The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing, Volume I: Development introduces the many voices necessary to better understand the act of singing-a complex human behaviour that emerges without deliberate training. Presenting research from the social sciences and humanities alongside that of the natural sciences and medicine alike, this companion explores the relationship between hearing sensitivity and vocal production, in turn identifying how singing is integrated with sensory and cognitive systems while investigating the ways we test and measure singing ability and development. Contributors consider the development of singing within the context of the entire lifespan, focusing on its cognitive, social, and emotional significance in four parts: Musical, historical and scientific foundations Perception and production Multimodality Assessment In 2009, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada funded a seven-year major collaborative research initiative known as Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS). Together, global researchers from a broad range of disciplines addressed three challenging questions: How does singing develop in every human being? How should singing be taught and used to teach? How does singing impact wellbeing? Across three volumes, The Routledge Companion to Interdisciplinary Studies in Singing consolidates the findings of each of these three questions, defining the current state of theory and research in the field. Volume I: Development tackles the first of these three questions, tracking development from infancy through childhood to adult years.

Renaissance Drama in Action is a fascinating exploration of Renaissance theatre practice and staging. Covering questions of contemporary playhouse design, verse and language, staging and rehearsal practices, and acting styles, Martin White relates the characteristics of Renaissance theatre to the issues involved in staging the plays today.
This refreshingly accessible volume:
* examines the history of the plays on the English stage from the seventeenth century to the present day
* explores questions arising from reconstructions, with particular reference to the new Globe Theatre
* includes interviews with, and draws on the work and experience of modern theatre practitioners including Harriet Walter, Matthew Warchus, Trevor Nunn, Stephen Jeffreys, Adrian Noble and Helen Mirren
* includes discussions of familiar plays such as The Duchess of Malfi and 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, as well as many lesser known play-texts
Renaissance Drama in Action offers undergraduates and A-level students an invaluable guide to the characteristics of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, and its relationship to contemporary theatre and staging.

Secrets of Screen Acting Fourth Edition is a step-by-step guide to the elements of successful screen acting. When it was first published in 1993, Secrets of Screen Acting broke new ground in explaining how acting for the camera is different from acting on stage. Reaction time is altered, physical timing and placement are reconceived, and the proportions of the digital frame itself become the measure of all things, so the director must conceptualize each image in terms of this new rectangle and actors must 'fit' into the frame. Based on a revolutionary non-Method approach to acting, this book shows what actually works: how an actor, an announcer, or anyone working in front of the cameras can maximise the effectiveness of their performances on screen. This fourth edition is completely updated to cover new techniques, film references, and insights, including: Updated information on vocal work outside acting, such as audio books and voice overs; Guidance on the technique of "whisper acting"; New information about working with video games, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and other non-traditional forms of screen work; Updated guidance on self-taping auditions; Coverage of working with CGI and invisible acting partners in green screen; Information on typecasting and stereotyping; A quick History of Theatre and Film in 10 pictures; A new emphasis on illustrations depicting acting techniques; Information on and best practices for presenting oneself to the industry; Many new illustrations, all specifically drawn for this edition. This book is perfectly suited for Acting for the Screen university courses, actors training on their own, and actors involved in all forms of screen work, including Zoom, Skype, Vox Pops, and more.

Alternative Theatre in Poland 1954-1989 describes a theatre movement about which little has been written in English. The complex nature of the relationship between theatre and politics is explored in this unique study of the exceptionally vibrant Polish theatre scene.
Tracing its evolution from the beginnings of the movement in the 1950s when two amateur student theatre groups performed programs of short, satiric skits which expanded the limits of the artistically permissable within a Communist society, the development of this movement is followed through the 1960s, when these satiric theatres, and others which sprang up in their wake, were forced by government censorship to become less politically active. During this period, other student groups concentrated on artistic experimentation, creating such forms as visual theatre, one-person shows, fact-montages, and poetry theatre. Furthermore, the period after 1956 saw the founding of two non-student theatres, Tadeusz Kantor's Cricot 2 and Jerzy Grotowski's Laboratory Theatre, both dedicated to artistic experimentation and having significant influence on alternative theatres worldwide.
In th 1970s, during the next period of political liberalization, the alternative theatre movement linked the avant-garde format it had acquired in the 1960s with the political engagement of the 1950s and reached its zenith with the works of groups such as the Theatre of the 8th Day. After the Solidarity period (1980-81), the movement declined in societal importance but groups such as Akademia Ruchu, Provisorium and Gardzienice continue to exist and produce experimental work.

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."

Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Each volume explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences on twentieth- and twenty-first-century performance. Antonin Artaud was an active theatre-maker and theorist whose ideas reshaped contemporary approaches to performance. This is the first book to combine an overview of Artaud's life with a focus on his work as an actor and director; an analysis of his key theories, including the Theatre of Cruelty and the double; a consideration of his work as a director at the Theatre Alfred Jarry and his production of Strindberg's A Dream Play; and a series of practical exercises to develop an approach to theatre based on Artaud's key ideas. 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.

A guide to the origins and music of Szymanowski's exquisitely beautiful opera King Roger. Karol Szymanowski (1881-1937), the most important Polish composer after Chopin, wrote only two operas, the second of which, King Roger, completed in 1924, is a masterpiece. After decades of neglect this magnificent work hasbegun to receive more attention around the world, and this first extended study of King Roger investigates its origins, uncovers its ideology, examines its music and documents its history. The book opens with an outline of the role the theatre played in Szymanowski's career, from his early operetta, Lottery for Husbands, and the rousing ballet panotmime, Harnasie, based on legends from the Polish highlands. Intracing the evolution of King Roger from conception to completion, Alistair Wightman, one of the leading Szymanowki scholars, examines the contribution of the co-librettist, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, and serveys the various strands which make up its ideology, from Euripides The Bacchae and Plato Phaedrus and The Symposium to works by Pater, Nietzsche, Merezhkovsky and Micinski. He charts Szymanowski's fascination with the historical background of the opera, the world of the twelfth-century ruler of Norman Sicily, Roger II (1095-1154). Szymanowski's own novel, Efebos, written in 1918-19 and only partially preserved offers intriguing parallels with hisopera. ALISTAIR WIGHTMAN has written extensively about Polish music of the early twentieth century and his translation, Szymanowski on Music was published by Toccata Press in 1999.

Unprecedented in its comprehensiveness, The Moscow Art Theatre fills a large gap in our knowledge of Stanislavsky and his theatre. Worrall focuses in particular detail on four of The Moscow Art Theatre's best-known productions:
* Tolstoy's Tsar Fedor Ioannovich
* Gorky's The Lower Depths
* Chekov's The Cherry Orchard
* Turgenev's A Month in the Country

eBook available with sample pages: 0203114434

Art Into Theatre investigates the processes of hybrid forms of performance developed between 1952 and 1994 through a series of interviews with key practitioners and over 80 pieces of documentation, many previously unpublished, of the works under discussion.
Ranging from the austerity of Cage's 4'33" through the inter-species communication of Schneeman's Cat Scanand the experimental theatre work of Schechner, Foreman, and Kirby, to the recent performances of Abramovic, Forced Entertainment and the Wooster Group, Art Into Theatre offers a fascinating collection of perspectives on the destabilizing of conventional ideas of the art "object" and the theatrical "text."
Nick Kaye's introductory essay to the volume offers a useful context for the reader and each interview is preceded by an informative biographical sketch.

Political theatre, like any kind of political action, can only be judged in relation to the political moment in which it tries to intervene. Theatre of the Oppressed was created to fight against dictatorship and an extremely centralized conception of politics. How does it function now, in a time of social media and so-called participatory democracies? Providing an in-depth account of the political and cultural context in which Theatre of the Oppressed emerged, this book asks: how do contemporary understandings of concepts like oppression, representation, participation, and emancipation shape Theatre of the Oppressed today? Highlighting the pitfalls of reducing oppression to one-to-one relationships, the book proposes a version of Forum Theatre dramaturgy that portrays oppression as a defining structure of societies. The author also shares specific examples of movements and other organizations that use Theatre of the Oppressed to construct themselves. Theatre of the Oppressed and its Times is an essential text for practitioners and scholars of Theatre of the Oppressed, applied theatre practitioners, students, and anyone interested in how theatre can concretely assist in the transformation of the world.

Faced with a depleted planet and a series of connected crises, socially-minded agents and entities within the world of culture and the arts are reacting from within. With insights from sociology, economics, and cultural management and policy, this book aims to chronicle the journey of SMart - a cultural and artistic social enterprise now present in eight European countries - in order to illustrate such organisation's efforts to achieve its potential for social innovation and transformation. Tackling the endemic precariousness and intermittency of work through innovative arrangements for cultural workers and artists has been central to these efforts. In many cases, however, this activism not only had a direct impact at the level of individual and collective labor, but has transformed the ways culture is 'governed'. Readers of this book will better understand the connection between social innovation and culture and the arts; gain awareness of the trends and transformations within the field of culture and cultural work and their connection with institutional arrangements: and critically engage with the processes, challenges and benefits of scaling up and diffusing social innovation. The debates presented will be of relevance to scholars and students across disciplines, policy makers at both EU and national levels, practitioners and social activists.

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

"Shakespeare, Theory and Performance" is an exciting collection of essays, bringing a full range of contemporary critical perspectives to bear upon the practical questions of performing Shakespeare. During recent years, a new revolution in critical theory has called into question a number of assumptions about the performance of Shakespeare which had long gone unchecked.
In this volume, contributors from theater, literary and Shakespearean studies collaborate to offer a productive rnterplay, employing a variety of discourses--including feminism, post-colonialism, and semiotics--to challenge and interrogate the practice of Shakespearean performance. Issues include implications of gender, race and class for audience response; the impact of technology on the study of performance as text; and the appropriation of Shakespeare by foreign cultures.

Contents:
Martin Brunkhorst, Bergische Universitat (Germany); Anthony B Dawson, University of British Columbia (Canada); Mary Judith Dunbar, University of Santa Clara (USA); Juilet Dusinberre, Girton College, Cambridge; Barbara Hodgdon, Drake University (USA); Dennis Kennedy, University of Pittsburgh (USA); Richard Paul Knowles, University of Guelph (Canada); Douglas Lanier, University of New Hampshire (USA); Philip C McGuire, Michigan State University (USA); Cary Mazer, University of Pennsylvania (USA); Denis Salter, McGill University (Canada); William B Worthen, Northwestern University (USA)

The Routledge Companion to Studio Performance Practice is a unique, indispensable guide to the training methods of the world's key theatre practitioners. Compiling the practical work outlined in the popular Routledge Performance Practitioners series of guidebooks, each set of exercises has been edited and contextualised by an expert in that particular approach. Each chapter provides a taster of one practitioner's work, answering the same key questions: 'How did this artist work? How can I begin to put my understanding of this to practical use?' Newly written chapter introductions put the exercises in context, explaining how they fit into the wider methods and philosophy of the practitioner in question. All 21 volumes in the original series are represented in this volume.

Getting Into the Act is a vigorous and refreshing account of seven female playwrights who, against all odds, enjoyed professional success in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Ellen Donkin relates fascinating, disturbing tales about the male theatre managers to whom they were indebted, and the trials and prejudices they endured, ranging from accusations of plagiarism to sexual harassment. This scarred turbulent early history still resonates in the late twentieth-century. The current ratio of female to male playwrights is virtually unchanged. Old patterns of male control persist, and playwriting continues to be a hazardous occupation for women. But within these scarred earlier histories there are equally powerful narratives of self-revelation, endurance, and professional triumph that may point to a new way forward. Getting Into the Act is entertaining and informative reading for anyone, from scholar to general reader, who is interested in the history and gender politics of the stage.

This step-by-step guide to learning and practising an American accent is for anyone who wants to use a General American accent with confidence in auditions and performance. Inside, you'll find an easy-to-follow breakdown of the fundamentals required for the accent - including the shape and position of the mouth; vowels and consonants; rhythm; stressing; pitch; pace and more - as well as structured drills and exercises to build on and consolidate what you've learned, using extracts from contemporary American plays. The book is supplemented by dozens of online audio clips of General American voices, recorded by native speakers, so you can listen to the target sounds and repeat for practice. Also included are tips on fully integrating the accent into your performance, as well as a series of vocal warm-ups. Rebecca Gausnell is a voice and dialect coach, who has worked internationally in theatre, film and television. Born and raised in the United States, she studied acting in Chicago, before completing an MFA in Voice Studies in London. The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors and theatremakers, each tackling a key topic in a clear and comprehensive way. Written by industry professionals with extensive hands-on experience of their subject, they provide you with maximum information in minimum time.

THE ART OF THEATRE: THEN AND NOW, 4th Edition, brings the fascinating world of theatre to life with lively coverage of the history, cultural diversity, creativity, controversy -- and even a typical day in the life -- of theatre. As the authors wrote each chapter, they asked themselves how the subject applies to students' lives. The result is a text packed with practical information you can use in everyday life, including insight on censorship, freedom of speech, copyrights, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more. Timely connections drawn between theatre and TV and film help you see how the living stage is unique, and the optional MindTap digital learning solution provides a variety of online study tools to help you ensure your success in the course.

Post-Colonial Drama is the first full-length study to address the ways in which performance has been instrumental in resisting the continuing effects of imperialism. It brings to bear the latest theoretical approaches from post-colonial and performance studies to a range of plays from Australia, Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean and other former colonial regions. Some of the major topics discussed include:
* the interactions of post-colonial and performance theories
* the post-colonial re-stagings of language and history
* the specific enactments of ritual and carnival
* the theatrical citations of the post-colonial body
Post-Colonial Drama combines a rich intersection of theoretical approaches with close attention to a wide range of performance texts.

eBook available with sample pages: 020342106X

This book provides a fascinating study into the history of kingship, madness and masculinity that was acted out on the early modern stage. Providing students of early modern history, theatre and performance studies and disability studies with interesting case studies to inform their upper level seminars and research. Throughout the volume the authors engage with the field of disability studies to show how disability and mental health were portrayed and what that tells us about the period and the people who lived in it. Showing students, a new dimension of early modern Europe. The chapters uncover how, as the early modern understanding of mental illness re-focused on human, rather than supernatural, causes, the public stages became important arenas for playwrights, actors, and audiences to explore expressions of madness and to practice diagnoses. Enabling students from multiple disciplines such as the history of medicine, the history of theatre and performance and the history of early modern Europe to see the how attitudes formed and changed around kingship, madness and masculinity in this period.

Commedia dell'Arte Scenarios gathers together a collection of scenarios from some of the most important Commedia dell'Arte manuscripts, many of which have never been published in English before. Each script is accompanied by an editorial commentary that sets out its historical context and the backstory of its composition and dramaturgical strategies, as well as scene summaries, and character and properties lists. These supplementary materials not only create a comprehensive picture of each script's performance methods but also offer a blueprint for readers looking to perform the scenarios as part of their own study or professional practice. This collection offers scholars, performers and students a wealth of original performance texts that brig to life one of the most foundational performance genres in world theatre.

"Imperialism" is a trans-national and trans-historical phenomenon; it occurs neither in limited areas nor at one specific moment. In cultures from across the world theatrical performance has long been a site both for the representation and support of imperialism and resistance and rebellion against it. "Imperialism and Theatre" is a groundbreaking collection which explores the questions of why and how theater was selected within imperial cultures for the representation of the concerns of both the colonizers and the colonized.
Gathering together fifteen noted scholars and theatre practitioners, this collection spans global and historical boundaries and presents a uniquely comprehensive study of post-colonial drama. The essays engage in current theoretical issues while shifting the focus from the printed text to theatre as a cultural formation and locus of political force. A compelling and extremely timely work, "Imperialism and Theatre" reveals fascinating new dimensions to the post-colonial debate.
Contributors: Nora Alter; Sudipto Chatterjee; Mary Karen Dahl; Alan Filewood; Donald H. Frischmann; Rhonda Garelick; Helen Gilbert; Michael Hays; Loren Kruger; Josephine Lee; Robert Eric Livingston; J.S. Peters; Michael Quinn; Edward Said; Elaine Savory

A classic bestseller by one of the most important theatre practitioners of the 20th and early 21st centuries. This handbook has sold over 90,000 copies to students, teachers and theatre makers, giving them a broad range of theatre exercises to use in classrooms, rehearsals and community projects. Makes social and community theatre fun, engaging and easily accessible for a broad audience. No other book sets out all of Boal's methods in one place, not least in such a clear, practical manner.