Holiday Cheer from the Antebellum South Columbia, South Carolina. December 24, 1862. It is the week of the "Christmas Raid of Kentucky" and the height of the war among the states. The chill in the air carries hickory-scented plumes of smoke upward from colonial chimneys. Within Antebellum homes, Confederate soldiers cuddle-up with southern belles beneath mistletoe and share mint jelly, ambrosia, and chestnuts from the hearth. Ebenezer Scrooge, wealthy plantation owner, will have none of it. That is, until the miserly curmudgeon is haunted by the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future and forced to review his wasted life of misanthropy. Never straying in message from Charles Dickens' novella, Chris Cook has set the Christmas classic in the American Civil War, a time of strife and struggle not unlike the pain and poverty that belied 1830's Dickensian London. Also included is a delightful companion piece to the play. CONFEDERATE BILL, Memoir of a Civil War Veteran is the real-life autobiography by Cook's great, great grandfather, William E. Trahern. Published for the first time ever, it is an important piece of history, documenting the adventures and vagaries of a young rebel soldier. Both stories are southern-fried treats "Yule " love em

On the 31st of October 1964 a very British institution took its final bow. That was the night of the Windmill's farewell performance and when the curtain fell for the last time on London's world famous little theatre, and the stage door locked shut behind its keeper, the Windmill's heart stopped beating. All that was left was the lingering smell of a good cigar, the ghost of a fan dancer, the last faint echoes of laughter and applause, and then darkness. After 32 years the Windmill had breathed its last breath. Or had it? No one could have predicted that half a century later, in the year 2014, the world would still remember with affection the Windmill Theatre with its famous comedians and its legendary Windmill Girls. Fifty years on, in the public's heart, this particular British institution "Never Closed."This full colour hardback special edition book commemorates the Windmill on the fifty year anniversary of the theatre's closure. With over 600 illustrations (photographs and ephemera), stories and contributions from ex Windmillite Barry Cryer OBE, Windmill girls and boys who danced on through the blitz and many more, this book will remind those who were there of the phenomenon that was the Windmill, and give those who weren't the feeling of having visited the theatre that famously never closed.

This book examines why, when, how and where the scenic stage began in England. Little has been written about the development of theatrical scenery and how it was used in England in the seventeenth century, and what is known about the response to this innovation is fragmentary and uncertain. Unlike in Italy and France where scenery had been in use since the sixteenth century, the general public in England did not see plays presented against a painted location until Sir William Davenant presented The Siege of Rhodes at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1661. Painted landscapes or seascapes, perspective views of cities or palaces, lighting effects, gods or goddesses flying down on to the stage in a chariot, all these had only been seen before on the masque stage at court or in the occasional private play performance. This study argues that Sir William Davenant (1606-1668) was involved almost from the beginning of the process and that his influence continued after his death; that, although painted scenery as such would undoubtedly have appeared on the public stage after 1660, it would not have been in the same way, for Davenant made particular positive contributions which brought about certain changes in both the presentation and reception of plays which would not have happened as they did without his work and influence. This is new work which uses dramaturgical and scenographical analysis of selected plays and masques, against known theatrical history, to discover how the staging of painted settings was organised from c1605 to c1700. This kind of investigation into the links between masque staging and the staging of plays has not been done in quite this way before. The study begins with Davenant'sinvolvement with Inigo Jones and John Webb. It analyses the staging of the court masques and discusses what Davenant took from this and how he used the information. It suggests that the move towards verisimilitude in the drama on the scenic stage was due in part to Davenant's imaginative use of certain of the physical components of masque staging in presentations by the Duke's Company. It argues that he encouraged dramatists to integrate the scenery into their plots, particularly to provide for disclosures and discoveries, in ways not possible before. How, in so doing, he implicitly changed the stage conventions of time and place which audiences had accepted from the platform stage. It also argues that the parallel development of operatic spectacle derived mainly from the use by Killgrew and the King's Company of the techniques for engineering the spectacular effects of the transformation scenes of the masque stage to embellish the heroic drama by Dryden and others. It suggests that the two staging methods combined in the later seventeenth century to give more sophisticated ways of using the scenery and thus involved the scenic stage with the dialogue and the action in all genres, but that such experimentation ended when financial and commercial considerations made it no longer viable. Nevertheless it concludes that, by the eighteenth century, theatre practitioners had learnt to use the stage craft and mechanical techniques of the masque stage to integrate the visual with the aural aspects of a production, and that dramatists, once concerned solely with the aural expression of their theme, had become playwrights who allowed for the visual elements in their texts. Over fiftyillustrations exemplify the discussion. This is an important book in the history of theatre, essential background for the staging of the court masque, and for the scenography of the Restoration theatre.

This book opens up "Twelfth Night" as a play to see and hear, provides useful contextual and source material, and considers the critical and theatrical reception over four centuries. A detailed performance commentary brings to life the many moods of Shakespeare's subtle but robust humor. Students are encouraged to imagine the theatrical challenges of Shakespeare's Illyria afresh for themselves, as well as the thought, creative responses and wonder it has provoked.

Written to provide information on all price ranges of equipment to everyone from the beginner to the experienced home theater owner, Build Your Own Home Theater has been completely updated for today's audience. This new edition contains valuable consumer information on the latest digital home theater components and technology, including digital surround sound receivers, DVD players, digital television & HDTV, digital satellites (DBS), digital camcorders, and digital hard-drive video recorders. It also features easy-to-understand explanations of surround sound technology and set ups including Dolbya Digital, THX Surround EXTM, and DTS-ESTM.
If you are interested in audio, video, and home theater technologies, this book will give you the information you need to choose the right components, hook the pieces together, and create a fabulous theater experience right in your own living room. When the first edition of Build Your Own Home Theater was published, decent home theater systems were primarily only affordable for wealthier consumers. Now, several years later, the technology is accessible to millions of homes as products such as wide-screen televisions, digital surround sound audio, DVD Video and Audio Players, and digital satellite systems have become commonplace. Though most people don't have actual home theater set-ups in their living rooms, more and more consumers are trying to combine components they already own with new high-tech components to create an affordable home theater experience. Complete with important home theater Web site addresses and resources, Build Your Own Home Theater, Second Edition is a comprehensive, current, and well-researched text. Beginners to advanced home theater consumers, Videophiles, technicians, engineers, and electronics hobbyists from all walks of life will especially find it invaluable.

*"Dolby" and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks and "Surround Sound EX" is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories.
THX and Lucasfilm are (c) Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights are reserved. Used under authorization. DTS and DTS-ES are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc.
Covers all of the hot digital technologies and how to tie them together into one amazing home theater experience for budgets from $1,500 to $15,000.
New edition includes cutting edge technology from Digital Surround Sound to High Definition and Digital Television, DVD, Video Hard-Drives, Digital Satellites, and much more."

"Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre" is the first comprehensive survey and analysis of theatrical presence to be published. Theatre as an art form has often been associated with notions of presence. The 'live' immediacy of the actor, the unmediated unfolding of dramatic action and the 'energy' generated through an actor-audience relationship are among the ideas frequently used to explain theatrical experience - and all are underpinned by some understanding of 'presence.' Precisely what is meant by presence in the theatre is part of what "Presence in Play" sets out to explain. While this work is rooted in twentieth century theatre and performance since modernism, the author draws on a range of historical and theoretical material. Encompassing ideas from semiotics and phenomenology, "Presence in Play" puts forward a framework for thinking about presence in theatre, enriched by poststructuralist theory, forcefully arguing in favour of 'presence' as a key concept for theatre studies today.

Contemporary Adaptations of Greek Tragedy: Auteurship and Directorial Visions provides a wide-ranging analysis of the role of the director in shaping adaptations for the stage today. Through its focus on a wide range of international productions by Katie Mitchell, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Peter Sellars, Jan Fabre, Ariane Mnouchkine, Tadashi Suzuki, Yukio Ninagawa, Andrei Serban, Nikos Charalambous, Bryan Doerries and Richard Schechner, among others, it offers readers a detailed study of the ways directors have responded to the original texts, refashioning them for different audiences, contexts and purposes. As such the volume will appeal to readers of theatre and performance studies, classics and adaptation studies, directors and theatre practitioners, and anyone who has ever wondered 'why they did it like that' when watching a stage production of an ancient Greek play. The volume Contemporary Adaptations of Greek Tragedy is divided in three sections: the first section - Global Perspectives - considers the work of a range of major directors from around the world who have provided new readings of Greek Tragedy: Peter Sellars and Athol Fugard in the US, Katie Mitchell in the UK, Theodoros Terzopoulos in Greece and Tadashi Suzuki and Yukio Ninagawa in Japan. Their work on a wide range of plays is analysed, including Electra, Oedipus the King, The Persians, Iphigenia at Aulis, and Ajax. Parts Two and Three - Directing as Dialogue with the Community and Directorial Re-Visions - focus on a range of productions of key plays from the repertoire, including Prometheus Landscape II, Les Atrides, The Trojan Women, The Bacchae, Antigone and The Suppliants, among others. In each, the varying approaches of different directors are analysed, together with a detailed investigation of the mise-en-scene. In considering each stage production, the authors raise issues of authenticity, contemporary resonances, translation, directorial control/auteurship and adaptation.

Bodies and their Spaces: System, Crisis and Transformation in Early Modern Theatre explores the emergence of the distinctively modern "gender system" at the close of the early modern period. The book investigates shifts in the gendered spaces assigned to men and women in the "public" and "private" domains and their changing modes of interconnection; in concert with these social spaces it examines the emergence of biologically based notions of sex and a novel sense of individual subjectivity. These parallel and linked transformations converged in the development of a new gender system which more efficiently enforced the requirements of patriarchy under the evolving economic conditions of merchant capitalism. These changes can be seen to be rehearsed, contested and debated in literary artefacts of the early modern period - in particular the drama. This book suggests that until the closure of the English theatres in 1642, the drama not only reflected but also exacerbated the turbulence surrounding gender configurations in transition in early modern society. The book reads a wide range of dramatic and non-dramatic texts, and interprets them with the aid of the "systems theory" developed by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann.

Hamlet is considered the greatest of Shakespeare's works, unsurpassed in richness and levels of meaning; it probes into the deepest human emotions. Haunted by his father's ghost, Hamlet sets out to avenge his death. But, has he heard his father or the voice of madness welling up from his mourning heart? The father's ghost accuses his brother Claudius, who has assumed the throne and married his wife Queen Gertrude, of murder. Unable to trust anyone anymore, Hamlet is consumed by his mission, shunning those who love him, even killing the eavesdropping Polonius, thinking him to be Claudius. This sets into motion events that threaten the stability of the whole kingdom. A story of truth, betrayal, family, loyalty and fate it has been unfailingly popular since it was first performed. Hamlet speaks to each generation of its own yearnings and problems.

Contemporary Adaptations of Greek Tragedy: Auteurship and Directorial Visions provides a wide-ranging analysis of the role of the director in shaping adaptations for the stage today. Through its focus on a wide range of international productions by Katie Mitchell, Theodoros Terzopoulos, Peter Sellars, Jan Fabre, Ariane Mnouchkine, Tadashi Suzuki, Yukio Ninagawa, Andrei Serban, Nikos Charalambous, Bryan Doerries and Richard Schechner, among others, it offers readers a detailed study of the ways directors have responded to the original texts, refashioning them for different audiences, contexts and purposes. As such the volume will appeal to readers of theatre and performance studies, classics and adaptation studies, directors and theatre practitioners, and anyone who has ever wondered 'why they did it like that' when watching a stage production of an ancient Greek play. The volume Contemporary Adaptations of Greek Tragedy is divided in three sections: the first section - Global Perspectives - considers the work of a range of major directors from around the world who have provided new readings of Greek Tragedy: Peter Sellars and Athol Fugard in the US, Katie Mitchell in the UK, Theodoros Terzopoulos in Greece and Tadashi Suzuki and Yukio Ninagawa in Japan. Their work on a wide range of plays is analysed, including Electra, Oedipus the King, The Persians, Iphigenia at Aulis, and Ajax. Parts Two and Three - Directing as Dialogue with the Community and Directorial Re-Visions - focus on a range of productions of key plays from the repertoire, including Prometheus Landscape II, Les Atrides, The Trojan Women, The Bacchae, Antigone and The Suppliants, among others. In each, the varying approaches of different directors are analysed, together with a detailed investigation of the mise-en-scene. In considering each stage production, the authors raise issues of authenticity, contemporary resonances, translation, directorial control/auteurship and adaptation.

How does theatre shape the body and perceptions of it? How do bodies on stage challenge audience assumptions about material evidence and the truth? Theory for Theatre Studies: Bodies responds to these questions by examining how theatre participates in and informs theories of the body in performance, race, queer, disability, trans, gender, and new media studies. Throughout the 20th century, theories of the body have shifted from understanding the body as irrefutable material evidence of race, sex, and gender, to a social construction constituted in language. In the same period, theatre has struggled with representing ideas through live bodies while calling into question assumptions about the body. This volume demonstrates how theatre contributes to understanding the historical, contemporary and burgeoning theories of the body. It explores how theories of the body inform debates about labor conditions and spatial configurations. Theatre allows performers to shift an audience's understandings of the shape of the bodies on stage, possibly producing a reflexive dynamic for consideration of bodies offstage as well. In addition, casting choices in the theatre, most recently and popularly in Hamilton, question how certain bodies are "cast" in social, historical, and philosophical roles. Through an analysis of contemporary case studies, including The Balcony, Angels in America, and Father Comes Home from the Wars, this volume examines how the theatre theorizes bodies. Online resources are also available to accompany this book.

In the context of the postdigital age, where technology is increasingly part of our social and political world, Avatars, Activism and Postdigital Performance traces how identity can be created, developed, hijacked, manipulated, sabotaged and explored through performance in postdigital cultures. Considering how technology is reshaping performance, this timely collection reveals how we engage in performance practices through expanded notions of intermediality, knotted networks and layering. This book examines the artist as activist and producer of avatars, and how digital doubles, artificial intelligence and semi-automated politics are problematizing and expanding our discussions of identity. Using a range of examples in theatre, film and internet-based performance practices, chapters examine the uncertain boundaries of networked 'informational selves' in mediatized cultures, the impacts of machine algorithms, apps and the consequences of digital legacies. Case studies include James Cameron's Avatar, Blast Theory's Karen, Ontroerend Goed's A Game of You, Randy Rainbow's online videos, Sisters Grimm's Calpurnia Descending, Dead Centre's Lippy and Chekhov's First Play and Jo Scott's practice-as-research in 'place-mixing'. This is an incisive study for scholars, students and practitioners interested in the wider conversations around identity-formation in postdigital cultures.

For more than 15 years Jonathan Kalb has been a singularly perceptive commentator on American and European theatre. These essays and reviews, by the 1991 winner of the George Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, set a new standard for theatre writing today. This collection begins with a brave and piercing appraisal of the state of current theatre criticism, in a section Kalb characteristically calls 'Critical Mess'. He goes on to revisit the work of Samuel Beckett, as performed in well-meaning efforts to bring it to a new, wider (TV) audience; to consider today's political theatre, particularly in the flourishing form of one-person shows; to explore the theatrical landscape of a reunited Germany, where the Berliner Ensemble is no longer a showcase for the East, and finally to cover what's going on back home in New York -- everything from 'The Lion King' and 'Dame Edna' to plays of David Mamet and Arthur Miller (new and old) and to the latest trends in the Broadway musical.

Much has been written about the acting style of David Garrick, the eighteenth century's greatest actor-manager, but this book, unusually, claims a place for him within Shakespeare studies as a literary as well as a theatrical figure. It analyses several of Garrick's alterations of Shakespeare's plays in which he took the lead, and traces his close involvement with the major Shakespeare editors of the period, including his friend Samuel Johnson. Admirers claimed that Garrick's performances illuminated the playtexts better than the commentaries of scholarly editors. His reputation as Shakespeare's living representative and best interpreter was so high that he was involved in most Shakespeare-related projects of his day, not least the Jubilee at Stratford. While Garrick lived, the imminent divorce of 'stage' and 'page' could not take place. In this text, Cunningham shows how vital a resource Garrick's collection of early plays in English has been to generations of Shakespeare scholars.

Music and the Commedia dell'Arte narrates the story of the most famous commedia dell'arte troupe of the late Renaissance, focusing in particular on the representation of women on stage and on the role of music-making in their craft. It provides a rich context for the study of musical-theatrical performance before the advent of opera and re-defines our perceptions of women, music and theatre in the Renaissance.

"Of Love and War: The Political Voice in the Early Plays of Aphra Behn "is a study which situates Behn's early plays within their historical and political context. Behn (c.1640-1689), the first professional female playwright in England, is a fascinating study, having traveled to Surinam as a young woman, served as a spy for Charles II, and evidently supported her family through her writing, including plays, poetry, fiction, and translation. Her early plays have often been dismissed as romances, largely because they treat such social and/or gender issues as forced marriage and female desire. This study argues that these same social issues frequently serve as tropes for political commentary and propaganda in support of foreign and domestic policies. Behn's plays clearly demonstrate staunch loyalist support of the Stuart government, yet within the dramatic construction, she-like her contemporary male colleagues, offers fascinating covert political criticism.