Search results for ""Author Susan Bennett""

The Irish artist, James Barry, is a major neoclassical artist of international significance. A keen exponent of the grand style of history painting, his work virtually disappeared from view following his death. His reputations was raised from obscurity in the 1980s by Robert R. Wark and David Solkin, but especially by William Pressley’s excellent biography and catalogue raisonné. This collection of essays examines in more detail Barry’s relationship with the (Royal) Society of Arts, and their encouragement of “high” art and the arts of design, to put into practice Barry’s belief that “one great maxim of moral truth, viz. that the obtaining of happiness, individual as well as public, depends upon cultivating the human faculties.” By taking different aspects of Barry’s mural cycle The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture that he painted for the “Great Room” of the (Royal) Society of Arts (1777-1801), the contributors show the wider contemporary art and design debates focusing on nationalism and improvement, publicity and patronage, thereby establishing new connections between theory (political, social, and cultural) and practice. The first half of this volume considers the development of the premiums offered by the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in the “polite arts,” from its initial focus on designs for manufacturers to a program that tended toward “high” art. Consideration is also given to the Society’s encouragement of female excellence, which Barry featured in his mural series for the Society. The second half looks in more detail at Barry’s The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture. Recent discoveries have shed new light on Barry’s innermost thoughts and intentions, and his constant reworking of the Society’s murals, illustrating the artist’s belief that “art and artists play a fundamental role in the advancement of society.” As part of the bicentenary celebrations of Barry’s death, an important exhibition and international conference were held at the Crawford Gallery, Cork, in 2006. This collection of essays is a further opportunity to re-evaluate the extraordinary contribution of Barry to the eighteenth-century artistic world. It also acknowledges the work of Dr. David G. C. Allen as a writer and teacher on RSA history, as well as Barry’s murals, for more than fifty years. A memorial tablet was erected in 2009 on the site of Barry’s London home in Castle Street, as a further recognition of this extraordinary artist. In light of recent discoveries, and drawing heavily on the RSA archives and collections, this volume will appeal to all those interested in a detailed account of artistic development in Britain in the eighteenth century. It also contains fifty-two black-and-white illustrations.

Read more less

This book offers a wealth of resources, critical overviews and detailed analysis of Ivo van Hove’s internationally acclaimed work as the foremost director of theatre, opera and musicals in our time. Stunning production photos capture the power of van Hove’s directorial vision, his innovative use of theatrical spaces, and the arresting stage images that have made his productions so popular among audiences worldwide over the last 30 years. Van Hove’s own contribution to the book, which includes a foreword, interview and his director’s notes for some of his most popular shows, makes this book a unique resource for students, scholars and for his fans across the different art forms in which he works. An informative introduction provides an overview of van Hove’s unique approach to directing, while five sections, individually curated by experts in the respective fields of Shakespeare, classical theatre, modern theatre, opera, musicals, film, and international festival curatorship, offer readers a combination of critical insight and short excerpts by van Hove’s collaborators, the actors in the ensemble companies van Hove works with in Amsterdam and New York, and by arts critics and reviewers.

Read more less

Women have been sidelined throughout history in the rush to tell the stories of great wars, great battles and the achievements of great men. But in Moray - a part of Scotland encompassing both Highland and Lowland areas btween Inverness and Aberdeen - a group of people have begun a project to uncover the stories of the women who lived in Moray from medieval to modern times.Discover Flaming Janet, James IV's mistress; Elsie Watson who rode solo across South Africa on a motorcycle in 1912; the Queen's nurse in Foula dn Fair Isle in the 1920s; the spymaster of Albanian agents during the Second World War; the Traveller born in the bow-tent and more.This book captures the tales of over 70 women whose lives have made an impact on history both in Scotland and abroad. It sheds light on their misfortunes, prjudice and abuse, and shows how these challenges have been overcome.Women of Moray is a unique glimpse into the history of the region, looking at women marginalised, forgotten and usually uncelebrated across the centuries. For the historian, the genealogist and the general reader, this is a book that will deepen your understanding of history.

Read more less

Sound provides a lively and engaging overview of relevant critical theory for students and researchers in theatre and performance studies. Addressing sound across history and through progressive developments in relevant technologies, the volume opens up the study of theatrical production and live performance to understand conceptual and pragmatic concerns about the sonic. By way of developed case studies (including Aristophanes’s The Frogs, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Cocteau’s The Human Voice, and Rimini Protokoll’s Situation Rooms), readers can explore new methodologies and approaches for their own work on sound as a performance component. In an engagement with the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of sound studies, this book samples exciting new thinking relevant to theatre and performance studies. Part of the Theory for Theatre Studies series which introduces core theoretical concepts that underpin the discipline, Sound provides a balance of essential background information and new scholarship, and is grounded in detailed examples that illuminate and equip readers for their own sonic explorations. Volumes follow a consistent three-part structure: a historical overview of how the term has been understood within the discipline; more recent developments illustrated by substantive case studies; and emergent trends and interdisciplinary connections. Volumes are supported by further online resources including chapter overviews, illustrative material and guiding questions. Online resources to accompany this book are available at: https://bloomsbury.com/uk/theory-for-theatre-studies-sound-9781474246460/

Read more less

How 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’s understandings of the shape of the bodies on stage, possibly producing a reflexive dynamic for consideration of bodies offstage as well. In addition, casting choices in the theatre, most recently and popularly in Hamilton, question how certain bodies are “cast” in social, historical, and philosophical roles. Through an analysis of contemporary case studies, including The Balcony, Angels in America, and Father Comes Home from the Wars, this volume examines how the theatre theorizes bodies. Online resources are also available to accompany this book.

Read more less

Space: it’s everywhere, all around, a given. It’s abstract and yet not abstract at all, because it governs all human relations, shapes the way we understand our place on the planet, and orients us toward others (for better and for worse). How do theatre scholars understand space and place in performance? What tools do they use to theorize the political work space does on – and beyond – the stage? How can students use these tools to unpack the workings of space and place in the performances they see, the plays they study, and the experiences they have outside their classrooms? Theory for Theatre Studies: Space provides a comprehensive introduction to the ‘spatial turn’ in modern theatre and performance theory, exploring topics as diverse as embodied space, environmental performance politics and urban performance studies. The book is written in accessible prose and features in-depth case studies of Platform’s audio walk And While London Burns, Katie Mitchell’s Fraülein Julie, Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment, and Evalyn Parry and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory’s Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools. TfTS: Space begins with fresh readings of historical dramatic theory, discusses twentieth-century theoretical trends at length, and ends by asking what it will take (and what work is already underway) to decolonize the Western, settler-colonial stage. Online resources to accompany this book are available at: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/theory-for-theatre-studies-space-9781350006072/

Read more less