Description
Book SynopsisWhat happens when a theatrical production moves both literally and aesthetically off the stage and into the world surround the playhouse? Fourteen scholars and theater professionals address an issue that has aesthetic, philosophical, historical, psychological, social, and political implications for all those interested in the theater.
Trade ReviewPart of the "Transforming Literary Studies" series, this collection explores how "offstage" theatrical performances—performances that are not on a theater stage or that break the fourth wall—impact the audience and, in fact, may be the necessary ingredient to the continued vitality of theatrical performance in general. Homan (English, Univ. of Florida) organizes the 12 essays into three sections: "What Fourth Wall?" "The Theater of Everyday Life," and "Presence and Factor—and Force." Contributors include both theater scholars and practitioners, and in their essays they describe how the use of the actor-audience relationship, inside and outside the theater space, can transform the audience’s visceral involvement in the journey of the play. Flash mobs, political advocacy, and digital technology are some ways in which contemporary cultural phenomena are mined for these theatrical re-creations and representations. The volume offers unique and convincing perspectives on cinematic digital runs of Shakespeare productions, Germany's Citizen’s Theater, Timothy Leary’s Psychedelic Celebrations, and a staging of Waiting for Godot during Occupy Wall Street. Readers with exposure to the plays discussed or a background in theater will be at an advantage. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students. * CHOICE *
Scholar, performer, director, and learned impresario, Sidney Homan gathers an impressive array of artists, researchers, and writers to explore the endless possibilities of the theater. All the world is indeed a stage, it is many stages, and as these essays show, theatrical work exerts great power beyond the fourth wall and even beyond the walls of the theater building. Anyone interested in creative possibilities of improving our world will find something to love in this collection -- Jerry Harp, Lewis and Clark University
Table of ContentsIntroduction, “What It Can Mean to Play Offstage—and Why,” Sidney Homan Section 1: “What Fourth Wall?” 1.“Looking from Either Side of Glass,” Elizabeth Sakellaridou 2.“Sticking It to the Audience,” Sidney Homan 3.“‘To Be a Public Spectacle to All’: Hidden Cameras, Flash Mobs and the Potential for Revolutionary Theater,” Horacio Sierra 4.“‘Bard on Demand’: Shakespeare on Screen[s] in the Twenty-First Century,” Joe Falocco Section 2: The Theater of Everyday Life 5.“Town vs. Landscape: Citizen’s Theater and the Re-envisioning of Actor and Stage” Uli Jäckle and Brian Rhinehart 6.“Directing and Leadership: Endorsing the Stage to Generate Collaboration and Creativity within Corporate Contexts,” Avra Sidiropoulou 7.“Taking the Performance Off the Stage of Reality: Timothy Leary's Off-Broadway Performances of 1966–1967,” James Penner 8.“Making Noh Real Life: Transforming Anxiety in William T. Vollmann's Kissing the Mask,”Gina MacKenzie and Daniel T. O’Hara Section 3: Presence and Factor—and Force 9.“The Theater, Inside Out, 1575–1630,” S. E. Cerasano 10.“Ruptured Stages: Neoliberalism and the Dramaturgies of Debt and Time,” Gigi Argyropoulou 11.“Articulating the Farewell – Performance and the City,” Natascha Siouzouli 12.“The Road Free to All: Staging Waiting for Godot during the Occupy Wall Street Protests,” Lance Duerfahrd
