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Theatres of Autofiction (Elements in Theatre, Performance and the Political)
by Lianna MarkThis Element is the first monograph to focus on the presence and popularity of autofiction in contemporary theatre, a mode characterised by its mixture of autobiographical and fictional materials and generally associated with the cutting edge of literary fiction. To do so, it brings frameworks from literary and theatre studies to bear on a recent upsurge in plays that explicitly mobilise lived experience and its fictionalisation to political ends. Considering a comparative corpus of state-subsidised productions in Britain and Europe since the mid 2010s – both adaptations of literary works and plays written for the stage – this Element attends to autofiction's aesthetics and politics through its negotiation on stage of three conceptual binaries, each the focus of a section: fact/fiction, self/other, and inclusion/exclusion. By probing the mode's critical potential and pitfalls, it sheds light on the stakes of self-fictionalising practices in today's cultural markets and on the role of theatre therein.
Theatres of Dust: Climate Gothic Analysis in Contemporary Australian Drama and Performance Landscapes
by Linda HassallThrough a contemporary Gothic lens, the book explores theatre theories, processes and practices that explore; the impacts of continuing drought and natural disaster, the conflicts concerning resource extraction and mining and current political debates focussed on climate change denial. While these issues can be argued from various political and economic platforms, theatrical investigations as discussed here suggest that scholars and theatre makers are becoming empowered to dramaturgically explore the ecological challenges we face now and may face in the future. In doing so the book proposes that theatre can engage in not only climate change analysis and discussion but can develop climate literacies in a broader socio-cultural context.
Theatres of Feeling: Affect, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century Stage
by Jean I. MarsdenTheatre and theatregoing was central to the cultural life of later eighteenth-century Britain. In this engaging work, Jean I. Marsden explores the playhouse as a source of emotion during a period when the ability to feel demonstrated moral worth. Using first-hand accounts, reviews, and illustrations to complement the drama of the era, Marsden examines why both critics and audiences elevated the theatre above the pulpit and how they experienced the plays and performances that they witnessed. Tears and even fainting fits were a common reaction to powerful productions, and playwrights sought to harness this emotion. The book explores this intersection of text, performance, and affect in a series of case studies of plays exploring British liberty, empire and the evils of antisemitism. With a focus on emotional response, Theatres of Feeling delivers a new approach to dramatic literature and performance, one that moves beyond more limited studies of text or performance.
Theatres of Hawai'i
by Lowell AngellFamous for its lush beauty and inviting beaches, Hawai'i also boasts a rich theatrical history dating back to the mid-19th century and spanning its years as a kingdom, U.S. territory, and a state. Its warm, tropical climate and social, cultural, and ethnic diversity contributed to the variety of theatres unique to the islands--from simple, rural plantation theatres on the neighbor islands, to neighborhood movie houses in exotic styles, to an incomparable tropical moderne jewel near the beach at Waikiki. Most of these theatres are now just a memory, except for those few saved by dedicated individuals and restored for another life. This book celebrates the rich history of these theatrical venues through rare archival photographs and little-known details.
Theatres of Oakland
by Jack Tillmany Jennifer DowlingOakland has a rich theatre history, from the amusements of a gas-lit downtown light opera and vaudeville stage in the 1870s to the ornate cinematic escape portals of the Great Depression. Dozens of neighborhood theatres, once the site of family outings and first dates, remain cherished memories in the lives of Oaklanders. The city can still boast three fabulous movie palaces from the golden age of cinema: the incomparable art deco Paramount, which now offers live performances and films; the stately Grand Lake gracing the sinuous shores of Lake Merritt; and the magnificently eccentric Fox Oakland, with its imposing Hindu gods flanking the stage. The Paramount and Grand Lake still stir the heartstrings of patrons with showings preceded by interludes on their mighty Wurlitzer organs.
Theatres of Portland
by Steve Stone Gary LacherPortland's theatre history is marked by early enthusiasm and exceptionally vigorous growth. With the Pacific Northwest's often rainy weather, people sought refuge in movie entertainment, and the city eventually grew to have more theatre seats per capita than similar-sized cities in the United States. Beginning with short cinema segments at vaudeville houses downtown, Portland movie theatres came into their own swiftly and ambitiously. By 1915, there were over 70 individual theatres showing films both downtown and in neighborhoods throughout the city. By the 1920s, larger theatres were being built, including substantial neighborhood palaces such as the Bagdad, Hollywood, and Oriental. Meanwhile, downtown provided the Broadway, Portland, and Orpheum, to name a few. This volume contains an overview of Portland's theatre history through rare and newly discovered historical photographs of those memorable places of entertainment.
Theatres of San Francisco
by Jack TillmanyYou read the sad stories in the papers: another ornate, 1920s, single-screen theatre closes, to be demolished and replaced by a strip mall. That's progress, and in this 20-screen multiplex world, it's happening more and more. Only a handful of the 100 or so neighborhood theatres that once graced these streets are left in San Francisco, but they live on in the photographs featured in this book. The heyday of such venues as the Clay, Noe, Metro, New Mission, Alexandria, Coronet, Fox, Uptown, Coliseum, Surf, El Rey, and Royal was a time when San Franciscans thronged to the movies and vaudeville shows, dressed to the hilt, to see and be seen in majestic art deco palaces. Unfortunately, this era has passed into history despite the dedicated efforts of many neighborhood preservation groups.
Theatres of Value: Buying and Selling Shakespeare in Nineteenth-Century New York City
by Danielle RosvallyTheatres of Value explores the idea that buying and selling are performative acts and offers a paradigm for deeper study of these acts—"the dramaturgy of value." Modeling this multifaceted approach, the book explores six case studies to show how and why Shakespeare had value for nineteenth-century New Yorkers. In considering William Brown's African Theater, P. T. Barnum's American Museum and Lecture Hall, Fanny Kemble's American reading career, the Booth family brand, the memorial statue of Shakespeare in Central Park, and an 1888 benefit performance of Hamlet to theatrical impresario Lester Wallack, Theatres of Value traces a history of audience engagement with Shakespearean cultural capital and the myriad ways this engagement was leveraged by theatrical businesspeople.
Theatre’s Heterotopias
by Joanne TompkinsTheatre's Heterotopias articulates a new methodology for interpreting a space (including architectural, narrative, imaginative, and imaginary) in theatre and performance. A heterotopia is an 'alternative space' that is distinguished from that actual world, but that resonates with it. The value in applying heterotopia to theatre is that in performance, we can actually witness how else space and place might be constituted: it is the point of comparison of what does occur against what else might transpire such that the 'unreal' spaces that comprise a theatrical experience have the capacity to elicit concrete effects beyond its walls. A heterotopia is a technique for exploring theatrical space that affords a better understanding of the theatrical experience, the context in which performance takes place, and the power and knowledge that shape its socio-political context. The book's case studies include site-specificity, selected productions from the National Theatre of Scotland and Shakespeare's Globe, and multimedia performance.
Theatrical Design And Production: An Introduction To Scene Design And Construction, Lighting, Sound, Costume, And Makeup
by J. GilletteTheatrical Design and Production is a comprehensive and practical survey that examines the technical and design aspects of play production, including scene design and construction, lighting, sound, costume, and makeup. Design is presented as both an art closely integrated with the director’s, actor’s, and playwright’s visions, and a craft that provides practical solutions for the physical manipulation of stage space.
Theatrical Design: An Introduction
by Kevin Lee AllenA theatrical designer must address two questions when designing a production: What is the play about and what is the play like? To find the metaphor within a play is to unlock inspired and unique design concepts. Theatrical Design: An Introduction is about how to find the design idea for a production and what to do with that idea once identified. This book emphasizes script analysis and interpretation specifically for designers: how to release meaning and design inspiration from lines and characterization in a script. It then explains the artistic elements and principles of design—the skills necessary to create the design visualized. Concepts are illustrated with examples from theatre, film, art, architecture, and fashion that explore professional and historic use of conceptualization and metaphor. Theatrical Design: An Introduction imparts the tools designers need to innovate off the page.
Theatrical Genre & Style: A Guide for Designers, Directors, and Performers
by Melissa Shafer Karen BrewsterA one-of-a-kind guide about style and genre for theatre artisans.Theatrical Genre & Style will appeal to all theatre makers—those in performance as well as design—students, amateurs, and professionals. Traditionally, theatre practitioners receive information about style and genre from sources composed primarily for studio artisans and not theatre artisans. These books are helpful but ultimately fall short because they do not specifically apply the use of style to theatre art and practice. Theatrical Genre & Style gives theatre artists a guidebook to style and genre that is specific and tailored to their needs. Theatrical Genre & Style defines genre and style (and the differences between them), gives relatable examples with helpful exercises, clearly explains the distinctions between artistic style, period style, and literary style, and helps readers understand how to identify, research, and utilize appropriate artistic styles for theatrical productions. Theatrical genres are listed, thoroughly explained, and examples and exercises given that are designed to elucidate. The ways theatrical scenery, costumes, lighting, sound, multi-media, acting, directing, and movement can work together to successfully utilize style is addressed in this text.Theatrical Genre & Style serves as a companion to authors Karen Brewster and Melissa Shafer's Fundamentals of Theatrical Design: A Guide to the Basics of Scenic, Costume, and Lighting Design. The two books complement one another in content, size, scope, purpose, and target audience.
Theatrical Makeup: Basic Application Techniques
by Sharon SobelIn many theatrical productions, it falls to the performers to apply their own makeup, with minimal or no instruction. Theatrical Makeup clearly and concisely explains the basics of theatrical makeup techniques to allow stage actors to put their best face forward! You will gain understanding of the physiology of the human face and, using cream based makeup, as well as commercial cosmetics, learn how to contour it to suit your character with the use of highlight and shadow. Hundreds of full color images and step-by-step instructions illustrate how to visually manipulate bone structure and apparent age, apply simple facial hair and wounds, and create glamorous and natural stage makeup. Also covered are the tools you will need to apply your own makeup, along with critical health and hygiene tips.
Theatrical Makeup: Basic Application Techniques
by Sharon SobelTheatrical Makeup clearly and concisely explains the basics of theatrical makeup techniques to allow stage actors to put their best face forward! Readers will gain understanding of the physiology of the human face and, using cream based makeup, as well as commercial cosmetics, learn how to contour it to suit the character with the use of highlight and shadow. Hundreds of full color images and step-by-step instructions illustrate how to visually manipulate bone structure and apparent age, apply simple facial hair and wounds, and create glamorous and natural stage makeup. Also covered are the tools readers will need to apply their own makeup, along with critical health and hygiene tips. This book is suitable for beginner Theatrical Makeup courses and for stage actors of all levels.
Theatrical Nation
by Michael RagussisPerhaps the most significant development of the Georgian theater was its multiplication of ethnic, colonial, and provincial character types parading across the stage. In Theatrical Nation, Michael Ragussis opens up an archive of neglected plays and performances to examine how this flood of domestic and colonial others showcased England in general and London in particular as the center of an increasingly complex and culturally mixed nation and empire, and in this way illuminated the shifting identity of a newly configured Great Britain.In asking what kinds of ideological work these ethnic figures performed and what forms were invented to accomplish this work, Ragussis concentrates on the most popular of the "outlandish Englishmen," the stage Jew, Scot, and Irishman. Theatrical Nation understands these stage figures in the context of the government's controversial attempts to merge different ethnic and national groups through the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland, the Jewish Naturalization Bill of 1753, and the Act of Union with Ireland of 1800.Exploring the significant theatrical innovations that illuminate the central anxieties shared by playhouse and nation, Ragussis considers how ethnic identity was theatricalized, even as it moved from stage to print. By the early nineteenth century, Anglo-Irish and Scottish novelists attempted to deconstruct the theater's ethnic stereotypes while reimagining the theatricality of interactions between English and ethnic characters. An important shift took place as the novel's cross-ethnic love plot replaced the stage's caricatured male stereotypes with the beautiful ethnic heroine pursued by an English hero.
Theatrical Performance and the Forensic Turn: Naked Truth (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by James FriezeContemporary theatre, like so much of contemporary life, is obsessed with the ways of which information is detected, packaged and circulated. Running through forms as diverse as neo-naturalistic playwriting, intimately immersive theatre, verbatim drama, intermedial performance, and musical theatre, a common thread can be observed: theatre-makers have moved away from assertions of what is true and focussed on questions about how truth is framed. Commentators in various disciplines, including education, fine art, journalism, medicine, cultural studies, and law, have identified a ‘forensic turn’ in culture. The crucial role played by theatrical and performative techniques in fuelling this forensic turn has frequently been mentioned but never examined in detail. Political and poetic, Theatrical Performance and the Forensic Turn is the first account of the relationship between theatrical and forensic aesthetics. Exploring a rich variety of works that interrogate and resist the forensic turn, this is a must-read not only for scholars of theatre and performance but also of culture across the arts, sciences and social sciences.
Theatrical Speech Acts: Politics, Translations, Embodiments
by Erika Fischer-Lichte Torsten Jost Saskya Iris JainTheatrical Speech Acts: Performing Language explores the significance and impact of words in performance, probing how language functions in theatrical scenarios, what it can achieve under particular conditions, and what kinds of problems may arise as a result. Presenting case studies from around the globe—spanning Argentina, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Korea, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Thailand, the UK and the US—the authors explore key issues related to theatrical speech acts, such as (post)colonial language politics; histories, practices and theories of translation for/in performance; as well as practices and processes of embodiment. With scholars from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds examining theatrical speech acts—their preconditions, their cultural and bodily dimensions as well as their manifold political effects—the book introduces readers to a crucial linguistic dimension of historical and contemporary processes of interweaving performance cultures. Ideal for drama, theater, performance, and translation scholars worldwide, Theatrical Speech Acts opens up a unique perspective on the transformative power of language in performance.
Theatrical Unrest: Ten Riots in the History of the Stage, 1601-2004
by Sean McEvoyShortlisted for the 2017 Theatre Book Prize What is it about theatre, compared to other kinds of cultural representation, which provokes such a powerful reaction? Theatrical Unrest tells the compelling tales of ten riots whose cause lies on stage. It looks at the intensity and evanescence of the live event and asks whether theatre shares its unrepeatable quality with history. Tracing episodes of unrest in theatrical history from an Elizabethan uprising over Shakespeare's Richard II to Sikhs in revolt at Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's Behzti, Sean McEvoy chronicles a selection of extreme public responses to this inflammatory art form. Each chapter provides a useful overview of the structure and documentation of one particular event, juxtaposing eyewitness accounts with newspaper reports and other contemporary narratives. Theatrical Unrest is an absorbing account of the explosive impact of performance, and an essential read for anyone interested in theatre’s often violent history.
Theatrical Violence Design: Safety, Illusion, and Story in Stage Combat Choreography
by Richard Gilbert David BarefordTheatrical Violence Design offers the reader a complete education in the theory and practice of designing violence for the theater. From swordfights to exchanges of gunfire to domestic violence, the theater abounds in physical conflict. The artists who design that violence, sometimes called fight directors or choreographers, will find in this book an invaluable resource for becoming more expert at their craft. In the chapters of this book, they will encounter the core principles of creating violent effects, the body of knowledge with which they should be familiar, and the nuts and bolts of the process of design work from the first meeting with a director through closing night.This book is written for the student of stage combat to transition into violence design and will also be of interest to experienced violence designers and choreographers.
Theatricality and Performativity: Writings On Texture From Plato's Cave To Urban Activism (Performance Philosophy)
by Teemu PaavolainenThis book defines theatricality and performativity through metaphors of texture and weaving, drawn mainly from anthropologist Tim Ingold and philosopher Stephen C. Pepper. Tracing the two concepts’ various relations to practices of seeing and doing, but also to conflicting values of novelty and normativity, the study proceeds in a series of intertwining threads, from the theatrical to the performative: Antitheatrical (Plato, the Baroque, Michael Fried); Pro-theatrical (directors Wagner, Fuchs, Meyerhold, Brecht, and Brook); Dramatic (weaving memory in Shaffer’s Amadeus and Beckett’s Footfalls); Efficient (from modernist “machines for living in” to the “smart home”); Activist (knit graffiti, clown patrols, and the Anthropo(s)cene). An approach is developed in which ‘performativity’ names the way we tacitly weave worlds and identities, variously concealed or clarified by the step-aside tactics of ‘theatricality’.
Theatricality as Medium
by Samuel WeberEver since Aristotle's Poetics, both the theory and the practice of theater have been governed by the assumption that it is a form of representation dominated by what Aristotle calls the "mythos," or the "plot." This conception of theater has subordinated characteristics related to the theatrical medium, such as the process and place of staging, to the demands of a unified narrative. This readable, thought-provoking, and multidisciplinary study explores theatrical writings that question this aesthetical-generic conception and seek instead to work with the medium of theatricality itself. Beginning with Plato, Samuel Weber tracks the uneasy relationships among theater, ethics, and philosophy through Aristotle, the major Greek tragedians, Shakespeare, Kierkegaard, Kafka, Freud, Benjamin, Artaud, and many others who develop alternatives to dominant narrative-aesthetic assumptions about the theatrical medium. His readings also interrogate the relation of theatricality to the introduction of electronic media. The result is to show that, far from breaking with the characteristics of live staged performance, the new media intensify ambivalences about place and identity already at work in theater since the Greeks. Praise for Samuel Weber: “What kind of questioning is primarily after something other than an answer that can be measured . . . in cognitive terms? Those interested in the links between modern philosophy nd media culture will be impressed by the unusual intellectual clarity and depth with which Weber formulates the . . . questions that constiture the true challenge to cultural studies today. . . . one of our most important cultural critics and thinkers”—MLN
Theatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship
by Emma WillisTheatricality, Dark Tourism and Ethical Spectatorship: Absent Others builds upon recent literature concerning theatre and ethics and offers a uniquely interdisciplinary approach. With a focus on spectatorship, the book brings together analysis of dark tourism – travel to sites of death and disaster – and theatrical performances. At dark tourism sites, objects and architecture are often personified, imagined to speak on behalf of absent victims. Spectatorsare drawn into this dialogical scenario in that they are asked to 'hear' the voices of the dead. Theatrical performances that depict grievous histories often gain power through paradoxically demonstrating the limits of their representational ability: spectators are asked to attune themselves to absences and incomprehensibilities. This study asks whether playing the part of the listener can be understood in ethical terms. Sites surveyed span a broad geographical scope – Germany, Poland, Vietnam, Cambodia, New Zealand and Rwanda – and are brought into contrast with performances including: Jerzy Grotowski's Akropolis, Catherine Filloux's Photographs from S21, Adrienne Kennedy's An Evening with Dead Essex and Erik Ehn's Maria Kizito.
Theatricality, Playtexts and Society (Elements in Contemporary Performance Texts)
by David BarnettThis Element proposes a novel way of defining, understanding and approaching theatricality, a term that exists both in the theatre and, more broadly, in everyday life. It argues that four foundational, material processes of theatre-making manifest themselves in all playtexts in both overt and covert forms. Each of the four sections defines a different theatrical process, explores its functions in two chosen playtexts and examines its implications for the wider experience of the spectators outside the theatre. The Element concludes with a supplementary reflection on performance to show how even seemingly untheatrical playtexts can be analysed and staged to reveal their unspoken theatricality. It also argues that this new understanding of theatricality has a politics, that the artifice of any theatre and the constructedness of any society are analogous and that both, consequently, can be fundamentally changed. This Element is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Theban Plays
by Sophocles Paul Woodruff Peter MeineckThis volume offers the fruits of Peter Meineck and Paul Woodruff's dynamic collaboration on the plays of Sophocles' Theban cycle, presenting the translators' Oedipus Tyrannus (2000) along with Woodruff's Antigone (2001) and a muscular new Oedipus at Colonus by Meineck. Grippingly readable, all three translations combine fidelity to the Greek with concision, clarity, and powerful, hard-edged speech. Each play features foot-of-the-page notes, stage directions, and line numbers to the Greek. Woodruff's Introduction discusses the playwright, Athenian theatre and performance, the composition of the plays, and the plots and characters of each; it also offers thoughtful reflections on major critical interpretations of these plays.
Theft: A Play in Four Acts
by Jack LondonJack London (January 12, 1876 - November 22, 1916), was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild and other books. A pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first Americans to make a huge financial success from writing.The Scarlet Plague was written by Jack London and originally published in London Magazine in 1912. It was re-released in February of 2007 by Echo Library. The story takes place in 2072, sixty years after the scarlet plague has depopulated the planet. James Howard Smith is one of the few people left alive in the San Francisco area, and as he realizes his time grows short, he tries to impart the value of knowledge and wisdom to his grandsons.American society at the time of the plague has become severely stratified and there is a large hereditary underclass of servants and "nurses"; and the politcal system has been replaced by a formalized oligarchy. Commercial airship lines exist, as do some airships privately owned by the very rich.