|
Showing 1 - 19 of
19 matches in All Departments
* This book offers an exciting examination of the theatrical
functions of medieval English stage directions as records of
earlier performance. * Would be recommended reading in for any
undergraduate or master's level students studying the medieval
period in Performance studies, English Literature or in History (in
particular in the UK and the US). * The closest competitors focus
on after 1560 so this project is a first in its time period
coverage.
In this selection of research articles Butterworth focuses on
investigation of the practical and technical means by which early
English theatre, from the fifteenth to the early seventeenth
century, was performed. Matters of staging for both 'pageant
vehicle' and 'theatre-in-the-round' are described and analysed to
consider their impact on playing by players, expositors, narrators
and prompters. All these operators also functioned to promote the
closely aligned disciplines of pyrotechnics and magic (legerdemain
or sleight of hand) which also influence the nature of the
presented theatre. The sixteen chapters form four clearly
identified parts-staging, playing, pyrotechnics and magic-and
drawing on a wealth of primary source material, Butterworth
encourages the reader to rediscover and reappreciate the actors,
magicians, wainwrights and wheelwrights, pyrotechnists, and (in
modern terms) the special effects people and event managers who
brought these early texts to theatrical life on busy city streets
and across open arenas. The chapters variously explore and analyse
the important backwaters of material culture that enabled,
facilitated and shaped performance yet have received scant
scholarly attention. It is here, among the itemised payments to
carpenters and chemists, the noted requirements of mechanics and
wheelwrights, or tucked away among the marginalia of suppliers of
staging and ingenious devices that Butterworth has made his
stamping ground. This is a fascinating introduction to the very
'nuts and bolts' of early theatre. Staging, Playing, Pyrotechnics
and Magic: Conventions of Performance in Early English Theatre is a
closely argued celebration of stagecraft that will appeal to
academics and students of performance, theatre history and medieval
studies as well as history and literature more broadly. It
constitutes the eighth volume in the Routledge series Shifting
Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies and continues the valuable
work of that series (of which Butterworth is a general editor) in
bringing significant and expert research articles to a wider
audience.
* This book offers an exciting examination of the theatrical
functions of medieval English stage directions as records of
earlier performance. * Would be recommended reading in for any
undergraduate or master's level students studying the medieval
period in Performance studies, English Literature or in History (in
particular in the UK and the US). * The closest competitors focus
on after 1560 so this project is a first in its time period
coverage.
Covering a period of nearly 40 years' work by the author this
collection of essays in the Shifting Paradigms in Early English
Drama Studies series brings the perspective of a Drama academic and
practitioner of early English plays to the understanding of how
medieval plays and Robin Hood games of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries were performed. It explores why, where, when, and how the
plays happened, who took part, and who were the audiences. The
insights are informed by a combination of research and the public
presentation of surviving texts. The research included in the
volume unites the early English experiences of religious and
secular performance. This recognition challenges the dominant
critical distinction of the past between the two and the consequent
privileging of biblical and moral plays over secular
entertainments. What further binds, rather than separates, the two
is that the destination of funds raised by the different activities
maintained the civic and parochial needs of the institutions upon
which the people depended. This collection redefines the inclusive
nature and common interests of the purposes that lay behind
generically different undertakings. They shared an extraordinary
investment of human and financial resources in the anticipation of
a profit that was pious and practical. (CS1081).
This volume brings together a selection of the major articles of
David Mills (1938-2013), which along with similar volumes by
Alexandra F. Johnston, Peter Meredith and Meg Twycross makes up a
set of "Shifting Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies". Mills
was one of these four key scholars whose work has changed what is
known about English medieval drama and theatre. He made major
contributions to understanding English medieval theatre in the
widest sense but more specifically to the nature and development of
medieval plays and their performance at Chester. The scope of his
work from manuscript to performance has created new knowledge and
insights brought about by his remarkable technical skill as an
editor and researcher. His texts of the Chester Cycle of Mystery
Plays have become the standard works. In the light of this
outstanding research the volume is comprised of four sections: 1.
Editors and Editing; 2. Cultural Contexts; 3. Staging and
Performance; 4. Criticism and Evaluation. An editorial introduction
opens the work.
This volume brings together a selection of the major articles of
David Mills (1938-2013), which along with similar volumes by
Alexandra F. Johnston, Peter Meredith and Meg Twycross makes up a
set of "Shifting Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies". Mills
was one of these four key scholars whose work has changed what is
known about English medieval drama and theatre. He made major
contributions to understanding English medieval theatre in the
widest sense but more specifically to the nature and development of
medieval plays and their performance at Chester. The scope of his
work from manuscript to performance has created new knowledge and
insights brought about by his remarkable technical skill as an
editor and researcher. His texts of the Chester Cycle of Mystery
Plays have become the standard works. In the light of this
outstanding research the volume is comprised of four sections: 1.
Editors and Editing; 2. Cultural Contexts; 3. Staging and
Performance; 4. Criticism and Evaluation. An editorial introduction
opens the work.
|
Medieval English Theatre 43 (Paperback)
Meg Twycross, Sarah Carpenter, Elisabeth Dutton, Gordon L. Kipling; Contributions by Meg Twycross, …
|
R1,076
Discovery Miles 10 760
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
The ludic element of drama in the Middle Ages - or drama with early
subject matter - is here to the fore. Medieval English Theatre is
the premier journal in early theatre studies. Its name belies its
wide range of interest: it publishes articles on theatre and
pageantry from across the British Isles up to the opening of the
London playhouses and the suppression of the civic mystery cycles,
and also includes contributions on European and Latin drama,
together with analyses of modern survivals or equivalents, and of
research productions of medieval plays. This edition combines,
perhaps unexpectedly, royalty and games. Games of all kinds, from
jousting and "Christmas games" to those usually associated with
children, are shown, it is suggested, to be more than they at first
appear. Apparently run-of-the-mill entertainments, when presented
to the court by the Londoners, by the court to a visiting emperor ,
or by the retainers of royalty and nobility to the general public
for commercial gain, turn out to have unexpected political
resonances; while the potential underlying sadism of children's
games gains a horrific immediacy when diverted to the torturing of
Christ. Even today, the musical SIX says a great deal more about
royalty and role-playing than initially might appear, especially
when set against eye-witness accounts of the first meeting of Anna
of Cleves with Henry VIII, and what modern novelists have made of
it . In the process we learn a great deal more about the detail of
these games, from the maskerie costumes of James VI and Anna of
Denmark to the elaborate fantasy challenges of the jousters in
1400/1401, which incidentally suggest that fourteenth-century court
culture, whose language was Anglo-French, is a major missing link
in the history of what is usually treated as purely English
literature. Contributors: Philip Bennett, Philip Butterworth, Sarah
Carpenter, Elisabeth Dutton, James Forse, Gordon Kipling, Michael
Pearce, Meg Twycross.
Interest in the content of this book has developed out of an
examination of the prompter who operated in full view of the
audience and offered all the lines to the players. In 2001 at
Groningen a production of the Towneley Second Shepherds' Play
focused on an examination of this convention. Many of the audience
responses then were concerned with the figure of the prompter as he
was seen to operate simultaneously both 'inside' and 'outside' the
action of the play. Such a role and its function is fascinating,
not only in its own right, but also in relation to how it might
inform us about the nature and purpose of presented theatre. The
ability of such a figure to move in and out of the action, and thus
different realities, characterizes a relationship to the action and
the audience. The same fascination exists in relation to roles of
the narrator and the expositor. Sometimes these roles are overt
ones; sometimes they 'double up' with roles of actors, personages
or characters. These figures are of pivotal significance in the
communication of those plays in which they operate. The purpose of
this book is to investigate the nature of these roles in order to
identify their influence upon the performance of medieval plays.
Covering a period of nearly 40 years' work by the author this
collection of essays in the Shifting Paradigms in Early English
Drama Studies series brings the perspective of a Drama academic and
practitioner of early English plays to the understanding of how
medieval plays and Robin Hood games of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries were performed. It explores why, where, when, and how the
plays happened, who took part, and who were the audiences. The
insights are informed by a combination of research and the public
presentation of surviving texts. The research included in the
volume unites the early English experiences of religious and
secular performance. This recognition challenges the dominant
critical distinction of the past between the two and the consequent
privileging of biblical and moral plays over secular
entertainments. What further binds, rather than separates, the two
is that the destination of funds raised by the different activities
maintained the civic and parochial needs of the institutions upon
which the people depended. This collection redefines the inclusive
nature and common interests of the purposes that lay behind
generically different undertakings. They shared an extraordinary
investment of human and financial resources in the anticipation of
a profit that was pious and practical. (CS1081).
Newest research into drama and performance of the middle ages.
Medieval English Theatre is the premier journal in early theatre
studies. Its name belies its wide range of interest: it publishes
articles on theatre and pageantry from across the British Isles up
to the opening of the London playhouses and the suppression of the
civic mystery cycles, and also includes contributions on European
and Latin drama, together with analyses of modern survivals or
equivalents, and of research productions of medieval plays. This
volume features essays on stagecraft, performance, and reception
across a wide range of theatrical genres. Overlapping themes
include a return to the York Corpus Christi Play, the
practicalities of pageant waggon construction and maintenance,
mechanical stage effects, international influences, East Anglian
theatre and "folk" happenings, academic Latin drama, and private
gentry festivities. Contributors include Jamie Beckett, Phil
Butterworth, Peter Happe, James McBain, Tom Pettitt, James Stokes,
and Diana Wyatt.
|
Medieval English Theatre 41 (Paperback)
Sarah Carpenter, Elisabeth Dutton, Meg Twycross, Gordon L. Kipling; Contributions by Meg Twycross, …
|
R1,073
Discovery Miles 10 730
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
Essays on the performance of drama from the middle ages, ranging
from the well-known cycles of York to matter from Iran. Medieval
English Theatre is the premier journal in early theatre studies.
Its name belies its wide range of interest: it publishes articles
on theatre and pageantry from across the British Isles up to the
opening of the London playhouses and the suppression of the civic
mystery cycles, and also includes contributions on European and
Latin drama, together with analyses of modern survivals or
equivalents, and of research productions of medieval plays. The
articles here focus on civic theatre and display. Chester, York,
Durham and Newcastle, and London. Practicalities are to the fore:
what the Drawers of Dee actually did, how the actors in the York
Corpus Christi Play knewwhat time it was, the difficulties
presented to London pageantry by unauthorised house-extensions and
horse-droppings. Even the stately entertainments of a royal tour by
James VI & I featured (in Newcastle, of course) negotiationover
the monopoly on coal disguised as a historical event in a play
about King Alfred and Canute. Ranging further afield is an
introduction to the living tradition of Iranian mystery plays,
whose history and development have somethought-provoking parallels
with those of medieval waggon plays in the West. Finally, the
director and producer discuss their 2019 production of John
Redford's Wit and Science by Edward's Boys, the first to be played
by aboys' company since the sixteenth century.
|
Medieval English Theatre 40 (Paperback)
Sarah Carpenter, Elisabeth Dutton, Meg Twycross, Gordon L. Kipling; Contributions by Meg Twycross, …
|
R924
Discovery Miles 9 240
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
Essays on aspects of early drama. Medieval English Theatre is the
premier journal in early theatre studies. Its name belies its wide
range of interest: it publishes articles on theatre and pageantry
from across the British Isles up to the opening of the London
playhouses and the suppression of the civic mystery cycles, and
also includes contributions on European and Latin drama, together
with analyses of modern survivals or equivalents, and of research
productions of medieval plays. The articles in this fortieth volume
engage with the key communities for early theatre: royalty, city
and household, and religious institutions. Topics include the Royal
Entry of Elizabeth Woodville into Norwich (1469); Henry VIII's
Robin Hood entertainment for Catherine of Aragon; the sun's
contribution to stage effects in the York Corpus Christi Play: the
engagement with local worthies in Mankind; and the convent drama of
Huy, in the Low Countries. Contributors: Aurelie Blanc, Philip
Butterworth, Clare Egan, John Marshall, Olivia Robinson, Michael
Spence, Meg Twycross.
Investigations into the "realities" of staging dramatic
performances, of a variety of kinds, in the middle ages. We know
little about the nature of medieval performance and have generally
been content to think of it in relation to more modern productions,
not least because of the sparsity of existing evidence.
Consequently, whilst much research has been undertaken into its
contexts, there has been relatively little scholarly investigation
into the conditions of perfomance itself. This book seeks to
address this omission. It looks at such questions as the nature of
performance in theatre/dance/puppetry/automata; the performed
qualities of such events; the conventions of performed work; what
took place in the act of performing; and the relationships between
performers and witnesses, andwhat conditioned them. PHILIP
BUTTERWORTH Is Visiting Research Fellow in the Institute for
Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds, where he was formerly
Reader in Medieval Theatre and Dean for Research; KATIE NORMINGTON
is Senior Vice Principal (Academic) at Royal Holloway, University
of London, where she is also Professor of Drama. Contributors:
Kathryn Emily Dickason, Leanne Groeneveld, Max Harris, David
Klausner, Femke Kramer, Jennifer Nevile, Nerida Newbigin, Tom
Pettitt, Bart Ramakers, Claire Sponsler.
Scenography - the manipulation and orchestration of the performance
environment - is an increasingly popular and key area in
performance studies. This book introduces the reader to the
purpose, identity and scope of scenography and its theories and
concepts. Settings and structures, light, projected images, sound,
costumes and props are considered in relation to performing bodies,
text, space and the role of the audience. Concentrating on
scenographic developments in the twentieth century, the
Introduction examines how these continue to evolve in the
twenty-first century. Scenographic principles are clearly explained
through practical examples and their theoretical context. Although
acknowledging the many different ways in which design shapes the
creation of scenography, the book is not exclusively concerned with
the role of the theatre designer. In order to map out the wider
territory and potential of scenography, the theories of pioneering
scenographers are discussed alongside the work of directors,
writers and visual artists.
How was medieval English theatre performed? Many of the modern
theatrical concepts and terms used today to discuss the nature of
medieval English theatre were never used in medieval times.
Concepts and terms such as character, characterisation, truth and
belief, costume, acting style, amateur, professional, stage
directions, effects and special effects are all examples of
post-medieval terms that have been applied to the English theatre.
Little has been written about staging conventions in the
performance of medieval English theatre and the identity and value
of these conventions has often been overlooked. In this book,
Philip Butterworth analyses dormant evidence of theatrical
processes such as casting, doubling of parts, rehearsing,
memorising, cueing, entering, exiting, playing, expounding,
prompting, delivering effects, timing, hearing, seeing and
responding. All these concerns point to a very different kind of
theatre to the naturalistic theatre produced today.
Magic on the Early English Stage investigates the performance of
magical tricks, illusions, effects and their staged appearance in
the medieval and early English theatre. Performers who created such
magic were not known as conjurors, as we might refer to them today,
but as jugglers. Records concerning jugglers on the medieval stage
have been hitherto misunderstood or misapplied. These references to
jugglers are re-examined in the light of discussions of 'feats of
activity' that also include tumbling, vaulting and 'dancing on the
rope'; appearances and disappearances of the 'Now you see it, now
you don't' variety; and stage versions of these concepts; magic
through sound in terms of ventriloquy and sound through pipes;
mechanical images and puppets; and stage tricks. Information that
has remained dormant since original publication is discussed in
relation to jugglers such as Thomas Brandon, the King's Juggler,
and William Vincent, alias 'Hocus Pocus'.
Magic on the Early English Stage investigates the performance of
magical tricks, illusions, effects and their staged appearance in
the medieval and early English theatre. Performers who created such
magic were not known as conjurors, as we might refer to them today,
but as jugglers. Records concerning jugglers on the medieval stage
have been hitherto misunderstood or misapplied. These references to
jugglers are re-examined in the light of discussions of 'feats of
activity' that also include tumbling, vaulting and 'dancing on the
rope'; appearances and disappearances of the 'Now you see it, now
you don't' variety; and stage versions of these concepts; magic
through sound in terms of ventriloquy and sound through pipes;
mechanical images and puppets; and stage tricks. Information that
has remained dormant since original publication is discussed in
relation to jugglers such as Thomas Brandon, the King's Juggler,
and William Vincent, alias 'Hocus Pocus'. - Investigates the nature
of the work of medieval jugglers for the first time
- Identifies and discusses individual jugglers and their work
- Draws upon analysis of stage directions, civic records,
ecclesiastical accounts, eye-witness descriptions, and early books
on magic to form a picture of the representation of magic on the
medieval stage
This volume brings together important records of medieval theatre
practice between 1400 and 1580. The records are drawn from a wide
range of spheres including civic, ecclesiastical, trade and guild
records and consist of payments for materials, techniques and
services; also included are some eye witness accounts. Alongside
these records is a selection of the best contemporary research
conducted into medieval performance practice, which features
ground-breaking analysis and challenges current understanding,
knowledge and authority in this field. These contributions of
rigorous scholarship complement and support the work of the
well-known Records of Early English Drama project and help to
further illuminate contemporary fifteenth and early
sixteenth-century theatre performance practice.
Scenography - the manipulation and orchestration of the performance
environment - is an increasingly popular and key area in
performance studies. This book introduces the reader to the
purpose, identity and scope of scenography and its theories and
concepts. Settings and structures, light, projected images, sound,
costumes and props are considered in relation to performing bodies,
text, space and the role of the audience. Concentrating on
scenographic developments in the twentieth century, the
Introduction examines how these continue to evolve in the
twenty-first century. Scenographic principles are clearly explained
through practical examples and their theoretical context. Although
acknowledging the many different ways in which design shapes the
creation of scenography, the book is not exclusively concerned with
the role of the theatre designer. In order to map out the wider
territory and potential of scenography, the theories of pioneering
scenographers are discussed alongside the work of directors,
writers and visual artists.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|