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Deadpan: The Aesthetics of Black Inexpression (Minoritarian Aesthetics #1)
by Tina PostWinner of the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award for CriticismWinner of the 2023 ASAP Book Prize, given by the Association for the Study of the Arts of the PresentExplores expressionlessness, inscrutability, and emotional withholding in Black cultural productionArguing that inexpression is a gesture that acquires distinctive meanings in concert with blackness, Deadpan tracks instances and meanings of deadpan—a vaudeville term meaning “dead face”—across literature, theater, visual and performance art, and the performance of self in everyday life.Tina Post reveals that the performance of purposeful withholding is a critical tool in the work of black culture makers, intervening in the persistent framing of African American aesthetics as colorful, loud, humorous, and excessive. Beginning with the expressionless faces of mid-twentieth-century documentary photography and proceeding to early twenty-first-century drama, this project examines performances of blackness’s deadpan aesthetic within and beyond black embodiments, including Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Neighbors, as well as Buster Keaton’s signature character and Steve McQueen’s restitution of the former’s legacy within the continuum of Black cultural production. Through this varied archive, Post reveals how deadpan aesthetics function in and between opacity and fugitivity, minimalism and saturation, excess and insensibility.
Dear Brutus
by J. M. BarrieAn odd assortment of guests are warned against going into the woods for it is Midsummer Eve (there is no woods in the neighborhood, but legend says that it sometimes appears). A philanderer, his young wife and the current object of his affections; an artist who has lost faith in himself and his wife who despises him; indolent lady and a delightful old couple venture into the forest that appears outside the windows and find dreams and desires answered. When they return, they gradually revert to their former state, but not without a memory of the wood.
Dear Elizabeth: A Play in Letters from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again
by Sarah RuhlFrom playwright Sarah Ruhl, Dear Elizabeth is a moving, innovative play based on one of the greatest correspondences in literary history--the letters of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop. From 1947 to 1977, Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop exchanged more than four hundred letters. Describing the writing of their poems, their travel and daily illnesses, the pyrotechnics of their romantic relationships, and the profound affection they had for each other, these missives are the most intimate record available of both poets and one of the greatest correspondences in American literature. The playwright Sarah Ruhl fell in love with these letters and set herself an unusual challenge: to turn this thirty-year exchange into a stage play, and to bring to life the friendship of two writers who were rarely even in the same country. As innovative as it is moving, Dear Elizabeth gives voice to a conversation that lived mostly in writing, illuminating some of the finest poems of the twentieth century and the minds that produced them.
Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel
by Val Emmich Steven Levenson Benj Pasek Justin PaulFrom the show's creators comes the groundbreaking novel inspired by the hit Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why...When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend. <p><p> Suddenly, Evan isn't invisible anymore--even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy's parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend. As Evan gets pulled deeper into their swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he's doing can't be right, but if he's helping people, how wrong can it be? No longer tangled in his once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose. And a website. He's confident. He's a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle: himself. <p> A simple lie leads to complicated truths in this big-hearted coming-of-age story of grief, authenticity and the struggle to belong in an age of instant connectivity and profound isolation.
Dear Evan Hansen
by Steven LevensonA letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed could be his. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to belong. Deeply personal and profoundly universal, Dear Evan Hansen is a groundbreaking American musical about truth, fiction, and the price we’re willing to pay for the possibility to connect.
Dear Evan Hansen: Through the Window
by Steven LevensonWinner of 6 Tony Awards!The official behind-the-scenes book of the new hit musical.A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he's always wanted: a chance to finally fit in. Both deeply personal and profoundly contemporary, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is a new American musical about life and the way we live it.The book-produced by Melcher Media, the team behind Hamilton, Wicked, Rent, and many more-tells the story of the musical from its conception nearly a decade ago to the Broadway stage. From developing the idea to writing the show, composing, casting, and rehearsals, DEAR EVAN HANSEN appeals to fans far and wide offering them the opportunity to continuously revisit the show, and for those who haven't seen the musical, reading the book will make them feel like they have.Filled with interviews with the cast and crew, original behind-the-scenes photography, a deeper look into Evan's fictional world and the visual world of the show, unreleased lyrics, and of course the libretto, as well as reflections on the creators own formative memories from their adolescence as it relates to the show's themes, and important examinations of how we present ourselves online and mental health, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is a beautifully produced, thoughtful, and uplifting book.
Dear Liar
by Mrs Patrick Campbell Jerome Kilty Bernard ShawBiography / 1m, 1f / Shining in the bewitching repartee between two great wits, Katharine Cornell and Brian Aherne played Mrs. Campbell and Shaw on Broadway. The play toured this hemisphere and Europe for two years before its return to Off-Broadway. It is a masterful compendium of badinage with Shaw and Mrs. Campbell in scenes of both confrontation and distancing. Here is Shaw in all his contradictions; he adores the actress, Mrs. Campbell, most ascetically, and persuades her to play in Pygmalion. He frets with her when she leaves for America, and yet he refuses permission to publish the letters that would save her from bankruptcy. Mrs. Campbell is his match; she published them anyway. Here is a strange and intriguing romance fought around the world.
Dear Love
by Jerome KiltyBiography / 1m, 1f / As the hit play Dear Liar drew on the life-long correspondence of Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, author Jerome Kilty uses the poems and letters of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, to present this compelling portrait of a couple whose words and love are legendary. First corresponding via letters, when Elizabeth thinks of Browning as merely "an acquaintance", his poetry moves her so deeply they eventually meet. Chastised by her stern father and guilty over the death of her beloved brother, Elizabeth is bereft and isolated. Browning begins to court her and she is finally persuaded to marry and accompany him to Italy, where their love might grow away from the over-watchful eyes of her antagonistic, Victorian father. Elizabeth Barrett loved Robert Browning beyond all enduring; Dear Love recounts the ways.
Dear Me
by Peter Ustinov‘Very amusing’Daily MirrorBeloved wit and raconteur, star of stage and screen, multitalented writer, director and humanitarian – few stars of the twentieth century were as highly regarded as Sir Peter Ustinov.From his birth in April 1921, this highly acclaimed autobiography spans Ustinov’s extraordinary career as the star of Spartacus, Quo Vadis, Death on the Nile and many other classics. Eccentric relatives, school masters and manic Hollywood moguls are all brought unforgettably to life alongside encounters with the great and the good, from Sir Laurence Olivier to J. B. Priestley.This warm and revealing book gives an enthralling portrait of a man whose unique gift of laughter made him one of the most popular and respected entertainers in the world.
Dear Santa
by Norm FosterSanta Claus tries to fulfill a child's special Christmas wish while his staff attempts to overcome a supply shortage at the North Pole. This is a laugh-filled holiday play innocent enough for the youngest boy or girl, and entertaining enough for adults.
Death and The King's Horseman
by Wole Soyinka Simon Gikandi"Backgrounds and Sources" helps readers understand Death and the King's Horseman's traditional African contexts and the role of theater in African culture. Included are a map of Yoruba-land, discussions of Yoruban religious beliefs and cultural traditions, Soyinka on the various forms that theater has taken in African culture in order to survive, and Anthony Appiah on Soyinka's struggle with the problem of African identity in the creation of Death and the King's Horseman. Commentary on the play as both a theatrical production and a classroom text is provided by Gerald Moore, Tanure Ojaide, and Martin Rohmer. "Criticism" collects nine major essays on the play and the difficulties it presents to readers. Contributors include D. S. Izevbaye, Eldred Durosimi Jones, Henry Louis Gates Jr. , Biodun Jeyifo, Wole Soyinka, Joan Hepburn, Adebayo Williams, David Richards, and Olakunle George. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
The Death and Life of Drama: Reflections on Writing and Human Nature
by Lance LeeWhat makes a film "work," so that audiences come away from the viewing experience refreshed and even transformed in the way they understand themselves and the world around them? In The Death and Life of Drama, veteran screenwriter and screenwriting teacher Lance Lee tackles this question in a series of personal essays that thoroughly analyze drama's role in our society, as well as the elements that structure all drama, from the plays of ancient Athens to today's most popular movies. Using examples from well-known classical era and recent films, Lee investigates how writers handle dramatic elements such as time, emotion, morality, and character growth to demonstrate why some films work while others do not. He seeks to define precisely what "action" is and how the writer and the viewer understand dramatic reality. He looks at various kinds of time in drama, explores dramatic context from Athens to the present, and examines the concept of comedy. Lee also proposes a novel "five act" structure for drama that takes account of the characters' past and future outside the "beginning, middle, and end" of the story. Deftly balancing philosophical issues and practical concerns, The Death and Life of Drama offers a rich understanding of the principles of successful dramatic writing for screenwriters and indeed everyone who enjoys movies and wants to know why some films have such enduring appeal for so many people.
Death And The Maiden
by Ariel DorfmanAriel Dorfman's explosively provocative, award-winning drama is set in a country that has only recently returned to democracy. Gerardo Escobar has just been chosen to head the commission that will investigate the crimes of the old regime when his car breaks down and he is picked up by the humane doctor Roberto Miranda. But in the voice of this good Samaritan, Gerardo's wife, Paulina Salas, thinks she recognizes another man--the one who raped and tortured her as she lay blindfolded in a military detention center years before.
Death and Taxes
by Tony KushnerTony Kushner: "This is an odd assemblage of plays, for which gathering-together there is no overarching thematic justification. Because several of the plays deal with death, and one of the death-plays deals as well with money, and the last play deals with taxation, we're calling the book Death & Taxes. But all plays, directly or indirectly, are about death and taxes, so this title explains little..."What is clear, is that all of the plays in this new collection by Kushner are poetic masterpieces. An exploration in form and style, from comedy to farce to what can easily be called hip-hop theatre, Kushner makes each style his own, writing with the mind of a great social reformer and the heart of a poet. This collection is proof that his masterwork, Angels in America was just the beginning.Includes:Reverse Transcription: Six Playwrights Bury a SeventhHydriotaphia or The Death of Doctor BrowneG. David Schine in HellNotes on AkibaTerminating or Sonnet LXXVEast Coast Ode to Howard Jarvis
Death by Golf
by Gregg KreutzCharacters: 2 male, 2 femaleInterior When an escaped convict, an anxious bride, a scheming new husband, and a suspicious attorney all convene at Grandpa's house--it doesn't take long for Grandpa to realize he has to reschedule his golf game. This lively combination of uproarious comedy and terrifying murder mystery revolves around the uncanny resemblance between escaped convict Tony and recent bridegroom Prescott (both played by the same actor). Newlywed Ashley's desperate attempt to figure out who is the real murderer is sometimes helped and sometimes hindered by her golf-fanatic grandfather and a mysterious visiting attorney named Muriel. As the suspense mounts and the violence intensifies, Ashley slips into increasing hysteria, Muriel discovers the murderer's evil agenda, and Grandpa, drawing upon an unsuspected hidden reserve of inner strength, fine-tunes his stroke. "A hilarious fast-paced romp!" - Charlie Cox, Danville Advocate-Messenger
Death Comes in Yellow
by Felicja KarayDeath Comes in Yellow" presents the history of one slave labor camp in order to shed light on all aspects of the slave labor camps established in Poland under German occupation. Hasag-Skarzysko was one of hundreds of camps scattered throughout occupied Poland. They were distinguished by size, the nationality of the prisoners, their location, the date of their establishment, and the authority in charge. The large number of labor camps reflected the German policy of exploiting the work forces of the occupied countries. These camps were part of a Europe-wide system of forced labor.The first part of this volume reviews the external history of the camp. The second section, which studies the internal workings of the camp, is quite different in approach and includes an analysis of prisoner society and a moving description of the individual prisoner's struggle to survive.
Death etc.
by Harold PinterA collection of political essays, poetry, and dramatic works by the Nobel Prize–winning playwright and author of Betrayal. Throughout his life, playwright, poet, and political activist Harold Pinter has consistently cast light on the hypocrisy of power and those who would defend the status quo for the sake of their own security and comfort. Awarded the Wilfred Owen Prize in 2004 for his poetry condemning US military intervention in Iraq, Mr. Pinter has succeeded in combining his artistry with his political activism. Death etc. brings together Pinter’s most poignant and especially relevant writings in response to war. From chilling psychological portraits of those who commit atrocities in the name of a higher power, to essays on the state-sponsored terrorism of present-day regimes, to solemn hymns commemorating the faceless masses that perish unrecognized, Mr. Pinter’s writings are as essential to the preservation of open debate as to our awareness of personal involvement in the fate of our global community.
Death in the Theatre
by Chris Wood"A richly entertaining account of tragic theatre accidents and murders most foul. If theatre walls could talk, what secrets would they reveal? Chris Wood provides fascinating answers with tales of brawling ushers, murderously jealous husbands, stampeding crowds and infant tragedies. A meticulously researched and vivid collection of lives lost in the palaces of dreams. A must-read for all lovers of the theatre, providing shocks and gasps of horror when real life proves to be more dramatic than any play on stage." - Hugh Bonneville "Immaculately researched and beautifully macabre. This is a real treat for anyone who is either a fan of the theatre or of untimely deaths. I loved it!" - Peter James Britain’s theatrical wonderland has been a cornerstone of culture for centuries, delighting and thrilling audiences with an assemblage of exhilarating spectacles. Beyond the trodden boards, and tucked neatly behind the curtain however, lies a catalogue of real life destruction and grisly murder that our greatest tragedians would surely be proud to have presided over. Tread the bloodied boards of Britain’s theaters and witness the deathly dramas that have played out so dramatically within them. Death in the Theatre collects an astonishing selection of startling tragedies from Britain’s throng of theaters. There is something especially staggering when the player exits life on their adorned stage, and yet, with this by no means an infrequent occurrence, death has made many a fearful cameo appearance – stalking the stalls and grimly reaping the galleries in its macabre and relentless fashion. In 1910 a strange midnight tragedy was enacted in a London theater, where the brutal murder of an elderly stage carpenter prompted huge excitement among the theater-going world and indeed wider public. How did a children’s magic show descend into such unspeakable horror that would leave 183 youngsters dead in a Sunderland theater, their tiny bodies brutally laid out in the dress circle for the bleakest of identity parades? Learn of outrageous tragedy such as the young man mauled to death by a lion in a Gloucester theater, and the unfortunate victim killed in the Dumfries Theatre Royal – quite literally – by the limelight.
Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations In Two Acts And A Requiem (Penguin Plays)
by Arthur MillerThe Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room."By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Time
Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem (Penguin Twentieth-century Classics Ser.)
by Arthur Miller Christopher W. BigsbyThe Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room."By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Timeof the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times "So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Time For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Death of a Salesman
by Arthur Miller Gerald WealesThe Pulitzer Prize-winning tragedy of a salesman's deferred American dream Ever since it was first performed in 1949, Death of a Salesman has been recognized as a milestone of the American theater. In the person of Willy Loman, the aging, failing salesman who makes his living riding on a smile and a shoeshine, Arthur Miller redefined the tragic hero as a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantial. He has given us a figure whose name has become a symbol for a kind of majestic grandiosity--and a play that compresses epic extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, between the four walls of an American living room."By common consent, this is one of the finest dramas in the whole range of the American theater." --Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times"So simple, central, and terrible that the run of playwrights would neither care nor dare to attempt it." --Time
The Death of Character: Perspectives on Theater after Modernism (Drama and Performance Studies)
by Elinor Fuchs"Extremely well written, and exceedingly well informed, this is a work that opens a variety of important questions in sophisticated and theoretically nuanced ways. It is hard to imagine a better tour guide than Fuchs for a trip through the last thirty years of, as she puts it, what we used to call the 'avant-garde.'" —Essays in Theatre". . . an insightful set of theoretical 'takes' on how to think about theatre before and theatre after modernism." —Theatre Journal"In short, for those who never experienced a 'postmodern swoon,' Elinor Fuchs is an excellent informant." —Performing Arts Journal". . . a thoughtful, highly readable contribution to the evolving literature on theatre and postmodernism." —Modern Drama"A work of bold theoretical ambition and exceptional critical intelligence. . . . Fuchs combines mastery of contemporary cultural theory with a long and full participation in American theater culture: the result is a long-needed, long-awaited elaboration of a new theatrical paradigm." —Una Chaudhuri, New York University"What makes this book exceptional is Fuchs' acute rehearsal of the stranger unnerving events of the last generation that have—in the cross-reflections of theory—determined our thinking about theater. She seems to have seen and absorbed them all." —Herbert Blau, Center for Twentieth Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee"Surveying the extraordinary scene of the postmodern American theater, Fuchs boldly frames key issues of subjectivity and performance with the keenest of critical eyes for the compelling image and the telling gesture." —Joseph Roach, Tulane University" . . . Fuchs makes an exceptionally lucid and eloquent case for the value and contradictions in postmodern theater." —Alice Rayner, Stanford University"Arguably the most accessible yet learned road map to what remains for many impenetrable territoryan obligatory addition to all academic libraries serving upper-division undertgraduates and above." —Choice"A systematic, comprehensive and historically-minded assessment of what, precisely, 'post-modern theatre' is, anyway." —American TheatreIn this engrossing study, Elinor Fuchs explores the multiple worlds of theater after modernism. While The Death of Character engages contemporary cultural and aesthetic theory, Elinor Fuchs always speaks as an active theater critic. Nine of her Village Voice and American Theatre essays conclude the volume. They give an immediate, vivid account of contemporary theater and theatrical culture written from the front of rapid cultural change.
The Death of Hamlet: A Counterfactual Reading of Shakespeare (Routledge Studies in Shakespeare)
by Amir KhanThis book is an intervention in Hamlet scholarship. In Thus Spake Zarathustra (1885), Nietzsche famously posited the death of God, taken to mean the dissolution of all horizons within which human beings construct a plausible ontology that gives words significance. The idea of God, as a transcendental signified (to borrow from Derrida), underwrites meaning and values. Socrates placed knowing as the highest philosophical good over two millennia ago; however, once we find that God (i.e. any transcendental signified) is unknowable, the world vanishes. In a world bereft of concepts and meaning, Nietzsche’s philosophical project becomes one of “redeeming” pure willing as itself constitutive of world.Hamlet and the criticism surrounding it is caught within competing horizons we know are circuitous and unending. We tiresomely make theoretical rounds between competing sets of interpretations that boil down to either establishing meaning within the play (the text transcending its history and revealing universal truths) or situating the text within its proper historical timeframe in order to get it to speak. In short, we are trapped between contextualizing and decontextualizing approaches. Yet we know both approaches, as competing horizons we commit to at the outset, are dead. But to abandon both at the outset means that the text, Hamlet, is itself dead. So how to get it to speak?
The Death of the Actor: Shakespeare on Page and Stage
by Martin BuzacottIn The Death of the Actor Martin Buzacott launches an all-out attack on contemporary theatrical practice and performance theory which identifies the actor, rather than the director, as the key creative force in the performance of Shakespeare. Because actors are absent from the site of Shakespearean meaning, he argues, the illusion of their centrality is sustained only by a rhetoric of heroism, violence and imperialism.
The Death of Tragedy
by George SteinerAn engrossing and provocative look at the decline of tragedy in modern art"All men are aware of tragedy in life. But tragedy as a form of drama is not universal." So begins George Steiner's adept analysis of the demise of classic tragedy as a dramatic depiction of heroism and suffering. In The Death of Tragedy, Steiner examines the uniqueness and importance of the Greek classical tragedy--from antiquity to the age of Jean Racine and William Shakespeare--as providing stark insight into the grief and joy of human existence. Then, delving into the works of John Keats, Henrik Ibsen, Samuel Beckett, and many more, Steiner demonstrates how the tragic voice has greatly diminished in modern theater, and what we have lost in the process.