"From the first stage production of The Wizard of Oz in 1902, to the classic MGM film (1939), to the musicals The Wiz (1975) and Wicked (2003), L. Frank Baum's children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) has served as the basis for some of the most popular musicals on stage and screen. In this book, musical theater scholar Ryan Bunch draws on his personal experience as an Oz fan to explore how a story that has been hailed as "the American fairy tale" serves as a guide for thinking about the art form of the American musical and how both reveal American identity to be a utopian performance. Show by show, Bunch highlights the forms and conventions of each musical work as practiced in its time and context-such as the turn-of-the-century extravaganza, the classical Hollywood film musical, the Black Broadway musical of the 1970s, and the twenty-first-century mega-musical. He then shows how the journey of each show teaches participants and audiences something about how to act American within contested frameworks of race, gender, sexuality, age, and embodiment. Bunch also explores home theatricals, make-believe play, school musicals, Oz-themed environments, and community events as sites where the performance of the American fairy tale brings home and utopia into contact through the conventions of the musical. Using close readings of the various Oz shows, personal reflections, and interviews with fans, audiences, and performers, Bunch demonstrates how adapted Oz musicals imply both inclusions and exclusions in the performance of an American utopia"
Commemorating over 75 years of Broadway greatness with never-before told stories, rare photos from the American Theatre Wings' archives, and interviews with major honorees like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, and Hugh Jackman, The Tony Awards is the official, authorized guide to Broadway's biggest night. The Tony Awards: A Celebration of Excellence in Theatre pays tribute to the magic that happens when the curtain goes up and Broadway's best and brightest step onto center stage. Supported by the American Theatre Wing, the arts organization that founded the Tony Awards in 1947 and continues to produce the Tony Awards live telecast each year, author Eila Mell has interviewed a cavalcade of past and present Tony winners, including actors, producers, writers, costume designers, and many many others. Their voices fill the pages of this book with fascinating, behind-the-scenes stories about what it's like to win the theatre world's highest honor"
"Fifty Key Figures in Latin American and Latinx Theatre is a critical introduction to the most influential and innovative theatre practitioners in the Americas, all of whom have been pioneers in changing the field. The chosen artists bridge political, racial, gender, class, and geographical divides that have traditionally restricted and misrepresented our understanding of Latin American and Latinx theatre while at the same time offering a space to discuss contested nationalities and histories. Each entry considers the artist's or collective's body of work in its historical, cultural, and political context and provides a brief biography and suggestions for further reading. Covering artists from the present day to the 1960s - the emergence of a modern theatre that was concerned with LatinX and Latin American themes rather than mirroring a European approach. A deep and enriching resource for the classroom and individual study, this is the first book that any student of LatinX and Latin American theatre should read"-
"Published alongside The Japan Foundation, this collection features five creative and bold plays by some of Japan's most prolific writers of contemporary theatre. Translated into English for the first time, these texts explore a wide range of themes from dystopian ideas of the future to touching domestic tragedies. Brought together in one volume, introduced by the authors and The Japan Foundation, this collection offers English language readers an unprecedented look at some of Japan's finest works of contemporary drama by writers from across the country"
The creation of exciting visual stories blooms from a successful navigation of the collaborative artistic journey. This new text guides beginning directors, designers, and performers through the many interwoven relationships and communication styles used during this journey and details the context, vision, parameters, materials, aesthetics, documentation, and facilitation of the design and production process. Drawing from over thirty years as a theatre educator and costume designer, Ryerson uses examples from actual productions to provide valuable insight into creating visually symbolic storytelling. Specific areas covered include the historical development of performance; navigating the relationship between artistic and business factions; job descriptions and hierarchies; design elements and principles; set components and construction; the design and production of costumes, lighting, and sound; special effects; and how everything comes together. Including 16 pages of full-color photos, this universal and practical approach benefits all members of this unique art form.
"The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Historiography sets the agenda for inclusive and wide-ranging approaches to writing history, embracing the diverse perspectives of the twenty-first century and Critical Media History. Written by an international team of authors whose expertise spans a multitude of historical periods and cultures, this collection of fascinating essays poses the central question: 'what is specific to the historiography of the performative?' The study of theatre, in conjunction with the wider sphere of performance, involves an array of multi-faceted methods for collecting evidence, interpreting sources and creating meaning. Reflecting on issues of recording - from early modern musical scores, through VHS-technology to latest digital procedures - and on what is missing from records or oblique in practices, the contributors convey how theatre and performance history is integral to social and cultural relations. This expertly curated collection repositions theatre and performance history and is essential reading for Theatre and Performance Studies students or those interested in social and cultural history more generally"
"The first anthology of youth plays from Gaza and the wider Palestinian region, this timely collection ties together nineteen plays produced by Theatre Day Productions, one of the foremost community theatres in the Middle East. Written by playwright Jackie Lubeck, this collection responds to the siege on Gaza and the Israeli military operations from 2009 to 2014, reflecting how Gazan youth deal with trauma, loss and urban destruction. In the nineteen plays within this anthology, the reader and theatrical producer witnesses experiences of a forgotten youth, besieged by a silent international community and a brutal wall. The plays are arranged into five different thematic series, which include family entanglements, loss and the fundamental goodness and resourcefulness of human beings"
"The Dress Detective is the first practical guide to analyzing fashion objects, clearly demonstrating how their close analysis can enhance and enrich interdisciplinary research. This accessible book provides readers with the tools to uncover the hidden stories in garments, setting out a carefully developed research methodology specific to dress, and providing easy-to-use checklists that guide the reader through the process. Beautifully illustrated, the book contains seven case studies of fashionable Western garments – ranging from an 1820s coat to a 2004 Kenzo jacket – that articulate the methodological framework for the process, illustrate the use of the checklists, and show how evidence from the garment itself can be used to corroborate theories of dress or fashion. This book outlines a skillset that has, until now, typically been passed on informally. Written in plain language, it will give any budding fashion historian, curator, or researcher the knowledge and confidence to analyze the material in front of them effectively"
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the Western world and most certainly its greatest playwright. His actual relationship to Western civilization has not, however, been thoroughly investigated. At a time when that civilization, as well as its premier dramatist, is subjected to severe and increasing criticism for both its supposed crimes against the rest of the world and its fundamental principles, a reassessment of the culture of the West is overdue. Shakespeare and the Idea of Western Civilization offers an unprecedented account of how the playwright draws upon his civilization's unique culture and illuminates its basic features. Rather than a treatment of all the works, R.V. Young focuses on how some of Shakespeare's best and most well-known plays dramatize the West's conception of social institutions and historical developments such as love and marriage, ethnic and racial prejudice, political order, colonialism, and religion. Shakespeare and the Idea of Western Civilization provides a spirited defense of the West and its greatest poet at a time when both are the object of virulent academic and political hostility.
"Reclaiming Greek Drama for Diverse Communities features the work of Native-American, African-American, Asian-American, Latinx, and LGBTQ theatre artists who engage with social justice issues in seven adaptations of Sophocles' Antigone, Euripides' Trojan Women, Hippolytus, Bacchae, Alcestis, and Aristophanes' Frogs, as well as a work inspired by the myth of the Fates. Performed between 1989 and 2017 in small theatres across the US, these works raise awareness about the trafficking of Native American women, marriage equality, gender justice, women's empowerment, the social stigma surrounding HIV, immigration policy, and the plight of undocumented workers. The accompanying interviews provide a fascinating insight into the plays, the artists' inspiration for them, and the importance of studying classics in the college classroom. Readers will benefit from an introduction that lays out practical ways to teach the adaptations, ideas for assignments, and the contextualization of the works within the history of classical reception. Serving as a key resource on incorporating diversity into the teaching of canonical texts for Classics, English, Drama and Theatre Studies students, this anthology is the first to present the work of a range of contemporary theatre artists who utilise ancient Greek source material to explore social, political, and economic issues affecting a variety of underrepresented communities in the US"
"When she was fifteen years old, Heidi Schreck started traveling the country, taking part in constitutional debates to earn money for her college tuition. Decades later, in ... [this play], she traces the effect that the Constitution has had on four generations of women in her family, deftly examining how the United States' founding principles are inextricably linked with our personal lives
"Shakespeare is at the heart of the British theatrical tradition, but the contribution of Ira Aldridge and the Shakespearean performers of African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian heritage who came after him is not widely known. Telling the story for the first time of how Shakespearean theatre was integrated from the 1960s to the twenty-first century, this is a timely and important account of that contribution. Drawing extensively on empirical evidence from the British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database and featuring interviews with many performers, the book chronicles important productions that led to ground-breaking castings of Black and Asian actors in substantial Shakespearean roles including: Zakes Mokae (Cry Freedom) as one of three Black Witches in William Gaskill's production of Macbeth, Royal Court Theatre, London, 1966; Norman Beaton as Angelo in Michael Rudman's 1981 Measure for Measure at the National Theatre, the first majority Black Shakespearean cast at the National Theatre; [and] Adrian Lester as Henry V in Nicholas Hytner's 2003 production. Detailing the earliest recorded castings of Black and Asian performers in Shakespeare's roles, this illuminating account illustrates the various ways in which Black and Asian actors have been integrated into contemporary Shakespearean productions. With first-hand accounts from key performers including Joseph Marcell, Adrian Lester, Noma Dumezweni, Rakie Ayola, Ray Fearon, Paterson Joseph, Lucian Msamati and many more, this book is an invaluable history of black and Asian Shakespeareans that highlights the gains these actors have made and the challenges still faced in pursuing a career in classical theatre"
"The making of Belfast's first all-female football team.This is the untold story of the Belfast women who stepped onto a pitch in society-shocking shorts and footie boots, a ball at their feet and a point to prove. They were the suffragettes of soccer. Rebels with a ball, who kept kicking their way through the outraged defence of a male-dominated game to raise thousands for those returning from war. Set in Belfast 1917-1921 in a city divided by war but still united by sport, the play chronicles the courage and determination of those girls.This original Belfast story based on true events will resonate with the history of the city and chime with the recent equality movements across the sports industry and the cultural sector. This ambitious, large-scale play features an impressive eleven strong female ensemble with live music creating the heartbeat of the city at the time"
"Presented here are two witty and perceptive dramas which are sympathetic and honest explorations of the conflict between the individualism of Western culture and the social traditions of Africa. In Dilemma of a Ghost (1965), Ato returns to Ghana from his studies in North America with a sophisticated black American wife. But their hopes of a happy marriage and of combining the sweetness and loveliest things in Africa and America are soon shown to have been built on an unstable foundation. In Anowa (1970), her second play, Ama Ata Aidoo borrows heavily from the heritage of oral literature for the structure, the language, the themes and the characters of the play. Set in the late 1800s it describes some of the earlier encounters of African societies with Western traders. Aidoo portrays a crucial historical moment in Ghanaian history through the personal tragedy of Anowa and Kofi Ako"
"Cracking Up archives and analyzes Black feminist stand-up comedy in the United States over the past sixty years. Looking closely at the work of Jackie Moms' Mabley, Mo'Nique, Wanda Sykes, Sasheer Zamata, Sam Jay, Phoebe Robinson, Jessica Williams, and Michelle Buteau, this book shows how Black feminist comedy and the laughter it ignites are vital components of feminist, queer, and anti-racist protest. Cracking Up frames theatre and live performance as an important platform from which to examine citizenship in the United States, articulate Black feminist political thought, and subvert structures of power. Author Katelyn Hale Wood interprets these artists not as tokens in their white/male dominated field, but as part of a continuous history of Black feminist performance and presence in the United States. Broadly, the book also champions comedic performance and theatre history as imperative contexts for advancing historical studies of race, gender, and sexuality. From the comedy routines popular on Black vaudeville circuits to stand-up on contemporary social media platforms, Cracking Up excavates an overlooked history of Black women who made the art of joke-telling a key part of radical performance and political engagement"
"No Harm Done contains the text of three short plays, each an exploration of some aspect of a disease. They are: Closer and Closer Apart, Alzheimer's Disease; Fade to Light, Stargardt, a form of blindness; and The Last Dance, Parkinson Disease. The first section of the book contains the plays themselves and Stickland's introductions to them, supplemented by commentaries by experts in the medical field. The second section is a guide to playwriting based on teachings the author has been engaged in for decades. This section also includes a how-to approach to writing a play for a specific cause or event. The book will be of interest not only to theatre practitioners and students of playwriting, but to students and professionals (doctors, caregivers, therapists, etc.) in the medical field as well"
"In this, the first book to focus on the original cast members of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas, world-renowned musical theater expert Kurt Gänzl provides a concise history of the writing and production of each opera, vividly colored by the often little-known life stories of these early performers. Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated with rare photographs, Gilbert and Sullivan: The Players and the Plays delves into the professional and personal lives of the British and American actors and singers who created the celebrated "famous fourteen" Gilbert and Sullivan operas
"Stand-up comedians have a long history of walking a careful line between serious and playful engagement with social issues: Lenny Bruce questioned the symbolic valence of racial slurs, Dick Gregory took time away from the stage to speak alongside Martin Luther King Jr., and-more recently-Tig Notaro challenged popular notions of damaged or abject bodies. Taking a Stand: Contemporary US Stand-Up Comedians as Public Intellectuals draws together essays that contribute to the analysis of the stand-up-comedian-as-public intellectual since the 1980s. The chapters explore stand-up comedians as contributors to and shapers of public discourse via their live performances, podcasts, social media presence, and political activism. Each chapter highlights a stand-up comedian and their ongoing discussion of a cultural issue or expression of a political ideology/standpoint: Lisa Lampanelli's use of problematic postracial humor, Aziz Ansari's merging of sociology and technology, or Maria Bamford's emphasis on mental health, to name just a few. Taking a Stand offers a starting point for understanding the work stand-up comedians do as well as its reach beyond the stage"
"The mid to late twentieth century has been widely regarded as the century of the body, when philosophers, cultural critics, sociologists, and theatre historians spent inordinate amounts of time and energy locating, dissecting, and celebrating the body in performance. While the body appears in almost all cultural discourses, it is nowhere as visible or as exposed as in dance and yet dance is rarely considered in theatre histories. This book captures the resurgence of the dancing body in the aftermath of World War Two. Thought-provoking and easy to follow, the text provides students with several key phenomenological, kinaesthetic and psychological concepts relevant to both theatre and dance studies. Photographs and study questions feature at the end of each chapter, providing context for students and a starting point for further research"
A man falls in love with America and leaves his wife and children for love and adventure with American Sam.
"The book presents a systematic method of interpreting Shakespeare film adaptations based on their cinematic genres. Its approach is both scholarly and reader-friendly, and its subject is fundamentally interdisciplinary, combining the findings of Shakespeare scholarship with film and media studies, particularly genre theory. The book is organised into six large chapters, discussing films that form broad generic groups. Part I looks at three genres from the classical Hollywood era (western, melodrama and gangster-noir), while Part II deals with three contemporary blockbuster genres (teen film, undead horror and biopic). Beside a few better-known examples of mainstream cinema, the volume also highlights the Shakespearean elements in several nearly forgotten films, bringing them back to critical attention"
"With an ageing, childless monarch, lingering divisions due to the Reformation, and the threat of foreign enemies, Shakespeare's England was fraught with unparalleled anxiety and complicated problems. In this monumental work, Peter Lake reveals, more than any previous critic, the extent to which Shakespeare's plays speak to the depth and sophistication of Elizabethan political culture and the Elizabethan imagination. Lake reveals the complex ways in which Shakespeare's major plays engaged with the events of his day, particularly regarding the uncertain royal succession, theological and doctrinal debates, and virtue and virtù in politics. Through his plays, Lake demonstrates, Shakespeare was boldly in conversation with his audience about a range of contemporary issues. This remarkable literary and historical analysis pulls the curtain back on what Shakespeare was really telling his audience and what his plays tell us today about the times in which they were written"
"The title of William Shakespeare's As You Like It holds a double meaning that teasingly suggests the play can please all tastes. But is that possible? With his subversive updating of the Bard's classic, Indigenous creator and cultural provocateur Cliff Cardinal seeks to find out. The show exults in bawdy humour, difficult subject matter, and raw emotion; Cardinal is not one to hold back when it comes to challenging delicate sensibilities"
"Despite its global popularity, rap has received little scholarly attention in terms of its poetic features, perhaps because rap is so demonstrative and powerful, or because poetry scholars have been slow to recognize rap's poetic worth, or uncertainty about its legitimacy as a form of poetry. Rhymes in the Flow systematically analyzes the poetics (rap beats, rhythms, rhymes, verse and song structures) of some 6,000 lines of rap lyrics to provide new insights on rap artistry and performance. While most scholarship on rap has focused on its historical and cultural dimensions, Rhymes in the Flow traces rap's deepest roots and stylistic evolution-from Anglo-Saxon poetry to Lil Wayne-and contextualizes its complex poetics. The book is a collaboration between two rap poetry aficionados separated in age by fifty years. Poetry professor Macklin Smith and Aurko Joshi discovered at the University of Michigan their shared passion for the sounds and beats of hip hop and have been collaborating ever since. Through their efforts, Rhymes in the Flow shows how rap, at times disparaged as an art form, is in fact a more complex and complicated, versatile and nuanced genre than has been previously appreciated"
"Images of Apartheid: Filmmaking on the Fringe in the Old South Africa is an exploration of the low budget, black-action cinema that emerged in South Africa during the 1970s and led to subsequent gangster and race-conflict films that defined an era of prolific genre activity, from Joe Bullet (1973) to American Ninja 4 (1990). Contextualising and documenting the cheap, government-funded ‘B-Scheme’ films, largely unseen since the fall of the National Party, but also acknowledging the impact of international co-productions such as The Wild Geese (1978) and locally made provocation, including the classic Mapantsula (1988), this study is an exhaustive tour of race-representation and state-subsidised subversion. Also discussing the political turbulence of the era, Images of Apartheid argues that so-called ‘ZAxploitation’ should be considered within both localised and wider international paracinematic networks of genre adaptation, resulting in the identification of a uniquely South African form of trash and treasure, and schlock and awe"
This 4 volume collection of primary sources examines literary and cultural criticism over the long 19th century. This volumes explore the subjects of life-writing, drama criticism, the periodical press, and criticism written by women. This collection will be of great interest to students of literary history
This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book is about science in theatre and performance. It explores how theatre and performance engage with emerging scientific themes from artificial intelligence to genetics and climate change. The book covers a wide range of performance forms from Broadway musicals to educational theatre, from Somali drama to grime videos. It features work by pioneering companies including Gob Squad, Headlong Theatre and Theatre of Debate as well as offering fresh analysis of global blockbusters such as Wicked and Urinetown. The book offers detailed description and analysis of theatre and performance practices as well as broader commentary on the politics of theatre as public engagement with science. Science in performance is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners working between science and the arts within fields such as theatre and performance studies, science communication, interdisciplinary arts and health humanities.
"It's 1623. Shakespeare's editors John Heminges and Henry Condell have finally finished assembling the Bard's Complete Works. But what to do with the surplus materials? Especially the unused women's speeches? Shakespeare's Other Women puts a spotlight on the women in Shakespeare who deserved to have more stage time, or even plays of their own. Featuring a large cast of women who inhabit dozens of strong female characters drawn from Shakespeare, history, and mythology, Scott Kaiser's newest play offers 36 terrific new speeches that Shakespeare might have written for women, but didn't"
"Where Women Go is a series of three short one-acts for a diverse cast of women of various ages. Tina Howe’s eccentric plays explore the humor and absurdity of women's daily lives as they visit the dermatologist, eat at Subway and go shopping. To the Dermatologist (7f, 1m voice, Comedy) -- It’s 2021 at Your Reflections Dermatology office, and Zilla learns that the growth on her legs is lichen planus, a type of algae that develops into something more akin to spices and vegetables. One year later, the dermatology office, now transformed into 'Spicy Zilla’s Café,' is selling Zilla’s leg spices by the bottle. To the Dermatologist explores the relationship between patients, their partners, health care staff and diagnosis. To Subway (5f, Comedy) -- Hannah, a regular at her local Subway sandwich shop, brings her reluctant friend Clara to Subway for the first time. Eager employees Pudding and Sal greet them enthusiastically, but things go awry when actress Alida Valli enters, playing the zither. Finally, Clara settles on her order: a combo of Black Forest eel, rotisserie-style canary and raw eagle legs with a sprinkling of mule ears on the side. Shopping (8f, 2m, Comedy) -- At Ed Singh's clothing stand on the Upper West Side in 2022 at the height of the COVID pandemic, seven women shop and fight over gloves, earmuffs and other winter wear. Suddenly, a man crashes into the shop wearing a parachute, and everyone finds themselves in heaven"
"Taking its title from the old Jewish quarter of Vienna, Stoppard's epic yet intimate drama centers on Hermann Merz, a manufacturer and baptized Jew married to Gretl, a Catholic. As the play begins, Gretl is hosting her extended family at their fashionable Vienna apartment at Christmastime, 1899. Yet by the time the play closes, Austria has passed through the convulsions of war, revolution, impoverishment, annexation by Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, which stole the lives of 65,000 Austrian Jews alone. From one of the world's most acclaimed playwrights, Leopoldstadt is a heartbreaking drama of literary brilliance, historical verisimilitude, and powerful emotion"
"It's nearing midnight in Wyoming, where four young conservatives have gathered at a backyard after-party. They've returned home to toast their mentor Gina, newly inducted as president of a tiny Catholic college. But as their reunion spirals into spiritual chaos and clashing generational politics, it becomes less a celebration than a vicious fight to be understood. On a chilly night in the middle of America, Will Arbery's haunting play offers grace and disarming clarity, speaking to the heart of a country at war with itself"
"Dance on the American Musical Theatre Stage: A History chronicles the development of dance, with an emphasis on musicals and the Broadway stage, in the United States from its colonial beginnings to performances of the present day. This book explores the fascinating tug-and-pull between the European classical, folk and social dance imports and America's indigenous dance forms as they met and collided on the popular musical theatre stage. The historical background influenced a specific musical theatre movement vocabulary and a unique choreographic approach that is recognizable today as Broadway style dancing. Throughout the book, a cultural context is woven into the history to reveal how the competing values within American culture, and its attempts as a nation to define and redefine itself, played out through developments in dance on the musical theatre stage. This book is central to the conversation on how dance influences and reflects society, and will be of interest to students and scholars of Musical Theatre, Theatre Studies, Dance and Cultural History"
"A vibrant collection of short plays bringing Irish history and culture alive through an extraordinary collage of documents, songs, poems, and texts In Nine Irish Plays for Voices award-winning poet Eamon Grennan delves deep into key Irish subjects-big, small, literary, historical, political, biographical-and illuminates them for today's audiences and readers. These short plays draw from original material centering on important moments in Irish history and the formation of the Irish Republic, such as the Great Famine and the Easter Rising; the lives of Irish literary figures like Yeats, Joyce, and Lady Gregory; and the crucial and life-changing condition of emigration. The rhythmic, musical, and vivid language of Grennan's plays incorporates traditional song lyrics, lines of Irish poetry, and letters and speeches of the time. The result is a dramatic collage that tells a story through the voices of characters contemporary to the period of the play's subject. By presenting subjects through the dramatic rendering of the human voice, the plays facilitate a close, intimate relationship between players and the audience, creating an incredibly powerful connection to the past. Historical moments and literary figures that might seem remote to the present-day reader or audience become immediate and emotionally compelling. One of the plays, Ferry, is drawn entirely from the author's imagination. It puts unnamed characters who come from the world of twentieth century Ireland on a boat to the underworld with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. On their journey the five strangers, played by two voices, tell stories about their lives, raising the question of how language both captures and transforms lived experience. Addressing the Great Famine, Hunger uses documentary evidence to give audiences a dramatic feel for what has been a silent and traumatic element in Irish history. NORAMOLLYANNALIVIALUCIA: The Muse and Mr. Joyce is a one-woman piece that depicts James Joyce's wife as an older woman sharing her memories and snippets from the works of her husband. Also included in this rich volume is the author's adaptation of Synge's Aran Islands, as well as Emigration Road, History! Reading the Easter Rising, The Muse and Mr. Yeats, The Loves of Lady Gregory, and Peig: An Ordinary Life"
"This book explores musicalizations of Arthurian legend as filtered through specific versions of the tale as told by Mark Twain, T.H. White, and Monty Python. For centuries, Arthurian legend with its tales of Camelot, romance, and chivalry has captured imaginations throughout Europe and the Americas. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, musical versions of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have abounded in the United States, shaping the legend for American audiences through song. The ever-shifting, age-old tale of King Arthur and his world is one which thrives on adaptation for its survival. New generations tell the story in their own ways, updating or enhancing the relevance for a fresh audience. Taking a case study approach, this work foregrounds the role of music in selected Arthurian adaptations, examining six stage and film musicals. It considers how musical versions in twentieth and twenty-first century popular culture interpret the legend of King Arthur, contending that music guides the audience to understand this well-known tale and its characters in new and unexpected ways. All of the productions considered include an overtly modern perspective on the legend, intruding and even commenting on the tale of King Arthur. Shifting from an idealistic utopia to a silly place, the myriad notions of Camelot offer a look at the importance of myth in American popular culture"
"In the early 1900s, three small-town midwestern playwrights helped shepherd American theatre into the modern era. Together, they created the renowned Provincetown Players collective, which not only launched many careers but also had the power to affect US social, cultural, and political beliefs. The philosophical and political orientations of Floyd Dell, George Cram Cook, and Susan Glaspell generated a theatre practice marked by experimentalism, collaboration, leftist cultural critique, rebellion, liberation, and community engagement. In Three Midwestern Playwrights, Marcia Noe situates the origin of the Provincetown aesthetic in Davenport, Iowa, a Mississippi River town. All three playwrights recognized that radical politics sometimes begat radical chic, and several of their plays satirize the faddish elements of the progressive political, social, and cultural movements they were active in. Three Midwestern Playwrights brings the players to life and deftly illustrates how Dell, Cook, and Glaspell joined early 20th-century midwestern radicalism with East Coast avant-garde drama, resulting in a fresh and energetic contribution to American theatre"
"This engaging book introduces the burgeoning and interdisciplinary field of cultural performance, offering ethnographic approaches to performance as well as looking at the aesthetics of experience and performance theory. Featuring case studies from a rich cross-section of academics, chapters explore performances from regions as far flung as Bhutan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand and the USA. With cultural performances as varied as Catholic rituals, Maori ceremonies, Monster Truck rallies, musicals, theatre and singing performances, this fascinating text compares performance as art and performance as cultural expression. Ideal for students of performance or ethnography, this unique collection presents a clear framework for studying the themes, methodologies and developments of cultural performance"
"Featuring contributions from over eighty cast members, creatives, crew and audience members, Out for Blood pieces together the surprising, hilarious and often moving inside story of Carrie: The Musical to discover how this 'horror of a Broadway musical' lived, died and was subsequently resurrected as a mainstream succcess story. In 1988, following the success of its production of Les Miserables and in the wake of the commercial success of mega-musicals such as Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and Chess, the Royal Shakespeare Company agreed to co-produce a musical based on Stephen King's Carrie, written by the team behind Fame. The result was one of Broadway's most infamous disasters. Plagued by technical problems, on-stage chaos and a critical savaging, Carrie would soon become the by-word for musical theatreflops. But thanks to the efforts of a vocal army of fans and the impact of bootleg trading and emerging online communities, the show reinvented itself as a mainstream success story with thousands of productions wordlwide. Bringing together memories, archival material and contemporary reports, Out for Blood dives into the origins and development of this infamous show and examines how a promising entertainment product can swiftly gain a notorious reputation, what makes or breaks a Broadway show, and how even the most unlikely of musicals can find its place in the hearts of fans around the world"
"How does the world of theatre and the performing arts intersect with the climate and environmental crisis? This timely book is the first comprehensive account of the sector's response to the defining issue of our time. The book documents a sector in transition and presents theatre professionals, practitioners and organizations with a synthesis of information, knowledge and expertise to guide them to their own endorsement of sustainable thinking and practice. It is illustrated with inspiring case studies and interviews, from London's National Theatre, to Sydney Theatre Company, to the G̲teborg Opera and the American Repertory Theatre. These foreground the work of pioneering institutions and individual practitioners whose artistic ingenuity, creative activism and sense of public mission have given shape, content and purpose to what we can now call 'sustainable theatre'. Spanning almost three decades, the book approaches the topic from multiple angles and through an international perspective, recording how climate and environmental concerns have been expressed in cultural policy, arts leadership and organizational ethics; in the greening of infrastructure and daily operations; in the individual and institutional practice of sustainable theatre-making; in performing arts education; and in touring practices and international collaboration. It investigates, too, how the climate crisis influences theatre as a story-teller - on stage and beyond. Written by a leading expert in the field of culture and environmental sustainability and distilling many years of research and hands-on experience, Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice is intended to be relevant and useful to professionals involved in the theatre and performing arts sector in many different capacities: from policy-makers, arts leaders and managers to administrators, technicians, artists, scholars and educators"
"This book is a brief history of the end of the world as seen through the eyes of theatre. It examines a wide range of plays, from Euripides and Bhasa, to medieval mystery cycles, through Shakespeare, Pushkin, Ibsen, Chekhov, Brecht, and Samuel Beckett, to Caryl Churchill's Far Away, Tony Kushner's Slavs!, and Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play. Through analyzing these alongside contemporary thinkers, this study helps guide and galvanize the reader in grappling with the climate crisis. Kulick divides this litany of theatrical cataclysms into four distinct historical phases: the Ancients, including Euripides and Bhasa, the legendary Sanskrit dramatist; the Age of Belief, with the anonymous authors of the medieval mystery cycles, Shakespeare, and Pushkin; the Moderns, with Ibsen, Chekhov, Brecht, Beckett, and Bond; and, finally, the way the world might end now, encompassing Caryl Churchill, Tony Kushner, and Anne Washburn. In tandem with the insights gleaned from these playwrights, the book draws upon the work of contemporary scientists, ecologists, and ethicists to further tease out the philosophical implications of such plays and their relevance to our own troubled times. In the end, Kulick shows how each of these ages and their respective authors have something essential to say, not only about humanity's potential end, but, more importantly, about the possibility for our collective continuance"
"Drawing on interview material from more than 20 leading stage managers from the UK, USA and Australia this book situates the contemporary practice of stage management within its historical and social contexts. Questioning the notions of the invisible stage manager and a linear production process, it argues for a broader conception of stage management lying at the intersections of administration, management and artistry. It places stage management practice within, and introduces its practitioners to, key theories of fields as diverse as performance studies, semiotics, phenomenology, distributed cognition, management and scenography, and demonstrates how stage managers embed these in their practice"
"As the half-blood son of a Greek god, Percy Jackson has newly-discovered powers he can't control, a destiny he doesn't want, and a mythology textbook's worth of monsters on his trail. When Zeus's master lightning bolt is stolen and Percy becomes the prime suspect, he has to find and return the bolt to prove his innocence and prevent a war between the gods. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the thief. He must travel to the Underworld and back; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and come to terms with the father who abandoned him"
"Bold, budding scientist Wendy Darling dreams of earning a Nobel Prize. When Peter Pan arrives at her bedroom window, she takes a leap and leaves finishing school behind, chasing adventure among the stars. Facing down fairies, mermaids and the dastardly Captain Hook, Wendy, Peter, and their friends discover the power of standing up together for what's right. J.M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan is reimagined for a new generation of theatregoers as a bright, charming, feminist, anti-colonial, empowering play for all ages"
"Luis Valdez studies the life and work of this Chicano playwright, director, performer, and producer along with the implications of his legacy for Chicana/o/x communities and for all who engage with his work. Valdez's work broadened the scope of theatre and arts in the Chicano community and his formation of El Teatro Campesino brought together students and farmworkers. This volume highlights his professional work and writings. It offers a unique investigation of Luis Valdez, his life, his oeuvre and his contributions to the theatre in the United States and beyond. This book combines: an in-depth biographical overview of Valdez's life and career, focusing on defining experiences that set his trajectory into motion; an exploration of Valdez's key writings -- the 1973 epic poem Pensamiento Serpentino and the unpublished lecture The Power of Zero which articulate his philosophy of the Theatre of the Sphere; a stylistic analysis of his key works, including Soldado Razo and Zoot Suit as well as their critical reception; a selection of improvisation and dance-based warm-ups, embodiment exercises, and an acto writing practicum adapted to experiment with Valdez's works. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today's students"
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