The Essential Guide To Time Travel
Can you really change the past? And if so, is it dangerous to do so? Should you be worried about the so-called Grandfather Paradox? What about the Butterfly Effect? What do time travellers really need to know? All these questions and more are answered, with examples from popular movies."M.J." is an avid writer and gamer, co-creator of Multiverser: The Game, and well known for his web site Temporal Anomalies in Popular Time Travel Movies; some of his writings have been translated into French and German. He can be found on Facebook and other social media platforms, and through MJYoung.net, the Christian Gamers Guild, and Patreon.If you've ever watched a time travel film and thought to yourself, "Hey, that's not how it would work!" then this book is for you. While most time travel stories will simply have a character say a few lines of technobabble to handwave away plot holes or logical gaps, in The Essential Guide to Time Travel, Mark Joseph Young explains the leading time travel theories in a logical concise way, then picks apart some of our most loved and cherished time travel films to show how they either make sense or don't (hint, they usually don't). But he doesn't stop there. Young uses the replacement theory to rationalize what had to have happened across multiple unseen timelines in order for what we see on screen to have happened. His analyses also plausibly solve paradoxes that the stories themselves create, thereby saving the universe!The knowledge contained in this book will make you enjoy the time travel genre in new, mind-blowing ways. You'll never just "watch" another time travel movie ever again.
Walnut Grove Hits Home (hardback)
WALNUT GROVE HITS HOME: PRAIRIE VALUES FOR THE MODERN FAMILY is a tribute to the late, great Michael Landon This nostalgic book takes us back to a simpler time when being with family was the best feeling in the world. The lessons of television's iconic Little House on the Prairie are still being embraced by audiences worldwide, even thirty years after the passing of its creator, lead actor, director, and producer, Michael Landon. Author Alicia Hogan Murphy has comprised a collection of episode segments and cast reflections to honor the brilliance of Michael Landon and emphasize the timeless values and uplifting messages taught by his hit television series. Some of the topics touched on include staying positive, instilling courage in our kids, addressing racism and prejudice, dealing with bullying, being honest with ourselves, discipline, and having selfless concern for others. Earning praise and enthusiasm from cast members, the book offers a much-needed feeling of hope, community, and laughter, much like the show did. It is a refreshing journey into the past that will bring a sense of calm to the reader's present."The general lessons of the script are still so important today." PAMELA ROYLANCE - "Sarah Carter," Little House on the Prairie "Walnut Grove Hits Home: Prairie Values for the Modern Family is a good educational tool!" BONNIE BARTLETT - "Grace Edwards," Little House on the Prairie"Nothing could compare to the family atmosphere on the set of Little House on the Prairie."WENDI LOU LEE - "Baby Grace," Little House on the Prairie"Michael Landon made us all look our best . . . . He gave each actor what they needed to do their best. The legacy of Little House . . . I feel incredibly lucky to have been in this show."RADAMES PERA - "John Sanderson," Little House on the Prairie"The family values are just wonderful in that show ... The great part is how long ago we did it, and it's so relevant today." TODD BRIDGES - "Solomon Henry," Little House on the Prairie
Voiceover Narration
What goes on inside a great narrator to make them great? This ground-breaking work answers this question by exploring the psychophysical aspect of voiceover. The reader is given a bird's-eye view of the professional narrator's mental, physical, and vocal "machinery" as well as an in-depth look at the underlying currents that power it: energy, intention, emotion, connection, and flow. Ideal for all-from novice to seasoned voiceover pro-Voiceover Narration inspires the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the nuances of voiceover performance within each narration subgenre, including audiobooks, corporate films, documentaries, e-learning, and explainer videos.With wisdom, humor, and personal anecdotes, Dian Perry shares everything she has learned about narration from decades as a voice actor and teacher. Her advice is supplemented by graphics, worksheets, and a variety of sample text for practice. Voiceover Narration is a much-needed handbook that guides voice actors in creating and delivering more intuitive voiceover performances.
A Life in 16 Films
Steve Waters examines how the very idea of film has defined him as a playwright and a person in this book. Through the the lens of cinema, it provides a cultural and political snapshot of life in Britain from the 2nd part of the 20th century up to the present day. The films spanning almost a century, starting with The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) and moving most recently to Dark Waters (2019), each chapter examines aspects of Waters's journey from his working-class Midlands upbringing to working in professional theatre to living through the Covid epidemic, through the prism of a particular film. From The Wizard of Oz to Code Unknown, from sci-fi to documentary, from queer cinema to world cinema, this honest, comic book offers a view of film as a way of thinking about how we live. In doing so, it illuminates culture and politics in the UK over half a century and provides an intimate insight into drama and writing.
Re-Performance, Mourning and Death
This book examines the recent trend for re-performance and how this impacts on the relationship between live performance and death. Focusing specifically on examples of performance art the text analyses the relationship between performance, re-performance and death, comparing the process of re-performance to the process of mourning and arguing that both of these are processes of adaptation and survival. Using a variety of case studies, including performances by Ron Athey, Julie Tolentino, Martin O'Brien, Sheree Rose, Jo Spence and Hannah Wilke, the book explores performances which can be considered acts of re-performance, as well as performances which examine some of the critical concerns of re-performance, including notions of illness, loss and death. By drawing upon both philosophical and performance studies discourses the text takes a novel approach to the relationship between re-performance, mourning and death.
Performing Mountains
The first book in the new Performing Landscapes series, this original new work harnesses Performance Studies' understanding of behaviours, spaces and applied technologies to explore the culture of high places across six continents. At the same time, it borrows extensively from the critical frameworks associated with Mountain studies in order to examine a selection of ritual, dramatic and performative responses to mountain landscapes drawn from the last two millennia. The book offers the first comprehensive examination of the ways in which mountains are represented in dramatic literature; are exploited as sites for performance; and how they themselves 'perform'. It will complement recent developments in environmental performance and criticism, extending the reach of Performance Studies into the interdisciplinary space of Mountain studies and expanding understandings of behaviour, space and psychology in both fields.
Homicide: Life on the Street
Analysis of race, racism, and the criminal justice system on Homicide: Life on the Street. Renowned for its unique visual style, Homicide: Life on the Street fundamentally changed the police procedural genre. The show broke records, featured memorable characters, and launched careers--most notably that of David Simon, whose own nonfiction book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, inspired the series, and who went on to create both The Wire and Treme. Homicide was an anomaly in the 1990s for its honest and open portrayals and discussions of race, and in this TV Milestone, Lisa Doris Alexander uses Critical Race Theory as a lens to highlight how the show illustrated the impacts that racial politics can have on policing. Homicide is one in a long line of police procedurals that date back to the early days of broadcast television, with series such as Dragnet (NBC 1951-59), Hawaii Five-O (CBS 1968-80), and Columbo (NBC 1971-78). But because Homicide takes place and was filmed in the majority-Black city of Baltimore, it makes sense that many of the main and supporting cast are Black. This differentiated it from the other shows of its genre and time. Chapter 1 discusses the Black-starring roles on Homicide in terms of being non-stereotypical and both written and performed as well-rounded, complex characters. Chapter 2 focuses on issues of race and racism and their impact on policing. Chapter 3 looks at other power dynamics, such as class, political clout, and social standing, and how those dynamics intersect with race and the criminal justice system's perceived neutrality.In many regards, Homicide was ahead of its time. Alexander argues that Homicide reflects the politics of the Black Lives Matter movement, which in turn highlights the fact that the issues brought up by the movement are long-standing and that the series affirms the critiques BLM activists make about the criminal justice system. This book shows that the series' oftentimes unflinching commentary on the systemic flaws within the criminal justice system not only feels more at home in today's television and political landscape than it did in the 1990s but is just as relevant. Fans of the works of David Simon, as well as students and scholars of television studies and Critical Race Theory, will enjoy this enlightening book.
A Life in 16 Films
Steve Waters examines how the very idea of film has defined him as a playwright and a person in this book. Through the the lens of cinema, it provides a cultural and political snapshot of life in Britain from the 2nd part of the 20th century up to the present day. The films spanning almost a century, starting with The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) and moving most recently to Dark Waters (2019), each chapter examines aspects of Waters's journey from his working-class Midlands upbringing to working in professional theatre to living through the Covid epidemic, through the prism of a particular film. From The Wizard of Oz to Code Unknown, from sci-fi to documentary, from queer cinema to world cinema, this honest, comic book offers a view of film as a way of thinking about how we live. In doing so, it illuminates culture and politics in the UK over half a century and provides an intimate insight into drama and writing.
The Bags
Read a script just like they do in Hollywood! The Bags is a feature screenplay the world has never seen... until now. The Bags: When trash bags come to life and try to smother the inhabitants of a small town, a frightened family unites to stop the ruthless corporation who created this garbage monster. The Bags is a comedy/horror film that takes on the real-life terrors of consumerism, marketing, and packaging. Nell Scovell is a comedy writer and author of Just the Funny Parts: And a Few Hard Truths about Sneaking into the Hollywood Boys' Club. She was the creator/showrunner of ABC's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and has written for The Simpsons, Monk, Charmed, Late Night with David Letterman, NCIS, and The Muppets. Joel Hodgson started out performing magic and ventriloquism in eighth grade and went on to create Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the late '80s. The show is still going strong with over 200 episodes and a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting. Also, its latest iteration on Netflix is rated at "100% Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes. As a performer, Joel has appeared on Saturday Night Live, Freaks and Geeks, and voiced the role of Mayor Dewey on the animated series Steven Universe
Eastern Heroes Magazine Vol1 Issue 1
The Legendary Eastern Heroes magazine is back! The No 1 Hong kong film magazine has been relaunched and is back as a bi-monthly magazine.featuring all your favorite stars. Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Old school, later night Cinema, News Reviews, and Interviews.Issue one features an exclusive look at the History of the Bruce Lee fan club, Collecting Bruce Lee: new York Style, Sho Kosugi, Sammo Hung, Tracing the Dragon a look at Jackie Chans Family Tree, American martial Artist Robert Samuels, Goodbye Mr. Roper, an interview with the late John Saxon, Big Mikes Hong kong round-up and peaking opera star (seven little Fortunes0 yuen Bing interviewed by Toby Russell and so so much more.88 packed pages of Kung fu cinema that will whet the appetite of any martial arts movie fan. Start collecting now.
Masculinities and Manhood in Contemporary Irish Drama
This book charts the journey, in terms of both stasis and change, that masculinities and manhood have made in Irish drama, and by extension in the broader culture and society, from the 1960s to the present. Examining a diverse corpus of drama and theatre events, both mainstream and on the fringe, this study critically elaborates a seismic shift in Irish masculinities. This book argues, then, that Irish manhood has shifted from embodying and enacting post-colonial concerns of nationalism and national identity, to performing models of masculinity that are driven and moulded by the political and cultural practices of neoliberal capitalism. Masculinities and Manhood in Contemporary Irish Drama charts this shift through chapters on performing masculinity in plays set in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, and through several chapters that focus on Women's and Queer drama. It thus takes its readers on a journey: a journey that begins with an overtly patriarchal, nationalist manhood that often made direct comment on the state of the nation, and ultimately arrives at several arguably regressive forms of globalised masculinity, which are couched in misaligned notions of individualism and free-choice and that frequently perceive themselves as being in crisis.
George Alexander and the Work of the Actor-Manager
1. Introduction.- 2. George Alexander and the St. James's 'brand'.- 3. The actor-manager system: autonomy and collaboration.- 4. The actor-manager system: the role of the playwright.- 5. Managing risk: cross-sector adaptation.- 6. The Legacy of Alexander at the St. James's Theatre.
The Hippie
THE HIPPIE is a one act comedy play in rehearsal form. The actors carry their scripts and do not have to memorize lines. They argue with the director, stage manager, author and props.
The Ritz Brothers
The Ritz Brothers were a popular comedy trio in vaudeville, nightclubs, movies and television for more than four decades. Today largely overlooked among the classic comedy pantheon, they have been acknowledged as inspirations by such comics as Mel Brooks, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis and Sid Caesar. This first full-length study of their work examines all the Ritz Brothers' feature films and short subjects 1934-1976, and their television appearances, with background information from the 20th Century-Fox archives. Contemporaneous and modern-day reviews and critiques are included.
The New Witches
After Charmed ended in 2006, witches were relegated to sidekicks of televisual vampires or children's programs. But during the mid-2010s they began to resurface as leading characters in shows like the immensely popular The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the Charmed reboot, Salem, American Horror Story: Coven, and the British program, A Discovery of Witches. No longer sweet, feminine, domestic, and white, these witches are powerful, diverse, and transgressive, representing an intersectional third-wave feminist vision of the witch. Featuring original essays from noted scholars, this is the first critical collection to examine witches on television from the late 2010s. Situated in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement, essays examine the reemergence and shifting identities of TV witches through the perspectives of intersectional gender studies, hauntology, politics, morality, monstrosity, violence, queerness, disabilities, rape, ecofeminism, linguistics, family, and digital humanities.
Storytelling in Participatory Arts with Young People
This book draws on the author's experience as a storyteller, drama practitioner and researcher, to articulate an emerging dialogic approach to storytelling in participatory arts, educational, mental health, youth theatre, and youth work contexts. It argues that oral storytelling offers a rich and much-needed channel for intergenerational dialogue with young people.The book keeps theory firmly tethered to practice. Section 1, 'Storyknowing', traces the history of oral storytelling practice with adolescents across diverse contexts, and brings into clear focus the particular nature of the storytelling exchange and narrative knowledge. Section 2, 'Telling Stories', introduces readers to some of the key challenges and possibilities of dialogic storytelling by reflecting on stories from the author's own arts-based practice research with adolescents, illustrating these with young people's artistic responses to stories. Finally, section 3, 'Story Gaps', conceptualises dialogic storytelling by exploring three different 'gaps' the gap between storyteller and listener, the gaps in the story, and the gaps which storytellers can open up within institutions. The book includes chapters taking a special focus on storytelling in schools and in mental health settings, as well as guided reflections for readers to relate the issues raised to their own practice.
Le Drame Historique
Zola est un des repr矇sentants les plus connus de l'矇cole naturaliste: il a th矇oris矇 l'esth矇tique de ce mouvement litt矇raire et l'a brillamment mis en oeuvre dans ses romans, notamment dans le cycle des Rougon-Macquart. Mais Zola s'est 矇galement int矇ress矇 au th矇璽tre. Il a 矇t矇 critique dramatique au Bien public, et ensuite au Voltaire. Il a rassembl矇 certains de ses articles publi矇s dans deux ouvrages Le Naturalisme au th矇璽tre (1881, dont est extrait cet ouvrage sur Le Drame historique) et Nos auteurs dramatiques (1881). Il a 矇galement 矇crit plusieurs pi癡ces, souvent adapt矇es de ses romans. Zola dans la pr矇face de la pi癡ce Th矇r癡se Raquin, drame tir矇 du roman, d矇finira pr矇cis矇ment les principes du mouvement naturaliste au th矇璽tre.
A History of Romanian Theatre from Communism to Capitalism
A History of Romanian Theatre from Communism to Capitalism analyses the last three decades of Romanian theatre and connects it to the international stage. Cristina Modreanu questions the relationship between artists and power, both before 1989, behind the Iron Curtain, and in the current global political context, with nationalism manifesting itself in Eastern Europe, as seen in the critical work of Romanian theatre makers. This study covers the complex cases of theatre makers such as Lucian Pintilie, Liviu Ciulei and Andrei Șerban, who built their international careers in exile, and the most innovative Romanian artists of today, such as Silviu Purcărete, Mihai Măniuţiu, Gianina Cărbunariu, Radu Afrim, and Bogdan Georgescu, who reached the status of transglobal artists.Filling a considerable gap in Romanian theatre discourse, this book will be of a great interest to students and scholars of contemporary theatre and history.
After the Long Silence
After the Long Silence offers a ground-breaking, meticulously researched criticism of Brazilian contemporary performance created by its post-dictatorship generation, whose work expresses the consequences of decades of state-imposed censorship.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics is a volume of critical essays, provocations, and interventions on the most important questions faced by today's writers, critics, audiences, and theatre and performance makers. Featuring texts written by scholars and artists who are diversely situated (geographically, culturally, politically, and institutionally), its multiple perspectives broadly address the question "How can we be political now?" To respond to this question, Peter Eckersall and Helena Grehan have created eight galvanising themes as frameworks or rubrics to rethink the critical, creative, and activist perspectives on questions of politics and theatre. Each theme is linked to a set of guiding keywords: Post (post consensus, post-Brexit, post-Fukushima, post-neoliberalism, post-humanism, post-global financial crisis, post-acting, the real)Assembly (assemblage, disappearance, permission, community, citizen, protest, refugee)Gap (who is in and out, what can be seen/heard/funded/allowed)Institution (visibility/darkness, inclusion, rules)Machine (biodata, surveillance economy, mediatisation)Message (performance and conviction, didacticism, propaganda)End (suffering, stasis, collapse, entropy)Re. (reset, rescale, reanimate, reimagine, replay: how to bring complexity back into the public arena, how art can help to do this).These themes were developed in conversation with key thinkers and artists in the field, and the resulting texts engage with artistic works across a range of modes including traditional theatre, contemporary performance, public protest events, activism, and community and participatory theatre. Suitable for academics, performance makers, and students, The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics explores questions of how to be political in the early 21st century, by exploring how theatre and performance might provoke, unsettle, reinforce, or productively destabilise the status quo.
To Embody the Marvelous
Winner of the Vern Williamsen Comedia Book Prize, Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, 2023 Winner of the Nancy Staub Award, UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette), 2023 In its exploration of puppetry and animation as the performative media of choice for mastering the art of illusion, To Embody the Marvelous engages with early modern notions of wonder in religious, artistic, and social contexts. From jointed, wood-carved figures of Christ, saintly marionettes that performed hagiographical dramas, experimental puppets and automata in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and the mechanical sets around which playwright Calder籀n de la Barca devised secular magic shows to deconstruct superstitions, these historical and fictional artifacts reenvisioned religious, artistic, and social notions that led early modern society to critically wrestle with enchantment and disenchantment. The use of animated performance objects in Spanish theatrical contexts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became one of the most effective pedagogical means to engage with civil society. Regardless of social strata, readers and spectators alike were caught up in a paradigm shift wherein belief systems were increasingly governed by reason-even though the discursive primacy of supernatural doxa and Christian wonder remained firmly entrenched. Thanks to their potential for motion, religious and profane puppets, automata, and mechanical stage props deployed a rationalized sense of wonder that illustrates the relationship between faith and reason, reevaluates the boundaries of fiction in art and entertainment cultures, acknowledges the rise of science and technology, and questions normative authority.
Performing Indigenous Identities on the Contemporary Australian Stage
Over the past 50 years, Indigenous Australian theatre practice has emerged as a dynamic site for the discursive reflection of culture and tradition as well as colonial legacies, leveraging the power of storytelling to create and advocate contemporary fluid conceptions of Indigeneity.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science
The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science integrates key findings from the cognitive sciences (cognitive psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary studies and relevant social sciences) with insights from theatre and performance studies. This rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field dynamically advances critical and theoretical knowledge, as well as driving innovation in practice. The anthology includes 30 specially commissioned chapters, many written by authors who have been at the cutting-edge of research and practice in the field over the last 15 years. These authors offer many empirical answers to four significant questions: How can performances in theatre, dance and other media achieve more emotional and social impact? How can we become more adept teachers and learners of performance both within and outside of classrooms?  What can the cognitive sciences reveal about the nature of drama and human nature in general?  How can knowledge transfer, from a synthesis of science and performance, assist professionals such as nurses, care-givers, therapists and emergency workers in their jobs? A wide-ranging and authoritative guide, The Routledge Companion to Theatre, Performance and Cognitive Science is an accessible tool for not only students, but practitioners and researchers in the arts and sciences as well.
Professional Wrestling and the Commercial Stage
Professional Wrestling and the Commercial Stage examines professional wrestling as a century-old, theatrical form that spans from its local places of performance to circulate as a popular, global product.
Reclaiming Popular Documentary
The documentary has achieved rising popularity over the past two decades thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Despite this, documentary studies still tends to favor works that appeal primarily to specialists and scholars. Reclaiming Popular Documentary reverses this long-standing tendency by showing that documentaries can be--and are--made for mainstream or commercial audiences. Editors Christie Milliken and Steve Anderson, who consider popular documentary to be a subfield of documentary studies, embrace an expanded definition of popular to acknowledge the many evolving forms of documentary, such as branded entertainment, fictional hybrids, and works with audience participation. Together, these essays address emerging documentary forms--including web-docs, virtual reality, immersive journalism, viral media, interactive docs, and video-on-demand--and offer the critical tools viewers need to analyze contemporary documentaries and consider how they are persuaded by and represented in documentary media. By combining perspectives of scholars and makers, Reclaiming Popular Documentary brings new understandings and international perspectives to familiar texts using critical models that will engage media scholars and fans alike.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed
This dynamic book offers a comprehensive companion to the theory and practice of Theatre of the Oppressed. Developed by Brazilian director and theorist Augusto Boal, these theatrical forms invite people to mobilize their knowledge and rehearse struggles against oppression.
Real Animals on the Stage
Through a series of case studies, this book explores the role of live animals on the stage, from the early modern era to the present time. The contributors deal with visual and textual representations of performing animals; typologies of animals in the theatre; the hybridization of the drama with the circus, the zoo, and the cinema; as well as the semiotic transfer of animal roles from the text to the stage. The focus lies on the changing historical fortunes of the four-footed actor and on exploring the ways that attitudes to the animal affect their dramatic representations - within aesthetic contexts but also in their dramatized scientific use. Exploring snapshots of acting animals from their earliest manifestation on the early modern stage, the chapters contextualize and theorize particular uses of the animal actor, and key into current debates on the cutting edge of animal performance studies. While seeking to consider how these theoretical perspectives were formed, the collection delves into the multiple ways through which the animal presence problematizes the practice of theatricality.This book was originally published as a special issue of Studies in Theatre and Performance.
Establishment of Drama Orientation
The "national drama" in China is a historical concept. Grown on longstanding Chinese culture and art, the traditional drama, mainly in the form of "opera", has been integrated with "drama" of an international background. From the perspective of modern "drama and opera", this book mainly studies the conditions and research of Chinese traditional drama in the 1920s and 1930s.Instead of analyzing from the viewpoint of literature appreciation or music theory, the author regards the drama as a comprehensive stage art. He attaches special importance to restoring historical scenes and therefore mainly introduces the drama journals and monographs published in that historical period, in order to help readers understand the original state of drama at that time through the records of the witnesses. In particular, this book delivers an insightful view about the evolution of the meaning of "national drama" and "drama".The book will help scholars and readers understand the meaning and the whole story of the "national drama" concept, and will certainly facilitate the construction of the discipline of Drama and Opera.
Reclaiming Popular Documentary
The documentary has achieved rising popularity over the past two decades thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Despite this, documentary studies still tends to favor works that appeal primarily to specialists and scholars. Reclaiming Popular Documentary reverses this long-standing tendency by showing that documentaries can be--and are--made for mainstream or commercial audiences. Editors Christie Milliken and Steve Anderson, who consider popular documentary to be a subfield of documentary studies, embrace an expanded definition of popular to acknowledge the many evolving forms of documentary, such as branded entertainment, fictional hybrids, and works with audience participation. Together, these essays address emerging documentary forms--including web-docs, virtual reality, immersive journalism, viral media, interactive docs, and video-on-demand--and offer the critical tools viewers need to analyze contemporary documentaries and consider how they are persuaded by and represented in documentary media. By combining perspectives of scholars and makers, Reclaiming Popular Documentary brings new understandings and international perspectives to familiar texts using critical models that will engage media scholars and fans alike.
Dramaturgy of Migration
Dramaturgy of Migration: Staging Multilingual Encounters in Contemporary Theatre examines the function of dramaturgy and the role the of dramaturg in making a theatre performance situated at the crossroads of multiple theatre forms and performative devices.
Preaching the Blues
Preaching the Blues: Black Feminist Performance in Lynching Plays examines several lynching plays to foreground black women's performances as non-normative subjects who challenge white supremacist ideology.
Performing Commedia Dell'arte, 1570-1630
Performing Commedia dell'Arte, 1570-1630 explores the performance techniques employed in commedia dell'arte and the ways in which they served to rapidly spread throughout Europe the ideas that were to form the basis of modern theatre.
To Embody the Marvelous
Winner of the Vern Williamsen Comedia Book Prize, Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, 2023 Winner of the Nancy Staub Award, UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette), 2023 In its exploration of puppetry and animation as the performative media of choice for mastering the art of illusion, To Embody the Marvelous engages with early modern notions of wonder in religious, artistic, and social contexts. From jointed, wood-carved figures of Christ, saintly marionettes that performed hagiographical dramas, experimental puppets and automata in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and the mechanical sets around which playwright Calder籀n de la Barca devised secular magic shows to deconstruct superstitions, these historical and fictional artifacts reenvisioned religious, artistic, and social notions that led early modern society to critically wrestle with enchantment and disenchantment. The use of animated performance objects in Spanish theatrical contexts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became one of the most effective pedagogical means to engage with civil society. Regardless of social strata, readers and spectators alike were caught up in a paradigm shift wherein belief systems were increasingly governed by reason-even though the discursive primacy of supernatural doxa and Christian wonder remained firmly entrenched. Thanks to their potential for motion, religious and profane puppets, automata, and mechanical stage props deployed a rationalized sense of wonder that illustrates the relationship between faith and reason, reevaluates the boundaries of fiction in art and entertainment cultures, acknowledges the rise of science and technology, and questions normative authority.
Principles of Dramaturgy
In Principles of Dramaturgy, Robert Scanlan explains the invariant principles behind the construction of stage and performance events of any style or modality.
Directing Actors
Directing Actors: A Practical Aesthetics Approach is the first book to apply the Practical Aesthetics acting technique to the craft of directing.
New Dramaturgies
In New Dramaturgies: Strategies and Exercises for 21st Century Playwriting, Mark Bly offers a new playwriting book with nine unique play-generating exercises. These exercises offer dramaturgical strategies and tools for confronting and overcoming obstacles that all playwrights face.
Goon But Not Forgotten
This book is essentially about me - me midst the Goons! Me! Me! Me! (How disgusting! What's this fellow going on about?)It is an unashamed celebration of MY life not in the past but TODAY and in that, it becomes a celebration of YOUR lives TODAY...This is not some pious documentary or painstaking recollection of THOSE days!It is about TODAY and the book you are holding in your hands and you are wonderful RIGHT NOW. You are the LIFE of all the heroes you admire! You can say, Oh! It's a pack of lies then? Inventions of an author clawing his way back into the limelight? Or trying to. That's a laugh in itself. Yes, do say that. I don't mind...But the GOONS depicted were inventions of their own lives no less than I have reinvented them. They would be grateful for these tales based upon fragments or reality in the history of place and years and days and ever the present moment when the GOONS in respite from their self-inventions faced a silence because the real journey is to discover how WONDERFUL we all are already!!So if you want to cast this book aside a great good has already been done for you. You are more amazing than the whole world of books you have read or not yet read or will never read because the book world and indeed the whole world can only reflect the wonder of being you...I will be in touch again with more amazing works. Thanks for reading this back cover at no expense and do have a nice day. Unless you have already made other plans. As Peter Ustinov once remarked... PS: Appearing in these pages you will find Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. They seek their arch enemy the dreaded Count Moriarty for this very villain has been ridiculed in the Goon Shows and now seeks his revenge.Holmes is aware of the great danger he and Watson face of becoming ensnared as characters in the book - of being trivialised now they are out of copyright. Watson has no idea that they are continually being rewritten, a vision only granted to the out of this world opium pipe smoking Holmes!
Timelines
In Timelines: Writings and Conversations, Bonnie Marranca turns to far-ranging subjects that include the catastrophic imagination, landscape and writing, performance drawing, cultural history, as well as issues of emotion, beauty, and the spiritual in art. Her perspectives on performance, visual arts, media, and drama in the work of Joan Jonas, Caryl Churchill, Raimund Hoghe, Dick Hig­gins, and Meredith Monk highlight the artist in the world and ar­tistic process. Includes personal reflections on the loss of influential artists Carolee Schneemann, Sam Shepard, and Maria Irene Fornes.
The Apprentice
75 benefit giro cheques 5,000 miles of roads 1 Mohican hair style 5 self-penned theatre plays 4 books of poems 6 underground fanzines 3 radio interviews 2 general elections 1 miner's strike 1 Falklands war 1 Greenham Common 10 unrequited and 1 love story 1 typewriter 7 acting roles 3 drama schools and 1 life lived - to the max. A wonderful and detailed diary of what it was like to be young and innocent in a small northern English town in the early 1980's and in a world which was just a little less complicated than today. Wallow in lost innocence and nostalgia and glimpse a world that could be again, if only . . . . Also includes 'This is where we live' first published Jan 1985 and The Bond Letters - exchanges from 1983 to 1985 with British playwright legend Edward Bond.
Sex, Class, and the Theatrical Archive
In Sex, Class and the Theatrical Archive: Erotic Economies, Alan Sikes explores the intersection of struggles over sex and class identities in politicized performances during key revolutionary moments in modern European history. The book includes discussions of sodomitical closet dramas from the decades surrounding the English Glorious Revolution of 1688; the performances of 'Tribades and Amazons', public women of the French Revolution; the 'homophilic elitism' in the early plays of Brecht and Hasenclever from the years just before and after the German Revolution that marked the founding of the short-lived Weimar Republic; and the utopian conception of a Soviet 'New Woman' set to take the stage after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Throughout, Sikes invokes the differences between past and present politicized performances in order to cast our own political imaginings into sharper and more critical relief.
The Object of Comedy
What is the object of comedy? What makes us laugh and why? Is comedy subversive, restorative or reparative? What is at stake politically, socially and metaphysically when it comes to comedic performances? This book investigates not only the object of comedy but also its objectives - both its deliberate goals and its unintended side effects.In researching the object of comedy, the contributions gathered here encounter comedy as a philosophical object: instead of approaching comedy as a genre, the book engages with it as a language, a medium, an artifice, a weapon, a puzzle or a trouble, a vocation and a repetition. Thus philosophy meets comedy at the intersection of various fields (e.g. psychoanalysis, film studies, cultural studies, and performance studies) -regions that comical practices and theories in fact already traverse.
Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 1
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals. Contributors from across the globe offer in-depth analysis of both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including Hot Docs (Canada), Nyon (Switcherland), Yamagata (Japan), DocChina, Full Frame (US), Belgrade (former Yugoslavia), Vikalp (India), and DocsBarcelona (Catalonia, Spain), among others. With a special focus on historical and political developments, this first volume draws a map of documentary festivals operating today, and then looks at their origins and evolution. This volume is organized in three sections: the first addresses methodological problems film historians and social scientists face when researching documentary film festivals, the second looks at the historical development of this circuit within the wider frame of history of world and national cinemas, and the third reflects on how politics find their way through festival programs and actions. Curatorial, organizational, industrial and political changes occurred in the festival realm addressed in this book help better understand how these affected documentary production, distribution, curation, exhibition and reception up to this day.
Actor-Network Theory at the Movies
This book is one of the first to apply the theoretical tools proposed by French philosopher Bruno Latour to film studies. Through the example of the Hollywood Teen Film and with a particular focus on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), the book delineates how Teen Film has established itself as one of Hollywood's most consistent and dynamic genres. While many productions may recycle formulaic patterns, there is also a proliferation of cinematic coming-of-age narratives that are aesthetically and politically progressive, experimental, and complex. The case studies develop a Latourian film semiotics as a flexible analytical approach which raises new questions, not only about the history, types and tropes of teen films, but also about their aesthetics, mediality, and composition. Through an exploration of a wide and diverse range of examples from the past decade, including films by female and African-American directors, urban and rural perspectives, and non-heteronormative sexualities, Actor-Network Theory at the Movies demonstrates how the classic Teen Film canon has been regurgitated, expanded, and renewed.
Acting Queer
This book is situated at the intersection of queer/gender studies and theories of acting pedagogy and performance. It explores the social and cultural matrix in which matters of gender are negotiated, including that of post-secondary theatre and drama education. It identifies the predicament of gender dissident actors who must contend with the widespread enforcement of realist paradigms within the academy, and proposes a re-imagining of the way drama/theatre/performance are practised in order to serve more fairly and effectively the needs of queer actors in training. This is located within a larger project of critique in reference to the art form as a whole. The book stimulates discussion among practitioners and scholars on matters concerning various kinds of diversity: of gender expression, of approaches to the teaching of acting, and to the way the art form may be imagined and executed in the early years of the 21st Century, in particular in the face of the climate crisis. But it is also an aid to practitioners who are seeking new theoretical and practical approaches to dealing with gender diversity in acting pedagogy.
Documentary Film Festivals Vol. 2
This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals, looking at its contemporary and future challenges. Contributors from across the globe reflect on how documentary has positioned itself within both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals, including IDFA (Netherlands), Cannes IFF (France), Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK), Dockanema (Mozambique), Ismailia (Egypt) and Zinebi (Basque Country, Spain), among others. With a special focus on industrial and curatorial developments, this second in a two-volume set looks at recent changes occurred in the festival circuit, such as the proliferation of markets and co-production forums, the inclusion of interactive and VR forms within their programs and the irruption of VOD platforms, and analyse how these affect the future of documentary aesthetics and its production/distribution contexts.This volume is organized in two sections: the first reflects on how the documentary festival circuit has become a key industry node for contemporary documentary and identifies new curatorial trends at documentary and major film festivals. The second gives voice to professionals working for festivals and institutions who collaborate with them, who share inside knowledge and concerns, regarding the future challenges to be faced by documentary in the near future.
Adaptation Considered as a Collaborative Art
This book examines the processes of adaptation across a number of intriguing case studies and media. Turning its attention from the 'what' to the 'how' of adaptation, it serves to re-situate the discourse of adaptation studies, moving away from the hypotheses that used to haunt it, such as fidelity, to questions of how texts, authors and other creative practitioners (always understood as a plurality) engage in dialogue with one another across cultures, media, languages, genders and time itself. With fifteen chapters across fields including fine art and theory, drama and theatre, and television, this interdisciplinary volume considers adaptation across the creative and performance arts, with a single focus on the collaborative.
Palestinian Theatre in the West Bank
Since the 1990s, Palestinian theatrical activities in the West Bank have expanded exponentially. As well as local productions, Palestinian theatre-makers have presented their work to international audiences on a scale unprecedented in Palestinian history. This book explores the histories of the five major theatre companies currently working in the West Bank: Al-Kasaba Theatre, Ashtar Theatre, Al-Harah Theatre, The Freedom Theatre and Al-Rowwad. Taking the first intifada (1987-93) as his point of departure, and drawing on original fieldwork and interviews with Palestinian practitioners, Gabriel Varghese introduces the term 'abject counterpublics' to explore how theatre-makers contest Zionist discourse and Israeli state practices. By foregrounding Palestinian voices, and placing theories of abjection and counterpublic formation in conversation with each other, Varghese argues that theatre in the West Bank has been regulated by processes of colonial abjection and, yet, it is an important site for resisting Zionism's discourse of erasure and Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid. Palestinian Theatre in the West Bank: Our Human Faces is the first major account of Palestinian theatre covering the last three decades.
Simon Stephens Plays 5
"Stephens writes dramas set in uncaring, uncompromising worlds, whose characters speak in a language at once naturalistic and yet artificially pared-down and whose uncertain attempts to assert their own identities sometimes lead to gratuitous and brutal acts of violence." - Financial Times A fifth collection of plays by one of Britain's most prolific contemporary playwrights, Simon Stephens, charting his work from 2011-2016, ranging from London's Royal Court Theatre, Manchester's Royal Exchange and Broadway. Wastwater (2011) "Metaphoric, allusive, and thoroughly disturbing in its evocation of suspicion and uncertainty, Wastwater is a thought-provoking play whose quiet intensity stays with you for days - its effect is like that of a ugly stone dropped into a pool, which results in constant ripples of dirty water lapping at your subconscious" (Aleks Sierz) Birdland (2014) "Mega-fame and limitless cash can turn a man into a monster, and Simon Stephens's new play excellently evokes its hero's spiritually shrunken world" (Michael Billington, Guardian) Blindsided (2014) "the dialogue has a rare quality of moment-by-moment intensity" (Telegraph) Song From Far Away (2015) "a meditative monologue - a searching study of impotently self-aware emotional insufficiency" (Independent) Heisenberg (2016) "Mr. Stephens ... is an uncannily subtle dramatist who never wears his depths on the surface ... he probes clich矇s until they fall apart, before reassembling them into solid but transformed shapes, reminding us why such clich矇s have become enduring elements of our collective mythology." (Ben Brantley, New York Times)