Theatre studies Books

Book SynopsisThis international collection of essays forms a vibrant picture of the scope and diversity of contemporary queer performance. Ranging across cabaret, performance art, the performativity of film, drag and script-based theatre it unravels the dynamic relationship performance has with queerness as it is presented in local and transnational contexts.Trade Review“Queer Dramaturgies brings together a collection of essays, by both up-and-coming and established queer scholars, specializing in the study of the live experience of queer performances rather than textual or abstract theoretical analysis. … Queer Dramaturgies delivers a fresh smattering of essays valuable to queer studies, performance studies, and any amalgam of the two.” (Helen Deborah Lewis, Studies in Theatre and Performance, August, 2016)“Alyson Campbell and Stephen Farrier bring together the work of international performance scholars and makers in a meticulously edited and necessary volume which offers productive new ways of identifying, historicizing, theorizing, and analyzing what makes dramaturgy queer. … The volume thus offers a vibrant look at the scope and diversity of contemporary queer performance, providing an accessible book and inspiration for undergraduates, and a reminder for more experienced performance scholars and makers about why queer performance matters.” (Francisco Costa, New Theatre Quarterly, July, 2016)

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Book Synopsis Part I. First Wave, 1900-1945.- 1. Raising the Curtain on Suzanne Bing's Life in the Theatre; Jane Baldwin.- 2. From Neva Boyd to Viola Spolin; Scott Proudfit.- 3. A Democratic Legacy; Elizabeth A. Osborne.- 4. Aleksandra Remizova; Andrei Malaev-Babel.- PART II. Second Wave, 1945-1985.- 5. Mnouchkine & Co.; David Calder.- 6. Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and the Mabou Mines Family Aesthetic; Jessica Silsby Brater;- 7. Hers and His;Siobhan O'Gorman.- 8. From the Center to the Heartland; Anne Fletcher.- 9. Historiographing a Feminist Utopia; Michelle MacArthur.- 10. Monstrous Regiment; Sarah Sigal.- PART III. Third Wave, 1985-2014.- 11. Judith Malina and the Living Theatre; Cindy Rosenthal.- 12. Bryony Lavery; Karen Morash.- 13. Women, Transmission, and Creative Agency in the Grotowski Diaspora; Virginie Magnat.- 14. The Women of Odin Teatret; Adam Ledger.- 15. Doing What Comes Naturally?; Alex Mermikides and Jackie Smart.- 16. Collective Creation Downtown 2Table of ContentsPart I. First Wave, 1900-1945.- 1. Raising the Curtain on Suzanne Bing’s Life in the Theatre; Jane Baldwin.- 2. From Neva Boyd to Viola Spolin; Scott Proudfit.- 3. A Democratic Legacy; Elizabeth A. Osborne.- 4. Aleksandra Remizova; Andrei Malaev-Babel.- PART II. Second Wave, 1945-1985.- 5. Mnouchkine & Co.; David Calder.- 6. Ruth Maleczech, JoAnne Akalaitis, and the Mabou Mines Family Aesthetic; Jessica Silsby Brater;- 7. “Hers and His”;Siobhan O'Gorman.- 8. From the Center to the Heartland; Anne Fletcher.- 9. Historiographing a Feminist Utopia; Michelle MacArthur.- 10. Monstrous Regiment; Sarah Sigal.- PART III. Third Wave, 1985-2014.- 11. Judith Malina and the Living Theatre; Cindy Rosenthal.- 12. Bryony Lavery; Karen Morash.- 13. Women, Transmission, and Creative Agency in the Grotowski Diaspora; Virginie Magnat.- 14. The Women of Odin Teatret; Adam Ledger.- 15. Doing What Comes Naturally?; Alex Mermikides and Jackie Smart.- 16. Collective Creation Downtown 2014; Rachel Anderson-Rabern.- 17. Between Africa and America; Nia O. Witherspoon.- 18. Hands like starfish/Feet like moons; Victoria Lewis.- 19. Pussy Riot and Performance as Social Practice; Julia Listengarten.

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Book SynopsisNow in its 4th edition, this is an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the critical study of drama. Using familiar examples of classic and contemporary works such as Shakespeare's King Lear, Ibsen's A Doll's House and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, the book explores the essential elements of play texts, from character, dialogue and plot to theatrical space. With more in depth guidance on how to study plays in and as performance, both live and in recordings available online, the 4th edition of Studying Plays now includes: new examples throughout the book drawn from a range of 21st-century plays by established and emergent writers for diverse theatres and companies new explorations of how plays structure and engage audience response a complete new section on the analysis of theatre of witness and testimony; monodrama; and postdramatic texts.Trade ReviewA highly usable resource for text analysis and addressing plays. However, it is so much more than this and I suggest that it be considered as a seminal textbook ... As well as the detailed attention to play extracts and the highly useable frameworks within which to address the scripted play, this seminal text skilfully locates the understanding of the dramatic script within socio-political historical contexts ... A trusted text given a welcome spruce up. * Drama Magazine *This newly revised classic, now with a much-needed section on the postdramatic, will grace the studio as much as the seminar room, empowering the next generation of students to talk about plays with genuine precision and insight. * Jonathan Pitches, Professor of Theatre and Performance, University of Leeds, UK *Studying Plays attends to the diverse critical practices essential to the multidisciplinary study of drama. Ranging across formal elements of drama to bodies, space, and the cultures of performance, it suggestively engages undergraduates, instructors, and a wider audience. * W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA *The durability of this excellent book confirms the importance of comprehensive and detailed methodical explanations of how drama works and becomes theatre. Essential reading for all young practitioners and students. * Peta Tait, Professor of Theatre and Drama, La Trobe University, Australia *Studying Plays offers a model of diversity in terms of the examples it draws on from a range of periods and genres, but also in terms of the race, gender and sexuality of those who made the work discussed. That it does so without compromising the depth and rigour of the analysis is a testament to the skill and commitment of the authors. The combination of breadth, depth and rigour makes it a book that students and their tutors can return to again and again. * Kate Dorney, Lecturer in Drama, University of Manchester, UK *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Getting Started 2. Characters and Persons 3. Dialogue 4. Plot and Action 5. The Actor's Body 6. Spaces 7. Dealing with Some New Kinds of Text 8. Culture and Interpretation Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMick Wallis is Professor Emeritus of Performance and Culture at the University of Leeds, UK. He is co-author (with Simon Shepherd) of Drama/Theatre/Performance (2004).Simon Shepherd is Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. He is the author of The Cambridge Introduction to Performance Theory (2016) and Modern British Theatre (2010) and co-author with Mick Wallis of Drama/Theatre/Performance (2004).Trade ReviewA highly usable resource for text analysis and addressing plays. However, it is so much more than this and I suggest that it be considered as a seminal textbook ... As well as the detailed attention to play extracts and the highly useable frameworks within which to address the scripted play, this seminal text skilfully locates the understanding of the dramatic script within socio-political historical contexts ... A trusted text given a welcome spruce up. * Drama Magazine *This newly revised classic, now with a much-needed section on the postdramatic, will grace the studio as much as the seminar room, empowering the next generation of students to talk about plays with genuine precision and insight. * Jonathan Pitches, Professor of Theatre and Performance, University of Leeds, UK *Studying Plays attends to the diverse critical practices essential to the multidisciplinary study of drama. Ranging across formal elements of drama to bodies, space, and the cultures of performance, it suggestively engages undergraduates, instructors, and a wider audience. * W. B. Worthen, Alice Brady Pels Professor in the Arts, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA *The durability of this excellent book confirms the importance of comprehensive and detailed methodical explanations of how drama works and becomes theatre. Essential reading for all young practitioners and students. * Peta Tait, Professor of Theatre and Drama, La Trobe University, Australia *Studying Plays offers a model of diversity in terms of the examples it draws on from a range of periods and genres, but also in terms of the race, gender and sexuality of those who made the work discussed. That it does so without compromising the depth and rigour of the analysis is a testament to the skill and commitment of the authors. The combination of breadth, depth and rigour makes it a book that students and their tutors can return to again and again. * Kate Dorney, Lecturer in Drama, University of Manchester, UK *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Getting Started 2. Characters and Persons 3. Dialogue 4. Plot and Action 5. The Actor's Body 6. Spaces 7. Dealing with Some New Kinds of Text 8. Culture and Interpretation Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisClelia Falletti is Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Since 1981 she has participated in research by ISTA (International School of Theatre Anthropology) directed by Eugenio Barba; she is dramaturg for Teatro Potlach, and co-editor of theatre books series with two Italian publishing houses.Gabriele Sofia teaches theatre studies and physical theatre at Paul Valéry University, Montpellier, France. Since 2006 he has carried out an interdisciplinary research project on the neurophysiology of the actor and the spectator between the Sapienza University of Rome and the Maisons des Sciences de l'Homme Paris Nord. From 2009 to 2013 he promoted and organized five editions of the International Conference Dialogues between Theatre and Neuroscience at Sapienza.Victor Jacono, PhD in Performance Studies, teaches at the MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts and Drama at the Alternative Learning Program, Malta.Trade ReviewA key strength of the book lies in the diversity of its perspectives ... The book makes a significant contribution to this field of study, particularly since there is arguably a lacuna when it comes to the featuring of theatre ... in scientific publications ... Its speciality is its multifaceted perspective. * South African Theatre Journal *The essays provide a range of information, applications, and insights from the intersections of science and performance. * Theatre Journal *Table of ContentsPreface Part One: Theatre as a space of relationships: a neurocognitive approach 1. Editorial Introduction: The space of shared action (Clelia Falletti, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) 2. “Mirror mechanism” and motor behavior (Maria Alessandra Umiltà, neuroscientist, University of Parma, Italy) 3. Body presence and extra-personal space perception (Giorgia Committeri and Chiara Fini neuroscientists, University of Chieti, Italy) 4. The actor at the circus. Towards a cognitive approach (Philippe Goudard, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France) Part Two: The spectator’s performative experience and “Embodied theatrology” 5. Editorial introduction: Towards an “Embodied Theatrology”? (Gabriele Sofia, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France) 6. Body and corporeality. A small multidisciplinary glossary (Marco De Marinis, University of Bologna, Italy) 7. Audiences’ experience of proximity and co-presence in live dance performance (Corinne Jola, neuroscientist and choreographer, Abertay University, Dundee and Matthew Reason, Faculty of Arts, York St John University, UK) 8. “Theatre and science”. Some reflections on the theatre effectiveness mechanism in Antonin Artaud (Lorraine Dumenil, University Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, France) Part Three: The complexity of theatre and human cognition 9. Editorial Introduction: The Complexity of the actor’s pedagogy and human cognition (Victor Jacono, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) 10. A rope over an abyss (John J. Schranz, University of Malta) 11. The actor’s embodied language. Preliminary indications from a pilot experiment (Gabriele Sofia; Silvia Spadacenta, neuroscientist, University of Tu¨bingen, Germany; Clelia Falletti; Giovanni Mirabella, neuroscientist, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) 12. Perception and the organization of time in the theatre (Luciano Mariti, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) Part Four: Interdisciplinary perspectives in applied performance 13. Editorial introduction: Does art therapy work as a rehabilitative tool? (Giovanni Mirabella neuroscientist, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) 14. Use of theatrical techniques and elements as interventions for autism spectrum disorders (Jenna Gabriel, Harvard University, USA; Elisa Angevin, Columbia University, USA; Tamara Rosen and Matthew D. Lerner, Stony Brook University, USA) 15. Theatre is a valuable tool for parkinson’s disease rehabilitation (Nicola Modugno, neurologist, IRCCS, Neuromed, Pozzilli; Imogen Kusch, theatre director of the Klesidra Company, Rome and Giovanni Mirabella) 16. Theatre and therapy: care, cure or illusion? (Jean-Marie Pradier, Ethnoscenologist, University Paris 8 – MSH-Paris Nord, France) Afterword Endnotes Index

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Book SynopsisLonglisted for the PQ Best Publication Award in Performance Design & Scenography 2023Sound Effect tells the story of the effect of theatrical aurality on modern culture. Beginning with the emergence of the modern scenic sound effect in the late 18th century, and ending with headphone theatre which brings theatre's auditorium into an intimate relationship with the audience's internal sonic space, the book relates contemporary questions of theatre sound design to a 250-year Western cultural history of hearing. It argues that while theatron was an instrument for seeing and theorizing, first a collective hearing, or audience is convened. Theatre begins with people entering an acoustemological apparatus that produces a way of hearing and of knowing. Once, this was a giant marble ear on a hillside, turned up to a cosmos whose inaudible music accounted for all. In modern times, theatre's auditorium, or instrument for hearing, has turned inwards on the people and their collectiveTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Now hear this (a preface) PART ONE Theatrical hearing 1 It’s obviously an effect (An introduction) Splat By design 2 Dispositions The god sound Auditory space and its dramaturgy The scenography of sound 3 Auditorium A space in process A fictional ontology PART TWO Reconfigurations 4 Present (A theatre about our person) Inscape Personal audio / immersive theatre The hi-fi cell 5 A sound from the suburbs (The curious story of Colonel Gouraud) An electric house A baby cries Anathema maranatha! 6 Picturing the scene The scenic reconfiguration The picturesque of sound The Eidophusikon PART THREE ‘Our thunder is the best’ (Living in the audio world) 7 Arty, exotic and gothic Pop, art and the theatre of hearing The theatre we daydream Thunder on the ear 8 Inside out (Symbolism, cinema and The Bells) The soundtrack, its prehistory and audiovisual morphology My God, it’s coming out of your ears! The free ear 9 Audio drama The sound effect in its widest sense (the stuff of radio) The theatre Corwin heard Common sound The Anatomy of Sound, by Norman Corwin 10 Conclusion Audimus: the theatre we hear References Index

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Book SynopsisAlison Jeffers is a Lecturer in Applied Theatre and Contemporary Performance at the University of Manchester, UK. Her publications include the monograph Refugees, Theatre and Crisis: Performing Global Identities (2010). She worked as a community artist for ten years before moving into education.Gerri Moriarty is an independent arts consultant. She was one of the artists who marched on the Arts Council demanding more funding and support for community arts in the 1960s. She has continued to work in community arts as well as being an arts consultant, trainer and writer in the UK, Ireland and beyond.Trade ReviewCulture, Democracy and the Right to Make Art is an essential read for artists, arts professionals, academics and anyone else interested in better understanding the legacy of the community arts movements and its subsequent appropriation and instrumentalisation at the hands of the establishment. The book is a satisfying read that not only sheds new light on community arts and its offspring, participatory arts and socially engaged art, but that also offers new insights that are at times deeply personal and at other times more academic and theoretical. It may even encourage some artists and organisations to self-organise in new forms of community arts practices that offer real dissent. * ArtWorks Alliance *[An] incredibly rich collection of diverse narratives and perspectives on Community Arts over the past 50 plus years … A thoroughly researched academic and practitioners’ perspective on this often under-documented field of work. * Drama Magazine *Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors Chapter 1: Introduction, by Alison Jeffers (University of Manchester, UK) Part 1 Chapter 2: The British Arts Movement 196801986, by Alison Jeffers Chapter 3: Community Arts - a forty-year apprenticeship: A view from England, by Gerri Moriarty (artist) Chapter 4: Craigmillar Festival, the Scottish Community Arts Movement of the 1970s and 1980s and its impact: A view from Scotland, by Andrew Crummy (artist) Chapter 5:.The Pioneers and the Welsh Community Arts Movement: A view from Wales, by Nick Clements (artist) Chapter 6: Grown from shattered glass: A view from Northern Ireland, by Gerri Moriarty Part 2 Chapter 7: Memories, Dreams, Reflections: Community Arts as Cultural Policy: the 1970s, by Oliver Bennett (University of Warwick, UK) Chapter 8: Training and Education for Artists: The impact of ideas in the 1970s and 1980s on the training of artists today, by Mark Webster and Janet Hetherington (Staffordshire University, UK) Chapter 9: From Community Arts to the Socially Engaged Arts Commission, by Sophie Hope (Birkbeck, University of London, UK) Chapter 10: Cultural Democracy, Developing Technologies and Dividuality, by Owen Kelly (Arcada University, Finland) Chapter 11: Conclusion, by Alison Jeffers and Gerri Moriarty Endnotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRobert Gordon is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and Director of the Pinter Research Centre in Performance and Creative Writing. His research has focused on modern British theatre, the theory and practice of performance and on musical theatre He has published books on Stoppard and Harold Pinter, on modern acting theories and edited The Oxford Handbook of Sondheim Studies and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of the British Musical.

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Book SynopsisXing Fan is Associate Professor of Asian Theatre and Performance Studies in the Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. A specialist in Chinese drama, theatre, and performance culture, she received training in jingju acting at the Academy of Chinese Traditional Theatre and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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Book SynopsisWhen we think of the contemporary British history play, why might we automatically think of playwrights such as David Hare, Howard Brenton, Peter Gill and Edward Bond? Because for decades the writing of the history play has been the preserve of the white male.This book provides a vital feminist intervention into the dramaturgy of history plays, investigating work produced at major British theatres from 2000 to the present, written by a generation of innovative women playwrights. This much-needed study explores the use of history specifically Elizabethan, Restoration, Victorian and early 20th century in contemporary playwriting in order to interrogate the gender politics of this work. Within the framework of contemporary feminism including the pivotal #MeToo movement the book looks at post-2000s feminist drama that somehow represents the past. Through delving into the recurring tropes and their politics in the light of current feminist debate, the a

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Book SynopsisLondon's West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out, Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes over the past 75 years. He argues that these outstanding hits have a lot to say about the collective cultural, social and political attitudes and aspirations of the country, and about how our national identity and theatre's role in creating it has evolved over the decades. The book spans a range of work from almost forgotten plays, such as R. F. Delderfield's Worm's Eye View and Hugh Hastings's Seagulls Over Sorrento, to well-known mega-hits, such as The Mousetrap and The Phantom of the Opera. Such popular work has tended to be undervalued by some critics and commentators mainly because it has not been thought to be a suitable subject for inclusion in the canon ofTrade ReviewThe book is doing important work in bringing these plays and productions back into view as significant contributions to an expanded notion of what a history of British theatre might look like at one end of the commercial subsidized spectrum … Works as an introductory text that goes some way to changing the aperture on British commercial theatre. * New Theatre Quarterly *In a terrific new book, Good Nights Out, the critic Aleks Sierz flies the flag for a strand of work he feels has been consistently undervalued despite – or rather because of – its box office success. * The Telegraph *This is that rare thing: an absolutely necessary theatre book. Aleks Sierz examines popular theatre seriously but not solemnly, sets it in its historical context and, above all, understands its social significance. An indispensable addition to the bookshelf. * The Guardian *A well-researched, worthwhile and enjoyable read. * Theatre Notebook *[Sierz’s] discussion throughout the book is clear and lively … A hugely enjoyable read, one that never talks down to the reader, but which has depth and knowledge to provide an informative context for the relationship between mega-hits and audience tastes. * British Theatre *The great British public just wants to have fun, to enjoy a good night out,' declares Sierz (visiting professor, Rose Bruford College, London, UK) in his fascinating and important study of British popular theater between 1940 and 2015. Subverting the common perception of British theater as a locus for erudite, serious drama in favor of theater that 'people actually want to see,' Sierz focuses on 'mega-hits'—'superlatively successful' shows with more than 1,000 performances that captured the popular imagination and allowed Britons to dream about who they are, how they feel, and what they might become as a society. Sierz organizes his study thematically, examining shows about matters that have preoccupied the British—war, crime, sex, family, class, history, and fantasy—and looking at how they evolved on stage over 75 years. He cites significant crossover shows, such as War Horse and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which were both mega-hits and critically acclaimed works of art and profiles others heretofore absent from published histories--for example, Worm’s Eye View, Pyjama Tops, and Daisy Pulls It Off. His analysis of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which opened in 1952 and is still running (26,000-plus performances), is revelatory. Excellent appendixes and notes. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *Aleks Sierz has written a fascinating and highly entertaining book about the shows that packed them in. He brings back to life entire genres that appealed to vast numbers of people but have been more or less forgotten by theatre historians. He asks why these blockbuster successes spoke so vividly to their audiences, and what they say about the world that formed them. It’s a book for anyone who has ever worried that they’re enjoying themselves too much in the theatre, as well as for those who want to know how central the theatre has been in the formation of popular taste. * Sir Nicholas Hytner, Director, UK *An absolute pleasure to read ... I cannot recommend this book enough. I would urge everyone who has the slightest interest in Britain’s theatrical history to purchase this book and luxuriate in the wealth of talent, some of which has been long forgotten, that has graced the stages of the West End from the 1940s up to 2015. * Musical Theatre Review *Sierz performs a deft, witty telling … [his] great strength … is to take the pulse of British dreaming as manifested in mega-hits. * Plays International and Europe *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements A Note on Sources Introduction Chapter One War: Comic, Tragic and Nostalgic While the Sun Shines (1943) Worm’s Eye View (1945) Seagulls Over Sorrento (1950) Reluctant Heroes (1950) War Horse (2007) Chapter Two Crime: Classical, Farcical and Postmodern The Mousetrap (1952) Simple Spymen (1958) Sleuth (1970) The Business of Murder (1981) Chapter Three Sex: Comic, Episodic and Ironic There’s a Girl in My Soup (1966) Pyjama Tops (1969) Oh! Calcutta! (1969) No Sex, Please — We’re British (1971) Chapter Four Family: Traditional, Redemptive and Fractured ‘Sailor, Beware!’ (1955) Spring and Port Wine (1965) The Man Most Likely To (1968) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012) Chapter Five Class: Musical, Parodic and Political Charlie Girl (1965) Daisy Pulls It Off (1983) Blood Brothers (1983) Billy Elliot the Musical (2005) Chapter Six History: Gothic, Edwardian and Pastiche The Phantom of the Opera (1986) The Woman in Black (1987) The 39 Steps (2006) One Man, Two Guvnors (2011) Chapter Seven Fantasy: Whimsy, Camp and Sci-fi Salad Days (1954) The Rocky Horror Show (1973) Return to the Forbidden Planet (1989) Matilda the Musical (2010) Conclusion — Dream Life of the British People Appendix 1: List of new shows from 1940 until the end of 2015 with more than 1,000 performances (by run length) Appendix 2: List of new shows from 1940 until the end of 2015 with more than 1,000 performances (by date) Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisOver the course of Edit Kaldor's Inventory of Powerlessness, developed and performed in four European cities (Amsterdam, Berlin, Poznan, Prague) between 2013-16, a range of situations, states and feelings from quotidian frustrations to extremes of affliction, disadvantage and oppression were brought into the collective setting of the theatre as spoken testimony. Meanwhile, a cumulative and archivable database or inventory' of powerlessness and its contemporary intersections was projected on stage, generated live by the participants at each performance. Thus, individual accounts of powerlessness were placed in relation to others, as acts of living knowledge and as claim upon the shared articulation that theatrical working together can foster.This book, departing from but not confined to the example of Inventory, explores contemporary ways of making and performing that bring marginalised knowledges into appearance and action. The book is not only for students o

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Book SynopsisVolume 2 of Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance investigates performances that illuminate the hidden recesses and inscrutable mysteries of the natural and human-made worlds. While the first volume of this series prioritizes public, outward-facing, and activist work at the intersections of art and science, this volume considers performances of localized, concealed, inexplicable, or intimate phenomena, from the closed-door procedures of biomedical trials to the impacts of climate change. Interdisciplinary science dialogues have long been shaped by the cultures and identity communities in which they arise and circulate. The essays, interviews, and creative works included here not only expose the historical and contemporary harms created by exclusive and prejudicial processes in art and science, they also contemplate how a diverse, inclusive body of science performers might help deepen how we see the unseen forces of our universe, contribute to n

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Book SynopsisProvides a clear guide to Kathakali, exploring the origin, evolution and characteristics of the form today and the ways it has adapted for a 21st-century audience.Kathakali provides an introduction to this vibrant mode of dance drama, which comes from Kerala in southwest India and combines poetry, music, rhythm and dance to represent stories of gods, demons and humans. Tracing the distinctive features of Kathakali - which is sometimes tightly structured with fixed conventions and sometimes fluid enough to incorporate imaginative flight of fancy. It charts how the form has changed over the centuries and assesses its cultural legacy today. It also includes translations of extracts from poems, plays and performance manuals, as well as interviews with actors and cultural historians.Kathakali, literally story play', originated in Kerala in the latter part of the 16th century. Today it commands attention and involves practitioners from around the world. Largely drawing its stor

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2024 TaPRA David Bradby Monograph PrizeHow is decadence being staged today as a practice, issue, pejorative, and as a site of pleasure? Where might we find it, why might we look for it, and who is decadence for?This book is the first monographic study of decadence in theatre and performance. Adam Alston makes a passionate case for the contemporary relevance of decadence in the thick of a resurgent culture war by focusing on its antithetical relationship to capitalist-led growth, progress, and intensified productivity. He argues that the qualities used to disparage the study and practice of theatre and performance are the very things we should embrace in celebrating their value namely, their spectacular uselessness, wastefulness, outmodedness, and abundant potential for producing forms of creativity that flow away from the ends and excesses of capitalism.Alston covers an eclectic range of examples by Julia Bardsley (UK), Hasard Le

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Book SynopsisExamining the changing reception of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries between 1870 and 1940, this follow-up volume to Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries focuses on the broad movements of national revivalism that took place around the turn of the century as Finland and Norway, and later Iceland, were gaining their independence. The first part of the book demonstrates how translations and productions of Shakespeare were key in such movements, as Shakespeare was appropriated for national and political purposes. The second part explores how the role of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries was partly transformed in the 1920s and 1930s as a new social system emerged, and then as the rise of fascism meant that European politics cast a long shadow on the Nordic countries and substantially affected the reception of Shakespeare.Contributors trace the impact of early translations of Shakespeare''s works into Icelandic, the role of women in the early transmission

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Book SynopsisThrough an examination of children's and youth plays and performances about the Holocaust from Germany, Israel, and the United States, this book offers an entirely new way of looking at the vital role of youth performance in coping with the legacy of historical tragedy. As the first book-length critical examination of this subject, Holocaust Memory and Youth Performance considers plays that are produced by major theatre companies alongside performances written by young authors and pieces taken from the diaries and memoirs of those who experienced the Holocaust as children or adolescents. While youth-focused plays about the Holocaust have been in the repertories of top professional companies throughout the world for decades and continue to be performed in theatres, schools, and community centers, they are often neglected in concentrated and comparative studies of Holocaust theatre. Erika Hughes fills this gap by examining plays (including The Diary of Anne Frank and Ab heure heißt

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Book SynopsisCovid-19 has been described as a digital pandemic'. But who might the characterisation of the pandemic as digital' leave behind? This timely book reconsiders the pandemic as postdigital', examining tensions between a growing postdigital attitude of disenchantment with digital technologies and the increasing reliance on adapted modes of online practice mid-lockdown in both performance-making and healthcare. What emerged amidst the pandemic restrictions was a theatre that was unable to show its face, instead adapting into a variety of covid-safe' remote forms of engagement, from Zoom plays' to self-generating experiences sent by post. This book explores the ways that both performances and healthcare practices found proxies for direct touch and face-to-face encounters, deconstructing the way that care and resilience were spectacularized by political actors online. Liam Jarvis and Karen Savage explore aspects of care in relation to technology, spectacle and facilitation, and how new mo

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Book SynopsisThis interdisciplinary study of devised theatre explores devising as research practice through the intersection of cognitive sciences and the arts. It interrogates relationships between epistemology and cognition, action and aesthetics, and first-person experience and third-person investigation. Pairing practice research methodologies from theatre and performance with cognitive and neuroscientific approaches both theoretical and empirical it reveals new insights into the practices of collective creation in theatre. To foreground the insider knowledge inherent to practice research, the main case studies are works created and performed by Maiya Murphy's international movement-based devising collective, Autopoetics. Autopoetics' work is contextualized in reference to major international devising companies including Complicité, Tectonic Theater Project, SITI Company, Frantic Assembly, and Gecko Theatre, and empirical and practice-based research on embodied performance including major dan

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Book SynopsisThe British musical in its formative years has appeared in strikingly different guises: from the lasting hits of Oliver!, and Me and My Girl, to the successes of The Dancing Years, Bless the Bride and Expresso Bongo.This authoritative study traces what made these shows successes in the West End and how their qualities define a uniquely British interpretation of the genre. Cultural, sociological and political influences entwine with close reading of the dramatic and musical elements of this repertory to reveal a fascinating web of connections and contrasts between the times, the shows and the people who made them. Through detailed case studies, such as of The Boy Friend and Bitter Sweet, the rich individuality of each West End work is spotlighted, posing vital questions and intriguing answers as to what a British musical can be. Interdisciplinary in nature, this study brings together all the core materials to dis

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Book SynopsisMeike Wagner is Professor of Theatre Studies at LMU Munich, Germany. She is the author of Theatre and the Public Sphere in Vormärz' (2013) and the co-editor of Performing Eighteenth-Century Theatre Today (2021).

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Book SynopsisDevendra Sharma is Professor of Communication and Performance Studies at California State University, USA. He is a seventh-generation actor-singer, writer, and director of Nautanki, Svang and Sangit (older forms of Nautanki). He has performed more than 2000 performances so far in his performance career. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 2006 at Ohio University, in addition to other publications, on Nautanki, and is a worldwide authority on it.

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Book Synopsis''Tender and rigorous, this book invites readers to linger with difficult pasts and consider how best to grasp their hauntings, demands and manifestations in the present. This is a book about mourning as well as holding, a simultaneous act of exhumation and a laying to rest.'' anna six, author of Madness, Art, and Society: Beyond Illness This is an extraordinary book, in which queer theatre and performance become sites of celebration and resistance, as well as holding the potential for performers and audiences to work through painfully felt yet difficult to articulate experiences towards feelings of hope. Replete with rigorous, generous and creative readings, it is also a meditation on Walsh's own emotional engagement with queer theatre and performance, and how our cultural attachments can sustain, enliven and contain us.' Noreen Giffney, psychoanalytic psychotherapist and author of The Culture-Breast in Psychoanalysis Why

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Book SynopsisDavid Fuller is Professor Emeritus of English at Durham University, UK. Among his many publications are The Life in the Sonnets, (Bloomsbury, 2011) and Shakespeare and the Romantics (2021), besides writings on Shakespeare ballets, on King Lear and on ballet and music.

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Book SynopsisMark Edward is a pracademic and Reader in Creative Arts at Edge Hill University, UK. His publications include Mesearch and the Performing Body (2018). Professionally he has worked for Rambert Dance Company and performed with the renowned American performance artist Penny Arcade in her work Bad Reputation (2004) and in Jeremy Goldstein's Truth to Power Café (2018). Mark is also the writer and producer of the immersive performance and film installation Council House Movie Star (2012) featuring his drag persona Gale Force.Stephen Farrier is Reader in Theatre and Performance at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. With Alyson Campbell he has coedited Queer Dramaturgies: International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer (2015) as well as a themed edition of RIDE, The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance named the Gender and Sexuality Issue'.Trade ReviewA necessary, nuanced and well heeled step in understanding the scope, diversity and impact of our art. * Cheddar Gorgeous *This is the drag book we have been waiting for: critical, entertaining, political. It provides us with a timely and much needed collection of analytical, provocative and engaging encounters with drag. Ranging widely over theoretical and methodological approaches, and drawing on and giving expression to a colourful cast of queens and kings, this book is a fabulous read with something for academics, activists, audiences and artistes alike. Unafraid to engage with the complexity of drag, it pushes at the paradoxes and potentialities of contemporary drag across diverse settings and in mainstream as well as countercultural formations. With a queer politics at its beating heart, it also puts drag to work in performing, challenging and understanding gender and sexuality in the 21st century. * Dr Cath Lambert, University of Warwick, UK *Kick off your heels, peel down your stockings and get your complexly gendered bare feet on the gorgeous sticky floors of this fantastic book. Ferociously sexy, rigorously theorized and joyously kinky, Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers is a major mapping of fierce gender-queer space. Take this book to bed right now and read it! * Tim Miller, performer and author of A Body in the O *Offers a nuanced cross-section of drag studies at a watershed moment when drag is increasingly being assimilated into mainstream Western visual and popular culture, and finding new homes in various cultural contexts, media and academic disciplines. As such, it is a valuable contribution to the literature in the field. * Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies *Edward and Farrier have edited a collection that offers both a taste of Drag for the uninitiated undergraduate and opens intriguing avenues for the more seasoned academic explorer and/or performer. * New Theatre Quarterly *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Forward by Mark Ravenhill Introduction by Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier Chapter 1: Applying Foundation and Setting The Scene by Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier Chapter 2: ‘Dragging the Mainstream: RuPaul’s Drag Race and Moving Drag Practices Between the USA and the UK’ by Joe Parslow Chapter 3: ‘RACE FOR THE MONEY: The Influence of RuPaul's Drag Race on the Livelihood and Aesthetics of New York City's Drag Culture’ by Kalle Westerling Chapter 4: ‘Hen.faChinoiserie Drag: Masquerading as the Oriental Other’ by Rosa Fong Chapter 5: ‘It’s Always Better Performing with the Troupe’: Space, Place, and Collective Activism’ by Jae Basiliere Chapter 6: ‘Of Hills and Wheels: Tilda Death in the IDF Disabled Veterans’ Club’ by Raz Weiner Chapter 7: ‘A Transfeminist Critique of Drag Discourses and Performance Styles in Three National Contexts (US, France and UK): from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Bar Wotever’ by Kayte Stokoe Chapter 8: ‘Not a cock in a frock but a Hole story. Holestar and the mark of the bio-queens’ by Stephen Farrier Chapter 9: ‘Destabilisation through Celebration: Drag, Homage, and Challenges to Black Stereotypes in the Practice of Harold Offeh’ by Kieran Sellars Chapter 10: ‘Gender Euphoria: Trans and Non-Binary Identities in Drag’ by Olympia Bukkakis Chapter 11: ‘The Tranimal: Throwing Gender out of Drag?’ by Nick Cherryman Chapter 12: ‘Drag Kings and Queens of Higher Education’ by Mark Edward Chapter 13: ‘Drag publique: the spectacle of queerness, queer placelessness and the emaciated spectator’ by Allan Taylor Chapter 14: ‘"Blessed is the fruit" Drag Performance, Birthing, and Religious Identity’ by Chris Greenough & Nina Kane Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the first book-length study of Annie Baker, one of the most critically acclaimed playwrights in the United States today and winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur genius grant, Amy Muse analyzes Baker's plays and other work. These include The Flick, John, The Antipodes, the Shirley Vermont plays, and her adaptation of Uncle Vanya. Muse illuminates their intellectual and ethical themes and issues by contextualizing them with the other works of theatre, art, theology, and psychology that Baker read while writing them. Through close discussions of Baker's work, this book immerses readers in her use of everyday language, her themes of loneliness, desire, empathy, and storytelling, and her innovations with stage time. Enriched by a foreword from Baker's former professor, playwright Mac Wellman, as well as essays by four scholars, Thomas Butler, Jeanmarie Higgins, Katherine Weiss, and Harrison Schmidt, this is a companionable g

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Book SynopsisMikhl Yashinsky is an actor, playwright, stage director, lyricist, and Yiddishist.

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Book SynopsisEdel Semple is Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at University College Cork, Ireland.Ronan Hatfull is Lecturer and Senior Associate Tutor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

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Book SynopsisYunuen Ysela Mandujano-Salazar is a professor and researcher at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, member of the Mexican National System of Researchers.

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Book SynopsisStaging Beckett in London presents the first dedicated performance history of Samuel Beckett's drama in London theatre culture. By tracing these performance histories through original findings in international archives, interviews with key practitioners and framing the performances in their historical and cultural contexts, this open access historiography offers new readings and insights into productions of Beckett's plays in London. Matthew McFrederick re-evaluates Beckett's role in London theatres and the importance of their influence on Beckett's career and legacy. This volume argues that Samuel Beckett has held a long and varied relationship with London and its theatres. Although Dublin and Paris hold obvious connections with Beckett's life, London is the city that has proved the most consistent home for his drama, the origin for many of his major collaborations and where his legacy continues to flourish today. From the Royal Court to the National Theatre and from Riverside Stu

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Book SynopsisThis is the first full-length book to investigate Beckett's work through contemporary ecological thinking, offering a wide range of artistic and scholarly responses to ongoing ecological crises.In response to the ever-growing urgency of global warming, the vitality and the creativity of art and literature have been singled out as sources of hope by Nobel Prize awardee in chemistry and coiner of the Anthropocene', Paul J. Crutzen. Samuel Beckett was not an environmental artist, but his oeuvre, poised between forms of precarity and hope, is a rich territory for the exploration of the most pressing issues of our time: the rift between the human species, its technological and economic advancement and the ecologies that sustain it all. In recent years, Beckett's name, aphorisms and work have frequently been invoked relative to environmental catastrophe, helping stimulate debates on ecology, the arts and the eco-systemic place of the human. Beckett and Ecology <

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