This book seeks to bring to life the prolonged dawning of American drama, to outline America's continued quest for a national drama and theatre, and to provide a survey of the development of dramatic criticism in the United States. For more than a century, dramatists and critics alike were in search of a distinct American drama. Wolter reconstructs this search through the contemporary writing that reflected the attitudes and values of the period and attempted to define the future of the country's theatre. After a historical survey of theatrical criticism in America, Wolter provides a comprehensive anthology of representative texts on the state of America theatre prior to 1915. This is followed by a bibliography of more than 500 articles from over 150 years of American theatrical criticism. Augmented by an index of names and key terms referred to in the texts, the volume is an essential guide for scholars of American theatre and cultural history.

"Theatre and Religion on Krishna's Stage" examines the history and form of India's "ras lila" folk theatre, and discusses how this theatre functions as a mechanism of worship and spirituality among Krishna devotees in India. From analyses of performances and conversations with performers, audience, and local scholars, Mason argues that "ras lila" actors and audience alike actively assume roles that locate them together in the spiritual reality that the play represents. Correlating Krishna devotion and theories of religious experience, this book suggests that the emotional experience of theatrical fiction may arise from the propensity of audiences to play out roles of their own through which they share a performance's reality.

Japanese Robot Culture examines social robots in Japan, those in public, domestic, and artistic contexts. Unlike other studies, this book sees the robot in relation to Japanese popular culture, and argues that the Japanese 'affinity' for robots is the outcome of a complex loop of representation and social expectation in the context of Japan's continuing struggle with modernity. Considering Japanese robot culture from the critical perspectives afforded by theatre and performance studies, this book is concerned with representations of robots and their inclusion in social and cultural contexts, which science and engineering studies do not address. The robot as a performing object generates meaning in staged events and situations that make sense for its Japanese observers and participants. This book examines how specific modes of encounter with robots in carefully constructed mises en scene can trigger reflexive, culturally specific, and often ideologically-inflected responses.

In this wide-ranging book, the author weaves a tale of the Franciscan missionary theatre in early colonial Mexico and indigenous dramatizations on the theme of conquest in modern Mexico. The book tells the story of a Jewish playwright in 17th-century Spain who dramatized Christian evangelism in the New World, offering fresh readings of representations of the conquest of Mexico by Dryden and Artaud, and engages in a lively dialogue with Bakhtin's insistence that drama is a monological genre.;This study of the theatre develops into an original meditation on the ethics of cross-cultural encounter offering a new, dialogical model for human and religious encounter in a pluralistic world. By the author of "Theatre and Incarnation". Max Harris has also published articles on literature and religion in "Bulletin of the Comediantes", "Journal of the American Academy of Religion", "Medium Aevum", "Modern Drama", "Radical History Review" and "Restoration".

- A comprehensive and accessible introduction to the essential elements of choreography - practice, theory and contexts - Invaluable for any undergraduate students on Dance Studies or Dance BfA courses across the UK, US and Europe - Gives a much more current and contemporary take on the discipline than most books in this area, aimed at a younger, student audience

Gertrude Stein's dramatic texts rely on the absence of many landmarks of traditional theatre, but absence is a very difficult thing to stage. Iconoclastic directors and production teams - including Virgil Thomson, the Living Theatre, the Judson Poets Theatre, the Santa Fe Opera, the Glimmerglass Opera, the Wooster Group, Robert Wilson, Anne Bogart, Frank Galati and Heiner Goebbels - have ardently roamed Stein's spare dramatic 'landscapes', but even these convention-defying artists had to fill some of her absences in order to bring the texts to life on stage. Inevitably contemporary culture infiltrates Stein's pristine topography via these extra-textual additions, transforming it in ways virtually unimaginable when the reader encounters the text on the printed page. It is only by mapping the intersections of written text, performance text, and context, that one can gain a full appreciation of what Stein's dramatic writing has meant at various historical moments, how she herself has been imagined, and how her writing has transformed the landscape of the American alternative theatre.

This collection focuses primarily on Irish playwrights and their works, both in text and on stage during the latter half of the twentieth century. The central figure is Samuel Beckett, whom the contributors use as a springboard to discuss contemporary playwrights such as Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Marina Carr, and Conor McPherson, amongst others.

This volume considers prewar theatre in Hitler's Germany, a previously neglected subject in theatre history. An extended introduction sets the theatre scene of 1933 and charts the major theatre regulations and organizations formed that year. The initial essay examines the unified folk community used to achieve power and served by purged and revived German art. Plays that achieved great success in Nazi Germany--"Die endlose Strasse" by Sigmund Graff and six works by Eberhard Wolfgang Moller--are considered. In essays devoted to specific theatres, the work examines how Reinhardt's Grosses Schauspielhaus fared under the Nazis and how the regional Detmold Stadttheater was obliged to observe the new politicized aesthetics.

The famous and privileged actor Werner Krauss is the subject of an essay on artistic responsibility, while a chapter on three famed directors--Grundgens, Fehling, and Hilpert--shows how artists maneuvered for artistic freedom. The Propaganda Ministry's first national festival in Dresden in 1934 is covered. The final two essays look at minority theatre--Jewish theatre in the anti-Semitic Third Reich and, as a postscript to the volume, theatre in the Nazi concentration camps.

This book examines the enactment of gendered in/equalities across diverse Cultural forms, turning to the insights produced through the specific modes of onto-epistemological enquiry of embodied performance. It builds on work from the GRACE (Gender and Cultures of Equality in Europe) project and offers both theoretical and methodological analyses of an array of activities and artworks. The performative manifestations discussed include theatre, installations, social movements, mega-events, documentaries, and literary texts from multiple geopolitical locales. Engaging with the key concepts of re-enactment and relationality, the contributions explore the ways in which in/equalities are relationally re-produced in and through individual and collective bodies. This multi- and trans-disciplinary collection of essays creates fruitful dialogues within and beyond Performance Studies, sitting at the crossroads of ethnography, event studies, social movements, visual studies, critical discourse analysis, and contemporary approaches to textualities emerging from post-colonial and feminist studies.

This work is a timely contribution to the debates surrounding feminism, theatre and performance. The excellent, cross-generational mix of theatre scholars and practitioners engaging in lively, cutting-edge debates on critical topics make this essential reading for students and scholars in Theatre and Performance Studies as well as Gender Studies.

AS and A level Drama is changing, from September 2016 there will be a new A level Drama and Theatre qualification covering the revised criteria. Pearson's brand new published resources are designed to support teachers in delivering the content in a practical and engaging way and help students of all abilities prepare for the new exam. 1) Tailor-made for the new specification New resources written specifically for the new Edexcel AS and A level Drama specification, to cover all components of the new qualification. 2) Focus on exam preparation Specific guidance for students focusing on exam skills, with sample answers and commentaries and support around analysing and evaluation for the portfolio. 3) A practical focus at the heart Our course is designed to support the new Edexcel specification in its practical focus. Our new resources provide worksheets, teaching notes and practical workshop ideas to help students engage with the set texts. 4) Designed to help every student make progress Clearly structured sections help students of all abilities develop the skills needed throughout the course, with support for lower ability students with written work. The Edexcel AS and A Level Drama and Theatre Student Book focuses on supporting students throughout the course in developing the skills they need for the exam component, Theatre Makers in Practice. The Student Book includes: guidance and activities for studying and exploring all the set texts introductions to set practitioners and support on developing knowledge and understanding of their methodologies support with analysing and evaluating live theatre productions guidance on responding to unseen extracts in the exam a Preparing for your Exam section with sample answers and commentaries for both AS and A level assessments. The Edexcel AS/A Level Drama and Theatre ActiveBook is an online edition of the Student Book that can be personalised with annotations and notes, designed for independent student access anywhere, any time.

The Family of Love charts a successful love intrigue between the cash-strapped Gerardine, and Maria, the sequestered niece of the mercenary Doctor Glister. Their romance unfolds against the dissection of two citizen marriages, the Glisters' and the Purges'. Mistress Purge attends Familist meetings independently, arousing her husband's suspicions about her marital fidelity. Two libertines, Lipsalve and Gudgeon, go in search of sex and solubility (freedom from constipation), receiving more than they bargain for in respect of the latter. This scholarly edition of Family of Love marks the first occasion on which the comedy is attributed to Lording Barry in print. It brings together literary and historical discussion with a thorough analysis of the play's disputed authorship. Tomlinson highlights Barry's rich vein of burlesque humour in a comedy that combines magic, a trunk, and a mock-court session with vigorous colloquial language. -- .

The end result of a forty-year avocation, this unique dictionary presents information about scenographic practitioners from ancient Greece through the nineteenth century in those countries with major theatre traditions. Although occasional volumes have dealt with individual theatrical painters, few theatrical encyclopedias even attempt international coverage. The text is an alphabetical listing of all the artists who participated in stage design and scene painting. Considerable effort has gone into the correlation between the scenic painters and their work outside the theatre. Many scene painters achieved substantial careers in other artistic callings; their stature imparts appropriate luster to the lonely role of the scenic artist. The bibliography details the 435 sources documenting the known vitae and samples the recorded activity of the artists. An appendix presents a listing of the artists by country of their major theatrical effort in chronological order of their flourish dates. By providing access to information about graphic solutions used in past periods of theatrical production, this book can assist the scenographic artist solve current design problems. It belongs in all theatrical library collections.

Many scene painters achieved substantial careers in other artistic callings; their stature imparts appropriate luster to the lonely role of the scenic artist. The bibliography details the 435 sources documenting the known vitae and samples the recorded activity of the artists. An appendix presents a listing of the artists by country of their major theatrical effort in chronological order of their flourish dates. By providing access to information about graphic solutions used in past periods of theatrical production, this book can assist the scenographic artist solve current design problems. It belongs in all theatrical library collections.

This book explores the changing representation on the early modern stage of the built environment of London. It covers a period in which the city underwent rapid growth to become the country's first metropolis, and it examines how the urban environment becomes part of the frame of reference of the drama that is set there.

Since the 1920s, an endless flow of studies has analyzed the political systems of fascism, theseizure of power, the nature of the regimes, the atrocities committed, and, finally, the wars waged against other countries. However, much less attention has been paid to the strategies of persuasion employed by the regimes to win over the masses for their cause. Among these, fascist propaganda has traditionally been seen as the key means of influencing public opinion. Only recently has the "fascination with Fascism" become a topic of enquiry that has also formed the guiding interest of this volume: it offers, for the first time, a comparative analysis of the forms and functions of theater in countries governed by fascist or para-fascist regimes. By examining a wide spectrum of theatrical manifestations in a number of States with a varying degree of fascistization, these studies establish some of the similarities and differences between the theatrical cultures of several cultures in the interwar period.

This is a timely contribution to the debates regarding future possibilities for feminism, theater, and performance. An excellent, cross-generational mix of theater scholars (Sue-Ellen Case, Dee Heddon, Meenakshi Ponnuswami, Janelle Reinelt, Joanne Tompkins) and practitioners (Anna Furse, Leslie Hill and Helen Paris, SuAndi) engage in lively, cutting-edge critical debates on topics that include citizenship, autobiography, cultural heritage and politcal agency as circulating in contemporary feminism and performance.

This lively and provocative study offers a radical reappraisal of a century of Shakespearean theatre. Topics addressed include modernist Shakespearean performance's relation with psychoanalysis, the hidden gender dynamics of the open stage movement, and the appropriation of Shakespeare himself as a dramatic fiction and theatrical icon.

Focusing specifically on solo making and performing, this unique and exciting text allows the experts to speak for themselves. In interviews with Misri Dey, six recognised solo performers working across a range of performance genres - including theatre, dance, live and performance art, site-specific performance, music video and film - provide insightful and practical strategies for creative making and performing processes. Interviewees include Bryony Kimmings, Tim Etchells, Bobby Baker, Mike Pearson, Wendy Houstoun and Nigel Charnock. Engaging and accessible, this is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Theatre, Performance and Acting, scholars, lecturers and performance practitioners. It will also appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Women's Studies, Creative Writing and the Visual Arts.

Child labor greatly contributed to the cultural and economic success of the British Victorian theatrical industry. This book highlights the complexities of the battle for child labor laws, the arguments for the needs of the theatre industry, and the weight of opposition that confronted any attempt to control employers.

The Theatre of Societas Raffaello Sanzio chronicles four years in the life of an extraordinary Italian theatre company whose work is widely recognized as some of the most exciting theatre currently being made in Europe. In the first English-language book to document their work, company founders, Claudia Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, discuss their approach to theatre making with Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout. At the centre of the book is a detailed exploration of the company's eleven episode cycle of tragic theatre, Tragedia Endogonida (2002-2004,) including: production notes and extensive correspondence giving insights into the creative process essays by and conversations with company members alongside critical responses by their two co-authors seventy-two photographs of the company's work. This is a significant collection of theoretical and practical reflections on the subject of theatre in the twenty-first century, and an indispensible written and visual document of the company's work.

The Theatre of Soc etas Raffaello Sanzio chronicles four years in the life of an extraordinary Italian theatre company whose work is widely recognized as some of the most exciting theatre currently being made in Europe.

In the first English-language book to document their work, company founders, Claudia Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, discuss their approach to theatre making with Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout.

At the centre of the book is a detailed exploration of the company's eleven episode cycle of tragic theatre, Tragedia Endogonida (2002 2004, ) including:

• production notes and extensive correspondence giving insights into the creative process
• essays by and conversations with company members alongside critical responses by their two co-authors
• seventy-two photographs of the company's work.

This is a significant collection of theoretical and practical reflections on the subject of theatre in the twenty-first century, and an indispensible written and visual document of the company's work.

This volume in the Routledge Key Guides series provides a round-up of the fifty musicals whose creations were seminal in altering the landscape of musical theater discourse in the English-speaking world. Each entry summarises a show, including a full synopsis, discussion of the creators' process, show's critical reception, and its impact on the landscape of musical theater. This is the ideal primer for students of musical theater - its performance, history, and place in the modern theatrical world - as well as fans and lovers of musicals.

'See that's the problem with this family innit, we never wanna talk real about Ife.' In the wake of the sudden death of their eldest son, Ife, one family is forced to confront the traumas they've long tried to bury. As the sun beats down on their cramped North London flat, and the head of the family arrives from Ethiopia for the funeral, tensions rise, cultures clash and past betrayals are unearthed. A tense, funny and explosive drama exploring what it means to belong, and what happens when a family's secrets shake its foundations. House of Ife premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in April 2022, directed by Artistic Director Lynette Linton. Beru Tessema is an Ethiopian-British writer based in London. His stage play, Exile in North Weezy, was shortlisted for the prestigious Papatango Playwriting Prize 2020. He began his relationship with the Bush on their Emerging Writers' Group, and House of Ife was written on commission.