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Death, The One and the Art of Theatre
by Howard BarkerDeath, The One and the Art of Theatre is the latest collection of Barkers distinctive and revelatory philosophical musings on theatre. It is a stunning array of speculations, deductions, prose poems and poetic aperçus that casts a unique and unflinching light on the nature of tragedy, eroticism, love and theatre. Exploring the juncture between aesthetics and metaphysics, the book looks at the human experience of love and death as life at its most intrinsically theatrical. Howard Barker is an internationally renowned playwright whose works are regularly produced throughout Europe and the US. He is widely known for his controversial explorations into contemporary tragedy and his anti-Brechtian focus on the irrational and the catastrophic. He is often credited as a major influence on the generation of playwrights that includes Sarah Kane. Death, The One and the Art of the Theatre is a profoundly unsettling and inspiring piece of writing and extends the challenge to orthodox morality that Barker first presented in Arguments for a Theatre, a challenge he describes as men and womens secret longing for the incomprehensible nature of pain.
Death Takes a Holiday
by Alberto CassellaDrama / Casting: 7m, 6f / Scenery: Interior Produced with great success on Broadway, this striking drama has established itself among the important plays of our time. It is based on the poetic conception of death suspending all activities for three days during which he falls in love with a beautiful girl and through her realizes why mortals fear him. The mood of the play is established with remarkable skill and while it is charged with exciting moments, it is a perfect background for a love story that is as simple as it is appealing. The character who symbolizes Death is a very human person, with no conventional claptrap dragged in for mere effect. Here is a play that stimulates discussion and presents a novel and optimistic philosophy of the problems of love and death. This is one of the most popular and successful plays for amateurs.
debbie tucker green: Critical Perspectives
by Siân Adiseshiah Jacqueline BoltonThis long-awaited book is the first full-length study of the work of the extraordinary contemporary black British playwright, debbie tucker green. Covering the period from 2000 (Two Women) to 2017 (a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun)), it offers scholars and students the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge critical debate engendered by tucker green’s innovative dramatic works for stage, television, and radio. This groundbreaking book includes contributions by a range of outstanding scholars, including black playwriting specialists, world-leading contemporary theatre scholars and some of the very best emerging researchers in the field. While always focused on the precision and detail of tucker green’s work, this book simultaneously reframes broader debates around contemporary drama and its politics, poses new questions of theatre, and provokes scholarly thinking in ways that, however obliquely, contribute to the change for which the plays agitate.
Deborah and Her Sisters: How One Nineteenth-Century Melodrama and a Host of Celebrated Actresses Put Judaism on the World Stage
by Jonathan M. HessBefore Fiddler on the Roof, before The Jazz Singer, there was Deborah, a tear-jerking melodrama about a Jewish woman forsaken by her non-Jewish lover. Within a few years of its 1849 debut in Hamburg, the play was seen on stages across Germany and Austria, as well as throughout Europe, the British Empire, and North America. The German-Jewish elite complained that the playwright, Jewish writer S. H. Mosenthal, had written a drama bearing little authentic Jewish content, while literary critics protested that the play lacked the formal coherence of great tragedy. Yet despite its lackluster critical reception, Deborah became a blockbuster, giving millions of theatergoers the pleasures of sympathizing with an exotic Jewish woman. It spawned adaptations with titles from Leah, the Forsaken to Naomi, the Deserted, burlesques, poems, operas in Italian and Czech, musical selections for voice and piano, a British novel fraudulently marketed in the United States as the original basis for the play, three American silent films, and thousands of souvenir photographs of leading actresses from Adelaide Ristori to Sarah Bernhardt in character as Mosenthal's forsaken Jewess.For a sixty-year period, Deborah and its many offshoots provided audiences with the ultimate feel-good experience of tearful sympathy and liberal universalism. With Deborah and Her Sisters, Jonathan M. Hess offers the first comprehensive history of this transnational phenomenon, focusing on its unique ability to bring Jews and non-Jews together during a period of increasing antisemitism. Paying careful attention to local performances and the dynamics of transnational exchange, Hess asks that we take seriously the feelings this commercially successful drama provoked as it drove its diverse audiences to tears. Following a vast paper trail in theater archives and in the press, Deborah and Her Sisters reconstructs the allure that Jewishness held in nineteenth-century popular culture and explores how the Deborah sensation generated a liberal culture of compassion with Jewish suffering that extended beyond the theater walls.
Deburau: Pierrot, Mime, and Culture (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Edward NyeThis volume analyses the nature of the mime art of Deburau and of the pantomime performances of the Théâtre des Funambules in Paris in the context of Romantic art, literature and socio-political thought. Deburau and the Théâtre des Funambules are characteristic of Romantic art in that they are closely associated with certain aspirations for social reform, even revolution. Deburau was an iconic figure for intellectuals such as George Sand who effectively considered him to be part of the ‘poète-maçon’ movement. Edward Nye examines this fascination as well as the myth which developed from it. With its unique framing in art, literature and politics, this book is a must read for undergraduates and postgraduates in theatre, literary studies, and the Romantic period.
The Débutante
by F. Scott Fitzgerald"Oh, yes, coming out is such a farce nowadays, you know. One really plays around so much before one is seventeen, that it&’s positively anticlimax."
The December Man (L'homme de décembre)
by Colleen MurphyIn the aftermath of the 1989 Montreal Massacre, Benoît and Kathleen do everything they can to help their beloved son cope with his guilt and rage… but Jean's young life becomes unglued. Using humour and the humdrum of everyday life, Murphy intuitively moves backwards in time to the fateful day when Jean, the only ray of hope in this working-class family, escaped the massacre… or thought he did. This searing drama on courage, heroism, and despair explores the long private shadow that public violence casts. Winner of the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama and the 2008 CAA Carol Bolt Award.
Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage
by Carolyn M. DunnDecentered Playwriting investigates new and alternative strategies for dramatic writing that incorporate non-Western, Indigenous, and underrepresented storytelling techniques and traditions while deepening a creative practice that decenters hegemonic methods. A collection of short essays and exercises by leading teaching artists, playwrights, and academics in the fields of playwriting and dramaturgy, this book focuses on reimagining pedagogical techniques by introducing playwrights to new storytelling methods, traditions, and ways of studying, and teaching diverse narratological practices. This is a vital and invaluable book for anyone teaching or studying playwriting, dramatic structure, storytelling at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels, or as part of their own professional practice.
Decisions Decisions
by Fred CarmichaelComedy / 3 m., 1 f. / Bare stage w. 2 set pieces / This funny and bittersweet play catches a moment in the life of Troy Watkins, an indecisive single woman in her thirties who lives alone in New York City. She meets an intriguing stranger in the park, a man who looks like a tramp but obviously is well educated...What has reduced him to his current state? Drugs? Financial difficulties? Crime? As they share thoughts and get to know each other, Troy decides to trust him. Is she right or wrong? The answer lies in a very funny yet poignant conclusion.
Declarations
by Jordan TannahillWinner of the 2017 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best New Canadian PlayWinner of three Dora Mavor Moore AwardsStage Award for Best Performance, 2017 Edinburgh Festival FringeMouthpiece follows one woman, for one day, as she tries to find her voice. Two performers express the inner conflict that exists within a modern woman's head: the push and pull, the past and the present, the progress and the regression. Interweaving a cappella harmony, dissonance, text, and physicality, Mouthpiece is a harrowing, humorous, and heart-wrenching journey into the female psyche.
Decomposition: Post-Disciplinary Performance (Unnatural Acts: Theorizing the Performative)
by Sue-Ellen Case, Philip Brett, and Susan Leigh Foster“A collection of essays in a variety of disciplines that confront oppressed, marginalized, and invisible space . . . an astonishing array of material.” —Theatre Research InternationalThe fluid nature of performance studies and the widening embrace of the idea of performativity have come together in Decomposition to produce a collection that crosses disciplinary lines of academic work. The essays move from the local to the global, from history to sport, from body parts to stage productions, and from race relations to global politics.In the title essay, Elizabeth Wood writes about a basic human relation cast around the question of performance and triangulated by the role that a great performer took within it. Together these essays pursue critical understandings of performance in our postmodern world.Contributors include Philip Brett, Sue-Ellen Case, Susan Leigh Forster, Amelia Jones, Kristine C. Kuramitsu, George Lipsitz, Catherine Lord, Ronald Radano, Timothy D. Taylor, Jeffrey Tobin, Deborah Wong, Elizabeth Wood, and B. J. Wray“Presents interpretive interventions of a more localized, materially and institutionally anchored, and ultimately more specific and powerful nature.” —TDR/The Drama Review
Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, and Madness
by Matt BirkbeckSammy Davis Jr. lived a storied life. Adored by millions over a six-decade-long career, he was considered an entertainment icon and a national treasure. But despite lifetime earnings that topped $50 million, Sammy died in 1990 near bankruptcy. His estate was declared insolvent, and there was no possibility of itever using Sammy's name or likeness again. It was as if Sammy had never existed. Years later his wife, Altovise, a once-vivacious woman and heir to one of the greatest entertainment legacies of the twentieth century, was living in poverty, and with nowhere else to go, she turned to a former federal prosecutor, Albert "Sonny" Murray, to make one last attempt to resolve Sammy's debts, restore his estate, and revive his legacy. For seven years Sonny probed Sammy's life to understand how someone of great notoriety and wealth could have lost everything, and in the process he came to understand Sammy as a man whose complexity makes for a riveting work of celebrity biography as cultural history.Matt Birkbeck's serious work of investigative journalism unveils the extraordinary story of an international celebrity at the center of a confluence of entertainment, politics, and organized crime, and shows how even Sammy's outsized talent couldn't save him from himself.
The Decorator
by Donald ChurchillComedy . Characters: 1 male, 2 female. Interior Set. Marcia returns to her flat to find it has not been painted as she arranged. A part time painter who is filling in for an ill colleague is just beginning the work when the wife of the man with whom Marcia is having an affair arrives to tell all to Marcia's husband. Marcia hires the painter a part time actor to impersonate her husband at the confrontation. Hilarity is piled upon hilarity as the painter, who takes his acting very seriously, portrays the absent husband. The wronged wife decides that the best revenge is to sleep with Marcia's husband an ecstatic experience for them both. When Marcia learns that the painter/actor has slept with her rival, she demands the opportunity to show him what really good sex is. . "Irresistible." London Daily Telegraph. . "This play will leave you rolling in the aisles.... I all but fell from my seat laughing." London Star.
The Decroux Sourcebook
by Franc Chamberlain Thomas LeabhartThe Decroux Sourcebook is the first point of reference for any student of the ‘hidden master’ of twentieth century theatre. This book collates a wealth of key material on Etienne Decroux, including: an English translation of Patrice Pezin’s ‘Imaginary Interview’, in which Decroux discusses mime’s place in the theatre. previously unpublished articles by Decroux from France’s Bibiothèque Nationale. essays from Decroux’s fellow innovators Eugenio Barba and Edward Gordon Craig, explaining the synthesis of theory and practice in his work. Etienne Decroux’s pioneering work in physical theatre is here richly illustrated not only by a library of source material, but also with a gallery of images following his life, work and influences. The Decroux Sourcebook is an ideal companion to Thomas Leabhart’s Etienne Decroux in the Routledge Performance Practitioners series, offering key primary and secondary resources to those conducting research at all levels.
Defiance
by John Patrick Shanley"Defiance is a necessary step in the life of an individual and in the life of a nation."--John Patrick Shanley"As thoughtful and probing as its predecessor, Defiance [is] filled with the provocative questions and bristling dialogue for which Mr. Shanley is known . . . as it wonders about its big, knotty subjects."--Ben Brantley, The New York Times Defiance is the "very rich and satisfying" (The Village Voice) second work in John Patrick Shanley's trilogy that began with Doubt. The play is set in 1971 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where Lt. Col. Morgan Littlefield and his reluctant protégé Capt. Lee King--a young African American officer--clash over issues of race and authority within the Marine Corps, even as the civil rights movement and Vietnam War divide the world outside. In this high-stakes struggle at the top of the ranks, witnessed by the base's inquisitive Chaplain White and Littlefield's irreproachable wife Margaret, Shanley has crafted another timely play exploring issues of power and morality within a hallowed institution. John Patrick Shanley's Doubt won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, and was chosen as best play of the year by over ten news-papers and magazines. His other plays include Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia Sexualis, and Savage Limbo. He has written extensively for TV and film, including Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay.
Deflores and Other Plays
by Don NigroContents: Broadway Macabre Creatures Lurking in the Churchyard Deflores Doctor Faustus Gogol The Irish Girl Kissed in the Rain Wolfsbane
Defying Gravity
by Jane AndersonDrama / Characters: 3 male, 4 femaleScenery: Exterior with set pieces and projections. This free structured look at the 1986 Challenger disaster places the teacher who died with six others as they hurtled into space at the center of an exploration of our need to reach beyond ourselves and dare the universe. Defying Gravity artfully interweaves the past with the present and the lives of participants and bystanders, drawing parallels among painter Claude Monet's artistic quest, the zest of the teacher selected to the first civilian astronaut, the perspectives of her grieving daughter, the aspirations of elderly tourists who drive their Winnebago to Florida to watch the space shot and dream of hotels in space, the guilt felt by a NASA mechanic and his girl friend's fear of heights. . "Flies high in its attempt to describe man's fascination with space and its conquest.... You will certainly not be bored." N.Y. Post. . "[A] clever and uplifting fantasy ... [with] ear catching musings about art, religion and the outer limits of human possibility." N.Y. Times. . "A lovely piece.... It floats gracefully in the big blue yonder of the imagination ... letting Anderson's delicate, tender and human attitude toward her characters come through.... One by one they rise out of their earthbound selves ... to look down on the world from a new perspective." N.Y. Daily News.
Degas in New Orleans
by Rosary Hartel O'NeillCharaters: 3 male, 6 female . One Interior/Exterior Set . A historical drama that explores Edgar Degas' scandalous visit to New Orleans in 1872. Edgar Degas, the French Impressionist painter, is torn between helping his relatives in America and pursuing a career as a painter. Fame and family obligations come to a head when he discovers he is still in love with his sister-in-law, who is now pregnant and blind. As Edgar struggles with his own ethical conundrum, he discovers that his aggressively charming brother has gone through all the family money in an attempt to save his uncle's sugar business.
Deirdre of the Sorrows
by J. M. SyngeDeirdre of the Sorrows is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge, first performed at the Abbey Theatre by the Irish National Theatre Society in 1910
Deleuze and Beckett
by S. E. Wilmer Audronė ŽukauskaitėDeleuze and Beckett is a collection of essays illuminating similarities between the philosophies and practices of Deleuze and Beckett. The contributors include some of the leading Beckett and Deleuze specialists in the world, and their essays address different ideas and concepts of Deleuzian philosophy as well as a wide range of Beckett's oeuvre, including his novels, short stories, stage and television plays, and film work. The book considers Deleuze's interpretation of Beckett's work anddemonstrates that Deleuzian concepts and ideas can be usefully applied to Beckett's texts in order provide a greater understanding of Beckett's characters and their journeys. Deleuze's philosophy helps us to recognize that what has been seen as the private territory of despair, loneliness, and emptiness in Beckett's work masks a world of flow and fluctuation that expresses multiple and heterogeneous possibilities.
A Delicate Balance
by Edward AlbeeEdward Albee. Full Length, Drama . Characters: 2 male, 4 female . Interior Set . This Pulitzer Prize winner enjoyed a stunning Broadway revival in 1996 with George Gizzard, Rosemary Harris and Elaine Stritch. Wealthy middle-aged couple, Agnes and Tobias have their complacency shattered when Harry and Edna, longtime friends appear at their doorstep. Claiming an encroaching, nameless "fear" has forced them from their own home, these neighbors bring a firestorm of doubt, recrimination and ultimately solace, upsetting the "delicate balance" of Agnes and Tobias' household.. Winner of the 1996 Drama Desk and Award, Best Revival. . "Powerful...A beautiful play filled with humor and compassion, and touched with poetry...[with] the stature and eloquence of a classic."-New York Daily News . "A brilliant play."-New York Post . "An evening of theatrical fireworks."-The New York Times
A Delicate Balance
by Edward AlbeeOne of Edward Albee's most celebrated works, A Delicate Balance premiered on Broadway in 1966 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1967, the first of three he has received for his work. The play revolves around wealthy middle-aged couple Agnes and Tobias, who have their complacency shattered when their longtime friends Harry and Edna appear at their doorstep. Claiming an encroaching, nameless "fear" has forced them from their own home, these neighbors bring a firestorm of doubt, recrimination and ultimately solace, upsetting the "delicate balance" of Agnes and Tobias's household. In recent years, A Delicate Balance has enjoyed many and new stunning revivals, running now, including a Broadway production in 1996, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival, and another at the Alameida Theatre in London in 2011.
A Delightful Quarantine
by Mark DunnComedy / 4m, 10f / What would it be like to be confined with people you don’t really know? Strange visitors leave behind a deadly disease that leaves seven separate households unexpectedly quarantined. Seven story lines are deftly balanced as people are forced to confront their personal issues. A heart-warming original comedy/drama about how people react when there’s nowhere else to go.
Dementia, Narrative and Performance: Staging Reality, Reimagining Identities
by Janet GibsonFocusing mainly on case studies from Australia and the United States of America, this book considers how people with dementia represent themselves and are represented in ‘theatre of the real’ productions and care home interventions, assessing the extent to which the ‘right kind’ of dementia story is being affirmed or challenged. It argues that this type of story — one of tragedy, loss of personhood, biomedical deficit, and socio-economic ‘crisis — produces dementia and the people living with it, as much as biology does. It proposes two novel ideas. One is that the ‘gaze’ of theatre and performance offers a reframing of some of the behaviours and actions of people with dementia, through which deficit views can be changed to ones of possibility. The other is that, conversely, dementia offers productive perspectives on ’theatre of the real’. Scanning contemporary critical studies about and practices of ‘theatre of the real’ performances and applied theatre interventions, the book probes what it means when certain ‘theatre of the real’ practices (specifically verbatim and autobiographical) interact with storytellers considered, culturally, to be ‘unreliable narrators’. It also explores whether autobiographical theatre is useful in reinforcing a sense of ‘self’ for those deemed no longer to have one. With a focus on the relationship between stories and selves, the book investigates how selves might be rethought so that they are not contingent on the production of lucid self-narratives, consistent language, and truthful memories.
Democracy in America -- Volume 2
by Alexis De TocquevilleThis anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare's finesse to Oscar Wilde's wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim's Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.