Theatre and Archival Memory
This book presents new insights into the production and reception of Irish drama, its internationalisation and political influences, within a pivotal period of Irish cultural and social change. From the 1950s onwards, Irish theatre engaged audiences within new theatrical forms at venues from the Pike Theatre, the Project Arts Centre, and the Gate Theatre, as well as at Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey. Drawing on newly released and digitised archival records, this book argues for an inclusive historiography reflective of the formative impacts upon modern Irish theatre as recorded within marginalised performance histories. This study examines these works' experimental dramaturgical impacts in terms of production, reception, and archival legacies. The book, framed by the device of 'archival memory', serves as a means for scholars and theatre-makers to inter-contextualise existing historiography and to challenge canon formation. It also presents a new social history of Irish theatre told from the fringes of history and reanimated through archival memory.
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.
Circus Psychology
Circus Psychology is an evidence-based guide to nurturing the mental health of circus artists while enabling them to perform at the peak of their capacities. The book is organised into three sections: Mental health in circus, Optimising the circus environment to facilitate thriving, and Mental skills for thriving in circus.
National Identity and the British Musical
National Identity and the British Musical: From Blood Brothers to Cinderella examines the myths associated with national identity which are reproduced by the British musical and asks why the genre continues to uphold, instead of challenging, outdated ideals. All too often, UK musicals reinforce national identity clich矇s and caricatures, conflate 'England' with 'Britain' and depict a mono-cultural nation viewed through a nostalgic lens. Through case studies and analysis of British musicals such as Blood Brothers, Six, Half a Sixpence and Billy Elliot, this book examines the place of the British musical within a text-based theatrical heritage and asks what, or whose, Britain is being represented by home grown musicals. The sheer number of people engaging with shows bestows enormous power upon the genre and yet critics display a reluctance to analyse the cultural meanings produced by new work, or to hold work to account for production teams and narratives which continue to shun diversity and inclusive practices. The question this book poses is: what kind of industry do we want to see in Britain in the next ten years? And what kind of show do we want representing the nation in the future?
A Step too Far
It is a near-future world, and in many ways London is the same bustling metropolis it has been for centuries; but look a little closer and Viral Inspectors roam public places delivering fines and forced immunisation against Avian Flu, and an organisation called the Genetic Protection Authority has been established with unnerving oversight.It is the role of the GPA to oversee the genetic future of mankind: a noble mission to protect humanity from the worst genetic diseases and impairments, but one that seems increasingly liable to abuse, using its vague definitions of eradicating anything more than 'three standard variations from the human norm'.When Sandra Small becomes pregnant with a child that has the same strain of achondroplasia dwarfism as her husband, Ivan Henry, an ugly domestic dispute escalates to a legal battle with the GPA and the High Court. What could have been a marital issue becomes a challenge to the GPA's authority and jurisdiction, in a test case that could set an alarming precedent for the whole country, redefining the very definition of what is, and isn't, human. The stakes for Ivan, dwarfs, and anyone else with a genetic condition, become increasingly larger threatening to engulf London and beyond.This ambitious and provocative script is a faithful recreation of Ross Martyn's original vision, looking at ethics, science, and society; a story of how small actions can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Georgia and Nathan a Love Story
A SOUTHERN BELLE AND A JEWISH BOY BECOME UNLIKELY FRIENDS AT UNIVERSITY THROUGH THEIR SHARED LOVE OF SINGING, BUT AS THEIR FRIENDSHIP DEEPENS PROBLEMS ARISE WHEN IT IS DISCOVERED HER FAMILY MAY HAVE COLLABORATED WITH THE NAZIS DURING WORLD WAR II.
Artificial Islands
Jeffrey Butzer, writer, playwright, and musician, delivers his first collection of short stories, one-act plays, and assorted ephemera in the form of Artificial Islands. Jeffrey Butzer opens Artificial Islands with the Friedrich Nietzsche quote "Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me for living!" Whether this quote is actually attributed to Nietzsche is beside the point. The sentiment defines the characters that populate these eleven pieces: each has one foot planted in the tangible world and the other in the surreal. Artificial Islands lures us into worlds populated with cat burglars, struggling blues musicians turned detectives, likable bugs, daredevils, a medium, and a psychiatrist with an unhealthy obsession with Water World. The Crypt Keeper even breaks his silence in the form of a sit-down interview. Influenced by comics Jack Handey, Norm McDonald, and Chris Elliott, these surreal and absurd spaces both wonderful and strange.
Fifty Key Irish Plays
Fifty Key Irish Plays charts the progression of modern Irish drama from Dion Boucicault's entry on to the global stage of the Irish diaspora to the contemporary dramas created by the experiences of the New Irish.
Fifty Key Irish Plays
Fifty Key Irish Plays charts the progression of modern Irish drama from Dion Boucicault's entry on to the global stage of the Irish diaspora to the contemporary dramas created by the experiences of the New Irish.
The Book of Magdalene
THE BOOK OF MAGDALENE. a play by Caridad Svich. In the edge-lands, in weird times, it's nite-time until it's not. These nites: Magdalene misses Ru and who they could have been together, Magdalene cares for Elder, Magdalene visits the local church to look at the sky, Magdalene works the call lines of the lonely and encounters Suit. Call this a quest. Call this a life waiting to be born again, haunted by a past when another Magdalene lived and was misunderstood. A contemporary drama of sharp encounters, winding faith, tough love and tenderness suffused with grace and magic. A story about finding the courage to move on when life feels as if it is stuck in place. A cross-roads play. THE BOOK OF MAGDALENE received its digital hybrid world premiere at Main Street Theater in Houston, Texas in February 2021 directed by Amelia Rico. It received a subsequent digital hybrid production at Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe, New Mexico directed by Juliet Salazar. The Main Street Theater production was an Official Selection in the main program of The Theatre Times 2021 International Online Theatre Festival curated by Maria M. Delgado, Alma Prelec and Magda Romanska. This publication is a Santa Catalina Editions and NoPassport Press venture.
Folk
Nominated for an Olivier Award 2022 "I'll tell you one more thing. I got more songs in my head than I ever told you. I got enough to sing for days..." 1903, Somerset. Rooted in the land where she has lived her entire life, Louie Hooper's mind overflows with its songs - more than 300 of them passed down from her mother. Cecil Sharp, a composer visiting from London, fears England's folk songs will be lost forever and sets out on a mission to transcribe each and every one. He believes Louie's music should speak not just for this place but for the whole of England. Nell Leyshon's Olivier Award-nominated play with songs originally heard on BBC Radio before a sold-out, highly acclaimed run at London's Hampstead Theatre. The production was revived in June 2022 due to popular demand.
Alice Cooper Confidential
ALICE COOPER CONFIDENTIAL is the profusely illustrated ultimate Alice Cooper book, written by Alice's authorized biographer. In 1992, veteran CREEM Magazine rock critic Jeffrey Morgan was chosen to write the authorized biography of Alice Cooper, which appeared in the Warner Bros. box set The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper. Now, decades later, Jeffrey Morgan unseals his confidential Coop files in this full color hard cover coffee table size book to reveal previously unpublished interrogations, rare incriminating photographs, and hysterical fan letters-plus other ghastly horrors too shocking to mention here. No wonder Alice doesn't look happy. He's read ALICE COOPER CONFIDENTIAL!
Playwriting in Europe
This book maps contemporary playwriting and theatre translation practices and ecologies in the European continent.
Theater in a Post-Truth World
This is the first book to examine how the concept and disagreements around post-truth have been explored in the world of theater and performance. It covers a wide spectrum of manifestations and expressions-from the plays of Caryl Churchill, Anne Washburn, and David Henry Hwang, to the inherent theatricality of press conferences, FBI interviews and protests that embrace the confusion created by post-truth rhetoric to muddy issues and deflect blame, to theatrical performance, where the nature of truth is challenged through staged visuals which run counter to what the audience hears, provoking a debate about where the truth actually lies. With contributions by scholars from around the world, Theater in a Post-Truth World considers a wide array of examples from American and British drama and politics, Australian theater, and the work of performance artist Marina Abramovic. Together these provide a glimpse into how the theater in its many forms provides a venue to raise awareness and encourage critical thinking about the contemporary ubiquity of post-truth.
Harold Pinter's Shakespeare
This book charts the impact of Shakespeare's works on Harold Pinter's career as a playwright.This study will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre and performance studies.
Mothering Performance
Mothering Performance is a combination of scholarly essays and creative responses which focus on maternal performance and its applications from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives.
Eternal Searcher Song Book
Writing songs based upon my poetry presented me withthe similar excitement I felt when writing shortscreenplays based upon my short stories. Crossing genresfrom written to audio/visual helped me to discover somuch more between the lines that I did not realize in theprevious iteration.Besides the technical aspects of form and function, Idiscovered the differences in pacing, intensity, andurgency. With songwriting, beat, tempo, rhythm, rhyme, chords, keys, so many aspects demanded extra attention.Outside my comfort zone, I relied upon several referencemanuals to create... possibilities.While I did record demos of these works to use as a guide, I am not a singer by profession. My default setting iswriter, not performer. Therefore, I present to you theseeker, the speaker, the singer, the performer, thesemessages from the first half of my life. I wish you well inyour interpretation.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People
This companion interrogates the relationship between theatre and youth from a global perspective, taking in performances and theatre made by, for, and about young people.These different but interrelated forms of theatre are addressed through four critical themes that underpin the ways in which analysis of contemporary theatre in relation to young people can be framed: political utterances - exploring the varied ways theatre becomes a platform for political utterance as a process of dialogic thinking and critical imagining; critical positioning - examining youth theatre work that navigates the sensitive, dynamic, and complex terrains in which young people live and perform; pedagogic frames - outlining a range of contexts and programmes in which young people learn to make and understand theatre that reflects their artistic capacities and aesthetic strategies; applying performance - discussing a range of projects and companies whose work has been influential in the development of youth theatre within specific contexts.Providing critical, research-informed, and research-based discussions on the intersection between young people, their representation, and their participation in theatre, this is a landmark text for students, scholars, and practitioners whose work and thinking involves theatre and young people.
Diana Dors
Diana Dors became one of Britain's most successful sex symbols in the 1950s and remained a major celebrity until her death in 1984. This book examines both her acting method and her celebrity. It provides a detailed analysis of Dors' performance in a number of her films from across different periods of her career, investigating her versatility by paying close attention to her voice, facial expressions and looks, body poses and gestures in specific moments from her movies. It also discusses the performance of gender and age, as well as considering her later role as a gay icon.
The Incorporeal Corpse
In this book, Jason B. Dorwart contends that the material presence of visible disability disrupts the framing devices that provide safe distancing for theatre's fictive nature. Conceptions of disability that place the disabled body into a permanently liminal space between life and death are directly at odds with theatrical performances, which are geared toward moving through liminality into a new point of stasis. Dorwart reveals how this contradiction leads to performance practices that work to marginalize and eliminate the presence of disabled bodies of both character and actor, as disabled characters have historically been written with different character arcs than nondisabled characters and with the assumption that they would be played by nondisabled actors. As more disabled actors gain exposure in film and theatre, the difference in how disabled characters are written is also increasingly affected by whether the role is intended for a disabled or nondisabled actor. These performances are enacting new means to performatively and figuratively reincorporate or eliminate the liminal disabled body. The Incorporeal Corpse demonstrates how recent plays and films try to rectify this tension between the permanence of disability and the transitory nature of performance. Scholars of theatre, disability studies, and performance studies will find this book of particular interest.
Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema
Over the course of the past two decades, horror cinema around the globe has become increasingly preoccupied with the concept of loss. Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Screening Loss examines the theme of grief as it is represented in both indie and mainstream films, including works such as Jennifer Kent's watershed film The Babadook, Juan Antonio Bayona's award-sweeping El orfanato, Ari Aster's genre-straddling Midsommar, and Lars von Trier's visually stunning Melancholia. Analyzing depictions of grief ranging from the intimate grief of a small family to the collective grief of an entire nation, the essays illustrate how these works serve to provide unity, catharsis, and--sometimes--healing.
Monstrous Things
An indispensable resource for students and researchers of paranormal myth and media, this book explores the undead and unholy in literature, film, television, and popular culture. Following an introduction to frightful manifestations in media, sections address ghosts, vampires, and monsters individually, and each section includes a broad consideration of the ghost, vampire or monster in American culture. The section dedicated to ghosts examines the "spectral turn" of popular culture and the ghost's relation to justice and mourning, with particular attention to Toni Morrison and Herman Melville. In the vampires section, the author considers the undead bloodsucker's relationship to anti-Semitism, suicide, and cinema. The third section discusses monsters in relation to topics such as global pandemics, terrorism, mass shootings, "stranger danger," and social otherness, with attention to a range of popular culture texts including the films IT and It Follows.
Bernard Shaw, Sean O'Casey, and the Dead James Connolly
This book details the Irish socialistic tracks pursued by Bernard Shaw and Sean O'Casey, mostly after 1916, that were arguably impacted by the executed James Connolly. The historical context is carefully unearthed, stretching from its 1894 roots via W. B. Yeats' dream of Shaw as a menacing, yet grinning sewing machine, to Shaw's and O'Casey's 1928 masterworks. In the process, Shaw's War Issues for Irishmen, Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress, The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman, Saint Joan, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, and O'Casey's The Story of the Irish Citizen Army, The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, and The Silver Tassie are reconsidered, revealing previously undiscovered textures to the masterworks. All of which provides a rethinking, a reconsideration of Ireland's great drama of the 1920s, as well as furthering the knowledge of Shaw, O'Casey, and Connolly.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde was an Anglo Irish writer known for his genius wit and ostentatious style. His most famous play, The Importance of Being Earnest still holds ground among his readers for its biting humour and satirical comedy. Set in Victorian England, the play revolves around Mr John Worthing who creates a fictional brother by the name of Ernest as an escape from the countryside and visits his lady love Gwendolen Fairfax in the town. His best friend, Algernon Moncrieff finds out about his secret and impersonates Ernest Worthing in order to impress John's ward, Cecily Cardew. When both of them end up together with their lovers, there occurs a comical display of chaos, confusion and disorder that ultimately leads to the discovery of an extraordinary truth. A timeless comedy with its ridiculous description of marriage and society, the play is set to make you laugh your head off.
The Fellowship
Where's the glory Mum? Where's that perfect world for us, your kids? Children of the Windrush generation, sisters Dawn and Marcia Adams grew up in 1980s London and were activists on the front line against the multiple injustices of that time. Decades on, they find they have little in common beyond family... Dawn struggles to care for their dying mother, whilst her one surviving son is drifting away from her. Meanwhile, high-flying lawyer Marcia's affair with a married politician might be about to explode and destroy her career. Can the Adams sisters navigate the turmoil that lies ahead, leave the past behind, and seize the future with the bond between them still intact? This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere, directed by Paulette Randall at London's Hampstead Theatre, and is, by turns, an electrifying, hilarious, gripping tale set in modern Britain.
Blood Harmony
She used to be everywhere, all at the sametime, do you know what I mean?And now she's nowhere. She was always there, that's what I'm trying to say. A fractured trio of sisters are pulled back together with news that turns their worlds upside down. Tensions from the past and worries about the future leave them feeling paralysed. When it feels like your world has come to a stop, how do you find a way to keep moving forward? Soaring music by Atlantic Records artists The Staves, combines with dynamic movement and bold new writing in this compelling, intimate reflection on grief and the invisible bonds within families. Blood Harmony is a play with songs that'll make you want to pull your family a little closer and hold them a little tighter.
How to Build a Wax Figure
I was the eyes and she was the bodyI mean that sounds poetic but really that's how it worked Girl meets anatomical wax sculptor. Anatomical wax sculptor meets Girl. They fall in love. Or something like that. Bea's older neighbour was her first love, her first cigarette, her first prosthetic eye. When Bea is invited to the Wellcome Collection to speak about her expertise making glass eyes, she finds herself unable to untie Margot from all that she does. As she tries to unpack her mentor's effect on her work, Bea must dissect for herself what love really looks like. Isabella Waldron's electric new play, how to build a wax figure, brings a fresh perspective on queer love, age-gap relationships, and ocularistry.
In the Weeds
"You name something, you change what it is, who it belongs toPeople do it everywhere they go: new namesNot one of them even knows what we called this island before they came" Kazumi is hunting a sea monster. Arriving on a remote Hebridean island, he meets Coblaith, a local woman whose family have lived there for generations. When she offers to help him find the mythical creature that he believes drowned his family, their relationship blossoms. But there's something strange about Cob's obsessive affection for the lochs and something even stranger about the way the other islanders treat her. Suspicious of his new lover, Kazumi's imagination gets the better of him. Could it be that Coblaith is the mythical creature he has been searching for? Or are humans the real monsters after all? In The Weeds examines our relationship to the land we live on, its heritage and who it belongs to. A gothic thriller, it asks how remote communities can survive the dangers created by the tourism they rely on. This edition was published to coincide with the UK tour ahead of a run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022.
The Haunting of Susan a
'...the history of this pub, the possibilities of what once could have happened in this room in which we're now gathered ... Well. The possibilities'. Written as a response to the 50th anniversary celebration of the King's Head Theatre, Mark Ravenhill premieres his first new play as Artistic Director. Drawing on the traditions of a classic ghost story, The Haunting of Susan A explores the power of the mind to make the unseen visible and for the cruelty of the past to haunt a room. Described as "a ghost story", the play is Inspired by Ravenhill's love of the work of M.R. James and is set in the King's Head Theatre itself. Published alongside an introduction from Timberlake Wertenbaker, this text also includes Ravenhill's '101 notes on Playwriting', which caused a sensation on Twitter and appears in print for the first time.
The Wheelchair on My Face
'I got my first pair of glasses when I was seven. A nurse came to the school and tested everyone's eyes. And so it was discovered why I'd thrown bread to the floating crisp packets in our local pond and walked into lamp posts and said, 'excuse me'. Until that day the world was a swirl of moving coloured blobs. I thought it was the same for everyone. How wrong I was.' Winner: Scotsman Fringe First Award 2012Critic's Pick, New York TimesPart memoir, part theatre and part standup comedy this delightful story of a myopic seven year old is brought to you by actor, comedian and playwright Sonya Kelly. Sonya tells her story about growing up with poor vision that went undiagnosed until she was seven years old. Combining several forms of theatre, this delightful story shows us how we can better the world even if we cannot see the world.
National Theatre Connections 2022
It is the scale and range of creative collaboration inherent in theatre that sits at the very heart of National Theatre Connections. National Theatre Connections 2022 draws together ten new plays for young people to perform, from some of the UK's most exciting playwrights. These are plays for a generation of theatre-makers who want to ask questions, challenge assertions and test the boundaries, and for those who love to invent and imagine a world of possibilities. The plays offer young performers an engaging and diverse range of material to perform, read or study. This 2022 anthology represents the full set of ten plays offered by the National Theatre 2022 Festival, as well as comprehensive workshop notes that give insights and inspiration for building characters, running rehearsals and staging a production.
Lockdown Shakespeare
This edited collection offers the first in-depth analysis and sourcebook for 'Lockdown Shakespeare'. It brings together scholars of stage, screen, early modern and adaptation studies to examine the work that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and considers issues of form, liveness, reception, presence and community. Interviews with theatre makers and artists illuminate the challenges and benefits of creating new work online, while educators consider how digital tools have facilitated the teaching of Shakespeare through performance. Together, the chapters in this book offer readers the definitive work on the performance and adaptation of Shakespeare online during the pandemic. From The Show Must Go Online, which presented Shakespeare's First Folio via YouTube, to Creation Theatre and Big Telly's interactive The Tempest and Macbeth, which used Zoom as their stage, the book documents the variety and richness of work that emerged during the pandemic. It reveals how, by taking Shakespeare online in new and innovative ways, the theatre industry sparked the evolution of new forms of performance with their own conventions, aesthetics and notions of liveness. Among the other productions discussed are Arden Theatre Company's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Tender Claws' 'The Under Presents: Tempest', The Shakespeare Ensemble's What You Will, Merced Shakespearefest's Ricardo II, CtrlAltRepeat's Midsummer Night Stream, Sally McLean's Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) and Justina Taft Mattos's Moore - A Pacific Island Othello.
Writing Adaptations and Translations for the Stage
Writing Translations and Adaptations for the Stage is a practical guide for writing adapted works for theatrical performance, taking readers step-by-step through the brainstorming, writing, revision, and performance processes for translations and adaptations.
Performing for Motion Capture
Want to be the next Andy Serkis as Gollum in Lord of the Rings? Or Zoe Saldana in Avatar? How about Seth MacFarlane in Ted? Or do you want to star in video games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty or Halo? If so, this book will tell you everything you need to know about acting for motion capture. This is the first book to provide an invaluable resource for the education of the next generation of performers in this exciting medium. Over the last 10 years, a revolution has occurred in digital production - video games have overtaken the film and TV industries in terms of production and revenues. Many video games derive their digital animation from human performance by means of motion and performance capture. Actors such as Andy Serkis and Troy Baker have won critical acclaim for their digital performance in games and film. The book includes contributions from practitioners working across the globe, including: actor Kezia Burrows; software developer St矇phane Dalbera; director Kate Saxon; a group of Japanese games directors; Jeremy Meunier, Head of Motion Capture at Moov studios, Montreal; Marc Morisseau, motion editor for Avatar; and a Chinese Motion Capture suit manufacturer.
Brecht and Post-1990s British Drama
Can theatre change the world? If so, how can it productively connect with social reality and foster spectatorial critique and engagement? This open access book examines the forms and functions of political drama in what has been described as a post-Marxist, post-ideological, even post-political moment. It argues that Bertolt Brecht's concept of dialectical theatre represents a privileged theoretical and dramaturgical method on the contemporary British stage as well as a valuable lens for understanding 21st-century theatre in Britain. Establishing a creative philosophical dialogue between Brecht, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno and Jacques Ranci癡re, the study analyses seminal works by five influential contemporary playwrights, ranging from Mark Ravenhill's 'in-yer-face' plays to Caryl Churchill's 21st century theatrical experiments. Engaging critically with Brecht's theatrical legacy, these plays create a politically progressive form of drama which emphasises notions of negativity, ambivalence and conflict as a prerequisite for spectatorial engagement and emancipation. This book adopts an interdisciplinary and intercultural theoretical approach, reuniting English and German perspectives and innovatively weaving together a variety of theoretical strands to offer fresh insights on Brecht's legacy, on British theatre history and on the selected plays. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.
Pac-Man (hardback)
This book is 40 years in the making! With this book, Pop Culture Historian Mark Arnold takes an in-depth look at the history of Pac-Man, the classic character that spawned the very first animated cartoon series based upon a video game. Pac-Man: The First Animated TV Show Based Upon a Video Game goes through the entire history of the Hanna-Barbera animation studios, the history of video games pre Pac-Man, the history of Pac-Man, the character, the video game, the spin-offs, the merchandise and the TV series. Each and every episode of the classic 1980s series is covered and examined. Plus, author Arnold covers how Pac-Man has been honored on various anniversaries including his most recent 40th anniversary milestone in 2021. A fun read for casual and hardcore Pac-Man and video game fans alike featuring many character model sheets and other images.
Clowns
Clowns: In Conversation is a groundbreaking collection of interviews expanded in this second edition to include over 30 of the greatest clowns on earth. In discussion with clown aficionados Ezra LeBank and David Bridel, these legends of comedy reveal the origins, inspirations, techniques, and philosophies that underpin their remarkable odysseys. These artists speak candidly about their first encounters with clowning and circus, the crucial decisions that carved out the foundations of their style, and the role of teachers and mentors who shaped their development. Follow the twists and turns that changed the direction of their art and careers, as they explore the role of failure and originality in their lives and performances, and examine the development and evolution of the signature routines that became each clown's trademark. This new edition has been fully updated and expanded, bringing in Lila Monti, Cristina Marti, Leo Bassi, Danise Payne, Bernice Collins, Ketch, Robert Dunn, Nina Conti, H矇l癡ne Gustin and Tanja Simma, Michelle Matlock, Shannan Calcutt, and Gardi Hutter.Clowns is a unique and definitive study on the art of the clown, exploring their role in the modern world - a fascinating series of discussions for students, scholars, and teachers of clowning.
Performance Dynamics and the Amsterdam Werkteater
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 1987.
Performance Dynamics and the Amsterdam Werkteater
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 1987.
All Fools
Of all the poets Francis Meres names in his famous Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury (1598), just two rate a mention as being both 'our best for tragedy' and 'the best poets for comedy': William Shakespeare and George Chapman. All Fools, written in 1599, is the only Elizabethan comedy based directly on the plays of Terence. By taking episodes and characters from two brilliant works, The Self-Tormenter and The Brothers, Chapman creates something that is distinctly Elizabethan while remaining faithful to the spirit of the great Roman master. In this edition, an extensive introduction and commentary show how Chapman combines the literary and theatrical traditions of ancient Rome with everyday life in his own time to fashion a sparkling and innovative comedy that will delight audiences today as much as it did those of 1599.
Crisis
This book by Dr Carol Rocamora (New York University's Tisch School of the Arts) explores the courageous playwrights of the world who used the stage as a platform to address crises of the 20th and 21st centuries. From Bertolt Brecht to present day playwrights, Carol Rocamora discusses how theatre has addressed crises from World War II to the present, including war, apartheid, communism, authoritarianism, racism, immigrant and refugee issues, environmental peril, and the pandemic.
MR Freedom
William Klein's Mr. Freedom (1969) is one of the most important American satirical films ever produced, the tale of an American superhero with disastrously misguided priorities. Although it was made in France and with a largely French cast, Klein was an American expatriate, and the film's primary topic is American culture. That it is still so largely unseen seems to have something to do with a view of it as being, in the words of critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, "conceivably the most anti-American movie ever made". In his contribution to the Constellations series, Tyler Sage argues that to call Mr. Freedom "anti-American" is to misunderstand not only the film but the satirical tradition of American arts and letters from which it descends. The film is challenging, Sage asserts, not because it is unpatriotic but because it lays bare the ideological nature of American films themselves. By interweaving a startling range of topics, including the cultural conditions surrounding the Vietnam War, the foundations of the American obsessions with race and violence, and our contemporary superhero film cycle, Sage explores the ways Mr. Freedom compels the viewer to come to terms with the fact that the stories we tell ourselves can never be separated from the larger forces of history, culture and film tradition.
Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel
And that's the moment when I leave.The moment when the jokes fail us. When I fail. I fail.This precise moment here, look, see with your ears. The Fool leaves King Lear before the blinding. Before the killing starts. Before the ice-creams in the interval. In his new solo work, playwright Tim Crouch draws on ideas of virtual reality to send the Fool back to the future of the play that he left. Back to a world without moral leadership or integrity; a world where wealth covers vice; where the poor are dehumanised; where the jokes fall flat; where live art has become the privilege of the few. Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel is a daringly unaccommodating piece of theatre that switches between scathingly funny stand-up and an audacious act of collective imagining. King Lear meets stand-up meets the metaverse. Crouch's previous celebrated works include An Oak Tree, The Author, Adler & Gibb, Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation, and Beginners. This edition was published to coincide with the production at The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in August 2022.
Is Star Trek Utopia?
Star Trek has transcended science fiction through its use of elements that have crucial roles in classical utopian tradition. New technologies change a civilization, a miniature society unfolds on a spaceship, and an android teaches humanity. Star Trek has been answering many questions about our own world for 50+ years, and since the days of Captain Kirk, the franchise has become one of the world's best-known cultural phenomena. This book documents what the Star Trek franchise has in common with classic utopias. Chapters analyze how technology changes society and how the Federation embodies utopian ideals. Also explored are the political relations among alien species that reflect past and present conflicts in our real world and how the Borg resembles an anti-utopian society.
And ANOTHER Thing...
And ANOTHER Thing, as the subtitle states, is an eclectic collection of musings, afterthoughts and paternal rantings. It is simply a collection of the authors private thoughts, thoughts that you may have had yourself but never verbalized. And ANOTHER Thing could have been a collection of anyone's thoughts. It could have been a collection of YOUR thoughts!
Meeting the Moment
The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and performance makers in their own words. Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences. They also reflect on how artists are educated and supported, what content is deemed valuable and how it is brought to bear, as well as which audiences are welcome and whether cross-community exchange is encouraged. The book's voices bring the reader from 1965 through the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. They point to more diverse and inclusive practices and give hope for the future of the art.
