This text explores the evolution of critical approaches to Beckett's writing. It should appeal to graduate students (and advance undergraduates) as well as scholars, for it offers both an overview of Beckett studies and investigates early 21st-century debates within the interdisciplinary critical arena. Each of the contributors is a Beckett specialist who has published widely in the field. The volume contains an introduction, twelve essays and a guide for further reading. upper-level students within the state of a field of study.

This book explores the Japanese tradition of secret transmission of knowledge within a closed and often hereditary group. The author investigates how esoteric practices function, how people make meaning of their practices, and how this form of esotericism survived into the modern age. The first two questions are examined by using esoteric texts from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. The last looks at theatrical treatises from the late nineteenth century on.

Cold War Theatre, first published in 1992, provides an account of the theatrical history within the context of East/West politics. Its geographical span ranges from beyond the Urals to the Pacific Coast of the US, and asks whether the Cold War confrontation was not in part due to the cultural climate of Europe. Taking the McCarthy era as its starting point, this readable history considers the impact of the Cold War upon the major dramatic movements of our time, East and West. The author poses the question as to whether European habits of mind, fostered by their cultures, may not have contributed to the political stalemates of the Cold War. A wide range of actors from both the theatrical and political stages are discussed, and their contributions to the theatre of the Cold War examined in a hugely enjoyable and enlightening narrative. This book is ideal for theatre studies students.

Since the Second World War, we have witnessed exciting, often confusing developments in the British theatre. This book, first published in 1976, presents an enlightening, objective history of the many facets of post-war British theatre and a fresh interpretation of theatre itself. The remarkable and profound changes which have taken place during this period range from the style and content of plays, through methods of acting, to shapes of theatres and the organisational habits of managers. Two national theatres have been brought almost simultaneously into existence; while at the other end of the financial scale, the fringe and pub theatres have kicked their way into vigorous life. The theatre in Britain has been one of the post-war success stories, to judge by its international renown and its mixture of experimental vitality and polished experience. In this book Elsom presents an approach to the problems of criticism and appreciation which range beyond those of literary analysis.

A Galaxy of Things explores the ways in which all puppets, masks, and makeup-prosthetic figures are "material characters," and uses Star Wars creatures, droids, and helmeted-characters to illustrate what makes the good ones not only compelling, but meaningful. The book begins with author Colette Searls' Star Wars thing aesthetic, described through a release-order overview of what creatures, droids and masked characters have brought to 45+ years of live-action Star Wars. Building on theories from the burgeoning field of puppetry and material performance, it sees these "material characters" as a group and describes three specific powers that they share - distance, distillation, and duality - using the ubiquitously recognizable Star Wars characters to illustrate them. The book describes Distance, Distillation, and Duality as material character powers, using characters like C-3PO and Jabba the Hutt to illustrate how all three work to generate meaning. An in-depth exploration of the original Empire Strikes Back Yoda and "Baby" Yoda (Grogu) reveals how these two puppets use those powers to transform their human companions: Luke Skywalker, and then Din Djarin. Searls provides an in-depth analysis of Darth Vader's mask trajectory across three trilogies (1977 - 2019), revealing its contribution as a "performing thing." Finally, the book presents problematic uses of material character powers by critiquing droids in service, and the historical use of racial stereotypes in characters like Jar Jar Binks, before offering a hopeful analysis of how early 2020s live-action Star Wars began centering the non-, semi-, and concealed human in redemptive ways. This is an accessible exploration for students and scholars of theatre, film, media studies and popular culture who want to better understand puppets, masks, and makeup-prosthetic characters. Its terms and concepts will be useful to scholarly explorations of non-, semi-, and concealed human portrayals for a range of other fields, including posthumanism, object-oriented ontology, ethnic studies, and material culture.

Shakespeare and the Force of Modern Performance asks a central theoretical question in the study of drama: What is the relationship between the dramatic text and the meanings of performance? W.B. Worthen argues that the text cannot govern the force of its performance. Instead, the text becomes significant only as embodied in the changing conventions of its performance. Worthen explores this understanding of dramatic performativity by interrogating several contemporary sites of Shakespeare production. The book includes detailed discussions of recent films and stage productions, and sets Shakespeare performance alongside other works of contemporary drama and theatre.

The history of African American performance and theatre is a topic that few scholars have closely studied or discussed as a critical part of American culture. In this fascinating interdisciplinary volume, David Krasner reveals such a history to be a tremendously rich one, focusing particularly on the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the 20th century. The fields of history, black literary theory, cultural studies, performance studies and postcolonial theory are utilized in an examination of several major productions. In addition, Krasner looks at the aesthetic significance of African American performers on the American stage and the meaning of the technique entitled "cakewalking." Investigating expressions of protest within the theatre, Krasner reveals that this period was replete with moments of resistance to racism, parodies of the minstrel tradition, and double consciousness on the part of performers. An enlightening work which unveils new information about its subject, Resistance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theatre offers insights into African American artistry during an era of racism and conflict.

Turning Turk looks at contact between the English and other cultures inthe early modern Mediterranean, and analyzes the representation of thatexperience on the London stage. Vitkus's book demonstrates that theEnglish encounter with exotic alterity, and the theatrical representationsinspired by that encounter, helped to form the emergent identity of an English nation that was eagerly fantasizing about having an empire but was still in the preliminary phase of its colonizing drive. Vitkus' research shows how plays about the multi-cultural Mediterranean participated in this process of identity formation, and how anxieties about religious conversion, foreign trade and miscegenation were crucial factors in the formation of that identity.

This volume gathers contributions from a range of international scholars and geopolitical contexts to explore why people organise themselves into performance communities in sites of crisis and how performance - social and aesthetic, sanctioned and underground - is employed as a mechanism for survival. The chapters treat a wide range of what can be considered 'survival', ranging from sheer physical survival, to the survival of a social group with its own unique culture and values, to the survival of the very possibility of agency and dissent. Performance as a form of political resistance and protest plays a large part in many of the essays, but performance does more than that: it enables societies in crisis to continue to define themselves. By maintaining identities that are based on their own chosen affiliations and not defined solely in opposition to their oppressors, individuals and groups prepare themselves for a post-crisis future by keeping alive their own notions of who they are and who they hope to be.

The Improv Handbook is the most comprehensive, smart, helpful and inspiring guide to improv available today. Applicable to comedians, actors, public speakers and anyone who needs to think on their toes, it features a range of games, interviews, descriptions and exercises that illuminate and illustrate the exciting world of improvised performance. First published in 2008, this second edition features a new foreword by comedian Mike McShane, as well as new exercises on endings, managing blind offers and master-servant games, plus new and expanded interviews with Keith Johnstone, Neil Mullarkey, Jeffrey Sweet and Paul Rogan. The Improv Handbook is a one-stop guide to the exciting world of improvisation. Whether you're a beginner, an expert, or would just love to try it if you weren't too scared, The Improv Handbook will guide you every step of the way.

Inside The Performance Workshop: A Sourcebook for Rasaboxes and Other Exercises is the first full-length volume dedicated to the history, theory, practice, and application of a suite of performer training exercises developed by Richard Schechner and elaborated by the editors and contributors. This work began in the 1960s with The Performance Group, and has continued to evolve. Rasaboxes - a featured set of exercises - is an interdisciplinary approach for training emotional expressivity through the use of breath, body, voice, movement, and sensation. It brings together: the concept of rasa from classical Indian performance theory and practice research on emotion from neuroscience and psychology experimental performance practices theories of ritual, play, and performance This book combines both practical 'how-to' guidance, and applications in diverse contexts including undergraduate and graduate actor training, television acting, K-12 education, devising, and drama therapy. The book serves as an introduction to the work as well as an essential resource for experienced practitioners.

Jonathan Miller is one of the most important and prolific directors of theatre and opera today. Written with Miller's full cooperation and with access to rehearsals, this is the first book to explore his work in depth. Michael Romain examines this significant theatrical career through a series of interviews with Miller and his collaborators. It is rare that a director is willing or able to discuss his craft and rarer still to find colleagues who can recount their impressions of rehearsals and productions. However, in a series of conversations with actors, conductors, designers, singers, directors, and writers, a fascinating portrait of Miller emerges which will be of interest to theatre and opera enthusiasts as well as to students and scholars of the performing arts. The book is divided into three sections, beginning with an introduction which sets Miller's work in the context of contemporary European theatre. Part Two is an interview with Miller, covering such topics as his career, working methods, points of inspiration and views of current theatre and opera. Part Three is a collection of conversations with over forty artists including Zubin Mehta, Max von Sydow, Rosalind Plowright, Terry Hands, and John Cleese. The volume also contains a complete chronology of Miller's work in theatre, opera, television and film, including information on forthcoming productions, as well as numerous photographs from productions.

No Surrender! No Retreat! examines the careers of fifteen pioneer performers and their triumphs over herculean obstacles. It is a look back over the 20th century and documents personal histories of staggering achievement in spite of institutional racism, gender oppression, and classism. Twenty-four years in the making, No Surrender! No Retreat! is an indispensable work on African Americans in the performing arts, examining well-known performers, such as James Earl Jones, Morgan Freeman, and Pearl Bailey. Rare archival material and a number of personal interviews enrich this tome. Glenda E. Gill’s work is a moving and sometimes tragic account of the lives and careers of some of America’s most outstanding African American pioneers in theater.

In contrast to most books on Richard Wagner, this biography focuses primarily on Wagner as an important figure in the development of the theatre. While his contribution to music history has been exhaustively documented and analyzed, his theatrical ventures, in particular the founding of the Bayreuth Festival, have not been the object of much research by English-speaking theatre historians. Nevertheless, the Festival was a crucial event in the development of the European theatre: while Bayreuth established the paradigm for all modern theatre and music festivals, the Festival Theatre itself has provided the most widely imitated architectural configuration in twentieth-century theatre building.

First published in 1986, this compilation offers a guide to the major aspects of contemporary British theatre. In the period covered, Britain was among the world leaders in theatre as the post-war years saw a remarkable surge in theatrical creativity, associated with the experimental, innovatory and diverse range and styles of playwrights such as John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter. Directors came into their own as theatrical entrepreneurs and the new medium of television provided a further channel for the talents of writers such as Dennis Potter and distinguished actors including Ian McKellen, Alan Howard, Judi Dench and Sinead Cusack to name but a few. This volume contains entries on playwrights and their plays, on prominent directors, actors and theatre groups; on alternative theatre, schools of dramatic practice and stage history; on certain critical categories and theatre terminology. It will be of interest to students of drama, the critic, the aspiring writer or actor, and a desirable acquisition for theatre enthusiasts.

Edward Ziter explores the impact of the Middle East and the "Orient", (as it was known), on writing and performance in nineteenth-century British theater and how these portrayals influenced public perception of the region. British audiences marvelled at depictions of desert storms and harem dances as well as scenes of the Nile and colonial armies throughout the nineteenth century. Ziter extends his study from the Romantic through to the late-Victorian period, including taking in melodrama, pantomime, ballet, and opera, as well as museum displays and exhibitions.

Modern Asian Theatre and Performance 1900 - 2000 is a ground-breaking survey, tracking the advent of modern drama in Japan, India, China, Korea and Southeast Asia. It considers the shaping power of realism and naturalism, the influence of Western culture, the relationship between theatrical modernisation and social modernisation, and how theatre operates in contemporary Asian society. Organised by period, nation and region, each chapter provides: *a historical overview of the culture; *an outline of theatre history; *a survey of significant playwrights, actors, directors, companies, plays and productions. With contributions from an international team of scholars, this authoritative introduction will uniquely equip students and scholars with a broad understanding of the modern theatre histories of Asia.

Alan Dessen focuses on the playtexts used for staging Shakespeare's plays, from almost three hundred productions of the last twenty five years. Dessen examines the process of rescripting--when directors make cuts to streamline the playscript, save running time, etc., and rewriting--when more extensive changes are made. He assesses what is lost and gained by rescripting, and the demands of presenting to contemporary audiences words targeted at players, playgoers, and playhouses that no longer exist. The results are of interest to theatrical professionals and historians.

A former Associate Director for London's National Theatre invites readers to behold the fuller meaning of Shakespearean text as played, inviting them to seek their insights in Shakespeare's natural habitat: the stage. Includes considerations of recent productions at the Hartford Stage, Theatre for a New Audience, and the New York Shakespeare Festival.

This book draws upon cognitive and affect theory to examine applications of contemporary performance practices in educational, social and community contexts. The writing is situated in the spaces between making and performance, exploring the processes of creating work defined variously as collaborative, participatory and socially engaged.

In this accessible introduction to the study of Disability Arts and Culture, Petra Kuppers foregrounds themes, artists and theoretical concepts in this diverse field. Complete with case studies, exercises and questions for further study, the book introduces students to the work of disabled artists and their allies, and explores artful responses to living with physical, cognitive, emotional or sensory difference. Engaging readers as cultural producers, Kuppers provides useful frameworks for critical analysis and encourages students to explore their own positioning within the frames of gender, race, sexuality, class and disability. Comprehensive and accessible, this is an essential handbook for undergraduate students or anyone interested in disabled bodies and minds in theatre, performance, creative writing, art and dance.

Hurled words. Thrown objects. Dodged burgers. A burger was thrown at Travis Alabanza on Waterloo Bridge in 2016. From this experience they have created a poetic, passionate performance piece based around the 'burger': the texture, and taste of being trans. Their experiences include verbal abuse, ostracisation and being thrown out of a Top Shop changing room. The piece also explores the black trans experience.

In this book, Jeanette Malkin considers a broad spectrum of postwar plays in which characters are created, coerced, and destroyed by language. The playwrights examined are diverse and include Handke, Pinter, Bond, Albee, Mamet and Shepard, as well as Vaclav Havel and two of his plays: The Garden Party and The Memorandum. These playwrights portray language's manipulation of our political, social, and interpersonal worlds. Writing in a variety of idioms and styles, the playwrights all reveal the link between language and power.

In 1845, John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition disappeared. The expedition left an archive of performative remains that entice one to consider the tension between material remains and memory and reflect on how substitution and surrogation work alongside mourning and melancholia as responses to loss.