The Darkroom
"One must make films with this knowledge: there's no point anymore. Let film meet its end, that's the only cinema." The Darkroom contains the script for Marguerite Duras's 1977 radically experimental film Le camion (The Truck). Between images of a truck in motion, juxtaposed voiceovers, and cutaways to Duras in conversation with G矇rard Depardieu, Le camion turns the art of film into a means of enabling the viewer to engage multiple faculties--not only the visual and the aural, but also memory, imagination, and desire. Also included here is a series of short essays in which Duras makes provocative connections between film and textuality, as well as a fascinating dialogue with Michelle Porte. Together amounting to a crucial contribution to the field of film theory, these texts make brilliantly apparent the depth and integrity of Duras's aesthetic, philosophical, and political thinking.
Teachers' Day
In honour of wisdom, a grand seminar on 'Man and Divinity' unfolds revealing the absurdity of existence. Inside a lecture hall, professors Max, who stands for knowledge, and Kim, a sceptical spirit judging the same, are pinned against each other in a duel of ideas. Several other teachers are also participating in the seminar. As they ponder over the nature of being and await the arrival of their current-day "KNOW ALL", the ferocity of human frailty comes crashing down. A plane crashes. As the voice of wisdom falls silent, indeed, our constructs become monuments of vacuity. In this tragicomic play, Teachers' Day, contemplates the existential crisis of a world adrift, struggling with futility amid the chase for meaning in a universe indifferent to our grand designs, a testimony to the poignant human wish for purpose amid absurdity.
Projection Design
Projection Design: The Basics explores the concepts of visual elements in live entertainment. It provides a conversational view of the fundamentals of projection design, from production meetings and the elements of visual design to the equipment necessary to make it all happen.This text examines the themes and theories universal to a wide range of topics, to provide a foundation for anyone interested in using video for their live production or those who are looking where to start as a designer. Topics covered include: Methods of extracting visuals from a script and communicating them to production staff Basics of visual design Understanding human perception and how this influences design How to choose the right equipment to build a system With a detailed glossary, basic formulas, and comprehensive explanation from start to finish, Projection Design: The Basics is an ideal primer for Projection Design courses, and will be of interest to anyone entering the field of projection and media design for the first time.
Unsettling Acts
Analyzing contemporary theater and performance works about Korean transnational adoption, Jieun Lee's Unsettling Acts: Performing Transnational Adoption challenges longstanding ideas about adoption. Lee contends that in staging adoptees' birth family searches and reunions, theater and performance artists unsettle dominant discourses that have essentialized adoptees through ethnonationalist, gendered, and postwar humanitarian narratives in both birth and adoptive cultures. In doing so, Lee reveals how these performances engage in acts of disavowal of and resistance to mythologies of adoption and adoptee experience. Lee examines twelve works-from South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Denmark-including plays, musicals, solo performances, community-based theater, and performance art. Through her analysis, theater and performance become a means for reimagining adoptees' identity, kinship, and sense of belonging. Further, these pieces encourage critical exploration of the history, politics, and social impacts of Korean transnational adoption. These works thus nurture a countermemory to engender redressive accountability and transpacific justice, pointing a way forward for remaking the transnational adoptee experience in the twenty-first century.
Bernard Shaw, Paul Ricoeur, and the Jesusian Dialectics of Redemptive Living
This book explores a heretofore unremarked linkage between Bernard Shaw, the twentieth-century French thinker Paul Ricoeur, and Jesus of Nazareth. The ties that bind them are a foundational interest in the social teachings of the Nazarene and their use of a shared dialectics with respect to living the kind of compassionate life that holds out the promise in our contemporary world of achieving something approximating universal wellness on a healthy planet at peace with itself. This work argues that the three principal subjects of the study--independently of one another--used the same dialectical method to reach the same dialectically derived conclusion about how humans can live redemptively in a fractured world.
The Anime Archives
Embark on a voyage through a chronological history of anime that explores both the marquee cinematic touchstones and enduring series that have shaped the medium. The Anime Archives celebrates it all, from the Studio Ghibli films that fans queued for at the cinema to the eagerly anticipated Dragon Ball Z episodes, and Demon Slayer's enormous cultural footprint. No icon will be left out.Discover more about the creators - and creative processes - that gave life to these worlds that defined childhoods while capturing imaginations. Composed of thoughtful essays and insights into key artists, dive into the inspirations, philosophies and techniques integral to these timeless masterpieces.Featuring interviews with and retrospectives of renowned names from the history of anime, including: Osama Tezuka (Astro Boy, Diary of Ma-chan, New Treasure Island) Leiji Matsumoto (Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999) Hidekazu Ohara (Mobile Suit Gundam 0080, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Chocobo Racing) Kofi Morimoto (Robot Carnival, Children of the Sea, Noiseman Sound Insect) Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump) Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Inuyasha) Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Angel's Egg) Isao Takahata (The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Panda! Go, Panda!, Grave of the Fireflies) Hayao Miyazaki (Nausica瓣 of the Valley of the Wind, Future Boy Conan, Porco Rosso) Rintaro (Metropolis, Galaxy Express 999) Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Suzume, Weathering with You) Mamoru Hosoda (Wolf Children, Belle, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion Gunbuster, Shin Godzilla) Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress) Hiroaki Yura (Safe House Studios, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance)
Sound and Sense in Contemporary Theatre
This book is among the first to consider the subject of mad auralities in theatre and performance, asking: what does it mean to hear and listen madly? Drawing widely upon mad studies, critical disability studies, theatre studies, sound studies, queer studies, and critical race theory, it seeks to explore the theatrical relationship between sound and mental health differences by examining a range of case studies in which audience members are immersed in auditory simulations of madness. Ultimately, however, this critical study investigates the shortcomings of simulation as a representational practice, in keeping with the critical tradition of disability studies and mad studies.
The Wire
An engaging and timely account of the groundbreaking show The Wire, this book examines the show's realism, representations of race, multifaceted characters, influence on international perceptions of American policing, and role in informing twenty-first-century drug policy.
Broadway Dreamer
Have you ever dreamed of going into show business? Lynette Bennett did, and discovered joy, heartache, and danger along the way. This is the story of her struggle to break into show business during the tumultuous 1960s-lessons, auditions, and revving up her nerve to compete with hundreds of actors for each role. In time she finds success with commercials, jingles, and on the Broadway stage appearing with the new sensation-Barbra Streisand. She not only appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, she had to turn down a request for a repeat performance. She appeared in Funny Girl, Once Upon A Mattress, Anything Goes and many other shows, becoming a Broadway baby who lived her dream. "While Lynette Bennett's BROADWAY DREAMER is essentially an engaging memoir of a hardworking actor, singer, and dancer steeped in the heady cauldron of 1960s and '70s Broadway, it's also something more than that. In addition to the numerous celebrity encounters and fascinating insights into such arcane entertainment-biz pursuits as "business theater" stage musicals, the book also has something to say - about the choices we make, the trials we face, the opportunites we miss, and the bracing power of true love, which transcends all those things." - John Wooley, TWENTIETH-CENTURY HONKY-TONK
Beautiful Doom
Dennis Kelly's award-winning plays have been translated into over thirty languages and produced on six continents. His endlessly inventive vision has produced a diverse body of work for a variety of audiences across a range of forms, genres, and media, from the Olivier and Tony Award-winning Matilda the Musical (2010), to the Channel Four cult-classic series Utopia. His 2008 play DNA, written for National Theatre Connections, is a set text on the AQA GCSE English Literature syllabus. This collection of essays written by leading scholars, teachers, and practitioners of theatre provides the first multi-authored study of Kelly's critically acclaimed oeuvre. Featuring an original interview with Kelly himself, this volume captures the full range and scope of his writing for stage and screen, from the quirky fringe debut Debris (2003) to the globally-distributed film adaptation of Matilda the Musical (2022).
Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s
With a unique definition of the classic situation comedy television genre as developed out of its history on radio, this critical study highlights the best American sitcoms from the 1950s, TV's first decade as a household medium. Everything from I Love Lucy to Dobie Gillis is covered with a rigorous evaluation that seeks to find this formative era's finest episodic samples that most prove the sitcom's inherent artistry.
Walt Disney's Forgotten Australia
This book delves into the fascinating and often overlooked history of Walt Disney's influence in Australia, tracing the cultural impact of iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck from their inception in 1928 to the end of the Vietnam War. The author uncovers how Disney became intertwined with Australian popular culture, reflecting significant technological advancements and global events such as the introduction of radio and television, the Cold War, and more. The chapters investigate a range of topics, including Disney's dual role as a symbol of American culture and a mirror to Australian society. Readers will discover how Disney characters were perceived in Australia during pivotal moments in history, offering both entertainment and commentary on contemporary issues. The author provides expert analysis of Disney's complex legacy, examining both its positive contributions to Australian media and controversial aspects. This book invites readers to consider critical questions about cultural exchange and influence, making it a must-read for media and cultural history scholars looking to understand the intricate relationship between Disney and Australian culture, and indeed how global media can shape national identity and societal values. Whether you are a researcher in cultural studies or simply an enthusiast interested in Disney's global impact, this book provides a comprehensive look at an essential chapter in Australia's cultural narrative.
Slags on Stage
Slags on Stage weaves cultural analysis with poetry and art criticism to explore the concept of the 'slag' and its place in contemporary British-English culture.The book traces the etymology of the word slag through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, thinking through the ways 'slag' speaks to issues of class, sex and desire. Broadly, slag is an insult bound up with women's sexual reputations - but beyond this it is a 'key' word that shapes how we debate and understand culture. For women coming-of-age in the United Kingdom in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries 'slag' produces complex feelings and has influenced how we have come to know ourselves and understand our sexual and quotidian desires. This book explores the terrain of slag and includes analyses of artworks by artists who have invoked the slag in their practice, such as Tracey Emin, Cash Carraway and Michaela Coel. Covering the cultural politics of clothing, motherhood, television representations, sexual assault, sex work and desire, Slags on Stage asks: what role does the 'slag' play in British culture? Who is she for? And how have women used sex and sexuality to have their own say in cultures that want to control them?This is a fascinating exploration for students and scholars of British drama, theatre and performance, cultural studies and sociology.
Nautanki
Drawing on more than 4 decades of experience working in Nautanki as a writer, director, singer, and actor, Sharma's book is the first major study to analyse Nautanki not only through its literary bases, but also through live performances, considering it both in a historical vein and as contemporary theatre on the ground. What entertained India's masses and elites before the arrival of cinema in India? When did "modern" theatre begin in India and how did Nautanki contribute to its rise? In this book, renowned theatre scholar and 7th-generation Nautanki artist Devendra Sharma examines the theatrical form of Nautanki-its history, organisational structure, narratives, poetics, musical structures, artists, and performance spaces-which flourished in North India in the 19th and the 20th centuries, and is still popular now. In a concise format, Sharma explores how this socially and politically relevant theatre, full of beautiful music, swashbuckling heroes, magic, romance, and contemporary themes, once charmed audiences throughout India's cities and countryside towns and served as the continuation of elements of ancient Indian theatre. This book unravels a critical shift in the history of Indian theatre, the move from unbounded performance spaces to proscenium stages in big cities, and how this changed the meaning of theatre in India. It examines how forces of globalization and modernization have profoundly changed India's theatrical landscape, arguably side-lining one of its most robust theatre forms of the 19th and 20th centuries. It also discusses the future of Nautanki, and how it is now being performed globally. Nautankiis essential reading for anybody interested in Indian theatre, world theatre, musical theatre, opera, and Bollywood.
Ultimate Anime
Anime is one of Japan's greatest cultural exports with its films enchanting audiences across the globe. Ultimate Anime celebrates the medium's most incredible achievements and indelible moments to date. Packed with film stills and essays on directors and Japanese pop culture, Ultimate Anime is an irresistible "way in" to the art form for newcomers as well as an essential purchase for even the most hardcore followers of the medium.Whether looking at the ephemeral arthouse tragedy of Belladonna of Sadness, the iconic legacy of Cowboy Bebop, or the genre--busting touchstone of Suzumiya Haruhi, there are worlds beyond worlds worth exploring once a new fan has finished their first Studio Ghibli binge. Written by anime expert Joe O'Connell, Ultimate Anime takes readers on an exciting tour of the finest examples of the art of anime by its greatest creators.O'Connell writes in--depth commentary on each featured film and recommends other films that have similar themes and subjects. He also profiles each film and illustrates them with stunning stills from the movies themselves. This volume celebrates the achievements of the genre's most transforming films, explores each film's creation, the minds that brought them to life, and the thoroughly Japanese culture and themes woven throughout, all while breaking down what makes each of them an enduring classic. Bringing the world of anime to life on the page, this book will help fans old and new quickly find a new masterpiece to discover and enjoy.The defining work on the subject, it is a treasure trove full of surprises for the expert while also serving as an intriguing introduction for the newly initiated. The best single volume on the genre, Ultimate Anime is the book for anyone interested in the worldwide phenomenon that is anime.
Theater, War, and Memory in Crisis
Theater, War, and Memory in Crisis explores how French and Algerian dramatists have engaged with two traumatic events that continue to haunt France: the German occupation and Vichy government from 1940 to 1944 and the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962. John Ireland's investigation is guided by one central question: can theater take on issues of violence, war trauma, and conflicted memory in a fundamentally different way from archival forms of culture such as memoirs, narrative fiction, and film? Throughout the twentieth century, French cultural anthropologists, classicists, and social scientists repeatedly revisited links between archaic religious ritual, the practice of sacrifice, and Greek tragedy as attempts to understand, regulate, and mitigate the violence of human conflict and war. Ireland argues that contemporary French playwrights dealing with war trauma and contested memory were influenced by aspects of this research that foregrounded the core virtues of oral culture: presence and the present, the "here and now" that also regulate theatrical performance. That connection to the present encouraged dramatists and performance artists to make "live" historiographical contributions to reverberating, unresolved history but also revived perennial therapeutic values of oral culture that evolved in ancient Greece. Theater, War, and Memory in Crisis brings original readings of canonical authors like Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet, Bernard-Marie Kolt癡s, and Kateb Yacine into dialogue with non-canonical dramatists such as Armand Gatti, Liliane Atlan, and Noureddine Aba.
Kubrick and Race
Kubrick and Race investigates race and racism in Stanley Kubrick's oeuvre. At first glance, Kubrick's films are very white, but his work with race is complex. Sometimes he addressed race covertly, indirectly, in hidden ways, or in the background, so that race becomes a palimpsest that is visible through the foreground story. Did Kubrick repress and deny racial inequities? Do his works condone and participate in racism, or did he represent it as a lived reality? This volume asks these questions, opening a discussion that is long overdue. Operating from a clear understanding of the contemporary context, the book spans past, present, and future, offering readers a chance to witness - afresh - ways in which Kubrick and his prolific work allow one to criss-cross academic disciplines as varied as communication, literature, psychiatry, media, film, and Black studies. This collection of essays opens new routes to and from Kubrick, in and out of the academy, convincingly and exhaustively.
Stanislavsky and Gender
Stanislavsky and Gender explores the intimate and complicated relationship between the enduring influence of Konstantin Stanislavsky and the evolving phenomenon of gender. This book provides new insights through historical research, unpublished and newly translated materials, and contemporary insights from diverse scholars and practitioners.Readers will gain a nuanced understanding of how gender informs and intersects with the legacy of Konstantin Stanislavsky and its related traditions from historical, feminist, pedagogical, intersectional, and queer contexts. Stanislavsky and Gender combines historical and contemporary perspectives from scholars and practitioners from the UK, Ireland, the United States, Australia, Russia, and Brazil. Their contributions cover theatre histories, her-stories, emotion, feminism, pedagogy, intersectionality, race, and queerness. Following each chapter, contributors are joined in conversation to discuss their writing in a broader context.Part of the "Stanislavsky And..." series, Stanislavsky and Gender will be invaluable to scholars, teachers, students, and practitioners interested in integrating perspectives on gender into their research, teaching, and practice of Stanislavsky's legacy and associated traditions, and theatre history, acting, directing, actor training, and pedagogy more broadly.
The Vatican Versus Horror Movies
Since public audiences were first introduced to the medium of film in 1895, the Catholic Church has sought to impose its will on the distribution and exhibition of movies. These activities include the fortnightly publication of the Segnalazioni Cinematografiche, which passed Catholic moral judgment on every film released. In this pamphlet and in other settings, no set of filmmakers has invited the ire of the Vatican as much as those working in the genres of horror and exploitation. At times, filmmakers have responded in kind, attacking the Catholic church directly and indirectly, presenting clergy as outright antagonists and shining a light on the Vatican's crimes past and present, including its collusion with fascism. Translating the judgments of the Segnalazioni Cinematografiche into English for the first time and juxtaposing them with film content and social and historical context, this book presents in full the cultural conflict between the Vatican and horror movies.
Monsters and Monstrosity in 21st-Century Film and Television
In its entirety, this volume endeavors to examine how 21st-century media presents and contends with the body and mind of the monster. What do monsters reveal about us as a cultural community?
Ventriloquism made Easy & an exposure of Magic and the Second Sight Mystery
The Way of the Actor
For thousands of years, in traditional societies around the world, actors were seen as the guardians of intuitive wisdom, and the way of the actor was a path to knowledge and power. Brian Bates believes that this is still the case today -- that actors and actresses fulfill an important function in our culture as modern-day seers and shamans. He portrays the actor as a creator of visions who transports spectators out of their habitual ways of being and leads them on a journey of self-discovery. Personal magnetism and charisma, intense body awareness, and psychic sensitivity are among the special powers that contribute to the actor's mystique.Citing the observations and experiences of over thirty famous performers -- including Meryl Streep, Marlon Brando, Glenda Jackson, Liv Ullmann, Jack Nicholson, and Shirley MacLaine -- the author also draws on extensive research in science, psychology, parapsychology, and Eastern and Western mysticism to explore the significance of the dramatic art. He not only shows how the magical world of stage and screen mirrors our lives, but also reveals how actors and actresses point the way to self-transformation for everyone. For, as he writes, "the way of the actor is not an esoteric discipline divorced from everyday life. It is everyday life, heightened and lived to the full, with an awareness of powers beyond understanding."
To the Hilt
To the Hilt is a riveting exploration into the mysterious and dangerous world of sword swallowing, charting its history from ancient rituals to modern-day performances. Cowritten by world-renowned sword swallower Dan Meyer and celebrated sideshow historian Marc Hartzman, this volume delves into the lives of over 100 sword swallowers. Meyer, with his numerous world records and vast experience, provides an insider's perspective that is unmatched, while Hartzman adds depth with his historical knowledge and engaging writing style. Key Features: Definitive compendium of historical biographies Highlights the captivating lives of historical sword swallowers from the 1700s to the present, many of whom have never been profiled in other books. Behind the scenes with modern performers Provides an inside look at the wild stories and experiences of modern sword swallowers, who account for one out of every 300 million people alive today. Expert perspectives Readers will learn from Dan Meyer, the world's leading expert on sword swallowing and viral TEDx presenter, as he shares his unique life experiences and relatable life lessons in his introductory essay. Rare imagery Contains a treasure trove of rare photographs and ephemera that bring the history of sword swallowing to life. Medical insights Outlines the medical risks and implications of sword swallowing through a doctor's essay included in the book, which serves both as a warning and an elucidation of the phenomenon. To the Hilt is a journey into a world where danger and artistry intersect. Perfect for sideshow enthusiasts, history buffs, or those interested in pushing human capability to its limits in any domain, this book will leave readers both enlightened and amazed.
The Science Fiction Film in Contemporary Hollywood
The Science Fiction Film in Contemporary Hollywoodfocuses on the American science fiction (SF) film during the period 2001-2020, in order to provide a theoretical mapping of the genre in the context of Conglomerate Hollywood. Using a social semiotics approach in a systematic corpus of films, the book argues that the SF film can be delineated by two semiotic squares -the first one centering on the genre's more-than-human ontologies (SF bodies), and the second one focusing on its imaginative worlds (SF worlds). Based on this theoretical framework, the book examines the genre in six cycles, which are placed in their historical context, and are analyzed in relation to cultural discourses, such as technological embodiment, race, animal-human relations, environmentalism, global capitalism, and the techno-scientific Empire. By considering these cycles -which include superhero films, creature films, space operas, among others-as expressions of the genre's basic oppositions, the book facilitates the comparison and juxtaposition of films that have rarely been discussed in tandem, offering a new perspective on the multiple articulations of the SF film in the new millennium.
Noh
This volume provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the rich traditions of noh, classical Japanese dance-drama. Drawing from specialized scholarship in English and in Japanese, it takes an accessible approach useful for a range of readers, including students and researchers of Japanese culture and performing arts, as well as theatre practitioners. The introduction provides an overview, describing noh from the point of view of both the audience and the practitioner. Chapter One traces the history of noh from its origins through stages of development and formalization to the present day. Chapter Two explores the different plays in the repertoire, discussing their structures, themes, and sources. Chapter Three delves into the staging conventions of noh, introducing aspects of movement, music, and chant, as well as costumes, masks, and stage properties. To conclude, this book raises questions about the current situation of noh and explores its potential future. Since its emergence in the 14th century, noh has been appreciated by audiences ranging from the intellectual elites to the warrior class, from the Buddhist clergy to commoners. Throughout its history, noh has influenced other traditional performing arts and, since the early 20th century, it has also been a source of inspiration for theatre practitioners outside of Japan.
Creating Life Story Theatre
Balancing practical exercises and case studies, this book equips practitioners, students and academics with guidance for exploring the process of making theatre from personal stories. Inviting you to consider the ethical challenges and rewards of this specialized area of theatre making, this book contextualizes the authors' original approaches within the range of existing applied theatre practice. It draws on the authors' practice and research in prisons, with military veterans and families, older adults, people living with dementia, intergenerational community groups, and end-of-life care settings. Offering guiding principles for practitioners undertaking work in this field and sharing techniques and exercises to help develop your style and approach, it also features handy hints and pitfalls to consider while working with someone's most precious commodity: their life story. Featuring both the authors' and participants' perspectives, the book explores concepts such as collaborative editing and co-creation, ownership and accountability, ethics and boundaries, and rolling consent. Alongside a growing interest in using personal stories in applied theatre, it argues that there is increasing evidence for the role of the arts in the promotion of health, prevention of ill health, and management and treatment of illness. In light of the steady increase in a diverse range of arts practitioners embracing narrative practice, this book is an accessible, practitioner-level text on the subject.
Law & Order Svu: Confidential
Investigate the world of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit through exclusive photos, filming locations, and cast interviews in this case file for SVU superfans. Solve the case of one of TV's longest-running programs in Law & Order SVU: Confidential. SVU superfans can not only look back on their favorite cases and iconic characters, but also expand their fandom knowledge through photographs and behind-the-scenes insights. From powerhouse detective Olivia Benson to quippy expert of interrogation Fin Tutuola, the characters are addicting to watch in action and make SVU easy to love. This deep dive into Law & Order: SVU includes: A map of SVU filming locationsFull character arcs of adored SVU detectives and charactersA breakdown of the can't-get-enough formula for an SVU episodeDeep dives into cases on the show based on true storiesFeatured celebrity guest stars and their roles on the showBring out your own detective skills with Law & Order SVU: Confidential by learning everything there is to know about over 450 episodes of this hit crime TV show. From crime to case closed, this exposition of all things SVU is just as binge-worthy as its 25 seasons.
Diversifying the Space of Podcasting
Driven by diverse scholars and professionals, Diversifying the Space of Podcasting explores how podcasting provides a space in which marginalized communities have a voice. This anthology is an essential resource in mass communication, new media, gender and race studies, and podcasting studies programs and fields.
Ballplayers on Stage
Since before the turn of the twentieth century, baseball greats have captivated audiences both on the diamond and the stage. Gracing the world of melodrama with their theatrical presence during the offseason, their forays into professional theater opened a portal between two distinct worlds of performance and entertainment that would shape the future of both. In Ballplayers on Stage, Travis Stern explores the relationship between professional baseball and professional theater in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In particular, he argues that examining theater from this era helps us better understand baseball's development and its transformation from a strictly working-class attraction to an entertainment that attracted interest from America's emerging middle class. Baseball players' theatrical productions drew audiences from the baseball world, and in turn their performances on the diamond began to attract middle-class crowds. But how did the on-field persona of those players as heroes or villains contribute to their image in the theater, and vice versa? To explore these questions, Stern examines case studies of five representative players from baseball's pre-Babe Ruth "deadball" era: Cap Anson, Mike "King" Kelly, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and Rube Waddell, with a concluding study of Babe Ruth himself. While one draw of theatrical performance was the additional profit it promised the players during the off-season, the stage also offered these men an opportunity to take a more active role in shaping their public image. Thus, Ballplayers on Stage not only offers a historical study of baseball, theater, and the relationship between the two; it also shares insight into the creation of celebrity in early twentieth-century America. This unique book will interest American history scholars, baseball fans, and theater enthusiasts alike.
Understanding Lynn Nottage
The first comprehensive study of the two-time Pulitzer-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is one of the leading innovators in American theater today. In settings ranging from seventeenth-century France (Las Meninas) to twenty-first century conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ruined) and at a Pennsylvania factory (Sweat), she creatively foregrounds explorations of race, gender, and class. In Understanding Lynn Nottage, Jennifer L. Hayes presents an accessible overview of Nottage's body of work to date, connecting her to other Black female playwrights and situating her in the African American literary tradition. In this character-driven study, Hayes examines how the playwright's dynamic narratives bring together diverse perspectives to address historical and contemporary issues. Hayes argues that Nottage privileges Black women's voices within vital discourse about topics such as migration, domestic terrorism, and historical erasure. This book lays essential groundwork for future study of Nottage, who will continue to be a central dramatic voice for years to come, examining social problems through complex portraits of communities struggling to balance their values with shifting societal norms.
Performative Arts and Social Transformation
What future challenges are we facing already today, what room for action needs to be secured and which impulses result from this for professional future action? Against the backdrop of social transformation processes that pose these questions, the contributors to this volume highlight current developments in the field of performing arts, asking for scientific references to the mode of crisis. Their international framing places different academic positions in an overarching discourse by bringing knowledge from different theatre traditions and cultural contexts into a dialogue.
Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre
Digital Media, Projection Design, & Technology for Theatre, Second Edition comprehensively details the integration of digital media and projections in theatre and live performance, providing foundational skills, best practices, and real-world applications and considerations.The book provides readers with an overview of the professional field, including current industry standards and workflows for digital media/projection design, its related aesthetics, techniques, and technologies. A practical taxonomy of digital media and how we create meaning through its use on the theatrical stage along with the essential tools and techniques for creating and executing digital content are covered. Readers are introduced to the fundamentals of creating and executing digital content, including photography and still images, generative AI, video, animation, real-time effects, generative art, data, and interactive digital media. The book also details the types and use of industry-standard equipment, including media servers, projectors, projection surfaces, emissive displays, cameras, sensors, and more. It guides readers through technical tasks, such as programming media servers; converging and blending projectors; projection mapping; calculating surface brightness/luminance, screen size, and throw distance; and more, making this a complete guide to digital media and projection design today. The second edition is updated with new content throughout and two new chapters addressing the latest technologies and trends in virtual performance, motion capture, generative AI, and VR/AR. Ten new case studies from diverse practitioners have been added, and the book is restructured with shorter chapters for easier navigation and reference.This book serves well as a main or supplemental textbook for courses in projection design, theatre, and digital media design. It is also useful for emerging practitioners.Sample assets and interviews with leading projection designers are available for download at www.routledge.com/9781032302157.
Performative Opacity in the Work of Isabelle Huppert
Performative Opacity in the Work of Isabelle Huppert argues that the career of this singular French actor--constituting a corpus of well over a hundred films--offers a unique testing ground for current approaches in film studies and affect studies. Attention to Huppert's performances can reframe recent discussions on the social and cultural dimensions of emotion and normativity through a compelling paradox: her roles tend to express grandiose and overwhelming conditions central to debates in the humanities--negativity, dispossession, trauma--but through elusive and at times resistant or diminutive forms of expression: what J. Hoberman once called her "genius to distinguish 47 varieties of blankness." Including diverse contributions from an international line-up of established scholars, this volume examines Huppert's flat affect and other registers with an eye to their significance for cinema and media studies, queer and gender studies, star studies and world cinema.
Music in Orbit
Years before the advent of music streaming, Sirius and XM established satellite radio services that attracted paying subscribers through their ever-expanding lineup of niche music channels and exclusive celebrity-hosted programming. Music in Orbit is the first book to explore how satellite radio bridges legacy broadcast music radio and streaming platforms, serving as both precursor and integral player in today's streaming media environment. Arguing for the ongoing significance of radio in the digital age and the pernicious effects of monopoly power on the vibrancy of contemporary music industries, Music in Orbit offers essential context for the serious problems now facing working musicians, music consumers, and music communities.
Pet Sematary
Most scholarship on Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary (1989) overarchingly focuses on the Stephen King novel (1983), and tends strongly towards housing the story within the Gothic literary tradition. The film itself is often absent from considerations of North American horror cinema of the 1980s, and from wider horror scholarship in general. This Devil's Advocate stands as a corrective, and provides a holistic analysis - textual, contextual, and industrial - of the film, in order to properly situate it as an important entry into the history of horror cinema.This book joins a growing body of works - both journalistic and academic - that aim to revisit older films in order to call attention to and/or redress the gendered imbalance in our written horror histories. McMurdo charges Pet Sematary with several contributions to the horror genre: as an important entry within the tradition of "grief horror"; as a horror film that both adheres to and defies the generic conventions of its historical context, one both engaged with and respondent to its time of creation; as a film that changed the fortunes of the cinematic Stephen King "brand" on the cusp of a new decade. Pet Sematary is the highest grossing horror film directed by a woman in cinematic history, and it stands as a story that we keep returning to - as seen by the 1992 sequel, the 2019 remake, and a forthcoming prequel. Pet Sematary's modern relevance and importance to genre history then, is manifold, and this book argues it is past time for its reconsideration as a classic of horror cinema.
