (more important than all political struggles). But is she really so innocent and pure? What if there is a dark side to her? What if Creon, the representative of state power, also has a valuable point to make? And what if both Antigone and Creon are part of a problem that only a popular intervention can confront?Žižek's rewriting of this classic play confronts these issues in a practical way: not by theorizing about them, but by imagining an Antigone in which, at a crucial moment, the action takes a different turn, an Antigone along the lines of Run, Lola, Run or of Brecht's learning plays. A brilliantly funny, moving and political piece for those who are interested in reading and watching Antigone in an entirely new way.
Adventures in the Skin Trade (Modern Plays)
by Dylan Thomas Lucy GoughHere we are nibbling away all day and night, Mrs Dacey. Nibble nibble. No sense, no order, no nothing, we're all mad and nasty.Samuel Bennett leaves his home in South Wales to pursue a career in London. Setting out with an attitude of reckless, nihilistic purpose, he encounters a nightmarish city with an assortment of bizarre characters and an embarrassing first sexual experience. Join Samuel as he meanders through this dreamlike world, all with a beer bottle stuck on his little finger.Dylan Thomas's gloriously surreal coming-of-age and unfinished novel is given new life by acclaimed writer Lucy Gough.Originally premiered in Wales in 2014, the adaptation was then performed in both Sydney and Melbourne, Australia in 2015. It is published here in Methuen Drama's Plays for Young People series, pitched at ages 16-18. It features an introduction by Sam Mackie, Head of Drama in the English Faculty at The Peninsula School, Victoria.
Age Of Consent (Modern Plays)
by Peter MorrisCondemned by the mother of Jamie Bulger and acclaimed by the critics - for tackling the subject of child killers - this is the controversial new play from the winner of the Sunday Times Playwriting Prize 2001Few kids have a secret as chilling as Timmy's.Stephanie loves Raquel to death. Acutely topical, darkly satirical and brutally uncompromising - these two monologues explore the shattering of childhood innocence. "The play opens up a moral minefield. Who can, or should, consent to what? Can anyone consent to something on the behalf of another? What power can anyone, a person or a community, have over the mind and life of another? Morris's play sends you out in a state of moral turbulence." (John Peter, Sunday Times)"For once, the play at the eye of an Edinburgh storm is a good one" - Guardian"This 70-minute play would alone have been worth a trip to Edinburgh" - Sunday Times"If The Age of Consent had been written by the sainted Alan Bennett it would be acclaimed as a triumph" - Daily TelegraphThe Age of Consent is published to tie in with its London premiere at the Bush Theatre in January 2002
Confusions (Modern Plays)
by Alan AyckbournConfusions, a series of plays for four-to-five actors, typifies Alan Ayckbourn's particular brand of black comedy on human behaviour. The plays are alternately naturalistic, stylised and farcical, but underlying each is the echoing problem of profound loneliness. From a devoted and isolated mother, to her unfaithful travelling salesman husband, through a solicitous waiter to well-heeled diners and an utterly shambolic garden fete, human frailty is laid bare as one hilarious situation after another unfolds. Each of the plays connects to the next through one of its characters until the final one is reached when four people sit alone on park benches.From high farce to poignant observation; the laughs, however dark, keep coming. This new edition was published to coincide with the first ever revival of the play, staged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, on 9 July 2015.
Antipodal Shakespeare: Remembering and Forgetting in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, 1916 - 2016
by Gordon McMullan Philip Mead Ailsa Grant Ferguson Mark Houlahan Kate FlahertyDespite a recent surge of critical interest in the Shakespeare Tercentenary, a great deal has been forgotten about this key moment in the history of the place of Shakespeare in national and global culture – much more than has been remembered. This book offers new archival discoveries about, and new interpretations of, the Tercentenary celebrations in Britain, Australia and New Zealand and reflects on the long legacy of those celebrations. This collection gathers together five scholars from Britain, Australia and New Zealand to reflect on the modes of commemoration of Shakespeare across the hemispheres in and after the Tercentenary year, 1916. It was at this moment of remembering in 1916 that 'global Shakespeare' first emerged in recognizable form. Each contributor performs their own 'antipodal' reading, assessing in parallel events across two hemispheres, geographically opposite but politically and culturally connected in the wake of empire.
The Effect (Modern Classics)
by Lucy Prebble Miriam GillinsonI can tell the difference between who I am and a side effect.The Effect is a clinical romance. Two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to take part in a clinical drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational pull of attraction and love, however, Tristan and Connie manage to throw the trial off-course, much to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and the limits of medicine, alongside ideas of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction.Following on from the critical and commercial success of Enron, The Effect offers a vibrant theatrical exploration into the human brain via the heart. It received its world premiere at the National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in November 2012, starring Billie Piper and Jonjo O'Neill. It is published here in the Modern Classics series alongside an introduction by Miriam Gillinson.
Much Ado About Nothing: Arden Performance Editions (Arden Performance Editions)
by William Shakespeare Anna KamaralliArden Performance Editions are ideal for anyone engaging with a Shakespeare play in performance. With clear facing-page notes giving definitions of words, easily accessible information about key textual variants, lineation, metrical ambiguities and pronunciation, each edition has been developed to open the play's possibilities and meanings to actors and students.Designed to be used and to be useful, each edition has plenty of space for personal annotations and the well-spaced text is easy to read and to navigate.
Othello: Arden Performance Editions (Arden Performance Editions)
by William Shakespeare Paul Prescott'I wish I had copies like this at Drama School. Essential notes on the language for those who will get up and speak it, not purely for those who will sit and study it. An incredibly useful tool with room on every page to make notes. Next time I'm in rehearsal on a Shakespeare play, I have no doubt that a copy from this series will be in my hand.' ADRIAN LESTER, Actor, Director and Writer Arden Performance Editions are ideal for anyone engaging with a Shakespeare play in performance. With clear facing-page notes giving definitions of words, easily accessible information about key textual variants, lineation, metrical ambiguities and pronunciation, each edition has been developed to open the play's possibilities and meanings to actors and students. Each edition offers: -Facing-page notes -Short, clear definitions of words-Easily accessible information about key textual variants-Notes on pronunciation of difficult names and unfamiliar words-An easy to read layout -Space to write notes -A short introduction to the play
Camelot: The Shining City (Modern Plays)
by James PhillipsCamelot: The Shining City is a modern re-telling of the myth of King Arthur, by award-winning playwright James Phillips.Developed in collaboration with Slung Low, specialists in spectacular theatrical experiences, and Sheffield People's Theatre, Camelot: The Shining City is written for a company of over 150 actors, bringing the medieval story to breathtaking life. An epic story told in three parts, this edition was published to coincide with the world premiere, staged on 9 July 2015.
The Need for Words: Voice and the Text (Performance Books)
by Patsy RodenburgPatsy Rodenburg explores howwe speak, what we speak and the impact of the spoken word. As one of the world's leading voice coaches, she describes practical ways to approach language, and uses Shakespeare, Romantic poetry, modern prose and a range of other texts to help each of us discover our own unique need for words. In Part One the author attacks the myth that there is only one correct way to speak by clearing away the blocks that can make language inaccessible. Part Two, a series of language and text exercises, connects the voice to the shape and quality of individual words and phrases. Drawing on the author's time spent coaching in the worlds of business and politics, this new edition reflects on how the way we use words has changed since the book was first published. It brings a renewed focus on the language of power – spoken in the worlds of politicians and company directors – which will give readers an insight into the potency of clear, direct communication. Finally, new language exercises provide readers with unmediated access to this new research, allowing them to practice and master the language and words that drive the modern world.
Hamlet: Revised Edition (The Arden Shakespeare Third Series)
by William Shakespeare Ann Thompson Neil TaylorThis Arden edition of Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, presents an authoritative, modernized text based on the Second Quarto text with a new introductory essay covering key productions and criticism in the decade since its first publication. A timely up-date in the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare's death which will ensure the Arden edition continues to offer students a comprehensive and current critical account of the play, alongside the most reliable and fully-annotated text available.
Shakespeare in the Theatre: Patrice Chéreau (Shakespeare in the Theatre)
by Dominique Goy-BlanquetPatrice Chéreau (1944 - 2013) was one of France's leading directors in the theatre and on film and a major influence on Shakespearean performance. He is internationally known for memorable productions of both drama and opera. His life-long companionship with Shakespeare began in 1970 when his innovative Richard II made the young director famous overnight and caused his translator to denounce him publicly as an iconoclast, for a production mixing "music-hall, circus, and pankration†?. After this break, Chéreau read Shakespeare's texts assiduously, "line by line and word by word†?, with another renowned poet, Yves Bonnefoy.Drawing on new interviews with many of Chereau's collaborators, this study explores a unique theatre maker's interpretations of Shakespeare in relation to the European tradition and to his wider body of work on stage and film, to establish his profound influence on other producers of Shakespeare.
The Oresteia (Modern Plays)
by Aeschylus Rory MullarkeyHe who learns must suffer.Before setting out for the Trojan War, King Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. Many years later, when Agamemnon returns to his palace, his adulterous Queen Clytemnestra takes her revenge by brutally murdering him and installing her lover on the throne. How will the gods judge Orestes, their estranged son, who must avenge his father's death by murdering his mother?The curse of the House of Atreus, passing from generation to generation, is one of the great myths of Western literature. In the hands of Aeschylus, the story enacts the final victory of reason and justice over superstition and barbarity.The original trilogy, comprising Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and Eumenides, is distilled into one thrilling three-act play in this magnificent new translation by award-winning playwright Rory Mullarkey.
Nine Lives and Come To Where I'm From (Modern Plays)
by Zodwa NyoniNINE LIVESSee over here it's not like over there. Here there are neon lights. Here there are queens. Here there are rainbow flags draw high.One man and a suitcase filled with the past, uncertainty, high heels, brokenness, African dancing shells and hope.Ishmael has been outed, along with his lover, David. He has sought sanctuary in the UK, but is this evidence enough? As Ishmael waits to hear his fate, he encounters new friends – and enemies, all the while looking for a place to call home again. Zodwa Nyoni threads together humour and humanity to tell the real personal story behind asylum headlines.Nine Lives was developed as part of the West Yorkshire Playhouse's A Play, A Pie and A Pint programme in 2014 and received a UK national tour in 2015.COME TO WHERE I'M FROMTongue-tied child got lost in migration. Tongue-tied child got lost in separation. Tongue-tied child got lost in assimilation.Theatre company Paines Plough's Come To Where I'm From programme offers a theatrical tapestry of the UK, woven by writers asking if home really is where the heart is. Since 2010, 88 playwrights from across the UK have returned to their home towns to write plays about the places that shaped them. This publication features Zodwa Nyoni's 2013 monologue for the series - a meditation on place, belonging and the author's Zimbabwean roots.
Our Country's Good (Modern Plays)
by Timberlake WertenbakerObserved by a lone, mystified Aboriginal Australian, the first convict ship arrives in Botany Bay, 1788, crammed with England's outcasts. Colony discipline in this vast and alien land is brutal. Three proposed public hangings incite an argument: how best to keep the criminals in line, the noose or a more civilised form of entertainment?The ambitious Second Lieutenant Ralph Clark steps forward with a play. But as the mostly illiterate cast rehearses, and a sense of common purpose begins to take hold, the young officer's own transformation is as marked and poignant as that of his prisoners.A profoundly humane piece of theatre, steeped in suffering yet charged with hope, Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good (based on a true story) celebrates the redemptive power of art.It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, london, in 1988, winning the Laurence Olivier Play of the Year Award. This edition was published to coincide with a major revival production at the National Theatre, which opened on 19 August 2015.
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.
Tonight With Donny Stixx (Modern Plays)
by Philip RidleyIt's at times like this I'm inspired by The Stupendous Santini. He toured the mid-West during the 1930s, entertaining farmers affected by the Dust Bowl. No one would have remembered him were in not for the fact that during his most famous trick – sword swallowing – he accidentally punctured a lung and died on the spot. He became a legend. Donny has committed an act that shocked everyone. Tabloids called him The Most Hated Boy Alive. But Donny doesn't want forgiveness. All Donny wants is . . . his own television show.Written by internationally acclaimed writer Philip Ridley, Tonight With Donny Stixx is the companion piece to Ridley's 2013 Fringe First-winner Dark Vanilla Jungle, and received its premiere at the Soho Theatre, London, on 27 July 2015 before premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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.
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.
You For Me For You (Modern Plays)
by Mia ChungTrees don't have ears.How are you so sure?As they attempt to flee the Best Nation in the World, North Korean sisters Minhee and Junhee are torn apart at the border. Each must race across time and space to be together again – navigating the perilous Land of the Free and the treacherous terrain of personal belief.Food has learned to sprint. Money is so fast it doesn't wait to be printed. Gossip travels swifter than germs.You For Me For You was first presented in the US at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Washington D.C., in Autumn 2012 and received its UK premiere at London's Royal Court in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs on 3 December 2015.