A Trip to Niagara; or, Travellers in America, a three-act comedy, opened at New York's Bowery Theatre on November 28, 1828, for a long run. Scripted and later published by William Dunlap (1766-1839), the so-called "father of the American stage," this play offers a bounty to theater historians, dramatic critics, and all those interested in the American culture during Dunlap's lifetime. This study explores the Bowery, the play's moving diorama, the text, and the playwright, and emphasizes their interrelationships. This analysis of A Trip to Niagara as a theatrical event joins hands with dramatic criticism. An annotated transcript of the play is helpfully provided in the appendix of the book. This study contends that had there been no moving diorama, there would have been no play. Since William Dunlap called his text a "running accompaniment," it should be analyzed in terms of this function. The play's few critics have failed to do this. Hence, the interplay of the moving diorama (and conventional scenic backdrops) with the plot and characters comprises another significant segment of this study. This book makes significant contributions to studies of antebellum American theater, the Nationalist Period in American culture, and William Dunlap.

During the 19 years of her play-writing career, Aphra Behn had far more new plays staged than anyone else. This book is the first to examine all her theatrical work. It explains her often dominant place in the complex theatrical culture of Charles II's reign, her divided political sympathies, and her interests as a free-thinking intellectual. It also reveals her to be a brilliant theatrical practitioner who used the seen as richly and significantly as the spoken.

Unique in any Western language, this is an invaluable resource for the study of one of the world's great theatrical forms. It includes essays by established experts on Kabuki as well as younger scholars now entering the field, and provides a comprehensive survey of the history of Kabuki; how it is written, produced, staged, and performed; and its place in world theater. Compiled by the editor of the influential Asian Theater Journal, the book covers four essential areas - history, performance, theaters, and plays - and includes a translation of one Kabuki play as an illustration of Kabuki techniques.

The book explores European artists' critical engagement with the images and stories that politicians and the media use to advocate globalization.

Winner! 1993 Olivier Award, Best Musical Revival Winner! Five 1994 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical Winner! Three 1994 Drama Desk Awards Nominee: Seven 1994 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical Revival Winner! Two 2018 Tony Awards Nominee: Eleven 2018 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical Winner! Five 2018 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Orchestrations Nominee: Twelve 2018 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical Revival In a Maine coastal village toward the end of the 19th century, the swaggering, carefree carnival barker, Billy Bigelow, captivates and marries the gentle millworker, Julie Jordan. Billy loses his job just as he learns that Julie is pregnant and, desperately intent upon providing a decent life for his family, he is coerced into being an accomplice to a robbery. Caught in the act and facing the certainty of prison, he takes his own life and is sent 'up there.' Billy is allowed to return to earth for one day fifteen years later, and he encounters the daughter he never knew. She is a lonely, friendless teenager, her father's reputation as a thief and bully having haunted her throughout her young life. How Billy instills in both the child and her mother a sense of hope and dignity is a dramatic testimony to the power of love.

Winner! Three 1947 Donaldson Awards, for Best Book, Best Lyrics and Best Score Nominee: Seven 2005 Helen Hayes Awards Winner! Two 2005 Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Resident Musical and Outstanding Director This ensemble musical chronicles nearly four decades in the life of an Everyman, Joseph Taylor, Jr., from cradle through a mid-life discovery of who he is and what his life is truly about. The first musical to be staged by a director who also served as choreographer (the legendary Agnes de Mille), Allegro followed a unique structural format traveling from Joe's birth through his childhood, from college dorm to marriage altar, and on to his career; from the tranquility of his small Midwestern hometown to the hectic din of big city life, in a series of vignettes and musical sequences dazzling in their simplicity and stunning in their impact. Ahead of its time theatrically, Allegro remains timeless in its appeal.

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From the musical hits "Lion King" and "Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk," to important new off-Broadway plays such as "Beauty Queen of Leenane" and "Wit," the latest volume in this popular series features a chronological collection of facsimiles of every theater review and awards article published in the "New York Times" between January 1997 and December 1998. Includes a full index of personal names, titles, and corporate names. Like its companion volume, the "New York Times Film Reviews 1997-1998, " this collection is an invaluable resource for all libraries.

Locating Indian theatre as a major site of reappraisal and renewal both in India and in the world of performance, this book presents both a picture of traditional and contemporary theatre in India and an examination of its processes and practice. It questions the generative processes which impel theatre, the 'transformation' of individuals and groups through performance and the performative dynamics of 'self' and 'other'.

The Uncapturable is a wide-ranging reflection on the art of the mise en scene from the perspective of leading Argentinian theatre director Ruben Szuchmacher. It offers a timely and concise, though comprehensive, survey of the role and responsibility of the theatre director from the earliest times to the twenty-first century. Szuchmacher defines theatre as the confluence of four art forms - architecture, visual art, sound and literature - whose works only truly exist in the moment of encounter with an audience. He argues that, by taking full account of these four art forms, analysing them in detail and engaging thoughtfully with the many specialists who come together to bring a mise en scene into being, the director of today can still create work that innovates and inspires. The Uncapturable is as valuable to the apprentice director emerging from their training as it is to the veteran in need of fresh reflection. Szuchmacher draws on the unique learnings gleaned from working in Argentina, be it the impact on theatre of politics, the need for inventiveness in times of hardship, the phenomenon of Argentine 'circus theatre' or the adaptation of literary giants such as Borges, affording the Anglophone reader an alternative perspective on the ideas of theatre we often take for granted. Szuchmacher offers a unique blend of global knowledge, historical awareness and a pragmatic, resourceful and creative approach from a theatre artist working in Latin American through decades of change. The book is translated from the Spanish by William Gregory.

The fragmentation of social groups in the face of the global mass media has begun to threaten the survival of popular theatre companies. This study traces the development of various types of community theatre in Britain and Canada, from the '70s to the present day.
Attention is drawn to several key issues including: distinctions between popular and mainstream theatre; the Theatre in Education movement; influence of Theatre for Development from Africa and Asia; popular theatre as an art form, a process of self-empowerment and an instrument of cultural intervention. The book follows an innovative structure, integrating a comparative history of popular theatre with the contributions of current, active popular theatre makers. The co-authors, one British, one Canadian, shape their discourses around these contributions so that the the authentic voices are neither mediated nor distorted. The book is thus designed to appeal both to the theatrical practitioner and to the academic.

The newest addition to the USITT/Routledge Backstage series, covering behind the scenes information for the technical theatre industry. The book covers the challenges stage managers face on the job and in real life, outlining best practices for achieving a work/life balance. Includes a focus on the work/life balance of a stage manager.

This exploration of the territory between theory and practice in contemporary theatre features essays by academics from theatre and translation studies, and delineates a new space for the discussion of translation in the theatre that is international, critical and scholarly, while rooted in experience and understanding of theatre practices.

Modern British Playwriting: The 1980s equips readers with a fresh assessment of the theatre and principle playwrights and plays from a decade when political and economic forces were changing society dramatically. It offers a broad survey of the context and of the playwrights and companies such as Complicite and DV8 that rose to prominence at this time. Alongside this it provides a detailed examination based on fresh research of four of the most significant playwrights of the era and considers the influence they had on later work. The 1980s volume features a detailed study by four scholars of the work of four of the major playwrights who came to prominence: Howard Barker (by Sarah Goldingay), Jim Cartwright (David Lane), Sarah Daniels (Jane Milling) and Timberlake Wertenbaker (Sara Freeman). Essential for students of Theatre Studies, the series of six decadal volumes provides a critical survey and study of the theatre produced from the 1950s to 2009. Each volume features a critical analysis of the work of four key playwrights besides other theatre work from that decade, together with an extensive commentary on the period. Readers will understand the works in their contexts and be presented with fresh research material and a reassessment from the perspective of the twenty-first century. This is an authoritative and stimulating reassessment of British playwriting in the 1980s.

Contents:
Acknowlegements. Introduction. Unit one: Are you sitting comfortably? Unit two: Realism: Telling it like it is? Unit three: presentation of character: non-standard language. Unit four: The protagonist. Unit five: Storytelling. Unit six: The grammar of sound. Unit seven:Book to film. Index of terms. Index of textx and writers. References and further reading.

Each chapter of this book presents a different marginalized community and explores how it appropriates theatre for its own needs, which are often at odds with those of the powerful sponsoring organizations.  This fresh approach to the topic provides the reader with an innovative, critical way of studying community theatre.

This engaging text introduces the burgeoning and interdisciplinary field of cultural performance, offering ethnographic approaches to performance as well as looking at the aesthetics of experience and performance theory. Examining cultural performance from anthropological, geographical and corporeal standpoints, this book offers many examples of the ways in which performance art and entertainment utilize cultural methods to deepen and enrich the practice. Featuring case studies from a rich cross-section of academics, chapters explore performances from regions as far flung as Bhutan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand and the USA. With cultural performances as varied as Catholic rituals, Maori ceremonies, Monster Truck rallies, musicals, theatre and singing performances, this fascinating text compares performance as art and performance as cultural expression. Core reading for introductory and interdisciplinary modules on performance, this is also an ideal text for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students of performance, visual arts, cultural studies or ethnography.

The most comprehensive volume on performance art from the Americas to have appeared in English, Corpus Delecti is a unique collection of historical and critical studies of contemporary Latin performance. Drawing on live art from the 1960s to the present day, these fascinating essays explore the impact of Latin American politics, popular culture and syncretic religions on Latin performance.
Including contributions by artists as well as scholars, Fusco's collection bridges the theory/practice divide and discusses a wide variety of genres. Among them are:
* body art
* carpa
* vaudeville
* staged political protest
* tropicalist musical comedies
* contemporary Venezuelan performance art
* the Chicano Art movement
* queer Latino performance
The essays demonstrate how specific social and historical contexts have shaped Latin American performance. They also show how those factors have affected the choices artists make, and how their work draw upon and respond to their environment.

In "Performance, Cognitive Theory, and Devotional Culture," Jill Stevenson uses cognitive theory to explore the layperson's physical encounter with live religious performances, and to argue that laypeople's interactions with other devotional media--such as books and art objects--may also have functioned like performance events. By revealing the remarkable resonance between cognitive science and medieval visual theories, Stevenson demonstrates how understanding medieval culture can enrich the study of performance generally. She concludes by applying her theories of medieval performance culture to contemporary religious forms, including creationist museums, Hell Houses, and megachurches.

Following a period of ideological and practical change in museums, this book outlines new attitudes in curating and display, education and learning, text and interpretation, access, inclusion, participation, space, and the sustainability of the encyclopaedic collection. Focused on the contemporary period, the author questions the extent to which the museum visitor has become reliant on interpretative text and examines the development of new museum spaces where visitor interaction and engagement is welcomed. Changes of attitude have transformed our museums into modern spaces that reflect current needs and modern expectations and yet our permanent collections remain relatively unchanged, sometimes an uncomfortable reminder of a time when values, ethics and attitudes were very different. The author will discuss these conflicts of ideology. Written by a researcher with expertise in museum practice, this shortform book offers a new approach that will be valuable reading for students and scholars of cultural management and policy, as well as providing insights for reflective museum practitioners.

What are cultural centres for? This book offers a unique and dynamic guide to managing these organizations, and the challenge of reconciling cultural aims with business success. Drawing on research and practice, it provides case-based insights into common managerial problems and their solutions. Although international research demonstrates that culture has positive economic impact and many cultural institutions are multi-million dollar institutions, there has been little research on how cultural centres are managed to combine cultural and economic impact. Due to the diversity of their missions and purpose, cultural centres in Europe often struggle to find business success. By drawing on recent cases from Finland and Sweden, and focusing on the challenges which face both managers and organizations, this book explores the incentives which underpin the foundation of cultural centres, and what is needed to make them a success, By defining the complex challenges which face cultural centres, this book enables managers to move beyond administrating an organization to becoming cultural entrepreneurs, turning good ideas into good business. In this under-researched area, this book will be essential reading for researchers, policy makers and managers working in cultural centers and museum management.

"Provides a comparative approach to the internationally wide-spread phenomenon of the contemporary director-auteur in the theatre, urging a historical and theoretical exploration of the visions, methods, and stage idioms in the work of established artists. Sidiropoulou examines prominent examples of both older and more recent director-auteur work, aiming at re-asserting - to its artistic and academic audience - the value of balancing the established emphasis on the diegetic aspects of theatre with the ever-spreading varieties of dramatic de-"centering" and "dis-semination." This exciting work also poses questions of authorship, which necessarily imply the redefinition of the relationship between "playwright" and the director-playwright"--

This collection brings together studies of popular performance and politics across the nineteenth century, offering a fresh perspective from an archivally grounded research base. It works with the concept that politics is performative and performance is political. The book is organised into three parts in dialogue regarding specific approaches to popular performance and politics. Part I offers a series of conceptual studies using popular culture as an analytical category for social and political history. Part II explores the ways that performance represents and constructs contemporary ideologies of race, nation and empire. Part III investigates the performance techniques of specific politicians - including Robert Peel, Keir Hardie and Henry Hyndman - and analyses the performative elements of collective movements. -- .

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