Search results for ""Author John McGrath""

The classic manifesto on popular theatre by the founder of the 7:84 Theatre Companies. John McGrath's manifesto is as relevant today as it was when first published in 1981. Looking at the ways different classes take their entertainment, he puts the case for what theatre could be doing for the populace instead of walling itself up in subsidised fortresses for the well-to-do.

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It's a story that has a beginning, a middle, but as yet, no end. John McGrath's winding, furious, innovative play tracks the economic history and exploitation of the Scottish Highlands from the post-Rebellion suppression of the clans to the story of the Clearances: in the 19th century, aristocratic landowners discovered the profitability of sheep farming, and forced a mass emigration of rural Highlanders, burning their houses in order to make way for the Cheviot sheep. Described by the playwright as having a “ceilidh” format, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil draws on historical research alongside Gaelic song and the Scots' love of variety and popular entertainment to tell this epic story. A totally distinctive cultural and theatrical phenomenon, the play championed several new approaches to theatre, raising its profile as a means of political intervention; proposing a collective and collaborative approach to creating theatre; offering a language of performance accessible to working-class people; producing theatre in non-purpose-built theatre spaces; breaking down the barrier between audience and performers through interaction; and taking theatre to people who otherwise would not access it. The play received its premiere in 1973 by the agit-prop theatre group 7:84. Methuen Drama’s iconic Modern Plays series began in 1959 with the publication of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey and has grown over six decades to now include more than 1000 plays by some of the best writers from around the world. This new special edition hardback of The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil was published to celebrate 60 years of Methuen Drama’s Modern Plays in 2019, chosen by a public vote and features a new foreword by Kate McGrath.

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Written during the 1970s, John McGrath’s winding, furious, innovative play tracks the economic history and exploitation of the Scottish Highlands from the post-Rebellion suppression of the clans to the story of the Clearances: in the nineteenth century, aristocratic landowners discovered the profitability of sheep farming, and forced a mass emigration of rural Highlanders, burning their houses in order to make way for the Cheviot sheep. The play follows the thread of capitalist and repressive exploitation through the estates of the stag-hunting landed gentry, to the 1970s rush for profit in the name of North Sea Oil. Described by the playwright as having a “ceilidh” format, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil draws on historical research alongside Gaelic song and the Scots’ love of variety and popular entertainment to tell this epic story. A totally distinctive cultural and theatrical phenomenon, the play championed several new approaches to theatre, raising its profile as a means of political intervention; proposing a collective, democratic, collaborative approach to creating theatre; offering a language of performance accessible to working-class people; producing theatre in non-purpose-built theatre spaces; breaking down the barrier between audience and performers through interaction; and taking theatre to people who otherwise would not access it. The play received its premiere in 1973 by the agit-prop theatre group 7:84, of which John McGrath was founder and Artistic Director, and toured Scotland to great critical and audience acclaim.

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The past few years have seen considerable advances in our understanding of the molecular basis underlying cutaneous cell adhesion mechanisms. Co-authored by a number of leading experts in the field ^Cell Adhesion and Migration in Skin Disease provides a comprehensive overview of the critical role played by cell adhesion in determining the structure and function of both healthy and diseased human skin. The book is divided into three main sections, with each one addressing a principal function of adhesion molecules.The first part focuses on the epidermis, which as the skin's outermost layer, acts as the human body's primary barrier of defence. Roles played by cytoskeletal intermediate filaments and junctional complexes in cutaneous cell adhesion are emphasised with descriptions of blistering skin diseases that can arise if these molecules malfunction.The second part describes the macromolecular interactions responsible for the anchorage of cells to the underlying extracellular basement membrane. The experimental approaches detailed in the text not only reveal how the molecular components of the dermal-epidermal junction have been elucidated, but also highlight how mutations in the genes which encode these molecules are responsible for many heritable skin diseases. Leukocytes continually infiltrate the skin and patrol it for potentially harmful pathogens. Control of leukocyte adhesion to resident cells within the skin and to the extracellular matrix plays a key role in controlling these processes. These mechanisms constitute the primary focus of the final section. The pivotal role of leukocytes is examined in conjunction with the chronic inflammatory diseases which arise when components of the skin's finely tuned defence strategy go awry and the potential for these anomalies to be pinpointed as important immunotherapeutic targets for skin diseases.

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