The reality of being a stay at home parent. This was intended as a humorous interpretation but any other mom will agree this is how it goes. This was a typical day in my home.

Ensemble theater is one of the vibrant, meaningful American performance forms today. It's more than art- it's a social movement. Ensemble theater is one of the hottest, most engaging American performance forms today. It's more than art- it's a movement. Performing Communities is an inquiry into a genre of theater that arises from and empowers the grassroots. The book profiles established ensemble groups from inner-city Los Angeles, small-town northern California, African-American South, multicultural southern Texas, low-income central Appalachia, economically struggling South Bronx New York, and cross-continental Native America. This compendium of critical writing about the role these theaters play in building community shows how these artist groups are forged by working in and with their communities over time. Ensemble theater is discovered to be neither alternative nor marginalized, but vanguard, a natural evolution of the movement that propelled regional theater "away from the commercial restraints of New York and toward a theater expressive of the rich diversity of American culture." It is theater that is politically and emotionally charged. It can be cathartic, healing, and has a proven ability to effect social change. The book Performing Communities is a project of the Community Arts Network. It has been created from interviews, analytical essays, and play excerpts from the "Grassroots Theater Ensemble Research Project," an inquiry into American ensemble theaters that have been working in communities for 10 to 35 years. Although originating from a scholarly report, the language has been edited for a popular audience and offers an intimate glimpse into each local ensemble community. The book will appeal to followers of contemporary and popular theater, social change activists, community building specialists, and a public curious about cultural development in the United States.

How did the concept of the avant-garde come into existence? How did it impact on the performing arts? How did the avant-garde challenge the artistic establishment and avoid the pull of commercial theatre, gallery and concert-hall circuits? How did performance artists respond to new technological developments? Placing key figures and performances in their historical, social and aesthetic context, Gunter Berghaus offers an accessible introduction to post-war avant-garde performance. Written in a clear, engaging style, and supported by text boxes and illustrations throughout, this volume explains the complex ideas behind avant-garde art and evocatively brings to life the work of some of its most influential performance artists. Covering hot topics such as multi-media and body art performances, this text is essential reading for students of theatre studies and performance.

Examine the cultural and political implications of male-to-female gender performance! The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Flawlessly Customary World of Female Impersonators examines the phenomena of male-to-female gender performance and the people who live it. This provocative collection of original essays explores the possibilities, limitations, ironies, and controversies surrounding men who perform as women to an audience that knows the truth but celebrates the illusion. The book's contributors call on extensive backgrounds in sociology, anthropology, theater, literatureeven military studiesand use a variety of approaches to address common themes and genres of presentation, performance, and style in a wide range of historical settings and cultures. The Drag Queen Anthology explores female impersonation in the past and present, addressing the often-contradictory cultural impulses found in the performance of femininity. The book examines the important issues of this unique form of gendering, including the cultural and sociopolitical implications of drag, the symbolic cultural ideals associated with women, the impact of the performer's social identities on his performance, and the reactions of the GLBT, straight, and feminist communities to drag. The book looks at traditional drag performance, challenges accepted perceptions about female impersonation, and exposes the notion of the effeminate drag queen as an outdated myth. The Drag Queen Anthology examines the important issues of male-to-female gender performance, including: how drag queen performance is used to attain situational status and power how drag queens challenge contemporary notions of gender what embodiment occurs when men undertake performances of femininity how drag queen performance is viewed as a theatrical presentation of self what representations of drag queens in film suggest about current gender relations why communities organize around drag queen performers how drag queen performance differs on-stage and off how male-to-female gendered performance intersects with performances of sexual identity, social class, race, age, and ethnicity The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Flawlessly Customary World of Female Impersonators is an indispensable resource on drag's core elements of performance and parody and how each affects contemporary notions of gender.

Journey into the arcane world of Doctor Jacob Tordoff. A selection of new and updated bizarre magick performances from the repertoire and creative mind of Roger Curzon. As an exclusively designed dust cover bound hardback, it features a foreword by Jim Critchlow, plus some supporting contributions from Roni Shachnaey, Steve Drury, Kotah, Andrew Normansell and Ashton Carter.

Heracles and Oedipus in Greek Classical Drama by Professor Joseph R. Laurin offers a scholarly, clear and easy approach to the understanding of two of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece and of the glory and tragedy of their stories in Greek Classical theater.
Readers and researchers can benefit greatly from the text and innumerable references presented in this book. Students as well as non-academic readers interested in Classical literature or the Theater can find it fascinating and beneficial.
After projecting a general view of the notion of the Ancient Greek Hero, the author develops the mythical stories of Heracles and Oedipus, and the dramas produced from these myths by the three Classical writers of Tragedy: Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles.
Four plays convey the dramatic story of Heracles: Alcestis, Heracles Mad, The Women of Trachis and The Children of Heracles. The story of Oedipus spans over several generations covered in six plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, The Seven Against Thebes, The Phoenician Women, The Suppliant Women and Antigone.
The author's vast knowledge of the sources of information, either in ancient texts or in modern literature, has made his book not only a brief retelling of the stories but a discussion of the major issues of interpretation and a thought-provoking commentary about human life, the universe and the gods.
Heracles and Oedipus in Greek Classical Drama is a valuable contribution to the understanding of two of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece and of the masterful adaptation of their stories to the theater stage. This book, available either in paperback or hard cover, should inspire further research of thesources and discussion of issues confronting students as well as readers interested in Classical literature or the Theater.

This book brings together contributions from scholars across Europe to present findings from a foresight analysis exercise on audiences and audience analysis, looking towards an increasingly datafied world and anticipating the ubiquity of the internet of things. The book uses knowledge emerging out of three foresight exercises, produced in co-operation with more than 50 stake-holding organisations and building on systematic reviews of audience research. It works through these exercises to arrive at a renewed agenda for audience studies within communication scholarship in the context of intrusive and connected interfaces and emerging communicative practices.

Fayettenam Plays and London Works is a collection of six three-act plays and one one-act play with varied settings in London, England; Gallup, New Mexico; Lebanon, Missouri; Cherokee, North Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina, and the author's place of residence in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The oldest play dates back to the author's college days of yore, and the most recent play contains wet ink as it was hurriedly keyed to meet a publishing deadline. Expect lots of laughs and rising action leading to climaxes of dramatic proportions!

LAUGH, LAUGH AND LAUGH! New, Updated and Expanded - 2nd Edition As they say, 'Laughter is the best medicine'. And what better way to laugh than by reading jokes! Get this book NOW for some REAL entertainment and fun. Do you want to - - Eliminate stress - Burn calories - Heal yourself - Align your mind, body, soul and spirit - Bring joy to people around and - Most importantly, laugh your heart out! If yes, then this is the book for you. Clean jokes for everyone - high quality and hilarious - this book is a must read! So what are you waiting for? Get your own copy NOW! Also get a Bonus book inside - ABSOLUTELY FREE

By rethinking contemporary debates regarding the politics of aesthetic forms, "Gender and Allegory in Transamerican Fiction and Performance" explores how allegory can be used to resolve the "problem" of identity in both political theory and literary studies. Examining fiction and performance from Zoe Valdes and Cherrie Moraga to Def Poetry Jam and Carmelita Tropicana, Sugg suggests that the representational oscillations of allegory can reflect and illuminate the fraught dynamics of identity discourses and categories in the Americas. Using a wide array of theoretical and aesthetic sources from the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, this book argues for the crucial and potentially transformative role of feminist cultural production in transamerican public cultures.

I here and there o'heard a Coxcomb cry,
Ah, rot--'tis a Woman's Comedy.
Thus Aphra Behn ushers in a new era for women in the British Theatre (Sir Patient Fancy, 1678). In the hundred years that were to follow -- and exactly those years that Curtain Calls examines -- women truly took the theater world by storm.
For each woman who chose a career in the theater world of the eighteenth century, there is a unique tale of struggle, insult, success, good or bad fortune, disaster, seduction, or fame. Whether acting, writing, reviewing, or stage managing, women played a major, if frequently unacknowledged, role in the history of the theater from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. From Alpha Behn's earliest plays through the glorious celebrity of Sara Siddons, women molded the taste of the age and carved out in the theater one of the few available opportunities for independence and renown.
Not all the women who tried succeeded, of course, and even the best faced opposition as they challenged the male stronghold of playwriting and theater managing. Curtain Calls maps the new territory as these pioneering women staked it for their own; it chronicles their lives, their triumphs, and their losses.
We begin with Aphra Behn, whose first play was staged in 1670, and conclude in the early decades of the nineteenth century with Inchbald and Siddons. The one hundred and fifty years encompassed by their lives contain the careers of dozens of lesser-known women, a network, as Dr. Johnson would have it, encompassing both talent and tribulation.
Contributors include: Edward Langhans, Linda R. Payne, Pat Rogers, Maureen e. Mulvihill, Deborah Payne, Betty Rizzo, Ellen Donkin, Frances M. Kavenik, Jessica Munns, nancy Cotton, Edna L. Steevs, Doreen Saar, Jean B. Kern, Katherine M. Rogers, Constance Clark, William J. Burling, Judith Phillips Stanton, Douglas Butler, Rose Zimbardo, and the editors.

This bio-bibliography provides an overview of the life and career of the noted actress Agnes Moorehead. A brief biography discusses her midwestern upbringing as well as her academic background and early struggles in establishing her career. The biography also discusses Moorehead's later career successes in addition to her professional and personal relationships. The largest portion of the book is devoted to detailed listings of her work in film, television, radio and theatre. In many cases, these listings include synopses, cast listings and credits, review excerpts, and other information. Her most celebrated appearances are described and discussed at length. These appearances include the films, Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons; television programs, "The Twilight Zone," "The Wild, Wild West," and "Bewitched;" radio shows "The March of Time," "The Shadow," and "Sorry, Wrong Number;" and her one-woman stage production as well as her work in Don Juan in Hell. This work is a valuable addition to the performing arts series.

Men have been dressing as women on stage for hundreds of years, dating back to the thirteenth century when the Church forbade the appearance of female actors but condoned that of men and boys disguised as the opposite sex. Forms of travestism can be traced back to the dawn of theatre and are found in all corners of the world, notably in China and Japan.

In recent years, of course, drag has witnessed a dramatic and widespread revival. Newsday recently observed, People are talking about all those fabulous heterosexual film idols who now can't seem to wait to get tarted up in drag and do their screen bits as fishnet queens. Drawing on a cinematic tradition popularized by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot, Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie) and Robin Williams (Mrs. Doubtfire) have each delighted mainstream audiences with their portrayals of women. Even former drag queens have experience newfound fame; witness the recent popularity of the late Divine, renowned for her oddly compelling appearances in underground John Waters films.

Music, too, has been profoundly influenced by drag sensibility, from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Rocky Horror Picture Show to Boy George and RuPaul (the self- proclaimed Supermodel of the World).

Tracing drag tradition from the Golden Age of stage transvestism during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I in England to the current quasi-drag inclinations of American grunge bands, Drag is an entertaining overview of this popular and complex medium.

Oberon Play House's director and leading men are off at war with the Axis. Determined to press on, the director's wife sets out to produce an all-female version of Shakespeare's Henriad, assembling an increasingly unexpected team united in desire, if not actual theatre experience. Together they deliver a delightful celebration of collaboration and persistence when the show must go on!

Nicholas Rudall, whose acclaimed translations of Ibsen and the Greek classic playwrights have brought a fresh perspective to the American theater, turns his talents to one of the Norwegian dramatist's most provocative plays. In a rebuke to the Victorian notion of community as well as to the blessings of democracy, Ibsen creates a situation in which one man must stand alone to face the forces allied against him. In a coastal town, a community-minded physician has promoted the development of public baths in order to attract tourists. When he discovers that the water supply for the baths is contaminated and attempts to publicize the failing and correct it, he and his family are all but driven out of the town he was trying to save.

This book explores poetry and pedagogy in practice across the lifespan. Poetry is directly linked to improved literacy, creativity, personal development, emotional intelligence, complex analytical thinking and social interaction: all skills that are crucial in contemporary educational systems. However, a narrow focus on STEM subjects at the expense of the humanities has led educators to deprioritize poetry and to overlook its interdisciplinary, multi-modal potential. The editors and contributors argue that poetry is not a luxury, but a way to stimulate linguistic experiences that are formally rich and cognitively challenging. To learn through poetry is not just to access information differently, but also to forge new and different connections that can serve as reflective tools for lifelong learning. This interdisciplinary book will be of value to teachers and students of poetry, as well as scholars interested in literacy across the disciplines.

During the past 15 years, artists have established a remarkable record of innovation and success in institutional settings. Their work with hospital patients, prisoners, the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill, and others has shown that the arts can have a significant positive impact on the lives of these people. This book recounts the histories of 22 institutional and community arts programs across the country pioneering this approach through activities such as creative writing and the performing and visual arts. Consisting largely of first-hand accounts, the book demonstrates how the creative processes have been used to address and solve some of society's most pressing problems. Included are case studies, research, and descriptions of the wide variety of artistic, educational, and therapeutic approaches utilized by each of the 22 programs. Also described are many of the financial and political strategies used to build and sustain support for these unlikely endeavors. This work will provide valuable insights for artists, educators, social service providers, and community leaders.

This book demonstrates how and why a majority of US artists must now function as producers of their original works, as well as creators. The author shows how, over the span of 20 years, the USA's cultural policy sector radically redefined US artists' practices without cohesively articulating the expectations of artists' new role.

This is the February 2018 (128th - and 20th Anniversary) issue of Music Street Journal. It includes coverage of the following artists and more: Alcatrazz Jon Anderson Robert Berry Big Country Graham Bonnet Charles Brown California Guitar Trio Johnny Cash Cheer-Accident Clark Colborn Alan Davey Delta Deep Joe Deninzon Downes Braide Association Terry Draper Dreadnaught Echo Us Keith Emerson Fischer's Flicker Focus Randy George Pontus Gunve Steve Hackett Heaven & Earth HR Glenn Hughes Sonja Kristina Lana Lane Tony Levin Marillion Miriodor Bill Nelson Erik Norlander Rausch Jordan Rudess Rush Samson ScienceNV Don Schiff Billy Sherwood Alan Simon Snoozy Moon Spirits Burning Spock's Beard 3rd Ear Experience Uriah Heep John Wetton WildeStarr Yes Frank Zappa While Gary Hill edited and published the book and wrote many of the articles, Mike Korn, Greg Olma and Larry Toering all contributed articles.

This collection includes: B-Storm by Ava Geyer - Sex sells. Even when you're selling chocolate syrup to little kids, unfortunately. New York ad execs are forced to confront past wounds and current crises when their new campaign hits a little stickily close to home. Open Venas by Exal Iraheta - In this comedic clash of cultures and generations, only-child Amelia must combat her meddling mother and grandmother when they invade her honeymoon to guarantee that she fulfills her "responsibility" to carry on the bloodline. My Yellow is Yours, Your Red is Mine by Keyanna Khatiblou - Two Iranian-American sisters attempt to celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year, for the first time since their family immigrated to the U.S. Suckers by SP O'Brien - Vacation has ended. All the children are back to school. These three elementary school teachers need a cigarette. Kill Me. Will Be Live by Micah Ariel Watson - Imani, Clara, and Mia bask fully in their womanhood after a party. But in an instant, joyful reminiscence becomes a plea for the value of Black lives. Not Only is Everyone as Wonderful by Celeste Yim - In a near-future department store where any purchase is a voice-automated command away, a young adult going through a breakup is opened to the opportunity of finding love again by the possibility of a shiny new crush.

This volume explores the notion of German cinema as both a national and increasingly transnational entity. It brings together chapters that analyse the international circuits of development and distribution that shape the emerging films as part of a contemporary "German cinema", the events and spectacles that help frame and re-frame national cinemas and their discoverability, and the well-known filmmakers who sit at the vanguard of the contemporary canon. Thereby, it explores what we understand as German cinema today and the many points where this idea of national cinema can be interrogated, expanded and opened up to new readings. At the heart of this interrogation is a keen awareness of the technological, social, economic and cultural changes that have an impact on global cinemas more broadly: new distribution channels such as streaming platforms and online film festivals, and audience engagement that transcends national borders as well as the cinema space. International film production and financing further heightens the transnational aspects of cinema, a quality that is often neglected in marketing and branding of the filmic product. With particular focus on film festivals, this volume explores the tensions between the national and transnational in film, but also in the events that sit at the heart of global cinema culture. It includes contributions from filmmakers, cultural managers and other professionals in the field of film and cinema, as well as scholarly contributions from academics researching popular culture, film, and events in relation to Germany.