Encountering Texts represents the theory and praxis uncovered through an ongoing interdisciplinary arts-based critical pedagogy that engages students in critical self-reflection (disciplined, sustained thinking, requiring engagement) on difference. The Multicultural Theatre Project (MTP) is a dialogical encounter with literature through the dramatic arts. This book provides a blueprint for the multiple ways in which this enacted theory/method can be utilized as a high impact practice toward transformative learning. The significance of minority literature as fertile testing ground for raising and seeking to answer questions about difference is undisputed. To address this dynamic, this research utilizes Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutical method of understanding to engage students in the interpretive process using theatre as methodology. Gadamer's concept, described as a fusion of horizons, provides a methodological approach by which students can bring their own "effective history" to the hermeneutical task. He argues that hidden prejudices keep the interpreter from hearing the text. Thus an awareness of these prejudices leads to an openness that allows the text to speak. The MTP facilitates this kind of subjectivity by engaging the interpreter holistically. This integrative work provides a promising pragmatic interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that creates bridges to liberatory knowledge, both cognitively and affectively.

Scenography Expanded is a foundational text offering readers a thorough introduction to contemporary performance design, both in and beyond the theatre. It examines the potential of the visual, spatial, technological, material and environmental aspects of performance to shape performative encounters. It analyses examples of scenography as sites of imaginative exchange and transformative experience and it discusses the social, political and ethical dimensions of performance design. The international range of contributors and case studies provide clear perspectives on why scenographic design has become a central consideration for performance makers today. The extended introduction defines the characteristics of 21st-century scenography and examines the scope and potentials of this new field. Across five sections, the volume provides examples and case studies which richly illustrate the scope of contemporary scenographic practice and which analyse the various ways in which it is used in global cultural contexts. These include mainstream theatre practice, experimental theatre, installation and live art, performance in the city, large-scale events and popular entertainments, and performances by and for specific communities.

Influential contemporary British playwright and director Howard Barker has been engaging with the scenography of the Wrestling School's productions since 1998. Despite this active involvement in the design of set, costume, lighting, and sound, no in-depth published study on this aspect of his work exists to date. This monograph therefore offers the first comprehensive and detailed analysis of Barker's scenographic practice. Combining aesthetic analysis of play texts and production records with original interview materials, this book presents the first full-length foray into Barker's scenography. It features extracts from conversations with designers working with Barker, and with Barker himself. In addition, it presents the first printed versions of select set and costume designs by Barker. With the first fully detailed analysis of Barker's scenographic work, this book will be a vital read for scholars and postgraduates of Barker Studies, contemporary British and European drama, theatre, and scenography.

Cruel Britannia: Sarah Kane's Postmodern Traumatics examines four plays by British playwright Sarah Kane (1971-1999), all written between 1995 and 1999 within the context of the "Cool Britannia", or "In-Yer-Face" London theatre movement of the 1990s. Kane's plays were notorious for their shocking productions and challenging and offensive subject matter. This book analyzes her plays as products of a long history of theatrical convention and experimentation, rather than trend. I read Kane's plays through an optic of trauma theory, and link the trauma to postmodern experience as defined by war, inter-personal violence, repetitive memory, and sex as medium of violence. Kane's plays' unrelenting violence and graphic depictions of violent sex suggest a relationship with theories and practices such as Artaud's theatre of cruelty, and Kroker and Cook's theory of the postmodern as sign of excremental culture and an inherently abject state of being. Through a play by play analysis I conclude that Kane's work suggests that violence and trauma are endemic to postmodern life, and are ultimately apocalyptic due to their culmination in Kane's final play, the suicide text of 4.48 Psychosis.

Krzysztof Warlikowski's work stands among the most remarkable phenomena in post-1989 European theater. This book joins Warlikowski's theater with the dynamic changes in Polish society following 1989, using strategies borrowed from psychoanalysis, theater anthropology, performance studies, and cultural poetics. This book is not only about an artist of the theater, but above all about the theater production as an object of the audience's desire, an object evoking fascination, revulsion, aversion, and opposition. This is why the performances are analyzed as a series of flash-points, constellations with powerful affective impacts. It focuses on fragments of social rituals, material objects with major potential to spark audience emotions, and gestures of violence. The piecemeal narrative serves to cull out aspects of Warlikowski's performances that could be read as symptoms of social drama.

Offers practical examples of blood effect budgets, outlining not just money but also labor needs. Contains a breakdown of the components for making an original blood recipe, as well as reliable, industry-tested recipes. Provides options for dispensing blood to create realistic effects for any budget size.

This book explores some of the less frequently questioned ideas which underpin comics creation and criticism. "Mise en scene" is a term which refers to the way in which visual elements work together to create meaning in comics. It is a term that comics have borrowed from cinema, which borrowed it in turn from theatre. But comics are not film and they are not cinema, so how can this term be of any use? If we consider comics to have mise en scene, should not we also ask if the characters in comics act like the characters on film and stage? In its exploration of these ideas, this book also asks what film and theatre can learn from comics.

A Theater Criticism/Arts Journalism Primer: Refereeing the Muses examines the skill set associated with being a critic and arts journalist. It explores the history, evolution, and future of the profession in the United States, and carefully and purposefully dissects the preparation, observation, and writing process associated with generating thoughtful and interesting arts criticism. Using theatrical productions as the best and most vivid example of a storytelling enterprise that employs creativity, imagination, collaboration, aesthetics, and artisanship to effectively engage an audience, this book is intended to generate the critical thinking and critical writing skills necessary to effectively engage in all forms of arts journalism. It is designed to be used as a college-level textbook on theater criticism and arts journalism courses, for those looking to become more thoughtful, critical consumers, for casual critics thinking about starting a blog or working for their university newspaper, and for working critics hoping to improve their craft. The text is written in an accessible style and includes quotes from renowned critics and arts practitioners throughout as well as frequent sidebars that offer timely, insightful, and entertaining examples of the points being made in the text.

Of all the playwrights from the age of Louis XIV, only Moliere's work is still regularly performed in France and beyond. This book analyses certain elements of the plays that may explain Moliere's longevity: a plausible chain of events peppered with shocks and surprises; tensions between opposites; intellectual concerns that had not previously been the province of comedy; and plots founded on situations that are anything but comic. These hallmarks added up to an intense type of comic theatre, meaningful in ways that gave the genre a new dimension. The author of this study does not treat Moliere's plays as variations on a single prototype, but brings a fresh approach to each. The book's witty, learned and penetrating readings examine critical issues such as the ambiguous anti-feminism of Les Femmes savantes, Moliere's revisions of the myth of Don Juan, 'conversion' as the theological starting point of Le Tartuffe, contrariety as the basis of comedies such as George Dandin and Le Misanthrope, and coded satire in the comedie-ballets. Each play is revealed to have a seamless comic design, while at the same time speaking to the wider world. Moliere's works are shown to be entirely and immediately involved in human society, in the social dimension of the human condition.

Learn how to create historically accurate costumes for Elizabethan period productions with Elizabethan Costume Design and Construction! Extensive coverage of a variety of costumes for both men and women of all social classes will allow you to be prepared for any costuming need, and step-by-step instructions will ensure you have the know-how to design and construct your garments. Get inspired by stunning, hand-drawn renderings of costumes used in real life productions like Mary Stuart as you're led through the design process. Detailed instructions will allow you to bring your designs to life and create a meticulously constructed costume.

This book provides practical examples of planning and organizing a paint shop in many different types of venues from community theatre to professional, summer stock to year-round. The text includes access to additional online resources such as extended interviews, downloadable informational posters and templates for budgeting and organizing, and videos walking through the use of templates and the budgeting process. Written for early career scenic artists in theatre and students of Scenic Art courses.

(Applause Books). David Merrick is the most astonishing showman of our time, and perhaps of all time. No other producer, not even Florenz Ziegfeld nor the combined lights of the Shubert brothers, has equalled his percentage of hits or his demonic flair for publicity. In this first-ever biography, Howard Kissel from his decade-long investigation reveals the man, the mask, and the myth of David Merrick. The charismatic and reclusive mogul emerges as a Broadway version of Howard Hughes, with his own panoply of eccentricities, genius and neuroses. Merrick's much publicized and oftentimes staged battles and feuds are re-ignited here full force with such major personalities as Barbra Streisand, Jackie Gleason, Ethel Merman, Lena Horne, Woody Allen, Peter Ustinov, Andy Griffith, Anthony Newley, Peter Brook, and Carol Channing. Over a hundred interviews with the major players in Merrick's drama from his pre-Merrick St. Louis childhood as David Margoulies to his latest divorce has yielded the first serious interrogation of a life that until now has been the sole creation of Merrick's own invention and press wizardry.

Curriculum and the Aesthetic Life brings together over 20 years of scholarly work by dancer, educator, and scholar Donald S. Blumenfeld-Jones on the intersection of curriculum theory and practice with aesthetics, ethics, and hermeneutic inquiry, focusing on the body and emotions and the theory and practice of Arts-Based Education Research, including his noted "Hogan Dreams." He brings to his work an aesthetic sensibility developed over 40 years of active involvement in the arts as well as a Frankfurt School critical theory orientation and a constant concern for building an ethical world through cultivating an aesthetic awareness. This linking of aesthetics and ethics makes a unique contribution to the theoretical foundations of curriculum theory and educational philosophy. Always concerned with connections to practice, this book provides many examples of curriculum practice and teaching as well as scholarly studies of curriculum work. This book is essential reading for anyone involved in the arts and education.

Learn first-rate techniques and tips from some of the best makeup artists in the business in the new edition of The Makeup Artist Handbook. Renown makeup pros Gretchen Davis and Mindy Hall bring an impressive set of experience in all areas to the book, including work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Steve Jobs, The Wolf of Wall Street, Blue Jasmine, Star Trek, Pearl Harbor, HBO’s Looking and many other films and TV shows. This full-color, comprehensive new edition offers brand new photographs and on-the-job examples to demonstrate makeup techniques and fundamentals on topics such as beauty, time periods, black and white photography and up-to-date information on cutting-edge techniques like computer-generated characters, makeup effects, mold-making, air brushing, and plenty of information on how to work effectively on set.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments/Dedications

Chapter 1 Shapes

Chapter 2 The Body

Chapter 3 Color

Chapter 4 Lighting

Chapter 5 Technology

Chapter 6 Foundations

Chapter 7 Basics

Chapter 8 Beauty

Chapter 9 Design

Chapter 10 Hair

Chapter 11 Airbrush

Chapter 12 Effects

Chapter 13 How to Be a Pro

Cosmetics, Tools, Labs, and Effects

The Crew

Glossary

Professional Library

The Pros

Unions

Index

When Black runway models began throwing phones and VH1's "Divas Live" riveted viewers, a new paradigm for Black women had fully evolved in the form of the Black Diva. Tracing the trajectory of the Diva figure from the Italian castrati to Ntozake Shange's Liliane: Resurrection of the Daughter suggests a way around staid and fixed stereotypes about Black womanhood. The Black Diva performs her demands as a quintessential act of survival in a hostile and racist world; she is both a product of and a mark against the male gaze, Black and white. Ultimately, Tipping on a Tightrope: Divas in African American Literature uses present popular culture incarnations of the Diva to detail her long relationship with Black American literary culture.

Originating in the conference held at the University of Cambridge in 2009, this collection of essays includes a range of innovative papers from across the diverse field of French and Francophone studies. From medieval texts to the dramatization of the novel, from postcolonial writing to the politics of film and the bande dessinee, the articles in this collection draw on recent developments in the theories of adaptation, translation, and cultural and textual transition. In keeping with these developments, they move the notion of adaptation away from questions of authenticity and fidelity, thinking instead about the movement across texts and time, and the way such movement generates new meanings. Offering insightful approaches to its subjects of study, the book is an engaging contribution to this growing area of research.

- Exciting new edition, containing new information on industry practices and protocols. - Contains first-hand information written by an experienced Broadway Assistant Lighting Designer and case studies from 120 working professionals. - This is the only book to cover the ins and outs of the role of the Assistant Lighting Designer.

This book brings together twelve specially commissioned essays that showcase current research on Spanish Republican exile theatre and performance, including work by some of the foremost scholars in the field. Covering a range of periods, geographical locations and theatrical phenomena, the essays are united by the common question of what it means to 'stage exile', exploring the relationship between space, identity and performance in order to excavate the place of theatre in Spanish Republican exile production. Each chapter takes a particular case study as a starting point in order to assess the place of a particular text, practitioner or performance within Hispanic theatre tradition and then goes on to examine the case study's relationship with the specific sociocultural context in which it was located and/or produced. The authors investigate wider issues concerning the recovery and performability of these documentary traces, addressing their position within the contemporary debate over historical and cultural memory, their relationship to the contemporary stage, the insights they offer into the experience and performance of exile, and their contribution to contemporary configurations of identity and community in the Hispanic world. Through this commitment to interdisciplinary debate, the volume offers a new and invigorating reimagination of twentieth-century Hispanic theatre from the margins.

This work presents a detailed study of the five key ballet organisations that operated in Ireland between 1927 and 1963: the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet, the Abbey School of Ballet, the Sara Payne School and Company, the Irish Ballet Club and the National Ballet School and Company. By examining a previously neglected dimension of Irish artistic life, this study aims to provide a greater appreciation of the various roles that ballet has played in the development of Irish cultural activity. It records the rich interaction between the different dance artists and movements and their collaborators across the entire spectrum of Irish artistic endeavour, including Cecil ffrench Salkeld, F. R. Higgins, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Kavanagh, J. F. Larchet, Louis le Brocquy, Elizabeth Maconchy, Donagh MacDonagh, Brinsley MacNamara, Micheal Mac Laimmoir, Norah McGuinness, A. J. Potter, Lennox Robinson, Michael Bowles, Mary Devenport O'Neill, Anne Yeats and W. B. Yeats. This book breaks significant new ground for an area in which little published information exists. The author pieces together research on the schools and companies from interviews, ballet programmes, playbills, libretti, scores, memoirs, contemporary press reviews, literary articles and photographs, to form a fascinating narrative of the under-researched world of Irish ballet.

This is the first anthology to explore the fertile intersection of dance and political studies. It offers new perspectives on the connections of dance to governmental, state and party politics, war, nationalism, activism, terrorism, human rights, political ideologies and cultural policy. This cutting-edge book features previously unpublished work by leading scholars of dance, theatre, politics, and management, alongside renowned contemporary choreographers, who propose innovative ways of looking at twentieth- and twenty-first-century dance. Topics covered range across the political spectrum: from dance tendencies under fascism to the use of choreography for revolutionary socialist ends; from the capacity of dance to reflect the modern market economy to its function in campaigns for peace and justice. The book also contains a comprehensive introduction to the relations between dance and politics.

Universally proclaimed as the most important Spanish playwright of the last half of the twentieth century, Antonio Buero Vallejo was deemed by a Madrid theater critic to be the greatest author of theater since Calderon de la Barca. This book explores ten of Buero's thirty plays, utilizing literary approaches ranging from the traditional to the radical. It breaks new ground by indicating how contemporary analyses can extrapolate vital interpretations in addition to what has been previously observed in Buero's theater. Simultaneously, the study metonymically evokes the depth and breadth of the plays not studied herein, suggesting they hold unexplored treasures for prospective explorers of the playwright's work.

This book deals with the process of negotiation with the past in the present through the plays of Marina Carr. The title frames the work, connoting the path towards destruction and the sense of lethargy acquired along the way. The book offers an in-depth and extensive reading of Carr's plays. In doing so, it surveys some of the destructive issues represented in the works and provides a series of social and cultural contexts to which the concerns in the works are related. Carr is best known for her trilogy, The Mai, Portia Coughlan and By the Bog of Cats..., and more recently Woman and Scarecrow, The Cordelia Dream and Marble. The plays are regularly concerned with notions of identity in the context of self-destruction, self-estrangement and displacement. This book applies Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to Carr's plays in an effort to structure the loss the author identifies in the works. Themes of memory, history and myth are examined in the context of these concerns in provocative and confrontational ways.

'Adrian Noble vigorously highlights the extraordinary rhythmic, linguistic patterns Shakespeare gives the speaker. Any actor will find this book invaluable. For any student of Shakespeare it should be essential.' (From the Foreword by Ralph Fiennes)

'How can I bring the text alive, make it vivid, how do I make people hear it for the first time? How can I enter into that world and not feel a stranger. How can I not feel clumsy and inept? ... How can I speak it without sounding artificial or "actory"? In other words, how can I make it real ...?'

Adrian Noble has worked on Shakespeare with everyone from oscar-nominated actors to groups of schoolchildren. Here he draws on several decades of top-level directing experience to shed new light on how to bring some of theatre s seminal texts to life.

He shows you how to approach the perennial issues of performing Shakespeare, including:

• wordplay using colour and playing plain, wit and comedy, making language muscular
• building a character different strategies, using the text, Stanislavski and Shakespeare
• shape and structure headlining a speech, playing soliloquys, determining a speech s purpose and letting the verse empower you
• dialogue building tension, sharing responsibility and passing the ball .

This guided tour of Shakespeare s complex but unfailingly rewarding work stunningly combines instruction and inspiration.

This is the first book to analyse the cultural representations of female identity that were created by the interaction between choreography and literary writing in German modernism. It explores the connections between dance, literature and gender discourses with a focus on a key period of the Austro-German dance scene: the years between 1900 and 1933. Drawing on influential feminist and gender theories, this book evaluates the choreographies of leading artists such as Grete Wiesenthal, Mary Wigman, Valeska Gert, Anita Berber, and the sensational 'dream' dancer Madeleine Guipet. In response to growing criticism of ballet, German modern dance reflected and helped shape a reassessment of images of the female, embracing both essentialist and constructionist models of femininity. It also triggered a range of literary responses from dance artists themselves and from contemporary authors - some high-profile, others less well known. This interdisciplinary work offers analyses and part-translations of texts by Alfred Doblin, Frank Wedekind and Carl Sternheim, amongst others, which have to date received little attention in Anglo-American cultural studies due to their unavailability in English.

How do objects 'speak' to us? What happens to authorship when voice is projected into inanimate objects? How can one articulate an object into speech? Is the inarticulate body necessarily silent? These are just some of the questions brought up by this unique and unusual collection of essays, which presents subjects and categories often overlooked by the disciplines of art history, visual culture, theatre history and comparative literature. Drawing from and expanding upon the 'Performing Objects, Animating Images' academic session run by the Henry Moore Institute at the Association of Art Historians conference, held in London in 2003, this book presents thirteen essays that bring together a multidisciplinary approach to the animated object. Contributions range from literal accounts of magic lanterns, tableaux vivants, puppets and ventriloquist dummies, to the more abstract notions of voice displacement in audio art and authorship projection in writing machines. The contributors come from diverse backgrounds in art history, cultural history, comparative literature, and artistic, theatrical and curatorial practice, and all tackle the issue of 'articulate objects' from a range of lively and unexpected perspectives.