This volume offers researchers and practitioners new perspectives on applied theatre work, exploring the relationship between applied theatre and its intent, success and value. Applied theatre is a well-established field focused on the social application of the arts in a range of contexts including schools, prisons, residential aged care and community settings. The increased uptake of applied theatre in these contexts requires increased analysis and understanding of indications of success and value. This volume provides critical commentary and questions regarding issues associated with developing, delivering and evaluating applied theatre programs. Part 1 of the volume presents a discussion of the ways the concept of change is presented to and by funding bodies, practitioners, participants, researchers and policy makers to discover and analyse the relationships between applied theatre practice, transformative intent, and evaluation. Part 2 of the volume offers perspectives from key authors in the field which extend and contextualize the discussion by examining key themes and practice-based examples.

This book opens up a neglected chapter in the reception of Athenian drama, especially comedy; and it gives stage-centre to a particularly attractive and entertaining series of vase-paintings, which have been generally regarded as marginal curiosities. These are the so-called `phlyax vases', nearly all painted in the Greek cities of South Italy in the period 400 t0 360 BC. Up till now, they have been taken to reflect some kind of local folk-theatre, but Oliver Taplin, prompted especially by three that have only been published in the last twelve years, argues that most, if not all, reflect Athenian comedy of the sort represented by Aristophanes. This bold thesis opens up questions of the relation of tragedy as well as comedy to vase-painting, the cultural climate of the Greek cities in Italy, and the extent to which Athenians were aware of drama as a potential `export'. It also enriches appreciation of many key aspects of Aristophanic comedy: its metatheatre and self-reference, its use of stage-action and stage-props, its unabashed indecency, and its polarised relationship, even rivalry, with tragedy. The book has assembled thirty-six photographs of vase-paintings. Many are printed here for the first time outside specialist publications that are not readily accessible.

This series of three volumes provides a groundbreaking study of the work of many of the most innovative and important British theatre companies from 1965 to the present. Each volume provides a survey of the political and cultural context, an extensive survey of the variety of theatre companies from the period, and detailed case studies of six of the major companies. Volume Two, 1980-1994, covers the period when cuts under Margaret Thatcher's Tory government changed the landscape for British theatre. Yet it also saw an expansion of companies that made feminism and gender central to their work, and the establishment of new black and Asian companies. Leading academics provide case studies of six of the most important companies, including: * Monstrous Regiment, by Kate Dorney (The Victoria & Albert Museum) *Forced Entertainment, by Sarah Gorman (University of Roehampton, London, UK) * Gay Sweatshop, by Sara Freeman (University of Puget Sound, USA) * Joint Stock, by Jaqueline Bolton (University of Lincoln, UK) * Theatre de Complicite, by Michael Fry * Talawa, by Kene Igweonu (Canterbury Christ Church University, UK)

Written in clear, accessible language, this guide challenges and encourages students to grapple with the difficult ideas and questions posed by Beckett's texts.Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is one of the most important twentieth century writers, seen as both a modernist and postmodernist, his work has influenced generations of playwrights, novelists and poets. Despite his notorious difficulty, Beckett famously refused to offer his readers any help in interpreting his work. Beckett's texts examine key philosophical-humanist questions but his writing is challenging, perplexing and often intimidating for readers. This guide offers students reading Beckett a clear starting point from which to confront some of the most difficult plays and novels produced in the twentieth century, texts which often appear to work on the very edge of meaninglessness.Beginning with a general introduction to Beckett, his work and contexts, the guide looks at each of the major genres in turn, analysing key works chronologically. It explains why Beckett's texts can seem so daunting and confusing, and focuses on key questions and issues. Giving an accessible account of both the form and content of Beckett's work, this guide will enable students to begin to get to grips with this fascinating but daunting writer."Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging - or indeed downright bewildering. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.

This collection of seven darkly funny and mysterious plays includes the long one act Pirandello, in which the great Italian playwright, writing alone on the stage of his theatre late at night, is interrupted by the Italian dictator Mussolini, who wants him to write the authorized biographical play of the dictator's life, Pirandello's jealous wife, who believes Pirandello is sleeping with every woman in sight, including his daughter, and an increasingly disturbing group of characters who may or may not be real, leading Pirandello to question the relationship between his theories about the malleable nature of reality to the rise of Fascism and Fascist propaganda; The Recollection Of Green Rain, which tells the mostly true story of two green children found wandering near an English village, who spoke an unknown language and insisted they were from a mysterious green underground kingdom; Pinocchio, in which Gloria's blind date turns out to be an angry puppet with a rather unsettling story to tell; Rusalka, in which a police officer investigating the disappearance of a young girl tries to make sense out of the increasingly odd stories her best friend tells about her; Humpty Dumpty, in which an enormous egg with very bad hair sits on top of a wall and talks about making Wonderland great again; Brimstone Run, in which a family legacy of betrayal and tragedy is played out at the town dump; and Nictzin Dyalhis, in which a legendary, reclusive writer of weird tales is haunted by a sea goddess he may or may not have invented. In each of these plays, in one way or another, compelling characters find themselves lost in a labyrinthine twilight zone of dream variations which combine the Gothic, the surreal and the absurd. Don Nigro is among the most frequently published and widely produced playwrights in the world and has continued to build a deeply interrelated and diverse body of dramatic literature, employing a wide variety of dramatic conventions and styles of presentation. He has written monologues and epics, spare realistic dramas and surreal homicidal puppet farces, plays with music and verse plays. He continues to build the long cycle of Pendragon County plays, which traces the history of America through the lives of several related east Ohio families from the eighteenth century to the present, and features many characters whose lives are traced from youth through middle age to old age in a number of plays that may be presented in a variety of combinations.

Inspired by the writings of Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler), The Late Wedding is a fractured portrait of a fractured marriage, as told through a series of interconnected fables, including an anthropological tour of fantastical tribes and their marital customs. Christopher Chen's winking second-person narrative, delivered by a six-person shape-shifting cast, deftly guides you on a wild and delightful examination of love and longing. At once an anthropological tour through marriage customs, a spy thriller, and a sci-fi love story, the mind-bending The Late Wedding is an inventive and surprising theatrical experience. "Wild, witty... contemplative and poignant... you gotta see this funny, brilliant play." - San Francisco Examiner "A seductive play... a fascinating little gem... a script about the mystery and challenges of love, in all its permutations. The play is a provocative one-act composed with a unique theatrical structure... a swirling nebula of magical notions put down in a contemporary world." - DC Metro Theatre Arts "A comic, dramatic inquiry into human relationships - between lovers or spouses; between playwright and audience - [The Late Wedding] is another of Chen's slyly metatheatrical, blissfully funny, whiplash-smart creations... What begins as a look at anthropological research into the marital arrangements and lore of a few odd tribes segues without warning into a political drama cum action thriller." - SF Gate "Bold and brainy... As The Late Wedding dips in and out of such genres as the spy caper and science fiction... it blurs the boundaries between its two strands of Calvino homage, so that the genre-sampling meta-theater begins to reflect on the bittersweet realities of marriage." - The Washington Post "[The Late Wedding] is about the vagaries of love and marriage, both homo- and heterosexual, and the way that we both cherish and distort the past, and about the creative process itself... you gotta see this funny, brilliant play." - San Francisco Examiner

New version approved for virtual performance! What "The Irish Curse" is - and how it manifests itself - is the raw centerpiece of this wicked, rollicking and very funny new play. From its blistering language to its brutally honest look at sex and body image, The Irish Curse is a revealing portrait of how men, and society, define masculinity. In doing so, it dares to pose the fundamental question that has been on the minds of men since the beginning of time: "Do I measure up to the next guy?" Size matters to a small group of Irish-American men (all professionally successful New Yorkers) who meet every Wednesday night, in a Catholic church basement, at a self-help group for men with small penises. This alleged Irish trait is the focus of their weekly sessions, as they all feel this "shortcoming" has ruined their lives. One evening, when a twentysomething blue-collar guy joins the group, he challenges everything the other men think about "the Irish Curse"... tackling their obsession with body image and unmasking the comical and truthful questions of identity, masculinity, sex and relationships that men face every day.

After the 1917 revolution, Russian and Soviet avant-garde theatre attempted to create a new art for post-revolutionary society. This reconsideration of the Russian avant-garde theatre investigates the burgeoning new drama/theatre forms of the period. Kleberg considers assumptions made about the audience and by the audience, and seeks to determine whether discrepancies existed between the two. Offering fresh insights into the modernist period of Russian theatre, Theatre as Action provides a new typology of the stage/audience relationship in modernist Russian theatre. Constructivism of the 1920's is discussed on light of the plays of Meyerhold, Eisenstein, and Treytykov. The relation of the Soviet Russian avant-garde to the aesthetics of Bertold Brecht is also examined. This original, comprehensive work is a major contribution to our understanding of the confrontation of the ideal and the reality of Soviet 1920's, revealing the Wagnerian and Symbolist utopia beneath, and its crisis. It will be of particular interest to students of literature and drama.

This series of three volumes provides a groundbreaking study of the work of many of the most innovative and important British theatre companies from 1965 to the present. Each volume provides a survey of the political and cultural context; an extensive survey of the variety of theatre companies from the period, and detailed case studies of six of the major companies drawing on the Arts Council Archives to trace the impact of funding on the work produced. 1965-1979, covers the period often accepted as the 'golden age' of British Fringe companies, looking at the birth of companies concerned with touring their work to an ever-expanding circuit of 'alternative' performance venues. Leading academics provide case studies of six of the most important companies, including: * CAST, by Bill McDonnell (University of Sheffield, UK) * The People Show, by Grant Tyler Peterson (Brunel University London, UK) * Portable Theatre, by Chris Megson (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) * Pip Simmons Theatre Group, by Kate Dorney (The Victoria and Albert Museum, UK) * Welfare State International, by Gillian Whitely (Loughborough University, UK) * 7:84 Theatre Companies, by David Pattie (University of Chester, UK).

Edwin Booth was the foremost Shakespearean actor in late nineteenth-century America, enjoying almost mythic status. This comprehensive analysis and documentation of his career provides an aperture from which to view theatre and society of the period. The scholarly bibliography of over 1,000 annotated entries includes substantive writings about Booth in books, journals, and dissertations covering 130 years during and after his career as well as ephemeral references to Booth in the major journals of his day and a section of specialized reference materials relating to Booth. Among its unique features are a section on Booth's own writings and a section on Booth manuscript materials identified in sixty-four repositories in the United States and England. A biographical sketch analyzes Booth's career in terms of the major periods and upheavals in his life: his early fame, the death of his first wife, the assassination of President Lincoln by his brother, his management of Booth's Theatre, and his national and international tours. Accompanying this is a chronology of major events, a genealogical chart, and reproductions of portraits and playbills. Fully indexed, this volume makes a wealth of material readily available to Booth scholars as well as to others researching related theatre and social history.

A gang of teenage girls gathers in an abandoned treehouse to summon the ghost of Pablo Escobar. Are they messing with the actual spirit of the infamous cartel kingpin? Or are they really just messing with each other? A roller coaster ride through the danger and damage of girlhood - the teenage wasteland - has never been so much twisted fun. Critic's Pick! "Highly entertaining - equally funny and scary." - The New York TimesFour Stars! "Just when you think you know where the play is heading, there's a disorienting coup de theatre that leaves you shaken. Our Dear Dead Drug Lord isn't for the faint of heart, but neither is coming of age." - Raven Snook, Time Out Critic's Pick! "Highly entertaining - equally funny and scary - the play starts off as a hoot and winds up a primal scream. They're throwing quite a seance at the McGinn/Cazale Theater." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times "As funny as it is violent and dark... Our Dear Dead Drug Lord is not quiet, small, or apologetic. It is loud and messy and truthful. It is incredibly complicated and a thing of extreme beauty. It is everything in women that society tells them they need to repress, and in this I found it incredibly enjoyable and inspiring." - Brittany Crowell, New York Theatre Guide "The challenges of female adolescence... explored with a remarkably fresh, honest and sometimes hilarious perspective." - Brian Scott Lipton, Theater Pizzazz "Unsettling... Scheer's characters are brilliantly drawn... the work of a born playwright and a unique new voice... As a story of female empowerment, it is both scary and revealing." - Victor Gluck, Theater Scene "An imaginative and ultimately savage new play... An offbeat Mean Girls sort of dramedy that unexpectedly concludes in a violent burst of magical realism." - Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review

Few American phenomena are more evocative of time, place, and culture than the drive-in theater. From its origins in the Great Depression, through its peak in the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately its slow demise in the 1980s, the drive-in holds a unique place in the country's collective past. Michigan's drive-ins were a reflection of this time and place, ranging from tiny rural 200-car "ozoners" to sprawling 2,500-car behemoths that were masterpieces of showmanship, boasting not only movies and food, but playgrounds, pony rides, merry-go-rounds, and even roving window washers.

This book traces the history of 'girls' aesthetics,' where adult Japanese women create art works about 'girls' that resist motherhood, from the modern to the contemporary period and their manifestation in Japanese women's theatrical and dance performance and visual arts including manga, film, and installation arts.

Murder, mayhem, and magic. Pushed by his wife to seize the throne, Macbeth kills his rightful liege and then tries desperately to hold onto the kingdom that he has wrongfully usurped. Prophesy and magic abound in this dark, moody, and atmospheric play. Out, damned spot Out, I say One- two -why then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

This reference traces in fascinating detail the exceptionally long career of Helen Hayes, the "First Lady of the American Theatre." In addition to a biography of the actress, which charts the development of her unique talent and the successes and tragedies of her personal life, the book supplies a chronology which provides quick access to the major events which shaped both her character and her career. In sections devoted individually to Stage, Film, Television, and Radio, the actress' work in each of these media is charted. Cast lists, plot synopses, reviews, and commentary bring vivid immediacy to these records. Additional material in the Appendices provides information on her aural/video recordings as well as her stunning list of Awards and Honors. Included is the program from a gala salute to her 50th Anniversary on the stage. A detailed index concludes the work.

This study seeks to reunite American drama with more of the mainstream of American literature using contemporary literary theories of feminism, Derrida, Lacan, as well as the nature of language. It also focuses on the theatrical ways that plays work through performance and staging. This reveals how contemporary playwrights see themselves not as authors, but as parts of a team of designers, actors, and directors. Stage directions are largely omitted, but knowledge of original productions--both as seen live and recorded on tapes archived at Lincoln Center--reveal aspects of fragmentation of scenery, minimalist acting, emphasis on the "unsayable," which makes these plays far more postmodern than they might seem merely as read. More importantly, the final chapter reveals how these techniques culminate in 1990s play' ability to extend beyond the real in a myriad of ways, all united by a new, postmodern view of the divine as interpenetrating reality. In one sense, this seems to be juggling quite a few different items-poststructural theory, modernist realists, as well postmodern deconstructive realists and theatrical practice. All fit together neatly, however, in each chapter through a focus on performance, staging is seen as central to the dramatic experience, with reviews, photographs, and archival videotapes of productions used to verify and explore the plays' meanings. The plays, taken as a whole, reflect the key issues of American society from reactions to the Vietnam War, through issues of sexual preference, race, and feminism and its backlash, through issues of wealth and poverty to arrive at a new vision of a forgiving divine which accepts without judgment all the issues of diversity. American Drama and the Postmodern is an important book for collections in American literature, drama and theatre, as well as for literary theory.

This set gathers together a collection of previously out-of-print titles that examine China's great heritage in literature, poetry, theatre and performance, painting and crafts. This reference resource spans Chinese traditions and artforms to provide in-depth analysis of some of China's great cultural treasures from many different periods in the country's long history.

This is the first published resource on the life and seventy-year theatrical career of award-winning actress Eva Le Gallienne. It traces Le Gallienne's acting debut in 1914, her travels to the United States, and the successes and failures of her New York City repertory theatres. Also noted are Le Gallienne's critically acclaimed performances in such plays as Liliom, The Swan, The Master Builder, Hedda Gabler, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Camille, Romeo and Juliet, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Stuart, and The Royal Family. The book covers not only her Broadway engagements, but also her many lecture and theatre tours. Also highlighted are her receipt of the National Medal of Arts presented by President Ronald Reagan and the National Artist Award presented by the American National Theatre and Academy. The book is divided into six parts--a biography, a chronology focusing on the highlights of Le Gallienne's career, a list of all productions (stage, film, television, radio, and discography), an annotated bibliography of all items written by Le Gallienne, an annotated bibliography of over 300 items written about Le Gallienne in books, magazines, and newspapers, and a list of archival resources. The section of productions includes such information as titles, authors, directors, producers, venue, casts, designers, length of run, and locations of reviews. This book is an invaluable resource for courses in American Theater, Theater History, American Studies, Introduction to Theater, Women's Theater, Women's Studies, and Introduction to Film.

British Theatre and the Great War examines how theatre in its various forms adapted itself to the new conditions of 1914-1918. Contributors discuss the roles played by the theatre industry. They draw on a range of source materials to show the different kinds of theatrical provision and performance cultures in operation not only in London but across parts of Britain and also in Australia and at the Front. As well as recovering lost works and highlighting new areas for investigation (regional theatre, prison camp theatre, troop entertainment, the threat from film, suburban theatre) the book offers revisionist analysis of how the conflict and its challenges were represented on stage at the time and the controversies it provoked. The volume offers new models for exploring the topic in an accessible, jargon-free way, and it shows how theatrical entertainment of the time can be seen as the `missing link' in the study of First World War writing.

Two generations of sisters navigate class, race, love and family on "Mud Row," an area in the East End of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Elsie hopes to move up in the world by marrying into "the talented tenth," while her sister Frances joins the fight for Civil Rights. Decades later, estranged sisters Regine and Toshi are forced to reckon with their shared heritage and each other, when Regine inherits granny Elsie's house. "Morisseau gives exquisite voice to four women occupying the same four walls - and by doing so, an entire community sings." - The Philadelphia Inquirer "Morisseau's writing is rich and authentic. Tense, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring, Mud Row pulses with the the love Morisseau feels for her characters and the real life people who inspire them." - Talkin' Broadway "A tale so exciting and engrossing." - Broad Street Review

This core text offers insight into theatre-making that takes place in communities across the world. Offering an overview of the theory that underpins practice in applied drama, this thought-provoking text outlines practices in the context of contemporary political and theoretical concerns. It considers the role of artists who work in challenging settings, including prisons, schools, hostels for the homeless, care homes for the elderly and on the street. In so doing, the book poses critical questions about the aesthetics and ethics of applied theatre. It also invites debate about the environments in which applied theatre takes place. Written by an experienced academic in the field, this lively text is the ideal introductory text for students on Applied Theatre degree programmes and those taking Applied Theatre modules on Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies programmes. It is also essential reading for practitioners of applied theatre looking for a comprehensive insight into theatre-making and its impact in an increasingly globalized world.

This 11-volume collection contains titles originally published between 1931 and 1992. It examines the genre of comedy, from its roots in ancient Greece, through the centuries, to the relatively modern stand-up variety. The individual titles include the theory of comedy; perspectives on women and comedy; comedy in film; European comedy; Restoration comedy and more. This set will be a valuable resource for those students interested in comedy in both literature and drama.