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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Theatre, drama > General
This unique book examines theatre practice that takes place within
a range of health and care settings from medical training to
advocacy projects for service users. Drawing on a range of case
studies, the book provides insights into working practices as well
as posing critical questions in relation to the field.
"This original study offers a timely reconsideration of the work of
French hilosopher Jean-Franois Lyotard in relation to art,
performance and writing. How can we write about art, whilst
acknowledging the transformation that inevitably accompanies
translations of both media and temporality? That is the question
that persistently dogs Lyotard's own writings on art, and to which
this book responds through reference to artists from the
recently-formed canon of performance art history, including the
myths of seminal figures Marina Abramovic and Vito Acconci, and the
controlled documentation of Gina Pane's actions. Through the
unstable, untranslatable element that Lyotard calls the figural,
his thought is brought to bear on attempts to write a history of
performance art and to question the paradoxically prescriptive
demand for rules to govern 're-performance'. Kiff Bamford
contextualises Lyotard's writings and approach with reference to
both his contemporaries, including Deleuze and Kristeva, and the
contemporary art about which they wrote, whilst arguing for the
pertinence of Lyotard's provocations today."
This is the first collection of primary sources that addresses the
amateur theatre produced by the workers in the first decade after
the Russian Revolution. Newly translated from the Russian, the
essays capture both theoretical articulations on the scene - by
luminaries such as Alexander Bogdanov, Platon Kerzhentsev, Valerian
Pletnev, Alexander Mgebrov and Valentin Smyshliaev - and the more
fleeting descriptions and first-hand accounts of the productions
staged, accounts and voices which are typically harder to capture.
The essays tell a story of unabashed optimism in the creativity of
the working classes. They speak of the use of theatre to carve a
public and political role in the construction of a new world. The
sources, however, also exhibit the flipside of the scene, or the
sombre difficulties faced by the amateur actors and the incessant
calls to raise standards through professional help. The narrative
developed is that of an amateur theatre which began as an
autonomous and heterogeneous activity but which by the mid-to-late
1920s was transformed into a regulated practice and a space for
cultural programming. The collection makes an important
contribution to our understanding of modern theatre: scholarship
conventionally tackles the canonical names from the professional
world but gives little attention to the more down-to-earth forms of
performance taking place in factories, clubs and amateur circles.
An introductory essay also highlights the range and significance of
the collection and draws links between the essays.
This book examines the various ways in which national theatres have
formed and evolved over time, and the different functions they have
acquired depending on the nature of the political regimes and
cultural circumstances in which they have been situated. It also
highlights the difficulties these institutions encounter today, in
an environment where nationalism and national identity are
increasingly contested by global, transnational, regional,
pluralist and local agendas, and where economic forces create
conflicting demands in a competitive marketplace.
This exciting book uniquely combines interviews with scholars and
practitioners in theatre studies to look at what most people feel
is a pivotal moment of British theatre--the 1990s. Featuring
interviews with key names in the field (including Max
Stafford-Clark, Mark Ravenhill, Michael Billington, Dan Rebellato
and Aleks Sierz), and with a particular focus on "in-yer-face
theatre," this volume will be essential reading for all students
and scholars of contemporary British theatre, as well as
theatregoers and practitioners.
This dynamic book offers a comprehensive companion to the theory
and practice of Theatre of the Oppressed. Developed by Brazilian
director and theorist Augusto Boal, these theatrical forms invite
people to mobilize their knowledge and rehearse struggles against
oppression. Featuring a diverse array of voices (many of them as
yet unheard in the academic world), the book hosts dialogues on the
following questions, among others: Why and how did Theatre of the
Oppressed develop? What are the differences between the 1970s (when
Theatre of the Oppressed began) and today? How has Theatre of the
Oppressed been shaped by local and global shifts of the last
40-plus years? Why has Theatre of the Oppressed spread or
"multiplied" across so many geographic, national, and cultural
borders? How has Theatre of the Oppressed been shaped by
globalization, "development," and neoliberalism? What are the
stakes, challenges, and possibilities of Theatre of the Oppressed
today? How can Theatre of the Oppressed balance practical analysis
of what is with ambitious insistence on what could be? How can
Theatre of the Oppressed hope, but concretely? Broad in scope yet
rich in detail, The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed
contains practical and critical content relevant to artists,
activists, teachers, students, and researchers.
Clifford Odets. Arthur Miller. Paddy Chayefsky. Neil Simon.
Jules Feiffer. Wendy Wasserstein. Tony Kushner. These leading
American playwrights do not just happen to be Jewish: they are
"Jewish playwrights." They and other Jewish playwrights have
written out of their own experience, for general American
audiences, about what it feels like to be twentieth-century
American Jews. "Beyond the Golden Door "is the first book devoted
to showing how Jewish playwrights have dramatized the great
struggle to balance Old World heritage with New World
opportunity--a struggle with implications for all American
ethnicities.
This book is an ethnographic case study of Sufi ritual practice and
embodied experience amongst female members of the Naqshbandi
community. Drawing on fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, and
Lefke, Cyprus (2013/2014), the author examines women's experiences
within a particular performance of Sufi tradition. The focus is on
the ritual named hadra, involving the recital of sacred texts,
music, and body movement, where the goal is for the individual to
reach a state of intimacy with God. The volume considers Sufi
practice as a form of embodied cultural behavior, religious
identity, and selfhood construction. It explains how Muslim women's
participation in hadra ritual life reflects religious and cultural
ideas about the body, the body's movement, and embodied selfhood
expression within the ritual experience. Sufi Women, Ritual
Embodiment and the 'Self' engages with studies in Sufism, symbolic
anthropology, ethnography, dance, and somatic studies. Contributing
to discussions of religion, gender, and the body, the book will be
of interest to scholars from anthropology, sociology, religious
ritual studies, Sufism and gender studies, and performance studies.
How do nationalized stereotypes inform the reception and content of
the migrant comedian's work? How do performers adapt? What gets
lost (and found) in translation? Border-Crossing and Comedy at the
Theatre Italien, 1716-1723 explores these questions in an early
modern context. When a troupe of commedia dell'arte actors were
invited by the French crown to establish a theatre in Paris, they
found their transition was anything but easy. They had to learn a
new language and adjust to French expectations and demands. This
study presents their story as a dynamic model of coping with the
challenges of migration, whereby the actors made their
transnational identity a central focus of their comedy. Relating
their work to popular twenty-first century comedians, this book
also discusses the tools and ideas that contextualize the
border-crossing comedian's work-including diplomacy, translation,
improvisation, and parody-across time.
This book explores how theatre and performance can change the way
we think about dementia and some of the environments in which
dementia care takes place. Drawing on the author's creative
practice and other performance projects in the UK, it explores some
of the challenges and opportunities of making performance in care
homes. Rather than focusing on the transformative potential of the
arts, it asks how artists can engage with the different types of
relationships that exist in a care community. These include the
relationships that residents and staff have with each other as well
as relationships with care spaces. Exploring the intersection
between participatory performance and the everyday creativity of a
care home, it argues that the arts have a cultural role to play in
supporting dementia care as a relational practice. Moreover, it
celebrates the intrinsic creativity of caregiving and how
principles and practices of care work can inform theatre and
performance in diverse ways.
Breaks down a dramaturgy's key roles and competencies, mapping out
the profession for both current and future dramaturgs. The Basics
format ensures a clear, accessible and jargon-free explanation of
every aspect of the craft, making this the ideal introduction.
Dramaturgy itself is one of the main theatrical skills, distinct
from acting and directing but only relatively recently having begun
to receive proper attention and recognition.
Essentials of Dance Movement Psychotherapy contributes to the
global interest in embodiment approaches to psychotherapy and to
the field of dance movement psychotherapy specifically. It includes
recent research, innovative theories and case studies of practice
providing an inclusive overview of this ever growing field. As well
as original UK contributions, offerings from other nations are
incorporated, making it more accessible to the dance movement
psychotherapy community of practice worldwide. Helen Payne brings
together well-known, experienced global experts along with rising
stars from the field to offer the reader a valuable insight into
the theory, research and practice of dance movement psychotherapy.
The contributions reflect the breadth of developing approaches,
covering subjects including: * combining dance movement
psychotherapy with music therapy; * trauma and dance movement
psychotherapy; * the neuroscience of dance movement psychotherapy;
* the use of touch in dance movement psychotherapy; * dance
movement psychotherapy and autism; * relational dance movement
psychotherapy. Essentials of Dance Movement Psychotherapy will be a
treasured source for anyone wishing to learn more about the
psychotherapeutic use of creative movement and dance. It will be of
great value to students and practitioners in the arts therapies,
psychotherapy, counselling and other health and social care
professions.
Now in its third edition, Electricity for the Entertainment
Electrician & Technician is a comprehensive, practical study
guide for aspiring and working professionals in live event
production. The book covers every aspect of power distribution from
the fundamentals, like basic circuits, to 3-phase power, power
calculations, grounding and bonding, electrical safety, portable
power generators, and battery power. With ample photographs and
illustrations, practice problems and solutions, and real-world
examples from experience and first-hand accounts, it provides
readers with the knowledge to safely design, set up, and monitor
power distribution systems. The third edition expands on grounding
and bonding, portable power generators, balanced and unbalanced
3-phase power calculations, battery power, and more. The last
chapter walks readers through the process of prepping for a show,
setting up a portable power distribution system, and monitoring
every aspect of the system, including voltage, current, and heat
using an infrared camera, explaining in detail best practices and
the logic behind them. Covering topics that are listed in the
content outline for the ETCP Entertainment Electrician
Certification exam as well as the ETCP Portable Power Distribution
Technician Certification exam, this reference supports practicing
technicians and provides new technicians the assistance they need
for a successful career in the entertainment industry. Additional
resources, including conversion tables, voltage spreadsheets,
articles from Lighting & Sound International, Lighting &
Sound America, and Protocol, and animations and illustrations
depicting electricity and electric power distribution developed for
the author's workshops, can be found on the companion website
www.electrics.tech.
Provides a broad a bottom-up set of multiple international examples
of projects initiated by social practitioners and by artists - and
by collaboration between the two - in varied settings and domains.
Provides a set of examples, methods, and ideas for including social
workers, community workers, social change advocates, art
therapists, psychologists, human geographers, and town and urban
planners, but also social artists, cultural policy makers, and
those interested in using social arts in participatory research.
Will be of interest to community workers, social change advocates,
art therapists, psychologists, human geographers, and town and
urban planners and will inspire and guide all of the above groups
on the theoretical, academic, training, and practice levels of
using social arts.
This edited volume explores the role of arts and meditation within
educational settings, and looks in particular at the preventive and
developmental function of the arts in educational contexts through
different theoretical perspectives. Encompassing research from an
array of disciplines including theatre, psychology, neuroscience,
music, psychiatry, and mindfulness, the book draws insights
relevant to a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary fields. Chapters
are divided into thematic sections, each outlining praxes and
emphasising how educating within and through the arts can provide
tools for critical thinking, creativity and a sense of agency,
consequently fulfilling the need of well-being and contributing
towards human flourishing. Ultimately, the book focuses on the role
the arts have played in our understanding of physical and mental
health, and demonstrates the new-found significance of the
discipline in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. With its
interdisciplinary and timely nature, this book will be essential
reading for scholars, academics, and post-graduate researchers in
the field of arts education, creative therapies, neuroscience,
psychology, and mindfulness.
Provides a broad a bottom-up set of multiple international examples
of projects initiated by social practitioners and by artists - and
by collaboration between the two - in varied settings and domains.
Provides a set of examples, methods, and ideas for including social
workers, community workers, social change advocates, art
therapists, psychologists, human geographers, and town and urban
planners, but also social artists, cultural policy makers, and
those interested in using social arts in participatory research.
Will be of interest to community workers, social change advocates,
art therapists, psychologists, human geographers, and town and
urban planners and will inspire and guide all of the above groups
on the theoretical, academic, training, and practice levels of
using social arts.
Applied Shakespeare is attracting growing interest from
practitioners and academics alike, all keen to understand the ways
in which performing his works can offer opportunities for
reflection, transformation, dialogue regarding social justice, and
challenging of perceived limitations. This book adds a new
dimension to the field by taking an interdisciplinary approach to
topics which have traditionally been studied individually,
examining the communication opportunities Shakespeare's work can
offer for a range of marginalized people. It draws on a diverse
range of projects from across the globe, many of which the author
has facilitated or been directly involved with, including those
with incarcerated people, people with mental health issues,
learning disabilities and who have experienced homelessness. As
this book evidences, Shakespeare can be used to alter the spatial
constraints of people who feel imprisoned, whether literally or
metaphorically, enabling them to speak and to be heard in ways
which may previously have been elusive or unattainable. The book
examines the use of trauma-informed principles to explore the ways
in which consistency, longevity, trust and collaboration enable the
development of resilience, positive autonomy and communication
skills. It explores this phenomenon of creating space for people to
find their own way of expressing themselves in a way that
mainstream society can understand, whilst also challenging society
to 'see better' and to hear better. This is not a process of social
homogenisation but of encouraging positive interactions and
removing the stigma of marginalization.
While the infamous Theatre du Grand-Guignol in Paris closed its
doors in 1962, the particular form of horror theatre it spawned
lives on and has, moreover, witnessed something of a resurgence
over the past twenty years. During its heyday it inspired many
imitators, though none quite as successful as the Montmartre-based
original. In more recent times, new Grand-Guignol companies the
world over have emerged to reimagine the form for a new generation
of audiences. This book, the fourth volume in University of Exeter
Press's series on the Grand-Guignol by Richard J. Hand and Michael
Wilson, examines the ongoing influence and legacy of the Theatre du
Grand-Guignol through an appraisal of its contemporary imitators
and modern reincarnations. As with the previous volumes,
Grand-Guignolesque consists of a lengthy critical introduction
followed by a series of previously unpublished scripts, each with
its own contextualizing preface. The effect thereof is to map the
evolution of horror theatre over the past 120 years, asking where
the influence of the Grand-Guignol is most visible today, and what
might account for its recent resurgence. This book will be of
interest not only to the drama student, theatre historian and
scholar of popular theatre, but also to the theatre practitioner,
theatregoer and horror fan.
1) This book presents a comprehensive overview of the relationship
between drama/theatre and politics. 2) It contains chapters on
India, Africa, USA, the Caribbean, and Australia. 3) This book will
be of interest to departments of cultural studies and theatre
studies across UK.
Theatre and Performance in East Africa looks at indigenous
performances to unearth the aesthetic principles, sensibilities and
critical framework that underpin African performance and theatre.
The book develops new paradigms for thinking about African
performance in general through the construction of a critical
framework that addresses questions concerning performance
particularities and coherences, challenging previous
understandings. To this end, it establishes a common critical and
theoretical framework for indigenous performance using case studies
from East Africa that are also reflected elsewhere in the
continent. This book will be of great interest to students and
scholars of theatre and performance, especially those with an
interest in the close relationship between theatre and performance
with culture.
Four Caribbean Women Playwrights aims to expand Caribbean and
postcolonial studies beyond fiction and poetry by bringing to the
fore innovative women playwrights from the French Caribbean: Ina
Cesaire, Maryse Conde, Gerty Dambury, Suzanne Dracius. Focussing on
the significance of these women writers to the French and French
Caribbean cultural scenes, the author illustrates how their work
participates in global trends within postcolonial theatre. The
playwrights discussed here all address socio-political issues,
gender stereotypes, and the traumatic slave and colonial pasts of
the Caribbean people. Investigating a range of plays from the 1980s
to the early 2010s, including some works that have not yet featured
in academic studies of Caribbean theatre, and applying theories of
postcolonial theatre and local Caribbean theatre criticism, Four
Caribbean Women Playwrights should appeal to scholars and students
in the Humanities, and to all those interested in the postcolonial,
the Caribbean, and contemporary theatre.
This book Presents documentation as an expanded practice that is
radically changing the ways in which to look at, participate in,
and generate art. Brings together expertise from different
disciplines and provides an in-depth investigation of the
development of documentation as a set of production, circulation
and preservation strategies. Illustrates how these strategies are
often led by artists, audiences and museums, the contributions
offer new insights into digital art and its history, curation and
preservation, through documentation. By considering documentation
as the main method of preserving these art forms, analyses how it
can address the inherent challenges of capturing live events,
visitor experiences, and evolving artworks. Will appeal to
researchers and students engaged in the study of museums and
curation, art and art history, performance, new media and digital
art, library and information science, and conservation.
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