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.

The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance provides a comprehensive introduction to and analysis of the global art form butoh. Originating in Japan in the 1960s, butoh was a major innovation in twentieth century dance and performance, and it continues to shape-shift around the world. Taking inspiration from the Japanese avant-garde, Surrealism, Happenings, and authors such as Genet and Artaud, its influence can be seen throughout contemporary performing arts, music, and visual art practices. This Companion places the form in historical context, documents its development in Japan and its spread around the world, and brings together the theory and the practice of this compelling dance. The interdisciplinarity evident in the volume reflects the depth and the breadth of butoh, and the editors bring specially commissioned essays by leading scholars and dancers together with translations of important early texts.

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.

Featuring conversations with theatre makers in the US and UK during the first 8 months of the Covid-19 lockdown, this collection reveals the innovations in digital theatre as artists, companies and theatres had to adjust to the restrictions and formulate new ways of working and reaching audiences. Besides documenting in their own words the work that was generated, this book captures the artists' dreams for a new post-Covid reality in which theatre is reimagined and issues of racial and economic injustice are addressed. With conversations grouped under 5 broad areas, a host of theatre makers candidly discuss the present and the future of theatre: * R/evolution: How should theatre evolve rather than re-set? What kind of field could this be, if the arts sector is to survive in the US and UK and if white supremacist, classist, ableist, and patriarchal structures are dismantled, and acts of regeneration and reformation occur? * What does theatre look like at the local and hyper-local level and when working with young people and communities at risk? * What are the challenges of creating work in the digital realm and/or exploring socially distanced performance in new ways? * How may theatre address social inequalities and be a place for acts of political and artistic resistance? How has the pandemic galvanised their commitments to communities, arts advocacy, use of languages on the stage and page, and considerations of the living archive? * Acts of communion with audiences, readers, fellow artists, students, and within ensembles and collectives. How do we find new ways to gather and make when liveness and the shared experience are challenged?

As the field of African American studies has gathered strength over the last decade, black theatre and performance has become a field unto itself. For literature scholars who study drama, and for playwrights, directors, and actors, the cultural heritage of black theatre has become too important to dismiss. Elam and Krasner's collection answers the need for a one-volume guide to the history and criticism of black theater and performance. Assembled by two of the most respected and prolific scholars in black theatre and composed of essays from acknowledged authorities in the field (Joe Roach and Genevieve Fabre, among others), the volume is likely to become the central reference for those studying black theatre and a vital tool for literature and African-American Scholars.

* The only book that provides a thorough introduction to the current state of play in Australian theatre, including coverage of previously marginalized voices; * Platforms previously marginalized voices in Australia, covering the work of writers of colour, queer writers and gender diverse writers; * Includes a series of duologues between major contemporary Australian playwrights which are provided in both written and podcast form.

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.

With Grotowski, After Grotowski is a unique and invaluable insight into the workings of one of theatre's true pioneers, presented by his closest collaborator. This book charts the development of Grotowski's dramatic research through a decade of conversations with his apprentice, Thomas Richards.

Tuscany's 'Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards' is the enduring legacy of a master teacher, director and theorist, and home to much of Grotowski's most significant work. Interviewed by leading scholars, and offering his own intimate accounts, Richards gives a vivid and detailed view of the Workcenter's evolution, providing:

• concrete illustration of the Workcenter's distinctive creative practices
• rigorous discussion of over twenty years of world-renowned research
• previously unpublished performance photos
• privileged insight into what Grotowski considered to be the culmination of his life's work.

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 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.

What did modern theatre in Russia look like and how did it foreground tradition building and transmission processes? The book challenges conventional historiographical approaches by weaving contemporary theories on cultural transmission into its historical narrative. It argues that processes of transmission - training spaces, acting manuals, photographic evidence, newspaper reports, international networking, informal encounters, cultural memories - contribute to the formation and consolidation of theatre traditions. Through English translations of rare Russian sources, the book expounds on: *side-lined material on Stanislavsky, including his relationship with German actor Ludwig Barnay, use of improvisation at the First Studio, and rehearsal practices for Artists and Admirers (1933); *Valentin Smyshlaev's acting manual The Technique to Process Stage Performance and the creation of hybrid practices; *proletarian theatre as an amateur-professional combination and force in the transformation of everyday life, as seen in the Proletkult's volume Art at the Workers' Clubs; *Meyerhold's Borodin Studio as an early example of Practice as Research, his European tour of 1930, and international persona as depicted in newspapers published in the West; and *Asja Lacis's work with children, which contributes to current efforts to address the gender imbalance that is often characteristic of modernism. This historical-theoretical investigation is combined with practical exercises that provide a more experiential understanding of the modern performance realities involved. In this way, the book speaks not only to theatre scholars and historians, but also to students and practitioners engaged in practical work.

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.

Women's Theatre Writing in Victorian Britain is the first book to make a comprehensive study of women playwrights in the British theatre from 1820 to 1918. It looks at how women playwrights negotiated their personal and professional identities as writers, and examines the female tradition of playwriting which dramatises the central experience of women's lives around the themes of home, the nation, and the position of women in marriage and the family. The book also includes an extensive Appendix of authors and plays, which will be a useful reference tool for students and scholars in nineteenth-century studies and theatre historians.

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.

The Diaries of Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821) are rare and fragile documents which present a unique view of Romantic-era Britain. An energetic woman, Inchbald achieved fame as an actress, novelist, playwright and critic. Her career introduced her to a wide group of people and she counted William Godwin, Thomas Holcroft, Maria Edgeworth, Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble among her friends. Published here for the first time, her eleven surviving diaries are a fascinating vignette of everyday life in the theatrical and literary circles of eighteenth-century London. They record Inchbald's reading habits, social contacts and professional activities, itemize her day-to-day expenditure, and chart the development of current affairs such as the Napoleonic Wars and the trial of Queen Caroline. The diaries are fully transcribed, but a sense of the original documents is preserved through selected photographic reproductions, and descriptions of the physical notebooks. The editorial apparatus also contextualises the diaries and provides biographical details for Inchbald and the other figures she encountered. Full editorial apparatus includes a substantial general introduction, a chronology of Inchbald's life, brief introductions to each diary, bibliographical guides to figures mentioned, and textual notes. There is a consolidated index in the final volume.

Love's Victory by Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1651) is the first romantic comedy written in English by a woman. The Revels Plays publishes for the first time a fully-authorised, modern spelling edition of the Penshurst manuscript, the only copy of the play containing all five acts, handwritten by Wroth and privately owned by the Viscount De L'Isle. Edited by Alison Findlay, Philip Sidney and Michael G. Brennan, their critical introduction provides details of Wroth's remarkable life and work as a member of the Sidney family, tracing connections between Love's Victory, her prose and poetry and her family's extensive writings. The editors introduce readers to the influence of court drama on Love's Victory and offer a new account of the play's stage history in productions from 1999-2018. Extensive commentary notes guiding the modern reader include explanatory glosses, literary references and staging information. -- .

Sensory Theatre: How to Make Interactive, Inclusive, Immersive Theatre for Diverse Audiences by a Founder of Oily Cart is an accessible step-by-step guide to creating theatre for inclusive audiences, such as young people on the autism spectrum or affected by other neuro-divergent conditions and children under two. Conventional theatre relies on seeing and hearing to involve its audience; sensory theatre harnesses the power of five or more senses to address its participants who have different ways of relating to the world around them. This book is an insightful history of Oily Cart and its pioneering development of work for the very young, including Baby Theatre, and for neuro-divergent audiences including those on the autism spectrum. It gives a clear introduction to the fundamental concepts of this theatre, suggests a host of practical techniques drawn from over forty years of experience, and describes some of Oily Cart's most radical innovations, including theatre on trampolines, in hydrotherapy pools, and with flying audiences in the company of aerial artists. The book also includes copious photos from the Oily Cart's archives and links to videos examples of the company's work. Readers will learn how to: Research the intended audience while not being led astray by labels. Create a welcoming, immersive sensory space in classrooms, nurseries, school halls, and playgrounds. Devise sensory stories that can be adapted to suit different audiences. Recruit, audition, cast, and run rehearsals. Ensure that the production is truly sensory and interactive. Written for Theatre for Young Audiences, Drama in Education, and specialized Applied Theatre courses, as well as educators and theatre practitioners interested in creating inclusive, interactive productions, Sensory Theatre offers a goldmine of ideas for making work that connects with audiences who can be the hardest to reach.

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.

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.

"Strongly recommended for undergraduate and graduate libraries; useful in theater, American history, and ethnic studies." Choice

This innovative collection features essays by a range of internationally renowned scholars and reconsiders textual practices in contemporary performance, specifically focusing on the exciting exchange between text, body and technology.

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.

Multi-media charts the development of multi-media video, installation and performance in a unique dialogue between theoretical analysis and specially commissioned documentations by some of the world's foremost artists. Nick Kaye explores the interdisciplinary history and character of experimental practices shaped in exchanges between music, installation, theatre, performance art, conceptual art, sculpture and video.

The book sets out key themes and concerns in multi-media practice, addressing time, space, the resurgence of ephemerality, liveness and 'aura'. These chapters are interspersed with documentary artwork and essays by artists whose work continues to shape the field, including new articles from:

• Vito Acconci
• The Builders Association
• John Jesurun
• Pipilotti Rist
• Fiona Templeton.

Multi-media also reintroduces a major documentary essay by Paolo Rosa of Studio Azzurro in a new, fully illustrated form. This book combines sophisticated scholarly analysis and fascinating original work to present a refreshing and creative investigation of current multi-media arts practice.

A timely book that identifies the practice of (syn)aesthetics in artistic style and audience response, which helps to articulate the power of experiential practice in the arts. This exciting new approach includes interviews with leading practitioners in of theatre, dance, site-specific work, live art and technological performance practice.