Following on from Sandra Reeve's Nine Ways of Seeing a Body (which offered a historical perspective on different key approaches to the body over time), this new edited collection brings together a wide range of contemporary approaches to the body that are being used by performers or in the context of performance training. The intention is for students, dancers, performers, singers, musicians, directors and choreographers to locate their own preferred approach(es) to the body-in-performance amongst the lenses described here. The collection is also designed to facilitate further research in that direction as well as to signpost alternatives that might enrich their current vocabulary. All 12 approaches represent the praxis and research of their authors. The chapters reveal a wide variety of different interests but they share the common framework of the notion of 'body as flux', of 'no fixed or determined sense of self' and of supporting the performer's being-becoming-being as a skilful creative entity, emphasising the intelligence of the body at work. Authors: Campbell Edinborough, Hull University Sreenath Nair & Arya Madhavan, Lincoln University Konstantinos Thomaidis, Royal Holloway, Univ. of London Kate Hunter, Victoria University Niamh Dowling, Rose Bruford College, London Suze Adams, Independent Research Artist Emma Meehan, Coventry University Nicholas Hope, Intl. Screen Academy, Sydney Roisin O'Gorman, Univ. College, Cork Natalie Garrett Brown, Coventry University Imogene Newland & Franziska Schroeder, Queen's Univ, Belfast Pam Woods, Exeter University

This is the first textbook designed for students, practitioners and scholars of the performing arts who are curious about the power of the cognitive sciences to throw light on the processes of performance. It equips readers with a clear understanding of how research in cognitive neuroscience has illuminated and expanded traditional approaches to thinking about topics such as the performer, the spectator, space and time, culture, and the text. Each chapter considers four layers of performance: conventional forms of theatre, performance art, and everyday life, offering an expansive vision of the impact of the cognitive sciences on performance in the widest sense. Written in an approachable style, An Introduction to Theatre, Performance and the Cognitive Sciences weaves together case studies of a wide range of performances with scientific evidence and post-structural theory. Artists such as Robert Wilson, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Ariane Mnouchkine, Bertolt Brecht, and Antonin Artaud are brought into conversation with theories of Gilles Deleuze, Shaun Gallagher, Alva Noe, Tim Ingold and the science of V. S. Ramachandran, Vittorio Gallese, and Antonio Damasio. John Lutterbie offers a complex understanding of not only the act of performing but the forces that mark the place of theatre in contemporary society. In drawing on a variety of scientific articles, Lutterbie provides readers with an accessible account of significant research in areas in the field and reveals how the sciences can help us understand the experience of art.

Phantom of the Opera is the longest-running, largest-grossing musical of all time. This book is the story of the stage show, film, and sequel, and the controversies that have surrounded them. You will learn why: Sarah Brightman had to leave the UK after her divorce from Lloyd Webber and how she became the highest paid soprano in the world. Gerard Butler was cast as a "younger, hotter" Phantom in the film, and why diehard fans thought he was not ugly enough. Lloyd Webber ignored early warnings that fans would spurn a sequel-a decision that cost him millions. A social media campaign led to the demise of the Phantom sequel, and how it was reborn. Phantom of the Opera: A Social History of the World's Most Popular Musical is the first book that fully documents the history of a musical now in its 31st year of a continual run that has become a cultural force.