- Table View
- List View
Maddy Alone (Blue Door #2)
by Pamela BrownThe second book in the Blue Door series, following on from The Swish of the Curtain, the classic story which inspired actors from Maggie Smith to Eileen Atkins“I wanted to act before I read this book, and afterwards there was no stopping me” Maggie SmithAll that lay ahead were examinations and then the blankness of the holidays. For the hundredth time Maddy thought, ‘Oh, why am I only twelve? Why do the others always do all the exciting things before me?’Stuck at home while the older members of the Blue Door Theatre Company attend London’s Actors’ Guild, Maddy is lonely and frustrated. Under some gentle advice from the Bishop, she finds her way onto the set of a film being shot at a local castle, and works her usual charm on the cast and crew.But will this opportunity realise Maddy’s dreams of becoming an actress — or will it end her career before it has even begun?Pamela Brown (1924–1989) was a British writer, actor then television producer. She was just fourteen when she started writing her first book, and the town of Fenchester in the book is inspired by her home town of Colchester. During the Second World War, she went to live in Wales, so The Swish of the Curtain was not published until 1941, when she was sixteen. She used the earnings from the books to train at RADA, and became an actor and a producer of children's television programmes.
Made-Up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era
by Esther Kim LeeMade-Up Asians traces the history of yellowface, the theatrical convention of non-Asian actors putting on makeup and costume to look East Asian. Using specific case studies from European and U.S. theater, race science, and early film, Esther Kim Lee traces the development of yellowface in the U.S. context during the Exclusion Era (1862–1940), when Asians faced legal and cultural exclusion from immigration and citizenship. These caricatured, distorted, and misrepresented versions of Asians took the place of excluded Asians on theatrical stages and cinema screens. The book examines a wide-ranging set of primary sources, including makeup guidebooks, play catalogs, advertisements, biographies, and backstage anecdotes, providing new ways of understanding and categorizing yellowface as theatrical practice and historical subject. Made-Up Asians also shows how lingering effects of Asian exclusionary laws can still be seen in yellowface performances, casting practices, and anti-Asian violence into the 21st century.
Madness, Art, and Society: Beyond Illness
by Anna HarpinHow is madness experienced, treated, and represented? How might art think around – and beyond – psychiatric definitions of illness and wellbeing? Madness, Art, and Society engages with artistic practices from theatre and live art to graphic fiction, charting a multiplicity of ways of thinking critically with, rather than about, non-normative psychological experience. It is organised into two parts: ‘Structures: psychiatrists, institutions, treatments’, illuminates the environments, figures and primary models of psychiatric care, reconsidering their history and contemporary manifestations through case studies including David Edgar’s Mary Barnes and Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. ‘Experiences: realities, bodies, moods’, promblematises diagnostic categories and proposes more radically open models of thinking in relation to experiences of madness, touching upon works such as Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko and Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places, and Things. Reading its case studies as a counter-discourse to orthodox psychiatry, Madness, Art, and Society seeks a more nuanced understanding of the plurality of madness in society, and in so doing, offers an outstanding resource for students and scholars alike.
Madness, Art, and Society: Beyond Illness
by Anna HarpinHow is madness experienced, treated, and represented? How might art think around – and beyond – psychiatric definitions of illness and wellbeing? Madness, Art, and Society engages with artistic practices from theatre and live art to graphic fiction, charting a multiplicity of ways of thinking critically with, rather than about, non-normative psychological experience. It is organised into two parts: ‘Structures: psychiatrists, institutions, treatments’, illuminates the environments, figures and primary models of psychiatric care, reconsidering their history and contemporary manifestations through case studies including David Edgar’s Mary Barnes and Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. ‘Experiences: realities, bodies, moods’, promblematises diagnostic categories and proposes more radically open models of thinking in relation to experiences of madness, touching upon works such as Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko and Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places, and Things. Reading its case studies as a counter-discourse to orthodox psychiatry, Madness, Art, and Society seeks a more nuanced understanding of the plurality of madness in society, and in so doing, offers an outstanding resource for students and scholars alike.
Madness at the Movies: Understanding Mental Illness through Film
by James CharneyA unique exploration of how mental illness is portrayed in classic and contemporary films.The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies, James Charney, MD, a practicing psychiatrist and long-time cinephile, examines films that delve deeply into characters' inner worlds, and he analyzes moments that help define their particular mental illness. Based on the highly popular course that Charney taught at Yale University and the American University of Rome, Madness at the Movies introduces readers to films that may be new to them and encourages them to view these films in an entirely new way. Through films such as Psycho, Taxi Driver, Through a Glass Darkly, Night of the Hunter, A Woman Under the Influence, Ordinary People, and As Good As It Gets, Charney covers an array of disorders, including psychosis, paranoia, psychopathy, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety. He examines how these films work to convey the essence of each illness. He also looks at how each film reflects the understanding of mental illness at the time it was released as well as the culture that shaped that understanding.Charney explains how to observe the behaviors displayed by characters in the films, paying close attention to signs of mental illness. He demonstrates that learning to read a film can be as absorbing as watching one. By viewing these films through the lens of mental health, readers can hone their observational skills and learn to assess the accuracy of depictions of mental illness in popular media.
Madness in Contemporary British Theatre: Resistances and Representations
by Jon VennThis book considers the representation of madness in contemporary British theatre, examining the rich relationship between performance and mental health, and questioning how theatre can potentially challenge dominant understandings of mental health. Carefully, it suggests what it means to represent madness in theatre, and the avenues through which such representations can become radical, whereby theatre can act as a site of resistance. Engaging with the heterogeneity of madness, each chapter covers different attributes and logics, including: the constitution and institutional structures of the contemporary asylum; the cultural idioms behind hallucination; the means by which suicide is apprehended and approached; how testimony of the mad person is interpreted and encountered. As a study that interrogates a wide range of British theatre across the past 30 years, and includes a theoretical interrogation of the politics of madness, this is a crucial work for any student or researcher, across disciplines, considering the politics of madness and its relationship to performance.
The Madness of George III
by Alan BennettGeorge III's behaviour has often been odd, but now he is deranged, with rumours circulating that he has even addressed an oak tree as the King of Prussia. Doctors are brought in, the government wavers and the Prince Regent manoeuvres himself into power.Alan Bennett's play explores the court of a mad king, and the fearful treatments he was forced to undergo. It is about the nature of kingship itself, showing how by subtle degrees the ruler's delirium erodes his authority and status.
The Madwoman in the Volvo (Modern Plays)
by Sandra Tsing LohI don't remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls "hilarious, comforting and enlightening†?, Loh's play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.
The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year Of Raging Hormones (Modern Plays)
by Sandra Tsing LohI don't remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh's play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.
Magic Mobile: 35 pre-loaded new text files
by Michael FraynA mobile phone is something that gives you the whole world at the touch of your finger - but this book is even better. Magic Mobile is a collection of thirty 'pre-loaded' new text files in a no-fuss, non-digital entertainment system. In a volume that succeeds Matchbox Theatre and Pocket Playhouse, each of these short comic masterpieces displays Michael Frayn's unique genius in forever capturing life's latest absurdities.Tune in to the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Magic Mobile 13 May, 20 May, 27 May, 3 June. Michael Frayn's eleven novels include Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong, Spies and Skios. His seventeen plays range from Noises Off to Copenhagen.
The Magic Tree (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Ursula Rani SarmaWhich comes first, loneliness or violence? This is the story of love born in a very dark place between a man who wants to belong and a woman who wants to be forgotten. On a stormy night, they shelter in an abandoned summer home and tentatively discover what it is that they have in common. But just when it seems something beautiful might emerge, the opposite appears.The Magic Tree is an exploration into human behaviour at a time when humanity seems determined to endlessly repeat the mistakes of the past. It looks at why good people are capable of doing bad things and asks if love alone can save us.The Magic Tree opened at the The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh in August 2008.
Magical Epistemologies: Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern English Drama
by Anannya DasguptaThis book began with a simple question: when readers such as us encounter the term magic or figures of magicians in early modern texts, dramatic or otherwise, how do we read them? In the twenty-first century we have recourse to an array of genres and vocabulary from magical realism to fantasy fiction that does not, however, work to read a historical figure like John Dee or a fictional one he inspired in Shakespeare's Prospero. Between longings to transcend human limitation and the actual work of producing, translating, and organizing knowledge, figures such as Dee invite us to re-examine our ways of reading magic only as metaphor. If not metaphor then what else? As we parse the term magic, it reveals a rich context of use that connects various aspects of social, cultural, religious, economic, legal and medical lives of the early moderns. Magic makes its presence felt not only as a forms of knowledge but in methods of knowing in the Renaissance. The arc of dramatists and texts that this book draws between Doctor Faustus, The Tempest, The Alchemist and Comus: A Masque at Ludlow Castle offers a sustained examination of the epistemologies of magic in the context of early modern knowledge formation. This book is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print versions of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Magical Epistemologies: Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern English Drama
by Anannya DasguptaThis book began with a simple question: when readers such as us encounter the term magic or figures of magicians in early modern texts, dramatic or otherwise, how do we read them? In the twenty-first century we have recourse to an array of genres and vocabulary from magical realism to fantasy fiction that does not, however, work to read a historical figure like John Dee or a fictional one he inspired in Shakespeare's Prospero. Between longings to transcend human limitation and the actual work of producing, translating, and organizing knowledge, figures such as Dee invite us to re-examine our ways of reading magic only as metaphor. If not metaphor then what else? As we parse the term magic, it reveals a rich context of use that connects various aspects of social, cultural, religious, economic, legal and medical lives of the early moderns. Magic makes its presence felt not only as a forms of knowledge but in methods of knowing in the Renaissance. The arc of dramatists and texts that this book draws between Doctor Faustus, The Tempest, The Alchemist and Comus: A Masque at Ludlow Castle offers a sustained examination of the epistemologies of magic in the context of early modern knowledge formation. This book is co-published with Aakar Books, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the print versions of this book in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The Magical Peppers and the Great Vanishing Act
by Sian PattendenThe third show-stopping adventure from The Magical Peppers. Don’t miss it!
The Magical Peppers and the Island of Invention
by Sian PattendenA strange old theatre at the end of the pier is the setting for the next fantastic adventure full of magic and mayhem with unbeatable double act, Esme & Monty Pepper, and their madcap Uncle Potty…
Magical Transformations on the Early Modern English Stage (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama)
by Lisa Hopkins Helen OstovichMagical Transformations on the Early Modern Stage furthers the debate about the cultural work performed by representations of magic on the early modern English stage. It considers the ways in which performances of magic reflect and feed into a sense of national identity, both in the form of magic contests and in its recurrent linkage to national defence; the extent to which magic can trope other concerns, and what these might be; and how magic is staged and what the representational strategies and techniques might mean. The essays range widely over both canonical plays-Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Doctor Faustus, Bartholomew Fair-and notably less canonical ones such as The Birth of Merlin, Fedele and Fortunio, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, The Devil is an Ass, The Late Lancashire Witches and The Witch of Edmonton, putting the two groups into dialogue with each other and also exploring ways in which they can be profitably related to contemporary cases or accusations of witchcraft. Attending to the representational strategies and self-conscious intertextuality of the plays as well as to their treatment of their subject matter, the essays reveal the plays they discuss as actively intervening in contemporary debates about witchcraft and magic in ways which themselves effect transformation rather than simply discussing it. At the heart of all the essays lies an interest in the transformative power of magic, but collectively they show that the idea of transformation applies not only to the objects or even to the subjects of magic, but that the plays themselves can be seen as working to bring about change in the ways that they challenge contemporary assumptions and stereotypes.
Magical Transformations on the Early Modern English Stage (Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama)
by Lisa Hopkins Helen OstovichMagical Transformations on the Early Modern Stage furthers the debate about the cultural work performed by representations of magic on the early modern English stage. It considers the ways in which performances of magic reflect and feed into a sense of national identity, both in the form of magic contests and in its recurrent linkage to national defence; the extent to which magic can trope other concerns, and what these might be; and how magic is staged and what the representational strategies and techniques might mean. The essays range widely over both canonical plays-Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Doctor Faustus, Bartholomew Fair-and notably less canonical ones such as The Birth of Merlin, Fedele and Fortunio, The Merry Devil of Edmonton, The Devil is an Ass, The Late Lancashire Witches and The Witch of Edmonton, putting the two groups into dialogue with each other and also exploring ways in which they can be profitably related to contemporary cases or accusations of witchcraft. Attending to the representational strategies and self-conscious intertextuality of the plays as well as to their treatment of their subject matter, the essays reveal the plays they discuss as actively intervening in contemporary debates about witchcraft and magic in ways which themselves effect transformation rather than simply discussing it. At the heart of all the essays lies an interest in the transformative power of magic, but collectively they show that the idea of transformation applies not only to the objects or even to the subjects of magic, but that the plays themselves can be seen as working to bring about change in the ways that they challenge contemporary assumptions and stereotypes.
The Magistrate: A Farce In Three Acts (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Arthur Wing Pinero Stephen BeresfordWith his louche air and a developed taste for smoking, gambling, port and women, it’s hard to believe Cis Farringdon is only fourteen. And that’s because he isn’t. Agatha, his mother, lopped five years from her true age and his when she married the amiable Posket.Well, when I heard the new dad was a police magistrate, I was scared. Said I to myself, ‘If I don’t mind my Ps and Qs, the Guv’nor – from force of habit – will fi ne me all my pocket-money.’The imminent arrival of Cis’ godfather sends Agatha incognito to the Hôtel des Princes to warn him of her deception. But it’s also where her son has cajoled his otherwise staid stepfather into joining him for a binge. High-spirited carousing leads to a police raid and a night of outrageous mishap as the trapped guests make desperate attempts to conceal themselves from the law and from each other. Indignities escalate at court the next day where Posket, the police magistrate, must preside.
The Magna Carta Plays: Ransomed, Kingmakers, We Sell Right, Pink Gin (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Timberlake Wertenbaker Howard Brenton Anders LustgartenOn the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, four short plays inspired by the celebrated document. RANSOMED In the sleepy Cathedral City of Melchester, a crime has been committed. The Cathedral’s prize possession, a copy of the original Magna Carta, has been stolen in a daring heist. Who is responsible and what price will the British Government be prepared to pay for the document’s safe return? As the plot thickens, Detective Inspector Ellie Baxter seeks to find the truth in this brilliant new Magna Carta comedy. KINGMAKERS Ten years after the signing of Magna Carta, the barons’ takeover isn’t quite going to plan. With the peasants grumbling about enormous castles and broken promises, the threat of rebellion hangs in the air. Perhaps the solution is to distract and deflect by bringing the confused and humbled king back into the fold? What about a royal wedding? A royal baby? All at the common man’s expense, of course… A fictional story from the 13th century that may just be about now. WE SELL RIGHT In 1215, when the King of England abuses his extraordinary power, the barons take action. In 2015, when the kings of global business and finance abuse their extraordinary power, who will take action and what will confrontation look like? In the decades that follow, what will remain of the values we hold most dear? A gripping drama about the consequences of confronting power on a global scale. PINK GIN In 21st century Africa, a visionary President stands on the cusp of greatness. With international investors poised to develop large tracts of land, the financial future looks bright. But why has it been raining for 97 days, and who is leading the angry mob in the streets outside? A compelling contemporary allegory throwing light on the oft-overlooked companion to Magna Carta, The Charter of the Forest.
Magnum Opus: The Cycle Plays of Eugene O'Neill
by Zander BrietzkeAn original and provocative analysis of Eugene O'Neill's unfinished cycle play project From 1935 to 1939, Eugene O'Neill worked on a series of plays that would trace the history of an American family through several generations. He completed just two of the proposed eleven plays—A Touch of the Poet and More Stately Mansions—which Zander Brietzke argues represent the core of the entire cycle. Combining archival research, literary analysis, and theatrical imagination, Magnum Opus invites an audience to see this unusual and exciting epic as a historical drama of our time.
The Mahabharata (Modern Plays)
by Jean-Claude CarrièreA unique dramatization of India's greatest epic poem, fifteen times longer than the Bible, The Mahabharata has played to enthralled audiences throughout Europe, the Far East and America. Regarded as the culmination of Peter Brook's extraordinary research into the possibilities of theatre, the production has been hailed as the 'theatrical event of this century' (Sunday Times). British audiences encountered The Mahabharata, on stage and television, in the late eighties. This volume contains the complete script of Carriere's adaptation in Peter Brook's translation, with introductions by each of them.
Maid Marian and Her Merry Men: How the band got together
by Tony RobinsonThe peasants in Worksop village are persecuted by the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men. They clearly need someone to fight for their rights and set them free, but who can it be? If you thought it was Robin Hood, think again. You are about to meet the amazing Maid Marian.
Maids (PDF)
by Jean Genet Benedict Andrews Andrew UptonThough The Maids (translated by Bernard Frechtman) was his first book to be published in England, Jean Genet was already a legendary figure in contemporary European literature. An illegitimate child born in Paris in 1910, he was abandoned by his mother to the Assistance Publique, adopted by a peasant family in the Morvan and committed to a reformatory for stealing at the age of ten; after many years spent in this and similar institutions, he joined and deserted from the Foreign Legion; and in 1948 only escaped life imprisonment after ten convictions for theft when the President of the Republic - on the petition of a group of eminent writers and artists - granted him a pardon. His work - novels, plays, autobiography - reflects the violence and disorder of his life; but it reflects, too, high and unmistakable literary genius. The Maids is vehement and passionate; obsessed - as so much of Genet's writing is - with the problems of identity, of reality and make-believe, of the complexity of truth. It is both an exciting piece of literature in itself and an admirable introduction to Genet's work as a whole.
Mainstream (Modern Plays)
by Rosaleen McDonaghWe share a history, we share a memory and they both share my heart. It's that time of the year. A time that Eoin, Mary Anne and Jack all remember. Having grown up together in various care homes for the disabled, they now rely on each other in adulthood for support, friendship and love. But when young film-maker Eleanor arrives, struggling with hidden issues and agendas of her own, to make a documentary about their lives together, the examination and attention she brings threatens to disrupt the long-term relationships and friendships at the heart of their group. Mainstream is a complex drama about truth, lies and the mainstreaming of Travellers with disabilities. It was produced in November 2016 in a co-production between Fishamble Theatre Company and Project Arts Centre, Dublin.
Mainstream (Modern Plays)
by Rosaleen McDonaghWe share a history, we share a memory and they both share my heart. It's that time of the year. A time that Eoin, Mary Anne and Jack all remember. Having grown up together in various care homes for the disabled, they now rely on each other in adulthood for support, friendship and love. But when young film-maker Eleanor arrives, struggling with hidden issues and agendas of her own, to make a documentary about their lives together, the examination and attention she brings threatens to disrupt the long-term relationships and friendships at the heart of their group. Mainstream is a complex drama about truth, lies and the mainstreaming of Travellers with disabilities. It was produced in November 2016 in a co-production between Fishamble Theatre Company and Project Arts Centre, Dublin.