Performance art Books

Book SynopsisConceptual Performance explores how the radical visual art that challenged material aesthetics in the 1960s and 1970s tested and extended the limits, character and concept of performance.Conceptual Performance sets out the history, theoretical basis, and character of this genre of work through a wide range of case studies. The volume considers how and why principal modes and agendas in Conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s necessitated new engagements with performance, as well as expanded notions of theatricality. In doing so, this book reviews and challenges prevailing histories of Conceptual art through critical frameworks of performativity and performance. It also considers how Conceptual art adopted and redefined terms and tropes of theatre and performance: including score, document, embodiment, documentation, relic, remains, and the narrative recuperation of ephemeral work. While showing how performance has been integral to Conceptual art's critiques ofTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Languages 3. Documents 4. Things 5. Infiltrations 6. Theatricalities 7. Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisSpencer Hazel is Reader in Applied Linguistics and Communication at Newcastle University, UK.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow does theatre shape the body and perceptions of it? How do bodies on stage challenge audience assumptions about material evidence and the truth? Theory for Theatre Studies: Bodies responds to these questions by examining how theatre participates in and informs theories of the body in performance, race, queer, disability, trans, gender, and new media studies. Throughout the 20th century, theories of the body have shifted from understanding the body as irrefutable material evidence of race, sex, and gender, to a social construction constituted in language. In the same period, theatre has struggled with representing ideas through live bodies while calling into question assumptions about the body. This volume demonstrates how theatre contributes to understanding the historical, contemporary and burgeoning theories of the body. It explores how theories of the body inform debates about labor conditions and spatial configurations. Theatre allows performers to shift an audience'sTrade ReviewTheory for Theatre Studies: Bodies offers a rich survey of the body in performance through a broad and diverse range of examples that refer to wider socio-cultural movements and concerns yet are firmly placed in theatre practice. Soyica Diggs Colbert draws arguments fluently, shifting from illustration to illustration, theory to theory, with ease and in a way that remains focused for the reader. -- Josephine Machon, Middlesex University, UKSoyica Diggs Colbert’s extraordinary new book Theory for Theatre Studies: Bodies is a comprehensive and complex consideration of the discontinuities of material and discursive theatrical histories from Medieval Drama to the contemporary period, which challenges scholars and artists to reconsider how embodied meaning is created by and through performance on stage. This game-changing text deftly argues that bodies carry meaning into every theatrical text and event and thus directly impact how shifting understandings of race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality and ability become inseparable facets through which modalities of power, economics and privilege are realized on and off stage. Colbert connects both theatrical and critical theoretical discourses of the acting body in Theory for Theatre Studies: Bodies as she translates new possibilities of imagining, seeing and reading the body. This book unhinges notions of classical texts and is poised to become a 'must read' book for any artist, scholar and/or theater enthusiast who believes that equitable and inclusive theater is not only obtainable in the 21st century, but necessary for manifesting anti-racist futures. * Nicole Hodges Persley, University of Kansas, USA *Table of ContentsSeries Preface Acknowledgements Bodies: An Introduction Section One: Historical Approaches to Theatre Theory Section Two: Extended Case Studies Section Three: Porous Bodies: New Interpretations References Further Reading Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHearing Maskanda outlines how people make sense of their world through practicing and hearing maskanda music in South Africa. Having emerged in response to the experience of forced labour migration in the early 20th century, maskanda continues to straddle a wide range of cultural and musical universes. Maskanda musicians reground ideas, (hi)stories, norms, speech and beliefs that have been uprooted in centuries of colonial and apartheid rule by using specific musical textures, vocalities and idioms. With an autoethnographic approach of how she came to understand and participate in maskanda, Titus indicates some instances where her acts of knowledge formation confronted, bridged or invaded those of other maskanda participants. Thus, the book not only aims to demonstrate the epistemic importance of music and aurality but also the performative and creative dimension of academic epistemic approaches such as ethnography, historiography and music analysis, that aim towards conceptualTrade ReviewAttentive to her positionality as a European scholar, Titus turns her musicological ear to maskanda. She invites readers into the pleasures of hearing Zulu musicians’ syncretic creativity, while gaining an understanding of the stylistic features that musicians value. Readers will be inspired to explore this dynamic, abundant world of listening, vexed as it is by histories of racism, sexism, coloniality and scarce resources. * Louise Meintjes, Professor of Music and Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, USA, and author of Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid *South African music followers and educators have long been waiting for a major intellectual study of the famous and much beloved musical form, Zulu maskanda guitar. This is at last it. Barbara Titus addresses the music and its exponents from more perspectives than we thought possible, from the artistic to the social to the philosophical. Ethnomusicologists must add this study to their libraries. * David B. Coplan, Emeritus Professor in Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction – Foregrounding Aural Experiences Part I – Maskanda in Colonial, Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa 1. Maskanda’s Colonial, Apartheid and Post-Apartheid Presence 2. Foregroundings of Maskanda’s Styles and Substyles Part II – Maskanda as a Discourse of Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa 3. Ground Level: The Kushikisha Imbokodo Festival in Durban 4. Middle Level: The MTN Onkweni Royal Festival in Ulundi 5. Up Level: Shiyani Ngcobo’s Tour through the Netherlands Part III – Hearing Maskanda 6. Knowing Zuluness Aurally 7. At Home in the World 8. Sharing Aural Space Conclusion: Maskanda Epistemology Appendix: Song Lyrics References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Barbara Jelavich Book Prize 2023“I am Jugoslovenka” argues that queer-feminist artistic and political resistance were paradoxically enabled by socialist Yugoslavia’s unique history of patriarchy and women’s emancipation. Spanning performance and conceptual art, video works, film and pop music, lesbian activism and press photos of female snipers in the Yugoslav wars, the book analyses feminist resistance in a range of performative actions that manifest the radical embodiment of Yugoslavia’s anti-fascist, transnational and feminist legacies. It covers celebrated and lesser-known artists from the 1970s to today, including Marina Abramovic, Sanja Ivekovic, Vlasta Delimar, Tanja Ostojic, Selma Selman and Helena Janecic, along with music legends Lepa Brena and Esma Redžepova. “I am Jugoslovenka” tells a unique story of women’s resistance through the intersection of feminism, socialism and nationalism in East European visual culture."Trade Review'Examining both well-known and heretofore neglected artists, this book provides a nuanced discussion of gender, feminism and identity politics in the region. It also serves to widen the discussion about feminist performance practices and strategies beyond the canonical west.'Amy Bryzgel, Professor of Film and Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen'"I am Jugoslovenka!" is an essential, nuanced feminist intervention into Yugoslav studies. In discussing Yugoslav feminist performance politics, the book places artists and performers as divergent as Marina Abramovic, Lepa Brena and Esma Redžepova side by side. Tumbas effectively dismantles elitist hierarchies about "high" and "low" cultural production and feminist praxis during and after Yugoslavia.'Dijana Jelaca, Brooklyn College'Jasmina Tumbas’s book surveys the cultural landscape of late socialist Yugoslavia to reveal the figure of “Jugoslovenka” as an innovative theoretical construct that captures the simultaneity of emancipatory opportunities and entrenched patriarchy. Imaginative and original, it provides a much-needed extension of the ongoing feminist reassessment of state socialism to the field of art history.'Vladimir Kulic, Associate Professor of Architectural History, Iowa State University'Tumbas's sensitive awareness of historical context is made in the deft interweaving of visual cultural analysis with the author's story as a refugee from Vojvodina in Germany in the early 1990s...'Art Monthly'I am Jugoslovenka!" presents a supremely compact overview of performance politics during and after Yugoslav socialism, providing elaborated examples and visual analysis of numerous performances, events or figures that were seen as agents of female emancipation and empowerment. As Jasmina Tumbas not only expertly chooses and compiles the existing research material, but also engages in producing novel approaches and theoretical concepts that will, hopefully, initiate future interest and interpretations.' Dr. Jana Dolecki'An enormously fascinating read through all five chapters, this book presents a captivating and hitherto unique overview of feminist performance politics in Yugoslavia. The range of figures alone (photos, artworks, paintings, posters, video stills) illustrates the dimensions of the vast territory Tumbas has mapped, showcasing feminist works spanning several decades. In demonstrating how much we can learn about Yugoslavia and Yugoslav feminism from visual history, the book shifts Western notions about the region significantly. Tumbas guides the Balkan imaginary away from grim warlords in camouflage suits facing trial in The Hague to a much brighter image: (post-)Yugoslavia’s female artists.'Dr. Miranda Jakiša, Comparative Southeast European Studies 'Tumbas also provides the reader the context of her own family background with a working-class Yugoslav mother and grandmother, neither of whom identified with feminism but taught her “more about emancipatory resistance than much of [her] higher education, or many of the feminist text[s]” she has read since then. It is this combination of the archival and the personal, which cannot be overlooked when discussing feminist art practices, that makes Tumbas’s such a rich study ... Tumbas’s book provides the type of diverse and expansive examination the field of art history has recently come to expect, one that includes a discussion of a range of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including the contributions not just of women artists but also Roma and queer women.'Art Journal 'It is not too often an art historical monograph achieves a comprehensive and engaging marriage of social, political, and cultural contexts. Jasmina Tumbas’s book “I am Jugoslovenka!”, achieves not only this, but also successfully incorporates the intersections of gender and the LGBTQ community....“I am Jugoslovenka!” is a cohesive and original work which accomplishes a championing of Jugoslovenka feminist legacy, a legacy and a history of work which has at times been overlooked and erased. Tumbas’s work is well-written and accessible to readers, chronicling the rise and fall of nationalism and its socialist impacts and ideologies in Yugoslavia'Erin Walter, University of Glasgow'It is this recognition and working within the messy contradictions of history that makes Tumbas’s text and its methodology a unique and truly paradigm-shifting contribution...Tumbas’s mapping of the histories of socialism, activism, feminist politics, art, and popular culture in, and after Yugoslavia, illuminates not just the otherwise highly understudied and unacknowledged contributions of Yugoslav artists and cultural producers within the history of art but poses a productively disruptive challenge to the discipline’s organizational logics. The interdependent developments of socialism, patriarchy, nationalism, feminist resistance, and avant-gardism that are articulated in the text put into practice a queer anticolonial methodology, the structure of which compliments the politics of the performances described therein.'CAA reviews".... a daring, well-researched, theoretically grounded, and beautifully written book....boldly refreshing. The content analysis of discrete cultural happenings—such as performances, exhibitions, specific artwork, or the praxis of arts collectives—brings to life the unique and dynamic arts and performance culture in Yugoslavia from the 1970s to the 1990s. At the same time, strongly grounded in theory, Tumbas’ analysis helps deconstruct monolithic understandings of feminism by analyzing its diverse political and cultural manifestations. The book not only offers a new interpretation of the Yugoslav cultural scene but also calls for scholars to reconceptualize categories of feminism and ideas of socialist emancipation."2023 Barbara Jelavich Book Prize Committee -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Jugoslovenka: the unique position of Yugoslav women during and after socialism1 Jugoslovenka’s body under patriarchal socialism: art and feminist performance politics in Yugoslavia2 Marina Abramovic, Lepa Brena and Esma Redžepova: socialist nation, Orientalism, and Yugoslav legacy3 Queer Jugoslovenka4 Jugoslovenka in a sea of avant-garde machismo: a feminist reading of NSK5 The last generation of Jugoslovenkas: diverse forms of emancipatory resistance and performance strategiesConclusion: Jugoslovenka: a wide-ranging model for feminist performance politics in art and culture Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book assesses Stuart Brisley's seminal influence on British art through his lifelong engagement with the histories and imaginaries of revolution. It links together revolutionary history with the author's critical dialogue with Brisley, developed over many years, to explore how revolutionary art, politics and history relate today. -- .

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisOthello is one of Shakespeare’s most contemporary and moving plays, with its emphasis on race, revenge, murder, and lost love. Chris Ofili’s new edition highlight’s the tragedy of Othello’s plight in ways no other previous edition of this play has.In twelve etchings Ofili has produced to illustrate this play, Othello is depicted with tears in his eyes, which flow below various scenes visualized in his forehead. Ofili asks us to see in Othello the great injustices that still plague the world today. These images add feeling to Shakespeare’s words, and together they form their own hybrid object—something between a book and a visual retelling of the tragedy. With a foreword by the renowned critic Fred Moten, this edition is the first of its kind and puts Othello’s blackness and interiority front and center, forcing us to confront the complex world that ultimately dooms him.The first play in the Seeing Shakespeare, Othello is illustrated by English contemporary artist Chris Ofili. Future titles in the series include A Midsummer Night’s Dream illustrated by Marcel Dzama, and The Merchant of Venice with images by Jordan Wolfson.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis‘Draws on a vital history of trans performance – an emerging canon that may no longer be ignored.’ – Morgan M Page, from her foreword Seven turbulent years. Five radical performances. One landmark publication. None of Us is Yet a Robot charts artist and performer Emma Frankland’s gender transition against a shifting social and political landscape, while grappling with the systematic erasure of trans history. Richly illustrated with images from the performances and designed in close collaboration with the author, the book is a new experience in itself as well as a vital document of Emma's groundbreaking work in theatre. Featuring introductions from foremost theatre practitioners, including Maddy Costa and Travis Alabanza, this collection of work is an evocative exploration of a trans experience in twenty-first century Britain.Trade Review‘Emma Frankland’s euphoric Rituals for Change is a near-perfect twinning of content and form. A hymn to mutability, an earthy, messy sacrament to constant evolution and alteration, it charts her gender transition in a series of gnomic, interlocking actions.’ * * * * * The Stage * The Stage *‘[Rituals for Change] is a private, beautiful, evocative piece of theatre. Tender, brave, and brilliant... It is storytelling at its simplest and bravest.’ British Theatre Guide * British Theatre Guide *'A wonderful, warm contemplation on change.' Lyn Gardner, The Guardian -- Lyn Gardner * The Guardian *

Read more less

Book SynopsisExperience the interdisciplinary performance scene of the 1980s and beyond through the eyes of one of its most compelling witnesses. Jacki Apple’s Performance / Media / Art / Culture traces performance art, multimedia theatre, audio arts and dance in the United States from 1983 to the present. Showcasing 35 years of Apple’s critical essays and reviews, the collection explores the rise and diversification of intermedia performance; how new technologies (or rehashed old technologies) influence American culture and contemporary life; the interdependence of pop and performance culture; and the politics of art and the performance of politics. Apple writes with a journalist’s attention to the immediacy of account and a historian’s attention to structural aesthetic and personal networks, resulting in a volume brimming with big ideas but grounded in concentrated reviews of individual performances. Many of the pieces featured in this collection originally appeared in small press journals and magazines that have now gone out of print. Preserved and republished here for current and future readers, they offer a rich portrait of performance at the end of the millennium.Trade Review'This book is a stunning piece of scholarship, authorship, curation, and artistry. A potent historical record of performance art, it would serve well as a primer for any scholar, artist, or upper-level/graduate course interested in learning this history from a primary source. At the same time, the essays combine to become an inspiring call-to-action for experimental art-making. I frequently found myself wanting to know Apple and LaPalma’s current thoughts on the questions they raise, but the book’s true gift is the space they allow for the essays to question each other. Through their tremendous restraint in not adding additional comment, they invite readers to explore their own curiosity about performance, performance art, or whatever term comes next.' -- Daniel Bird Tobin, Ecumenica: Performance and Religion'[Apple] seems to have done more thinking and writing about this unstable and hard-to-contain genre than anyone else on the West Coast. [...] As a chronicle of 35-plus years of avant-garde ‘barricadesmanship’ in Los Angeles, Performance / Media / Art / Culture preserves an atmosphere of politico-aesthetic urgency, which can give the reader the off-kilter feeling that art ‘spaces’ surely are the place where ‘the world’ gets changed. [...] It’s a valuable history of some very untamed goings-on over time, and a detailed chronicle of what can happen when art turns into agitprop ruled by committee. One has the feeling that Jacki Apple’s influence extends to many an arts professor and art performer working today; this book ensures that and also shows why. It will have a long shelf life in academic and art libraries.' -- Anthony Mostrom, Los Angeles Review of Books'Only a handful of writers have the intellectual chops, creative intuition and vision of art history to speak holistically about performance art, but Jacki Apple consistently proves herself essential to the field and how we understand it. She digs into both the formal and the ineffable dimensions of performance with unmatched power and clarity without sacrificing honesty about the art and artists she clearly loves. Jacki stands in the evolving vortex of performance art so we can see its future.' -- Eric Gutierrez, Writer/former Executive Editor, High Performance'In the late 1980s and early '90s, Jacki Apple's pioneering essays on radio art as an emerging practice in the U.S. stood tall. Hardly any other writers publishing texts on radio, came from an arts background let alone an interdisciplinary one. Apple did, and her voice spoke with unprecedented insight, intellectual rigour, clarity and passionate conviction on the subject. She discussed and critiqued the most innovative and inspiring art works for broadcast in the context of the politics of the industry and of contemporary American culture. This wonderful edition encompasses the full range of her critical writings.' -- Regine Beyer, writer/radio producer and editor, Germany-USA'For several decades now, Jacki Apple's astute observations of the arts, performance and culture in Los Angeles have added profound insight to this still burgeoning landscape populated by the movers and shakers who flock here. Her history as an artist in her own right expands the depth and comprehension of her analysis. She has been an influencer in the truest sense, advancing the cultural discussion with erudition and compassion. Among the annals of tomes dedicated to understanding why LA is so significant, so centripetal, this is a long- awaited addition.' -- Tony Abatemarco, Playwright, Performer, Co-Artistic Director - Skylight Theatre Company'Writing with deep historical knowledge, compassion and generosity, Jacki Apple is an artists’ critic, always seeking first to reveal and then to celebrate the heart of a performance, no matter what the medium. Her fearless radicalism, tempered by a refreshing sense of humour, uncovers buried roots while also posing the most essential cultural question: how does this art help us understand who we are? I am particularly enthralled by the final section, Concerning Nature, essential reading during a time when ecocidal capitalism has surely reached the breaking point.' -- Gregory Whitehead, Artist/writer'Jacki Apple’s writing about the temporal arts stuns the reader with its capacity to contextualise projects historically. She weaves together diverse cultural interventions with an urgency about their meaning for this crucial moment in the world.' -- Beverly Naidus, artist, author, activist and Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts, University of Washington, Tacoma'Jacki Apple has always made works that come at you from every possible angle. As composer, performer, writer and cultural detective, she is fearless at pushing the boundaries of her own work, while simultaneously providing platforms for other artists to push their own possibilities. This book has been brewing for over 35 years. It is the story of what where when why and how we are in this culture now, told by a vital participant and invaluable witness.' -- Terry Allen, Artist 2019'Jacki Apple is a tireless advocate for the aesthetic, the generative, for art that intervenes and illuminates. She is the rare artist who is generous and revelatory, bringing enormous skill and knowledge to the work of fellow artists crossing many disciplines, as do her own intricate and multifaceted creations.' -- Jeff McMahon, Performer and writer. Associate Professor, Arizona State University'Jacki Apple has always been a fair and thoughtful advocate of the arts. There are so few writers with her depth and knowledge around. Expansive and generous, Jacki writes with an open, inclusive heart.' -- Ping Chong, Artistic director, Ping Chong and Company'Jacki Apple’s heightened artistic perception has opened my eyes to the meaning of my early visceral raw performances from the 1980’s to the present more theatrically polished ones. Her insightful critical writing not only changed the way I understood my own work and its role in pushing boundaries and breaking taboos, but also the performance work of my peers in times of political pressure. For anyone who wants to understand this history, this book is eye-opening.' -- John Fleck, Performance artist'Jacki Apple’s accurate, intimate, gracious, erudite and insightful writing provides a front row seat to an expanding cultural big-bang. This book is a gift to those of us determined to understand the who, the where, the when, the how and the why of the tectonic shifts that brought social interaction into the scope and insight of art makers. Her enthusiasm for the subject coupled with a commitment to her readers makes for learning more than history. She makes the history feel contemporary.' -- Conrad Gleber PhD, Media artistTable of ContentsForeword by Marina LaPalma PART I - THE TV GENERATION: MEDIA CULTURE AND PERFORMANCE PART II - SPECTACLE, FILM, COLLABORATION PART III - CROSSING CULTURES: SOUND, SPACE, GESTURE PART IV - HISTORY RESTAGED PART V - PROPHESIES PAST TENSE PART VI - POLITICS OF CULTURE PART VII - CONCERNING NATURE Afterword: A Retrospective View

Read more less

Book SynopsisDevising Theatre and Performance is a hands-on guide for artists, students and teachers of performance at any stage of their practice. It offers a wide range of creative prompts and pathways enriched with critical thinking tools and questions, a hybrid approach Hill and Paris call ‘Curious Methods’. This is a welcome addition to the field, created and curated by two experienced artists who have operated at the international interface of academia and professional practice for over three decades. The collection is packed with fun, creative, thoughtful exercises distilled from over twenty years of running interdisciplinary artist workshops and teaching both devising and performance making. As well providing numerous exercises and suggestions for devising, composing and editing original works, this book offers tools for giving and receiving feedback, critical reflection and framing artistic work within academic research contexts. Readers can choose to dip in and out, to follow the book as a course or to work section by section, focusing on organizing principles such as working from the body, working with site, working with objects or performance activism. The book includes a detailed production workbook and a practice-based research workbook you can tailor to your own projects. The 'Curious Methods' approach encourages users to take the time and space their practice deserves while offering tools, nourishment and encouragement and inviting them to take risks beyond their comfort zones. The exercises are carefully described so that they can easily be tested out by readers, and are well contextualized in relation to vivid examples from contemporary performance practice and relevant political contexts. This compelling approach goes beyond many other books on theatre devising, which merely provide performance recipes; they do so by repeatedly highlighting the vital cultural relevance and potential personal impact of the experiments that they invite us to undertake. The primary audience for this important new book will be academics, instructors and students in courses on devised theatre, improvisation, performance art, experimental performance and practice-based research. It will be essential for classroom use, for students of theatre and performance and live art – undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D., teachers and all those needing strategies for getting started. It will also appeal to readers from the broader arts, humanities and social sciences who are seeking resources for integrating creative methods into their research.Trade Review'Curious’s methods are at once tender, lyrical, soul-stirring, and politically charged. To practise their methods with them is joyous and inspiring.' -- Jen Harvie, Queen Mary University of London'For the student/teacher/creator of performance practice, this work is a gift from the gods. The original gods - the muses - where creation takes shape from within the body and the body politic (the necessary “I” and “we” of it). If you imagine you don’t need this book, you especially need this book. The very reading of this text brings the reader’s body into being and we are suddenly prompted to get up and create in response. The best advice: “Start with a question.” This, the first step, in the journey of original work that Paris and Hill invite us to return to with every new day as artists and scholars; and, they have created a compelling cartography of design to guide us along the way. I am deeply grateful for their wisdom.' -- Cherrie Moraga, University of California Santa Barbara'A deep dive into creative practice, Curious Methods makes available a generative range of excellent ideas, prompts, exercises, and inspirations for bringing forth performance as research, as experience, as finely crafted art form, as surprise. Working with this book, whether alone or with others, will help harness the power of the impulsive and open doors marked non-linear to expand the boundaries of creative possibilities in as yet unimagined directions. This is an invitation to your own artistic journey! Pack light. Hill and Paris help you find what you need all along the way.' -- Rebecca Schneider, Brown University'This is an essential resource for both artists and scholars and I can't think of anyone better placed to make this offering than Helen and Leslie and their incurably curious minds.' -- Lois Weaver, Artist, Activist, Split Britches'Curious Methods offers an invaluable resource that brings insights, at once practical and profound, into methods of performance making. The pragmatic wisdom that illumines this book is vital for anyone making creative work, from the beginner amateur to the seasoned professional. The thoughtful and meditative quality of these exercises will enrich not only your creative work, it will also attune you to glimmers of everyday redemption and enable you to cultivate a joyful ethic of practice.' -- Jisha Menon, Stanford University'This inspiring, energizing, and curiosity-inducing collection of exercises, lessons, and prompts will activate performance-based artists at all levels. Whether building a daily creative practice or making a performance, readers of Curious Methods will quickly become participants in Hill and Paris’ generous and generative project.' -- Stacy Wolf, Princeton University'One of the most compelling aspects of the book is Hill and Paris’s offer of “companionship” - encouragement to test out, to dream, to fail spectacularly, to seek out and be receptive to deeply personal discoveries with these generous, vibrant, and compassionate artists.' -- Laura Levin, York University, Toronto'This beautifully executed and crafted book is the ideal companion for anyone working in the field of contemporary performance and theatre-making. This is a very generous offering of a resourceful and inventive toolbox from one of the most prominent performance duos working in Live Art. I can very easily imagine delving into it on a regular basis to feed my practical pedagogy as well as my own creative processes.' -- Chloé Déchery, University of Paris 8, France'What a gorgeously tasty, seductive, and inventive set of invitations to create new performance fill this remarkable book. The "curious methods" of Leslie Hill and Helen Paris help us follow our noses into the myth and memory that live loud in devised work. An invaluable user's manual for being human!' -- Tim Miller, solo performer and author of A Body in the OTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements 1. Curious Methods 2. Pep Talk Daily Practice Outfoxing the Censor Freewriting A Time and a Place Failing Better 3. Working from the Body Arrivals and Departures Begin Again Tongue-Tied Body Map Body Memory Invisible The Sense of Smell Homesick Olfactory Portraits Fight Flight Freeze Gut Feelings Secret Duets Inheritance Tracks Family Traits and Mannerisms Persona Walk This Way Building a Persona 4. Working with Objects Tactile Memory Exquisite and Mundane Inherited Objects Box Stories ‘The Lovers’ Suitcase 5. Working with Site Give and Take Ghost Library Ghost Duets In Search of a Gesture You Are Here Map Making, Three Ways Blurring Time and Place Things ain’t what they used to be Best Foot Forward Marks and Scars Dancing Place and Space Private, Keep Out! Taking Up Residence Infinitesimal Detail Fifteen Quick Freewrites on Place Autotopographically Speaking Silent Stroll Closing Thoughts 6. Working with Pairings Failure & Text Desire & Proximity Ritual & Object 7. Activism Manifestos Impulse Manifesto Make Manifest Lending and Borrowing Signs Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve On Location Stand Up, Speak Out Living Newspaper Ripped from the Headlines Re-Enactment Choose Your Battles Verbatim Theatre Explosive Material – a Journalistic Exercise Explosive Compounds – an Ethnographic Exercise One-Minute Plays Mix Tape Produce, Adapt or Devise? A Moment in History Cross That Line Closed Border Open Border Tactical Toolkit Make a Spectacle Reflections 8. Production Workbook Operating Instructions Kick-Starting Process Realm of Concern I’ve always wanted to be able to … Feathering the Nest Look Book Composition Space and Composition Dream Island Fleshing It Out Dancing the Dynamics Workshopping Index Card Storyboard Dear Dead Darlings Remember the Audience Dear Audience Feedback Three Adjectives Performance Response Brief Hauntings Companion Piece Invited Guests Bespoke Cartomancy Documentation Pen Pal Favourite Performance You Never Saw 9. A Practice-Based Research Workbook Performing Knowledges Back Stage Escape Velocity Glorious Manifestations Generative Research Mapping Your Practice Diagrammatic Praxis Secret Fear Abstractions on Secret Fears Defining Your Dramaturgy Signatures of Practice Art-I-Facts Love Letter Artist-Scholar Family Album Methodologies Phenomenology Doing a Phenomenology Phenomenological Journal Autoethnography Project Descriptions in 1st and 3rd Specialist Knowledge Autoethnographic Journal Keeping a Lab Notebook Designing Bespoke PBR Exercises – Two Case Studies Gut Feelings UpRoot Sowing from Seed PBR Evaluation and Critique Bespoke Evaluation Rubric Amalgamated Evaluation Rubric Bibliography and Further Reading Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisCritics and fans alike often mistake theatrical song and dance as evoking a sweeping sense of simplicity, heteronormativity, and traditionalism. Nothing drove home this cultural misunderstanding for Kelly Kessler as when a relative insisted she watch the Clint Eastwood-Lee Marvin cinematic transfer of Paddy Chayefsky’s Paint Your Wagon (1969) with a young niece and nephew because it was a ‘sweet movie.’ In the relative’s memory, good old-fashioned singing and dancing—matched with the power of an assumed hegemonic embrace of social norms—far outweighed the whoremongering, alcoholism, wife-selling, and what appears to be narratively sanctioned polyamory. This collection seeks to trouble such an over-idealized impression of musical theatre. Tackling Rockettes, divas, and chorus boys; hit shows such as Hamilton and Spring Awakening; and lesser-known but ground-breaking gems like Erin Markey’s A Ride on The Irish Cream and Kirsten Childs’s Bella: An American Tall Tale. Gender, Sex and Sexuality in Musical Theatre: He/She/They Could Have Danced All Night takes a broad look at musical theatre across a range of intersecting lenses such as race, nation, form, dance, casting, marketing, pedagogy, industry, platform-specificity, stardom, politics, and so on. This collection assembles an amazing group of established and emergent musical theatre scholars to wrestle with the complexities of the gendered and sexualized musical theatre form. Gender and desire have long been at the heart of the musical, whether because ‘birds and bees’ (and educated fleas’) were doing it, a farm girl simply couldn’t ‘say no,’ or one’s ‘tits and ass’ were preventing them from landing the part. An exciting and vibrant collection of articles from the archives of Studies in Musical Theatre, with contributions from Ryan Donovan, Michele Dvoskin, Sherrill Gow, Jiyoon Jung, David Haldane Lawrence, Stephanie Lim, Dustyn Martinich, Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers, Deborah Paredez, Alejandro Postigo, George Rodosthenous, Janet Werther, Stacy Wolf, Elizabeth L. Wollman, Bryan Vandevender and Kelly Kessler, brought together with a newly commissioned piece by Jordan Ealey. All set against the backdrop of Kelly Kessler’s scene-setting introduction. Excellent potential for classroom and course use on undergraduate and graduate courses in theatre studies, musical studies, women’s and gender studies.Trade Review'In addition to the articles published as part of Studies in Musical Theatre, Kessler has included five other articles in her book to include recent developments and shows: new pieces on Spanish musical theatre performance and fandom; historicity and musical stories told through black female authorship, gender-flipped; non binary; and trans narratives, and the negotiated marketing and queerness on Broadway”. [...] Kessler did a fabulous job and presented a technically well-founded book that is very readable. The "Studies in Musical Theater" [journal] itself is also highly recommended.' -- von Martin Bruny, musicals – Das Musicalmagazin [Translated via Google. Original text in German]'I particularly enjoyed the arc of essays exploring the excesses of the divas (whether stage characters like Ethel Merman’s Rose, Angela Lansbury’s Mame, and Elaine Stritch’s Joanne, or over-thetop female stage personalities like Carol Channing and Tallulah Bankhead) as commentaries on the social constraints placed on women. I appreciated Elizabeth Wollman’s analysis of the paradox that even as the adult musical of the 1960s and ’70s employed nudity and sexual frankness in the attempt to foster both Gay and Women’s Liberation, it relied so heavily on stereotypes and nudity that it devolved into mere exploitation. Likewise, the editor’s own survey of how the visibility of LGBT experience in musicals like La Cage aux Folles, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Fun Home, and The Prom was undercut by marketing campaigns that downplayed the shows’ queerness. Thus, several of this collection’s essays demonstrate just how high toward heaven the musical has allowed gays to kick. ' -- Raymond-Jean Frontain, The Gay & Lesbian Review/WorldwideTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Belting Away at Binaries – Kelly Kessler PART 1: EXPLORING AND EXPLODING THE GENDER BINARY ON THE MUSICAL STAGE 1. The Radio City Rockettes and the Making of a Sisterhood – Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers 2. Billy Elliot the Musical: Visual Representations of Working-Class Masculinity and the All-Singing, All-Dancing Bo[d]y – George Rodosthenous 3. Hamilton’s Women – Stacy Wolf 4. Rewriting the American West: Black Feminist (Re)Vision in Bella: An American Tall Tale – Jordan Ealey 5. A-List Drag Queens, Accidental Drag Kings and Illegible Gender Rebels: (Mis)Representations of Trans Experience in Contemporary Musicals – Janet Werther PART 2: EMBODYING AND EXPLOITING SEX AND SEXUALITY ON AND OFF BROADWAY 6. Chorus Boys: Words, Music and Queerness (c.1900–36) – David Haldane Lawrence 7. Emancipation or Exploitation? Gender Liberation and Adult Musicals in 1970s New York – Elizabeth L. Wollman 8. A Substitute for Love: The Performance of Sex in Spring Awakening – Bryan M. Vandevender 9. If You Were Gay, That’d Be Okay: Marketing LGBTQ+ Musicals from La Cage to The Prom – Ryan Donovan PART 3: DIVAS DON’T CARE ABOUT NOBODY’S RULES 10. Embracing Excess: The Queer Feminist Power of Musical Theatre Diva Roles – Michelle Dvoskin 11. Stepping Out of Line: (Re)Claiming the Diva for the Dancers of Broadway – Dustyn Martincich 12. Diva Relations in The Color Purple, the 2015 Broadway Revival – Deborah Paredez 13. How Can the Small Screen Contain Her? Television, Genre and the Twenty-First-Century Broadway Diva Onslaught – Kelly Kessler PART 4: ONSTAGE, OFFSTAGE AND ONLINE: GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL MUSICAL PRACTICE 14. The Queerness of Copla: Musical Hope for the Spanish LGBTQ – Alejandro Postigo 15. Queering Brechtian Feminism: Breaking Down Gender Binaries in Musical Theatre Pedagogical Performance Practices – Sherrill Gow 16. For Progress or Profit: The Possibilities and Limitations of Playing with Gender in Twenty-First-Century Musical Theatre – Stephanie Lim 17. The Right to See and Not Be Seen: South Korean Musicals and Young Feminist Activism – Jiyoon Jung Notes on Contributors

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe depiction of New York City in song across avariety of different genres, focusing onjazz genres, as well as the work of both New Yorkborn artists like Billy Joel or Lin-Manuel Mirandaand artists living most of their life in New York Citylike Shinehead or Debbie Harry, that are intimatelyconnected with the city. The book analyzes songswritten about New York City, and engage with thedepiction of the city within them, but mainly use itas a way to deal with several musical genres thatthe city has been home to, and instrumental indeveloping. These include the musical theatrescene on Broadway and beyond, but also early20th century sheet music, hip hop, disco, punk,dancehall, jazz, swing, rock or pop music. Thecollection includes essays from authors with acultural studies, media studies, cultural history ormusicology background, making possible a far-ranging treatment of the interconnection of the cityspace and its musical history.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHave you ever been to a play? This is what happens at a play.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe book foregrounds the important lineage ofincredible women working across performance,live art and cabaret and asks how the term'Showwoman' can transgress the figure of theshowman as a provider of the spectacular. Itencourages the showgirl to finally graduate intoadulthood. 60 illus.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA deep dive into the practice of performance artist Leigh Bowery that reveals the fullness of his extravagant range. Explores how his performative costuming and live art have influenced visual culture and the expanded field of performance studies; a contribution until now largely obscured by Bowery's cult status and importance to fashion. 50 illus.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPerformance in the Museum charts the main stages of the inclusion of performance in the museum from the 1970s to the present day. While performance emerged in the late 1960s as an anti-institutional form of art, it has recently gained an extraordinary visibility in contemporary art museums. This book focuses on three specific areas affecting museums: how to display performance art; conservation of performance art; and acquisition. What emerges from this study is that the museum, although rarely anticipating the specific issues raised by performance, has assumed a unique position in devising curatorial strategies adapted to this medium. Through close analysis of a selection of exhibitions and curatorial practices from many different parts of the world, and from specific periods from the past fifty years, this book identifies key moments of the integration of performance in the museum, thus filling a crucial gap both in the history of performance and curatorial studies. Despite the recent surge of exhibitions on performance and the part played by museums in this phenomenon, the history of the display, the conservation and the acquisition of live performance remains largely uncharted. This book offers a thought-provoking and highly readable assessment of some fundamental questions in contemporary curatorial practice.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Display: Against the Norm; Conservation: Re-enactment Problematised; Acquisition: Buying Objects and Ideas; Conclusion; Index; List of Exhibitions

Read more less

Book SynopsisLive, or performance, art is one of the most controversial and hotly discussed areas of art practice to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century. The history of live art is one of challenge to audiences, art traditions and cultural values. With elements of performance now part of the practice of many of today's best-known artists, and boundaries between visual art, theatre and live art more and more blurred, this collection is long overdue. Leading artists and thinkers assess the relevance of live art now, its impact within the visual arts and the broader cultural sphere. Hugo Glendinning's stunning colour photographs of performance events are combined with numerous essays examining the political, philosophical and cultural resonances of the work of a diverse range of international live artists, both historical and contemporary. Accessible, critically astute and expansive, Live is an indispensable resource for all those with an interest in some of the most vibrant and contested issues in art today.

Read more less

Book Synopsis12 contemporary approaches to the human body that are being used by performers or in the context of performance training. The second in a series of books entitled: Ways of Being a Body. Following on from Sandra Reeve's Nine Ways of Seeing a Body (which offered a historical perspective on different key approaches to the body over time), this new edited collection brings together a wide range of contemporary approaches to the body that are being used by performers or in the context of performance training. The intention is for students, dancers, performers, singers, musicians, directors and choreographers to locate their own preferred approach(es) to the body-in-performance amongst the lenses described here. The collection is also designed to facilitate further research in that direction as well as to signpost alternatives that might enrich their current vocabulary. All 12 approaches represent the praxis and research of their authors. The chapters reveal a wide variety of different interests but they share the common framework of the notion of 'body as flux', of 'no fixed or determined sense of self' and of supporting the performer's being-becoming-being as a skilful creative entity, emphasising the intelligence of the body at work.Table of ContentsThe Ontogenetic Body - makes us aware of developmental processes and gives us a way to embody the forms, mind states and movement patterns of our cellular histories. The Intersubjective Body - explores the inter-relationship between dancing bodies and the environment in the context of site-responsive performance practice. The Autobiographical Body - examines somatic performance practices that explore autobiography as a fluid experience based on relationships with other people and places. The Resonant Body - considers 'cellular-body-mindfulness' through site-responsive sound dance improvisation, paying particular attention to temporality. The Dwelling Body - sees the practitioner as a conduit: experiencing body and place as continually in process and recognising the vital inter-relationship of place and identity. The Vocal Body - moves beyond the idea of the body as a 'homebase' of vocal emission and offers an integrative approach to physiovocal unity. The Musical Body - re-intepreting Stockhausen's Tierkreis offers a physical approach to performance where the body is the driving force behind musical interpretation. The Resilient Body - through the adaptive capacity of the human body the performer can develop resilience and potential. The Imaginal Body - rooted in the Alexander technique, this approach uses anatomical images, specific thinking, touch and visualisations to let go of habitual restrictive patterns and release imaginative potential. The Learnt Body - proposes a training of the performer's body that can consciously transcend socially coded habits and movement patterns. The Kinetic Body - through Kudiyattam dance training, this approach demonstrates how, underpinning the kinetics of breathing, 'foot' produces temporality, which is the fundamental source of the presence of the body. The Cognitive Body - uses Damasio's body-minded brain and 'somatic marker hypothesis' to articulate methods of physical devising for performance

Read more less

Book Synopsis'Ways to Wander' is your invitation to experiment with a whole range of different ways to 'go for a walk'. Rather than picking up a map and following a footpath, the book offers 54 intriguingly different suggestions, tactics and recollections, all submitted by artists (most of them involved with the Walking Artists Network). There are plenty of ideas you can just go out and try, but others are more performative or explore the psychological, cultural and philosophical aspects of walking Pop the book in your back pocket, leave it in your rucksack, share it with friends and take them on a walk, use it in creative workshops, read it as if each instruction were poetry, engage with each page as visual art or as a performance activity, let it remind you of places you've been or walks you'd like to do. When the moment takes you, be inspired by the variety of inventive and reflective ideas mapped out here and then simply...wander.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPhil Smith (Crabman/Mythogeography) and Tony Whitehead join forces with master photographer John Schott to lead readers on a `virtual’ journey to explore difference and change on their way to an unknown destination. “What is most real is what you have still to discover.” “Relax in your seat. Allow the train to take you along the water’s edge to the beginning point of your walking pilgrimage… When the train pulls into the platform, step off. Hidden behind the platform is a broken machine; a mechanised fortune teller – the `voice of truth’ – discarded from the nearby arcade of slot machines. Propped against the side of a building, its mouth is silent, its pronouncements have ceased; any truths you find today will be your own.” Pilgrimages – real and imagined - are always popular, sometimes compulsory. Bodh Gaya, Santiago, Mecca, Jerusalem, Puri: a few of the sites that beckon. The pilgrimage to the authentic self takes a similar path in an interior landscape. In the 15th century, Felix Fabri combined the two, using his visits to Jerusalem to write a handbook for nuns wanting to make a pilgrimage in the imagination, whilst confined to their religious houses. For Guidebook for an Armchair Pilgrimage, the authors followed Fabri’s example: first walking together over many weeks – not to reach a destination but simply to find one – then, in startling words and images, conjuring an armchair pilgrimage for the reader… along lanes and around hills, into caves and down to the coast. “We arrived again and again at what we assumed would be a final `shrine’, only to be drawn onwards and inwards towards another kind of finality… rather than reaching a destination, the pilgrimage was repeatedly reborn inside us, until its most recent rebirth in this book.” Over the course of the 19-day Armchair Pilgrimage, they invite us to experience the world around us just as they did as they walked. So, over the first three days, they suggest that we contemplate, among other things: • Our habit of generalising – acquired 40-50,000 years ago, when our `chapel’ mind of specialisms became a `cathedral’ mind • Our tendency to let one thing remind us of another thing • What it might be like to be an ocean where fish swim through us • How the world experiences us just as we experience it: `gently feel for the feelers feeling for you’ • A world where we tend to `add’ meaning and intensity • A world where we let go (without the aid of dementia) of memory, imagination, desire and wild fancy. And, as the pilgrimage concludes: “Returning is never going back to the same place.” “A brilliant idea, inviting us to `be present’ to a reality that is imagined and recorded, mediated by words and images. The feelings and emotions are no less `real’ than if we were actually standing in and experiencing that reality. I love the genius of words and images displayed here -- no less than the reality itself.” Carol Donelan, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Carleton College, MinnesotaTrade Review“A brilliant idea, inviting us to `be present’ to a reality that is imagined and recorded, mediated by words and images. The feelings and emotions are no less `real’ than if we were actually standing in and experiencing that reality. I love the genius of words and images displayed here -- no less than the reality itself.” Carol Donelan, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Carleton College, Minnesota

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisNightclub, theatre, creative hub, party place, and one of the most important venues in Scotland, Britain and Europe: for almost 25 years, The Arches was the beating heart of Glasgow. In 1991, former punk-turned-theatre director Andy Arnold walked into the disused red brick Victorian railway arches underneath Glasgow's Central Station and immediately saw the potential of the space. Not even he could have imagined its future, as simultaneously one of the biggest and most famous nightclubs in the world and a major player on the European theatre scene. Until its closure following a drug-related death in 2015, The Arches carved its own, indefinable path, playing a vital role in the lives of many Scottish artists along the way. Some of those stars of the future began their careers taking tickets, hanging coats and serving drinks there. For the first time, the people who made the venue get to tell their story. Piecing together accounts from directors, DJs, performers, clubbers, artists, bar tenders, actors, audiences and staff, Brickwork writes the biography of a space that was always more than its bricks and mortar.Trade Review"A brilliant blow-by-blow account that really shows what made Glasgow's much-missed clubbing establishment click, tick and boom." Ralph Moore, Mixmag'Everyone’s heard of The Arches in Glasgow, even a Londoner like me, but what I didn’t know was what an important venue it really was – not simply as a club, but as an artistic space, theatre, and cultural hub – and how much love, passion and integrity went into its success and longevity. This story, told by its impassioned staff, punters, and supporters is not just an absorbing read, but an inspiring tale of artistic, financial, and creative endeavour that comes from giving a space like this to the right people.' Chris Liberator Table of ContentsAuthors' note Glasgow's Glasgow's Glasgow CHAPTER 1: 1990-1991 'Fuck it, let's just keep going.' CHAPTER 2: 1991-1993 'And then on Friday night we went through to The Arches...' CHAPTER 3: 1993-1999 'Here we fucking GO!' CHAPTER 4: 2000-2008 Drop the Pressure CHAPTER 5: 2008-2013 It's All Allowed CHAPTER 6: 2013-2015 'How can you have a day without a night?' Bits and Pieces: Some Favourite Memories from the people who made the Arches Dramatis Personae Appendix

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe experience and variety of walking practices have never been so broad, relevant or unpredictable. Walking Bodies charts some of their very latest developments. Editors Helen Billinghurst, Claire Hind and Phil Smith put out a call for artists, activists, academics, radical walkers and psychogeographers to discuss, perform and share their experiences of current walking cultures. In these essays, provocations, artworks and documentations, new terrains emerge and diverse energies and thinkings reflect the huge response to the initial call and the demand for tickets to the conference. 'Walking Bodies' evidences anxieties, exclusions and gradual but major changes of direction for walking arts, towards more considered and embodied practices that re-navigate their terrains and challenge assumptions about trajectories through the unhuman world. Here are the beginnings of differently negotiated, shared, provoked and provocative ambulations.Table of ContentsIntroductions Magical Aesthetics: walking with eight legs - Sarah Scaife Walking in Tree Time - Duncan Hay, Leah Lovett, Martin de Jode, Andrew Hudson-Smith Dancing-Walking with Trees - Vicky Hunter Walking with Elephants - Cathy Turner Being Horse: walking as an impossible beast - James Frost and Sonia Overall Pigeon Steps - Gabrielle Hoad and Megan Calver Crow - Matt Fletcher Walking away? From deep mapping to mutual accompaniment - Iain Biggs Web Walking - Helen Billinghurst and Phil Smith The Artist-Scholar Walks: Passage to Else-Where - Ishita Jain How do our bodies act as instruments of sensory navigation? - Emma Bush Suriashi as a ceremonial, subversive act - Ami Skanberg Dahlstedt From Working to Walking - Chloe Lund Inspiral Undergrowth - Rachel Gomme The Sight of the Walker - William Sharpe Walking Diagrams - Helen Billinghurst Visiting Sutton Pool - Monali Meher Object Place Walking - Jody Oberfelder A Route Unscrambled - Gary Winters and Claire Hind Words from Walks - Hamish Fulton Quipu - Elspeth (Billie) Penfold The S Project - Carly Butler and Gudrun Filipska White Man Walking: Settler Ambulation in Colonised Spaces - Ken Wilson Walking-with whiteness - Richard S. White/Walknow The Meaning and Importance of Refusals - Sarah Harper Access Denied? Walking Art and Disabled People - Morag Rose Mind the Gap - Philippe Guillaume The Documentary Drift: Lutyens, Cockington and Poetry - Sam Kemp 'It started with a film and ended with a walk' - Sam Christie Chip Walks - Hilary Ramsden and Clare Qualmann Noble & King, Walking with Correspondence - Simon King and Corinne Noble Chasing Mists - Anna Sanders-Falcini On Mythogeosonics - John Bowers and Tim Shaw

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne of the oldest storytelling traditions, shadow theatre combines puppetry with music, philosophy, history, storytelling, fashion, ritual, religion, and education.While each nation in Southeast Asia has its own distinct culture, shadow theatre is a shared theme. Many of the masters make their own puppets, play all the musical instruments, learn long texts in ancient languages, sing, study movement, and perform for long period of time in what is one of the most difficult and challenging art forms. Most of the performers are farmers, fisherman, factory workers, or teachers by day and artists by night.Through documentary photography, A Life in the Shadows by Constantine Korsovitis, illustrates the sophistication and value of shadow theatre and its creators, and the author has been capturing the spirit and multiplicity of shadow theatre since 1999 in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia, the common thread being the use of the Hindu epics of the Ramayana and the Mara Mahabharata as a source stories.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe most authoritative work on the creation of Bowie's music ever published

Read more less

Book SynopsisSkip Mort has had a life-long interest and involvement in stage lighting and is a regular contributor to the Teaching Drama magazine. He is an associate member of the Association of British Theatre Technicians and a life member of The Theatres Trust. Skip Mort trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has worked as an educational consultant, writer, lighting designer, teacher and college lecturer.Trade ReviewImpressive, on-the-job reference tool ... Its user friendly, well-illustrated and tabulated formats gives it the potential to be a strong source of practical information for arts students of all levels. 5* * Teaching Drama on the first edition *This has to be one of the most comprehensive books on the subject of stage lighting that I have ever seen. It's written for post 16 students who are studying stage lighting as well as entrants to higher education specialist courses, but it is also invaluable to the amateur theatre market... This is an absolute must for every amateur theatre group that lights their own productions. * Amdram on the 1st edition *I am sure it will become standard reading in theatre schools. * Michael Goldberg, Sales & Marketing Director, Phillips Entertainment on the 1st edition *Well presented both in content and technical quality of the material * Sightline: Journal of Theatre Technology and Design *Table of ContentsPart One - Lighting Technician Lanterns, Dimmers & Control Colour, Gobos & Effects Part Two - Lighting Designer Lighting a Performance Space Lighting Design Part Three - Lighting Resources Online Video Resources Technical info. Websites Key notes!

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of 2019 British Book Design & Production Award for Scholarly, Academic & Reference BooksThis beautiful book charts the development of the circus as an art form around the world, from antiquity to the present day.Using over 200 circus related artworks from the French National Library's private collections, celebrated cultural historian Pascal Jacob tells the story of travelling entertainers and their art and trade. From nomadic animal tamers of the Dark Ages to European jugglers and acrobats of the 1800s, from the use of the circus as Soviet propaganda to the 20th-century Chinese performance art renaissance, this is an exhaustive history with a uniquely international scope.Jacob draws on both rare and famous artworks, including prints dating from the 13th century, and paintings by Picasso and Doré. In doing so he demonstrates the circus to be a visual and physical masterpiece, constantly moving and evolving, and just as exciting an experience for audiences now as it was 1,Trade ReviewLike the circus, this magnificent volume offers a cavalcade of color and dynamism, dizzying the eye with photographs, posters, and reproductions of ephemera from the “living spectacle.” Drawing heavily on the holdings at the French National Library, Jacob—a circus scholar, historian, and director—contextualizes the stunning kaleidoscope of images, many of which have never been previously published, with an accessible overview of circus development ... Ideal for both scholars and aficionados of the circus, as well as those looking for a vibrant, engaging introduction to the form, this text moves from the circus's origins through its integrations with equestrian forms, to its triumph as a major mode of entertainment in the 1800s. Twentieth-century excursions include the Soviet circus, Chinese performers, Fellini’s fascination with circus through cinema, and circus arts schools of today ... [This] brilliant volume (rendered at times poetic by Augusta Dörr’s translation from French) will be appreciated by all, regardless of their background. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *The book is a wonderful romp through to the present day, richly illustrated with artworks, photographs, prints and posters, showing how this very particular form of entertainment continues to evolve. * Evening Standard *The Circus: A Visual History is 'one to watch' in August 2018 * The Guardian *The book is a beautiful object, brimming with archive images from the Bibliothèque nationale, it paints a world drenched in colours and filled with flying trapezes, leaping tigers and sumptuous costumes. Jacob's choice of illustrations proves that circus is above everything a visual art that constantly draws on tradition to reinvent itself... the book is a stunning and essential visual resource for anyone interested in the evolution of Western circus. * Times Literary Supplement *A distinguished circus promoter and cultural historian, Jacob has donated his vast private collection to the French National Library. Most of the illustrations in this beautiful book — vibrant posters, architectural drawings of circus buildings and group photographic portraits of performers — come from there ... [Jacob] herds his facts like a ringmaster in a series of fabulous stories loosely held together by the arresting and colourful images. * The Spectator *Spectators seated in circles stare up at trapeze artists who, as Pascal Jacob puts it in his new book, The Circus: A Visual History, re-enact the mythical flight of Icarus and hope to demonstrate that grounded human beings can enjoy the aerodynamic privileges of the gods. * The Observer *Stunning circus sights: Tom King recommend a visual history of one of the oldest forms of entertainment… a hefty and vibrant collection of images depicting the age-old spectacle… Immediately apparent in Jacob’s book is that the circus has been infinitely adaptable, with space in its cavernous tent for an endless variety of people. * The Morning Star *This book tells the story of both traditions, and it does so in impressive detail and with an infectious sense of fun. Examples tumble over each other like acrobats; big ideas are paraded around like elephants. * V&A Magazine *A rich, visual feast of archival wonders. Prepare to be amazed by this impressive performance history. * National Fairground and Circus Archive *The book has a 'mosaic effect', which Jacob also identifies as the defining trait of a circus performance. He herds his facts like a ringmaster in a series of fabulous stories loosely held together by the arresting and colourful images. * Oldie Magazine *An important and compelling tale of the international history of the circus, full of enchanting images and wonderful stories. * Professor Vanessa Toulmin, University of Sheffield, UK *With circus arts thriving and evolving internationally, the English-language publication of Jacob’s magnificent, authoritative survey is cause for celebration. * Dr Rolf Hughes, Newcastle University, UK *This book tells the story of both traditions [permanent and travelling circuses], and it does so in impressive detail and with an infectious sense of fun... [Jacob offers] an evocative account of a popular art form that has an unmatched ability to snag in our senses. * Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Professor of English Literature at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, UK *Are you looking for a Christmas present for yourself or a loved one? Look no further... it is without doubt one of the best of the new publications worldwide to celebrate [the 250th anniversary of the modern circus]. The author... is a renowned circus expert, famous for his collaborative work with the Big Apple Circus of New York, the mighty Ringling Bros, Barnum and Bailey Circus and the French circus company Cirque Phenix... the book is printed on fine paper with exemplary hard overs and its 240 pages are jam-packed with circus history from around the world, along with a wealth of over 200 fine illustrations... Visually it is a sheer delight, and Augusta Dorr's translation into English from the original French is excellent... This is a formidable volume, well-worthy of your Christmas stocking wishlist. * Don Stacey, King Pole magazine (December 2018) *The magic of the circus is captured in this stunning book, along with its evolution from the 13th century to present day Cultural historian Pascal Jacob has plundered the French National Library's archives to collate more than 200 artworks which chart a story of travelling entertainers, jugglers, acrobats, nomadic animal tamers and the iconic clown. The result is a visual feast you'll return to again and again. -- Katie Ekberg * The Australian Women's Weekly *Table of ContentsForeword by Marius Kwint ORIGINS: ANTIQUITY - 1770 THE GRAND HIGHWAY A Day at the Circus The Foundations of the 'Grande Banque d’Occident' Jugglers, Entertainers and Acrobats Priests, Gypsies, Merchants: Travellers’ Tales Fairs, Construction Sites and Rostrums: The First Performance Venues Preparing the Ground and Codes for Western Acrobatics IMPACT AND DOMINATION: 1770-1880 THE WEST CONQUERS THE WORLD It All Began with a Circle Families and Troupes: The Great Dynastic Ventures The Franconi Dynasty A Huge Building Site: The Circus Joins the City Equestrians Triumph Throughout Europe Pauline Cuzent Pantomimes and the Emergence of Narrative in the Circus Circus Bodies: The Advent of Spectacular Gymnastics Jules Léotard Whiteface and Auguste Clowns Foottit and Chocolat CHANGES:1880-1930 OF MEN AND BEASTS Exoticism, Wild Beasts and Splendour, German-Style Hans Stosch-Sarrasini Men and Beasts Claire Héliot Setting a System for Mobility: The Big Top America, America The Towering Figure of America and its Influence in Europe Phineas Taylor Barnum “Monsieur Loyal”: The Spoken Word Enters the Circus Roger Lanzac INFLUENCES: 1930-2015 THE BIG PLUNGE The Soviet Circus: State Circus and Vehicle for Propaganda Margarita Nazarova Karandash The Chinese Acrobatic Theatre: a Renaissance Xia Ju Hua The End of a World: The American Circus in Turmoil John Ringling North The Circo Fellini: A Fresh Perspective on the Ring, In Italy and Elsewhere The Revival of the Circus Arts in France, Quebec and Belgium Annie Fratellini FINALE: A Circus for Today and Tomorrow Glossary Bibliography Index of Names

Read more less

Book SynopsisPerforming Electronic Music Live lays out conceptual approaches, tools, and techniques for electronic music performance, from DJing, DAWs, MIDI controllers, traditional instruments, live sound design, hardware setups, custom software and hardware, to live visuals, venue acoustics, and live show promotion. Through case studies and contrasting tutorials by successful artists, Kirsten Hermes explores the many different ways in which you can create memorable experiences on stage. Featuring interviews with highly accomplished musicians and practitioners, readers can also expand on their knowledge with hands-on video tutorials for each chapter via the companion website, performingelectronicmusic.live. Performing Electronic Music Live is an essential, all-encompassing resource for professionals, students of music production courses, and researchers in the field of creative-focused performance technology. Table of ContentsChapter 1 – General Advice1. The concept2. Confidence and preparation2.1 Effective rehearsal2.2 Dealing with stage fright2.3 Stepping into the performance persona2.4 Using feedback and being prepared for rejection3. Quality of the production4. Factors that determine the setup choice4.1 The music – genre and composition4.2 The act – personality, motivation and skills4.3 Band members and skills4.4 The performance situation4.4.1 The audience4.4.2 The venue and playback system4.4.3 Risk4.4.4 Budget4.4.5 Need for portabilityTutorial and takeaway points5. ReferencesChapter 2 – DAWs and Controllers1. Non-linearity of time2. Overview of performance DAWs2.1 Ableton Live2.2 Bitwig2.3 Maschine2.4 Logic Pro X2.5 Motu Digital Performer2.6 FL studio2.7 Standalone hardware DAW equivalents3. Plugging in hardware3.1 Live arrangement3.2 One-shots and finger drumming3.3 Performing on software instruments3.4 Controlling audio effects3.5 Other external hardware4. Prepared musical material and live recording5. Collaboration6. Randomness and generative approaches7. Customising the performance interface8. Performing live in more studio-oriented DAWs9. Working with visuals10. Recording the showTutorialFrom a complex studio production to an intuitive live setLooping clipsOne-shotsFollow actionsLive effectsLive keys and vocalsVisuals11. Takeaway pointsReferencesInterview with Robert HenkeChapter 3 – MIDI and CV Performance Controllers1. CV/GATE2. The MIDI protocol2.1 MIDI messages in the MIDI 1 protocol2.2 MIDI 2.03. Types of performance controllers3.1 Buttons3.2 Continuous signals: knobs, faders, sliders3.3 Controllers that resemble traditional musical instruments.3.4 Modular controllers3.5 Motion-controlled performance hardware3.6 Turning non-musical hardware into MIDI controllers3.7 MIDI Polyphonic Expression3.8 Sequencers3.9 Clock signals and MIDI routingTutorial4. Takeaway pointsReferencesChapter 4 – DJing and Turntablism1. A short history of DJing2. Types of DJ in the present day2.1 Touring artist-DJs2.2 Resident DJs2.3 Mobile event DJs2.4 Radio DJs2.5 Online DJ-producers3. DJ techniques3.1 Mixing techniques and turntablism3.2 Virtuoso turntablism3.3 Effects and audio processing3.4 Programming4. DJ tools available today4.1 DJ software and hardware controllers4.2 CDJs4.3 Going retro: using Vinyl for DJing4.4 Headphones, monitors and microphones4.5 Streaming tracks from online platformsTutorial: three DJ setups presented by Dan MurrayPreparationDJ skills and techniquesBeatmatching on vinylGetting creative on CDJsWorking with a hybrid setupPerformance styles5. Takeaway pointsReferencesInterview with Alex M.O.R.P.HChapter 5 - Incorporating Acoustic Instruments and Vocals 1. Traditional instruments in electronic music2. Fusion genres3. Live instruments and vocals that are not on the record4. Instruments that are on the record but not on stage5. Microphones and DI boxes6. Effects and sound manipulation6.1 Vocal effects processing6.2 Vocoders and talk boxes6.3 Effects for other instrumentsTutorial – generated live vocal harmonies, violin and synth7. Takeaway pointsReferencesInterview with Matt RobertsonChapter 6 – Live Synthesis and Sound Design1. Synthesis technology1.1 Synthesis techniques1.1.1 Additive synthesis1.1.2 Subtractive synthesis1.1.3 FM synthesis1.1.4 Waveshaping synthesis1.1.5 Sampling1.1.6 Granular synthesis1.1.7 Wavetable synthesis1.1.8 Physical modelling synthesis1.2 Controls typically found on commercial synthesizers1.2.1 Oscillators1.2.2 Amplifier1.2.3 Amplitude envelope1.2.4 Filters1.2.5 Modulation1.2.6 Clock1.2.7 Effects, sequencing and arpeggiators1.2.8 Playback controls2. A rich history of artists shaping their sound through synthesis2.1 Retro-leaning synths used by current artists3. A brief history of sampling4. Using synths and samplers on stage4.1 Playing live on hardware synthesizers and samplers4.1.1 Choosing hardware synths4.1.2 Working with pre-programmed sequences4.1.3 Modular synthesizers on stage4.2 Performing live with software synthesizersTutorial5. Takeaway pointsReferencesChapter 7 – Performing without a Laptop1. Building blocks of a laptop-free setup1.1 Sound sources1.2 Control signal generators1.2.1 Clock signal generators1.3 Control signal routing tools1.4 Sound processors and effects1.5 Mixers2. All-in-one hardware tools3. Cabling and connectionsTutorial: a modular synthesizer setup (Matt Gooderson)Modular SystemsComponents of the Hardware SetupMelodyRhythmSound SourcesUtility ModulesMultipleQuantiserSample and HoldMixerAudio ModifiersComposition and Performance4. Takeaway pointsReferencesChapter 8 – Programming Custom Performance Tools1. Getting started with programming1.1 What is a program?1.2 What programming language should you learn?2. Inspiring artist examples2.1 Complete playback solutions2.2 Effects plug-ins and software instruments2.3 Expanding the functionality of hardware2.4 Automatic performance tools2.5 Letting the outside environment control the soundTutorial: introducing BBC R&D’s Audio Orchestrator, featuring Jon Francombe and Stephen DavismoonHow does Audio Orchestrator work?The Sequences pageThe Controls pageThe Audio pageThe Appearance pageThe Export page3. Patch It: modular music programming environments3.1 Max/MSP3.2 Pure Data3.3 Other node-based programming environments3.4 Node-based programming in action3.4.1 Effects processing3.4.2 Generative music3.4.3 Sampling and sequencing3.4.4 Working with external hardware3.4.5 Theatre showsTutorial: generative music in Max / MSP, featuring Francesc Moya SerraFirst steps and audio outputMetronome and timingSound triggering with the select objectUsing MIDI notes to perform on a VST synthRandom pitches in a subpatchAdding further complexityRandom note velocities and durationsModulating synthesis parametersFitting the random note pitches to a musical scalePercussionThe performance GUI4. Live coding: making EDM with algorithmsTutorial: an introduction to SuperCollider, featuring Eli FieldsteelThe interfaceGetting startedOscillator UGensCross-fading between soundsWorking with pre-recorded audio samplesWhat else is possible in SuperCollider?5. Takeaway PointsReferencesInterview with Holly HerndonChapter 9 – Building Custom Hardware Tools1. New instruments built from scratch2. The human body as musical instrument3. Adding functionality to existing instruments4. Performing music on toys and household items5. How can you get started?Tutorial: Optical Theremin inside a Game Boy Shell with Rainbow Trash (Dominique Pelletier)What you will needCasingElectronicsTesting connectionsSoldering connectionsClosing up the caseOther things you can do...6. Takeaway pointsReferencesChapter 10 – The Performance Setting1. Common live sound technology2. The soundcheck3. Live sound mixing4. Spaces4.1 Arenas and stadiums4.2 Large Festivals4.3 Nightclubs4.4 Warehouse raves4.5 Concert halls4.6 Outdoor theatres4.7 Small and intimate shows4.8 Controlled acoustic spaces4.9 Installations4.10 Remote settings and streamingTutorial: a large redundancy playback rig, featuring Steven MasseyStems for playbackUninterruptible power supplyRedundancy playback rigOutput routing via a split rackThe monitor mixThe live mix5. Takeaway pointsReferencesInterview with Laura EscudéChapter 11 – Stage Design and Visual Parameters1. Tools for creating visual interest1.1 Moving visuals1.2 Lighting1.3 Dancing and acting1.4 Fashion1.5 Stage design2. What determines the choice of visual stage parameters?2.1 Artist identity2.2 Visual parameters that convey a narrative2.3 Creating an abstract connection between what is seen and heard2.4 Amplifying performance parametersTutorial 3. Takeaway pointsReferencesChapter 12 – Planning and Promotion1. Music branding principles1.1 Artist identity1.2 Target audience2. Creating marketing materials2.1 Visual materials2.2 Biography2.3 Press release2.4 Website2.4.1 A clear representation of the artist image2.4.2 Layout and content2.4.3 Search engine optimization2.5 Social media2.6 Hardcopy marketing materials3. Networking and gig opportunitiesTutorial: music industry Dos and Don’ts presented by Woody van EydenWhere am I now?Where do I want to be?What do I need to do to get there?Who can help me?What should I do in terms of networking?4. Takeaway pointsReferencesChapter 13 – Conclusion1 What do electronic musicians do on stage?2 What constitutes a great electronic music performance?3 How do I choose the concept for my show?3.1 A compelling Performance persona3.2 Virtuosic skills3.3 Technical know-how3.4 A compelling performance setting3.5 Liveness3.6 Core values3.7 Visual interest4 What does my audience expect?5 I am quite shy but I would like to perform live. What can I do?6 I cannot play any instruments or sing. Can I still perform live?7 Should I be a solo artist or form a band?8 What kind of tools do I need to perform electronic music live?9 There are so many different options. What is the right setup for me?10 Who creates electronic performance equipment?11 Where can I try out and buy performance equipment?12 I produce music in a DAW. How can I turn this into a live show?13 Should my live show sound like my record?14 What does "live" mean? Should every sound be created in the moment, or are backing tracks acceptable?15 Is it bad to mime and pretend that I am doing something on stage when I am not?16 I have never produced any music. Where do I begin?17 How should I prepare for my show?17.1 Practice17.2 Sound check17.3 Feedback18 How can I find gig opportunities?Thank you!

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Hasa Diga Eebowai''In 2011, a musical full of curse words and Mormon missionaries swept that year's Tony Awards and was praised as a triumphant return of the American musical. This book explores the inherent achievements (and failures) of The Book of Mormonone of the most ambitious, and problematic, musicals to achieve widespread success. The creative team membersMatt Parker, Trey Stone and composer Robert Lopezwere collectively known for their aggressive use of taboo subjects and crude, punchy humor. Using the metaphor of boxing, Granger explores the metaphorical punches the trio delivers and ruminates over the less-discussed ideological wounds that their style of shock absurdism might leave behind. This careful examination of where The Book of Mormon succeeds and fails is sure to challenge discussion of our understanding of musical comedy and our appreciation for this cultural landmark in theatre.Table of ContentsPreface: The Biggest Man-Balls on Broadway Introduction: Fit for the Ring—A Training Montage 1. Tradition versus Originality: Musical Theatre’s Titleholder and Its Number One Challenger (A Win) 2. The Fight America Wanted: Faith as Creative Self-Guidance Versus Faith as Dutiful Collective Obedience (A Win) 3. Cheap Shots: Western Representations of Africa Versus African Diaspora Realities (A Loss) 4. A Caution: Putting LGBTQ Advocacy on Queer Street Conclusion: Split Decision—Defending the Offending Champions

Read more less

Book SynopsisGames for Actors and Non-Actors is the classic and bestselling book by the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, Augusto Boal. It sets out the principles and practice of Boal's revolutionary method, showing how theatre can be used to transform and liberate everyone actors and non-actors alike! This new third English edition includes recently uncovered interviews and essays from the 1970s, some of which featured in the earliest Portuguese edition of this book, and a new essay by the theatre director Sergio de Carvalho, which looks at Boal's work in the context of Brazilian theatre and politics over the past fifty years.This is a vital handbook for theatre makers and activists of all kinds who want to deepen their understanding of the theory and practice of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. It is also an excellent introduction for those new to the system.Trade Review'This is an inspiring and powerful book, a lucid account that will be of substantial use to people already using Theatre of the Oppressed. It should also act as an excellent introduction for those new to the system.' —Artscene'This is a useful handbook for those who want to explore Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and, as such, is greatly to be welcomed. Boal's work deserves and demands emulation.' —Theatre Research International'You have achieved what Brecht only dreamt of and wrote about: making a useful theatre that is entertaining, fun and instructive. It is a different kind of theatre – a kind of social therapy. It focuses the mind, relaxes the spirit and gives people a new handle on their situations.' —Richard SchechnerTable of Contents1 Theatre of the Oppressed in Europe 2 The Structure of the Actor’s Work 3 The Arsenal of Theatre of the Oppressed 4 The Early Forms of Forum Theatre 5 Forum Theatre: Doubts and Certainties: Incoprporating a New Method of Rehearsing and Devising a Forum Theatre Model 6 First Experiences with Invisible Theatre 7 Artistic Creation and Divine Madness: A Meditation on Art and the Miraculous 8 Interview for the Portuguese Edition (1977) 9 To the People, the means of Theatrical Production: Interview with Émile Copferman 10 Specialisation and Profession, Vocation and Language

Read more less

Book SynopsisGames for Actors and Non-Actors is the classic and bestselling book by the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, Augusto Boal. It sets out the principles and practice of Boal's revolutionary method, showing how theatre can be used to transform and liberate everyone actors and non-actors alike! This new third English edition includes recently uncovered interviews and essays from the 1970s, some of which featured in the earliest Portuguese edition of this book, and a new essay by the theatre director Sergio de Carvalho, which looks at Boal's work in the context of Brazilian theatre and politics over the past fifty years.This is a vital handbook for theatre makers and activists of all kinds who want to deepen their understanding of the theory and practice of Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed. It is also an excellent introduction for those new to the system.Trade Review'This is an inspiring and powerful book, a lucid account that will be of substantial use to people already using Theatre of the Oppressed. It should also act as an excellent introduction for those new to the system.' —Artscene'This is a useful handbook for those who want to explore Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed and, as such, is greatly to be welcomed. Boal's work deserves and demands emulation.' —Theatre Research International'You have achieved what Brecht only dreamt of and wrote about: making a useful theatre that is entertaining, fun and instructive. It is a different kind of theatre – a kind of social therapy. It focuses the mind, relaxes the spirit and gives people a new handle on their situations.' —Richard SchechnerTable of Contents1 Theatre of the Oppressed in Europe 2 The Structure of the Actor’s Work 3 The Arsenal of Theatre of the Oppressed 4 The Early Forms of Forum Theatre 5 Forum Theatre: Doubts and Certainties: Incoprporating a New Method of Rehearsing and Devising a Forum Theatre Model 6 First Experiences with Invisible Theatre 7 Artistic Creation and Divine Madness: A Meditation on Art and the Miraculous 8 Interview for the Portuguese Edition (1977) 9 To the People, the means of Theatrical Production: Interview with Émile Copferman 10 Specialisation and Profession, Vocation and Language

Read more less

Book SynopsisFifty Key Theatre Designers looks at the history of theatrical scenography by examining the work and contributions of fifty ground-breaking set, costume, lighting, and projection designers since the Renaissance. Developments of scenic design are traced from the introduction of perspective painting to create illusionistic scenery in Renaissance Italy to the use of digital projection in the twenty-first century. The book also discusses important landmarks in the evolution of costume and lighting design, as well as the introduction of film and video technology to stage design. A broad range of work is explored, including opera, dance, Broadway and West End commercial theatre, avant-garde performance, and even Olympic spectacles. Each chapter features one designer, including basic biographical information and a discussion of that artist's style, aesthetics, and contributions. Designers covered include Sebastiano Serlio, Ferdinando Bibiena, Richard Wagner, Adolphe Appia, Table of Contents1. Sebastiano Serlio (1475–1554[?]) 2. Inigo Jones (1573–1652) 3. Giacomo Torelli (1608–1678) 4. Ferdinando Bibiena (1657–1743) 5. Philippe-Jacques De Loutherbourg (1740–1812) 6. Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri (1782–1868) 7. Richard Wagner (1813–1883) 8. André Antoine (1858–1943) 9. Viktor Simov (1858–1935) 10. Adolphe Appia (1862–1928) 11. Léon Bakst (1866–1924) and Alexandre Benois (1870–1960) 12. Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966) 13. Joseph Urban (1872–1933) 14. Alexandra Exter (1882–1949) 15. Emil Pirchan (1884–1957) 16. Vlastislav Hofman (1884–1964) 17. Robert Edmond Jones (1887–1954) 18. Oskar Schlemmer (1888–1943) 19. Liubov Popova (1889–1924) 20. Traugott Müller (1895–1944) 21. Caspar Neher (1897–1962) 22. Boris Aronson (1898–1980) 23. Nikolai Okhlopkov (1900–1967) 24. Jo Mielziner (1901–1976) 25. Irene Sharaff (1910–1993) 26. Jean Rosenthal (1912–1969) 27. Tanya Moiseiwitsch (1914–2003) 28. Tadeusz Kantor (1915–1990) 29. Jocelyn Herbert (1917–2003) 30 Wieland Wagner (1917–1966) 31. Josef Svoboda (1920–2002) 32. Ralph Koltai (1924–2018) 33. John Bury (1925–2000) 34. Ming Cho Lee (1930–2020) 35. Sally Jacobs (1932–2020) 36. David Borovsky (1934–2006) 37. Jerzy Gurawski (1935–2022) 38. Jennifer Tipton (1937–) 39. Robert Wilson (1941–) 40. Hélio Eichbauer (1941–2018) 41. Richard Peduzzi (1943–) 42. William Dudley (1947–) 43. Jim Clayburgh (1949–) 44. Wendall K. Harrington (1950–) 45. Anna Viebrock (1951–) 46. Liu Xinglin (1953–) 47. George Tsypin (1954–) 48. William Kentridge (1955–) 49. Bert Neumann (1960–2015) 50. Franc Aleu (1966–)

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe English Theatrical Avant-Garde, 19001925 unearths an extensive range of hitherto forgotten or ignored theatre practices. In doing so it reveals some of the well-known figures of the early twentieth-century English theatre in a strikingly new light. It fluently describes an intensity of innovation and experiment that together made the Edwardian theatre rather more radical, and rather more queer, than we've ever thought.Where the majority of writing on the early twentieth-century theatrical avant-garde is concerned with European movements and experiments, English activity of the period is often seen as parochial and conservative mainly realism and issues-based drama. This book presents a new model of how avant-gardes might work; a model based not on masculine individualism but on communal inclusion. In describing this fascinating material, the author introduces us to many new figures and shows familiar ones in different ways: there's Florence Farr, independTable of Contents1. Experimental Theatre 2. Modernities 3. The Renovation of the Stage 4. Advanced Guards 5. Fantasy Play

Read more less

This is an exploration of the vital and rapidly evolving world of Commercial Dance, tracing the evolution and merging of Hip-Hop, Club and Jazz dance styles from the music videos of the early 1980s, to today's huge influence on pop music and dance in a multi-media culture.Chapters including âIconic Momentsâ and âMain Moversâ contextualise and analyse culturally significant works and choreographers. With direct contributions from an international array of industry leading dancers, choreographers and creatives - including JaQuel Knight (Beyonceâs choreographer), Rich + Tone Talauega (Madonna & Michael Jackson collaborators), Rebbi Rosie (Rihannaâs dancer), Dean Lee (Janet Jacksonâs choreographer) and Kiel Tutin (BLACKPINKâs choreographer) - this book shines a light on the creatives in the Commercial Dance industry who have made significant impacts, not just on the world of dance but on popular culture itself. Chapters discussing dance history, copyright law, inclusivity and dan

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis edited collection examines the potential of dance training for developing socially engaged individuals capable of forging ethical human relations for an ever-changing world and in turn frames dance as a fundamental part of human experience.This volume draws together a range of critical voices to reflect the inclusive potential of dance. The contributions offer perspectives on contemporary dance training in Britain from dance educators, scholars, practitioners and artists. Through examining the politics, values and ethics of learning dance today, this book argues for the need of a re-assessment of the evolving practices in dance training and techniques. Key questions address how the concept of âtechniqueâ and associated systems of training in dance could be redefined to enable the collaboration of skills and application of ideas necessary to twenty-first-century dance. The editors present these ideas in different modes of writing. This collection of essays, conversations Table of ContentsIntroduction: Noyale Colin & Cathy Seago; Section 1 – Ethics and Values; Chapter 1: Movement as a Social Project- Fiona Bannon; Chapter 2: Emergence -how do we assess / access becoming?- Adesola Akinleye; Chapter 3: Values, technique and creativity- Noyale Colin; Chapter 4: Democratizing dance: inclusion at the core of dance education and its impact- Betina Panagiotora; Chapter 5: African based dance technique in Higher education-Funmi Adewole; Section 2 – Practices; Chapter 6: Precision and Particularity- Jamie Dryburgh; Chapter 7: Embodying Unpredictability- Cathy Seago; Chapter 8: Digital Tools in Formal and Informal Dance Education Environments - Rosemary E. Cisneros, Marie-Louise Crawley, Karen Wood- Chapter 9: Improvisation and Spirituality in Dance- Eline Kieft; Section 3 – Conversations- Inclusive Practice Conversations; Chapter 10: Training for intergenerational dancing- Debbie Lee Anthony and Diane Amans; Chapter 11: Neurodiverse Collaborations: Changing perceptions of abilities in neuro-diverse populations- Caroline Hotchkiss; Chapter 12: Translating technique: Approaches to inclusive dance training in the UK- Imogen Aujila; Dance and Education Conversations; Chapter 13: Choreographic pedagogies: Training students’ experiences- Shantel Ehrenberg; Chapter 14: Choreography as technique- Sarah Alexander; Chapter 15: School Dance Teacher Roundtable- Noyale Colin & Cathy Seago; Independent Artist Conversations; Chapter 16: Training and citizenship- Stefanie Schober; Chapter 17: Training and solidarity- Charlotte Spencer; Chapter 18: Dance training and the potential of embodied practices- Henrietta Hale; Section 4 - Manifestos; Chapter 19: The End of Technique- Baptiste Bourgougnon and Lise Uytterhoeven; Chapter 20: Staying Alive: the dance technique class as a means for survival- Erica Stanton; Chapter 21: Dance training and the potential of strategies of self-organisation- Joe Moran

Read more less

Book SynopsisOpera in Performance elucidates the performative dimension of contemporary opera productions. What are the most striking and decisive moments in a performance? Why do we respond so strongly to stagings that transform familiar scenes, to performers' bodily presence, and to virtuosic voices as well as ill-disposed ones? Drawing on phenomenology and performance theory, Clemens Risi explains how these moments arise out of a dialogue between performers and the audience, representation and presence, the familiar and the new. He then applies these insights in critical descriptions of his own experiences of various singers, stagings, and performances at opera houses and festivals from across the German-speaking world over the last twenty years. As the first book to focus on what happens in performance as such, this study shifts our attention to moments that have eluded articulation and provides tools for describing our own experiences when we go to the opera.Trade Review''I find the book not only important and revealing but also downright exciting in how it points out connections and perspectives. An impressive work that I felt to be both brilliantly written and pioneering.'' Hans Neuenfels''With the present volume, Clemens Risi fills a serious desideratum. The discussion in theater studies has so far engaged too little with the repertory system of opera—viewed statistically, still the most common—from the perspective of performance analysis. […] The book will certainly soon develop into a standard reference and hopefully also contribute to conferring more visibility to opera in discussions in theater studies.'' Forum Modernes Theater"As the book’s subtitle suggests, Risi puts the performative dimension at the centre of his study. […] For Risi, the task at hand when analysing a performance from the realm of Regietheater is not rigorously to relate the event to the score in order to evaluate the production as well or badly done. Rather, ‘the focus is on the question of why and how a certain performance was able to affect the audience in a certain way’ (11). […] After a concise first part on the theoretical framework, situated against the backdrop of the performative turn, Risi goes on to approach opera in performance in its ephemerality and uniqueness as a bodily experience that is as subjective as it is intimate. Methodologically, he approaches the performative dimension through a phenomenological framework, arguing that phenomenology does not ‘describe any event independently from one’s own corporeal experience’ (114). Central to this study is the ‘phenomenal body in its materiality’ (95). Not only are the sound and voice produced by the performer’s body of importance, but also each body that belongs to the audience. Consequently, performances experienced by Risi himself take up most of the analysis. The author describes what he observed and felt, how other members in the audience reacted and what the overall atmosphere in the theatre was like. By doing so, he sheds light on experiences that regular opera-goers all have at some point. The quality of his approach lies in their promotion as objects of research and the establishment of an analytical toolbox to tackle them. […] It is a joy to listen with Risi to the many performances he describes so vividly. The longer one engages with his arguments, the more the author becomes the reader’s very own opera buddy. Risi’s descriptions of stage settings, singers’ bodily exertions and their vocal effects, his own impressions and physical tensions, and the atmosphere in the audience, are engaging and comprehensive. By almost ‘resurrecting’ the performance, the author creates the conditions for the performer–audience relation to incorporate the circle of readers too. All in all, Risi’s text proposes an important shift of perspective towards the performative dimension of opera, as well as a methodological approach that has already proved its urgency and applicability in opera studies.“ Elisabeth van Treeck, (Cambridge Opera Journal 34/2022) ''With the present volume, Clemens Risi fills a serious desideratum. The discussion in theater studies has so far engaged too little with the repertory system of opera—viewed statistically, still the most common—from the perspective of performance analysis. […] The book will certainly soon develop into a standard reference and hopefully also contribute to conferring more visibility to opera in discussions in theater studies.’’ T. Sofie Taubert, Forum Modernes TheaterTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Opera and the PerformativePart 1 Theoretical FoundationsChapter 1 Beyond InterpretationChapter 2 Beyond Semiotics: The Interplay of Representation and PresenceChapter 3 Theories of Performance and the PerformativeChapter 4 The Entanglement of the Senses: Premises from Perception TheoryPart 2 Analytical Approaches Chapter 5 Symbioses and Contestations: The Interaction of Auditory and Visual ElementsChapter 6 The Interplay of Representation and Presence in PerformanceChapter 7 The Voice and the Body in Opera PerformancesChapter 8 Rhythm and Experiences of Time in OperaChapter 9 The Future of Opera? On the Mediated Experience and Distribution of Opera PerformancesConclusionList of Performances DiscussedBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTheatre and Performance in East Africa looks at indigenous performances to unearth the aesthetic principles, sensibilities and critical framework that underpin African performance and theatre. The book develops new paradigms for thinking about African performance in general through the construction of a critical framework that addresses questions concerning performance particularities and coherences, challenging previous understandings. To this end, it establishes a common critical and theoretical framework for indigenous performance using case studies from East Africa that are also reflected elsewhere in the continent.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre and performance, especially those with an interest in the close relationship between theatre and performance with culture.Table of ContentsChapter One Introduction; Chapter Two The Abevugyi/Abasizi of Ankore (Uganda) and Rwanda: Praise Recitation Performance; Chapter Three Identity Rituals of the Bamasaba and the Babukusu of Uganda and Kenya; Chapter Four Bwola and Larakaraka of the Acholi of Northern Uganda; Chapter Five Abadongo and Inanga Itinerant Musicians of Rwanda and Uganda; Chapter Six Gacaca: Performance and Nation; Chapter Seven Conclusion; Bibliography; Glossary

Read more less

Book SynopsisPerforming Public History explores history-telling as a performance across a wide range of media, including theatre and film, historical re-enactments and living history performances, operas, and video games.Taking historians as storytellers, this book illustrates how the choices they make shape historical meaning. While historians may strive to be objective when they research and write the past, they inevitably draw on their imagination, emotions, and creativity, aligning them with others who make history in public. The book explores issues such as the nature of archives, realism, fact and fiction, accuracy and authenticity, and actants and audiences. It draws on case studies from all parts of the world, offering global perspectives that invite a rethinking about what history is, and how and why we do it. Sharing work by graduate students, the author also offers an appendix of classroom exercises that instructors will find valuable.Written accessibly for students, this volume offers a succinct account of the discipline of history, the field of public history, and how performance is a useful concept for thinking about history work.

Read more less

Book Synopsis`I consider this book a precious report that permits one to assimilate some of those simple and basic principles which the self-taught at times come to know, yet only after years of groping and errors. The book furnishes information regarding discoveries which the actor can understand in practice, without having to start each time from zero. Thomas Richards has worked with me systematically since 1985. Today he is my essential collaborator in the research dedicated to Art as Vehicle.'' - from the Preface by Jerzy GrotowskiTrade Review'This book is extremely concise and makes the work of Grotowski something students understand.' - Jane Hanna, Roehampton Institute, UK'An essential text for anyone interested in the work of Polish theatre-maker and teacher Jerzy Grotowski.' - Total TheatreTable of ContentsAt Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions by Thomas Richards, Stanislavski And Grotowski: The Connection, Ryszard Cieslak At Yale, The Workshop At The Objective Drama Program, In New York, Grotowski Speaks At Hunter College, The Work At Botinaccio: An Attack On Dilettantism, One Year With Grotowski In Objective Drama, At The Workcenter Of Jerzy Grotowski, Beginning Stages, Grotowski Vs. Stanislavski: The Impulses, "Realistic" Actions In Everyday Life, Conclusion On "Realistic" Actions, Quoted texts From the Theatre Company to Art as Vehicle

Read more less