Marvel Studios' the Infinity Saga - Black Panther: The Art of the Movie
The official art book for the movie Black Panther, the 17th title reissue of the 22-book Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga series published as a resized matching set. The 17th of the 22 Marvel Cinematic Universe Infinity Saga film titles being published as a complete set. Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, T'Challa returns home to Wakanda to take his place as king. But when two new enemies conspire to destroy the country, the Black Panther must team up with members of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's special forces, and CIA agent Everett Ross to protect his home from being dragged into a world war. Go behind the scenes with stunning concept artwork and in-depth analysis from the filmmakers in this collectible volume. Discover everything you need to know about the making of the movie from all the key players--including Director Ryan Coogler, Executive Producer Nate Moore, Production Designer Hannah Beachler, the talented cast, concept artists, and other talented individuals who worked on the set and behind the scenes to create the art of Marvel Studios' Black Panther.
Marvel Studios' the Infinity Saga - Thor: Ragnarok - The Art of the Movie
The official art book for the movie Thor: Ragnarok, the 16th title reissue of the 22-book Marvel Studios' The Infinity Saga series published as a resized matching set. The 16th of the 22 Marvel Cinematic Universe Infinity Saga film titles being published as a complete set. Thor's sister Hela, the all-powerful Goddess of Death, threatens the destruction of Asgard, but Thor is trapped on the other side of the universe and must race against time to save his civilization. Featuring exclusive concept artwork, behind-the-scenes photographs, production stills, and in-depth interviews with the cast and crew, this deluxe volume provides insider details about the making of the film. Discover everything you need to know about the making of the movie from all the key players--including Director Taika Waititi, Visual Development Supervisor Andy Park, Visual Effects Supervisor Jake Morrison, the talented cast, concept artists, and other talented individuals who worked on the set and behind the scenes to create the art of Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok.
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.
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: Osamu 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) Koji 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.
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.
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).
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
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.
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. Nautanki is essential reading for anybody interested in Indian theatre, world theatre, musical theatre, opera, and Bollywood.
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.
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.
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. It provides new insights through historical research, unpublished and newly translated materials, and contemporary insights from diverse scholars and practitioners.
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 20th and into the 21st century, thinking through the ways 'slag' speaks to issues of class, sex and desire.
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.
Ventriloquism made Easy & an exposure of Magic and the Second Sight Mystery
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?
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 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."
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.
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.
Law & Order Svu: Confidential
Step behind the scenes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in this unofficial and unauthorized companion for SVU superfans. Through exclusive photographs, filming locations, and insights from cast and crew interviews, Law & Order SVU: Confidential solves the mystery of what makes Law & Order: SVU one of television's most enduring series. Open its vibrantly illustrated pages to revisit the characters and cases that have made SVU unforgettable, from powerhouse detective Olivia Benson to quick-witted interrogation expert Fin Tutuola.Alongside pop art illustrations of iconic moments and characters, you'll find: A detailed map of SVU filming locationsEverything there is to know about over 450 episodes of this hit crime TV showComplete character arcs of fan-favorite detectives and recurring figuresA breakdown of the irresistible formula that defines every SVU episodeDeep dives into real-life cases that inspired the show's storylinesSpotlights on celebrity guest stars and their memorable rolesFor fans who can't get enough of the long-running crime drama, this unofficial and unauthorized edition celebrates the legacy of Law & Order: SVU while offering fresh insights and insider details.
From Metaphor to Direct Speech
New Drama--a collection of actors, directors, and playwrights in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus--is one of the most active and vibrant artistic movements in the Russophone world today yet remains understudied in the West. E. Susanna Weygandt demonstrates that the major innovation of New Drama is a sonic turn, an aesthetic development that moves away from traditional, Stanislavskian embodied performance to something almost purely aural. New Drama, which began in the tumult following the collapse of the Soviet Union and continues even in an increasingly censorious Russia today, emphasizes contemporary social issues and privileges disadvantaged voices, using documentary modes to literally bring the voices of the dispossessed to the ears of the audience members. As a result, the Russophone New Dramatists speak dissent and dramatize resistance. Ultimately, they shift theatrical productions from something constrained and limited, in both place and time, to an ephemeral but unbounded gateway for social activism. The sonic stage thus effectively functions as a social forum, transposing action from the actors to the audience. From Metaphor to Direct Speech therefore contributes to cultural as well as performance studies, offering a compelling look not just at developments in theatrical modes but also at dissent and cultural aesthetics in Russia today.
Diversifying the Space of Podcasting
As the podcast studies field continues to gain momentum both within academia and in practice, scholars have been mapping and exploring the podcasting landscape from a variety of perspectives. This edited volume highlights the diverse spaces that podcasts embody and create, amplifying the unique and understudied perspectives and voices of podcasting. Through a multitude of interdisciplinary approaches, contributors explore the various cultural, racial, and identity-based markers undergirding the richness of the platform and argue that by understanding diverse content and content creators, we enrich the field of podcast studies as a whole. Scholars of media, communication, cultural, podcast, and critical race studies - among others - will find this book to be particularly useful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chinese Animation
Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion is the first edited volume that explores the multiple histories, geographies, industries, technologies, media, and transmedialities of Chinese animation, from early animated special effects to socialist classics, from computer-generated-imagery (CGI) blockbusters to edgy independent films, and from stop-motion to virtual reality. Its fifteen chapters, grouped under the five themes of junctures, gender, identities, digitality, and practices, span a century of animation since the 1920s across mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and the diasporic world. Derived from the 2021 Inaugural Conference of the Association for Chinese Animation Studies (ACAS), this volume as a whole defines Chinese animation studies as a new field of research emerging from the peripheries of modern Chinese literature and film studies on the one hand, and from the margins of Western and Japanese animation studies on the other. Incorporating diverse academic approaches and perspectives, this groundbreaking book is an indispensable guide for a rapidly growing community of scholars, students, animators, fans, and general readers interested in Chinese and world animation.
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.
Traditional Entertainment of Japan
This book was written for the Japanese without knowledge sufficient about traditional entertainment of Japan. And it is the purpose of this book that the Japanese who read this book conveys this knowledge to a foreigner.
