Theatre direction and production Books

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Book SynopsisDieses Buch ist ein Plädoyer für Bertolt Brechts anhaltende Bedeutung in einer Zeit, in der die Ereignisse des 21. Jahrhunderts nach einer studierten Art und Weise schreien, Theater für den sozialen Wandel zu produzieren. Hier wird ein einzigartiger Schritt-für-Schritt-Prozess für die Umsetzung von Brechts Arbeitsweisen auf der Bühne vorgestellt, wobei die 2015 an der Texas Tech University entstandene Produktion von Brechts "Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder" als Modell für die Erkundung dient. Besondere Brecht-Konzepte - das Epos, die Verfremdung, die Fabel, der Gestus, die Historisierung, die Literarisierung, das "Nicht...aber", das Arrangement und die Trennung der Elemente - werden erläutert und auf Szenen und Stücke angewendet. Brechts komplizierte Beziehung zu Konstantin Stanislawski wird auch in Bezug auf ihre unterschiedlichen Ansichten über das Schauspiel erforscht. Für Theaterpraktiker und -pädagogen ist dieser Band eine Aufzeichnung des pädagogischen Engagements, eine empirische Studie von Brechts Werk in der Aufführung an einer höheren Bildungseinrichtung mit Studenten und Absolventen.Dieses Buch ist eine Übersetzung einer englischen Originalausgabe. Die Übersetzung wurde mit Hilfe von künstlicher Intelligenz erstellt. Eine anschließende menschliche Überarbeitung erfolgte vor allem in Bezug auf den Inhalt, so dass sich das Buch stilistisch anders liest als eine herkömmliche Übersetzung.Table of Contents1. Warum sich mit Brecht beschäftigen?2. Fünf Inszenierungen von Mutter Courage: 1941, 1949, 1950, 1951 und 2015.3. Kollaborative Analyse.4. das Design-Team, Meta-Theatralität und Literarisierung.5. Erste Probe: Werkzeuge für Schauspieler, Status und Haltung.6. Proben der Schauspieler I: Arrangement.7. Die Schauspieler proben II: Von Augenblick zu Augenblick.8. Die Schauspieler proben III: Das Spielen der Ereignisse.9. Die Dokumentation der Arbeit: Das Modellbuch.10. Antworten und zukünftige Arbeit..

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Book SynopsisOver a brief, twelve-year career, the Iranian director and playwright Reza Abdoh broke all of the conventions of American theater, pushing actors and audiences past their limits to create hallucinatory, at times nightmarish, dreamscapes shot through with humor, song, and an unlikely spirituality. His productions addressed the bitter political realities of his time— the systemic devaluation of black life, governmental indifference to the AIDS crisis, sexual repression, genocide in Europe, and war in the Middle East—with harrowing eloquence. Just before his death he ordered that his plays should never be performed again. Profusely illustrated, the catalogue contains new essays on the influence and reception of Abdoh’s works in theater, film, and video, published and unpublished interviews with the director, and conversations with his friends and colleagues, as well as scripts of his plays and contemporary reviews.

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Book SynopsisExplores the extent to which the early modern English stage came to reflect the presence and performances of Italian actresses.Trade Reviewconvincing and thought-provoking * Opera News *Rigorously researched...a landmark in both performance studies and transnational research in the field. * Scott A. Trudell, Shakespeare Quarterly *Brown writes with vigor and flair...Brown's book makes the most detailed, sustained and persuasive case for the currency of the Italian actress on the Shakespearean stage, and for her invigorating impact on its drama. * Sophie Tomlinson, The University of Auckland *[a] striking work of feminist scholarship. * Year's Work in English Studies *Brown's book makes the most detailed, sustained, and persuasive case for the currency of the Italian actress on the Shakespearean stage, and for her invigorating impact on its drama. * Sophie Tomlinson, The Parergon *Brown's work... is a virtuosic mix. Joining source study, performance history, and close reading, The Diva's Gift also folds in biography, vivid description (one of the great pleasures here is Brown's ability to conjure a scene), and methodological insight. Like the performers at the heart of this study, Brown wears her learning with grace. The result is a book that is not only deeply informative and thoroughly convincing-certain to reshape scholarly and classroom discussions of Shakespearean character-but also an outright thrill to read. * Laura Kolb, Modern Language Quarterly *An excellent work that combines rigorous study of the Italian diva with often electric readings of the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Brown's text is a fine addition to ongoing thinking about the discourses of gender, sexuality and nationality...Historicist, stimulating and lively, this is a fantastic piece of Shakespearian scholarship. * Ezra Horbury, ShSurvey *Table of ContentsIntroduction: 'For what's a play without a woman in it?' 1: The Innamorata Ignites 2: Italianating the Boy 3: Dying to Act: From Bel-Imperia to Juliet 4: Who's It? Acting the Actress in Shakespearean Comedy 5: Hostile Makeovers 6: The Two Faces of Portia 7: 'Let all the dukes and all the devils roar!' Mad Skills of Madwomen Epilogue: Cleopatra's Sweat Appendix A. Notable Innamorata Roles Appendix B. Italian Documents Appendix C. Scenario

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Book SynopsisComing to Broadway July 2022!The script for the stage production of Khaled Hosseini's first and internationally bestselling novel, The Kite Runner, as adapted by playwright Matthew Spangler. The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. Now adapted for the stage, the story is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and is an exploration of the influence of fathers over sons--their love, their sacrifices, their lies.A sweeping saga of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful story that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.This adaptation was first performed at W

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Book SynopsisThe script for the stage production of the bestselling Khaled Hosseini novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, as adapted by playwright Ursula Rani Sarma.Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss, and by fate. As they endure the ever-escalating dangers around them--in their home, as well as in the streets of Kabul--they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, playwright Ursula Rani Sarma reimagines Hosseini's novel to show how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.A stunning accomplishment, this reimagination of A Thousand Splendid

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Book SynopsisSHAKESPEARE FOR AMERICAN ACTORS AND DIRECTORS

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Book SynopsisPlaywright Peter Carlaftes presents three compelling, funny, and biting dramas in Triumph for Rent: Three Plays. The plays include Spin-Dry: An hilarious wild ride through a 90s rehab center for celebrities; Hunger: a heartfelt drama-inspired by the Knut Hamsun novel-about a starving writer struggling to keep his integrity alive as the borders blur between fantasy and reality worlds of rocker chicks, hookers and convicts; and Frontier A-Go-Go, a tragi-comedy in which a man living on a man living on the Nebraska plains circa 1872 uses a time machine to summon a hippie drifter and a budding feminist who have just conceived a daughter at a rock concert in 1972, and then summons the daughter, aged 25, from her 1997 date with a cybergeek.

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Book Synopsis Chance is a photography magazine and serialized art book that looks at the world through the lens of theater and design. A calm, noise-free place to engage with the aesthetics of design in detail, Chance integrates all of the arts, material and non-material, into a single space where the poetry of human thought can expand our desire for a more provocative and lifted engagement with design.The team at Chance produces an original photo shoot of nearly every production they cover, and believe that a more thorough glimpse into the world of design can change the way people think and write about the theater and the artists who create for it. Started in 2012 by a group of designers, writers and artists, Chance is more than a magazine. As a thoroughly stylized and high-quality publication, Chance is an immersive, image-rich, serialized art-book on contemporary events in performance and design that comprehensively redefines the relationship betwee

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn excellent textbook, full of wonderful practical exercises that are useful to anyone connected with the theatre ... It is a handy addition to the repertoire of practical guides and theoretical approaches that are the mainstay of the industry and those working in it ... A hugely enjoyable read in lots of different ways: for the beginner, for the student, for the teacher, for the practitioner. A nice addition to the Methuen Drama stable. * British Theatre Guide *Table of ContentsPart 1: Why Playwriting? The benefits of teaching playwriting with students Chapter 1: Why teach playwriting? Chapter 2: The spectrum of ideas: knowledge to aid creativity Part 2: How playwriting works - the teaching approach Chapter 3: A playwright's wheel Chapter 4: Teaching the idea Chapter 5: Writing dialogue Chapter 6: Generating action Chapter 7: Creating character Chapter 8: Story structure Chapter 9: The poetic Chapter 10: Page to stage Chapter 11: Conclusion

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Book SynopsisAs the Kremlin’s crackdown on freedom of expression continues to tighten, Russian playwrights and directors are using documentary theatre to create space for the public discussion of injustice in the civic sphere and its connections to the country’s twentieth-century past. Witness Onstage traces the history of documentary theatre’s rapid growth in twenty-first century Russia and situates the form within the socio-political setting of the Putin years. It argues that through the practice of performing documents, Russian theatre artists are creating a new type of cultural and historical archive that challenges the dominance of state-sponsored media and invites individuals to participate in a collective renegotiation of cultural narratives.Trade Review'This book analyzes twenty-first century Russian theater in conjunction with Teatr.doc and related stage productions. Molly Flynn offers a close-up perspective as a translator, performer, and producer, and in her own creative work demonstrates the different roles performed on stage by documents.'The Russian Review -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. History on Trial 2. Called to the Stand 3. Evidentiary Hearing 4. Material Witness 5. Burden of Proof 6. A Special Verdict ConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisThis absorbing collection of letters and monologues by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Sam Shepard and Obie Award-winning actor and director Joseph Chaikin provides an extraordinary opportunity to view the creative process of two of contemporary American theatre''s great innovators. "Insightful and fascinating."--San Francisco Chronicle

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Book Synopsis From one remarkable mind to another, Conversations with Anne documents the series of intimate interviews that theater director Anne Bogart has conducted—before live audiences—with major artists and cultural thinkers at her West Side studio over half a decade. In these extraordinary conversations, Bogart and her guests consider such free-ranging topics as the driving forces in their work, the paths their lives have taken, and their visions for the future of their field. Bogart delves into the daily thoughts of these artists and thinkers whom she most admires—a group that, collectively, has profoundly shaped the arts and artistry in America over the past twenty-five years. Interviewees include: JoAnne Akalaitis, Lee Breuer, Ben Cameron, Martha Clarke, Oskar Eustis, Zelda Fichandler, Richard Foreman, Andre Gregory, Bill T. Jones, Tony Kushner, Tina Landau, Elizabeth LeCompte, Eduardo Machado, Charles Mee, Joseph V. Melillo, Meredith Monk, Mary Overlie, Peter Sellars, SITI Company, Molly Smith, Elizabeth Streb, Julie Taymor, Robert Woodruff and Paula Vogel. Anne Bogart is artistic director of the SITI Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She has received two OBIE Awards, a Bessie Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a professor at Columbia University, where she runs the Graduate Directing Program.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisMuch Ado, written by award-winning journalist Michael Lenehan, gives readers an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the lauded American Players Theatre's 2014 production of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout has called the APT--based in the unassuming town of Spring Green, Wisconsin--"the best classical theater company in America." It's also one of the most successful, with an annual budget of $6 million and ticket sales of more than 100,000 each season. Performing almost entirely outdoors, rain or shine, on the "Up the Hill" stage, the company has established a reputation for authentic, accessible, entertaining shows--and Much Ado was no exception, selling nearly 23,000 tickets during its five-month run. Through Lenehan's keen reporter eyes, Much Ado explores the evolution of this complicated stage production, from casting to costumes to curtain call. In doing so, it provides readers with a deeper sense of the company's astonishing artistry and craft, a peek into the intricate technical logistics involved with outdoor theater, and a refreshing perspective on one of the Bard's most famous plays. Lenehan weaves together firsthand observations and literary analysis with interviews with key members of the APT's artistic ensemble and production staff--including lauded director David Frank, lead actors Colleen Madden (Beatrice) and David Daniel (Benedick), and set and costume designer Robert Morgan--to paint a remarkable portrait of one of our most treasured artistic institutions.Trade ReviewPraise for Michael Lenehan’s Much Ado:“He shows us with rare clarity how a professional company prepares a production. . . . A series of bright, clear photographs of what the author saw when he pulled aside the curtain in a Wisconsin Oz. ” —Kirkus Reviews“An in-depth and endearing profile of the American Players Theatre.” —Publishers Weekly“Avid theatergoers and those who want to know more about APT will find this behind-the-scenes look, with its affectionate portrayal of the frenzy and magic of theater, engaging and insightful.” —Booklist“Very smart. . . . A fascinating study of stagecraft.” —Chicago Reader“A wonderfully inspiring book for performing arts lovers in general and theatre people in particular. It's good for us all to be reminded that joyously creative greatness is not the sole property of two coasts and a few mega-cities somewhere in between.” —Theater Jones“Written in clear, accessible prose and takes nothing for granted. One need not be an APT fan, Bard lover or theater geek to enjoy it (although all will). . . . It’s nice to see a good book make so much ado about the many magicians bringing those moments to life.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“When Lenehan takes the time to probe deeper, the book is at its best. . . . an impressive assortment of information and backstage tidbits that give his readers a sense that, yes, there is much ado when it comes to mounting a stage production of this size and caliber.” —TruthDig“With a warm, knowing tone, he relates the ensemble’s collaborative decision-making process as the members come together to perform one of the Bard’s greatest comedies. . . . Lenehan’s passion infuses this short, smart, and sweet book.” —National Book Review

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Book SynopsisDrew Campbell, stage technician, designer, film lighting technician, videographer, editor, director, and teacher, and the award-winning author of Technical Theater for Nontechnical People, offers technical expertise that will be of use to anyone working behind the scenes.This book provides readers with an easy-to-understand overview of the digital technology currently available for the stage. In clear language, Digital Technical Theater Simplified explains digital technology in the fields of lighting, audio, video, and show control. Topics covered include: Why audio went digital Digital audio playback DMX Control consoles LED lighting Creating video content Media servers Serial protocols Network protocols And much more! All chapters contain do-it-yourself examples of how anyone can use these advanced technologies, as well as case studies of “How the Pros Do It.”

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