This book is the first to examine early Tudor theatre specifically from the perspective of the great households of England. The aristocrats of the sixteenth century commissioned, funded, and staged complex and often lavish entertainments for their households including plays, masques, concerts, dances, and sports. These thematically and stylistically unified revels, watched by guests and retainers, were designed to swell the social and artistic reputation of the patron and to communicate his ideology - in fact to delight the eye and ear while selectively educating the mind and soul. Theatre became for the nobleman a means to secure loyalty, a loyalty that both reflected and reinforced his political power. Important both as a collection of primary source documents and for its detailed examination of them, Patrons and Performance first considers the evolution, theatrical talents, duties and privileges, and techniques of retained performers, including Chapel Children and Gentlemen, minstrels, playwrights, and players. It then proceeds to a discussion of the interlude and of how the unique relationship between nobleman and artist affects the play's characters, theme, and structures.

(Amadeus). In this volume, Father M. Owen Lee writes for the 21st-century operagoer, briskly and stylishly telling the stories of 100 of the world's greatest music dramas from Aida to Die Zauberflote . The stories told in music by Mozart, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini and Strauss are brought to life here with wit, insight and boundless enthusiasm. When compiling and composing this pocket-sized handbook, Fr. Lee considered the unique needs of the modern operagoer. Contemporary text-translating services have made pure synopses somewhat redundant. Fr. Lee, therefore, has focused his commentaries less on the comings and goings of plot than on subtext, motivation and background information. He also suggests his single favorite recording for each of the 100 operas discussed. In all, he has written a guide that will prove invaluable to the opera novice and useful even for the aficionado.

This unique text is both an accessible introduction and specialist review of contemporary dramatherapy practice today. The collected chapters introduce critical and cohesive perspectives on dramatherapy as it is being practiced, developed and advanced in diverse contexts, and also investigate the connections between the discipline of dramatherapy both as an allied health profession, a form of psychotherapy and a traditional form of theatre and healing. In so doing, the volume unpicks the relationship between drama and therapy, exploring some of its key philosophies and practices, and examining its efficacy. Edited by two experienced lecturers and dramatherapists, the book stands as a timely and crucial resource for students and practitioners alike in this growing field. It is essential reading for students on dramatherapy, arts therapy and applied theatre degree programmes, and useful background reading for students of theatre and performance, counselling and psychotherapy.

(Applause Books). Have you ever noticed how clever you feel in the theatre? You get the joke when no one on the stage is laughing. You see the threat that no one on the stage seems to notice. You weep when leading characters do not shed a tear. Sometimes you feel an almost God-like understanding of people and events. Who put you in this privileged position? The Audience & The Playwright analyzes the tactics used by all playwrights, from Sophocles to David Mamet, to give the audience extraordinary powers and a unique role that it will play perfectly and without rehearsal. Structured as an evening in the theatre, the book is analytical but straightforward, serious but entertaining. A working playwright's view of what really happens between the stage and the audience, from the beginning of the play until the end, it is a book for the serious theatregoer, as well as a book for the college classroom. "Mayo Simon would be a wonderful opening night date. He knows the theatre like the palm of his hand, loves it, and articulates it. Short of Mayo as a date, this book is your best companion." Jon Jory Professor of Acting & Directing, University of Washington School of Drama

Provides a comprehensive survey of approaches to genre in Shakespeare's work. Contributors probe deeply into genre theory and genre history by relating Renaissance conceptions. In this sense, the volume proposes to read Shakespeare through genre and, just as importantly, read genre through Shakespeare.

William Kinderman's detailed study of Parsifal, described by the composer as his "last card," explores the evolution of the text and music of this inexhaustible yet highly controversial music drama across Wagner's entire career, and offers a reassessment of the ideological and political history of Parsifal, shedding new light on the connection of Wagner's legacy to the rise of National Socialism in Germany. The compositional genesis is traced through many unfamiliar manuscript sources, revealing unsuspected models and veiled connections to Wagner's earlier works. Fresh analytic perspectives are revealed, casting the dramatic meaning of Parsifal in a new light. Much debated aspects of the work, such as Kundry's death at the conclusion, are discussed in the context of its stage history. Path-breaking as well is Kinderman's analysis of the religious and ideological context of Parsifal. During the half-century after the composer's death, the Wagner family and the so-called Bayreuth circle sought to exploit Wagner's work for political purposes, thereby promoting racial nationalism and anti-Semitism. Hitherto unnoticed connections between Hitler and Wagner's legacy at Bayreuth are explored here, while differences between the composer's politics as an 1849 revolutionary and the later response of his family to National Socialism are weighed in a nuanced account. Kinderman combines new historical research, sensitive aesthetic criticism, and probing philosophical reflection in this most intensive examination of Wagner's culminating music drama.

This book offers a different take on the early history of Warner Bros., the studio renowned for introducing talking pictures and developing the gangster film and backstage musical comedy. The focus here is on the studio's sustained commitment to produce films based on stage plays. This led to the creation of a stock company of talented actors, to the introduction of sound cinema, to the recruitment of leading Broadway stars such as John Barrymore and George Arliss and to films as diverse as The Gold Diggers (1923), The Marriage Circle (1924), Beau Brummel (1924), Disraeli (1929), Lilly Turner (1933), The Petrified Forest (1936) and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Even the most crippling effects of the Depression in 1933 did not prevent Warners' production of films based on stage plays, many being transformed into star vehicles for the likes of Ruth Chatterton, Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.

Creating Musical Theatre features interviews with the directors and choreographers that make up today's Broadway elite. From Susan Stroman and Kathleen Marshall to newcomers Andy Blankenbuehler and Christopher Gattelli, this book features twelve creative artists, mostly director/choreographers, many of whom have also crossed over into film and television, opera and ballet. To the researcher, this book will deliver specific information on how these artists work; for the performer, it will serve as insight into exactly what these artists are looking for in the audition process and the rehearsal environment; and for the director/choreographer, this book will serve as an inspiration detailing each artist's pursuit of his or her dream and the path to success, offering new insight and a deeper understanding of Broadway today. Creating Musical Theatre includes a foreword by four-time Tony nominee Kelli O'Hara, one of the most elegant and talented leading ladies gracing the Broadway and concert stage today, as well as interviews with award-winning directors and choreographers, including: Rob Ashford (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying); Andy Blankenbuehler (In the Heights); Jeff Calhoun (Newsies); Warren Carlyle (Follies); Christopher Gattelli (Newsies); Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes); Jerry Mitchell (Legally Blonde); Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon); Randy Skinner (White Christmas); Susan Stroman (The Scottsboro Boys); Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys); and Anthony Van Laast (Sister Act).

Throughout its modern history, Russia has seen a succession of highly performative social acts that play out prominently in the public sphere. This innovative volume brings the fields of performance studies and Russian studies into dialog for the first time and shows that performance is a vital means for understanding Russia's culture from the reign of Peter the Great to the era of Putin. These twenty-seven essays encompass a diverse range of topics, from dance and classical music to live poetry and from viral video to public jubilees and political protest. As a whole they comprise an integrated, compelling intervention in Russian studies. Challenging the primacy of the written word in this field, the volume fosters a larger intellectual community informed by theories and practices of performance from anthropology, art history, dance studies, film studies, cultural and social history, literary studies, musicology, political science, theater studies, and sociology.

There is no fourth wall in popular performance. The show is firmly rooted in the here and now, and the performers address the audience directly, while the audience answer back with laughter, applause or heckling. Performer and role are interlaced, so that we are left uncertain about just how the persona we see onstage might relate to the private person who presents it to us. Popular Performance defines and surveys varieties of performance where the main purpose is to entertain, and where there is no shame in being trivial, frivolous or nonsensical as long as people go home happy at the end of the show. Contributions by new and established scholars focus particularly on how it is made, explaining the techniques of performance and production that make it so appealing to audiences. With sections examining how popular performance works in a range of historical and contemporary examples, readers will gain insights into: * performance forms associated with the variety tradition: music hall, vaudeville, cabaret, variety * performance forms associated with circus: wild west shows, clowning * issues relating to the identity of the performer in relation to magic, burlesque, pantomime in contemporary performance * issues relating to venue and audience in relation to contemporary street theatre, stand-up, and live sketch comedy.

How is performer-object interaction enacted and perceived in the theatre? How thereby are varieties of 'meaning' also enacted and perceived? Using cognitive theory and ecological ontology, Paavolainen investigates how the interplay of actors and objects affords a degree of enjoyment and understanding, whether or not the viewer speaks the language.

"This wise volume, written by a veteran director and observer of premodern plays, offers good advice for neophyte and experienced directors." Choice

This text proposes a new way to consider theatre and performance that claims a special relationship to reality, truth and authenticity. It documents innovations in devising and staging theatre and performance that takes reality as its subject, cultural shifts that have generated theatre of the real, some of its problems and some possibilities.

This book examines experimental Irish theatre that ran counter to the naturalistic 'peasant' drama synonymous with Irish playwriting. Focusing on four marginalised playwrights after Yeats, it charts a tradition linking the experimentation of the early Irish theatre movement with the innovation of contemporary Irish and international drama.

The last 15 years has seen an explosion of studies that use cognitive science to understand theatre, whilst at the same time theatre-makers are using their artistic practice to address research question. This book looks at the current discourse around these emerging fields.

This book situates the production of The Boy Friend and the Players' Theatre in the context of a post-war London and reads The Boy Friend, and Wilson's later work, as exercises in contemporary camp. It argues for Wilson as a significant and transitional figure both for musical theatre and for modes of homosexuality in the context of the pre-Wolfenden 1950s. Sandy Wilson's The Boy Friend is one of the most successful British musicals ever written. First produced at the Players' Theatre Club in London in 1953 it transferred to the West End and Broadway, making a star out of Julie Andrews and gave Twiggy a leading role in Ken Russell's 1971 film adaptation. Despite this success, little is known about Wilson, a gay writer working in Britain in the 1950s at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Drawing on original research assembled from the Wilson archives at the Harry Ransom Center, this is the first critical study of Wilson as a key figure of 1950s British theatre. Beginning with the often overlooked context of the Players' Theatre Club through to Wilson's relationship to industry figures such as Binkie Beaumont, Noel Coward and Ivor Novello, this study explores the work in the broader history of Soho gay culture. As well as a critical perspective on The Boy Friend, later works such as Divorce Me, Darling!, The Buccaneer and Valmouth are examined as well as uncompleted musical versions of Pygmalion and Goodbye to Berlin to give a comprehensive and original perspective on one of British theatre's most celebrated yet overlooked talents.

Combining the charms of the country with the convenience of the city and delivering a healthy dose of both entertainment and education, American pleasure gardens were ubiquitous between the Revolution and the Civil War. Patrons of these entertainment venues would have expected to see plays, concerts, fairs, mechanical and artistic exhibits, fireworks, volcanic eruptions, and - perhaps more crucially - they would have expected to see and be seen. As outdoor entertainment venues in American cities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pleasure gardens presented citizens with public spaces where they could explore what it meant to be American. The very nature of American pleasure gardens provided an effective location for the exploration of and experimentation with American identities, due to their nature as simultaneously rural and urban, modern and nostalgic, British and American, white and racialized, and democratic and class-conscious. Stubbs examines how these once popular venues helped form American identity using nation, class, race, and the agrarian ideal as touchstones and argues the gardens allowed for the exploration of what it meant to be American through performance, both on and off the stage.

It would be difficult, indeed, to imagine anyone more qualified to give us a celebration, from the perspective of an insider, of the Broadway musical. From the first run of "Guys and Dolls" in 1950 to the recent debut of "Rent," Stuart Ostrow, a prot DEGREESD'eg DEGREESD'e of the great composer-lyricist Frank Loesser, has been personally involved in many of the major Broadway productions of our time. The steadily growing number of fans of the Great White Way will delight in his reminiscences about the shows that have shaped musical theater, such as "Hello Dolly," "Funny Girl," "Man of LaMancha," "Cabaret," "1776," and "M. Butterfly"--to name just a few.

Readers of "A Producer's Broadway Journey" will certainly be entertained by OstroW's behind-the-scenes anecdotes of Bob Fosse, Barbra Streisand, Betty Buckley, Cole Porter, Lerner and Loewe, Hal Prince, Ethel Merman, and many other legends encountered in his accomplished career. But in addition to the tales or re-writes, stand-ins, near-disasters, and moments of theatrical magic, the author also provides a unique historical perspective on almost half a century of the musical.

Continuing a tradition that dates back to 1920, this beloved annual honors 10 new plays and musicals and three regional plays cited in the Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Awards and Citations competition. As always, "The Best Plays Theater Yearbook" includes a comprehensive collection of facts and figures about the year in United States theatre."The Best Plays of 2006-2007" where chosen from Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off Off Broadway productions of new plays that opened between June 1, 2006 and May 31, 2007. Essays, noted below, celebrate each one.The plays are: "Blackbird", by David Harrower (essay by David Cote); "The Clean House", by Sarah Ruhl (essay by Anne Marie Welsh); "The Coast of Utopia", by Tom Stoppard (essay by Charles Wright); "Dying City", by Christopher Shinn (essay by Charles Isherwood); "Frost/Nixon", by Peter Morgan (essay by Charles McNulty); "The Pain and the Itch", by Bruce Norris (essay by John Istel); "Passing Strange", by Stew and Heidl Rodewald (essay by Alisa Solomon); "Radio Gold", by August Wilson (essay by Christopher Rawson); "The Scene", by Theresa Rebeck (essay by Chris Jones); and "Spring Awakening", by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik (essay by Michael Feingold. )

"Refreshing and imaginative, this book teaches through enhanced awareness and instructs through clear and specific exercises." Cicely Berry A practical course for actors and other professional voice-users to achieve clarity and expressivity with the voice. Setting out the fundamental principles of voice training, the book provides structured and informed methods for developing vocal power, range and flexibility. At the heart of the book are practical projects with exercises which enable you to: - connect your breath with your voice - meet the demands of your performance - use your voice expressively through fully controlling pitch and range Each chapter consists of an introductory framework; explorations; exercises; follow-up work; suggested texts and further reading altogether offering a unique, student-centred approach not found in other voice books. This revised edition speaks more directly to the actor, rather than the voice teacher, through revised terminology and descriptions, updated references, additional appendices on health and other issues related to trends in contemporary drama and questions of equality, diversity and inclusion with respect to vocabulary and suggested texts. Includes forewords by Cicely Berry and Fiona Shaw.