The Theatre of Soc etas Raffaello Sanzio chronicles four years in the life of an extraordinary Italian theatre company whose work is widely recognized as some of the most exciting theatre currently being made in Europe.

In the first English-language book to document their work, company founders, Claudia Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, discuss their approach to theatre making with Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout.

At the centre of the book is a detailed exploration of the company's eleven episode cycle of tragic theatre, Tragedia Endogonida (2002 2004, ) including:

• production notes and extensive correspondence giving insights into the creative process
• essays by and conversations with company members alongside critical responses by their two co-authors
• seventy-two photographs of the company's work.

This is a significant collection of theoretical and practical reflections on the subject of theatre in the twenty-first century, and an indispensible written and visual document of the company's work.

The Theatre of Societas Raffaello Sanzio chronicles four years in the life of an extraordinary Italian theatre company whose work is widely recognized as some of the most exciting theatre currently being made in Europe. In the first English-language book to document their work, company founders, Claudia Castellucci, Romeo Castellucci and Chiara Guidi, discuss their approach to theatre making with Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout. At the centre of the book is a detailed exploration of the company's eleven episode cycle of tragic theatre, Tragedia Endogonida (2002-2004,) including: production notes and extensive correspondence giving insights into the creative process essays by and conversations with company members alongside critical responses by their two co-authors seventy-two photographs of the company's work. This is a significant collection of theoretical and practical reflections on the subject of theatre in the twenty-first century, and an indispensible written and visual document of the company's work.

Through specific examples, case studies and essays by specialist writers, academics, and a new generation of theatre researchers, this collection of specially commissioned essays looks at current theatre practices across Europe.

From ThA(c)atre du Soleil to SocA¬etas Raffaello Sanzio, the authors reconsider the possibilities of theatre practice, its relation to history and location and its place in Europe at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Contemporary Theatres in Europe examines a wide range of topics including:

• mainstream European theatre
• experimental performance
• music theatre
• theatre for children
• dance theatre.

Tailor-made for students, offering clear examples of different ways of thinking and writing about performance, this is a richly detailed introduction which brings key themes to life for all students of European theatre.

Through specific examples, case studies and essays by specialist writers, academics, and a new generation of theatre researchers, this collection of specially commissioned essays looks at current theatre practices across Europe.

From ThA(c)atre du Soleil to SocA¬etas Raffaello Sanzio, the authors reconsider the possibilities of theatre practice, its relation to history and location and its place in Europe at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Contemporary Theatres in Europe examines a wide range of topics including:

• mainstream European theatre
• experimental performance
• music theatre
• theatre for children
• dance theatre.

Tailor-made for students, offering clear examples of different ways of thinking and writing about performance, this is a richly detailed introduction which brings key themes to life for all students of European theatre.

Why do actors get stage fright? What is so embarrassing about joining in? Why not work with animals and children, and why is it so hard not to collapse into helpless laughter when things go wrong? In trying to answer these questions - usually ignored by theatre scholarship but of enduring interest to theatre professionals and audiences alike - Nicholas Ridout attempts to explain the relationship between these apparently unwanted and anomalous phenomena and the wider social and political meanings of the modern theatre. The book focuses on the theatrical encounter - those events in which actor and audience come face to face in a strangely compromised and alienated intimacy - arguing that the modern theatre has become a place where we entertain ourselves by experimenting with our feelings about work, social relations and about feelings themselves.

Why do actors get stage fright? What is so embarrassing about joining in? Why not work with animals and children, and why is it so hard not to collapse into helpless laughter when things go wrong? In trying to answer these questions - usually ignored by theatre scholarship but of enduring interest to theatre professionals and audiences alike - Nicholas Ridout attempts to explain the relationship between these apparently unwanted and anomalous phenomena and the wider social and political meanings of the modern theatre. The book focuses on the theatrical encounter - those events in which actor and audience come face to face in a strangely compromised and alienated intimacy - arguing that the modern theatre has become a place where we entertain ourselves by experimenting with our feelings about work, social relations and about feelings themselves.

A comprehensive study of Oman presenting a portrait of a nation through its diplomacy. For Oman, the idea of diplomacy refers not only to the country's interactions in the global community, but also to the way in which Omani life itself is shaped by principles and practices of social and political engagement that are essentially diplomatic. Such principles are grounded in ideals of tact and tolerance that have developed over a long historical period. This is therefore a cultural history: an historical account of the formation of a distinctive Omani culture. It argues that this culture is where Oman's contemporary foreign policy has been nurtured, and that it is in this culture that a specific conception and practice of diplomacy has been developed. Key Features *the most comprehensive history in English of Oman's international relations *draws upon key research into Omani religious and social traditions, and ethnographic studies of language and social customs. *provides a perspective which places Oman at its centre, rather than as a background actor in broader colonial narratives, Cold War calculations or global concerns over the relationship between Islam and the West *presents an account of Oman's contemporary behind-the-scenes role in relation to Iranian US relations, and the Middle East peace process *the first book to connect Oman's international relations with considerations of Omani history, culture and social organisation

Scenes from Bourgeois Life proposes that theatre spectatorship has made a significant contribution to the historical development of a distinctive bourgeois sensibility, characterized by the cultivation of distance. In Nicholas Ridout’s formulation, this distance is produced and maintained at two different scales. First is the distance of the colonial relation, not just in miles between Jamaica and London, but also the social, economic, and psychological distances involved in that relation. The second is the distance of spectatorship, not only of the modern theatregoer as consumer, but the larger and pervasive disposition to observe, comment, and sit in judgment, which becomes characteristic of the bourgeois relation to the rest of the world. This engagingly written study of history, class, and spectatorship offers compelling proof of “why theater matters,� and demonstrates the importance of examining the question historically.

The ideal introduction to the history of modern Oman from the eighteenth century to the present, this book combines the most recent scholarship on Omani history with insights drawn from a close analysis of the politics and international relations of contemporary Oman. Jeremy Jones and Nicholas Ridout offer a distinctive new approach to Omani history, building on postcolonial thought and integrating the study of politics and culture. The book addresses key topics including Oman's historical cosmopolitanism, the distinctive role of Omani Islam in the country's social and political life, Oman's role in the global economy of the nineteenth century, insurrection and revolution in the twentieth century, the role of Sultan Qaboos in the era of oil and Oman's unique regional and diplomatic perspective on contemporary issues.

From colonial narratives and Cold War calculations to Iranian-US relations and the Middle East peace process, Oman has played an essential role in global diplomacy and international relations. For Oman, the idea of diplomacy refers not only to the country's interactions in the global community, but also to how Omani life itself is shaped by principles and practices of social and political engagement that are essentially diplomatic. Drawing on key research into Omani religious and social traditions, and ethnographic studies into Omani language and customs, this is the first book to connect Oman's international relations to its history, culture and social organisation.

Scenes from Bourgeois Life proposes that theatre spectatorship has made a significant contribution to the historical development of a distinctive bourgeois sensibility, as characterized by the cultivation of distance. In author Nicholas Ridout’s formulation, this distance is produced and maintained at three different scales. First is the distance of the colonial relation, not just in miles between Jamaica and London, but also the social, economic, and psychological distances involved in that relation. The second is the distance of spectatorship, not only of the modern theatre-goer as consumer, but the larger and pervasive disposition to observe, comment, and sit in judgment, which becomes characteristic of the bourgeois relation to the rest of the world. The third is the mediated distance of social encounters, across cafÉ tables and through the haze of tobacco smoke, which are in turn captured in the distance-production technologies of capitalism's media: theatre, film, and television. This engagingly written treatise on history, class, and spectatorship offers compelling proof of “why theater matters,� and demonstrates the importance of examining the question historically.

What is ethics and what has it got to do with theatre?
"Theatre & Ethics" is about how to act. It explores theatre as a practice through which we experiment with ethical action. Drawing on vivid examples from Sophocles through Shakespeare, to Brecht and the contemporary theatre of Goat Island and Societas Raffaello Sanzio, the book highlights key moments in the history of theatre as an ethical practice and raises fundamental questions about what theatre is for and how audiences interact with it.

The ideal introduction to the history of modern Oman from the eighteenth century to the present, this book combines the most recent scholarship on Omani history with insights drawn from a close analysis of the politics and international relations of contemporary Oman. Jeremy Jones and Nicholas Ridout offer a distinctive new approach to Omani history, building on postcolonial thought and integrating the study of politics and culture. The book addresses key topics including Oman's historical cosmopolitanism, the distinctive role of Omani Islam in the country's social and political life, Oman's role in the global economy of the nineteenth century, insurrection and revolution in the twentieth century, the role of Sultan Qaboos in the era of oil and Oman's unique regional and diplomatic perspective on contemporary issues.

"Passionate Amateurs" tells a new story about modern theater: the story of a romantic attachment to theater's potential to produce surprising experiences of human community. It begins with one of the first great plays of modern European theater--Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" in Moscow--and then crosses the 20th and 21st centuries to look at how its story plays out in Weimar Republic Berlin, in the Paris of the 1960s, and in a spectrum of contemporary performance in Europe and the United States. This is a work of historical materialist theater scholarship, which combines a materialism grounded in a socialist tradition of cultural studies with some of the insights developed in recent years by theorists of affect, and addresses some fundamental questions about the social function and political potential of theater within modern capitalism. "Passionate Amateurs" argues that theater in modern capitalism can help us think afresh about notions of work, time, and freedom. Its title concept is a theoretical and historical figure, someone whose work in theater is undertaken within capitalism, but motivated by a love that desires something different. In addition to its theoretical originality, it offers a significant new reading of a major Chekhov play, the most sustained scholarly engagement to date with Benjamin's "Program for a Proletarian Children's Theatre," the first major consideration of Godard's "La chinoise" as a "theatrical" work, and the first chapter-length discussion of the work of The Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, an American company rapidly gaining a profile in the European theater scene.

"Passionate Amateurs" contributes to the development of theater and performance studies in a way that moves beyond debates over the differences between theater and performance in order to tell a powerful, historically grounded story about what theater and performance are for in the modern world.