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An interactive text covering the requirements of undergraduate and diploma courses in theatre, drama and performing arts, successfully integrating both practical and theoretical work. The authors draw on considerable experience of contemporary practice and provide fascinating examples of theatre at work through text and improvisation.
'Elaine Aston's Foreword should persuade those teaching and studying university courses in drama and theatre that this book is one of the founding texts on feminism and theatre, and should be revisited.' - Robert Burden, University of Teesside, UK
The use of film and video is widespread in contemporary theatre. Staging the Screen explores a variety of productions, ranging from Piscator to Forced Entertainment, charting the impact of developing technologies on practices in dramaturgy and performance.
This guide to modernism and performance introduces key developments and debates of the period, such as the rise of the director, new theories of acting and new modes of production.
There is a growing interest in 'dramaturgy' as a critical concept and as a practical process. Outlining different perspectives this book introduces both concept and practice in an accessible and engaging style.
Cool Britannia? draws on new research to create a critical framework for approaching the drama of this period. It examines the work of established playwrights as well as the generation of young writers who emerged in the mid-1990s and explores a wide variety of key issues including cultural politics and constructions of race and gender.
'Clear, engaging and informative.....The advice offered by the practitioners - those who have been there and are still there - is invaluable, and indeed inspirational.' - Dr. Deirdre Heddon, University of Glasgow, UK
Offers a comprehensive overview of the use of autobiography in performance. Examining the work of key practitioners, Heddon argues that autobiographical performances act as sites of resistance and intervention and uncovers the political potentials and limits that accompany the use of the personal in performance
The book charts the development of collaboratively-created performances from the 1950s to the present day. Companies discussed include the Living Theatre, Open Theatre, Australian Performing Group, People Show, Teatro Campesino, Théâtre de Complicité, Legs on the Wall, Forced Entertainment and Third Angel. Against this background of enormous variety, fundamental questions are posed: 'What is devised theatre?'; 'Why have theatre-makers chosen to devise performances since the 1950s?' and 'How has devised performance changed over the last fifty years?'
Helen Nicholson examines the ways in which drama and theatre have been applied to different community and educational contexts. She provides an overview of the theoretical concepts underpinning practice in applied drama and theatre and examines a range of practices in the light of contemporary theoretical and political concerns. Applied drama has a radical democratic history, and this book explores how practitioners confront questions of community, creativity and citizenship in theatre which is orientated towards social change.
Technology has always been an important part of theatre, both as a means to an end and as end in itself. Throughout the 20th century a unifying attitude in all art forms is the desire to examine the materials and the tools of making art. In the theatre this approach significantly expands the relationships between technology, scenography and performance. This book explores ways in which development and change in technology have been reflected in scenography, and considers how change in scenographic identity has impacted upon the place and meaning of performance.
This book is intended for undergraduates on courses in drama, theatre or performing arts, providing an informative and accessible guide to the subject. It will help students understand their main textbooks and wider reading, will be a source of definitions for use in essays and other assignments, and will be especially useful as a revision aid. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction to the concepts it embraces, followed by an alphabetical listing of those concepts. Students are encouraged to use the frequent cross-referencing as a means of seeing their studies in a wider context and with an integrated approach. The book has a fully comprehensive index, allowing the reader to follow themes running through the entries.
'Excellent, succinct notes and introductions to each play.'- John Carey, The Sunday Times
This compact paperback edition of The Complete Works is designed for undergraduate students and includes introductory essays for each play, outstanding on-page glossary notes, a clear single-column page design with plenty of space for writing notes and photographs from the RSC archive.
Developed in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company, this fresh edition of Shakespeare's sonnets and other poems offers a completely new introduction from renowned scholar Jonathan Bate, outstanding on-page explanatory notes and a clear, easy-to-read design.
A new edition of one of Shakespeare's most exciting tragedies, developed by and for the RSC, this book explores the play's history in production, offers helpful notes and summaries to help the reader understand the text, and includes interviews with three leading directors - Rupert Goold, Gregory Foran and Trevor Nunn.
From the Royal Shakespeare Company, this fresh edition offers new insight into Shakespeare's dark tragedy through interviews with leading directors Adrian Noble, Trevor Nunn and Deborah Warner, outstanding scene-by-scene analysis and on-page notes, and a thought-provoking new introduction from celebrated scholar Jonathan Bate.
This new edition of Shakespeare's classic love story, developed by and for the RSC, includes new interviews with acclaimed directors Adrian Noble, Gregory Doran and Braham Murray, looks at specific productions in the play's history, and a completely new introduction by acclaimed scholar Jonathan Bate.
This fresh new edition of one of Shakespeare's last plays, developed with the RSC, presents an easy-to-read overview of the play's performance history, including interviews with directors Dominic Cooke, Adrian Noble and Gregory Doran, and provides concise scene-by scene analyses and textual notes offering innovative new insights into the text.
The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of Hamlet in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors - Michael Boyd, Ron Daniels and John Caird - so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of Love's Labour's Lost in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors - Terry Hands, Liz Shipman and Gregory Doran- so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
The most enjoyable way to understand a Shakespeare play is to see it or participate in it. This book presents a historical overview of A Midsummer Night's Dream in performance, recommends film versions, takes a detailed look at specific productions and includes interviews with three leading Directors - Michael Boyd, Gregory Doran and Tim Supple - so that we may get a sense of the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible - a variety that gives Shakespeare his unique capacity to be reinvented and made 'our contemporary' four centuries after his death.
Developed by and for the Royal Shakespeare Company, this new edition includes outstanding on-page notes, a comprehensive scene-by-scene summary, a new introduction from Jonathan Bate and interviews with celebrated directors Peter Brook, Sam Mendes and Rupert Goold, offering illuminating new angles on Shakespeare's magical vision.
With interviews with actors and directors including Simon Russell Beale, Bill Alexander and Richard Eyre, along with detailed looks at productions at the RSC and elsewhere, this new edition of the play offers innovative ways of looking at and understanding Shakespeare, as well as student-friendly notes and summaries.
What is ethics and what has it got to do with theatre? Drawing on both theoretical material and practical examples, Ridout makes a clear and compelling critical intervention, raising fundamental questions about what theatre is for and how audiences interact with it.
Keheller explores the relationship between theatre and politics, challenging some of the assumptions that often arise when they are brought together. The book engages with both a broad range of key theoretical material from Plato to Rancière, and theatrical examples from Shakespeare and his adaptors through Peter Handke to Debbie Tucker Green.
A provocative overview of the questions raised by theatrical encounters between performers and audiences, drawing on examples that have sought to generate active audience involvement from Brecht's epic theatre to The Blue Man Group. It argues for more audience-responsive approaches to what theatre does for those who witness, watch or participate.
With its impassioned plays, inspired activism and outspoken artists, the theatre has long provided a venue for promoting and practising human rights; but is this always to the good? Drawing on an international range of examples, this short, sharp and timely book examines the theatre's support for - and challenges to - human rights today.
How do power dynamics, ideologies and identity play out in relations between theatre and the city? Evaluating material conditions such as architecture and performative practices such as urban activism, Harvie argues both contribute to understanding the complex economies and ecologies of theatre and performance in an increasingly urbanized world.
What is globalization? What role is there for the theatre in a globalizing world? Drawing on sources from Aeschylus to The Lion King, Chekhov to Complicite, tragedy to advertising, this original and provocative book explores the contribution that the theatre has made to our slowly evolving consciousness of our world as a whole.
Theatre & Education provides an insight into the energy, passion and values that have inspired the most inventive theatre-makers who work with young people in educational settings. It argues that the aesthetic principles and educational ideals that inform theatre & education drive at the heart of why theatre matters.
Bodies are active and dynamic elements of theatre production and spectatorship. They are important concepts as well as objects within theatre. This book examines the rich and complex relationships between the uses of bodies in theatre and the ways in which bodies are culturally imagined and understood in theatre.
