Susan Bennett's highly successful Theatre Audiences is a unique full-length study of the audience as cultural phenomenon, which looks at both theories of spectatorship and the practice of different theatres and their audiences.
Published here in a brand new updated edition, Theatre Audiences now includes:
- a new preface by the author
- a stunning extra chapter on intercultural theatre
- a revised up-to-date bibliography.
Theatre Audiences is a must-buy for teachers and students interested in spectatorship and theatre audiences, and will be valuable reading for practitioners and others involved in the theatre.

Susan Bennett's highly successful Theatre Audiences is a unique full-length study of the audience as cultural phenomenon, which looks at both theories of spectatorship and the practice of different theatres and their audiences.
Published here in a brand new updated edition, Theatre Audiences now includes:
`nBL a new preface by the author
• a stunning extra chapter on intercultural theatre
• a revised up-to-date bibliography
Theatre Audiences is a must-buy for teachers and students interested in spectatorship and theatre audiences, and will be valuable reading for practitioners and others involved in the theatre.

In this cross-disciplinary study, Timothy Murray examines the artistic struggle over traumatic fantasies of race, gender, sexuality, and power. Establishing a retrospective dialogue between past and present, stage and video, this work links the impact of trauma on recent political projects in performance and video with the specters of difference haunting Shakespeare's plays. Murray provides close readings of cultural formations as diverse as Shakespearean drama, the Statue of Liberty, contemporary plays by women, African-American performance, and feminist interventions in video, performance and installation. The texts discussed include: installations by Mary Kelly and Dawn Dedeaux; plays by Ntozake Shange, Rochelle Owens, Adrienne Kennedy, Marsha Norman and Amiri Baraka; performances by Robbie McCauley, Jordan, Orlan, and Carmelita Tropicana; stage, film and video productions of "King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet" and "All's Well that Ends Well."

In this engaging cross-disciplinary study, Timothy Murray examines the artistic struggle over traumatic fantasies of race, gender, sexuality, and power. Establishing a retrospective dialogue between past and present, stage and video, Drama Trauma links the impact of trauma on recent political projects in performance and video with the specters of difference haunting Shakespeare's plays.
The book provides close readings of cultural formations as diverse as Shakespearean drama, the Statue of Liberty, contemporary plays by women, African-American performance, and feminist interventions in video, performance and installation. The texts discussed include:
* installations by Mary Kelly and Dawn Dedeaux,
* plays by Ntozake Shange, Rochelle Owens, Adrienne Kennedy, Marsha Norman and Amiri Baraka
* performances by Robbie McCauley, Jordan, Orlan, and Carmelita Tropicana
* stage, film and video productions of King Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and All's Well that Ends Well.

In this work the author traces his researches with Grotowski and Strasberg, at the Old Vic in London, and in Nahuatlan and Tibetan theatre to arrive at his design for a unique participatory theatre form. The text also provides a practical guide to the author's ritual/theatrical "actions" as well as supplying a philosophical context for this work.

"Mourning Sex" employs an impressive range of cultural representations to examine how cultures perform their mourning. The texts examined range from a recent film made by a man dying of AIDS, to the remains of the Rose theatre. Other chapters explore the performance of grief through: the paintings of Caravaggio and Holbein; the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearings; and Freud's patient Anna O.
In "Mourning Sex," Phelan meditates upon the trauma of loss, erotically and performatively, in an extraordinary fusion of critical and creative writing which erodes the distinction between art and theory, fact and fiction.
This work by the author of the highly-accalimed "Unmarked" makes a stunning advance in performance theory in dialogue with psychoanalysis, queer theory, and cultural studies. relation to texts and events ranging from the paintings of Caravaggio and Holbein, to Massi and Friedman's film "Silverlake Life" to the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearing Peggy Phelan meditates upon the performance and erotics of the trauma of loss. Experimental and theoretically informed Mourning Sex advances performance theory in dialogue with psychoanalysis, queer theory, and cultural studies. "Mourning Sex" examines how cultures perform their mourning. Employing a wide range of cultural representations--from Caravaggio's 1601 painting, "The Incredulity of St. Thomas" to Tom Joslin's, Mark Massi's and Peter Friedman's 1992 film "Silver Lake Life: The View From Here," "Mourning Sex" meditates on the trauma of loss, erotically, and performatively. Experimental and theoretically informed, "Mourning Sex" advances performance theory in dialogue with psychoanalysis, queer theory, and culturalstudies.

This is a book about the exhilaration and the catastrophe of embodiment. Analyzing different instances of injured bodies, Peggy Phelan considers what sustained attention to the affective force of trauma might yield for critical theory. Advocating what she calls "performative writing", she creates an extraordinary fusion of critical and creative thinking which erodes the distinction between art and theory, fact and fiction.
The bodies she examines here include Christ's, as represented in Caravaggio's painting The Incredulity of St Thomas, Anita Hill's and Clarence Thomas's bodies as they were perfomed during the Senate hearings, the disinterred body of the Rose Theatre, exemplary bodies reconstructed through psychoanalytic talking cures, and the filmic bodies created by Tom Joslin, Mark Massi, and Peter Friedman in Silverlake Life: The View From Here.
This new work by the highly-acclaimed author of Unmarked makes a stunning advance in performance theory in dialogue with psychoanalysis, queer theory, and cultural studies.

Contents:
Introduction by Jill Dolan Part One: Theory 1. Art versus Business: the role of women in American Theatre 2. Women for Women 3.The WOW Cafe 4. Notes on Lesbian Theatre 5. Women at the Helm 6. Staging the Obscene Body 7. Brechtian Theory/Feminist Theory 8. Feminist Theory, Post-Structuralism and Performance 9. In Defence of the Discourse Part Two: Practice 10. Passing Language: ADS and Fires in the Mirror 11. Anna Deaveare Smith 12. Interview with Robbie McCauley 13. Holly Hughes 14. Reading Past the Heterosexual Imperative 15. Karen Finley 16. Motherhood According to Finley Part Three: Texts 17. Dress Suits to Hire 18. The Constant State of Desire

Contents:
Introduction by Jill Dolan Part One: Theory 1. Art versus Business: the role of women in American Theatre 2. Women for Women 3.The WOW Cafe 4. Notes on Lesbian Theatre 5. Women at the Helm 6. Staging the Obscene Body 7. Brechtian Theory/Feminist Theory 8. Feminist Theory, Postructuralism and Performance 9. In Defence of the Discourse Part Two: Practice 10. Passing Language: ADS and Fires in the Mirror 11. Anna Deaveare Smith 12. Interview with Robbie McCauley 13. Holly Hughes 14. Reading Past the Heterosexual Imperative 15. Karen Finley 16. Motherhood According to Finley Part Three: Texts 17. Dress Suits to Hire 18. The Constant State of Desire

This collection begins with two premises: that our understanding of the nature and forms of creativity in later life remains limited and that dialogue between specialists in gerontology, the arts and humanities can produce the crucial new insights that are so obviously needed. Representing the outcome of ongoing dialogue across the disciplinary divide, the contributions of this volume reflect anew on what we share and how we differ; creating new narratives so as to build an understanding of late-life creativity that goes far beyond the narrow confines of the pervasively received idea of 'late style'. Creativity in Later Life encompasses a range of personal reflections and discussions of the boundaries of creativity, including: Canonical artistic achievements to community art projects Narratives of carers for those living with dementia Analyses of creative theory Through these insightful chapters, the authors consequently offer an understanding of creativity in later life as varied, socialised and - above all - located in the cultural and economic circumstances of the here and now. This title will appeal to academics, practitioners and students in the various gerontological, arts and humanities fields; and to anyone with an interest in the nature of creativity in later life and the forms it takes.

Marina Abramovic is the creator of pioneering performance art which transcends the form's provocative origins. Her visceral and extreme performances have tested the limits of both body and mind, communicating with audiences worldwide on a personal and political level. Updated and revised throughout, the book combines: a biography, setting out the contexts of Abramovic's work an examination of the artist through her writings, interviews and influences a detailed analysis of her work, including studies of the Rhythm series, Nightsea Crossing and 512 Hours practical explorations of the performances and their origins. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today's student.

Religious practitioners and theatregoers have much in common. So much, in fact, that we can say that religion is often a theatrical phenomenon, and that theatre can be a religious experience. By examining the phenomenology of religion, we can in turn develop a better understanding of the phenomenology of theatre. That is to say, religion can show us the ways in which theatre is not fake. This study explores the overlap of religion and theatre, especially in the crucial area of experience and personal identity. Reconsidering ideas from ancient Greece, premodern India, modern Europe, and the recent century, it argues that religious adherents and theatre audiences are largely, themselves, the mechanisms of their experiences. By examining the development of the philosophy of theatre alongside theories of religious action, this book shows how we need to adjust our views of both. Featuring attention to influential notions from Plato and Aristotle, from the Natyashastra, from Schleiermacher to Sartre, Bourdieu, and Butler, and considering contemporary theories of performance and ritual, this is vital reading for any scholar in religious studies, theatre and performance studies, theology, or philosophy.

Tadeusz Kantor - a theoretician, director, innovator and painter famed for his very visual theatre style - was a key figure in European avant-garde theatre. He was also known for his challenging theatrical innovations, such as extending stages and the combination of mannequins with living actors. The book combines: a detailed study of the historical context of Kantor's work an exploration of Kantor's own writings on his theatrical craft a stylistic analysis of the key works, including The Dead Class and Let the Artists Die, and their critical reception an examination of the practical exercises devised by Kantor. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today's student.

Rudolf Laban was one of the leading dance theorists of the twentieth century. His work on dance analysis and notation raised the status of dance as both an art form and a scholarly discipline. This is the first book to combine: an overview of Laban's life, work and influences an exploration of his key ideas, including the revolutionary "Laban Movement Analysis" system analysis of his works Die Grunen Clowns and The Mastery of Movement and their relevance to dance theater from the 1920s onwards a detailed exercise-based breakdown of Laban's key teachings. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today's student.

In this compilation, first published in 1999, Ian Ledsham compiles an extensive catalogue of the Shaw-Hellier Collection, complete with diagrams regarding how we use text.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1985, this book examines how workers theatre movements intended their performances to be activist - perceiving art as a weapon of struggle and enlightenment - and an emancipatory act. An introductory study relates left-wing theatre groupings to the cultural narratives of contemporary British socialism. The progress of the Workers' Theatre Movement (1928-1935) is traced from simple realism to the most brilliant phase of its Russian and German development alongside which the parallel movements in the United States are also examined. A number of crucial texts are reprints as well as stage notes and glimpses of the dramaturgical controversies which accompanied them.

In the twenty years that preceded the publication of this book in 1988, David Rabe was in the vanguard of playwrights who shaped American theatre. As the first full-length work on Rabe, this book laid the groundwork for later critical and biographical studies. The first part consists of an essay that covers three sections: a short biography, a summary and evaluation of his formative journalism for the New Haven Register, and a detailed and cohesive stage history of his work. The second part presents the most comprehensive and authoritative primary bibliography of Rabe to date, with the third section containing a secondary bibliography - including a section on biographical studies.

Adolphe Appia swept away the foundations of traditional theatre and set the agenda for the development of theatrical practice this century. In Adolphe Appia: Texts on Theatre, Richard Beacham brings together for the first time selections from all his major writings. The publication of these essays, many of which have long been unavailable in English, represents a significant addition to our understanding of the development of theatrical art. It will be an invaluable sourcebook for theatre students and welcomed as an important contribution to the literature of the modern stage.

Over the last forty years, French director Ariane Mnouchkine and her theater collective, Le Theatre du Soleil, have devised a form of research and creation that is both engaged with contemporary history and committed to reinvigorating theater by focusing on the actor. Now revised and reissued, this volume combines: an overview of Mnouchkine's life, work and theatrical influences an exploration of her key ideas on theater and the creative process analysis of key productions, including her early and groundbreaking environmental political piece, 1789, and the later Asian-inspired play penned by Helene Cixous, Drums on the Dam. practical exercises, including tips on mask work. As a first step toward critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today's student.

Master director, teacher, and theorist, Jerzy Grotowski's work extended well beyond the conventional limits of performance. Now revised and reissued, this book combines: an overview of Grotowski's life and the distinct phases of his work an analysis of his key ideas a consideration of his role as director of the renowned Polish Laboratory Theatre a series of practical exercises offering an introduction to the principles underlying Grotowski's working methods. As a first step towards critical understanding, and an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today's student.

This volume offers a concise guide to the teaching and philosophy of one of the most significant figures in twentieth century actor training. Jacques Lecoq's influence on the theatre of the latter half of the twentieth century cannot be overestimated. Now reissued Jacques Lecoq is the first book to combine: an historical introduction to his life and the context in which he worked an analysis of his teaching methods and principles of body work, movement, creativity, and contemporary theatre detailed studies of the work of Theatre de Complicite and Mummenschanz practical exercises demonstrating Lecoq's distinctive approach to actor training.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

This book considers dancer, teacher, and choreographer Mary Wigman, a leading innovator in Expressionist dance whose radical explorations of movement and dance theory are credited with expanding the scope of dance as a theatrical art. Now reissued, this book combines: a full account of Wigman's life and work an analysis of her key ideas detailed discussion of her aesthetic theories, including the use of space as an "invisible partner" and the transcendent nature of performance a commentary on her key works, including Hexentanz and The Seven Dances of Life an extensive collection of practical exercises designed to provide an understanding of Wigman's choreographic principles and her uniquely immersive approach to dance. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today's student.

On America will respond to the powerful presence in contemporary culture of aesthetic forms and political strategies derived from North America. Counterpointing Letters from Europe, this book will address the use and abuse of images of and from North America, the deconstruction in performance theory and practice of North American art, film and performance, and the presentation of America as genre and fiction.