Download or read book Enter a Samurai Full text and illustrations written by Joseph L. Anderson and published by Wheatmark, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking back to the last years of the nineteenth century, veteran producer-director Joseph L. Anderson draws upon a monumental body of research gleaned from libraries and archives in seven countries to introduce the Japanese theatrical impresario Kawakami Otojirō. In 1899, Kawakami, his wife--the inspired dancer and actress Sadayakko--and his troupe went on epochal performance tours of the U.S. and Europe, introducing audiences to new forms of dramatic art and dance previously unseen in the West. Possessed of boundless energy and limitless imagination, Kawakami was a pioneer who quite literally viewed the world as his stage. In the closing decade of an all-too-brief life, Kawakami introduced major reforms of Japanese performance and the theatre business. Scholarly, witty, and filled with fascinating insights into the culture and conventions of fin de siècle America, Europe, and Japan, Enter a Samurai opens a door into a little-known, yet vitally important era of modern theatrical history. -- Back cover of volume 1

Download or read book Direction written by Simon Shepherd and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-12-17 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is directing an art? Do directors need to be trained? What do directors actually do? These questions and more are answered in this accessibly written survey of the art of theatre direction. Its broad scope ranges across the theatres of both America and Europe, looking at practices from Stanislavski up to the present day.

Download or read book The Great European Stage Directors Volume 3 written by Jonathan Pitches and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-07 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the work of directors Jacques Copeau, Theodore Komisarjevsky and Tyrone Guthrie. It explores in detail many of the directors' key productions, including Copeau's staging of Molière's The Tricks of Scapin, Komisarjevsky's signature season of Chekhov plays at the Barnes Theatre and Guthrie's pioneering direction of Shakespeare's plays in North America. This study argues that their work exemplifies the complexity and novelty of the role of theatre directing in the first three-quarters of the 20th century, as Komisarjevsky was in the middle of the genesis of directing in Russia, Copeau launched his directorial career just as the role was gaining definition, and Guthrie was at the vanguard of directing in Britain, at last shaking off the traditions of the actor-manager to formulate the new role of artistic director.

Download or read book To Have or Have Not written by James Fisher and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a rapidly changing world, the ways in which economic forces affect both personal and global change can be difficult to track, particularly in the arts. This collection of twenty new essays explores both obscure and famous plays dealing with economic issues. Beginning with the Industrial Revolution, the text moves from Marx's theories to Wall Street speculation, nineteenth century immigration issues, the excesses of the Gilded Age and the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War II and millennial economic challenges.

Download or read book The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre written by Don B. Wilmeth and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-06-13 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This new and updated Guide, with over 2,700 cross-referenced entries, covers all aspects of the American theatre from its earliest history to the present. Entries include people, venues and companies scattered through the U.S., plays and musicals, and theatrical phenomena. Additionally, there are some 100 topical entries covering theatre in major U.S. cities and such disparate subjects as Asian American theatre, Chicano theatre, censorship, Filipino American theatre, one-person performances, performance art, and puppetry. Highly illustrated, the Guide is supplemented with a historical survey as introduction, a bibliography of major sources published since the first edition, and a biographical index covering over 3,200 individuals mentioned in the text."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Mrs Leslie Carter written by Craig Clinton and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2006-10-27 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born Caroline Louise Dudley, Mrs. Leslie Carter was destined to become one of America's principal turn-of-the century actresses. In 1889, a high profile divorce case labeled her an adulteress and sent her to the brink of poverty. With characteristic resilience, however, Mrs. Carter used infamy to her advantage. Retaining her married name as an act of revenge against her ex-husband, she approached David Belasco, one of the foremost playwright/directors of the day, and persuaded him to teach her the art of acting. So began one of theatre's most prolific partnerships. Not only did Belasco become Mrs. Carter's acting coach, he composed plays specifically as vehicles to showcase her particular talents. Although their relationship ruptured in 1906, Mrs. Carter continued to enjoy international renown. Weathering the changing times and methods of the early twentieth century, she persevered through stage, silent movies and vaudeville shows. This biography focuses particularly on Mrs. Carter's successful career and on her professional partnership with David Belasco. Spanning a period of radical transformation in American theatre, her career reflected--and endured--the artistic changes which occurred during the decades on either side of the century mark. Period photographs and theatrical art are included.

Download or read book Design by Motley written by Michael Mullin and published by Associated University Presse. This book was released on 1996 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "New Stagecraft," which Motley helped to shape, replaced the painted, three-dimensional sets and realistic costumes of the nineteenth-century stage with fluid, representational scenery and evocative costumes. Together, the elements of the design formed a unified interpretation of the play. Motley's accomplishments were especially significant because they spanned both New York and London and set a standard for beauty and excellence in theatre design that lives on today in the work of their many students.

Download or read book Ms Directing Shakespeare written by Elizabeth Schafer and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-05-19 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "First published in Great Britain by the Women's Press Ltd., 1998"--Title page verso.

Download or read book From Stanislavsky to Barrault written by Samuel Leiter and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1991-04-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The careers, directing accomplishments, ideas, and techniques of six distinguished directors of the European stage--each considered a master of the art--are surveyed in depth by author Samuel L. Leiter in this groundbreaking study. Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Max Reinhardt, Jacques Copeau, Bertolt Brecht, and Jean-Louis Barrault, representative of the broad spectrum of directorial art as it has developed in this century, are examined in six exhaustively detailed, yet compact chapters. In Leiter's informative introduction, salient aspects of the director's art exemplified by these innovators are identified and examined: choice of repertory from the intellectually provocative to the escapist; stylistic attitudes toward production from Stanislavsky's spiritual naturalism to Meyerhold's biomechanics and constructivism; rehearsal methods from the dictatorial to the openly collaborative; and a continuing fascination with the shape and function of the performance space. Many of the directors emerge as multifaceted hommes de theatre--writing, directing, acting, designing sets and lighting, and producing. The theoretical writings of the majority of these great directors have become the foundation for Western theatre thought in our time. Each chapter contains capsule descriptions of the landmark productions of the individual director and the volume concludes with a section of brief chronologies for each person and a select bibliography. A single director is the subject of each of the six chapters, which are organized into numerous subsections that discuss the individual's career, his overarching conceptions of theatre art and directing, and finally his actual working methods. Almost every chapter has information on a director's repertory, major productions, theoretical concerns, techniques of working with actors, playwrights, designers, and composers, casting methods, production preparations, and rehearsal processes. Taken as a whole, these chapters reveal the wide divergence of directorial styles and techniques and the multiplicity of approaches open to exponents of the art. The separate chronologies and select bibliography are especially helpful. Students of stage directing and their teachers, active professionals in the field, and literate general readers who seek a broader understanding of twentieth century theatre and stage direction will find this a handy and invaluable resources. This work could be profitably used as a text or supplementary reading for classes in stage directing and is a companion to Leiter's From Belasco to Brook: Representative Directors of the English-Speaking Stage (Greenwood Press, 1991).

Download or read book A Midsummer Night s Dream written by Jay L. Halio and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After an historical survey of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" from Shakespeare's time through to the 19th century, Jay Halio focuses primarily on 20th century productions and adaptations, for film and television as well as for the stage. Chapters are devoted to productions by Max Reinhardt, Peter Hall, Robert Lepage, and especially to Peter Brook's landmark production in 1970 and the reactions to it. Using a wealth of personal experience, as well as original promptbooks and critical reviews, Halio shows how differently but still very effectively the play may be staged, as the wide variety of plays he records. This second, enlarged edition contains three new chapters on Adrian Noble's RSC production and film, Michael Hoffman's film, and the "Dream "in China. Written in clear, jargon-free language, this is the only book so far in print that offers an extended study of major 20th-century productions of the "Dream "in their historical context.

Download or read book Reimagining Shakespeare s Playhouse written by Joe Falocco and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2010 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous attempts have been made in the modern and postmodern era to recreate the staging conventions of Shakespeare's theatre, from William Poel to the founders of the New Globe. This volume examines the work of these directors, analyzing their practical successes and failures; it also engages with the ideological critiques of early modern staging advanced by scholars such as W.B. Worthen and Ric Knowles. The author argues that rather than indulging in archaism for its own sake, the movement looked backward in a progressive attempt to address the challenges of the twentieth century. The book begins with a re-examination of the conventional view of Poel as an antiquarian crank. Subsequent chapters are devoted to Harley Granville Barker and Nugent Monck; the author argues that while Barker's major contribution was the dubious achievement of establishing the movement's reputation as an essentially literary phenomenon, Monck took the first tentative steps toward an architectural reimagining of modern performance space, an advance which led to later triumphs in early modern staging. The book than traces the sporadic and irregular development of Tyrone Guthrie's commitment to early modern practices. The final chapter looks at how competing historical theories of playhouse design influenced the construction of the Globe, while the conclusion discusses the ongoing potential of early modern staging in the new millennium.

Download or read book Prospero s true Preservers written by Arthur Horowitz and published by University of Delaware Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the same time, it documents how Brook, Ninagawa, and Strehler adapted and applied African storytelling techniques, textual deconstruction, traditional Japanese art and theatrical forms, and Italian stage tradition to the performance of Shakespeare and investigates how these three directors' diverse applications to the same canonical work have contributed to the development of the modern stage director."--Jacket.

Download or read book Strange Duets written by Kim Marra and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autocratic male impresarios increasingly dominated the American stage between 1865 and 1914. Many rose from poor immigrant roots and built their own careers by making huge stars out of “undiscovered,” Anglo-identified actresses. Reflecting the antics of self-made industrial empire-builders and independent, challenging New Women, these theatrical potentates and their protégées gained a level of wealth and celebrity comparable to that of Hollywood stars today. In her engaging and provocative Strange Duets, Kim Marra spotlights three passionate impresario-actress relationships of exceptional duration that encapsulated the social tensions of the day and strongly influenced the theatre of the twentieth century. Augustin Daly and Ada Rehan, Charles Frohman and Maude Adams, and David Belasco and Mrs. Leslie Carter reigned over “legitimate” Broadway theatre, the venue of greatest social cachet for the monied classes. Unlike impresarios and actresses in vaudeville and burlesque, they produced full-length spoken drama that involved special rigors of training and rehearsal to sustain a character’s emotional “truth” as well as a high level of physical athleticism and endurance. Their efforts compelled fascination at a time when most people believed women’s emotions were seated primarily in the reproductive organs and thus were fundamentally embodied and sexual in nature. While the impresario ostensibly exercised full control over his leading lady, showing fashionable audiences that the exciting but unruly New Woman could be both tamed and enjoyed, she acquired a power of her own that could bring him to his knees.Kim Marra combines methods of cultural, gender, and sexuality studies with theatre history to explore the vexed mutual dependency between these status-seeking Svengalis and their alternately willing and resistant leading ladies. She illuminates how their on- and off-stage performances, highly charged in this Darwinian era with “racial” as well as gender, sexual, and class dynamics, tapped into the contradictory fantasies and aspirations of their audiences. Played out against a backdrop of enormous cultural and institutional transformation, the volatile romance of Daly and Rehan, closeted homosexuality of Frohman and Adams, and carnal expiations of Belasco and Carter produced strange duets indeed.

Download or read book Impact of the Modern written by Robert Dixon and published by Sydney University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Australian and international modernity from the late 19th to the mid-20th century inspires research in many fields of cultural endeavour: architecture, fine arts, design, cinema, theatre, and music; in urban studies, literary history and Aboriginal studies. Impact of the Modern brings together examples of this new interdisciplinary work on modern Australian culture by 21 leading scholars. Their writings reveal an original account of 'modernising' Australia as dynamic and creative in many art forms, and interactively linked with international processes and ideas. The essays in Impact of the Modern were presented as papers at the conference, 'Australian Vernacular Modernities', convened by the editors at the University of Queensland in 2006. Plenary papers by Jill Julius Matthews and Angela Woollacott signal the book's focus on the erotic and gendered spaces, and on popular aspects of modernity. They provide the central focus of the material, through such vital and dynamic categories as the 'modern', the 'erotic' and the 'primitive'. As essential components of the historical processes of innovation and modernisation, these central questions of gender and public sociality are taken up in diverse ways in the other chapters, forming a varied and exciting study of a range of creative Australian engagements with modern international life and popular culture.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre written by Samuel L. Leiter and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre is the only dictionary that offers detailed comprehensive coverage of the most important terms, people, and plays in the four principal traditional Japanese theatrical forms—nō, kyōgen, bunraku, and kabuki—supplemented with individual historical essays on each form. This updated edition adds well over 200 plot summaries representing each theatrical form in addition to: a chronology; introductory essay; appendixes; an extensive bibliography; over 1500 cross-referenced entries on important terms; brief biographies of the leading artists and writers; and plot summaries of significant plays. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Japanese theatre.

Download or read book Enter the Playmakers written by Thomas S. Hischak and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion book to author Thomas Hischak's earlier volume Enter the Players: New York Stage Actors in the 20th Century (Scarecrow Press, 2003), Enter the Playmakers: Directors and Choreographers on the New York Stage explores the lives and careers of over three hundred directors and choreographers who worked in the New York theatre. Famous artists like Elia Kazan and Jerome Robbins are featured alongside lesser known or new talents, all of whom have contributed to the American theatre. A biographical sketch outlines the life and career of each director and choreographer, explaining their strengths and talents and what makes them unique. This is followed by a chronological listing of every play or musical that the artist staged in New York, including details such as dates, venue (Broadway, Off Broadway, etc.) and whether the production was a new work or a revival. Presenting artists from the mid-18th century up through current favorites like Daniel Sullivan, Susan Stroman, Doug Hughes, and Kathleen Marshall, the book includes traditionalists (like Harold Clurman and Gower Champion), avant-garde artists (Elizabeth LeCompte and Richard Foreman), and directors and choreographers noted for various styles, genres, and theatre movements. Internationally recognized artists, such as Max Reinhardt and Peter Brook, whose productions had an impact on the New York theatre are also included. By listing all of the artist's New York credits, each entry gives a vivid picture of the stage career of these important directors and choreographers.

Download or read book The Herd Register of the American Guernsey Cattle Club written by and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 1360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: