Drugs and Theater in Early Modern England asks why Shakespeare and his contemporary playwrights were so preoccupied with drugs and poisons and, at a deeper level, why both critics and supporters of the theater, as well as playwrights themselves, so frequently adopted a chemical vocabulary to describe the effects of the theater on audiences. Drawing upon original medical and literary research, Pollard shows that the potency of the link between drugs and plays in the period demonstrates a model of drama radically different than our own, a model in which plays exert a powerful impact on spectators' bodies as well as minds. Early modern physiology held that the imagination and emotions were part of the body, and exerted a material impact on it, yet scholars of medicine and drama alike have not recognised the consequences of this idea. Plays, which alter our emotions and thought, simultaneously change us physically. This book argues that the power of the theater in early modern England, as well as the striking hostility to it, stems from the widely held contemporary idea that drama acted upon the body as well as the mind. In yoking together pharmacy and theater, this book offers a new model for understanding the relationship between texts and bodies. Just as bodies are constituted in part by the imaginative fantasies they consume, the theater's success (and notoriety) depends on its power over spectators' bodies. Drugs, which conflate concerns about unreliable appearances and material danger, evoked fascination and fear in this period by identifying a convergence point between the imagination and the body, the literary and the scientific, the magical and the rational. This book explores that same convergence point, and uses it to show the surprising physiological powers attributed to language, and especially to the embodied language of the theater.

This unique anthology presents the important historical essays on tragedy, ranging from antiquity to the present, divided into historical periods and arranged chronologically. Across its span, it traces the development of theories and philosophies of tragedy, enabling readers to consider the ways in which different varieties of environmentalist, feminist, leftist and postcolonial thought have transformed the status of tragedy, and the idea of the tragic, for recent generations of artists, critics and thinkers. Students of literature and theatre will find this collection an invaluable and accessible guide to writing from Plato and Aristotle through to Freud, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and 21st century theorists. Ideas of tragedy and the tragic have been central to the understanding of culture for the past two millennia. Writers and thinkers from Plato through to Martha Nussbaum have analyzed the genre of tragedy to probe the most fundamental of questions about ethics, pleasure and responsibility in the world. Does tragedy demand that we enjoy witnessing the pain of others? Does it suggest that suffering is inevitable? Is human sexuality tragic? Is tragedy even possible in a world of rolling news on a digitally connected planet, where atrocity and trauma from around the globe are matters of daily information? In order to illustrate the different ways that writers have approached the answers to such questions, this Reader collects together a comprehensive selection of canonical writings on tragedy from antiquity to the present day arranged in six sections, each featuring an introduction providing concise and informed historical and theoretical frameworks for the texts.

Outlaws, irreverent humorists, political underdogs, authoritarians - and the silhouette, throughout, of a contemporary Australian woman: these are some of the figures who emerge from Philippa Kelly's extraordinary personal tale, The King and I. Kelly uses Shakespeare's King Lear as it has never been used before - to tell the story of Australia and Australians through the intimate journey she makes with Shakespeare's old king, whose struggles and torments are touchstones for the variety, poignancy and humour of Australian life. We hear the shrieking of birds and feel the heat of dusty towns, and we also come to know about important moments in Australia's social and political landscape: about the evolution of women's rights; about the erosion and reclamation of Aboriginal identity and the hardships experienced by transported settlers; and about attitudes toward age and endurance. At the heart of this book is one woman's personal story, and through this story we come to understand many profound and often hilarious features of the land Down Under.

Two early twentieth-century operas -- Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande (1902) and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) -- transformed the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. This new language was based almost exclusively on interactions between folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations. Elliott Antokoletz reveals not only the new musical language of these operas, but also the way in which they share a profound correspondence with the growing symbolist literary movement as reflected in their libretti. In the symbolist literary movement, authors reacted to the realism of nineteenth-century theatre by conveying meaning by suggestion, rather than direct statement. The symbolist conception included a new interest in psychological motivation and consciousness manifested itself in metaphor, ambiguity, and symbol.
In this groundbreaking study, Antokoletz links the new musical language of these two operas with this symbolist conception and reveals a direct connection between the Debussy and Bartok operas. He shows how the opposing harmonic extremes serve as a basis for the dramatic polarity between real-life beings and symbols of fate. He also explores how the libretti by Franco-Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck (Pelleas et Melisande) and his Hungarian disciple Bela Balazs (Duke Bluebeard's Castle) transform the internal concept of subconscious motivation into an external one, one in which fate controls human emotions and actions.
Using a pioneering approach to theoretical analysis, Antokoletz, explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts.

Building on Robert J. Landy's seminal text, Handbook of Educational Drama and Theatre, Landy and Montgomery revisit this richly diverse and ever-changing field, identifying some of the best international practices in Applied Drama and Theatre. Through interviews with leading practitioners and educators such as Dorothy Heathcote, Jan Cohen Cruz, James Thompson, and Johnny Saldana, the authors lucidly present the key concepts, theories and reflective praxis of Applied Drama and Theatre. As they discuss the changes brought about by practitioners in venues such as schools, community centres, village squares and prisons, Landy and Montgomery explore the field's ability to make meaning of a vast range of personal and social issues through the application of drama and theatre.

Now that directors such as Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola are celebrated along-side movie stars, it is hard to imagine that little more than a century ago the director was a nameless, faceless entity-an overseer of workflow in the shuffle of shadows offstage.

In surveying the pioneers who transformed theater into the dynamic art form it is today, "Directors on Directing" presents a timeless collection of writings offering insight into what it means to direct and how to better appreciate theatrical performances.

The first in-depth biography of the celebrated composer/lyricist who created Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles This revealing and comprehensive book tells the full story of Jerry Herman's life and career, from his early work in cabaret to his recent compositions for stage, screen, and television. Stephen Citron draws on extensive open-ended interviews with Jerry Herman as well as with scores of his theatrical colleagues, collaborators, and close friends. The resulting book-which sheds new light on each of Herman's musicals and their scores-abounds in fascinating anecdotes and behind-the-scenes details about the world of musical theater. Readers will find a sharply drawn portrait of Herman's private life and his creative talents. Citron's insights into Herman's music and lyrics, including voluminous examples from each of his musicals, are as instructive as they are edifying and entertaining.

George Kelly was a pioneer realist in the American theater who not only enjoyed popular and critical success, but also remained true to his own moral vision of theater as an art form despite what he considered vulgar influences that catered to the popular taste. Drawing upon the canon of Kelly's published plays as well as on manuscripts for four plays never before published or widely discussed by critics, this volume chronicles the evolution of this important craftsman and director from his earliest and most critically lauded examinations of America's upper middle-class family life to his often spartan commentary on changing American morals and tastes.

Calling into question the short-sighted assessments of scholars and critics who discount Kelly's achievements as formulaic and misogynistic, this reference reveals the broad spectrum of critical opinion which generally admired his theatrical skill and moral commitment. An opening biography surveys Kelly's career, while the chapters that follow give detailed information about his works. Included are plot synopses and production histories of his plays, along with an extensive annotated bibliography of reviews and scholarly studies.

Early modern theatre was a visual matter, even though the authors wrote plays which were mainly meant to be read. But whether they wrote their plays to have them performed or not, authors could use comedies, tragi-comedies or tragedies to influence public opinion, to make a statement in a debate, or to convey explicit or implicit lessons that they carried out or had carried out by linguistic, rhetorical and theatrical means. How explicit they were in expressing their views depended on the characters of the authors or the circumstances in which they wrote. Questions regarding the opinion-forming and opinion-following functions of theatre, the means by which authors and theatre makers expressed their ideas, and the role of theatre and plays in public debate are discussed from various angles. Such questions refer not only to 'literary' plays, but also to other forms of theatrical event, such as royal entrances. Contributors include: Imre Besanger, Hartmut Beyer, Stijn Bussels, Jean-Frederic Chevalier, Verena Demoed, Arjan van Dixhoorn, Ron Gruijters, Jelle Koopmans, Frans-Willem Korsten, Katell Laveant, Hubert Meeus, Marco Prandoni, and Helmar Schramm.

In this concise and accessible volume, a noted keyboard artist and Bach specialist takes a fresh look at the performance of J. S. Bach's keyboard music. Addressing the nonspecialist player, Richard Troeger presents a wide range of historical information and discusses its musical applications. The author shares accounts of the musical styles Bach employed and the instruments he knew. In direct and pragmatic terms, he clarifies the importance of notational and style details as guides to the composer's intentions, particularly emphasizing changes in notational norms between Bach's time and the present. Troeger offers core information on dynamics, articulation, tempo, rhythm, ornamentation and accompaniment. He considers controversial issues as well, establishing the importance of the clavichord in Bach's milieu and examining the link between baroque music and rhetoric - a dramatic relationship that can bring great vitality to performance.

"Between Play and Prayer" launches "Spiritual Performance "as a term to cover all human performance which in some way refers to creating the presence of beings or entities from a realm that transgresses the sensorial. This notion covers a great variety of performative genres, ranging from funerary services, spiritualist performances of deceased souls, to spiritual readings. This broad and deep approach to a range of performances is answering a renewed craving for spirituality in contemporary culture. By way of performance theory and aesthetic theory, concepts of "faith," " belief," " experience," "play," "prayer "and "theatricality," are set in motion when proposing the necessity of experiencing such performances on their own terms. In depth descriptions of a variety of performances in Norwegian and New Zealand local contexts show the necessity of experiencing and understanding an existential quality in "Spiritual Performance." "Faith," not "credo," is at the heart of spiritual practice. The book represents a new, innovative and trans-disciplinary approach to spirituality in performance. The reading of this book is a must for scholars in the field of theatre- and performance studies, ritual and festival studies, for scholars of religion, and anyone interested in the understanding of spiritual practices.

Heralded by Tony Bennett as "the Madonna of the 1950s," Rosemary Clooney first came to national prominence when, guided by record producer Mitch Miller, she topped the Hit Parade with songs such as "Come On-a My House" and "Half As Much". Today, the name "Clooney" is synonymous with superstardom, with George Clooney, her nephew, fittingly regarded as one of Hollywood's most notable aristocrats. Few realize, however, that it was originally Rosemary's hit records that brought the surname to achieve worldwide fame and which ultimately landed her a starring role in the immortal "White Christmas", alongside Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen. By the time the Sixties arrived however, personal turmoil, fueled by an addiction to prescription medication, almost destroyed her life and her career. Rosemary endured a long period of mental therapy before she was able to resume her singing career in the early 1970s. Few expected her to be anything more than a nostalgia baroness. Rosemary had other ideas. Stimulated by a series of concerts alongside her friend and mentor, Bing Crosby, Rosemary found a new medium in the midst of America's finest jazz musicians, building a second career and with it, a reputation one of - some would say, the - finest interpreter of the Great American Songbook. Late Life Jazz is the story of the rise, fall and rise again of Clooney the First, Aunt Rose, a singer par excellence.

Combining life-coaching and screen-acting tools and techniques in one accessible handbook, this guide empowers actors to overcome personal inhibitions and approach their work, characters and careers with the assuredness to produce powerful, real and believable acting on screen. Structured to build confidence and understanding of yourself before you take on the role of someone else, this book offers the tools and techniques to give you the necessary conviction and self-assurance to perform uninhibited. Dresner then examines essential elements of a screen actor's craft, such as emotions, imagination, nerves, focus, listening, improvisation and line-learning. Published in partnership with The Actor's Centre, the book includes online videos of coaching sessions with professional actors and is ideal for readers and teachers looking to replicate the method in their own training.

"Broadway is a commercial institution. It has nothing whatsoever to do with pretentious artistic notions. It's there for one purpose, and one purpose alone- to make money." So begins the comments by the successful Broadway and television producer Alexander Cohen made just before his recent death-his thoughts on the state of Broadway today."The theatre is too much in transition these days]. It's static; treading water, so to speak. I'm only interested in keeping my current shows open as long as I can." The words of Sir Cameron Mackintosh-his personal views on the current state of the art.Executive Producer Steven Rivellino has taken a long hard look at the business of theatre-Broadway and the West End-at the turn of this new century, and Bright Lights, Big Changes is his own candid personal analysis. Rivellino, author of the successful Mysterious Places, Mysterious Dreams, has cleverly zeroed in on what makes the industry tick. He easily articulates how the industry has changed; how we arrived where we are today; and openly discusses some of the current and future trends in theatrical production we will be seeing in the coming years.Bright Lights, Big Changes is a cogent and succinct analysis of the business of theatre today, on both sides of the Atlantic-a must read for anyone working within the industry, students of theatre; and for those passionate theatre lovers worldwide.

What is it like to pursue a career in acting? Forty working actors comment on auditions, day jobs, agents, rejection, and what drives them to keep going when there is no work. These personal essays have been drawn from interviews with actors at different stages in their careers. Some have just begun; others have frequented Broadway, film, and television. They share stories of every aspect of being a professional actor, from heart-wrenching rejection, to the exhilaration of getting that first big part. Their often humorous stories, from the practical to the inspirational, will be invaluable for anyone studying acting or already embarking on a career.