Madness in Contemporary British Theatre
This 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.
Youth and Suicide in American Cinema
This book explores the depiction of suicide in American youth films from 1900 to 2019. Anchored in Sociology, this multidisciplinary study investigates the causes and consequences of suicide and uncovers the socio-cultural context for the development of youth, film, and suicide. While such cinematic portrayals seem to privilege external explanations of suicide versus internal or psychological ones, overall they are neither rich nor sensitive. Most are simplistic, limited or at the very least unbalanced. At times, they are flatly controversial. In light of this overall problematic depiction of suicide, this book offers a proactive approach to empower young audiences--a media literacy strategy to embrace while watching these films.
Maxwell Anderson and the Marriage Crisis
This book focuses on the re-evaluation of four Maxwell Anderson plays within the context of the emergence of the New Woman and the perception of a marriage crisis in the United States during the 1920s. The four plays under consideration are White Desert (1923), Sea-Wife (1924), Saturday's Children (1927), and Gypsy (1929). These plays are largely forgotten and, even when the titles appear in Anderson scholarship, coverage has tended to be cursory and dismissive. This work represents a fresh approach and re-assessment of an American playwright who bore a significant impact on the drama of his time, serving not only to place Anderson's work more effectively within the context of American theatre during the 1920s, but also to bridge the gap between his work and the marriage-related plays of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
From Stage to Screen
Chinese martial arts cinema is held to be a synthesis drawing on artistic conventions of traditional Chinese theatre. Film sound and music perform as the legitimate heirs of some of the aesthetic ideas and norms of traditional Chinese theatre. This book critically examines the history of this under-explored field of inquiry from a theoretically comparative perspective, demonstrating that the musical codes drawn from traditional theatre are a constantly changing component integral to Chinese martial arts cinema. It explores the interaction between traditional Chinese theatre and Chinese martial arts cinema in how the musical codes of the former have shaped the aesthetics of the latter uniquely. This departs from conventional existing studies that focus on "adaptation." The book's historical and theoretical approach connects film, theatre and music, and re-defines the status of distinctive domains of filmic expression, grounding theatre as the pivot - or "hinge" - of film aesthetics. The book proffers this unique angle of research to rethink and re-imagine film sound and audiovisual synchronisation. Primarily intended for scholars in Chinese cinema, film music, Chinese theatre and visual culture, this monograph also presents introductory and comprehensive material for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in film and media studies, film music, Chinese cinema, and Chinese theatre.
The Emergence and Development of Lgbt Protest Activity in Russia
This book draws on social movement theories and rich empirical data to analyze LGBT protest activity in Russia. It offers a critical examination of the conditions under which LGBT protest activity arises and declines in authoritarian states - including state repression and socio-political discrimination of LGBT people; policy changes that negatively affect the LGBT community; and the motivations of the activists themselves. The author argues that a combination of political opportunity structures, resources, and activists' perceptions establish necessary conditions for protesting. If any of these factors are negatively affected, then LGBT activists would not be motivated to protest. The volume concludes with a discussion of the implications of Russian LGBT activism in hostile conditions. This book will be of interest to scholars engaged in human rights, social movement studies, gender studies, LGBT rights, and post-Soviet politics and societies.
Don’t Forget The Pierrots!’’ The Complete History of British Pierrot Troupes & Concert Parties
This volume is the first authoritative historical textbook to look at the origins, development and evolution of seaside Pierrot troupes and concert parties and their popular performance heritage.
Good Evening, Gloria's
Gloria and Yvonne, mother and daughter, both chefs, talented, loving, conflicted. In this play we explore their relationship, Gloria's Restaurant, and the other characters who work there.
Screen Acting
This book approaches film and television acting from an actor's perspective rather than that of an audience member, and therefore theorizes how screen acting works as a process that engages an actor's memory, imagination, emotions, and physical body in the creation of a character. It argues that film actors strive to perform profound empathetic connections with their characters and fellow actors, and then put themselves out there through performing to make those connections clear to the eventual audience. It combines interviews with working professional film and television actors, key insights and methods from Film, Television, and Theatre Studies, and theories of imagination and embodiment to show that screen actors are more than just "the moving parts" of the mise-en-scene.
Bernard Shaw on the American Stage
Bernard Shaw on the American Stage is the first comprehensive study of the production of Bernard Shaw's plays in America. During his lifetime (1856-1950), Shaw was America's most popular living playwright; productions of his plays were outnumbered only by Shakespeare. Forty-four of Shaw's plays were staged in America before his death, eight more posthumously. Eleven of the productions were world premieres. Bernard Shaw on the American Stage tells the story of the fifty-two premieres, which, apart from a few fragments, is his total dramatic oeuvre. The book also includes, again for the first time, production data and concise overviews of dozens of the most notable American revivals of the plays, from the 1890s to the beginning of the 2020 pandemic. Illustrations--production photographs, programmes, theatre buildings, playbills, actors' studio portraits-- inform the study throughout.
The Provincial and the Postcolonial in Cultural Texts from Late Modern Turkey
This book explores Turkey's complicated relationship to modernity and its status within the new global order by tracing the ambivalent ways in which taşra (the provinces) is constituted in contemporary Turkish cinema and literature. Connoting much more than its immediate spatial meaning as those places outside of the center(s), taşra is a way of naming what modernity decries as spatial peripherality, temporal belatedness, and cultural backwardness. It has functioned historically as a psychosocial repository for what Turkish modernity degrades and disavows, enabling a mapping of the predicaments and contradictions of Turkish modernization and national identity-constitution. Organized around taşra as its central analytic and informed by postcolonial, psychoanalytical, and critical theory, the book examines the extent to which dominant codings of taşra are affirmed and/or complicated in cinematic and literary narratives by award-winning filmmakers Nuri BilgeCeylan and Fatih Akın and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.
Imitation and Contamination of the Classics in the Comedies of Ben Jonson
This book focuses on the influence of classical authors on Ben Jonson's dramaturgy, with particular emphasis on the Greek and Roman playwrights and satirists.
The Theater and I
Must the show always go on? How do you feel about blind casting? What one piece of theatrical memorabilia would you most like to own?Have you ever thought about how YOU might answer each of these questions? Each week, for nearly two years, one theater aficionado and his diverse circle of friends have taken to social media to offer their thoughts on these and other (sometimes) burning issues. The most memorable comments--some surprising, some poignant, some hilarious--have been compiled here, combining for an insightful look into the always intriguing world of the theater. Interwoven throughout the questions and answers is the compelling true story of how a single night at the theater changed a man's life forever, along with some one-of-a-kind encounters with the likes of Harold Prince and Ethel Merman. Who could ask for anything more?
Practical Problems
In Goin' Legit, mobsters seek a conventional bank loan with hilarious results. In The Angry Ashtray, an inanimate object comes to life and has a surprising view about familiarity. In Bluesman Brando, actor Marlon Brando pays a surprising and surreal visit to a suburban family. In Up from the Ashes a local historical society decides to turn back the clock-way back! In A Hard Way's Night an aging rock band regroups to bid goodbye to the grungy ballroom where they got their start. And in The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, based entirely upon a true story, three psychotics attempt to convince a psychologist they are each the son of God. There are four more stories too delicious to summarize. Practical Problems delivers what it promises!
Practical Problems
In Goin' Legit, mobsters seek a conventional bank loan with hilarious results. In The Angry Ashtray, an inanimate object comes to life and has a surprising view about familiarity. In Bluesman Brando, actor Marlon Brando pays a surprising and surreal visit to a suburban family. In Up from the Ashes a local historical society decides to turn back the clock-way back! In A Hard Way's Night an aging rock band regroups to bid goodbye to the grungy ballroom where they got their start. And in The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, based entirely upon a true story, three psychotics attempt to convince a psychologist they are each the son of God. There are four more stories too delicious to summarize. Practical Problems delivers what it promises!
The Origin of Love
This work is based on true romantic events in families and stories depicted herein. These lovebirds came to their fondness in the most magical route imaginable. It is a story about people at their best towards others in partnership. The characters depicted represent no real people or anyone in particular even if these may coincidentally be identical to someone a reader may know or identify with. All efforts are in place to avoid revealing the actual people whose romantic stories are implied in this work. Every line in this work and story about love is true about how these lovebirds went head over heel sailing in the wide Wild Ocean of tantalizing romance. Njawara City, capital of Lower Badibou, the Gambia, has been chosen as stepping-stone for this magnificent, sensual, and ecstatic romantic story. Hearts mentioned in this work are the envy of the Goddess of love. The stories dwarf the romantic scenes in the Arabian Knights and their stunning belly dancing maidens. Then here is fantasia to set you
The Eroticizing of HIV
This book examines sexual fantasies and their influence on everyday life through the stories of twenty-two men who introduce themselves as bugchasers, i.e. gay men who eroticize HIV. The author defines bugchasing, charts its history and contexts, and considers how it has changed in the age of internet and PrEP. Through the participants, their experiences and contexts, this text also theorizes about sexual fantasies, seeking to understand how people define sexual fantasies and use the internet as a space to navigate their desires, meet others, and find support. Chapters also consider the practical implications of fantasy, most notably, how fantasies influence men's decisions around HIV prevention and care. This book speaks to renewed interest in both the AIDS crisis and the sociology of everyday life to illustrate how fantasies such as bugchasing appear, evolve, and adapt. This book will be of interest to scholars focused on queer studies, sexuality studies, gender studies, and healthcare.
Acting The Australian Way
Acting The Australian Way is your complete guide to becoming a working actor. - Have you always wanted to know why Australian actors do so well around the world? - Do you struggle with connecting with your lines? - Are you concerned with what to do with your body? - Do you know how and why your breath is very important to you as an actor? And do you know how to use it for affect?- Do you cringe or not like the sound of your own voice?- Do you know how to cry on cue or at least be emotionally vulnerable? - Do you know what classical training is? - Do you know how to make an impact in auditions? - Do you know how to make compelling characters?- Do you know what to expect when being trained by teachers or coaches? This book by Paul Parker will empower you and answer all those questions and more. A qualified teacher, Paul will walk you through exercises, step by step, on how to become a working actor. In the book you will also receive the learning points at the end of each section and be given tangible examples of how you should be taught as an actor.
Rethinking Film Festivals in the Pandemic Era and After
This is an open access book. This edited collection aims to document the effects of Covid-19 on film festivals and to theorize film festivals in the age of social distancing. To some extent, this crisis begs us to consider what happens when festivals can't happen; while films have found new (temporary) channels of distribution (most often in the forms of digital releases), the festival format appears particularly vulnerable in pandemic times. Imperfect measures, such as the move to a digital format, cannot recapture the communal experience at the very core of festivals. Given the global nature of the pandemic and the diversity of the festival phenomenon, this book features a wide range of case studies and analytical frameworks. With contributors including established scholars and frontline festival workers, the book is conceived as both a theoretical endeavour and a practical exploration of festival organizing in pandemic times.
Black Matters: Lewis Morrow Plays
Black Matters: Lewis Morrow Plays is a play anthology that maps the impact of emotional, social, cultural, and economic forces that shape the quality of African American life in the 21st century. Focusing on the narratives of Black men and women carrying the hopes and dreams of a generation, Morrow writes stories of dreams deferred, lives incarcerated, and families broken by circumstance who strive to beat the stereotypes of Blackness. Bending time to create hyperreal poetic engagements with anti-Blackness and systemic racism, Morrow questions who has the audacity of hope while living within circumstances that anticipate premature death. Morrow's poignant characters speak truth to power directly from their hearts as they present as unapologetically Black in a world that is indifferent to, and fatigued by, claims of racism and inequality. Baybra's Tulips: Baybra, a recently rereleased convict, returns home to live with sister Tallulah and her husband Charles under the pretence of rehabilitation but with the objective to avenge his sister's spousal abuse by his brother-in-law that resulted in the loss of her child. Begetters: Explores generational inheritance of trauma focusing on husband and wife, Spicer and Norma, in the twilight years of their marriage, and their descent into darkness and therapy after the loss of a family member Mother/son: A dark dramedy about a white mother who is in denial about her racist perspective and her cocaine addiction. Forced to get clean, she comes to live with her Black son (mixed race) who is reluctant to invest in her latest efforts to get clean in the converging pandemics of BLM and Covid.
How to Direct Shakespeare
You may be a student, or just starting out in the theatre profession, or an actor contemplating a switch to directing, or anyone dreaming of a life in the theatre. Know this: by developing and sharpening your skills on a Shakespeare text, you will be preparing yourself for your next production whatever or wherever that might be. Practical, inspirational and steeped in the wisdom and expertise of one of the great Shakespearean directors of our age, How to Direct Shakespeare guides you through each step of a production, from conception to final presentation to an audience. It includes close analysis of the text and provides strategies for focusing on the main action and structure; it considers dramatic energy and the world of the play, and illuminates these with examples drawn from a variety of Shakespeare's plays. It will assist you with creating your vision for the production as you collaborate with the design team, cast the play and work with actors in rehearsal. And it walks you through the encounter with the audience as you open your production. Drawing on examples from his work as artistic director of The Royal Shakespeare Company and subsequent directing work that has taken him all over the world, Noble shows how every production is shaped by a vision of the world - the interplay of the writer's vision and the director's interpretation of it. How to Direct Shakespeare will inspire and equip you as you develop your vision for your next production.
Contemporary Dance Lighting
Contemporary Dance Lighting: The Poetry and the Nitty-Gritty dynamically guides students toward aesthetically, creatively, and skillfully becoming lighting designers for dance in the 21st century.　
Chaucer’s Dante
Richard Neuse here explores the relationship between two great medieval epics, Dante's Divine Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He argues that Dante's attraction for Chaucer lay not so much in the spiritual dimension of the Divine Comedy as in the human. Borrowing Bertolt Brecht's phrase "epic theater," Neuse underscores the interest of both poets in presenting, as on a stage, flesh and blood characters in which readers would recognize the authors as well as themselves. As spiritual autobiography, both poems challenge the traditional medieval mode of allegory, with its tendency to separate body and soul, matter and spirit. Thus Neuse demonstrates that Chaucer and Dante embody a humanism not generally attributed to the fourteenth century. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.
Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1
Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1: From the Lab to the Streets is the first of two volumes dedicated to the diverse sociocultural work of science-oriented performance. A dynamic volume of scholarly essays, interviews with scientists and artists, and creative entries, it examines explicitly public-facing science performances that operate within and for specialist and non-specialist populations. The book's chapters trace the theatrical and ethical contours of live science events, re-enact historical stagings of scientific expertise, and demonstrate the pedagogical and activist potentials in performing science in community settings. Alongside the scholarly chapters, From the Lab to the Streets features creative work by contemporary science-integrative artists and interviews with popular science communicators Sahana Srinivasan (host of Netflix's Brainchild) and Raven Baxter ("Raven the Science Maven") and artists from performance ensembles The Olimpias and Superhero Clubhouse. In exploring the science performance as a vital but flawed method of public engagement, it offers a critique of the racist, ableist, sexist, and heteronormative ideologies prevalent across the history of science, as well as highlighting science performances that challenge and redress these ideologies. Along with its complementary volume From the Curious to the Quantum, this book documents the varied ways in which identity categories and cultural constructs are formed and reformed through science performances.
Attack of the Monster Musical
How many hit musicals are based on films that were shot in two days at a budget of $30,000? The answer is one: Little Shop of Horrors. Roger Corman's monster movie opened in 1960, played the midnight circuit, and then disappeared from view. Two decades later, Little Shop of Horrors opened Off-Broadway and became a surprise success. Attack of the Monster Musical: A Cultural History of Little Shop of Horrors chronicles this unlikely phenomenon. The Faustian tale of Seymour and his man-eating plant transcended its humble origins to become a global phenomenon, launching a popular film adaptation and productions all around the world. This timely and authoritative book looks at the creation of the musical and its place in the contemporary musical theatre canon. Examining its afterlives and wider cultural context, the book asks the question why this unlikely combination of blood, annihilation, and catchy tunes has resonated with audiences from the 1980s to the present. At the core of this in-depth study is the collaboration between the show's creators, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Told through archival research and eyewitness accounts, this is the first book to make extensive use of Ashman's personal papers, offering a unique and inspiring study of one of musical theatre's greatest talents.
Chaucer’s Dante
Richard Neuse here explores the relationship between two great medieval epics, Dante's Divine Comedy and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He argues that Dante's attraction for Chaucer lay not so much in the spiritual dimension of the Divine Comedy as in the human. Borrowing Bertolt Brecht's phrase "epic theater," Neuse underscores the interest of both poets in presenting, as on a stage, flesh and blood characters in which readers would recognize the authors as well as themselves. As spiritual autobiography, both poems challenge the traditional medieval mode of allegory, with its tendency to separate body and soul, matter and spirit. Thus Neuse demonstrates that Chaucer and Dante embody a humanism not generally attributed to the fourteenth century. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.
Feeling the Gaze
Feeling the Gaze explores the visual elements in eight contemporary Argentine and Chilean theater performances. Gail A. Bulman shows how staged images can awaken spectators' emotions to activate their intellect, provoking nuanced and deep contemplation of social, historical, and political themes. Ranging from simple props, costumes, body movements and spatial constructions to integrated media and digital images, the aesthetic components in these pieces engage to forge multifaceted storytelling, stimulate the public's relation to memory, and create affective bonds that help build individual and collective social consciousness. Recent innovations in Southern Cone theatre aesthetics have been shifting traditional performance/spectator relationships and animating ideological discussions. The various works presented here give readers a holistic understanding of the emerging prominence of visuality and affect as a vehicle for political advocacy in Latin American theatre and performance. The book asks us to consider the formation of new spectator-performance bonds as authors, directors, and theatre groups increasingly turn toward alternative settings for their work. Lingering visual memories of the performances, together with the feelings that the performative experience stirs up, provide spectators with an enduring focal point through which to reflect on and judge what is "beyond" the performed scenes. Staged live in the Southern Cone and internationally since 2014, these plays demonstrate the transgressive power of the visual to make spectators see, feel, and potentially act against injustices and violence.This study offers comprehensive critical discussions of Teatro Banda's O'Higgins: un hombre en pedazos; Teatro Ni簽o Proletario's Fulgor; Mario, Luiggi y sus fantasmas's Manual de carro簽a; Agust穩n Le籀n Pruzzo's En la sombra de la c繳pula; Teatro la Mar穩a's Los millonarios; Claudio Tolcachir's Pr籀ximo; Sergio Blanco's Tebas Land; and Lola Arias's Doble de Riesgo.
Destiny
They're sayin I brought it on myself.Oh yeah, they've heard about me. Basically it must've been my fault cause I'm me, Destiny. Destiny dreams big. She dreams glamour. She's gonna be an MTV Base backing dancer, you watch. If J-Lo can make it outta the Bronx then Destiny can make it off the Hill Rise estate in Chippenham. She's fearless, ferocious and up for the fight (she's had to be). Born below the breadline, she's desperate to see beyond the neighbourhood and find hope in hopelessness. This monologue follows the story of a teenage girl growing up on a rural Wiltshire council estate. After a big night out takes a turn for the worst, Destiny's life spirals out of control as she desperately tries to learn how to love and be loved. Florence Espeut-Nickless' debut play is a recipient of The Pleasance's 2021 National Partnerships Award with Bristol Old Vic FERMENT and was shortlisted for Theatre West's Write On Women Award. This edition was published to coincide with the run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022.
175 Theatre Games
When students arrive for a theatre class, they appreciate a game or exercise that will loosen them up and activate their right brain-the artistic side. A good warm-up gives class members the opportunity to tune in to their creative natures and readies them for the adventures ahead. The games and exercises in this book are designed to be used as warm-ups at the beginning of a theatre class period. They are organized into sections that focus on one of 12 specific skills-cooperation, focus, improvisation, listening, stage movement, voice, and several more. The games were originally created for middle school students but can easily be adapted for use with younger children, older teens, and even adults. Each game involves most, if not all, of the students in a class, has simple easy-to-implement directions, offers a practical benefit, and most importantly, is fun for your students.
The Young Alfred Hitchcock's Moviemaking Master Class
The Young Alfred Hitchcock's Moviemaking Master Class is a thrilling and accessible guide to storytelling, suspense, and visual creativity-told through the lens of one of cinema's greatest directors. Written for aspiring young filmmakers, storytellers, and mystery lovers, this book breaks down the timeless techniques used by Alfred Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, and shows readers how to apply them in their own stories and movies.Whether you're crafting your first short film, writing a chilling mystery, or just love classic cinema, this master class offers a fresh and entertaining way to learn the art of cinematic storytelling. Through practical tips, hands-on exercises, and real examples from Hitchcock's films, young readers will explore: - How to build suspense like Hitchcock- The difference between surprise and suspense- How to use camera angles, lighting, and editing for dramatic effect- Why storyboarding is essential- Creating memorable characters and gripping plots- Visual storytelling tricks used in classics like Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear WindowWith a playful, conversational tone and vibrant illustrations, this book empowers the next generation of creators to think like directors, plan like producers, and tell unforgettable stories.Perfect for use in classrooms, film clubs, homeschool settings, or just for fun, The Young Alfred Hitchcock's Moviemaking Master Class helps readers of all levels build confidence in their creativity and storytelling abilities.Whether you're a budding screenwriter, a YouTube content creator, or just a fan of Hitchcock's movies, this engaging guide brings old-school suspense into the digital age-teaching young creatives how to capture attention, raise the stakes, and keep audiences on the edge of their seats.Lights, camera, suspense-let the Master Class begin!
Acting Onstage
Practical Tips focuses on the practical things that actors should know to make their work flow more smoothly. It deals with the nitty-gritty tools that will help create a dynamic and memorable performance.
The Festival Cities of Edinburgh and Adelaide
The Festival Cities of Edinburgh and Adelaide examines how these cities' world-famous arts events have shaped and been shaped by their long-term interaction with their urban environments. While the Edinburgh International Festival and Adelaide Festival are long-established, prestigious events that champion artistic excellence, they are also accompanied by the two largest open-access fringe festivals in the world. It is this simultaneous staging of multiple events within Edinburgh's Summer Festivals and Adelaide's Mad March that generates the visibility and festive atmosphere popularly associated with both places. Drawing on perspectives from theatre studies and cultural geography, this book interrogates how the Festival City, as a place myth, has developed in the very different local contexts of Edinburgh and Adelaide, and how it is challenged by groups competing for the right to use and define public space. Each chapter examines a recent performative event in which festivaldebates and controversies spilled out beyond the festival space to activate the public sphere by intersecting with broader concerns and audiences. This book forges an interdisciplinary, comparative framework for festival studies to interrogate how festivals are embedded in the social and political fabric of cities and to assess the cultural impact of the festivalisation phenomenon.
Performing the Socialist State
Performing the Socialist State offers an innovative account of the origins, evolution, and legacies of key trends in twentieth-century Chinese theater. Instead of seeing the Republican, high socialist, and postsocialist periods as radically distinct, it identifies key continuities in theatrical practices and shared aspirations for the social role and artistic achievements of performance across eras. Xiaomei Chen focuses on the long and remarkable careers of three founders of modern Chinese theater and film, Tian Han, Hong Shen, and Ouyang Yuqian, and their legacy, which helped shape theater cultures into the twenty-first century. They introduced Western plays and theories, adapted traditional Chinese operas, and helped develop a tradition of leftist theater in the Republican period that paved the way for the construction of a socialist canon after 1949. Chen investigates how their visions for a free, democratic China fared in the initial years after the founding of the People's Republic, briefly thriving only to founder as artists had to adapt to the Communist Party's demand to produce ideologically correct works. Bridging the faith play and "antiparty plays" of the 1950s, the "red classics" of the 1960s, and their reincarnations in the postsocialist period, she considers the transformations of the depictions of women, peasants, soldiers, scientists, and revolutionary history in plays, operas, and films and examines how the market economy, collective memories, star culture, social networks, and state sponsorship affected dramatic productions. Countering the view that state interference stifles artistic imagination, Chen argues that theater professionals have skillfully navigated shifting ruling ideologies to create works that are politically acceptable yet aesthetically ingenious. Emphasizing the power, dynamics, and complexities of Chinese performance cultures, Performing the Socialist State has implications spanning global theater, comparative literature, political and social histories, and Chinese cultural studies.
Fifty Key Figures in Queer US Theatre
Whether creating Broadway musicals, experimental dramas, or outrageous comedies, the performers, directors, playwrights, designers, and producers profiled in this collection have contributed to the representation of LGBTQ lives and culture in a variety of theatrical venues, both within the queer community and across the US theatrical landscape.Moving from the era of the Stonewall Riots to today, notable scholars in the field bring a wide variety of queer theatre artists into conversation with each other, exploring connections and differences in race, gender, physical ability, national origin, class, generation, aesthetic modes, and political goals, creating a diverse and inclusive study of 50 years of queer theatre.For readers seeking an introduction to or a deeper understanding of LGBTQ theatre, this volume offers thought-provoking analyses of theatre-makers both celebrated and lesser-known, mainstream and subversive, canonical and new.
Samuel Beckett and Disability Performance
Beckett's plays have attracted a striking range of disability performances - that is, performances that cast disabled actors, regardless of whether their roles are explicitly described as 'disabled' in the text. Grounded in the history of disability performance of Beckett's work and a new theorising of Beckett's treatment of the impaired body, Samuel Beckett and Disability Performance examines four contemporary disability performances of Beckett's plays, staged in the UK and US, and brings the rich fields of Beckett studies and disability studies into mutually illuminating conversation. Pairing original interviews with the actors and directors involved in these productions alongside critical analysis underpinned by recent disability and performance theory, this book explores how these productions emphasise or rework previously undetected indicators of disability in Beckett's work. More broadly, it reveals how Beckett's theatre compulsively interrogates alternative embodiments, unexpected forms of agency, and the extraordinary social interdependency of the human body. Winner of the TaPRA David Bradby Monograph Prize, 2023.
The British Boxing Film
This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of the sport of boxing as depicted in British film. Through close textual analysis, production and reception histories and readings that establish social, cultural and political contexts, the book explores the ways in which prizefighters, amateur boxers, managers and supporters (from Regency gentry to East End gangsters) are represented on the British screen. Exploring a complex and controversial sport, it addresses not only the pain-versus-reward dilemma that boxing necessarily engenders, but also the frequently censorious attitude of those in authority, with boxing's social development facilitating a wider study around issues of class, gender and race, latterly contesting the whole notion of 'Britishness'. Varying in scope from Northern circuit comedies to London-based 'ladsploitation' films, from auteur entries by Alfred Hitchcock to programme fillers by E.J. Fancey, the boxing film also serves as a prismthrough which one can trace major historical shifts in the British film industry.
Harry Potter: Hedwig Pop-Up Advent Calendar
Celebrate Christmas and discover 25 hidden surprises with Hedwig the owl, in this beautiful advent calendar and pop-up book inspired by the Harry Potter films! This must-have collectible designed by renowned paper engineer Matthew Reinhart brings Hedwig's lovable spirit to your holiday celebrations. Count down to Christmas with 25 days of exclusive Harry Potter gifts and watch as delightful presents from the Wizarding World magically transform into a beautiful pop-up tree centerpiece! This advent calendar also includes a booklet of fun behind-the-scenes facts from the films. Festive and interactive, Harry Potter: Hedwig Pop-Up Advent Calendar is the ideal way to ring in the holidays with one of the Wizarding World's most adored magical companions! EXCLUSIVE SURPRISES AND COLLECTIBLES: Discover 25 one-of-a-kind keepsakes inspired by the beloved Harry Potter films. MAGICAL HOLIDAY CENTERPIECE: Watch as the central pop-up gradually transforms into a gorgeous Christmas tree that you can reuse as a unique holiday decoration year after year. FROM RENOWNED DESIGNER MATTHEW REINHART: Designed by the paper engineer behind best-selling titles like Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Guide to Hogwarts, Harry Potter: Hedwig Pop-Up Advent Calendar boasts striking detail and stunning illustrations. COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS: Uncover a new gift each day between December 1st and Christmas! GREAT FOR FANS OF ALL AGES: Every Harry Potter fan will love this advent calendar's beautiful illustrations and behind-the-scenes details. COMPLETE YOUR HARRY POTTER HOLIDAY COLLECTION: Harry Potter: Hedwig Pop-Up Advent Calendar joins Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Christmas Pop-Up and Harry Potter: Holiday Magic: The Official Advent Calendar in Insight Editions' fan-favorite line of festive Harry Potter holiday titles.
Eastern Heroes Sammo Hung Special Collectors Edition (Hardback Version)
The Stars who have worked alongside the legend Sammo Hung pay their respectsINTERVIEWED Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Louis Mandylor, Kelly Hu, Andy Cheng, and Robert SamuelsThe Treasures of SammoEnter the Fat Dragon - Sammo Vs Bruce with a Photo showcaseSammo Hung TV crossovers - First Edition & Texas RangerPainted faces - A look at the many classic movie posters of Sammo HungSammo Hung memorabilia sectionReviews and photo gallery
Queer Screams
The horror genre mirrors the American queer experience, both positively and negatively, overtly and subtextually, from the lumbering, flower-picking monster of Frankenstein (1931) to the fearless intersectional protagonist of the Fear Street Trilogy (2021). This is a historical look at the queer experiences of the horror genre's characters, performers, authors and filmmakers. Offering a fresh look at the horror genre's queer roots, this book documents how diverse stories have provided an outlet for queer people--including transgender and non-binary people--to find catharsis and reclamation. Freaks, dolls, serial killers, telekinetic teenagers and Final Girls all have something to contribute to the historical examination of the American LGBTQ+ experience. Ranging from psychiatry to homophobic fear of HIV/AIDS spread and, most recently, the alienation and self-determination of queer America in the Trump era, this is a look into how terror may repair a shattered queer heart.
The Marx Brothers and America
The ground has shifted from the days in which "serious history" and "boring" went hand in glove. Textbooks and lectures have their place, but less traditional classrooms can be powerfully immersive and insightful. Take the 1929 Marx Brothers film The Cocoanuts and what it teaches about both the Great Depression and early sound films. The Marx Brothers are among the funniest comedy teams of all time. Four of their 13 films are on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American comedies ever made. For many contemporary viewers, though, "getting" the jokes is not always easy because the humor can be subjective and timebound. This work looks at the American past through the lens of the Marx Brothers' films and other projects. Each of the chapters focuses on a specific film, contextualizing the world at the time and how the Marx Brothers lampooned those subjects. Along the way, the book demonstrates what the Marx Brothers revealed about weighty topics like gambling, gender relations, immigration, medical care, Prohibition, race and war, all leavened with offbeat humor.
Jamaican Diaspora
From a population of 2.5 million people, Jamaican athletes on the island and in the Diaspora have made their mark in the world. Some have represented the island, while others chose to represent their new place of residence. From the Olympics to other international athletic events, this edition highlights Jamaicans at home or abroad.
It Came from the Closet
Through the lens of horror--from Halloween to Hereditary--queer and trans writers consider the films that deepened, amplified, and illuminated their own experiences.Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes--such as the circumspect and resilient "final girl," body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet--spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world.It Came from the Closet features twenty-five essays by writers speaking to this relationship, through connections both empowering and oppressive. From Carmen Maria Machado on Jennifer's Body, Jude Ellison S. Doyle on In My Skin, Addie Tsai on Dead Ringers, and many more, these conversations convey the rich reciprocity between queerness and horror.
Come Work In Our Factories
These are poetic tales themed around industry and work. We commence our journey three thousand years ago proceeding on and taking us through that time when everything changed, namely the industrial revolution. Finally bringing us right up into the present day and how towards the end of the last century through innovations in technology our working life became transformed once more.Yet above all else this collection sees me telling the stories of work through the lives of ordinary people. Those unsung heroes and heroines who never usually get to share their story. Some of these are long lost in the mists of time and through the power of poetry get to have their life story told at long last! I am sure you feel my own love of our industrial past in these stories and my intention is for you enjoy all these incredible personal stories that were just waiting there to be told.
31 Days of Halloween - Volume 1
This book includes 35 thematic horror movie lists and several bonus ones provided by horror personalities, each suggesting 31 recommended dark features; one for each day of October.The closer you get to Halloween, the better the movies get. Roll a six-sided die twice for each day of the month, then refer to the table of contents to find which list your result matches. On that list, identify and watch the movie corresponding to today's date.Happy Halloween!
Ida Rubinstein
Ida Rubinstein (1883-1960) captivated Paris's dancers, composers, artists, and audiences from her time in the Ballets Russes in 1909 to her final performances in 1939. Trained in Russia as an actress and a dancer, her life spanned the artistic freedom of the Belle ?poque through the ravages of World War I, the Depression, and finally World War II. This critical biography carefully examines aspects of Rubinstein's life and career that have previously received little attention. These include her early life in Russia, her writing about performance aesthetics, her curated approach to acting and dancing roles, and her encumbered position as a woman and a Jew. Rubinstein used her considerable fortune to produce dozens of plays, lyric creations, and ballets, making her one of the foremost producers of the first half of the twentieth century. Employing the greatest scenic artists, L矇on Bakst and Alexander Benois; the distinguished composers Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Honegger, and Claude Debussy; celebrated writers including Paul Val矇ry and Andr矇 Gide; and the brilliant choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, Rubinstein transformed twentieth-century theater and dance.
Wbaa
WBAA: 100 Years as the Voice of Purdue documents the fascinating history of WBAA, Indiana's first radio station founded at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, on April 4, 1922. Richly illustrated with more than 150 photos, the book chronicles the station's evolution over the years, while highlighting the staff, students, and volunteers significant to WBAA's success. WBAA began as a lab experiment conducted by Purdue electrical engineering students in 1910. Later, the station became a vital method for Purdue's Cooperative Extension Service to broadcast the knowledge of the university, particularly agricultural news, to the people of the state. From the 1960s to 1980s, WBAA aired Purdue basketball and football games, with station manager John DeCamp as the "Voice of the Boilermakers." In 1971, WBAA became a member station of National Public Radio (NPR), offering popular programming such as All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Listeners tuned into WBAA to hear classical, jazz, and international music, along with in-depth news reporting. Mayors and Purdue presidents aired weekly programs. WBAA gave a voice to arts and community organizations.Read about the invention of the first all-electronic television by pioneering Purdue scientist Roscoe George; WBAA's long-running School of the Air educational program deemed the "invisible textbook"; and the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI), an airplane that transmitted videos to schools while flying over six Midwestern states in the 1960s. Famous WBAA alumni include NBC sportscaster Chris Schenkel, comedian Durward Kirby, Today Show newscaster Lew Wood, Indiana State Representative Sheila Klinker, actress Karen Black, and actor George Peppard, among others.From the vacuum tube era to the digital age, this thoroughly researched book brings to light the intriguing backstories of the esteemed one hundred-year history of WBAA.
Introduction to Theatre Arts 2, 2nd Edition Teacher's Guide
Those who have already discovered the ease of teaching with the recently updated second edition of Suzi Zimmerman's Introduction to Theatre Arts, Volume 1 will be thrilled to learn we now have the second edition of Introduction to Theatre Arts, Volume 2 available! Like with the first volume, teachers will love having the entire Student Workbook in this teacher's guide, along with more than 80 additional pages of helpful information and tips, grading forms and scoring rubrics, student activities, and more. The second edition of the Teacher's Guide is also better laid out with the notes to the teacher now appearing alongside the corresponding student page. No more flipping back and forth between pages! Finally, this guide, which makes teaching theatre arts easy and fun for everyone, contains three special chapters: The Valuable Theatre Program, Theatre for Unique Learners, and Theatre for Students Who Are Learning a New Language. Whether you use this text as a full-year curriculum, pick and choose activities for a semester-long class, or simply supplement your own units with these materials, this best-selling textbook is a must-have resource!
The Art and Practice of Musical Theatre Choreography
What does a musical theatre choreographer actually do? They just 'make up the steps', right? The Art and Practice of Musical Theatre Choreography debunks the misunderstandings around what musical theatre choreographers actually do, demonstrating the need to have an in-depth understanding of storytelling, music theory, performance practices, and plot structure in order to create movement that enhances and enlivens the musical. Equipping the musical theatre choreographer with tools to create nuanced, informed and inspired movement for productions, this book provides structured activities that build specific skills (such as 'building the build' and 'scoring the score'). Traditionally, this training has been passed from mentor to apprentice: Cassie Abate unlocks the process to make "tricks of the trade" accessible to all choreographers, everywhere. Covering the entire process of choreographing a musical from the first script reading to the final curtain call, The Art and Practice of Musical Theatre Choreography makes a case for the absolute integrity of the choreographer to any musical theatre production and sets out theoretical principles of choreography alongside practical application during every step of the production process.
