"A theatre which is able to speak to each spectator in a different and penetrating language is not a fantastic idea, nor a utopia. This is the theatre for which many of us, directors and leaders of groups, trained for a long time....." - from the Introduction

On Directing is Eugenio Barba's unprecedented account of his own life and work. This is a major retrospective of Barba's working methods, his practical techniques, and the life experiences which fed directly into his theatre-making.

On Directing is an inspirational resource. It is a dramaturgy of dramaturgies, and a professional autobiography, from one of the most significant and influential directors and theorists working today. It provides unique insights into a philosophy and practice of directing for the beginning student, the experienced practitioner, and everyone in between.

This the second English language edition of the classic text, "A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology" subtly juxtaposes the visual demonstrations of the performers craft, from a wealth of Oriental and Occidental sources. Whereas most Western research is concerned with naturalism and psychological realism in acting, the "Dictionary "focuses on the performer's arduous and eclectic craft.
More than just a dictionary, however, this is a handbook for theatre practitioners and a guide for students and scholars of transcultural performance. It is a result of ten years research conducted by Eugenio Barba and the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA) based in Denmark. The "Dictionary: "
*aims to expand our knowledge of the possibilities of the scenic body, and of the spectators response to the dynamics of performance
*includes practical sections on balance, opposition and montage, among other techniques
discusses issues including The Text and the Stage, The Dilated Body, and Energetic Language
*provides over 600 illustrated examples of the performers craft, in black and white and color.
This new edition contains three new chapters - E"xercises, Eurasian Theatre and Organic Theatre -" and 20 new pictures.

A treatise on theatre anthrolopogy, this work comprises a dialogue with such masters of theatre as Stanislavski, Meyerhold, Craig, Copeau, Brecht, Artand and Decroux. The author has also published Routledge - Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology, with Nicola Savarese; The Floating Islands; and Beyond the Floating Islands.

First Published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

DAH Theatre: A Sourcebook is a collection of essays about the work of one of the most successful and innovative performance groups in contemporary history. With a direct line of descent from Jerzy Grotowski and Eugenio Barba, DAH Theatre, founded during the worst of times in the former Yugoslavia, amidst a highly patriarchal society, predominantly run by women, has thrived now for twenty-five years. The chapters in this book, for the most part, have been written by both theatre scholars and practitioners, all of whom have either seen, studied with or worked with this groundbreaking troupe. What makes DAH so exceptional? The levels of innovation and passion for them extend far beyond the world of mere performance. They have been politically and socially driven by the tragedies and injustices that they have witnessed within their country and have worked hard to be a force of reconciliation, equity and peace within the world. And those efforts, which began on the dangerous streets of Belgrade in 1991, today, have reached throughout the world. Though they still make their home in Serbia, audiences from as far afield as New Zealand, Mongolia, Brazil and the U.S. have discovered their power - both in purely aesthetic terms and as passionate activists.

"A theatre which is able to speak to each spectator in a different and penetrating language is not a fantastic idea, nor a utopia. This is the theatre for which many of us, directors and leaders of groups, trained for a long time....." - from the Introduction

On Directing is Eugenio Barba's unprecedented account of his own life and work. This is a major retrospective of Barba's working methods, his practical techniques, and the life experiences which fed directly into his theatre-making.

On Directing is an inspirational resource. It is a dramaturgy of dramaturgies, and a professional autobiography, from one of the most significant and influential directors and theorists working today. It provides unique insights into a philosophy and practice of directing for the beginning student, the experienced practitioner, and everyone in between.

"One of the century's most impressive theatrical manifestos" - Irving Wardle Jerzy Grotowski created the Theatre Laboratory in Opole, South-West Poland, in 1959. His work since then, with a small permanent company, became one of the most potent sources of information for modern actors and directors. This is a record of the ideas that motivated the work of the Theatre Laboratory, and of the company's methods and discoveries.In his Preface Peter Brook writes: "Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no one else in the world, to my knowledge no one since Stanislavski, has investigated the nature of acting, its phenomenon, its meaning, the nature and science of its mental-physical-emotional processes as deeply and completely as Grotowski."Grotowski's Theatre Laboratory Company was first seen in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival in 1968 and went on to international fame.

In September-October 2010 and February-March 2011, Diana Cozma had the privilege of watching the rehearsals of The Chronic Life, directed by Eugenio Barba, in Holstebro, Denmark, when she lived at Odin Teatret's guest house. Eugenio Barba's dramaturgy is discussed in the first part of the book, The Biography of a Dramaturgical Language, while the second part, The Dramaturgy of a Spectator, based on her rehearsal diary, reveals her reflections on Barba's evocative dramaturgy and her emotional and intellectual responses to the rehearsal process. "I feel the author's intensity in describing the actions and thoughts of the director and the actors who for years have accompanied her in her writing both in Romanian and English. I recognise the same tension, the same desire and effort that flow from a certain passionate reaction in the human being: gratitude towards the person who opened our eyes and awakened our energies. I recognise the origin of this writing, the nature of its particular style. It reminds me of my struggle with words or with the incandescence of the actors, in the attempt to cross over into that dimension of reality which forces us to go beyond what we are. It is a struggle that is constantly accompanied by the temptation to abandon and give up. Style is the luminous radiography of the darkness within us." (excerpt from the Foreword by Eugenio Barba).

The Five Continents of Theatre undertakes the exploration of the material culture of the actor, which involves the actors' pragmatic relations and technical functionality, their behaviour, the norms and conventions that interact with those of the audience and the society in which actors and spectators equally take part. The material culture of the actor is organised around body-mind techniques (see A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology by the same authors) and auxiliary techniques whose variety concern: the diverse circumstances that generate theatre performances: festive or civil occasions, celebrations of power, popular feasts such as carnival, calendar recurrences such as New Year, spring and summer festivals; the financial and organisational aspects: costs, contracts, salaries, impresarios, tickets, subscriptions, tours; the information to be provided to the public: announcements, posters, advertising, parades; the spaces for the performance and those for the spectators: performing spaces in every possible sense of the term; sets, lighting, sound, makeup, costumes, props; the relations established between actor and spectator; the means of transport adopted by actors and even by spectators. Auxiliary techniques repeat themselves not only throughout different historical periods, but also across all theatrical traditions. Interacting dialectically in the stratification of practices, they respond to basic needs that are common to all traditions when a performance has to be created and staged. A comparative overview of auxiliary techniques shows that the material culture of the actor, with its diverse processes, forms and styles, stems from the way in which actors respond to those same practical needs. The authors' research for this aspect of theatre anthropology was based on examination of practices, texts and of 1400 images, chosen as exemplars.