Performance art Books

Book SynopsisA unique, boxed set of 30 instruction cards by Marina Abramovic to teach you this legend of performance art's method for reaching a higher consciousness and confronting life's challenges.Using exercises Marina Abramovic has developed for herself to prepare for her incredible performance works, the Method will help you focus, reconnect with the present, and locate your highest creative potential.

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Book SynopsisA landmark exploration of David Bowie as an everlasting cultural force and changemaker, by acclaimed writer Paul Morley. In the ten years since the death of David Bowie in 2016 there has been no loss of interest in and fascination with his life, music and driven, complex personality. He is definitely one musician, one performer, destined not to be forgotten. The significant grief and sadness that greeted Bowie''s death has evolved into a deeper, enduring love for his music, style, wit, artistic curiosity, sexual energy, flamboyant outsider spirit and insatiable, provocative appetite for life.Far Above the World will document one of the UK''s greatest creative artists, through the spectacularly colourful and vibrant journey of a man who constantly reinvented himself and his music. Bowie lived in the future, using the pop song to chronicle overwhelming and dangerous times, searching for the light, and creating a communication channel between post-war 20th century times and where(ever) we are now. This anniversary book will place him in the now and next, as much as is past, and argue that his songs, and his messages, reflections and warnings become ever more relevant and compelling as time passes.

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Book SynopsisThe award-winning, highly acclaimed Artificial Hells is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as "social practice." In recent decades, the art gallery and the museum have become a place for participatory art, where an audience is encouraged to take part in the artwork. This has been heralded as a revolutionary practise that can promote new emancipatory social relations. What was it is really? In this fully updated edition, Claire Bishop follows the trajectory of twentieth-century art and examines key moments in the development of a participatory aesthetic. This itinerary takes in Futurism and Dada; the Situationist International; Happenings in Eastern Europe, Argentina and Paris; the 1970s Community Arts Movement; and the Artists Placement Group. It concludes with a discussion of long-term educational projects by contemporary artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, Pawel Althamer and Paul Chan.Bishop challenges the political and aesthetic ambitions of participatory art this practise. She not only scrutinizes the emancipatory claims, but also provides an alternative to the ethical (rather than artistic) criteria invited by such artworks. In response Artificial Hells calls for a less prescriptive approach to art and politics, and for more compelling, troubling and bolder forms of participatory art and criticism.Trade ReviewClaire Bishop has articulated an important historical overview of the global emergence of participatory art ... Her controversial and thought-provoking conclusions courageously trouble our assumptions about the effectiveness of political artworks, questioning their oppositional quality, their effects on the audiences they reach, and their relation to the institutions that promote them. * Frank Jewett Mather Award, 2013 *Bishop's arguments are convincingly supported and potentially very contentious...A critically challenging work of vital scholarship. * Publishers Weekly *An essential title for contemporary art history scholars and students as well as anyone who has witnessed a participatory art 'happening' and thought, 'Now that's art!' or 'That's art?' * Library Journal *Bishop seeks a standard for judging participatory works...She draws on the writings of French philosopher Jacques Rancière to argue that art must maintain a degree of autonomy and unreadability in order to resist co-option by the political and economic forces intent on imposing a false social consensus. -- Eleanor Heartney * Art in America *Pellucid -- Alexander Provan * New York Observer *The good intentions of contemporary artists frequently pave a road to hell. Claire Bishop follows their descent into the inferno and invites her readers to share her fascination with what she finds along the way. Artificial Hells combines vast historical knowledge with a precise analysis of individual artistic practices. So much so that at the end of her new book we have begun to fall in love with hell-under the condition that it remains artificial. -- Boris Groys, author of Art Power

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Book Synopsis''Her bravest work of performance art to date . . . Rawly intimate'' ObserverThis memoir spans Marina Abramovic''s five decade career, and tells a life story that is almost as exhilarating and extraordinary as her groundbreaking performance art. Taking us from her early life in communist ex-Yugoslavia, to her time as a young art student in Belgrade in the 1970s, where she first made her mark with a series of pieces that used the body as a canvas, the book also describes her relationship with the West German performance artist named Ulay who was her lover and sole collaborator for 12 years. Abramovic has collaborated with stars from Lady Gaga to Jay-Z, James Franco and Willem Dafoe. Best known for her recent pieces ''The Artist is Present'' and ''512 Hours'', this book is a fascinating insight into the life of one of the most important artists working today, and the woman who has been described as ''the grandmother of performance art''.Trade ReviewCould this be her bravest work of performance art to date? . . . Rawly intimate and weirdly mesmeric. * Observer *Enchanting and emotionally raw, Walk Through Walls is an honest, gripping, and profound look into the heart and brilliant mind of one of the quintessential artists of the postmodern era. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *In her new memoir, Walk Through Walls, [Marina Abramovic] exposes herself as provocatively and fearlessly in language as she has done for many years in her largely nonverbal performance art. Her page-turner of a narrative [is] at times shocking...genuinely moving, and always coruscatingly honest. * Elle *Marina has lived like an unstoppable force of nature, with the kind of power that leaves me feeling breathless and disquieted-while at the same time profoundly impressed, awed, and inspired. As I turn the pages of her book, I hear her voice in my head, as if she were actually narrating the words. . . Her voice is soothing, calm, and centered. It belies the trauma, fear, and darkness coiled at the root of her impulse to express and expunge. * Annie Lennox, Vanity Fair *Candidly and vividly sharing her personal struggles as well as her artistic and spiritual discoveries, Abramovic presents a uniquely intense and affecting art memoir. * Booklist, starred review *

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Book SynopsisLaura Wade's plays include Posh (Royal Court Theatre and West End); Tipping The Velvet (Lyric Hammersmith); Alice (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); Kreutzer vs. Kreutzer (Globe Theatre, Sydney Opera House and Australian tour); Other Hands (Soho Theatre); Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre and MCC Theatre New York); Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre); Catch (Royal Court Theatre, written with four other playwrights); Young Emma (Finborough Theatre); 16 Winters (Bristol Old Vic Basement) and Limbo (Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield). Films include The Riot Club. Awards include the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Pearson Best Play Award and the George Devine Award. Laura Wade's plays have been performed in the UK, USA, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico.Trade ReviewLaura Wade’s play is a 90-minute masterpiece, a jewel, dark but translucent. It is a play of love, death and grief: the grief that is hardest to bear, because it begins before the loved one dies. FIVE STARS * Sunday Times *Wade’s original and beautifully observed play balances raw emotion with a deliciously delicate black humour. * The Stage *

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Book SynopsisBodies of Sound began by enquiring into how sonic experience is intervening in realms such as gender, memory, disability justice, anti-colonial ways of knowing, and anti-war movements - responding to our contemporary emergencies. What has emerged is a collection that makes an expansive case for listening for peace,Featuring over thirty contributors, this groundbreaking anthology explores sound and listening through the lens of the body. Bringing together poets, artists, writers and musicians including Anne Carson, Svetlana Alexievich, Sara Ahmed, Pauline Oliveros and Don Mee Choi, Bodies of Sounds maps the intricate links between feminist sonic culture and radical listening.

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Book SynopsisStunningly beautiful, deeply puzzling, profoundly moving or intensely unsettling – performance art can evoke a wide variety of responses. In this important and richly illustrated book, Catherine Wood, one of the world’s leading curators and writers on the subject, provides the broadest and most up-to-date survey published in recent years. Wood proposes performance not as a genre of art separate from object-making but as an attitude that has infiltrated the entire terrain of contemporary art. From the musical-theatricals of Marvin-Gaye Chetwynd to the public encounters created by Tino Seghal and the social activism of Tania Bruguera, a hugely divergent set of practices has emerged in the past twenty to thirty years which embrace the worlds of sculpture and painting, spectacle and protest. Examining in turn individual, social and object-based approaches in the field, Wood first examines the influential performance art of the 1960s to 1980s: the body art of the Viennese actionists; the raw performances of Yoko Ono and Chris Burden; and the experiments of the Japanese Gutai group among others. She then explores how these sources have been revisited, reformed or rejected by contemporary artists in the twenty-first century. This impressive book encompasses international artists who fall outside the traditional European and North American focus, giving the reader the broadest and most up-to-date insight into the subject yet published.

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Book SynopsisFrom A Midsummer Night''s Dream''s Puck to Othello''s Desdemona, this new edition of Speaking Shakespeare gives you all the necessary tools to bring any of Shakespeare''s eclectic characters to life. Patsy Rodenburg uses practical exercises and textual analysis to hone in on your dramatic resonance, breathing and placement in order to unlock your potential for playing these iconic characters. Speeches and scenes such as Mark Antony''s ''O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth'' and the bloody scene in which Macbeth admits to Lady Macbeth that he has ''done the deed'' are placed in context and discussed in depth.Combining clear practical, textual and imaginative work with a brilliant analysis of scenes and speeches from the whole range of Shakespeare's plays, this is an essential and inspiring guide for anyone working on his plays today. It brings a renewed focus on the language of power, so frequently spoken in the worlds of politicians and company directors, whTrade ReviewWhat leaves actors tongue-tied for years, Patsy releases in minutes ... through simple, practical actions that can empower anyone. * Simon McBurney *Her knowledge of the plays as living theatrical artifacts is profound... Speaking Shakespeare stands up as a work of art in itself - admirably written and cliche-free, especially in the gripping final section, when she takes speeches and scenes from various plays, analyses and illuminates them... It cannot be too highly recommended. * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Part One: Foundation Craft Foundation Craft The Body The State of Readiness Breath Support Freeing the Voice Consolidation Deepening the Work Range and Resonance Clear Speech Listening Hamlet's Advice Part Two: Structure The Givens The Word Alliteration, Assonance, Onomatopoeia Rhythm Pauses and Irregularities of Rhythm The Line The Thought and Structuring of Thoughts The Structure of Scenes Antithesis Rhyme Prose Irony Puns Language Games Repetition The Story Location Stage Directions, Props, Entrances and Exits Soliloquy Part 3: The Imaginative The Imaginative Exploration of the Text Anchoring the Text Owning the Text from Character's Experience Focus and Energy Summary Part Four: The Speeches Richard III Julius Caesar Measure for Measure King Lear As You Like It Much Ado About Nothing The Merchant of Venice Othello Henry V The Winter's Tale Macbeth Twelfth Night A Midsummer Night's Dream Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Cymbeline King John Part Five: Checklists Preparing the Body, Breath, Voice and Speech The Givens The Imaginative

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Book SynopsisIf one of the problems facing new playwrights is the expectation that each of their plays should be similar in style, Wadeproved that you could radically change both form and content Not every writer delivers on their early promise. As this collection clearly shows, Wade certainly has.' Aleks Sierz, from his IntroductionColder Than Here: Laura Wade's play is a 90-minute masterpiece, a jewel, dark bu ttranslucent. It is a play of love, death and grief: the grief that is hardest to bear, because it begins before the loved one dies.' Sunday TimesBreathing Corpses: The tension, the emotions and the sense of absurdity and fear are brilliantly handled... A terrifying tour de force.' Sunday TimesOther Hands: This is an extraordinary feat a vicious satire with a heart of gold wrought with peculiar subtlety and intelligence.' The Spectator

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Book SynopsisAn inspiring and intimate look at the work of a generation of British artists across all disciplines. The Artist in Time brings together twenty creatives from across the UK, with photographs and interviews that disclose their daily working habits and motivations. All born before 1950, this is a collective portrait of a generation who have shaped our artistic landscape. They provide a range of different answers to the question ‘what makes an artist?’, and a set of insights into what makes up a creative life. Giving you access to the studio and working spaces of a diverse group of painters, poets, choreographers, filmmakers, illustrators, musicians, photographers, sculptors, writers and creators, The Artist in Time is a handbook for creativity and inspiration, made up of artists from all backgrounds who have all in their own way shaped, and continue to shape, the creative landscape of the United Kingdom.Trade ReviewSensitively edited, Chris Fite-Wassilak's interviews have been formed into standalone monologues that, together with Ollie Harrop's intimate photographs, feel direct and personal, as though we are visiting these artists in their homes or studios. * Times Literary Supplement *... the glossy, magazine-like publication gives a platform to older painters, poets, illustrators ... there are nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout ... One of the book’s great strengths is Harrop’s sensitive and insightful photographs * Studio International *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Rhythms of Working Maggie Nicols Anne Tallentire Bob Fulcher David Hurn Wendy Cope 2. Grow Into Your Vision Frank Bowling Shirley Collins Jane May Ken Loach Roma Tomelty Margaret Busby 3. Formative Moments Michael Foreman Bud Edmonson John Fox and Sue Gill Elly Taylor Rasheed Araeen 4. Forget Style Ralph Steadman Bisakha Sarkar Marian Sandham Alastair Maclennan Afterword The Baring Foundation

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Book SynopsisTaking as its starting point the first-ever retrospective exhibition (2021) of performance art icon Jess Dobkin, the book reflects on the internationally acclaimed artist's playful and provocative practice as performer, activist, curator, and community leader. At the same time, it grapples with a question that is vital for art and performance studies: How do archives perform?More than a discrete showing of a single artist's work, the exhibition, including its new staging in book form, is a large-scale research experiment in performance curation, investigating what it might mean for art institutions to take seriously the embodied and communal nature of performance art in their practices of archiving and museological display. In Jess Dobkin's Wetrospective, a cast of renowned international performance theorists and artists dive into this exploration alongside Dobkin, curator Emelie Chhangur, and performance theorist and dramaturg Laura Levin. These contributions appear alongside a riot

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Book Synopsis*SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL CHRISTOPHER BLAND PRIZE 2023**SHORTLISTED FOR THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2023*''I read the book in one go. I laughed and cried like a baby, and was transported back to a time of innocence, clouded by the enormity of the harsh reality . . . Just amazing'' CATHERINE ZETA JONES''As it happens, I was also a Jill in the eighties - but not half as good a Jill as real Jill'' DAWN FRENCH''Jill met the crisis head on . . . She held the hands of so many men. She lost them, and remembered them, and somehow kept going'' RUSSELL T DAVIESA heartbreaking, life-affirming memoir of love, loss and cabaret through the AIDS crisis, from IT''S A SIN''s Jill NalderWhen Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin. With her band of best friends - of which many were young, talented gay men with big dreams of their own - she grabbed London Trade ReviewI could not put [Jill's] book down. She guides us through her career and her life, and what leaps off the page is her strength, her compassion and her unswerving loyalty to people who were sometimes afraid to live their real lives. I am so pleased that Jill has had the chance to tell her story. We should all 'Be More Jill' -- Lesley Joseph, actor and broadcasterA beautiful, raw, tender book remembering friendships in the eye of the storm -- Russell T Davies, creator of Channel 4's IT'S A SINAs it happens, I was also a Jill in the eighties - but not half as good a Jill as real Jill * Dawn French *Engrossing, heart-breaking and inspiring, this is the perfect companion piece to IT'S A SIN * MATT CAIN, author of THE SECRET LIFE OF ALBERT ENTWISTLE *Took me right back. [Jill has] brought it all to life. A wonderful, wonderful work . . . Thank God for people like [Jill] who got up, stood up and said, "We need to do something about this." . . . I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Obviously very sad, but bloody funny as well! -- Michael BallLove From the Pink Palace is a beautiful yet emotional rollercoaster... Jill writes with ease, this makes it surprising this is her first book. Each chapter is filled with light and dark. They appear so close to each other that you go from crying to full-on belly laughing. * Richard Angell, Campaigns Director - Terrence Higgins Trust *

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Book SynopsisThis intimate collection explores the life and work of Joanna Frueh. Featuring previously unpublished texts from her career, A Practice of Pleasure offers a candid, scholarly, and personal meditation on female, sexual, and everyday pleasures, embodying Frueh's unique approach to art and life. -- .

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Book SynopsisRock Songs starts as a walk of a few miles between the valley of the river Tywi/Towy and the heights of Y Mynydd Du/Black Mountain in Wales. It takes millions of years, meeting along the way the rocks and water that have formed the land, together with the trees, red kites and otters who pass through. Humans crowd in as well – saints, drovers, Romans, bikers and tourists. The great zen monk, Dōgen, is also walking and learns that mountains themselves walk, if you know how to look. Rock Songs began as a one-man movement performance of a river by Nick Sales and has become a book of poetry, reflection, ecology and zen reflection. It's illustrated with extensive photography by Steve Hopkins and beautifully designed by Christopher Binding.

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Book SynopsisThe definitive guide to the life and work of Marina Abramovic, the world's most famous performance artist. Combining brand-new interviews, never-before-seen images and fascinating ephemera, this book is a testament to the extraordinary life and work of one of our most courageous and groundbreaking artists, and is published to coincide with the opening of Abramovic's Royal Academy exhibition - the first major show by a female artist in the Academy's 255-year history. Agreeing to answer any question that was posed, Abramovic embarked on 17 months of candid interviews conducted by her friend and confidante, Katya Tylevich. The result is a monolithic retrospective that takes us from the humble beginnings of a shy child sitting at the back of the class, to fearless pioneer, conquering and subverting the art world with boundary-pushing performances, and concluding with her most profound personal experience to date. Over 600 images from Abramovic's personal archives set these captivating memories alight, creating a fascinating, visual landscape and demonstrating the inextricably intertwined nature of her life and work. A breathtakingly intimate journey, we are led across deserts, oceans and cities to explore extreme highs and lows, all the while marvelling at how Abramovic approaches every success and setback with her signature humour and wit. Never shying away from the truth, no stone is left unturned, and Abramovic's fearlessness imbues every page.

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Book SynopsisRoseLee Goldberg is Director of Performa, a multi-disciplinary arts organization for the research, development and presentation of 21st-century visual art performance. Among her other books are Performance: Live Art Since the 60s and Laurie Anderson, both published by Thames & Hudson.

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Book SynopsisThis is the story of the evolution of the Drama for Schools professional learning program. Told through the learning of its leaders and participants and the growth of the art integration program beyond its inception. It is a primer on how to re-centre teachers and students as the driver of the effort to improve education through the arts.

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Book SynopsisBy giving voice to these women and men, thisbook honours the diversity of maternities, andvalidates new academic and creative methods infiguring herstory as a patchwork intersection ofvoices across and through time simultaneouslyacknowledging difference and diversity as well ascommonality. 32 b&w illus.

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Book Synopsis''Roger Kneebone is a legend'' Mark Miodownik, author of Stuff Matters''Fascinating and inspiring'' Financial Times''The pandemic has made the necessity of relying on experts evident to all . . . this is a rich exploration of lifelong learning'' GuardianWhat could a lacemaker have in common with vascular surgeons? A Savile Row tailor with molecular scientists? A fighter pilot with jazz musicians? At first glance, very little. But Roger Kneebone is the expert on experts, having spent a lifetime finding the connections.In Expert, he combines his own experiences as a doctor with insights from extraordinary people and cutting-edge research to map out the path we''re all following - from ''doing time'' as an Apprentice, to developing your ''voice'' and taking on responsibility as a Journeyman, to finally becoming a Master and passing on your skills. As Kneebone shows, although each outcome is different, the journey is always the same. Whether you''re developing a new career, studying a language, learning a musical instrument or simply becoming the person you want to be, this ground-breaking book reveals the path to mastery.Trade ReviewRoger Kneebone is a legend -- Mark Miodownik, author of Stuff MattersFascinating and inspiring * Financial Times *The doctor stitching together medicine and art -- GuardianExamines the ubiquitous, but understudied, process of becoming an expert -- Richard Webb * New Scientist *Roger Kneebone has an insatiable desire to understand what makes people tick and for years has scratched this itch by bringing together countless interesting people to share their experience and knowledge. This book on experts is a wonderful manifestation of what he has learnt. If you want to do anything better, from surgery to embroidery, you can learn something from this book -- Christopher Peters FRCS, Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Upper GI and General Surgeon, Imperial College LondonRoger Kneebone describes a journey that has no short cuts and no end. He tracks the inside story of becoming an expert, documenting a time line that stretches from the state of knowing nothing to passing on the wisdom of a lifetime. He draws out common themes between his experiences as a medical student, surgeon, GP, educator, academic, harpsichord player and sometime juggler with those of men and women working creatively in design studios, workshops and performance spaces, all of them now experts in their own fields. His refutation of the view that experts are an irrelevant, 'useless elite' is compelling and chilling in equal measure. Whisper it quietly, but post COVID-19, there is a growing realisation that experts do matter. I wish this book had been available when I was a student - it is full of wisdom, insight, humanity and encouragement. We should all aim to cross the 'ha-ha' -- Susan Standring, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy, King's College LondonRoger Kneebone is our foremost expert on expertise. Expert is a desperately important book at a moment when we've begun to wonder just what we might still be good at -- Ken Arnold, Head of Public Programmes at Wellcome CollectionIn a world awash with knowledge, we are in danger of forgetting what it means to be wise. Where knowledge arms us against the onslaughts of the world, wisdom disarms. It takes the risk opening up, to listen and attend, not presuming we already know. Wisdom puts others before ourselves. In this superbly written, passionately argued and very necessary book, Roger Kneebone contends that wisdom, more than knowledge, is the mark of the expert. In whatever vocation, as he shows us, becoming expert is a never-ending, lifelong task. But anyone can commit to it. Those who do should be an example to us all -- Tim Ingold, University of AberdeenMy time spent studying and working in Japan has left me with a deep appreciation for the importance of skill and the mystery of its acquisition. How do we navigate that path from knowing nothing to being able to pass on precious knowledge and experience to the next generation? Roger Kneebone is a supremely thoughtful and sensitive companion on that journey. -- Rebecca Salter RA, President of Royal Academy of ArtsVividly practical -- Andrew Robinson * Nature *

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Book SynopsisThis edited collection assembles international perspectives from artists, academics, and curators in the field to bring the insights of screendance theory and practice back into conversations with critical methods, at the intersections of popular culture, low-tech media practices, dance, and movement studies, and the minoritarian perspectives of feminism, queer theory, critical race studies and more.This book represents new vectors in screendance studies, featuring contributions by both artists and theoreticians, some of the most established voices in the field as well as the next generation of emerging scholars, artists, and curators. It builds on the foundational cartographies of screendance studies that attempted to sketch out what was particular to this practice. Sampling and reworking established forms of inquiry, artistic practice and spectatorial habits, and suspending and reorienting gestures into minoritarian forms, these conversations consider the affordances of scr

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTraditional speech work has long favored an upper-class white accent as the model of intelligibility. Because of that, generations of actors have felt disconnected from their own identities and acting choices. This much-needed textbook redresses that trend and encourages actors to achieve intelligibility through rigorous language analysis and an exploration of their own accent and articulation practices. Following an acting class model, where you first analyze the script then reveal yourself through it, this work breaks down a process for analyzing language in a way that excites the imagination. Guiding the student through the labyrinth of abstract concepts and terms, readers are delivered into the practicality of exercises and explorations, giving them self-awareness that enables them to make their own speech come alive. Informed throughout by notes from the author's own extensive experience working with directors and acting teachers, this book serves as an ideal speech-trainingTrade ReviewThe author’s meticulous linguistic analysis paves the way for understanding the use of the technical skills of pitch/melody, volume/dynamics, and tempo/rhythm introduced later in the sequence. The inclusion of a warmup template is beneficial to giving students guidance in devising their own customized warmups. * Professor Robert Gonzalez, University of Tampa, USA *A fresh and engaging approach to speech-work for actors working in the contemporary theatre. It stresses intelligibility and clarity in any accent or dialect rather than imposing a standard of speech that is only appropriate for a limited range or roles and styles. * David Carey, Voice and Text Director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Warm-ups Chapter 2. Language structure Chapter 3. Musicality Chapter 4. Anatomy Chapter 5. English Speech Sounds Chapter 6. Rhetoric Chapter 7. Looking ahead Chapter 8. Glossary Glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisAdrian Howells (1962–2014) was one of the world’s leading figures in the field of one-to-one performance practice – the act of staging an event for one audience participant at a time. Developed over more than a decade, Howells’s award-winning work demonstrated not only his enduring commitment to this genre of performance, but also his determination to find new challenges and innovations in performance art, 'intimate theatre' and socially engaged art. It’s All Allowed, edited by Deirdre Heddon and Dominic Johnson, is the first book devoted to Howells’s remarkable achievements and legacy. Contributors here testify to the methodological, thematic and historiographical challenges posed by Howells’ performances. Citing his permissive mantra as its title, It’s All Allowed includes new writing from leading scholars and artists, as well as writing by Howells himself, an extensive interview, scores and visual materials, which together reveal new insight into Howells’s groundbreaking process.Trade Review'The judges felt that the collection was an intimate response to Howells’s work, but one that is also a profound meditation on the potential effects of performance itself. Carefully curated with a significant eye to detail, the volume draws together essays written by a diverse selection of contributors who have used a range of forms (critical, impressionistic, interview, etc), but nevertheless sustains a consistency of argument, message, and voice, supported by an introduction which weaves together the different contributions that comprise the volume with new material and extensive references. This labour of love is a critical volume that will be useful to readers; it is also a beautiful object in its own right'. -- Dee Heddon and Dominc Johnson win the TaPRA prize for Editing 2017'The publication is a not just equally fascinating and important; for those wanting to engage in acts of intimate performance, it’s possibly the most comprehensive reference book available.' -- Jo Verrent, The Huffington Post'It is not just a celebration of an extraordinary body of work but also a handbook for those working in the tricky, ethically fraught area of intimate performance.' -- Lyn Gardner, The Guardian'This is an informative and engaging introduction and a thorough survey of the life and work of this important British performer and artist, who was one of the leading, internationally-recognised figures in one-to-one performance practice. While this is a significant contribution to the field of theatre and performance studies due to the accomplished documentation of this most ephemeral and fleeting performance practice, it is also an invaluable resource for practitioners, researchers, and students interested in performance art, Live Art, intimate and immersive theatre, autobiographical performance, and socially engaged and participatory art. The book offers fascinating new insights into Howells’s creative working practices and artistic processes and is thus particularly interesting for those seeking expert knowledge on the particular methodologies, pedagogies, and issues surrounding one-to-one work. It is therefore both a legacy project and a comprehensive handbook for anyone interested in creating intimate performance, and will be equally attractive to readers familiar with Howells’s work and those who are encountering it for the first time.' -- Antje Hildebrandt, Contemporary Theatre Review'Copiously illustrated with colour photographs, the book is leavened with personal accounts and tributes to Howells, my favourite being that of Marcia Farquhar, whose pyjamas were turned into a muddy-coloured mess during a performance of Adrienne’s Dirty Laundry Experience (2005). Johnson and Heddon also include scholarly articles that address the structure and psychological impact of one-to-one performances (Heddon, Helen Iball and Rachel Zerihan), the documentation of the intimate encounter (Jon Cairnes), the implications of Howells’s affective labour in a neo-liberal economy (Stephen Greer), and a compelling discussion of the medieval and Christological history of the foot/sole in Howells’s best-known performance, Footwashing for the Sole (Kathleen Gough). The entire book is framed by an excellent introduction that situates Howells’s work in relationship with relational aesthetics, immersive performance, dialogical aesthetics and the politics of feminine/queer labour. Mindful of the audience that would not be familiar with Howells’s work, the editors included a biographical survey of Howells’s oeuvre that spanned his beginning in high school to his final performance, Lifeguard.' -- Jennie Klein, Theatre Research International'This sumptuous book more than fulfils its editors’ aspirations for it to be ‘filled with textures, colours, emotions, and aesthetics’. It gathers a huge body of writing by and about performer Adrain Howells who made a professional journey from early training and working in traditional professional theatre to later more exploratory performance work that pushed boundaries and made huge demands on the artist who created it. ' -- Alison Jeffers, New Theatre Quarterly'It’s All Allowed is an intensely personal selection of recollections, observations, and heartfelt attempts to introduce a new audience to Howells and his work and to offer a collective memorialization for those who knew him. For readers outside of performance studies and visual art, there are several points of entry that offer enough universality in terms of the potential for shared experiences to make it accessible. For artists who use one-to-one performance in their own work, this book is an excellent reference for what to consider when constructing new forms of intimate engagement with the public, as well as the potential risks and rewards for creators and their audiences.' -- Lisa Newman, CAA Reviews'It’s All Allowed: The Performances of Adrian Howells aims to be the definitive book on Howells—not just for scholars, but for artists and arts patrons, too. It bursts with color photographs of Howells and with anecdotes about him, but it also features a thorough bibliography, a good-enough index, and many scanned documents from his personal archive at the University of Glasgow.' -- Christopher Grobe

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Book SynopsisIn their 'Guidebook for an Armchair Pilgrimage', authors Phil Smith, Tony Whitehead and photographer John Schott lead us on a ‘virtual’ journey to explore difference and change on their way to an unknown destination. They create a pilgrimage that any of us can follow, even if we are confined to our homes. To research the 'Guidebook' the authors went on an actual journey. 'Bonelines'​ is the secret story of that journey. Given the present circumstances it now appears prophetic, prescient and helpful, so they have decided to bring it into the light. ​It is written as a novel.

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Book SynopsisSkinner Releasing Technique (SRT), created by Joan Skinner, is a somatic movement, dance and creative practice with a core underlying principle of releasing blocked energy, held tension and habitual patterns in body mind. It enables us to move with greater freedom and ease whilst awakening creativity and spontaneity. The 21 contributors to this book describe how SRT informs their own movement and/or dance practice and influences wider fields of practice including meditation, architecture, poetic listening, visual art, writing, technology and choreography. For them SRT is a transformative and lifelong practice that deepens connections with self, other, more than human life forms and with natural and urban landscapes. This is a book for anyone drawn to explore body mind, somatic, movement and dance practices, and for those who are exploring ways of living in the world creatively, empathically and with more ease and natural grace.Table of ContentsIntroduction ~ Manny Emslie How to Disappear Completely ~ Sally Metcalf A Non-Linear Approach To Being Alive ~ Stephanie Skura Movement, Metaphysics & Imagination ~ Alex Crowe Becoming the Dancing ~ Bettina Neuhaus Beyond Technique ~ Polly Hudson Attending to Details of Difference ~ Julie Nathanielsz Manifesting Dance ~ Lizzy Le Quesne Principles in Practice ~ Wilhemeena Monroe Small Steps and Occasional Leaps ~ Julie Ludwick Half Century of Releasing ~ Jodi Blackburn-Roehl Listening into Clarity ~ Lily Kiara Dancing Inside Out ~ Gaby Agis A Journey towards Poetic Materiality ~ Sally E. Dean All These Strings in One Hand ~ Meaghen Buckley From a Ripple Comes a Wave ~ Julia Sasso Adapting SRT for adults with learning disabilities ~ Sophie Alder Mastery and Insignificance ~ Ruth Gibson Dancing the World with An Ethical Compass ~ Manny Emslie Landscape, Process, Being ~ Mary-Clare McKenna Greek Tragedy Meets Skinner Releasing Technique ~ Lionel Popkin My Time with Joan - Theresa Moriarty Glossary References

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Book SynopsisIn 2019 a group of book-lovers began to turn from their usual diet of contemporary novels to read classics of the ‘English eerie’ like Arthur Machen’s 'The Great God Pan'. The documents recovered, (edited by Phil Smith of 'Mythogeography'), and published here as 'Living In The Magical Mode', describe the subsequently inspired attempts of these readers – in a time of virus and social and climate catastrophe –– to live anew, with ‘magic-as-ordinary’, to do magic as if it were the washing up. At first, the readers fall on new ways of remaking their everyday lives in the magical mode, but the mode soon find ways to remake the readers. Challenging assumptions, magic turns lives upside down and shakes out mysteries. The documents of 'Living In The Magical Mode' describe a pulling back of veils, until all veils but one are exhausted; then the book-lovers put their hands upon the veil inside themselves.... 'Living In The Magical World' crosses dream wastelands, racecourses, motorway cafes, edgeland quarries and suburban valleys, in an adventure of encounters with ‘others’. It brings its readers to an occulted realm of unbounded desires that once unfolded refuses to recede. The surviving documents of the book club, reprinted here, describe the final frantic efforts of what remains of its members to understand a collision of many worlds and make novel webs of reconciliation.Table of ContentsPublisher’s Note The Discovery of the Text The Group Disintegrates The Field Reports There is a Planet B Happenings “The Fuck Up in the Club is the Fuck Up in the World” Pan The Minutes Book contd. More Arguments Separateness Conspiracy Theories Inner Life Yet More Happenings Alchemy Games, Rituals, Arts and Journeys Sacred Space “Something Ancient and Dreadful” The Minutes Book contd. Horses and The Origins of Melancholy Psychic War Manifestoes and Grimoires Psychic War 2 Ritual Psychic War 3 How This Story Ends References Appendix l: Lexicon of pseudo-sacred spaces Appendix 2: bibliography for the Professor’s paper ‘Dancing in pseudo-sacred spaces: signs passing through flesh’ Appendix 3: pamphlet extracts received by the Guild

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Book SynopsisThe Routledge Comedy Studies Reader is a selection of the most outstanding critical analysis featured in the journal Comedy Studies in the decade since its inception in 2010.The Reader illustrates the multiple perspectives that are available when analysing comedy. Wilkieâs selections present an array of critical approaches from interdisciplinary scholars, all of whom evaluate comedy from different angles and adopt a range of writing styles to explore the phenomenon. Divided into eight unique parts, the Reader offers both breadth and depth with its wide range of interdisciplinary articles and international perspectives.Of interest to students, scholars, and lovers of comedy alike, The Routledge Comedy Studies Reader offers a contemporary sample of general analyses of comedy as a mode, form, and genre.Trade ReviewPraise for A Comedy Studies Reader, ed. Ian WilkieAn important resource for those bent on taking comedy seriously, this collection gathers disparate studies from the innovative Journal of Comedy Studies and elsewhere to illuminate contemporary performative comedy. It should prove invaluable for students in Comedy Studies and also remind many in Humour Studies about the importance of the relationship between a piece of humour and its mediator, whether professional or or amateur, as a creator of amusement and laughter.Jessica Milner Davis FRSN, University of SydneyTable of ContentsForeword by Ian WilkieAcknowledgementsPart I: Back to Basics: What is Comedy and Where Does It Come From?1. Against Comedy Chris Ritchie2. Thoughts on the current state of humour theory Peter Marteinson3. The origins of comic performance in adult–child interaction Ian Wilkie and Matthew Saxton 4. The science of baby laughter Caspar Addyman and Ishbel Addyman Part II: Old Comedy: Taproots and Tropes 5. The time-travelling miser: Translation and transformation in European comedy Rachel Kirk6. Conflict and slapstick in Commedia dell’Arte – The double act of Pantalone and Arlecchino Louise Peacock7. Clowns do ethnography: an experiment in long-distance comic failure Barnaby King and Richard TalbotPart III: Class, Gender, Race: Reading Comedy’s Issues 8. ‘To what base uses we may return, Horatio!’ – Hamlet, Comedy and Class Struggle Isaac Hui9. No other excuse: Race, class and gender in British Music Hall comedic performance 1914–1949 David Huxley and David James10. 'Women Like Us?' Gilli Bush-BaileyPart IV: Doing Comedy: Giving, Receiving, Causes and Effects11. Pretty funny: Manifesting a normatively sexy female comic body Hannah Ballou12. No greater foe? Rethinking emotion and humour, with particular attention to the relationship between audience members and stand-up comedians Tim Miles13. The roots of alternative comedy? – The alternative story of 20th Century Coyote and Eighties Comedy Lloyd Peters14. Life memory archive translation performance memory archive life: textual self-documentation in stand-up comedy Christopher MolineuxPart V: New Comedy? Interviews with Practitioners15. Not the definitive version: an interview with Ross Noble Oliver Double16. Scenes in the House of Comedy: Interview with Stewart Lee Tony Moon17. Up and down with Barry Cryer: From an interview conducted on 22 July 2011 Tony Moon18. Interview with Charlie Hanson Gary Turk19. ‘Words are my weapons’: Tiffany Stevenson interview Tony Moon20. Russell Kane: Comic chameleon Sam Friedman21. Les Dennis: Man out of time Sam Friedman22. ‘Not a funny place to live’: An interview with Chris Rock Kara Hunt23. A series of ghastly mistakes that turned out right in the end Tony Moon interview with John Lloyd (comedy producer)24. Interview with Kate Fox - stand-up poet Ian Wilkie Part VI: Critical Angles: Essays on a Joan Rivers’ Routine25. From toothpick legs to dropping vaginas: Gender and sexuality in Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance Sharon Lockyer26. Joan Rivers – Reading the meaning Louise Peacock27. ‘A pleasure working with you’: Humour theory and Joan Rivers Brett MillsPart VII: The World of Comedy: Culture and Satire28. Obscenity, dirtiness and licence in Jewish comedy Debra Aarons and Marc Mierowsky29. Satire in a multi-cultural world: a Bakhtinian analysis Grant Julin30. Silly meets serious: discursive integration and the Stewart/Colbert era Amanda Martin, Brbara K. Kaye and Mark D. Harmon31. The comedian, the cat, and the activist: the politics of light seriousness and the (un)serious work of contemporary laughter Ian Reilly32. Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen, and the seriousness of (mock) documentary Cate BloukePart VIII: New Comedy? Emerging Platforms and Forms of Expression 33. A book and a movie walk into a bar Kyle Meikle34. Kidding around: children, comedy, and social media Peter Kunze35. A new economy of jokes?: #Socialmedia #Comedy Rebecca Krefting and Rebecca Baruc36. Comedy meets media: how three new media features have influenced changes in the production of stand-up comedy Jillian M. Belanger37. The animated moving image as political cartoon Lucien Leon38. Is vlogging the new stand-up? A compare/contrast of traditional and online models of comedic content distribution Matthew McKeagueIndex

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Book SynopsisThe new edition ofPlaybuilding as Arts-Based Research details how playbuilding (creating an original performative work with a group) as a methodology has developed in qualitative research over the last 15 years.The second edition substantially updates the award-winning first edition by making connections to current research theories, providing complete scripts with URL links to videos, and including a new section with interviews with colleagues. Chapter 1 provides an in-depth discussion of the epistemological, ontological, axiological, aesthetic, and pedagogic stances that playbuilding takes, applying them to research in general. The value of a playful, trusting atmosphere; choices of style, casting, set, and location in representing the data; and pedagogical theories that guide participatory theatre are highlighted. Chapter 2 discusses how Mirror Theatre generates data, structures dramatic scenes, and conducts live and virtual participatory workshops. Chapter 3

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Book SynopsisWhat is the relationship between performance and play? Between performance and technology? Between performance and death?Certain Fragments is an extraordinary exploration of what lies at the heart of contemporary theatre. Written by the artistic director of Forced Entertainment, acknowledged to be Britains most brilliant experimental theatre company (Guardian), Certain Fragments investigates the processes of devising performance, the role of writing in an interdisciplinary theatre, and the influence of the city on contemporary art practice.Tim Etchells unique and provocative voice shifts from intimate anecdote to critical analysis and back again. And as in his theatre-making so in his book: with Certain Fragments Etchells disrupts traditional notions of creative, academic, and intellectual work. The book is an exciting and radical fusion of story-telling and criticism. It also makes available, for the first time, four seminal Forced EntertainmTrade Review'Certain Fragments . . . illuminate[s] . . . the more interesting aspects of contemporary British theatre.' - David Pattie, New Theatre QuarterlyTable of ContentsForeword, Introduction, Section I Essays, Section II Performance Texts

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Book SynopsisArgues the conceptual significance of performance, and of a performative model of art, to the revival of the monument in the wake of the Second World War, the Holocaust and the fall of the Eastern bloc. -- .Trade Review'Mechtild Widrich’s astonishing and original book connects performance histories, feminist theory and speech act theory to elucidate the “event character” of public art by contemporary artists. Widrich advances a powerful argument about the stakes of spectatorship, temporality and collective memory.'Julia Bryan-Wilson, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art, University of California, Berkeley'Rigorously researched and argued, this important book will become required reading not only on the history and theory of performance art but also on the history of the "performative" itself as it has transformed public art and commemoration.'Kirk Savage, Professor, History of Art & Architecture, University of Pittsburgh -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: what is a performative monument?1. Documents 2. Audiences 3. Sites 4. Monuments Conclusion: relations Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the first official book on the legendary club Studio 54, co-owner Ian Schrager presents a spectacular volume brimming with star-studded photographs and personal stories from the greatest party of all time.Trade Review"Ian Schrager, the former co-owner of Studio 54, collects photographs and stories from the nightclub's heyday in the late 1970s and '80s in this glitzy, celebrity-filled coffee-table book that will fill any giftee with awe and nostalgia."—The New York Times, Holiday Gift Guide"... spectacular volume containing a treasure trove of the era’s glam."—Society Diaries"On the timeline of New York nightlife, the heyday of Studio 54 barely registers as a blip. Just three years separate the club’s celeb-mobbed 1977 opening and the raucous “going-away party” that proprietors Ian Schrager and the late Steve Rubell hosted before being carted off to jail for tax evasion. But in the four decades since that famous coke-snorting crescent moon first rose over the dance floor, no other nightclub has made quite as indelible an ­impression on the city’s social scene. From 10 p.m. until sunrise, A-list movie stars mingled with drag queens on roller skates, Park Avenue swans had (pre-AIDS-crisis) bathroom sex with downtown artists, and some of the 20th-century’s greatest literary lights watched it all from the infamous banquettes. Now, thanks to a new book, those who never made it past the velvet ropes—or are too young to have even tried—have a window into that wild-and-crazy magic. Studio 54 (Rizzoli), edited by Schrager, now impresario of a slew of hotels including the new Public Hotel, is equal parts oral history, personal scrapbook, and photo album, bringing together the reminiscences of regulars with star-studded snapshots and reams of gossip columns. Schrager, it seems, saved everything."—W Magazine.com"Ian Schrager looks back at the legendary club that he and Steve Rubell started in 1977, with vintage photos of the stars and personalities who walked through its doors."—WSJ. Magazine"Schrager is releasing Studio 54, featuring hundreds of photos from the club's heyday, many of them from his personal albums: Michael Jackson and David Bowie, presidential families and news anchors, the SNL crew, Diana Ross, Tennessee Williams, Halston, Roy Cohn, Richard Pryor, Vladimir Horowitz—a fairly broad representation of American achievement, and not a handler or cell-phone camera in sight. "—Esquire"To say that Studio 54 was the place to be, may in fact be the understatement of the last four decades. To celebrate the nightclub’s 40th anniversary this year, co-founder Ian Schrager looks back to the Studio’s history with a new coffee table book, out now, and an upcoming documentary to be released at the end of the year."—Refinery29.com"Legendary luxury hotelier Ian Schraeger, co-owner of Studio 54, has put together the ultimate illustrated memoir in the long-awaited magnum opus Studio 54 (Rizzoli New York). The book is the perfect mélange of photographs and press clips, memories of New York when nightlife was at its peak. But it’s more than a who’s who of the jet set—it is the ultimate guide to vintage style, from Valentino to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith."—Crave Online"In Ian Schrager’s new book, Studio 54, the club owner pulls back the velvet rope to capture the power, pleasure, and people at the greatest nightclub of all time."—Vanity Fair"The iconic disco club that defined an era comes alive again in this sizable memory-capsule by and on the legendary co-founder, Ian Schrager through spectacular photographs (some never before seen) featuring the likes of Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, Diana Ross and Andy Warhol. The More than just nostalgia, this is unfettered access past the velvet rope and into a unique world where celebrities and regulars partied together, epitomizing decadence and most importantly, having fun."—IndulgeMagazine.com

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Book SynopsisThis Element focuses on Sleep No More, theatre adaptation of Macbeth produced by the British company Punchdrunk. It frames the Shakespeare adaptation as part of a system of ghostly citationality through which audiences understand the significance of the past in performances today.

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Book SynopsisSurveying how Performance as a form has evolved as a distinct artistic sector to where it is today, Performance Making: a pedagogy for precarious times provides insight into the impact the artform has had across the creative sector and argues for its defence in higher education today.Drawing on over 40+ yearsâ worth of experience as artist and academic, Anna Furse interrogates the ways in which the practice of Performance is truly interdisciplinary, offering a specific creative and critical practice approach. Chapters address the neo-liberal turn and its effect on culture; the history of the emergence of the genre within Performance Studies; the underlying political and cultural message of Performance as independent and necessary; wider philosophical and critical theoretical thinking that can support innovation within the field; and the key principles in the creation of live work such as space, site, scenography, the body, collaboration, and composition. Each chapter

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisHow do you choose a musical to direct that suits your amateur theatre group's needs?How do you run an open and fair audition process and cast a show appropriately?How do you design a rehearsal schedule to cover a large set of amateur performers?How do you work with amateur actors to achieve a level of professionalism in performance while maintaining the enjoyment?Directing Amateur Musical Theatre offers answers to all of these questions and many, many more.Demystifying the pre-production process and auditions through to rehearsals and opening night, this book offers a roadmap for success for amateur directors everywhere.Rooted in the wide-ranging experience of a working practitioner who specialises in directing amateur musical theatre across various different formats, it details ways to stage different types of musical numbers, through to blocking and staging a scene, as well as how to approach a text and expa

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