Download or read book The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre written by Jonathan Law and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre is an essential reference tool and companion for anyone interested in the theatre and theatre-going. Containing over 2500 entries it covers the international spectrum of theatre with particular emphasis on the UK and USA. With biographical information on playwrights, actors and directors, entries on theatres and theatre companies, explanation of technical terms and theatrical genres, and synopses of major plays, this is an authoritative, trustworthy and comprehensive compendium. Included are: synopses of 500 major plays biographical entries on hundreds of playwrights, actors, directors and producers definitions of nearly 200 genres and movements entries on over 100 key characters from plays information about more than 250 theatres and companies Unlike similar products, The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre avoids a dry, technical approach with its sprinkling of anecdotal asides and fascinating trivia, such as how Michael Gambon gave his name to a corner of a racing track following an incident on BBC's Top Gear programme, and under 'advice to actors' the sage words of Alec Guinness: 'First wipe your nose and check your flies', and the equally wise guidance from the master of his art, Noël Coward: 'Just know your lines and don't bump into the furniture.' As a companion to everything from the main stage to the fringes of theatrical fact and folklore, this will prove an irresistible book to all fans of the theatre.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre written by Jonathan Law and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre is an essential reference tool and companion for anyone interested in the theatre and theatre-going. Containing over 2500 entries it covers the international spectrum of theatre with particular emphasis on the UK and USA. With biographical information on playwrights, actors and directors, entries on theatres and theatre companies, explanation of technical terms and theatrical genres, and synopses of major plays, this is an authoritative, trustworthy and comprehensive compendium. Included are: synopses of 500 major plays biographical entries on hundreds of playwrights, actors, directors and producers definitions of nearly 200 genres and movements entries on over 100 key characters from plays information about more than 250 theatres and companies Unlike similar products, The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre avoids a dry, technical approach with its sprinkling of anecdotal asides and fascinating trivia, such as how Michael Gambon gave his name to a corner of a racing track following an incident on BBC's Top Gear programme, and under 'advice to actors' the sage words of Alec Guinness: 'First wipe your nose and check your flies', and the equally wise guidance from the master of his art, Noël Coward: 'Just know your lines and don't bump into the furniture.' As a companion to everything from the main stage to the fringes of theatrical fact and folklore, this will prove an irresistible book to all fans of the theatre.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights written by Christopher Innes and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unrivalled in its coverage of recent work and writers, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights surveys and analyses the breadth, vitality and development of theatrical work to emerge from America over the last fifty years. This authoritative guide leads you through the work of 25 major contemporary American playwrights, discussing more than 140 plays in detail. Written by a team of 25 eminent international scholars, each chapter provides: · a biographical introduction to the playwright's work; · a survey and concise analysis of the writer's most important plays; · a discussion of their style, dramaturgical concerns and critical reception; · a bibliography of published plays and a select list of critical works. Among the many Tony, Obie and Pulitzer prize-winning playwrights included are Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson, Paula Vogel and Neil LaBute. The abundance of work analysed enables fresh, illuminating conclusions to be drawn about the development of contemporary American playwriting.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights written by Martin Middeke and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-10-17 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights is an authoritative guide to the work of twenty-five playwrights who have risen to prominence since the 1980s. Written by an international team of scholars, it will be invaluable to anyone interested in, studying or teaching contemporary drama. Among the many playwrights whose work is examined are Sarah Daniels, Terry Johnson, Martin Crimp, Sarah Kane, Anthony Neilson, Mark Ravenhill, Simon Stephens, Debbie Tucker Green, Tanika Gupta and Richard Bean. Each essay features: A biographical sketch and introduction to the playwright A discussion of their most important plays An analysis of their stylistic and thematic traits, the critical reception and their place in the discourses of British theatre A bibliography of texts and critical material
Download or read book The Drama Dictionary written by Terry Hodgson and published by New Amsterdam Books. This book was released on 1998-04-21 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive reference work is designed to be a single source to which readers may turn for guidance on dramatic theory and practice. It therefore concentrates on critical and technical concepts and terms rather than on theatre history or biography. The book contains some 1300 entries varying in length from a few words to several hundred. The terms included relate to the forms of drama (e.g. epic, mime, farce, comedy of manners, tragi-comedy, etc.); to different kinds of stage (thrust, picture-frame, arena, etc.); to technical stage terms (tabs, proscenium arch, sightlines, etc.); to acting terms, including colloquialisms (fluff, corpse-as well as duologue, soliloquy, cross below, upstage, etc.) They also include the critical terms of important theoreticians (e.g. superobjective, magic 'if', throughline, alienation, montage) and the obvious foreign terms (hamartia, peripeteia, etc.). Dramatic movements and styles are described (naturalism, expressionism, neo-classical, Jacobean, etc.), together with terms relating to costume (e.g. buskins), character types (of, say, the Commedia dell'Arte) and dramatic structure (climax, curtain, pace and tempo, episode, chorus, etc.). The entries are fully cross-referenced, and are supported by ample suggestions for further reading and a selection of line drawings illustrating key points in the text.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights written by Martin Middeke and published by . This book was released on with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an authoritative single-volume guide to the work of 25 American playwrights from the 1960s to the present written by a team of 25 eminent scholars from the USA, Canada, Britain, Germany, and Ireland. It is the perfect companion for students of American literature and drama.
Download or read book Stage Play and Screen Play written by Michael Ingham and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-08 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogue between film and theatre studies is frequently hampered by the lack of a shared vocabulary. Stage-Play and Screen-Play sets out to remedy this, mapping out an intermedial space in which both film and theatre might be examined. Each chapter’s evaluation of the processes and products of stage-to-screen and screen-to-stage transfer is grounded in relevant, applied contexts. Michael Ingham draws upon the growing field of adaptation studies to present case studies ranging from Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan and RSC Live’s simulcast of Richard II to F.W. Murnau’s silent Tartüff, Peter Bogdanovich’s film adaptation of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, and Akiro Kurosawa’s Ran, highlighting the multiple interfaces between media. Offering a fresh insight into the ways in which film and theatre communicate dramatic performances, this volume is a must-read for students and scholars of stage and screen.
Download or read book English Theatrical Anecdotes 1660 1800 written by Heather Ladd and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-17 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: English Theatrical Anecdotes, 1660-1800 explores the theatrical anecdote's role in the construction of stage fame in England's emergent celebrity culture during the long eighteenth century, as well as the challenges of employing anecdotes in theatre scholarship today. Chapters in this book discuss anecdotes about actors, actresses, musicians, and other theatre people.
Download or read book Enron written by Lucy Prebble and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only difference between me and the people judging me is they weren't smart enough to do what we did. One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a theatrical epic. At once a case study and an allegory, the play charts the notorious rise and fall of Enron and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who became 'the most vilified figure from the financial scandal of the century.' This Student Edition features expert and helpful annotation, including a scene-by-scene summary, a detailed commentary on the dramatic, social and political context, and on the themes, characters, language and structure of the play, as well as a list of suggested reading and questions for further study and a review of performance history. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s and casts a new light on the financial turmoil in which the world finds itself in 2009. The play was Lucy Prebble's first work for the stage since her debut work The Sugar Syndrome, winner of the George Devine and Critic's Circle Awards for Most Promising New Playwright. Produced by Headlong, Enron premiered at Chichester's Minerva Theatre on 11 July 2009 and opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September, before transferring to London's West End and to Broadway in 2010.
Download or read book Playwriting written by Fraser Grace and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of inspiration and practical advice, Playwriting: A Writers' & Artists' Companion is a comprehensive companion to writing for the stage. PART 1 includes reflections on the art and the craft of playwriting, guidance on writing for a full range of genres and spaces and a brief history of playwriting itself. PART 2 contains inspiring advice and reflections from leading playwrights:April De Angelis, Bryony Lavery, David Greig, Christina Reid, Dennis Kelly, Frank McGuinness, Lynn Nottage, Howard Brenton, Roy Williams, Tanika Gupta, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Polly Stenham, Tom Stoppard, Jack Thorne, Steve Waters, E.V. Crowe, David Henry Hwang, Lin Coghlan, Zinnie Harris and Anne Washburn. PART 3 offers practical exercises and advice on planning and conducting research, working out plots and characters, mastering authentic but accessible dialogue, navigating the industry and the rehearsal and production process.
Download or read book Violence in British Theatre The Second Half of the Twentieth Century Expanded Second Edition written by Ajda Bastan and published by Astana Yayınları. This book was released on 2024-05-06 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this expanded second edition of her book, Ajda Bastan explores the various forms of violence depicted in British theatre during the latter half of the twentieth century. She offers a comprehensive analysis that presents the complex interplay between theatre, society, and the multifaceted nature of violence in the dramatic arts. The book includes commentary on physical, emotional, sexual, economic, and self-directed violence, examining these themes in nine plays by eight prominent British playwrights. The plays covered in chronological order are "Look Back in Anger," "The Birthday Party," "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," "Saved," "Vinegar Tom," "Plenty," "Blasted," "Shopping and Fucking," and "Cleansed."
Download or read book A Narratology of Drama written by Christine Schwanecke and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-01-19 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume argues against Gérard Genette’s theory that there is an “insurmountable opposition” between drama and narrative and shows that the two forms of storytelling have been productively intertwined throughout literary history. Building on the idea that plays often incorporate elements from other genres, especially narrative ones, the present study theorises drama as a fundamentally narrative genre. Guided by the question of how drama tells stories, the first part of the study delineates the general characteristics of dramatic narration and zooms in on the use of narrative forms in drama. The second part proposes a history of dramatic storytelling from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century that transcends conventional genre boundaries. Close readings of exemplary British plays provide an overview of the dominant narrative modes in each period and point to their impact in the broader cultural and historical context of the plays. Finally, the volume argues that throughout history, highly narrative plays have had a performative power that reached well beyond the stage: dramatic storytelling not only reflects socio-political realities, but also largely shapes them.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary South African Theatre written by Martin Middeke and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Africa has a uniquely rich and diverse theatre tradition which has responded energetically to the country's remarkable transition, helping to define the challenges and contradictions of this young democracy. This volume considers the variety of theatre forms, and the work of the major playwrights and theatre makers producing work in democratic South Africa. It offers an overview of theatre pioneers and theatre forms in Part One, before concentrating on the work of individual playwrights in Part Two. Through its wide-ranging survey of indigenous drama written predominantly in the English language and the analysis of more than 100 plays, a detailed account is provided of post-apartheid South African theatre and its engagement with the country's recent history. Part One offers six overview chapters on South African theatre pioneers and theatre forms. These include consideration of the work of artists such as Barney Simon, Mbongeni Ngema, Phyllis Klotz; the collaborations of William Kentridge and the Handspring Puppet Company; the work of Magnet Theatre, and of physical and popular community theatre forms. Part Two features chapters on twelve major playwrights, including Athol Fugard, Reza de Wet, Lara Foot, Zakes Mda, Yaël Farber, Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom, Mike van Graan and Brett Bailey. It includes a survey of emerging playwrights and significant plays, and the book closes with an interview with Aubrey Sekhabi, the Artistic Director of the South African State Theatre in Pretoria. Written by a team of over twenty leading international scholars, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary South African Theatre is a unique resource that will be invaluable to students and scholars from a range of different disciplines, as well as theatre practitioners.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Handbook of Theatre History and Historiography written by Claire Cochrane and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-31 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Methuen Drama Handbook of Theatre History and Historiography is an authoritative guide to contemporary debates and practices in this field. The book covers the key themes and methods that are current in theatre history research, with a particular focus on expanding the object of study to include engagement with theatre and performance practices and the development of theatre histories around the world. Central to the book are eighteen specially commissioned essays by established and emerging scholars from a wide range of international contexts, whose discussion of individual case studies is predicated on their understanding and experience of their 'local' landscape of theatre history. These essays reveal where important work continues to be done in the field and, most valuably, draws on academic contexts beyond the Western academy to expand our knowledge of the exciting directions that such an approach opens up. Prefaced by an introduction tracing the development of the discipline of theatre history and changing historiographical approaches, the Handbook explores current issues pertaining to theatre and performance history research, as well as providing up to date and robust introductions to the methods and historiographic questions being explored by researchers in the field. Featuring a series of essential research tools, including a detailed list of resources and an annotated bibliography of key texts, this is an indispensable scholarly handbook for anyone working in theatre and performance history and historiography.
Download or read book The Methuen Drama Handbook of Gender and Theatre written by Sean Metzger and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-12-28 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a guide to contemporary debates and theatre practices at a time when gender paradigms are both in flux and at the centre of explosive political battlegrounds. The confluence of gender and theatre has long created intense debate about representation, identification, social conditioning, desire, embodiment, and lived experience. As this handbook demonstrates, from the conventions of early modern English, Chinese, Japanese and Hispanic theatres to the subversion of racialized binaries of masculinity and femininity in recent North American, African, Asian, Caribbean and European productions, the matter of gender has consistently taken centre stage. This handbook examines how critical discourses on gender intersect with key debates in the field of theatre studies, as a lens to illuminate the practices of gender and theatre as well as the societies they inform and represent across space and time. Of interest to scholars in the interrelated areas of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, theatre and performance studies, cultural studies, and globalization and diasporic studies, this book demonstrates how researchers are currently addressing theatre about gender issues and gendered theatre practices. While synthesizing and summarizing foundational and evolving debates from a contemporary perspective, this collection offers interpretations and analyses that do not simply look back at existing scholarship, but open up new possibilities and understandings. Featuring essential research tools, including a survey of keywords and an annotated play list, this is an indispensable scholarly handbook for anyone working in theatre and performance.
Download or read book Life on the Victorian Stage written by Nell Darby and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The expansion of the press in Victorian Britain meant more pages to be filled, and more stories to be found. Life on the Victorian Stage: Theatrical Gossip looks at how the everyday lives of Victorian performers and managers were used for such a purpose, with the British newspapers covering the good, the bad and the ugly side of life on the stage during the nineteenth century. Viewed through the prism of Victorian newspapers, and in particular through their gossip columns, this book looks at the perils facing actors from financial disasters or insecurity to stalking, from libel cases to criminal trials and offers an alternative view of the Victorian theatrical profession.This thoroughly researched and entertaining study looks at how the Victorian press covered the theatrical profession and, in particular, how it covered the misfortunes actors faced. It shows how the development of gossip columns and papers specializing in theater coverage enabled fans to gain an insight into their favorite performers lives that broke down the public-private divide of the stage and helped to create a very modern celebrity culture.The book looks at how technological developments enabled the press to expose the behavior of actors overseas, such as when actor Fred Solomon's' bigamy in America was revealed. It looks at the pressures facing actors, which could lead to suicide, and the impact of the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act on what the newspapers covered, with theatrical divorce cases coming to form a significant part of their coverage in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Other major events, from theater disasters to the murder of actor William Terriss, are explored within the context of press reportage and its impact. The lives of those in the theatrical profession are put into their wider social context to explore how they lived, and how they were perceived by press and public in Victorian Britain.
Download or read book Double Exposure written by Kathryn Millard and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-18 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Double Exposure examines the role of film in shaping social psychology’s landmark postwar experiments. We are told that most of us will inflict electric shocks on a fellow citizen when ordered to do so. Act as a brutal prison guard when we put on a uniform. Walk on by when we see a stranger in need. But there is more to the story. Documentaries that investigators claimed as evidence were central to capturing the public imagination. Did they provide an alibi for twentieth century humanity? Examining the dramaturgy, staging and filming of these experiments, including Milgram's Obedience Experiments, the Stanford Prison Experiment and many more, Double Exposure recovers a new set of narratives.
