Interpersonal coordination is an important feature of all social systems. From everyday activities to playing sport and participating in the performing arts, human behaviour is constrained by the need to continually interact with others. This book examines how interpersonal coordination tendencies in social systems emerge, across a range of contexts and at different scales, with the aim of helping practitioners to understand collective behaviours and create learning environments to improve performance. Showcasing the latest research from scientists and academics, this collection of studies examines how and why interpersonal coordination is crucial for success in sport and the performing arts. It explains the complex science of interpersonal coordination in relation to a variety of activities including competitive team sports, outdoor sports, racket sports, and martial arts, as well as dance. Divided into four sections, this book offers insight into: the nature, history and key concepts of interpersonal coordination factors that influence interpersonal coordination within social systems interpersonal coordination in competitive and cooperative performance contexts methods, tools and devices for improving performance through interpersonal coordination. This book will provide fascinating insights for students, researchers and educators interested in movement science, performance analysis, sport science and psychology, as well as for those working in the performing arts.

The Dark Theatre is an indispensable text for activist communities wondering what theatre might have to do with their futures, students and scholars across Theatre and Performance Studies, Urban Studies, Cultural Studies, Political Economy and Social Ecology. The Dark Theatre returns to the bankrupted warehouse in Hope (Sufferance) Wharf in London's Docklands where Alan Read worked through the 1980s to identify a four-decade interregnum of 'cultural cruelty' wreaked by financialisation, austerity and communicative capitalism. Between the OPEC Oil Embargo and the first screening of The Family in 1974, to the United Nations report on UK poverty and the fire at Grenfell Tower in 2017, this volume becomes a book about loss. In the harsh light of such loss is there an alternative to the market that profits from peddling 'well-being' and pushes prescriptions for 'self-help', any role for the arts that is not an apologia for injustice? What if culture were not the solution but the problem when it comes to the mitigation of grief? Creativity not the remedy but the symptom of a structural malaise called inequality? Read suggests performance is no longer a political panacea for the precarious subject but a loss adjustor measuring damages suffered, compensations due, wrongs that demand to be put right. These field notes from a fire sale are a call for angry arts of advocacy representing those abandoned as the detritus of cultural authority, second-order victims whose crime is to have appealed for help from those looking on, audiences of sorts.

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.

This collection focuses on Moliere's theatre as works to be performed as well as read. The essays deal in their various ways with limits which are imposed and respected or violated and broken. The question of transgression both as a subject within Moliere's plays and as a dilemma confronting Moliere's critics and interpreters is addressed. The book aims to enlarge the scope of academic scholarship and include the thinking and insights of actors.

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

"We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us." - Krapp Samuel Beckett's most accessible play is also one of the twentieth century's most moving dramas about aging, memory, and disappointment. Daniel Sack offers the first comprehensive survey of Krapp's Last Tape (1958) with a general reader in mind. Structured around a series of questions, five approachable sections contextualize the play in the larger career of its Nobel-Prize-winning writer, explore its major thematic concerns, and offer comparative analyses with Beckett's other signal works. Sack also uses discussions of significant productions, including those directed by the playwright himself, to ground interpretation of the play in terms of its performance and provide a useful resource to directors and actors. Both a critical and personal exploration of this haunting play, this volume is a must-read for anyone with an interest in Beckett's work.

The political events of "annus mirabilis" 1989 marked a rare turning point in world history, but the significance of the year for German literary history is unique. As the 40-year-old German Democratic Republic ceased to exist, so too did the special circumstances which had fostered a literature separate from and in competition with that of the Federal Republic of Germany. A new period of literary history was delimited almost overnight: Germany Democratic Republic literature now was something to be examined as a whole, cultural movement. At the same time, the literary traditions of the German Democratic Republic have continued to influence the contemporary cultural scene, often in ways that are only gradually becoming clear.The essays, memoirs, and plays collected in this special issue of Contemporary Theatre Review represent an early attempt to assess and reassess one of the German Democratic Republic's richest cultural domains: its theatre. Contributors include David W. Robinson, C

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

Theatrical characters' dual existence on stage and in text presents a unique, challenging case for the analytical philosopher. Analytic Philosophy and the World of the Play re-examines the ontological status of theatre and its fictional objects through the "possible worlds" thesis, arguing that theatre is not a mirror of our world, but a re-creation of it. Taking a fresh look at theatre's key elements, including the hotly contested relationships between character and actor; onstage and offstage "worlds"; and the play-text and performance, Michael Y. Bennett presents a radical new way of understanding the world of the play.

Originally published in 1984. The turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a time of considerable change in the English theatre. Victorian attitudes were shocked or shattered by the new drama of Ibsen; the major figure of George Bernard Shaw dominated the period; theatre censorship was the subject of a long and furious contest; and staging conventions changed from the spectacular stylings of Irving and Beerbohm Tree to the masking and statuesque styles of Isadora Duncan and the inner realism of Stanislavsky. This book traces the activities of the leading figures in the English theatre, notably William Archer who introduced Ibsen to this country and who became one of the main promoters of the idea of a National Theatre. Other personalities discussed include Harley Granville Barker, particularly his association with Shaw at the Court Theatre and his part in campaigns against censorship and for changes in the staging of Shakespeare, and Edward Gordon Craig, whose rebellion against the Victorian theatre took and anti-realist direction. This is a stimulating account of the background to the modern English theatre which can only increase appreciation of its standard and variety.

Originally published in 1978. Henry Irving achieved an astounding success in Britain and America as an actor; yet he lacked good looks, had spindly legs, and did not have a good voice. He said so himself. Today Irving is regarded as the archetype of the old-time actor, but in his own time he was regarded as a great theatrical innovator. Even Bernard Shaw, who attacked him pitilessly, even unto death, called him 'modern' when he first saw him act. Irving, the man, with his tenacious, obsessive talent, his human limitations and weaknesses, and his ephemeral glory is brought most sympathetically to life in this biography. It is written from contemporary sources, and from criticisms, lampoons, caricatures and gossip columns. If Irving reflected certain aspects of his age, this book underlines the Victorian ethic to which he appealed and the backcloths against which it was set - the extraordinary lavishness of the Lyceum productions and the incredible extravagance of social entertaining. Not the least absorbing aspect of this biography is the fascinating account of the long partnership between Irving and Ellen Terry, still in many respects an enigmatic one, but here portrayed with lively insight into character combined with understanding and deep knowledge of the social and theatrical context of the Victorian age.

Originally published in 1971. Nineteenth-century theatre in England has been greatly neglected, although serious study would reveal that the roots of much modern drama are to be found in the experiments and extravagancies of the nineteenth-century stage. The essays collected here cover a range of topics within the world of Victorian theatre, from particular actors to particular theatres; from farce to Byron's tragedies, plus a separate section about Shakespearean productions.

The Second World War went beyond previous military conflicts. It was not only about specific geographical gains or economic goals, but also about the brutal and lasting reshaping of Europe as a whole. Theatre in Europe Under German Occupation explores the part that theatre played in the Nazi war effort. Using a case-study approach, it illustrates the crucial and heavily subsidised role of theatre as a cultural extension of the military machine, key to Nazi Germany's total war doctrine. Covering theatres in Oslo, Riga, Lille, Lodz, Krakau, Warsaw, Prague, The Hague and Kiev, Anselm Heinrich looks at the history and context of their operation; the wider political, cultural and propagandistic implications in view of their function in wartime; and their legacies. Theatre in Europe Under German Occupation focuses for the first time on Nazi Germany's attempts to control and shape the cultural sector in occupied territories, shedding new light on the importance of theatre for the regime's military and political goals.

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First Published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1999, 'Women, Politics and Performance in South African Theatre Today' is an important contribution to Performance.

Insists on the importance of embodiment and movement to the creation of Black sociality Linking African diasporic performance, disability studies, and movement studies, Falling, Floating, Flickering approaches disability transnationally by centering Black, African, and diasporic experiences. By eschewing capital's weighted calculus of which bodies hold value, this book centers alternate morphologies and movement practices that have previously been dismissed as abnormal or unrecognizable. To move beyond binaries of ability, Hershini Bhana Young traverses multiple geohistories and cultural forms stretching from the United States and the Mediterranean to Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and South Africa, as well as independent and experimental film, novels, sculptures, images, dance, performances, and anecdotes. In doing so, she argues for the importance of differential embodiment and movement to the creation and survival of Black sociality, and refutes stereotypic notions of Africa as less progressive than the West in recognizing the rights of disabled people. Ultimately, this book foregrounds the engagement of diasporic Africans, who are still reeling from the violence of colonialism, slavery, poverty, and war, as they gesture toward a liberatory Black sociality by falling, floating, and flickering.

Imagined Theatres collects theoretical dramas written by some of the leading scholars and artists of the contemporary stage. These dialogues, prose poems, and microfictions describe imaginary performance events that explore what might be possible and impossible in the theatre. Each scenario is mirrored by a brief accompanying reflection, asking what they might mean for our thinking about the theatre. These many possible worlds circle around questions that include: In what way is writing itself a performance? How do we understand the relationship between real performances that engender imaginary reflections and imaginary conceptions that form the basis for real theatrical productions? Are we not always imagining theatres when we read or even when we sit in the theatre, watching whatever event we imagine we are seeing?

Imagined Theatres collects theoretical dramas written by some of the leading scholars and artists of the contemporary stage. These dialogues, prose poems, and microfictions describe imaginary performance events that explore what might be possible and impossible in the theatre. Each scenario is mirrored by a brief accompanying reflection, asking what they might mean for our thinking about the theatre. These many possible worlds circle around questions that include: In what way is writing itself a performance? How do we understand the relationship between real performances that engender imaginary reflections and imaginary conceptions that form the basis for real theatrical productions? Are we not always imagining theatres when we read or even when we sit in the theatre, watching whatever event we imagine we are seeing?

There has been a significant growth in initiatives involving theatre, drama and performance within a science communication context. Yet there is little scholarship exploring this phenomenon from a science communication perspective. Weitkamp and Almeida draw on their distinct experiences with theatre in the context of science communication to delve into initiatives created through dialogue between the arts and the sciences for the purpose of public engagement. Entering into the space where museums, universities and research centres operate, as well as the space of theatre practitioners, they explore the richness and plurality of this universe, combining theory and practice, as well as presenting context, knowledge gaps and new data. Acknowledging that the place of drama, theatre and performance within science communication is one which is uniquely influenced by local cultural practices, discourses and expectations, the authors take a global perspective. Firstly by analysing data from an international survey of practitioners and secondly by curating a collection of case studies on science-theatre projects undertaken around the world. The chapters illustrate the diversity of forms and content that comprises contemporary science-theatre in this context and characterise theatre produced within the scope of science communication, placing it more precisely in the broader context of science-theatre.

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

Jasmin Vardimon's Dance Theatre offers an unusual, intimate insight into the devising and training processes of a choreographer in the midst of her practice. Libby Worth and Jasmin Vardimon take a collaborative approach to recording and exploring the working processes of Vardimon and her company, chronicling the development of specific productions rather than offering a single choreographic blueprint. Focusing on the techniques, strategies and creative activities necessitated by each project, Worth and Vardimon address: The initial 'triggers' which lead to research, expansion, and performance; The social, political and psychological content of Vardimon's work; The relationship between accessibility of content and complexity of ideas; Drawing on texts to enhance and shape a piece of dance work; The editing process, and its inherent messiness; The contribution of a company's different voices and viewpoints to the development of a production. Based on extended conversations and interviews, this highly illustrated, full -colour volume is a unique reflection on Jasmin Vardimon's vibrant, continually developing practice. It is a must-read for students and practitioners of dance and physical theatre.

This new in paperback edition of World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre covers the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, including the United States. Entries on twenty six countries are preceded by specialist introductions on Theatre in Post-Colonial Latin America, Theatres of North America, Puppet Theatre, Theatre for Young Audiences, Music Theatre and Dance Theatre. The essays follow the series format, allowing for cross-referring across subjects, both within the volume and between volumes. Each country entry is written by specialists in the particular country and the volume has its own teams of regional editors, overseen by the main editorial team based at the University of York in Canada headed by Don Rubin. Each entry covers all aspects of theatre genres, practitioners, writers, critics and styles, with bibliographies, over 200 black & white photographs and a substantial index. This Encyclopedia is indispensable for anyone interested in the cultures of the Americas or in modern theatre. It is also an invaluable reference tool for students and scholars of a wide range of disciplines including history, performance studies, anthropology and cultural studies.