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The Melodramatic Moment: Music and Theatrical Culture, 1790–1820
by Katherine Hambridge Jonathan HicksWe seem to see melodrama everywhere we look—from the soliloquies of devastation in a Dickens novel to the abject monstrosity of Frankenstein’s creation, and from Louise Brooks’s exaggerated acting in Pandora’s Box to the vicissitudes endlessly reshaping the life of a brooding Don Draper. This anthology proposes to address the sometimes bewilderingly broad understandings of melodrama by insisting on the historical specificity of its genesis on the stage in late-eighteenth-century Europe. Melodrama emerged during this time in the metropolitan centers of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin through stage adaptations of classical subjects and gothic novels, and they became famous for their use of passionate expression and spectacular scenery. Yet, as contributors to this volume emphasize, early melodramas also placed sound at center stage, through their distinctive—and often disconcerting—alternations between speech and music. This book draws out the melo of melodrama, showing the crucial dimensions of sound and music for a genre that permeates our dramatic, literary, and cinematic sensibilities today. A richly interdisciplinary anthology, The Melodramatic Moment will open up new dialogues between musicology and literary and theater studies.
The Melodramatic Thread: Spectacle and Political Culture in Modern France (Interdisciplinary Studies in History)
by James R. Lehning“This ambitious undertaking is concerned with the melodramatic form in theatre and film and its impact on French political culture.” —H-France ReviewIn France, both political culture and theatrical performances have drawn upon melodrama. This “melodramatic thread” helped weave the country’s political life as it moved from monarchy to democracy. By examining the relationship between public ceremonies and theatrical performance, James R. Lehning sheds light on democratization in modern France. He explores the extent to which the dramatic forms were present in the public performance of political power. By concentrating on the Republic and the Revolution and on theatrical performance, Lehning affirms the importance of examining the performative aspects of French political culture for understanding the political differences that have marked France in the years since 1789.“In this thoroughly researched and persuasive book, Lehning provides a fascinating reading of public performances in modern France . . . This is an important contribution to the study of French culture and the democratization process . . . Essential.” —Choice“Lehning’s application of the themes of melodrama to French political culture offers new insights into French history. His style is lively, clear, and highly readable.” —Venita Datta, Wellesley College“The analyses in this book make a real contribution to debates about the ways in which art, particularly popular art, and politics interact; how politics itself is theatrical in the French case; and the role of ritual in politics and the function of politics as ritual and ceremony.” —John Gaffney, Aston University
The Melville Boys
by Norm FosterA relaxing weekend trip full of fishing, football, and beer is on the agenda for the Melville brothers. Unfortunately, so is confronting eldest brother Lee's terminal illness. But weekend plans are suddenly thrown for a loop when the boys meet two attractive sisters, who inadvertently change more than just their agenda. In this modern Canadian classic, Norm Foster offers a lighthearted comedy full of vigour about brotherhood and the unexpected.
The Member of the Wedding: A Play
by Carlos Dews Carson McCullers<p>Celebrated worldwide for her masterly novels, Carson McCullers was equally accomplished, and equally moving, when writing in other forms. <p>The play The Member of the Wedding (1950), adapted from her 1946 novel at the urging of her close friend Tennessee Williams is, like Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, a great American poem for the stage. <p>At its center is tomboy Frankie Addams, a motherless adolescent neglected by her father and utterly bored with life in small-town Georgia until romantic longing is ignited by her older brother’s wedding. A hit on Broadway, running for more than five hundred performances, it won the Drama Critics’ Circle Award and soon inspired a film.
Members of His Body: Shakespeare, Paul, and a Theology of Nonmonogamy
by Will StocktonBuilding on scholarship regarding both biblical and early modern sexualities, Members of His Body protests the Christian defense of marital monogamy. According to the Paul who authors 1 Corinthians, believers would do well to remain single and focus instead on the messiah’s return. According to the Paul who authors Ephesians, plural marriage is the telos of Christian community. Turning to Shakespeare, Will Stockton shows how marriage functions in The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and The Winter’s Tale as a contested vehicle of Christian embodiment. Juxtaposing the marital theologies of the different Pauls and their later interpreters, Stockton reveals how these plays explore the racial, religious, and gender criteria for marital membership in the body of Christ. These plays further suggest that marital jealousy and paranoia about adultery result in part from a Christian theology of shared embodiment: the communion of believers in Christ.In the wake of recent arguments that expanding marriage rights to gay people will open the door to the cultural acceptance and legalization of plural marriage, Members of His Body reminds us that much Christian theology already looks forward to this end.
Memorialising Shakespeare: Commemoration and Collective Identity, 1916–2016 (Palgrave Shakespeare Studies)
by Edmund G. C. King Monika SmialkowskaThis book is the first comprehensive account of global Shakespeare commemoration in the period between 1916 and 2016. Combining historical analysis with insights into current practice, Memorialising Shakespeare covers Shakespeare commemoration in China, Ukraine, Egypt, and France, as well as Great Britain and the United States. Chapter authors discuss a broad range of commemorative activities—from pageants, dance, dramatic performances, and sculpture, to conferences, exhibitions, and more private acts of engagement, such as reading and diary writing. Themes covered include Shakespeare’s role in the formation of cultural memory and national and global identities, as well as Shakespeare’s relationship to decolonisation and race. A significant feature of the book is the inclusion of chapters from organisers of recent Shakespeare commemoration events, reflecting on their own practice. Together, the chapters in Memorialising Shakespeare show what has been at stake when communities, identity groups, and institutions have come together to commemorate Shakespeare.
Memories Of The Revolution: The First Ten Years Of The Wow Café Theater
by Holly Hughes Carmelita Tropicana Jill DolanThe women's experimental theater space called the WOW Café (Women's One World) has been a vital part of New York's downtown theater scene since 1980. Since that time, WOW has provided a place for feminist and particularly lesbian theater artists to create, perform, and witness a cultural revolution. Its renowned alumnae include playwright and actor Lisa Kron, performance artists Holly Hughes and Carmelita Tropicana, the theater troupe the Five Lesbian Brothers, and actors/playwrights Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, and Deb Margolin, among others. Memories of the Revolution collects scripts, interviews, and commentary to trace the riotous first decade of WOW. While the histories of other experimental theater collectives have been well documented, WOW's history has only begun to be told. The anthology also includes photographs of and reminiscences by Café veterans, capturing the history and artistic flowering of the first ten years of this countercultural haven.
Memory: Shaping Connections in the Arts Therapies
by Richard Hougham Sarah Scoble Marián CaoMemory is compilation of scholarly chapters by authors of global reputation in the arts therapies.This international publication reflects the theme of the 16th International Conference of the European Consortium for Arts Therapies (ECArTE), held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Questions of memory go to the very heart of our making sense of the world. This book brings together wide-ranging chapters, which address the question of memory, designed to stimulate understanding and debate in contemporary arts therapy education, practice and research.Writers from Canada, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Lebanon, Lithuania, Spain, the UK and the US combine to create a topical publication, incorporating diverse and current thinking in art therapy, dance movement therapy, dramatherapy and music therapy. In this innovative compilation, authors offer different cultural perspectives on the conception of memory which informs epistemology across the field of arts therapy.This book will be of interest and relevance to those in the arts therapy community and to a broader readership, including students and professionals in the disciplines of psychology, sociology, psychotherapy, the arts, medicine, integrated health and education.
Memory, Allegory, and Testimony in South American Theater: Upstaging Dictatorship (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies #Vol. 8)
by Ana Elena PugaMemory, Allegory, and Testimony in South American Theater traces the shaping of a resistant identity in memory, its direct expression in testimony, and its indirect elaboration in two different kinds of allegory. Each chapter focuses on one contemporary playwright (or one collaborative team, in the case of Brazil) from each of four Southern Cone countries and compares the playwrights’ aesthetic strategies for subverting ideologies of dictatorship: Carlos Manuel Varela (memory in Uruguay), Juan Radrigán (testimony in Chile), Augusto Boal and his co-author Gianfrancesco Guarnieri (historical allegory in Brazil), Griselda Gambaro (abstract allegory in Argentina).
Memory in Shakespeare's Histories: Stages of Forgetting in Early Modern England (Routledge Studies in Shakespeare)
by Jonathan BaldoA distinguishing feature of Shakespeare’s later histories is the prominent role he assigns to the need to forget. This book explore the ways in which Shakespeare expanded the role of forgetting in histories from King John to Henry V, as England contended with what were perceived to be traumatic breaks in its history and in the fashioning of a sense of nationhood. For plays ostensibly designed to recover the past and make it available to the present, they devote remarkable attention to the ways in which states and individuals alike passively neglect or actively suppress the past and rewrite history. Two broad and related historical developments caused remembering and forgetting to occupy increasingly prominent and equivocal positions in Shakespeare’s history plays: an emergent nationalism and the Protestant Reformation. A growth in England’s sense of national identity, constructed largely in opposition to international Catholicism, caused historical memory to appear a threat as well as a support to the sense of unity. The Reformation caused many Elizabethans to experience a rupture between their present and their Catholic past, a condition that is reflected repeatedly in the history plays, where the desire to forget becomes implicated with traumatic loss. Both of these historical shifts resulted in considerable fluidity and uncertainty in the values attached to historical memory and forgetting. Shakespeare’s histories, in short, become increasingly equivocal about the value of their own acts of recovery and recollection.
The Memory Marketplace: Witnessing Pain in Contemporary Irish and International Theatre (Irish Culture, Memory, Place)
by Emilie PineWhat happens when cultural memory becomes a commodity? Who owns the memory? In The Memory Marketplace, Emilie Pine explores how memory is performed both in Ireland and abroad by considering the significant body of contemporary Irish theatre that contends with its own culture and history. Analyzing examples from this realm of theatre, Pine focuses on the idea of witnesses, both as performers on stage and as members of the audience. Whose memories are observed in these transactions, and how and why do performances prioritize some memories over others? What does it mean to create, rehearse, perform, and purchase the theatricalization of memory? The Memory Marketplace shows this transaction to be particularly fraught in the theatricalization of traumatic moments of cultural upheaval, such as the child sexual abuse scandal in Ireland. In these performances, the role of empathy becomes key within the marketplace dynamic, and Pine argues that this empathy shapes the kinds of witnesses created. The complexities and nuances of this exchange—subject and witness, spectator and performer, consumer and commodified—provide a deeper understanding of the crucial role theatre plays in shaping public understanding of trauma, memory, and history.
Memos from a Theatre Lab: Exploring what immersive theatre 'does' (Series In Performing Arts Ser.)
by Nandita DineshWhat does Immersive Theatre ‘do’? By contrasting two specific performances on the same theme – one an ‘immersive’ experience and the other a more conventional theatrical production – Nandita Dinesh explores the ways in which theatrical form impacts upon actors and audiences. An in-depth case study of her work Pinjare (Cages) sets out the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of her specific aesthetic framework. Memos from a Theatre Lab places Dinesh’s practical work within the context of existing analyses of Immersive Theatre, using this investigation to generate an underpinning theory of how Immersive Theatre works for its participants.
Memphis Movie Theatres
by Vincent AstorMemphis has always been a theatrical town--a crossroads in the center of America for entertainment as well as commerce. Movies are among the many things that travel through the city, both for distribution and exhibition. Thousands of people who have lived here or just passed through, especially during and after World War II, found their way to the movie theatres. From the vaudeville palaces on Main Street to the nickelodeons on Beale Street, these theatres helped shape the culture of the city. Kemmons Wilson operated movie houses before he built the first Holiday Inn. Several movie theatres played roles in the life of Elvis Presley. W.C. Handy attended the opening of a theatre named for him. Local censorship practices influenced decisions in Hollywood, and the first multiplex in the region was built in Memphis.
Men in Suits
by Jason MilliganComedy/Drama / 3 m. / Simply suggested sets Charles Durning, Dan Lauria and James Handy starred at Westport Country Playhouse of this portrait of up and coming Mafia soldiers: Bobby who does as he's told and never questions the legendary Boss and Max who is haunted by the screams of people they've killed. They whack the wrong guy in Grand Central Station and are seen driving to Vermont to confess their error. Short scenes chronicle the drive; settings en route are easily suggested with set pieces. "You're gonna love Men in Suits." CRN Radio "Hilarious.... Milligan's dialogue is at turns funny, biting, and sad." - Fairfield Country Weekly "Races by in an ever changing montage of emotional loyalty, humor, betrayal, and blood.... A fascinating play." - Connecticut Post "Should go to Broadway." - Westport News Published with Any Friend of Percy D'Angelino Is a Friend of Mine and Family Values in Men in Suits: Three Plays About the Mafia.
The Men in White
by Anosh IraniA finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Drama, The Men in White explores urgent themes surrounding the complexities of the modern immigrant experience, Islamophobia, and the unifying power of sport — the masterful playwright and novelist Anosh Irani at his finest.Eighteen-year-old Hasan Siddiqui lives in a bustling Muslim quarter of Bombay. He escapes the drudgery of his work at a chicken slaughterhouse by fostering two fervent dreams — to become a star in cricket, a sport at which he happens to excel, and to win the affections of Haseena, a fiercely intelligent young woman two years his junior. Half a world away in Vancouver, Hasan’s older brother, Abdul, has been working under the table at an Indian restaurant, attempting to set down roots with the hope of one day reuniting with his brother. For Abdul the immigrant dream shows little sign of materializing, but he finds solace in his amateur cricket team. When he and the team’s captain decide to take action to end their losing streak, they talk of recruiting the talented Hasan for the rest of the season. But bringing Hasan from India to Canada will take much more than just a plane ticket, and rising tensions demonstrate that not all members of the team agree with the high cost.
Menaechmi: The Menaechmus Brothers
by David Christenson PlautusThe play Menaechmi provides an introduction to the world of Roman comedy from one of its best practitioners, Plautus. As with all Focus translations, the emphasis is on an inexpensive, readable edition that is close to the original, with an extensive introduction, notes and appendices.
Menander in Antiquity
by Sebastiana NervegnaThe comic playwright Menander was one of the most popular writers throughout antiquity. This book reconstructs his life and the legacy of his work until the end of antiquity employing a broad range of sources such as portraits, illustrations of his plays, papyri preserving their texts and inscriptions recording their public performances. These are placed within the context of the three social and cultural institutions which appropriated his comedy, thereby ensuring its survival: public theatres, dinner parties and schools. Dr Nervegna carefully reconstructs how each context approached Menander's drama and how it contributed to its popularity over the centuries. The resultant, highly illustrated, book will be essential for all scholars and students not just of Menander's comedy but, more broadly, of the history and iconography of the ancient theatre, ancient social history and reception studies.
Menander in Contexts: Menander In Contexts (Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies #16)
by Alan H. SommersteinThe comedies of the Athenian dramatist Menander (c. 342-291 BC) and his contemporaries were the ultimate source of a Western tradition of light drama that has continued to the present day. Yet for over a millennium, Menander’s own plays were thought to have been completely lost. Thanks to a long and continuing series of papyrus discoveries, Menander has now been able to take his place among the major surviving ancient Greek dramatists alongside Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. In this book, sixteen contributors examine and explore the Menander we know today in light of the various literary, intellectual, and social contexts in which his plays can be viewed. Topics covered include: the society, culture, and politics of his generation; the intellectual currents of the period; the literary precursors who inspired Menander (or whom he expected his audiences to recall); and responses to Menander, from his own time to ours. As the first wide-ranging collective study of Menander in English, this book is essential reading for those interested in ancient comedy the world over.
Menander, New Comedy and the Visual
by Antonis K. PetridesThis book argues that New Comedy has a far richer performance texture than has previously been recognised. Offering close readings of all the major plays of Menander, it shows how intertextuality - the sustained dialogue of New Comedy performance with the diverse ideological, philosophical, literary and theatrical discourses of contemporary polis culture - is crucial in creating semantic depth and thus offsetting the impression that the plots are simplistic love stories with no political or ideological resonances. It also explores how the visual aspect of the plays ('opsis') is just as important as any verbal means of signification - a phenomenon termed 'intervisuality', examining in particular depth the ways in which the mask can infuse various systems of reference into the play. Masks like the panchrēstos neaniskos (the 'all-perfect youth'), for example, are now full of meaning; thus, with their ideologically marked physiognomies, they can be strong instigators of literary and cultural allusion.
Mending Fences
by Norm FosterHarry Sullivan hasn't seen his son Drew in thirteen years, and now Drew is coming to Harry's Saskatchewan ranch for a visit. This poignant comedy tells the story of two men who are too stubborn to give in to feelings of the heart.
Men's Tailoring: Bespoke, Theatrical and Historical Tailoring 1830-1950
by Graham CottendenMen’s Tailoring: Bespoke, Theatrical and Historical Tailoring 1830-1950 introduces the reader to English tailoring and covers the drafting of patterns, cutting out in cloth, and the complete traditional construction techniques in sequence for the tailoring of a waistcoat, trousers and jacket. The book contains: step-by-step instructions, complete with illustrations, for students and costumiers who are new to the making of male tailored garments from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; drafting blocks and construction techniques for the main three styles of nineteenth century male garments: frock coat, morning coat and dress coat; patterns, photographs and detailed measurements taken from a variety of male coats, jackets, waistcoats and trousers from c1830 - c1950 from museums and collections. From choosing the right cloth to preparing for the fitting process, this how-to guide will help readers create beautiful, historically accurate three-piece suits for events and performances.
Merce Cunningham: Creative Elements (Choreography and Dance Studies Series #Vols. 4, Pts. 2.)
by Joan Acocella David Vaughan Gordon Mumma Thecla Schiphorst William Fetterman Elliot Caplan Marilyn Vaughan Drown John Holzaepfel Nelson RiveraMerce Cunningham reached the age of 75 in 1994, an age at which many creative artists are content to rest on their laurels, or at least to leave behind whatever controversies they may have caused during their careers. No so Cunningham. In the first place, his 70s have been a time of intense creativity in which he has choreographed as many as four new works a year. Cunningham is a strongly committed as ever to the discovery of new ways of moving and of making movement, refusing to be hampered by the physical limitations that have come with age. Since 1991 every new work has been made at least in part with the use of the computer program Life Forms, which enables him to devise choreographic phrases that he himself would be unable to perform - and which challenge and develop the virtuosity of the young dancers in his company.The essays collected in this special issue of Choreography and Dance were written over the last few years and discuss various aspects of the work of Cunningham as seen both from the outside and the inside.
Merce Cunningham: The Modernizing of Modern Dance
by Roger CopelandFirst Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
The Merchant of Venice
by A. R. Braunmuller William Shakespeare Stephen Orgel"I feel that I have spent half my career with one or another Pelican Shakespeare in my back pocket. Convenience, however, is the least important aspect of the new Pelican Shakespeare series. Here is an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors, Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller who understand that these are plays for performance as well as great texts for contemplation." (Patrick Stewart) The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare series, which has sold more than four million copies, is now completely revised and repackaged. Each volume features: * Authoritative, reliable texts * High quality introductions and notes * New, more readable trade trim size * An essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare and essays on Shakespeare's life and the selection of texts
The Merchant of Venice: Critical Essays (Shakespeare Criticism #26)
by John W. Mahon Ellen Macleod MahonThis volume is a collection of all-new original essays covering everything from feminist to postcolonial readings of the play as well as source queries and analyses of historical performances of the play. The Merchant of Venice is a collection of seventeen new essays that explore the concepts of anti-Semitism, the work of Christopher Marlowe, the politics of commerce and making the play palatable to a modern audience. The characters, Portia and Shylock, are examined in fascinating detail. With in-depth analyses of the text, the play in performance and individual characters, this book promises to be the essential resource on the play for all Shakespeare enthusiasts.