Other performing arts Books
Taylor & Francis Ltd Performance and Professional Wrestling
Book SynopsisPerformance and Professional Wrestling is the first edited volume to consider professional wrestling explicitly from the vantage point of theatre and performance studies. Moving beyond simply noting its performative qualities or reading it via other performance genres, this collection of essays offers a complete critical reassessment of the popular sport.Topics such as the suspension of disbelief, simulation, silence and speech, physical culture, and the performance of pain within the squared circle are explored in relation to professional wrestling, with work by both scholars and practitioners grouped into seven short sections: Audience Circulation Lucha Gender Queerness Bodies Race A significant re-reading of wrestling as a performing art, Performance and Professional Wrestling makes essential reading for scholars and students intrigued by this&nbTable of ContentsIntroduction: Hamlet Doesn’t Blade: Professional Wrestling, Theatre, and PerformanceAudienceCh1 The dissipation of "heat": changing role(s) of audience in professional wrestling in the U.S.Ch2 Pops and promos: speech and silence in professional wrestlingCh3 Playful engagements: Wrestling with the attendant massesCirculationCh4 Stadium Sized Theatre: WWE and the World of Professional WrestlingCh5 Wrestling’s Not Real, It’s Hyperreal: Professional Wrestling Video GamesLuchaCh6 Don't Leave Us in the Hands of Criminals: The Contested Cultural Politics of Lucha LibreCh7 Wrestling With Burlesque, Burlesquing Lucha LibreGenderCh8 The Impact of Women’s Pro Wrestling Performances on the Transformation of Gender Ch9 "Most women train with mostly men, so why not wrestle them?" The performance and experience of intergender professional wrestling in BritainQueernessCh10 Grappling and Ga(y)zing: Gender, Sexuality and Performance in the WWE debuts of Goldust and MarlenaCh11 ‘King of the ring, and queen of it too’: the exotic masculinity of Adrian StreetCh12 "Gold-dust": Ricki Starr’s Ironic Performances of the Queer Commodity in Popular Entertainment BodiesCh13 Muscle Memory: Re-enacting the fin-de-siècle Strongman in Pro WrestlingCh14 The Hard Sell; The Performance of Pain in Professional WrestlingRaceCh15 "Tell Them It’s What Their Grandfathers Got": Racial Violence in Southern Professional WrestlingCh16 Grappling with the "New Racism:" Race, Ethnicity, and Post-Colonialism in British Wrestling during the 1970s and 1980sCh17 Some Moments of Flag Desecration in Professional WrestlingEpilogue: The Game of Life
£36.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Theatre of the Oppressed in Practice Today
Book SynopsisHow has the work and legacy of Augusto Boal''s Theatre of the Oppressed been interpreted and practised around the world? What does it look like in different working contexts? This book provides an accessible introduction to the political and artistic principles Boal''s techniques are founded on, tracking exemplary practice from around the globe.Using detailed contemporary case histories, theatre artist, scholar and activist Ali Campbell demonstrates how the underlying principles of Boal''s practice are today enacted in the work of - among others - an urban network (Theatre of the Oppressed NYC); a rural and developmental theatre organisation (Jana Sanskriti, West Bengal); Boal's original company CTO Rio (Brazil); and a theatre-based group led by learning-disabled adults in the UK (The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company). The book concludes with a series of conversations between Campbell and international exponents of the work, envisioning futures for the Theatre of the OppreTrade ReviewDistilled from a lifetime of practice, teaching and reflection with groups around the world, this brilliant book is a must read for Theatre for Change workers everywhere. -- Geraldine Ling MBE; Founding Artistic Director; The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre CompanyThis book is a profound praxis for peace, precisely because it disturbs: it is a work of clarity, written with the honesty of a friend. Ali Campbell explores Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed with the urgent question: "How then shall we Live?” -- Professor Alison Phipps OBE; UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts; University of GlasgowTable of ContentsIllustrations Acknowledgements Part One: Principles in Practice Prologue Introduction: About Augusto Boal and the Aims of This Book 1. What Is Forum and How Does It Work? 2. Teaching and Training 3. How Do We Adapt Forum? 4. Collaboration 5. Ten Top Tips Part Two: Companies and Conversations Introduction: How These Four Studies Were Created and Why Jana Sanskriti: Field Work Theatre of the Oppressed NYC (TONYC): 'Radically Unsentimental' The Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company: 'Nurses Jump In. Teachers Don't' CTO Rio: 'Given a Recipe, You Can Go and Do' Part Three: Conversations Introduction: About the People You Will Hear from in This Section Alegna Dezlein Jennifer Little Barbara Santos Osmar Araujo Julian Boal Epilogue: 'From Damascus' Glossary Suggested Reading Index
£999.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Theory for Theatre Studies Movement
Book SynopsisHow do we define movement in performance? Who or what is being moved and how? And which movements are felt, observed, or studied, in theatre? Part of the Theory for Theatre Studies series which introduces core theoretical concepts that underpin the discipline, Movement provides the first overview of relevant critical theory for students and researchers in theatre and performance studies. Exploring areas such as vitality, plasticity, gesture, effort and rhythm, it opens up the study of theatrical production, live art, and intercultural performance to socio-political conceptions of movement as both practice and concept. It covers movement training systems and considers how they have been utilized in key works of the 20th and 21st centuries. The final section traces the convergence of movement in theatre with other media and digital technologies. A wide range of in-depth case studies helps to equip readers to explore new methodologies and approaches to movement as a performance coTrade ReviewThis book convincingly demonstrates why a focus on the kinaesthetics of theatre—and theatrical embodiment more generally—is as important as the study of dramatic writing, acting, and scenography. The author writes with considerable erudition about the topic, but in a way that is almost always immediately accessible. -- Peter Dickinson, Simon Fraser University, CanadaTable of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Movement: Introduction Movement of vital beings: Aristotle Movement as bodily technique: Mauss Rhythmic movement: Lefebvre Case Study: Pina Bausch This book SECTION ONE Movement as History Movement of the chorus: Ancient Greek theatre Movement of ‘the flower’: Noh aesthetics Case Study #1: Satoshi Miyagi’s Antigone (2017) Gestural movement: Roman rhetoric Case Study #2: I Am My Own Wife (2003) Movement as style: The Natyasastra Case Study #3: Zero Degrees (2005) Processional movement Hostility to movement: The anti-theatrical prejudice Renaissance movement - from the vernacular to the cosmos Case Study #4: The Tempest (1611, 2016) Movement of the automaton Case Study #5: War Horse (2007) Conclusion SECTION TWO Movement Systems and Embodied Action Holistic Systems: Craig, Delsarte and Dalcroze Case Study #1: Operation Orfeo (1993) Movement vitality: Phenomenology Movement plasticity: Stanislavski and Ibsen Case Study #2: Hedda Gabler (2005) Movement mechanics: Meyerhold Case Study #3, part a: The Constant Prince (1915) Movement dynamics: Laban Movement arrangement: Brecht Case Study #4: Mother Courage and Her Children (1949, 2006) Movement somatics: Grotowski Case Study #3, part b: The Constant Prince (1965) Movement assemblage: Butoh Movement Sociology: Crowds Conclusion SECTION THREE Movement in Contemporary Theatre Speed: Attempts on Her Life (1997, 2007) Slowness: The Artist is Present (2010) Animation: Blackie Blackie Brown (2018) Force: World Factory (2014), Made in Bangladesh (2015) and World Factory (2016) Conclusion Notes References Further Reading Index
£20.43
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Model as Performance
Book SynopsisThe Model as Performance investigates the history and development of the scale model from the Renaissance to the present from a scenographic perspective and a performative paradigm that explores what the model can do and how it is used in theatre and architecture. It provides a comprehensive historical context and theoretical framework for theatre scholars, scenographers, artists and architects interested in the model's reality-producing capacity and its recent emergence in contemporary art practice and exhibition. For the undergraduate student, it provides a historical survey of the model, and to the postgraduate student, it opens up a new methodological approach. Introducing a typology of the scale model beyond the iterative and the representative model, the authors identify the autonomous model as a provocative construction between past and present, idea and reality that challenges and redefines the relationship between object, viewer and environment. Case studies include BTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction Chapter I. The Model as Idea and Object in Theatre and Architecture Chapter II. Staging Politics and Knowledge: From the Ideal Stage to the Model Room and the Mechanical Theatre Chapter III. Staging the Future: The Model as a Performance of Inhabitation Chapter IV. Staging Site: The Full Scale Model Chapter V. Staging the White Cube: The Model as a Performance of Space Chapter VI. Summary and Outlook References Bibliography Index
£32.41
Lulu.com Heavy Metal Music from the Inside Quotes on Being
Book Synopsis
£12.56
Golgotha Press, Inc. The Two Gentlemen of Verona in Plain and Simple
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Hachette Livre - BNF Fêtes Publiques Données Par La Ville de Paris À
Book Synopsis
£12.40
Hachette Livre - BNF Le Théâtre de la Monnaie Depuis Sa Fondation Jusqu'à Nos Jours
£33.00
Prodinnova Un chapeau de paille d'Italie
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Colliver Communications Wink: Transforming Public Speaking with Clown
Book Synopsis
£12.88
University of Chicago Press Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret
Book SynopsisProviding a backstaatge pass into the lives of the 801 cabaret girls, this work is based on many interviews with more than a dozen drag queens. One of America's most overlooked subcultures is given a witty and poignant portrait in this work.
£31.45
University of Michigan Press RandaiFolk Theater Dance And Martial Arts Of West
Book Synopsis
£69.48
The University of Michigan Press The Sixties Center Stage
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Sixties, Center Stage expands our vision of this critical decade, reminding experimental-theater partisans that Broadway, established Off Broadway, high-profile festivals, and the nascent regional theater were sites of equally challenging innovation. Even more important, Harding and Rosenthal aim to dismantle the boundary between the mainstream and the fringe—to demonstrate that there was far easier exchange of ideas, preoccupations, and methods between the two camps than we usually acknowledge."" - Marc Robinson, Yale University""The editors successfully tackle the dichotomy that has long existed in the scholarly literature about American theater during the turbulent 1960s. Well-written, readable, entertaining, well-organized, and convincing, this book inspires readers to continue their search for ways in which false dichotomies can be exploded in other writings."" - Elizabeth L. Wollman, Baruch College
£40.46
The University of Michigan Press The Sixties Center Stage
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe Sixties, Center Stage expands our vision of this critical decade, reminding experimental-theater partisans that Broadway, established Off Broadway, high-profile festivals, and the nascent regional theater were sites of equally challenging innovation. Even more important, Harding and Rosenthal aim to dismantle the boundary between the mainstream and the fringe—to demonstrate that there was far easier exchange of ideas, preoccupations, and methods between the two camps than we usually acknowledge."" - Marc Robinson, Yale University""The editors successfully tackle the dichotomy that has long existed in the scholarly literature about American theater during the turbulent 1960s. Well-written, readable, entertaining, well-organized, and convincing, this book inspires readers to continue their search for ways in which false dichotomies can be exploded in other writings."" - Elizabeth L. Wollman, Baruch College
£80.95
Samuel French Ltd The White Cat
Book SynopsisBased on the nineteenth century story by the French Countess d''Aulnois the story concerns the heirless King Pat-a-Cake of Euphoria who has three adopted sons. Seeking a successor he sets them a task, offering the throne to the winner. Dim-witted Princes Fyne and Dandi squabble over he quest whilst Prince Peerless encounters a beautiful girl on his travels. She is, in fact, Princess Rosamund, hidden twenty years ago by her distraught parents who believed she would be forced to marry Prince Ghastly by his mother Queen Venoma, who is still searching for her, using her magic powers.-Large flexible cast
£12.76
Harvard University Press Berlin Cabaret
Book SynopsisFads and fashions, sexual mores, and political ideologies—all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of German history.Trade ReviewThe definitive account of the German capital's club and revue circuit from its origins around 1900 to its terrible coda in the transit camps, where performers would play for chuckling SS commandants before they were sent to their deaths. * New Statesman and Society *[A] wonderful book...Berlin cabaret...was embedded in Berlin intellectual life. Jelavich's documentation of these relationships offers a great gift to historians of German culture--indeed to all historians of modern Germany. -- Barbara Miller Lane * Central European History *Jelavich makes an important contribution to the study of cultural history. -- James L. Zychowicz * Monatshefte *The reader is transported clearly and smoothly on a fascinating journey through the history of an urban art form that was strongly stimulated by some of the same forces that gave rise to the [Berlin-focused] publications...Covering a period of almost half a century, from the founding of Ernst von Wolzogen's Motley Theater in 1901 through performances by inmates of concentration camps during the Second World War, Jelavich makes an especially valuable contribution to the analysis of culture in an urban context. -- Andrew Lees * Culture in Modern Germany *Peter Jelavich first explored the development of aesthetic modernism in Munich and Theatrical Modernism (1987). His superb new book carries this inquiry into the more complex and variegated life of Germany's political and cultural capital...Jelavich has contributed significantly to our understanding of modernist culture and its metropolitan context. He illuminates every subject he touches upon: the intersection of elite and popular art in the development of aesthetic modernism, the history of popular theater in Berlin, the city's cultural politics, and the broader social and political history of Germany. Like the best of cabarets, this book enlightens and entertains. -- Warren Breckman * Journal of Social History *[A] well-written and clearly organized book that displays all the hallmarks of a comprehensive standard work and reference source, rich in information that entices further investigation. -- Frederick A. Lubich * Germanic Review *Peter Jelavich has dismantled many legends about the politics of popular entertainments in his fine history, Berlin Cabaret. -- Anthony Grafton * New York Review of Books *Like the eloquent conférenciers who comment on the cabaret acts that are his subject here, Jelavich expertly takes readers in hand, introduces them to the exuberant affairs of Berlin, and does so in a witty and insightful fashion...A great achievement. -- Peter Fritzsche * American Historical Review *Jelavich has set the stage in a masterful work on the interaction between culture and commerce and the relatedness of decadence and exuberance as manifest in the Berlin cabaret. It was no mere frivolity but a legitimate expression--see Walter Benjamin and Georg Simmel's observations on the big city-see indeed Friedrich Nietzsche's Dionysian exhilaration--of a diversity and fragmentation that conditioned life in the Berlin metropolis. Jelavich clearly has had fun collecting all the evidence on the cabaret, and as he unfolds the story of its proponents, the texts of skits and songs and police reports, he succeeds in moving a seeming fringe phenomenon into the center of political and cultural dialogue of the big city whose idiosyncrasies he has recaptured with skill. The scholarship is impeccable, the writing is elegant; the author's fascination with his subject is contagious to the fellow-scholar as well as, I imagine, to all readers. -- Klemens Von Klemperer, Smith CollegeIn this well-written book, Peter Jelavich has tracked down cabaret openings, closings, and programs, and discusses politics and personalities. His writing makes the history of Berlin cabarets come alive in a very special way. I found myself increasingly fascinated with the 'showtime' experiences, both on-stage and back-stage. -- Richard Hunt, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Cabaret as Metropolitan Montage Berlin: Cosmopolitan Life, Consumerism, and Montage Variety Shows and Nietzschean Vitalism Berlin Wit: Laughter and Censorship 2.
£30.56
Manchester University Press Analysing Performance A Critical Reader
Book SynopsisA wide-ranging collection of specially commissioned essays by contributors of international standing about key aspects of the performing artsTable of ContentsIntroduction - interpretations and issues, Patrick Campbell.Part 1 Feminisms and performance: feminisms and theatres: canon fodder and cultural change, Lizbeth Goodman;bodies of knowledge: dance and feminist analysis, Alexandra Carter; gender as sign-system - the feminist spectator as subject, Elaine Aston; new perspectives - feminism and music, Sophie Fuller; feminism(s)/postmodernism(s) - MTV and alternate women's videos and performance art, E. Ann Kaplan. Part 2 Postmodernism, poststructuralism, politics and performance: postmodern performance, Stephen Connor; postmodern dance and the politics of resistance, Valerie A. Briginshaw; the politics of performance in a postmodern age, Baz Kershaw; reading difficulties; Sandra Kemp; psychoanalysis and the theatrical - analyzing performance, Elizabeth Wright. Part 3 Issues in performance: the challenge of "Binglish" - analyzing multi-cultural productions, Jatinder Verma; AIDS and live art, Lizbeth Goodman; does authenticity matter? the case for and against authenticity in the performing arts, Sarah Rubidge; "sexing the cherry" - high or low art? distinctions in performance, Lucy O'Brien; changing perspectives, Ruth Tompsett; bodies politic, proscribed and perverse: censorship and the performing arts, Patrick CampbellSelect bibliographyIndex
£15.99
Lexington Books Rakugo
Book SynopsisAn introduction to the theatrical art of comic storytelling that originated in the Edo period, Rakugo sheds light on Japanese culture as a whole: its aesthetics, social relations, and learning styles. Enriched with personal anecdotes, Rakugo explicates the art''s contemporary performance culture: the image, training and techniques of the storytellers, the venues where they perform, and the role of the audience in sustaining the art. Laurie Brau inquires into how this comic art form participates in the discourse of heritage, serving as a symbol of the Edo culture, while continuing to appeal to Japanese today. Written in an accessible manner, this book is appropriate for all levels of student or researcher.Trade ReviewA brilliant ethnography of an exquisite Japanese performance genre by one who has not only studied it but also been a fan, apprentice, and performer in her own right. This luminous account of the art of storytelling is everything Walter Benjamin could have hoped for and more. -- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museum, and HeritageLorie Brau's intimate knowledge and expertise illuminate her vivid account of a traditional comic art that remains immensely popular in today's Japan. Rakugo deserves to be better known abroad, and this book is a superb introduction to it. -- Howard Hibbett, Harvard CollegeLorie Brau's Rakugo is a significant piece of scholarship...and contains a detailed history and several translated stories...This study is detailed and at times fascinating. * The Japan Times Online, November 2008 *Japan scholars, students, and those interested in traditional performing and narrative arts, early modern and modern history, popular culture, media, humor and heritage...will surely want to have Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage by Lorie Brau on their shelves, for both research and enjoyment.... Thanks to Brau's unique position as an insider in the rakugo world, readers are exposed to its realities and excitement. Her language flows beautifully as she tells her story, and she presents her subject in an instructive, yet warm and welcoming manner. -- Matthew W. Shores, University of Hawai'i at ManoaThe reader is able to get a very clear idea of what it is like to go to a rakugo performance without being there. It contains an index and a glossary of selected terms which is particularly useful to anyone interested in building a solid foundation of knowledge for further research on the topic. Brau's book will be interesting and useful for several kinds of readers.... -- Till Weingartner, Freie Universitat BerlinRakugo is the 'sit-down' comedy of nimble narrative performed on stage in vaudeville-like halls. With erudite textual analysis and unusual participant-observation, Brau sure-handedly takes us into this small world of Japanese 'culture' and shows us quite vividly what is at stake in its performance and its perpetuation, both for rakugo itself and, by inference, for heritage performance genres generally. -- William W. Kelly, Yale UniversityThe reader is able to get a very clear idea of what it is like to go to a rakugo performance without being there. It contains an index and a glossary of selected terms which is particularly useful to anyone interested in building a solid foundation of knowledge for further research on the topic. Brau's book will be interesting and useful for several kinds of readers. -- Till Weingartner, Freie Universitat BerlinTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter I: Ethnographer as Mummy Hunter Chapter 3 Chapter II: A Night at the Yose Chapter 4 Chapter III: What Makes Rakugo Rakugo? Chapter 5 Chapter IV: Wits, Outlaws, Flatterers, and Antiquarians: Hanashika Heritage Chapter 6 Chapter V: Rehearsing Tradition: Zenza Apprenticeship and the Hanashika Career Chapter 7 Chapter VI: Producing Rakugo: Traditional and Alternative Performance Contexts Chapter 8 Chapter VII: Making a Hit with Classical Rakugo Chapter 9 Chapter VIII: Rakugo Audiences and Fans Chapter 10 Conclusion: Tokyo Rakugo and Heritage
£40.50
Rlpg/Galleys Rakugo
Book SynopsisAn introduction to the theatrical art of comic storytelling that originated in the Edo period, Rakugo sheds light on Japanese culture as a whole: its aesthetics, social relations, and learning styles. Enriched with personal anecdotes, Rakugo explicates the art''s contemporary performance culture: the image, training and techniques of the storytellers, the venues where they perform, and the role of the audience in sustaining the art. Laurie Brau inquires into how this comic art form participates in the discourse of heritage, serving as a symbol of the Edo culture, while continuing to appeal to Japanese today. Written in an accessible manner, this book is appropriate for all levels of student or researcher.Trade ReviewA brilliant ethnography of an exquisite Japanese performance genre by one who has not only studied it but also been a fan, apprentice, and performer in her own right. This luminous account of the art of storytelling is everything Walter Benjamin could have hoped for and more. -- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, author of Destination Culture: Tourism, Museum, and HeritageLorie Brau's intimate knowledge and expertise illuminate her vivid account of a traditional comic art that remains immensely popular in today's Japan. Rakugo deserves to be better known abroad, and this book is a superb introduction to it. -- Howard Hibbett, Harvard CollegeLorie Brau's Rakugo is a significant piece of scholarship...and contains a detailed history and several translated stories...This study is detailed and at times fascinating. * The Japan Times Online, November 2008 *Japan scholars, students, and those interested in traditional performing and narrative arts, early modern and modern history, popular culture, media, humor and heritage...will surely want to have Rakugo: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage by Lorie Brau on their shelves, for both research and enjoyment.... Thanks to Brau's unique position as an insider in the rakugo world, readers are exposed to its realities and excitement. Her language flows beautifully as she tells her story, and she presents her subject in an instructive, yet warm and welcoming manner. -- Matthew W. Shores, University of Hawai'i at ManoaThe reader is able to get a very clear idea of what it is like to go to a rakugo performance without being there. It contains an index and a glossary of selected terms which is particularly useful to anyone interested in building a solid foundation of knowledge for further research on the topic. Brau's book will be interesting and useful for several kinds of readers.... -- Till Weingartner, Freie Universitat BerlinRakugo is the 'sit-down' comedy of nimble narrative performed on stage in vaudeville-like halls. With erudite textual analysis and unusual participant-observation, Brau sure-handedly takes us into this small world of Japanese 'culture' and shows us quite vividly what is at stake in its performance and its perpetuation, both for rakugo itself and, by inference, for heritage performance genres generally. -- William W. Kelly, Yale UniversityThe reader is able to get a very clear idea of what it is like to go to a rakugo performance without being there. It contains an index and a glossary of selected terms which is particularly useful to anyone interested in building a solid foundation of knowledge for further research on the topic. Brau's book will be interesting and useful for several kinds of readers. -- Till Weingartner, Freie Universitat BerlinTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter I: Ethnographer as Mummy Hunter Chapter 3 Chapter II: A Night at the Yose Chapter 4 Chapter III: What Makes Rakugo Rakugo? Chapter 5 Chapter IV: Wits, Outlaws, Flatterers, and Antiquarians: Hanashika Heritage Chapter 6 Chapter V: Rehearsing Tradition: Zenza Apprenticeship and the Hanashika Career Chapter 7 Chapter VI: Producing Rakugo: Traditional and Alternative Performance Contexts Chapter 8 Chapter VII: Making a Hit with Classical Rakugo Chapter 9 Chapter VIII: Rakugo Audiences and Fans Chapter 10 Conclusion: Tokyo Rakugo and Heritage
£91.80
Lexington Books Performance and Activism Grassroots Discourse
Book SynopsisMuch has been written about the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which brought out deep racial tensions throughout the city, exposed by media images of police brutality. This book sheds light on another facet of the events, the birth of a dynamic grassroots activist and community organizing movement that has been little noticed by academics or even by the press. It also focuses on the theatrical production of Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, a performance created by Anna Deavere Smith. Performance and Activism analyzes a rich, eclectic, and ongoing ensemble of local activist struggles in the context of the history and political economy of Los Angeles. Building on the important critical urban studies work of Mike Davis and Edward Soja, it also draws on Dwight Conquergood''s writings on performance ethnography to theorize the political work of grassroots formations such as alternative/underground media collectives, gang truce parties/picnics, and women-organized prisoner support and court watch groups, such as Mothers Reclaiming Our Children. The book focuses on these events through the inter-disciplinary approach of performance studies, highlighting performance-conscious activisms that help bridge the enormous class, race, and gender divides of our society.Trade ReviewAfary’s contribution of performance-conscious activism and activist-conscious performance gets to the core utility of performance for social change and activism as embodied praxis. This important project deepens and extends our collective understanding of performance in and as activism and the ways in which such intention is dynamized on the grassroots level. Performance and Activism should quickly become standard reading for those in performance studies, cultural studies, and cultural geography, amongst other disciplinary formations, interested in the confluence and conflicts of cultural identity in place and space, and the ways in which performance can be used as a critical lens of seeing and transforming the world. -- Bryant Keith Alexander, California State University Los AngelesPerformance and Activism demonstrates the importance of performance to analyses of public discourse and to cultural geographies of Los Angeles. Kamran Afary's book makes important contributions to communication and cultural studies, performance and theatre studies, and interdisciplinary studies of urban life. -- Judith Hamera, Texas A&M UniversityKamran Afary’s analysis of the aftermath of the Los Angeles uprising is a new and exciting contribution to the study of gangs, social movements and urban sociology among others. Rarely has the performance of social change been theoretically conceived and methodologically executed in such an insightful and thought-provoking way. Afary has found the perfect lens for understanding the multiple and often occluded meanings of this important historical event, showing how the most marginalized and demonized of social actors continued to push for a political solution within the webs of hope and oppression that constitute that animal Los Angeles. -- David Brotherton, The City University of New YorkTable of ContentsChapter 1 Chapter One. Introduction and Roadmap to the Work Chapter 2 Chapter Two. A Historical Political Economy of Los Angeles Chapter 3 Chapter Three. Performing Peace: Gang Truce in Watts and Beyond Chapter 4 Chapter Four. The Gang Truce Movement as a Space for Dialogue and Activism Chapter 5 Chapter Five. Performing Motherhood: Creating Uprising Textualities and Reclaiming their Children Chapter 6 Chapter Six. Performing Twilight Los Angeles: Walking in the Words of a Sad and Beautiful Poem Chapter 7 Chapter Seven. Conclusion: Remembrance and Reinterpretation
£91.80
Lexington Books Performance and Activism
Book SynopsisMuch has been written about the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which brought out deep racial tensions throughout the city, exposed by media images of police brutality. This book sheds light on another facet of the events, the birth of a dynamic grassroots activist and community organizing movement that has been little noticed by academics or even by the press. It also focuses on the theatrical production of Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, a performance created by Anna Deavere Smith. Performance and Activism analyzes a rich, eclectic, and ongoing ensemble of local activist struggles in the context of the history and political economy of Los Angeles. Building on the important critical urban studies work of Mike Davis and Edward Soja, it also draws on Dwight Conquergood''s writings on performance ethnography to theorize the political work of grassroots formations such as alternative/underground media collectives, gang truce parties/picnics, and women-organized prisoner support and court watch groups, such as Mothers Reclaiming Our Children. The book focuses on these events through the inter-disciplinary approach of performance studies, highlighting ''performance-conscious activisms'' that help bridge the enormous class, race, and gender divides of our society.Trade ReviewAfary’s contribution of performance-conscious activism and activist-conscious performance gets to the core utility of performance for social change and activism as embodied praxis. This important project deepens and extends our collective understanding of performance in and as activism and the ways in which such intention is dynamized on the grassroots level. Performance and Activism should quickly become standard reading for those in performance studies, cultural studies, and cultural geography, amongst other disciplinary formations, interested in the confluence and conflicts of cultural identity in place and space, and the ways in which performance can be used as a critical lens of seeing and transforming the world. -- Bryant Keith Alexander, California State University Los AngelesPerformance and Activism demonstrates the importance of performance to analyses of public discourse and to cultural geographies of Los Angeles. Kamran Afary's book makes important contributions to communication and cultural studies, performance and theatre studies, and interdisciplinary studies of urban life.Kamran Afary’s analysis of the aftermath of the Los Angeles uprising is a new and exciting contribution to the study of gangs, social movements and urban sociology among others. Rarely has the performance of social change been theoretically conceived and methodologically executed in such an insightful and thought-provoking way. Afary has found the perfect lens for understanding the multiple and often occluded meanings of this important historical event, showing how the most marginalized and demonized of social actors continued to push for a political solution within the webs of hope and oppression that constitute that animal Los Angeles. -- David Brotherton, The City University of New YorkTable of ContentsChapter 1 Chapter One. Introduction and Roadmap to the Work Chapter 2 Chapter Two. A Historical Political Economy of Los Angeles Chapter 3 Chapter Three. Performing Peace: Gang Truce in Watts and Beyond Chapter 4 Chapter Four. The Gang Truce Movement as a Space for Dialogue and Activism Chapter 5 Chapter Five. Performing Motherhood: Creating Uprising Textualities and Reclaiming their Children Chapter 6 Chapter Six. Performing Twilight Los Angeles: Walking in the Words of a Sad and Beautiful Poem Chapter 7 Chapter Seven. Conclusion: Remembrance and Reinterpretation
£40.50
Hamilton Books Drawing Life
Book SynopsisIn Drawing Life, Thomas J. Cottle examines the ways people interpret their life experiences and construct meanings for the events they have encountered. In this manner, they discover their various identities and the essence of what we call the self. In reading the sixteen life studies contained in this volume, we encounter both inner reflections as well the power of culture to shape the meanings people give to their circumstances and the events that befall them. The stories also reflect the role of human relationships and social institutions in defining our personal identities and sense of justice. What makes us unique, therefore, is the personal story we tell as it reveals our constructions of the world and of ourselves. The stories recounted in Drawing Life illuminate not only our past, but also our perceptions of the present and our imaginings of the future. In this way, they become anthologies of our life experiences.Trade ReviewHis writing itself is music; a deft blend of passion and restraint, light and darkness, pain and life-giving humor. -- Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Harvard University, author of Balm In Gilead: Journey of a Healer and Respect: An ExplorationAmazing, delicate, and blunt. -- Susan CheeverNo one writes about the everyday dreams, agonies, and situational realities of the young and oppressed with the perception and power of Thomas J. Cottle. -- Philip Slater[Thomas J. Cottle] is a very good writer, who reminds one very much of James Agee, magically sensitive, and with a skill in rendering the poignancy of the captured moment. -- Ashley MontaguOnce again Tom Cottle has used his lively style to remind us of the full depth of the human experience and force reflection on the ethical stance we would like to see penetrate our fragmented society. -- Jerome KaganTable of ContentsCONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments I. STORIES OF ADULTS On Narratives and the Sense of Self The Abandoner Do You See Me as a Human Being or Just Another Black Face? No Way to Look But Back Jacob and Millie Portman A Woman Named Sarah Clark Keller Marcus Nathaniel Simpson: If the Lord Has Patience, I’ve Got a Future Professors II. STORIES OF CHILDREN Adolescent as Story Teller: The Case of Anorexia Nervosa The Young and their Prophets They Got Anger Pushing ‘Em in One Direction, Fright Pushing ‘Em in Another The Evils of Testing and Tracking The Bedroom of Sheila Cooperton A Child to be Envied Mind Shadows Just a Memory III. EPILOGUE The Value of Stories: Applications for Research and Healing Bibliography
£38.70
Hamilton Books Understanding Comedy through College Comedies
Book SynopsisIn this book, Norman Kagan explores of the nature of comedy and helps readers discover why they are laughing, new reasons to laugh, and new films to that will offer a source of laughter.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Comedy and College Comedies: Why study college comedies? Comedy analysis, organization, availability. Chapter 2: College Athlete Comedies: The Freshman, College, and others Chapter 3: Romantic/Screwball College Comedies: The Wild Party, Ball of Fire, Where the Boys Are, and more Chapter 4: The Marx Brothers at College: Horse Feathers and its offspring Chapter 5: College Musicals: College Humor, College Holiday, Good News, and many others Chapter 6: Jerry Lewis and Eddie Murphy at College: The Nutty Professor, The Klumps, and sequels Chapter 7: Intergenerational College Comedies: That’s My Boy, Take Her, She’s Mine, Back to School, Old School, and others Chapter 8t: College Social Comedies: The Graduate, Risky Business, Breaking Away, Mona Lisa Smile, and more Chapter 9: College Political Comedies: Getting Straight, The Way We Were, PCU, The Last Supper, and others Chapter 10: College Racial or Ethnic Comedies: School Daze, Soul Man, Foreign Student, American Desi, and others Chapter 11: College Farces: A Chump at Oxford, Charley’s Aunt, Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds, Police Academy, and many more Chapter 12: Comic Theory and College Comedies: Sigmund Freud and The Decline of the American Empire, Susan Langer and Slacker, Wylie Sypher and With Honors, Robert Heilman and Threesome, George Meredith and Wonder Boys, Henri Bergson and The Squid and the Whale, and Northrop Frye and Storytelling Bibliography
£32.40
John Wiley & Sons Shooting from the East
Book SynopsisA critical history of filmmaking in Atlantic Canada from the early days of art cinema to the contemporary media industry.
£32.40
McFarland & Co Inc Behind the Gstring
Book Synopsis In recent years, the number of strip clubs in the United States has increased dramatically. Dressed up with terms such as gentlemen''s clubs, they often feature valet parking, limousines, executive dining rooms, extravagant menus-and, of course, topless or nude women dancing on stage. Stripping has become a big business, with over 3.5 million people, primarily men, attending clubs each week. But what about the women who perform in the clubs? Why do they do it? What is their perception of their job? Numerous interviews with working strippers accompany extensive research in the literature. Some strippers see stripping as simply a job, others view it with a degree of embarrassment, while many see it as an opportunity for empowerment. Few became strippers by design but a surprising number continue to strip for many years. The use of drugs and instances of abuse are covered, as are the views of the strippers'' families.
£20.89
McFarland & Company Blue Vaudeville Sex Morals and the Mass Marketing
Book SynopsisReveals the often racy, ribald, and sexually charged nature of the vaudeville stage, looking at an array of provocative performers from disrobing dancers to nude posers to skimpily dressed athletes. This work includes in-depth examinations of important figures from the vaudeville stage such as Annette Kellerman and Eva Tanguay.
£27.54
McFarland & Company John Sayles Filmmaker A Critical Study and
Book SynopsisJohn Sayles has remained a maverick, writing, directing, editing and even acting in his own films. This book chronicles Sayles' career - including the story of his inauspicious beginning as a second-string actor, and his work in fiction, theatre, music videos and television.
£27.54
McFarland & Company Space and Time Essays on Visions of History in
Book SynopsisIncludes essays that investigate the relationship between our past and science fiction and fantasy television. This title also includes essays that contextualize a particular program or series while others discern ways in which a show depicts history.
£23.74
McFarland & Company The Moulin Rouge and Black Rights in Las Vegas A
Book SynopsisThe Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino is easily overlooked by modern-day visitors to the Las Vegas strip. This book presents the history of the Moulin Rouge, explaining the important role that the hotel-casino played in early desegregation efforts in Las Vegas.
£20.89
McFarland & Company The Comedy of Dave Chappelle Critical Essays
Book SynopsisAssembles 13 essays that examine motifs common in Dave Chappelle's - one most culturally significant comedians of America - comedy, including technology and digital culture; race, gender, and ethnicity; economics and politics; music, television, film, and performance; and, memory, language, and identity.
£14.24
McFarland & Co Inc Forties Film Funnymen
Book Synopsis The twelve classic comedy films examined within these pages are distinguished by an equal number of defining comic performances. Ranging from The Great Dictator (1940) to A Southern Yankee (1948), each film focuses on the most central theme of clown comedy: Resilience, the encouragement or hope that one can survive the most daunting of life''s dilemmas--even during the war-torn 1940s. And each film can be regarded as a microcosm of the antiheroic world of its central clown (or clowns). Among the performers represented are Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Abbott and Costello, Jack Benny, Eddie Bracken, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd and Red Skelton. This lavishly illustrated work includes an introduction by noted film critic and historian Anthony Slide.
£20.89
McFarland & Co Inc Screening the Mafia
Book Synopsis The post-classic era of American gangster films began in 1967 with the release of Bonnie and Clyde, achieving a milestone five years later with the popular and highly influential The Godfather. This historical study explores the structure, myths and intertextual narratives found in the gangster films produced since The Godfather. The intense relationship between masculinity and ethnicity in the gangster film, especially within the movie-generated mythology of the Mafia, is carefully analyzed, and the book tracks the trends in the genre up to and including the landmark HBO television series The Sopranos (1999-2007). A selected filmography is included. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
£20.89
McFarland & Company The Cinema of Preston Sturges A Critical Study
Book SynopsisMost works on writer-director Preston Sturges (1898-1959) have focused on the elements that made him a symbol of classic Hollywood comedy. This title asserts that there are unexplained incongruities, fragmentations and contradictions in Sturges' output to demand a reevaluation of his place in film history as a predecessor of postmodern filmmakers.
£20.89
McFarland and Company, Inc. The Great Movie Musicals A Viewers Guide to 168
Book SynopsisBeginning with ""The Jazz Singer"" in 1927 and ending with ""Sweeney Todd"" in 2007, this title examines the greatest movie musicals of all time. It includes Broadway adaptations (""West Side Story""), screen originals (""The Wizard of Oz""), all-star revues (""The King of Jazz""), musical biopics (""The Glenn Miller Story""), and 'dance' pictures (""Fame"").
£34.19
McFarland and Company, Inc. Lost Laughs of 50s and 60s Television Thirty
Book SynopsisDetails the thirty situation comedies, that are originally broadcasted on American television between 1952 and 1969, including ""Angel"", ""The Governor and J.J."", ""It's a Great Life"", ""I'm Dickens...He's Fenster"" and ""Wendy and Me"". This title contains a list of production credits and publicity stills.
£20.89
McFarland & Company Hot from Harlem Twelve African American
Book SynopsisFrom the early days of minstrelsy to Black Broadway, this book presents the story of African American entertainment as seen through the eyes of its most famous as well as some of its most obscure practitioners. It examines the African American participation in show business since the beginning.
£20.89
McFarland and Company, Inc. The Simpsons in the Classroom Embiggening the
Book SynopsisThe object of much debate, attention, and scholarship since it first aired, ""The Simpsons"" provides excellent, if unexpected, fodder for high school and college lesson plans. This title shares exercises, prompts, and syllabi that have proven successful in the authors' own courses.
£20.89
McFarland & Co Inc Voices in the Dark
Book Synopsis Covering a range from supernatural fiction to dark fantasy to graphic horror, these 25 interviewees discuss the creative challenges, expectations and conventions of the horror genre. These authors, directors and actors working in the horror genre include Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, James Herbert, Joe Hill, Steve Niles, Sarah Pinborough, John Carpenter, Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon, Rob Zombie, Christa Campbell, Zach Galligan, Betsy Palmer and Ron Perlman.
£20.89
McFarland & Company Star Trek as Myth
Book Synopsis In the past, the examination of myth has traditionally been the study of the Primitive or the Other. More recently, myth has been increasingly employed in movies and in television productions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Star Trek television and movie franchise. This collection of essays on Star Trek brings together perspectives from scholars in fields including film, anthropology, history, American studies and biblical scholarship. Together the essays examine the symbolism, religious implications, heroic and gender archetypes, and lasting effects of the Star Trek mythscape.
£27.54
McFarland & Company Magic as Metaphor in Anime
Book Synopsis Since its inception as an art form, anime has engaged with themes, symbols and narrative strategies drawn from the realm of magic. In recent years, the medium has increasingly turned to magic specifically as a metaphor for a wide range of cultural, philosophical and psychological concerns. This book first examines a range of Eastern and Western approaches to magic in anime, addressing magical thinking as an overarching concept which unites numerous titles despite their generic and tonal diversity. It then explores the collusion of anime and magic with reference to specific topics. A close study of cardinal titles is complemented by allusions to ancillary productions in order to situate the medium''s fascination with magic within an appropriately broad historical context.
£20.89
McFarland & Company Sexual Rhetoric in the Works of Joss Whedon
Book Synopsis Buffy the Vampire Slayer has remained an enduring feature of late 1990s pop culture, spawning television spin-offs, rabid fans, and significant scholarly inquiry. Though there have been numerous books devoted to the work of Joss Whedon, this collection of fifteen essays is the first to focus specifically on the sexual rhetoric found in his oeuvre, which includes Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dollhouse, and Dr. Horrible''s Sing-Along Blog, as well as Buffy. Topics covered include the role of virginity, lesbianism and homoeroticism in the shows and the comics, the nature of masculinity and femininity and gender stereotypes, an exploration of sexual binaries, and a ranking of the Buffy characters on the Kinsey scale of sexuality. Together these essays constitute a much-needed addition to the expanding body of Whedon gender scholarship.
£20.89
McFarland & Co Inc Fall Girl
Book Synopsis Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed horse trainer and show rider Martha Crawford Cantarini was among the busiest of Hollywood''s elite corps of female stunt riders. She was the regular stunt double for such actresses as Eleanor Parker, Anne Baxter and Shirley MacLaine, appearing in films ranging from Elvis Presley''s debut feature Love Me Tender to the epic Western The Big Country. Martha also hosted a Las Vegas television program in the 1960s, while her palomino Frosty gained fame as the gambling horse after rolling a seven at the Thunderbird Casino craps table. This fascinating insider''s memoir of the American entertainment industry recounts Martha''s personal and professional associations with Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Jean Simmons, and other Hollywood luminaries.
£14.24
McFarland & Company Touchstones of Gothic Horror
Book Synopsis Gothic cinema, typified by the films of Universal, Hammer, Amicus and Tigon, grew out of an aesthetic that stretches back to the 18th century and beyond, even to Shakespeare. This book explores the origin of Gothic cinema in art and literature, tracing its connection to the Gothic revival in architecture, the Gothic novel, landscape, ruins, Egyptology, occultism, sexuality, the mythology of werewolves, the philosophy of Hegel, and many other aspects of the Romantic and Symbolist movements.
£20.89
McFarland and Company, Inc. Mystery Movie Series of 1940s Hollywood
Book SynopsisFocuses on 19 mystery series that were primarily released during the 1940s. The shows covered range from such enduring favourites as Sherlock Holmes and The Saint to lesser-known efforts, such as the Whistling comedies with Red Skelton and the Monogram Sh
£27.54
McFarland & Company HG Wells on Film The Utopian Nightmare
Book SynopsisOne of the most influential men of his generation, H G Wells is primarily known for his science fiction writings that looked ahead in time to teach and warn people about the future of the human race. This work studies the various theatrically released films from 1909 to 1997 based, even loosely, on the writings of H G Wells.
£20.89
McFarland & Company Louis Armstrong
Book Synopsis Louis Armstrong was not only a virtuoso musician, singer, composer and actor, but also a dedicated writer who carried a typewriter with him on his constant travels around the globe, turning out hundreds of letters and reminiscences. The man never stopped creating. His unique verbal, musical and visual content and style permeated everything he touched. Included in this career biography are the major events of his life, his artistic innovations and cultural achievements, a detailed survey of his recordings and live performances, and in-depth discussions of his screen performances--not only Hollywood feature films but short films, European concert films, and dozens of television shows.
£23.74
McFarland & Company Radio Program Openings and Closings 19311972
Book SynopsisIncludes the openings and closings to radio programs of different types, from comedies to mysteries to game shows, to serials to crime dramas, and to westerns that were aired between 1931 and 1972. This work lists the programs alphabetically, providing information about the storylines, principal casts, sponsors and air dates.
£27.54
McFarland & Company African American Theater Buildings An Illustrated
Book SynopsisAfrican American theater buildings were theaters owned or managed by blacks or whites for an African American audience. Such theaters included nickelodeons, vaudeville houses, musical houses and neighborhood movie theaters. This book features the African American theater buildings from 1900 through 1955 that are arranged by state and by city.
£27.54
