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The Allegory of the Cave
by PlatoPlato's Allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous pieces of philosophical literature. This edition was translated by Benjamin Jowett and has been completely revised and updated. Proofreader's Note: There are some punctuation errors that were left intact because they were present in the print copy.
The Altos
by David LandauFull Length / Musical Comedy / 4m, 3f / Interior An Interactive Musical Comedy Mystery Spoof of the famous HBO series. Meet the family that inspired it all, the Altos. It's Tony's funeral (Or is it?) and his wife Toffee has invited you to the wake. Chris wants you should check your weapons at the door (and if you don't have any, he's got extras!) Uncle Senior has a rigged dice game going and Tony's Ma is - well just nuts. Tony's shrink Dr. Malaise is giving free analysis and the Father isn't sure what he is doing! But one thing is for sure, almost no one seems sad that Tony is gone and they certainly done seem happy once he's discovered alive. Be prepared to dodge bullets, laugh at the songs and see if you can't figure out who put a contract out on Tony!
The Amen Corner: A Play (Vintage International)
by James BaldwinFrom one of the most brilliant writers of the twentieth century—a masterpiece of the modern American theater: a play about faith and family, about the gulf between black men and black women and black fathers and black sons."[Baldwin] uses words as the sea uses waves." —Langston HughesIn his first work for the theater, James Baldwin brought all the fervor and majestic rhetoric of the storefront churches of his childhood along with an unwavering awareness of the price those churches exacted from their worshipers. For years Sister Margaret Alexander has moved her Harlem congregation with a mixture of personal charisma and ferocious piety. But when Margaret's estranged husband, a scapegrace jazz musician, comes home to die, she is in danger of losing both her standing in the church and the son she has tried to keep on the godly path.
The America Play and Other Works
by Suzan-Lori Parks"Parks has burst through every known convention to invent a new theatrical language, like a jive Samuel Beckett, while exploding American cultural myths and stereotypes along the way.... She's passionate and jokey and some kind of genius."--Vogue
The American Clock
by Arthur MillerA bold, vibrant panorama of the Great Depression by "the moral voice of the American stage" (The New York Times) Capturing a cross-section of American life in the throes of the Great Depression, The American Clock presents what Miller called "a mural for theatre," based loosely on Stud's Terkel's oral history, Hard Times. It is the story of a single family, Moe and Rose Baum and their son Lee, who lost everything in the crash of '29. When Lee leaves Brooklyn and travels west in search of work, he comes face to face with the true scope of the Depression's devastation and encounters a tapestry of interlocked stories unfolding across a nation in crisis. In a series of vignettes, a vast ensemble of characters sets the Baums' struggles in relief: a shoeshine man, a corporate tycoon, a dispossessed farmer, a struggling prostitute, a young songwriter, and a communist comic-strip artist, among many disparate American identities. All the while, the clock ticks towards a new era in history, and time is running out for the Baums and the America they know.
The American Fiancée: A Novel
by Eric DupontIn this extraordinary breakout novel—a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family—award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge, and death. Their complicated family dynamic—as dramatic as Puccini’s legendary opera, Tosca—will propel their rise, and fall, and take them around the world . . . until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts. Born on Christmas, Louis Lamontagne, the family’s patriarch, is a larger-than-life lothario and raconteur who inherits his mother’s teal eyes and his father’s brutish good looks and whose charms travel beyond Quebec, across the state of New York where he wins at county fairs as a larger-than-life strongman, and even in Europe, where he is deployed for the US Army during World War II. We meet his daughter, Madeleine, who opens a successful chain of diners using the recipes from her grandmother, the original American Fiancée, and vows never to return to her hometown. And we end with her son Gabriel, another ladies’ man in the family, who falls in love with a woman he follows to Berlin and discovers unexpected connections there to the Lamontagne family that re-frame the entire course of the events in the book.An unholy marriage of John Irving and Gary Shteyngart with the irresistible whimsy of Elizabeth McCracken, The American Fiancée is a big, bold, wildly ambitious novel that introduces a dynamic new voice to contemporary literature.Translated from the French by Peter McCambridge.
The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity: And the Performance of Personal Identity
by Raymond KnappThe American musical has long provided an important vehicle through which writers, performers, and audiences reimagine who they are and how they might best interact with the world around them. Musicals are especially good at this because they provide not only an opportunity for us to enact dramatic versions of alternative identities, but also the material for performing such alternatives in the real world, through songs and the characters and attitudes those songs project. This book addresses a variety of specific themes in musicals that serve this general function: fairy tale and fantasy, idealism and inspiration, gender and sexuality, and relationships, among others. It also considers three overlapping genres that are central, in quite different ways, to the projection of personal identity: operetta, movie musicals, and operatic musicals. Among the musicals discussed are Camelot, Candide; Chicago; Company; Evita; Gypsy; Into the Woods; Kiss Me, Kate; A Little Night Music; Man of La Mancha; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Merry Widow; Moulin Rouge; My Fair Lady; Passion; The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Singin' in the Rain; Stormy Weather; Sweeney Todd; and The Wizard of Oz. Complementing the author's earlier work, The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, this book completes a two-volume thematic history of the genre, designed for general audiences and specialists alike.
The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form
by Ben WestThe American Musical is a comprehensive history of an American art form. It delivers a detailed and definitive portrait of the American musical’s artistic evolution over the course of seven distinct, newly defined eras, with a unique perspective gleaned from research at more than twenty different archives across the United States.Individual in both its approach and coverage, The American Musical traces the form’s creative journey from its 19th century beginnings, through its 20th century maturation, and to the turn of the 21st century, shedding new light on a myriad of authors, directors, and craftspeople who worked on Broadway and beyond. This book actively addresses the form’s often overlooked female and African-American artists, provides an in-depth accounting of such outside influences as minstrelsy, vaudeville, nightclubs, and burlesque, and explores the dynamic relationship between the form and the consciousness of its country.The American Musical is a fascinating and insightful read for students, artists, and afficionados of the American musical, and anyone with an interest in this singular form of entertainment.
The American Theatre Reader
by Staff of American Theatre MagazineIn celebration of American Theatre's twenty-fifth anniversary, the editors of the nation's leading theater magazine have chosen their best essays and interviews to provide an intimate look at the people, plays, and events that have shaped the American theater over the past quarter-century. Over two hundred artists, critics, and theater professionals are gathered in this one-of-a-kind collection, from the visionaries who conceived of a diverse and thriving national theater community, to the practitioners who have made that dream a reality. The American Theatre Reader captures their wide-ranging stories in a single compelling volume, essential reading for theater professionals and theatergoers alike.Partial contents include:Interviews with Edward Albee, Anne Bogart, Peter Brook, Lorraine Hansbury, Lillian Hellman, Jonathan Larson, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Joseph Papp, Will Power, Bartlett Scher, Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Luis Valdez, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, and others.Essays by Eric Bentley, Eric Bogosian, Robert Brustein, Christopher Durang, Oskar Eustis, Zelda Fichandler, Eva La Gallienne, Vaclav Havel, Danny Hoch, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuki, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Kristin Linklater, Todd London, Robert MacNeil, Des McAnuff, Conor McPherson, Marsha Norman, Suzan-Lori Parks, Hal Prince, Phylicia Rashad, Frank Rich, José Rivera, Alan Schneider, Marian Seldes, Wallace Shawn, Anna Deavere Smith, Molly Smith, Diana Son, Wole Soyinka, and many others.
The Analysis of Performance Art: A Guide to its Theory and Practice
by Anthony Howell A. HowellThis finely illustrated book offers a simple yet comprehensive 'grammar' of a new discipline. Performance Art first became popular in the fifties when artists began creating 'happenings'. Since then the artist as a performer has challenged many of the accepted rules of the theatre and radically altered our notion of what constitutes visual art. This is the first publication to outline the essential characteristics of the field and to put forward a method for teaching the subject as a discipline distinct from dance, drama, painting or sculpture.Taking the theory of primary and secondary colours as his model, Anthony Howell posits three primaries of action and shows how these may be mixed to obtain a secondary range of actions. Based on a taught course, the system is designed for practical use in the studio and is also entertaining to explore. Examples are cited from leading performance groups and practitioners such as Bobbie Baker, Orlan, Stelarc, Annie Sprinkle, Robert Wilson, Goat Island, and Station House Opera. This volume, however, is not just an illustrated grammar of action - it also shows how the syntax of that grammar has psychoanalytic repercussions. This enables the performer to relate the system to lived experience, ensuring a realisation that meaning is being dealt with through these actions and that the stystem set forth is more than a dry structuring of the characteristics of movement.Freud's notion of 'transference' and Lacan's understanding of 'repetition' are compared to a performer's usage of the same terms. Thus the book provides a psychoanalytic critique of performance at the same time as it outlines an efficient method for creating live work on both fine art and theatre courses.
The Anarchist
by David MametNothing is quite what it seems in Mamet's latest work. With a nod to his mentor, Harold Pinter, Mamet employs his signature verbal jousting in The Anarchist, which centers on two women: a prison governor and a prisoner with a life sentence trying to make the case that she merits parole. The Broadway premiere stars Patti LuPone and Debra Winger.
The Anastasia Trials In the Court of Women
by Carolyn GageInteractive drama / 9 f / Simple set Audience participation in this courtroom drama creates a profoundly engaging excursion into a world of women who are survivors and abusers. Actually a farcical play within a play, the drama opens as members of a radical feminist theatre group, the Emma Goldman Theatre Brigade, are about to implement their innovative lottery system aimed at insuring equal opportunity for all. They each draw the role they will play on this evening from a hat, putting sisterhood to an iron test. The performance that follows is the conspiracy trial of five women who are accused of denying the defendant Anastasia Romanov her identity. Audience members decide throughout to overrule or sustain the attorneys' motions, creating a different play at every performance.
The Anatomy of Drama (Routledge Revivals)
by Marjorie BoultonThis title, first published in 1960, is intended primarily to increase the understanding of drama among those who do not have easy access to the live theatre and who, therefore, study plays mainly in print. The author’s emphasis is on Shakespeare, but most forms of drama receive some attention. A lucid and lively study of the techniques of plot, dialogue and characterization will help the reader to a deeper appreciated of the problems and successes of the dramatist.
The Ancients and the Postmoderns
by Fredric JamesonFredric Jameson sweeps from the Renaissance to The Wire High modernism is now as far from us as antiquity was for the Renaissance. Such is the premise of Fredric Jameson's major new work in which modernist works, this time in painting (Rubens) and music (Wagner and Mahler), are pitted against late-modernist ones (in film) as well as a variety of postmodern experiments (from SF to The Wire, from "Eurotrash" in opera to Altman and East German literature): all of which attempt, in their different ways, to invent new forms to grasp a specific social totality. Throughout the historical periods, argues Jameson, the question of narrative persists through its multiple formal changes and metamorphoses.From the Hardcover edition.
The Annals of English Drama 975-1700: An Analytical Record Of All Plays, Extant Or Lost, Chronologically Arranged And Indexed By Authors, Titles, Dramatic Companies
by Sylvia Stoler WagonheimAn analytical record of all plays, extinct or lost, chronologically arranged and indexed by authors, titles and dramatic companies.
The Apple Family
by Richard NelsonThis critically acclaimed, searing play cycle about loss, memory and remembrance follows the Apple family of Rhinebeck, NY as they grapple with events both personal and current in the immediate present: the 2010 election (That Hopey Changey Thing), the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (Sweet and Sad), Obama's re-election (Sorry) and the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, which premieres in November.
The Applied Theatre Artist: Responsivity and Expertise in Practice
by Kay HepplewhiteThis book analyses the work of applied theatre practitioners using a new framework of ‘responsivity’ to make visible their unique expertise. In-depth investigation of practice combines with theorisation to provide a fresh view of the work of artists and facilitators. Case studies are drawn from community contexts: with women, mental health service users, refugees, adults with a learning disability, older people in care, and young people in school. Common skills and qualities are given a vocabulary to help define applied theatre work, such as awareness, anticipation, adaptation, attunement, and responsiveness. The Applied Theatre Artist is of scholarly, practical, and educational interest. The book offers detailed analysis of how skilled theatre artists make in-action decisions within socially engaged participatory projects. Rich description of in-session activity reveals what workshop facilitators actually do and how they think, offering a rare focus in applied theatre.
The Applied Theatre Reader
by Prentki, Tim / Abraham, NicolaThe Applied Theatre Reader is the first book to bring together new case studies of practice by leading practitioners and academics in the field and beyond, with classic source texts from writers such as Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Mikhail Bakhtin, Augusto Boal and Chantal Mouffe. This new edition brings the field fully up to date with the breadth of applied theatre practice in the twenty-first century, adding essays on playback theatre, digital technology, work with indigenous practitioners, inter-generational practice, school projects and contributors from South America, Australia and New Zealand. The Reader divides the field into key themes, inviting critical interrogation of issues in applied theatre whilst also acknowledging the multi-disciplinary nature of its subject, crossing fields like theatre in educational settings, prison theatre, community performance, theatre in conflict resolution, interventionist theatre and theatre for development. A new lexicon of Applied Theatre and further reading for every part will equip readers with the ideal tools for studying this broad and varied field. This collection of critical thought and practice is essential to those studying or participating in the performing arts as a means for positive change.
The Applied Theatre Reader
by Tim Prentki Sheila PrestonThe Applied Theatre Reader is the first book to bring together new case studies of practice by leading practitioners and academics in the field and beyond, with classic source texts from writers such as Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Mikhail Bakhtin, Augusto Boal, and Chantal Mouffe. This book divides the field into key themes, inviting critical interrogation of issues in applied theatre whilst also acknowledging the multi-disciplinary nature of its subject. It crosses fields such as: theatre in educational settings prison theatre community performance theatre in conflict resolution and reconciliation interventionist theatre theatre for development. This collection of critical thought and practice is essential to those studying or participating in the performing arts as a means for positive change.
The Arab in Israeli Drama and Theatre (Contemporary Theatre Studies #Vol. 26)
by Dan UrianWhat is Israeli theatre? Is it only a Hebrew theatre staged in Israel? Are performances by Arab Israelis working in an Arabic theatre framework not part of the repertoire of Israeli theatre? Do they perhaps belong to the Palestinian theatre? What are the "borders" of Palestinian theatre? Are not theatrical works created in East Jerusalem by Arab Israeli playwrights and actors, and staged on occasion before Jewish Israeli audiences, part of a dialogue between Palestinian and Israeli cultures? Does "theatre" only include works staged under that title? These and other similarly absorbing questions arise in Dan Urian's wide-ranging and detailed study of the image of the Arab in Israeli drama and theatre. By the use of extensive examples to show how theatre, politics and personal perceptions intertwine, the author presents us with a model which can be used as a basis for the further discussion and study of similar social and artistic phenomena in other cultures in relation to their theatre and drama.
The Arbitration: The Epitrepontes of Menander (Routledge Revivals)
by Gilbert MurrayGilbert Murray translated and made available to modern readers The Epitrepontes of Menander or The Arbitration for the first time in 1945. The Arbitration is among the most frequently quoted and most famous of Menander’s plays and – being less farcical than others - belongs to his mature style. With an interesting and informative introduction, this translation will be of value to any student of Classics and Ancient Greek drama.
The Archbishop's Ceiling
by Arthur MillerA masterful mix of art, sex, and politics behind the Iron Curtain, by America's greatest dramatist In an unnamed Eastern European capital, four writers gather in what was once an archbishop's palace. There is Adrian, a successful American author struggling with questions about a novel he has set in the city, and Marcus, a once-imprisoned radical who has become a darling of the current regime. Finally, there is Sigmund, perhaps the country's greatest living writer, who refuses to compromise his artistic integrity to appease the regime. Between them all is Maya, a poet and actress who has been a mistress and muse to each man. The ornately decorated ceiling above them may or may not be bugged, and the group carefully watches their words as they discuss the play's central dilemma - should Sigmund stay and resist the oppressive state, or should he defect and pursue his art in freedom? Their conversation poses crucial questions about mass surveillance, morality, and the authenticity of art, and remains as relevant today as it was during the height of the Cold War.
The Architecture of Exhibitions: Experiential Design (Routledge Research in Architecture)
by Alessandro Melis Rozina Vavetsi Fabio FinottiThe Architecture of Exhibitions embarks on a comprehensive exploration of creativity and design innovation within exhibition spaces. It describes the fundamental principles of exhibition design, tracing the origins of creativity and considering its evolutionary significance.The book challenges conventional boundaries imposed by rigid classifications, drawing on heuristic studies in biology and the transformative concept of exaptation. It questions the traditional separations between art, science and technology, which often hinder innovation. By advocating for an interdisciplinary approach, it reimagines creativity that transcends conventional limits. Through practice-based research, multidisciplinary case studies and technological innovations, with a focus on generative AI, the book illustrates how modern exhibition spaces actively engage with their audiences, highlighting their profound impact beyond academic discourse.This book is designed for curators, designers and scholars who are passionate about the future of exhibition spaces. It offers a comprehensive understanding through its four-part structure, making it an essential read for anyone interested in the dynamic interplay between art, technology and society. The book is also designed as an instrument for the education of architecture, design and art students.
The Architecture of Story: A Technical Guide for the Dramatic Writer (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)
by Will DunneWhile successful plays tend to share certain storytelling elements, there is no single blueprint for how a play should be constructed. Instead, seasoned playwrights know how to select the right elements for their needs and organize them in a structure that best supports their particular story. Through his workshops and book The Dramatic Writer's Companion, Will Dunne has helped thousands of writers develop successful scripts. Now, in The Architecture of Story, he helps writers master the building blocks of dramatic storytelling by analyzing a trio of award-winning contemporary American plays: Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl. Dismantling the stories and examining key components from a technical perspective enables writers to approach their own work with an informed understanding of dramatic architecture. Each self-contained chapter focuses on one storytelling component, ranging from "Title" and "Main Event" to "Emotional Environment" and "Crisis Decision." Dunne explores each component in detail, demonstrating how it has been successfully handled in each play and comparing and contrasting techniques. The chapters conclude with questions to help writers evaluate and improve their own scripts. The result is a nonlinear reference guide that lets writers work at their own pace and choose the topics that interest them as they develop new scripts. This flexible, interactive structure is designed to meet the needs of writers at all stages of writing and at all levels of experience.
The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas
by Diana TaylorIn The Archive and the Repertoire preeminent performance studies scholar Diana Taylor provides a new understanding of the vital role of performance in the Americas. From plays to official events to grassroots protests, performance, she argues, must be taken seriously as a means of storing and transmitting knowledge. Taylor reveals how the repertoire of embodied memory--conveyed in gestures, the spoken word, movement, dance, song, and other performances--offers alternative perspectives to those derived from the written archive and is particularly useful to a reconsideration of historical processes of transnational contact. The Archive and the Repertoire invites a remapping of the Americas based on traditions of embodied practice. Examining various genres of performance including demonstrations by the children of the disappeared in Argentina, the Peruvian theatre group Yuyachkani, and televised astrological readings by Univision personality Walter Mercado, Taylor explores how the archive and the repertoire work together to make political claims, transmit traumatic memory, and forge a new sense of cultural identity. Through her consideration of performances such as Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gmez-Pea's show Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit . . . , Taylor illuminates how scenarios of discovery and conquest haunt the Americas, trapping even those who attempt to dismantle them. Meditating on events like those of September 11, 2001 and media representations of them, she examines both the crucial role of performance in contemporary culture and her own role as witness to and participant in hemispheric dramas. The Archive and the Repertoire is a compelling demonstration of the many ways that the study of performance enables a deeper understanding of the past and present, of ourselves and others.