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A Philosophical Autofiction: Dolor's Youth (Performance Philosophy)
by Spencer GolubThis is a book about what becomes of the truth when it succumbs to generational memory loss and to the fictions that intervene to cause and fill the gaps. It is a book about the impossibility of writing an autobiography when there is a prepossessing cultural and familial 'we' interfering with the 'I' and an 'I' that does not know itself as a self, except metastatically — as people and characters it has played but not actually been.A highly original combination of close readings and performative autobiography, this book takes performance philosophy to an alternative next step, by having its ideas read back to it by experience, and through assorted fictions. It is a philosophical thought experiment in uncertainty whose literary, theatrical, and cinematic trappings illustrate and finally become what this uncertainty is, the thought experiment having become the life that was, that came before, and that outlives the 'I am'.
A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare and Other Stories
by Simon Russell BealeSimon Russell Beale is one of Britain's most recognisable and well-loved actors. He has played many roles on stage, film, television and radio - ranging from Winston Churchill to Stalin, George Smiley to King Arthur. But ever since his appearance at school as a glamorous Desdemona, complete with false eyelashes that rendered him half-blind, he has been captivated by Shakespeare. In A Piece of Work, Russell Beale tries to get under the skin of the playwright and find out what interested him. Was Shakespeare an instinctive 'conservative' or, rather, gently subversive? How collaborative was he? Did he add a line to Hamlet in order to accommodate his ageing and increasingly chubby principal actor, Richard Burbage? Did he suffer from insomnia and experience sexual jealousy? Russell Beale describes what it is to approach and live with some of Shakespeare's most famous characters. Some of the actor's inspiration comes from surprising sources. Watching Coronation Street gave him an idea for how Richard III might react on hearing of the death of the two Princes in the Tower; a visit to elderly patients in a local hospital gave him insights into King Lear's descent into madness; and the memory of childhood family holidays led him to a spectacular plunge into an ornamental pool in Much Ado About Nothing.Funny and touching about his family, Russell Beale also writes fascinatingly about some of the supremely creative people he counts as his friends - including Sam Mendes, Nick Hytner, Stephen Sondheim and Lauren Bacall. A Piece of Work is a brilliant account of an actor's life and work - and his relationship with our foremost dramatist.
A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare and Other Stories
by Simon Russell BealeSimon Russell Beale is one of Britain's most recognisable and well-loved actors. He has played many roles on stage, film, television and radio - ranging from Winston Churchill to Stalin, George Smiley to King Arthur. But ever since his appearance at school as a glamorous Desdemona, complete with false eyelashes that rendered him half-blind, he has been captivated by Shakespeare. In A Piece of Work, Russell Beale tries to get under the skin of the playwright and find out what interested him. Was Shakespeare an instinctive 'conservative' or, rather, gently subversive? How collaborative was he? Did he add a line to Hamlet in order to accommodate his ageing and increasingly chubby principal actor, Richard Burbage? Did he suffer from insomnia and experience sexual jealousy? Russell Beale describes what it is to approach and live with some of Shakespeare's most famous characters. Some of the actor's inspiration comes from surprising sources. Watching Coronation Street gave him an idea for how Richard III might react on hearing of the death of the two Princes in the Tower; a visit to elderly patients in a local hospital gave him insights into King Lear's descent into madness; and the memory of childhood family holidays led him to a spectacular plunge into an ornamental pool in Much Ado About Nothing.Funny and touching about his family, Russell Beale also writes fascinatingly about some of the supremely creative people he counts as his friends - including Sam Mendes, Nick Hytner, Stephen Sondheim and Lauren Bacall. A Piece of Work is a brilliant account of an actor's life and work - and his relationship with our foremost dramatist.
A Place for Us: “West Side Story” and New York
by Julia L. FoulkesFrom its Broadway debut to the Oscar-winning film to countless amateur productions, West Side Story is nothing less than an American touchstone--an updating of Shakespeare vividly realized in a rapidly changing postwar New York. That vision of postwar New York is at the heart of Julia L. Foulkes's A Place for Us. A lifelong fan of the show, Foulkes became interested in its history when she made an unexpected discovery: scenes for the iconic film version were shot on the demolition site destined to become part of the Lincoln Center redevelopment area--a crowning jewel of postwar urban renewal. Foulkes interweaves the story of the creation of the musical and film with the remaking of the Upper West Side and the larger tale of New York's postwar aspirations. Making unprecedented use of director and choreographer Jerome Robbins's revelatory papers, she shows the crucial role played by the political commitments of Robbins and his fellow gay, Jewish collaborators, Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Laurents. Their determination to evoke life in New York as it was actually lived helped give West Side Story its unshakable sense of place even as it put forward a vision of a new, vigorous, determinedly multicultural American city. Beautifully written and full of surprises for even the most dedicated West Side Story fan, A Place for Us is a revelatory new exploration of an American classic.
A Play of Dux Moraud (A Joliffe Mystery #2)
by Margaret FrazerPerforming at the wedding of Sir Edmund Deneby's daughter, the player Joliffe has another task to perform--as a spy. <P><P>As he uncovers the secrets of the Denebys' sordid history, it becomes clear that this wedding celebration is destined to end in tragedy.
A Player and a Gentleman: The Diary of Harry Watkins, Nineteenth-Century U.S. American Actor
by Amy E Hughes Naomi J StubbsHardworking actor, playwright, and stage manager Harry Watkins (1825–94) was also a prolific diarist. For fifteen years Watkins regularly recorded the plays he saw, the roles he performed, the books he read, and his impressions of current events. Performing across the U.S., Watkins collaborated with preeminent performers and producers, recording his successes and failures as well as his encounters with celebrities such as P. T. Barnum, Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Forrest, Anna Cora Mowatt, and Lucy Stone. His is the only known diary of substantial length and scope written by a U.S. actor before the Civil War—making Watkins, essentially, the antebellum equivalent of Samuel Pepys. Theater historians Amy E. Hughes and Naomi J. Stubbs have selected, edited, and annotated excerpts from the diary in an edition that offers a vivid glimpse of how ordinary people like Watkins lived, loved, struggled, and triumphed during one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S. history. The selections in A Player and a Gentleman are drawn from a more expansive digital archive of the complete diary. The book, like its digital counterpart, will richly enhance our knowledge of antebellum theater culture and daily life in the U.S. during this period.
A Poetics of Third Theatre: Performer Training, Dramaturgy, Cultural Action (Perspectives on Performer Training)
by Patrick Campbell Jane TurnerA Poetics of Third Theatre offers an in-depth, critical analysis of Third Theatre, a transnational community of theatre groups and artists united by a shared set of values and a laboratory attitude. This book takes a genealogical account of Third Theatre as a concept and a practice that draws attention to the historical Third Theatre Encounters that have taken place across Europe and Latin America since the 1970s. The work of renowned Third Theatre groups and organisations, such as LUME (Brazil), Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani (Peru), Triangle Theatre (UK) and Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium – NTL (Denmark), are explored to reveal how a multifarious poetics of Third Theatre is manifest through these artists’ approaches to performer training, dramaturgy and cultural action. Three critical pillars – unconditional hospitality, artisanal craft and (re)enchantment – are employed in order to illuminate the shared ethos of the Third Theatre community and its exemplification as a mode of cultural performance. This informative text will be of great use to students and scholars of drama and theatre studies, and its dedicated section on performer training exercises offers the reader pathways into an experiential engagement with Third Theatre craft.
A Point of Order
by Ed SimpsonComedy / 4m, 2f / Interior / Ever since the leading employer left for sunny Georgia, times have been tough in Randolphsburgh, PA. the nation's leading importer of overcast. Hoping to create a media event that will turn things around, a committee is organizing the dedication of a statue of the town's only famous citizen, short, bald space shuttle astronaut Dr. Dick Davidson. With three weeks remaining before the gala event, the flirtatious former cheerleader, the avid gardener and school band director, the hypochondriacal shoe salesman, the cynical art history professor and the timid, pistol packing storekeeper are finding that everything that can go wrong has. Facing certain embarrassment, probable financial liability and possible legal action, the committee reluctantly turns to Randolphsburg's most hated citizen a vindictive millionaire. Rave reviews greet this wacky delight by the author of The Battle of Shallowford and The Comet of St. Loomis .
A Practical Guide to Greener Theatre: Introduce Sustainability Into Your Productions
by Ellen E. JonesProtecting the environment should be a priority of every theatrical production, but it can be challenging to mount an environmentally-friendly show with limited time, resources, and information. A Practical Guide to Greener Theatre: Introduce Sustainability Into Your Productions not only gives you the information you need to make greener decisions, but provides you with practical, workable solutions. You will learn how to assess and improve every production area – from costuming and painting, lighting and technical direction, to administrative offices and the rehearsal process. Checklists, examples of successful strategies, and step-by-step instructions will show you how to identify areas where manageable, sustainable changes can make your productions greener, and advice from working professionals, with experience greening their own productions, will leave you confident that your processes are environmentally sound. Even non-technical people who find themselves responsible for supervising productions will find green solutions that can be instituted with a staff of volunteers or students. Remember: every step toward sustainability is a step forward. Discover small fixes that will make your theatre productions greener. Examine ways to introduce greener practices in the design, execution, and strike process. Explore how introducing sustainability into your theatre productions can save your company time and money. Learn how sustainability and safety intersect to help protect your workers and volunteers.
A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting
by Steven Louis ShelleyIn the first edition of A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting, Steve Shelley cracked open his production book and showed how to prepare a lighting design and create the paperwork needed to mount a production.In the second edition, he pulled back the curtain and showed the methods and processes that go on before the light plot is finalized and ready to go to into the shop, even dealing with cutting the plot in half.In this third edition, Shelley throws the door wide open and shows step-by-step how to construct every lighting system in the Hokey light plot. Combining his diacritical analysis, killer drafting, and analytic use of the Slinky Method and Slinky Calculations, he presents the Periodic Table of Fundamental Lighting Systems and shows the basic methods used to create multi-instrument lighting systems. Highlights include:-Over 100 new topics, including analysis and application of the three categories of collaboration; a detailed examination of production meetings and one-on-one meetings; and meeting checklists with management and the creative team.-Over 50 new illustrations, including Shelley's Periodic Table of Fundamental Lighting Systems; groundplans, sections, and front elevations that illustrate basic system wash configurations for each direction of light. -Analysis, calculation, and step-by-step technical construction of each lighting system in the Hokey light plot.-Explanation of a manufacturer's cut sheet, and how to apply basic formulas to determine the beam size, footcandles, and gel transmission for lighting instruments.-Updated process of pre-programming computer lighting consoles prior to the load-in.-Comprehensive overview of archiving paperwork and softcopy for a production.
A Practical Handbook for the Actor
by Melissa Bruder6 working actors describe their methods and philosophies of the theater. All have worked with playwright David Mamet at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.From the Trade Paperback edition.
A Preface to Marlowe (Preface Books)
by Stevie SimkinThis study provides an authoritative overview of all Marlowe's work. It includes thorough investigations of his major plays, Tamburlaine, Edward II, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus as well as a full discussion of The Massacre at Paris, Dido Queen of Carthage and all his extant poetry. Analysis of Faustus takes full account of both A and B text versions. Thoroughly researched and yet presented in an accessible, engaging style, A Preface to Marlowe reads Marlowe's life and times, as well as his work, in the light of current critical theory. Consequently, it is a vital guide for all students of early modern drama. As well as providing sharp analysis of stage history, Dr Simkin reflects on the wider significance of a stage-oriented approach. The result is a reading of Marlowe that re-opens debates about his status as a radical figure and as a subversive playwright and invites the reader to experience the plays as immediate, exciting, 'live' documents.
A Preface to Marlowe (Preface Books)
by Stevie SimkinThis study provides an authoritative overview of all Marlowe's work. It includes thorough investigations of his major plays, Tamburlaine, Edward II, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus as well as a full discussion of The Massacre at Paris, Dido Queen of Carthage and all his extant poetry. Analysis of Faustus takes full account of both A and B text versions. Thoroughly researched and yet presented in an accessible, engaging style, A Preface to Marlowe reads Marlowe's life and times, as well as his work, in the light of current critical theory. Consequently, it is a vital guide for all students of early modern drama. As well as providing sharp analysis of stage history, Dr Simkin reflects on the wider significance of a stage-oriented approach. The result is a reading of Marlowe that re-opens debates about his status as a radical figure and as a subversive playwright and invites the reader to experience the plays as immediate, exciting, 'live' documents.
A Preface to Shakespeare's Comedies (Preface Books)
by Michael ManganThis is an informative and interesting guide to the comedies of love - The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like it and Twelfth Night - which were written in the early part of Shakespeare's career. As well as supplying dramatic and critical analysis, this study sets the plays within their wider social and artistic context.Michael Mangan begins by considering the social function of laughter, the use of humour in drama for handling social tensions in Elizabethan and Jacobean society and the resulting expectations the audience would have had about comedy in the theatre. In the second section he discusses the individual plays in the light of recent critical and theoretical research. The useful reference section at the end gives the reader a short bibliographic guide to key historical figures relevant to a study of Shakespeare's comedies and a detailed critical bibliography.
A Preface to Shakespeare's Comedies (Preface Books)
by Michael ManganThis is an informative and interesting guide to the comedies of love - The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like it and Twelfth Night - which were written in the early part of Shakespeare's career. As well as supplying dramatic and critical analysis, this study sets the plays within their wider social and artistic context.Michael Mangan begins by considering the social function of laughter, the use of humour in drama for handling social tensions in Elizabethan and Jacobean society and the resulting expectations the audience would have had about comedy in the theatre. In the second section he discusses the individual plays in the light of recent critical and theoretical research. The useful reference section at the end gives the reader a short bibliographic guide to key historical figures relevant to a study of Shakespeare's comedies and a detailed critical bibliography.
A Preface to Shakespeare's Tragedies (Preface Books)
by Michael ManganThis book is a study of four of Shakespeare's major tragedies - "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear" and "Macbeth". It looks at these plays in a variety of contexts - both in isolation and in relation to each other and to the cultural, ideological, social and political contexts which produced them.
A Prelude to a Kiss and Other Plays
by Craig LucasThis collection brings back into print one of Craig Lucas' best known and enduring works, A Prelude to a Kiss, which was both a hit on Broadway and a popular motion picture. Frank Rich in The New York Times wrote about Prelude, "It is rare to find a play so suffused with sorrow that sends one home so high." Also included are Missing Persons, "a truly intelligent play, one that is literary and heartfelt, beautifully written...a well-crafted, moving story, a dramatic rarity in these or any times "(New York Post), and Three Postcards, an offbeat and uniquely imaginative free form musical play.Craig Lucas is also the author of Reckless and Blue Window and What I Mean Was. He lives in Putnam Valley, New York.
A Queer History of the Ballet
by Peter StoneleyDesigned for students, scholars and general readers with an interest in dance and queer history, A Queer History of the Ballet focuses on how, as makers and as audiences, queer men and women have helped to develop many of the texts, images, and legends of ballet. Presenting a series of historical case studies, the book explores the ways in which, from the nineteenth century into the twentieth, ballet has been a means of conjuring homosexuality – of enabling some degree of expression and visibility for people who were otherwise declared illegal and obscene. Studies include: the perverse sororities of the Romantic ballet the fairy in folklore, literature, and ballet Tchaikovsky and the making of Swan Lake Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the emergence of queer modernity the formation of ballet in America the queer uses of the prima ballerina Genet’s writings for and about ballet. Also including a consideration of how ballet’s queer tradition has been memorialized by such contemporary dance-makers as Neumeier, Bausch, Bourne, and Preljocaj, this is an essential book in the study of ballet and queer history.
A Question of Mercy: A Play Based on the Essay by Richard Selzer (Books That Changed the World)
by David RabeThe Tony Award–winning playwright of Hurlyburly &“confronts the timely topic of assisted suicide . . . an affirmation of dignity that rings clear and true&” (Variety). David Rabe is one of America&’s finest dramatists. In A Question of Mercy, he explores the controversial and emotional issue of euthanasia, delving deep into the ties that bind friends and lovers. Thomas and Anthony are lovers struggling with Anthony&’s final, exhausting battle with AIDS. Joined by their friend Susanah and a retired doctor, whose help Thomas has requested, they fashion a heartbreaking friendship as they work through the stages of a plan to relieve Anthony of his illness and his life. Rabe creates a passionate depiction of four people confronted with the reality of a loved one&’s fight with death and a compelling dramatic event that poses the question: &“What would you do?&” &“A moving and enlightening experience.&” —Backstage &“Completely gripping. This life and death tale questions the moral implications involved with assisted suicide, and the honor behind the action. A serious and provocative night at the theatre.&” —Theasy Praise for David Rabe &“Few contemporary dramatists have dealt with violence, physical and psychological, more impressively than Rabe.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“A remarkable storyteller.&” —Chicago Tribune &“Rabe&’s mastery of dialogue is the equal of Pinter and Mamet put together . . . full of a measured Mafia formality played against Jacobean terrors, blood lust, horror and revenge raised to an unlikely poetry dazed by equally unlikely insights.&” —The Boston Globe
A Quintet of Shakespeare Tragedies
by William ShakespeareMurder, Mayhem, and Madness-- Collected here are five of William Shakespeare's greatest tragedies Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear. These are the plays that made Shakespeare's reputation. Murder, deceit, treachery, and madness play out on the grand stage. Stories for the ages! Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry"Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever. The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun.""The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times. "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic." This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff. [This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 11-12 at http://www.corestandards.org.]
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine HansberryNever before, in the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of Black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. This edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff. Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of Black America--and changed American theater forever. The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun." "The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times. It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic.
A Rasa Reader: Classical Indian Aesthetics (Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought)
by Sheldon PollockFrom the early years of the Common Era to 1700, Indian intellectuals explored with unparalleled subtlety the place of emotion in art. Their investigations led to the deconstruction of art's formal structures and broader inquiries into the pleasure of tragic tales. Rasa, or taste, was the word they chose to describe art's aesthetics, and their passionate effort to pin down these phenomena became its own remarkable act of creation.This book is the first in any language to follow the evolution of rasa from its origins in dramaturgical thought—a concept for the stage—to its flourishing in literary thought—a concept for the page. A Rasa Reader incorporates primary texts by every significant thinker on classical Indian aesthetics, many never translated before. The arrangement of the selections captures the intellectual dynamism that has powered this debate for centuries. Headnotes explain the meaning and significance of each text, a comprehensive introduction summarizes major threads in intellectual-historical terms, and critical endnotes and an extensive bibliography add further depth to the selections. The Sanskrit theory of emotion in art is one of the most sophisticated in the ancient world, a precursor of the work being done today by critics and philosophers of aesthetics. A Rasa Reader's conceptual detail, historical precision, and clarity will appeal to any scholar interested in a full portrait of global intellectual development. A Rasa Reader is the inaugural book in the Historical Sourcebooks in Classical Indian Thought series, edited by Sheldon Pollock. These text-based books guide readers through the most important forms of classical Indian thought, from epistemology, rhetoric, and hermeneutics to astral science, yoga, and medicine. Each volume provides fresh translations of key works, headnotes to contextualize selections, a comprehensive analysis of major lines of development within the discipline, and exegetical and text-critical endnotes, as well as a bibliography. Designed for comparativists and interested general readers, Historical Sourcebooks is also a great resource for advanced scholars seeking authoritative commentary on challenging works.
A Reason for Being: A Second Chance Romance
by Penny JordanRead this classic romance by New York Times bestselling author Penny Jordan, now available for the first time in e-book!Return of the runawayTen years ago teenage Maggie fled her home, driven away by her step-cousin Marcus Landersby’s cruel rejection after her foolish advances backfired.Now Maggie returns, reluctantly drawn back by an urgent letter from Marcus’s half-sisters who desperately need her help. She’s unsure proud tycoon Marcus will tolerate her presence. But even if he does, can Maggie live side by side with a man who inspires such an inconvenient longing?Originally published in 1989
A Reckless Desire: Breconridge Brothers Book 3 (Breconridge Brothers)
by Isabella BradfordFor fans of Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Sarah MacLean, comes Isabella Bradford's enthralling new trilogy of London's most scandalous rakes, the Breconridge Brothers, who are about to lose their hearts...Though charming and handsome, Lord Rivers Fitzroy, the youngest Breconridge brother, is more inclined to dusty books than brazen women. But when his father insists he marries, he vows to make the most of his last days as a bachelor.And what better way than in the company of a troupe of Italian dancers, where he's challenged to a wager he can't resist: turn the players' meek and mousy cousin into the first lady of the London stage.But he gets more than he bargained for with Lucia di Rossi. She has her own past to overcome and her own starlit aspirations. As the lines between performance and passion become blurred will finding the spotlight mean losing their hearts?Catch the rest of the dazzling series! Don't miss A Wicked Pursuit and A Sinful Decption. Before the Breconridge Brothers, came the Wylder sisters. Don't miss a moment of the romantic and captivating debut trilogy from Isabella Bradford: When You Wish Upon a Duke, When The Duchess Said Yes and When The Duke Found Love.