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Bertolt Brecht in Context (Literature in Context)
by Stephen BrockmannBertolt Brecht in Context examines Brecht's significance and contributions as a writer and the most influential playwright of the twentieth century. It explores the specific context from which he emerged in imperial Germany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as Brecht's response to the turbulent German history of the twentieth century: World Wars One and Two, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the experience of exile, and ultimately the division of Germany into two competing political blocs divided by the postwar Iron Curtain. Throughout this turbulence, and in spite of it, Brecht managed to remain extraordinarily productive, revolutionizing the theater of the twentieth century and developing a new approach to language and performance. Because of his unparalleled radicalism and influence, Brecht remains controversial to this day. This book – with a Foreword by Mark Ravenhill – lays out in clear and accessible language the shape of Brecht's contribution and the reasons for his ongoing influence.
Bertolt Brecht und Ernst Toller
by Thorsten Unger Kirsten Reimers Lydia MühlbachBertolt Brecht und Ernst Toller zählen zu den wichtigsten Dramenautoren der Weimarer Republik. Politisch gab es zu Lebzeiten zahlreiche Berührungspunkte zwischen beiden, und ebenso finden sich hinsichtlich ihres ästhetisch avancierten Anspruchs mit experimentellen Impulsen keineswegs nur im Feld von Theater und Drama Berührungspunkte. Dennoch lassen sich kaum Belege eines intensiveren Austauschs der Autoren finden. Ein Blick in die Forschung erweckt den Eindruck, hier setze sich dieses Schweigen fort. Dieser Band unternimmt es zum ersten Mal, die beiden Autoren und Œuvres zu vergleichen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den Dramen und der Dramenästhetik, aber auch Lyrik, Rundfunk, Frauenrollen, kollaboratives Arbeiten und Kanonfragen sind Themen der 20 Beiträge.
Beside Yourself
by Nick HallComedy / 2m, 2f / The ultimate mistaken identity comedy! Four actors each play two parts twins. Some married, some single, all amusingly characterized are at a motel for a study of human behavior. What a study! It takes only one twin wanting an extra marital fling to set off a hilarious chain reaction. Not only is there predictable, farcical confusion, but also a stunning surprise. A comic tour de force about who we are now. "Takes the mistaken identity ploy, gives it an imaginative contemporary twist and puts it to delightful use. . . . Uncommonly enjoyable." Miami Herald. . "Delightfully funny. But outside of the laughs, and there are many, the play also says a lot about human behavior. Beside Yourself is one of the finest ever presented in dinner theatre." Hollywood Sun Tattler. . "Hilarious, a fun filled, lightweight romp." Miami Sun Sentinel.. FEE: $75 per performance.
The Best Animal in the Forest: A Play (Into Reading, Level E #73)
by Phillip Simpson Jo ThapaNIMAC-sourced textbook
The Best Brothers
by Daniel MacIvorBunny Best has met her unfortunate end after a mishap at a Gay Days parade. Now her two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. In the bustle of obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, and dog-sitting, sibling rivalry quickly reaches its peak and years of buried contentions surface.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
by Barbara RobinsonComedy / All Groups / 4m, 6f, plus 8 boys and 9 girls / In this hilarious Christmas tale, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting the Herdman kids - probably the most inventively awful kids in history. You won't believe the mayhem - and the fun - when the Herdmans collide with the Christmas story head on! This delightful comedy is adapted from the best selling book and the only story ever to run twice in McCall's Magazine. / "One of the best Christmas stories ever - and certainly one of the funniest." - Seattle Times
Best Critical Writing: Selections from Oscar Wilde, Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, Matthew Arnold, Edgar Allan Poe, and Others (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Nora Rawn John GraftonIn "The Critic as Artist," Oscar Wilde declares that the critic's artistic capabilities are as important as those of the artist. Wilde's passionate defense of the aesthetics of art criticism is among the wide-ranging and thought-provoking essays of this original collection, in which noted writers discuss the role of criticism in English and American literature. Contents include Edgar Allan Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition," in which the author draws upon his most famous poem, "The Raven," to illustrate his theories on writing; Matthew Arnold's "The Study of Poetry"; and commentaries on Shakespeare's plays by Samuel Johnson and Wordsworth's poetry by William Hazlitt. Walter Pater, whose work was highly influential on the writers of the Aesthetic Movement, is represented by an essay on style. Other selections include Mark Twain's satirical "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences" and the "Preface to Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman. Brief introductory notes accompany each essay.
Beth Henley: A Casebook (Casebooks on Modern Dramatists #33)
by Julia A. FesmireBeth Henley was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play for her first full-length play, Crimes of the Heart, yet there has been no book-length consideration of her body of work until now. This volume includes original essays that contextualize and analyze her works from a variety of perspectives, focusing on her vexed status as a southern writer, her use of the comic grotesque, and her alleged feminist critiques of modern society. Receiving special attention are lesser-known plays which are crucial to understanding Henley's development as a playwright and postmodern thinker.
Betrayal
by Harold PinterUpon its premiere at the National Theatre, Betrayal was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. It won the Olivier Award for best new play, and has since been performed all around the world and made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, and Patricia Hodge. Betrayal begins with a meeting between adulterous lovers, Emma and Jerry, two years after their affair has ended. During the nine scenes of the play, we move back in time through the stages of their affair, ending in the house of Emma and her husband Robert, Jerry’s best friend.
Bette And Joan: Divine Feud
by Shaun Considine'An absolute must-read' VANITY FAIRBette Davis and Joan Crawford: two of the deadliest arch-rivals of all time. Born in the same year (though Davis swore 'Crawford is five years older than me if she's a day'), the two fought bitterly throughout their long and brilliant Hollywood careers. Joan became a star first, which always irked her rival, who suggested her success had come via the casting couch. 'It sure as hell beats the hard cold floor' was Crawford's scathing response. According to Davis, Crawford was not only a nymphomaniac but also 'vain, jealous and about as stable and trustworthy as a basket of snakes'. Crawford, in turn, accused Davis of stealing her glory and planning to destroy her.The two rivals fought over as many men as they did parts - when Bette fell in love with her co-star in DANGEROUS, Franchot Tone, Joan stepped in and married him. The women worked together only once, in the classic thriller WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, in which their violent hatred of each other as rival sisters was no act.'Shaun Considine's story of the two divas is vastly informative and in parts hilarious' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Fascinating and vastly entertaining . . . all you want is more' TIME OUT 'Considine's well-researched book is an account of one of Hollywood's most extraordinary relationships' DAILY EXPRESS '[A] Scurrilously readable twin biography' MAIL ON SUNDAY'Considine's dual biography is a guilty pleasure' SUNDAY HERALD'Brilliant, outrageous and hysterical' Suranne Jones (Star of BBC One's Doctor Foster)
Better Nate Than Ever: Better Nate Than Ever; Five, Six, Seven, Nate!; Nate Expectations (Nate)
by Tim FederleA small-town boy hops a bus to New York City to crash an audition for E.T.: The Musical. <P><P>Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he's wanted to star in a Broadway show. (Heck, he'd settle for seeing a Broadway show.) But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he's stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one (except his best pal Libby) appreciates a good show tune? With Libby's help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There's an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom. <P><P>Tim Federle writes a warm and witty debut that's full of broken curfews, second chances, and the adventure of growing up--because sometimes you have to get four hundred miles from your backyard to finally feel at home.
Betty's Summer Vacation (Books That Changed the World)
by Christopher DurangPitch-black humor and brutal social commentary from the Tony Award-winning playwright: “Relentlessly fierce, relentlessly funny.”—Ben Brantley, The New York TimesLooking for a little rest and time by herself, Betty rents a summer share at the beach. But Betty's luck turns when this sensible Everywoman gets drawn into the chaotic world of some very unsavory housemates: her friend Trudy, who talks too much; the lewd, semi-naked Buck, who tries to have sex with everyone; and Keith, a serial killer who hides in his room with a mysterious hatbox. With sand between her toes, walking a thin line between sanity and survival, poor Betty will leave her summer vacation more terrorized than tan—in this Obie Award-winning play from Christopher Durang, who “proves to be every bit as sharp and caustic as England’s Joe Orton” (David Kaufman, New York Daily News).“Not only wickedly funny but a commentary on the state of American culture.”—Curtis Ellis, MSNBC“A comedian whose fury takes the form of farce.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker
Between Breaths
by Robert ChafeDr. Jon Lien is a risk-taker and respected researcher, working for over twenty years in the dangerous waters off Newfoundland to rescue massive humpback whales and save the fishing gear in which they’re trapped. With his head down in freezing waters and armed only with a snorkel and knife, Lien saves the lives of over five hundred animals and earns the hard-won respect of Newfoundland’s fishermen. But his toughest battle comes at the end, as his body is slowly conquered by a relentlessly progressing paralysis and dementia. Between Breaths moves backward in time, from Lien’s final moments to his very first whale intervention. As his life becomes further and further confined, his mind stretches back in memories of release and salvation. Based on a true story, Robert Chafe crafts a raw portrayal of Newfoundland’s “Whale Man” in this beautiful and poignant play about the parts of ourselves we hold on to after everything else has gone.
Between Riverside and Crazy
by Stephen Adly Guirgis"Guirgis, like other storytellers who explore the sacred and profane, is most interested in how grace transforms us."--The New YorkerWritten with humor, tenderness, grit, and wonderment by acclaimed playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, Between Riverside and Crazy is an extraordinary new play: a dark comedy about a man trying to maintain control as the world unravels around him.City Hall is demanding more than his signature, the Landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed, and the Church won't leave him alone. As ex-cop and recent widower Walter "Pops" Washington struggles to hold on to one of the last great rent-stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive, he must also contend with old wounds, new houseguests, and a final ultimatum. It seems the old days are dead and gone -- after a lifetime living between Riverside and Crazy.Stephen Adly Guirgis' other plays include The Motherfucker with the Hat, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, Our Lady of 121st Street, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Little Flower of East Orange, Den of Thieves, Race Religion Politics, and Dominica: The Fat Ugly Ho. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2015. He is a former co-artistic director of LABryinth Theater Company. He received the Yale Wyndham-Campbell Prize, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Whiting Award and a fellowship from TCG in 2004.
Between the Sheets
by Jordi MandMarion, a working mother with a special-needs child, has discovered a devastating secret: her husband Curtis has been engaging in a torrid love affair with none other than their son's young teacher, Teresa. Armed with love notes between Curtis and Teresa, Marion shows up to a parent-teacher interview to confront the woman who may be the thread that unravels her life. What ensues is a gripping and raw confrontation between two women, one fighting to protect her family, the other fighting for the family she always wanted.
Between Theater and Anthropology
by Victor Turner Richard SchechnerIn performances by Euro-Americans, Afro-Americans, Native Americans, and Asians, Richard Schechner has examined carefully the details of performative behavior and has developed models of the performance process useful not only to persons in the arts but to anthropologists, play theorists, and others fascinated (but perhaps terrified) by the multichannel realities of the postmodern world.Schechner argues that in failing to see the structure of the whole theatrical process, anthropologists in particular have neglected close analogies between performance behavior and ritual. The way performances are created--in training, workshops, and rehearsals--is the key paradigm for social process.
Beware the Man Eating Chicken
by Henry MeyersonFarce / 2m, 3f, with doubling / Betty, wanting to be a good mother to her son William, devises a plan to Make Him Bigger and Make Him a Winner. She enters William in the “Fattest Man in the Universe†contest, and she is determined to win. Carole, Betty’s younger sister, too weak to stand up to Betty’s threats and intimidation, is forced to assist in the endless round of cooking the dozens of chickens needed each day for William’s inexorable assault on hugeness. When Captain Leonard of the Board of Health comes to check on the “large carnivore†that is devouring twenty chickens a day he is initially an annoying bureaucrat, but ultimately a timely dessert. Albert, claiming to own one of the largest chicken farms in the U.S. arrives to negotiate a deal. For using William’s picture on the logo of his product Albert will pay Betty a percentage of the profits on each bird sold and ancillary rights on tie-ins. The deal is struck. When Dorothy, Albert’s sister, appears claiming she is the true owner of the chicken farm, a struggle between the siblings ensues for control of William and the potential fortune at stake. But it is Doctor Martin who brings the tragic coup de grace to Betty and her plan for achieving her goals of motherhood."Henry Meyerson's one-act is a classic, well-constructed, three-door farce. Its subtext may be a critique of American capitalism, but Meyerson keeps the complaint subtle and focuses instead on recognizable family dynamics: The situation is inherently absurd, but the characters all act with their own skewed logic." - Columbus Dispatch"Edgy...shocking...uncomfortably funny and bizarre...outrageous black-as-midnight comedy...sublimely ridiculous end result of being enormously entertaining." - The Times-Standard, Eureka, CA“Think The Honeymooners meets Little Shop of Horrors…fans of theatre, even vegetarians, should make a hearty meal of this superlative evening…headlong romp…edgy absurdity and laugh-out-loud humor†– The North Coast Journal, Eureka, CAFee: $75 per performance.Other Henry Meyerson titles available from Samuel French include: Fresh Brewed Shtick Proceed to Checkout
Beyond Bollywood and Broadway: Plays from the South Asian Diaspora
by Neilesh BoseThis collection of 11 plays, from North America, the U.K., and South Africa--many published here for the first time--delves into the vibrant, cosmopolitan theatre of the South Asian diaspora. These original and provocative works explore the experience of diaspora by drawing on cultural references as diverse as classical Indian texts, adaptations of Shakespeare and Homer, current events, and world music, film, and dance. Neilesh Bose provides historical background on South Asian migration and performance traditions in each region, along with critical introductions and biographical background on each playwright.Includes works by Anuvab Pal, Aasif Mandvi, Shishir Kurup, Rahul Varma, Rana Bose, Rukhsana Ahmad, Jatinder Verma, Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith, Ronnie Govender, Kessie Govender, and Kriben Pillay.
Beyond The Echoesoweto
by Geoffrey V. Davis Matsemela ManakaFirst Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Beyond Failure: New Essays on the Cultural History of Failure in Theatre and Performance
by Tony Fisher Eve KatsourakiIn setting foot on stage, every performer risks the possiblity of failure. Indeed, the very performance of any human action is inextricable from its potential not to succeed. This inherent potential has become a key critical trope in contemporary theatre, performance studies, and scholarship around visual cultures. Beyond Failure explores what it means for our understanding not just of theatrical practice but of human social and cultural activity more broadly. The essays in this volume tackle contemporary debates around the theory and poetics of failure, suggesting that in the absence of success can be found a defiance and hopefulness that points to new ways of knowing and being in the world. Beyond Failure offers a unique and engaging approach for students and practitioners interested not only in the impact of failure on the stage, but what it means for wider social and cultural debates.
Beyond Immersive Theatre: Aesthetics, Politics and Productive Participation
by Adam AlstonImmersive theatre currently enjoys ubiquity, popularity and recognition in theatre journalism and scholarship. However, the politics of immersive theatre aesthetics still lacks a substantial critique. Does immersive theatre model a particular kind of politics, or a particular kind of audience? What's involved in the production and consumption of immersive theatre aesthetics? Is a productive audience always an empowered audience? And do the terms of an audience's empowerment stand up to political scrutiny? Beyond Immersive Theatre contextualises these questions by tracing the evolution of neoliberal politics and the experience economy over the past four decades. Through detailed critical analyses of work by Ray Lee, Lundahl & Seitl, Punchdrunk, shunt, Theatre Delicatessen and Half Cut, Adam Alston argues that there is a tacit politics to immersive theatre aesthetics - a tacit politics that is illuminated by neoliberalism, and that is ripe to be challenged by the evolution and diversification of immersive theatre.
Beyond Innocence: Children in Performance (ISSN)
by Adele SeniorOn a global platform we are witnessing the increased visibility of the people we call children and teenagers as political activists.Meanwhile, across the contemporary performance landscape, children are participating as performers and collaborators in ways that resonate with this figure of the child activist. Beyond Innocence: Children in Performance proposes that performance has the ability to offer alternatives to hegemonic perceptions of the child as innocent, in need of protection, and apolitical. Through an in-depth analysis of selected performances shown in the UK within the past decade, alongside newly gathered documentation on children’s participation in professional performance in their own words, this book considers how performance might offer more capacious representations of and encounters with children beyond the nostalgic and protective adult gaze elicited within mainstream contexts. Motivated by recent collaborations with children on stage that reimagine the figure of the child, the book offers a new approach to both reading age in performance and also doing research with children rather than on or about them. By redressing the current imbalance between the way that we read children and adults’ bodies in performance and taking seriously children’s cultures and experiences, Beyond Innocence asks what strategies contemporary performance has to offer both children and adults in order to foster shared spaces for social and political change. As such, the book develops an approach to analysing performance that not only recognises children as makers of meaning but also as historically, politically, and culturally situated subjects and bodies with lived experiences that far exceed the familiar narratives of innocence and inexperience that children often have to bear.
Beyond Scenography
by Rachel HannFocused on the contemporary Anglophone adoption from the 1960s onwards, Beyond Scenography explores the porous state of contemporary theatre-making to argue a critical distinction between scenography (as a crafting of place orientation) and scenographics (that which orientate acts of worlding, of staging). With sections on installation art and gardening as well as marketing and placemaking, this book is an argument for what scenography does: how assemblages of scenographic traits orientate, situate, and shape staged events. Established stage orthodoxies are revisited - including the symbiosis of stage and scene and the aesthetic ideology of 'the scenic' - to propose how scenographics are formative to all staged events. Consequently, one of the conclusions of this book is that there is no theatre practice without scenography, no stages without scenographics. Beyond Scenography offers a manifesto for a renewed theory of scenographic practice.
Beyond Shakespeare: Film Studies, Performance Studies, and Netflix
by Iris H. TuanWith joy and grace to accompany the readers to have the translocal tour to visit about thirty-seven works, this monograph applies the academic critical theories of Performance Studies, Film Studies, Psychoanalysis, Postmodernism, and Visual Culture, to interpreting the special selection works. The focus and common theme are on race, body, and class. With the background of COVID-19 since 2019 up to the present, the book offers the readers with the remarkable insight of human beings’ accumulated wisdom and experiences in surviving with the dreadful diseases like the plagues in Shakespeare’s time. After the supreme reading, may the global readers in the world acquire the knowledge and power to live in sustainability with education and entertainment of films, performances, and online streaming Netflix TV dramas.
Beyond Spain's Borders: Women Players in Early Modern National Theaters (Transculturalisms, 1400-1700)
by Anne J. Cruz María Cristina QuinteroThe prolific theatrical activity that abounded on the stages of early modern Europe demonstrates that drama was a genre that transcended national borders. The transnational character of early modern theater reflects the rich admixture of various dramatic traditions, such as Spain’s comedia and Italy’s commedia dell’arte, but also the transformations across cultures of Spanish novellas to French plays and English interludes. Of particular import to this study is the role that women and gender played in this cross-pollination of theatrical sources and practices. Contributors to the volume not only investigate the gendered effect of Spanish texts and literary types on English and French drama, they address the actual journeys of Spanish actresses to French theaters and of Italian actresses to the Spanish stage, while several emphasize the movement of royal women to various courts and their impact on theatrical activity in Spain and abroad. In their innovative focus on women’s participation and influence, the chapters in this volume illustrate the frequent yet little studied transnational and transcultural points of contact between Spanish theater and the national theaters of England, France, Austria, and Italy.