Performing Arts
Theatre in Prison
Theory and Practice
Tormented Minds
The plays are very different in style and include the use of physical theatre, naturalistic explorations of human rights abuses, and symbolic structures, puppets and poetry. The plays are supported by an analysis of their processes and themes. All have reached production and the text is supplemented by photographs of these performances.
Alisa, Alice
The Composition of Herman Melville
This play, which contains biographical information relating to Herman Melville, is fundamentally an exploration of the ways in which these two things take place. The play admits the truth of Walter Benjamin's view of history as 'time filled by the presence of the now'. Parallels between past and present (e.g., racism, domestic abuse, and the plight of the visionary American artist) are clearly implied, but the play also utilizes new technologies, in particular video, in order to represent the kind of dialectical history and representation promoted by Benjamin. During Melville's lifetime, and in his own creative imagination, the archaic was undergoing its transformation into modernity. Thus Melville is an especially apt subject for an exploration of modernity and representation that utilizes both the modern – i.e., video, montage – and elements of the archaic – i.e., the performing body, allusions to whaling, 'discovery' in the South Seas. The Composition of Herman Melville utilizes performance strategies in an effort to embody the complex textuality of a writer who haunts the landscape of America, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. This book is believed to represent the only work of historical fiction – albeit in dramatic form – that focuses primarily on Herman Melville, considered by many to be America's greatest writer.
Recoveries and Reclamations
Advances in Art & Urban Futures Vol. 2
This second volume of the series Advances in Art & Urban Futures brings together contributions from artists, sociologists, architects and cultural theorists in addressing the recoveries and reclamations being made within urban and rural landscapes as a result of the fallout of redevelopment in the twenty-first century.
Recoveries and Reclamations addresses pertinent issues facing all those interested in a multi-disciplinary approach to developing critical interventions in public space.
The book includes the examination of the work of Doris Salcedo to the unseen spaces in Birmingham; the implications of gender in the creation of The Wapping Project in East London; the self-representation of asylum seekers from Bosnia-Herzegovina; the issue of the 'imagined' community in relation to the Irish in Britain; the significance of assemblage in the work of Mierle Laderman Ukeles and the global importance of local actions in collaborations between ecologists and artists.
Brecht in L.A.
Additionally, Brecht in L.A., winner of the 2002 SWTA National New Play Contest (US), is already a critically acclaimed play, which suggests that the work has the potential to be widely (and successfully) produced. And such productions will enhance the marketability of the book. A play influenced by Brecht is, in itself, not unique, since many leading, contemporary dramatists--such as Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond, Tony Kushner, Heiner Muller, and Howard Barker--have been affected by Brechtian dramaturgy. But a Brechtian-influenced play with Brecht as the lead character is unique. The play represents the only dramatic work in English which features Brecht himself as the title character.
Brecht in L.A., centering on Brecht while adapting/critiquing Brechtian dramatic form, also provides a unique opportunity for the instructor who is teaching Brechtian theatre since--with just one text (which will includes endnotes and appendices)--the instructor can cover epic theatre, the "Brecht debate," Brecht's biography, and contradictions between Brecht's theatrical practices and his everyday life.
The book's wide-ranging audience will include theatre artists; playgoers; students of drama, theatre, English, and performance studies; scholars; and readers interested in Brecht, Hollywood, and/or biography. Brecht in L.A. will also be an important addition to the considerable collections of books about Brecht which are carried by countless libraries.
Popular Theatre in Political Culture
Britain and Canada in focus
Performing Processes
Creating Live Performance
These essays make parallels between areas of performance that are rarely, if ever, compared. They present the basis for an overall theory of how 'conception', 'development', 'presentation' and 'reception' are fused together to make up the overall 'performance'. This study investigates the relationship between the process of creating performance and spectator response, and how this exchange is embedded into the product itself.
The authors draw on theoretical approaches from a range of sources, and examine the work of contemporary dramatists, choreographers, poets and performers including:
• Sarah Kane
• Iain Baxter
• Yolande Snaith
• Slobodan Snajder
• Phylis Nagy
• Steve Benson
• David Fielding
• David Antin
• Bette Midler
• Karen Malpede
• Stephen Daldry
• Mai Lanfang
Its construction of a new, wide-ranging approach to performance research makes this book a valuable resource for the student as well as the broader academic community. It has application both as a textbook and for supplementary research on drama courses nationwide.
Language and Marginality
Linguistics is a huge discipline with many sub-fields, many of which drift towards, and often overlap with, the primary concerns of cultural studies. In general, however, linguistics is concerned with the deconstruction of language itself, with the nuts and bolts (phonetics, morphology, syntax, lexis, etc.) and how these are systematically acquired (psycholinguistics) and how they interact with the socio-cultural context in which they are used (sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics). Both of these approaches to language and culture are represented in this collection. The eclecticism of the papers should be seen as a strength, reflecting the wide range of ways in which we are all influenced by, and to an extent constructed by, language.
Locality, Regeneration and Divers(c)ities
Advances in Art and Urban Futures Volume 1
The Coach and The Triumph of the Lamb
Two Poems by Marguerite de Navarre
It is hoped that these translations in English verse (like that of Les Prisons) may appeal to readers who could be daunted by the original French.
African Theatre for Development
Art for Self-determination
• reveals the dynamic position of the arts and culture in post-independent countries as well as changes in influences and audiences,
• shows African theatre to be about aesthetics and rituals, the sociological and the political, the anthropological and the historical,
• examines theatre's role as a performing art throughout the continent, representing ethnic identities and defining intercultural relationships,
• investigates African theatre's capacity to combine contemporary cultural issues into the whole artistic fabric of performing arts, and
• considers the variety of voices, forms and practices through which contemporary African intellectual circles are negotiating the forces of tradition and modernity.
The book provides an opportunity to discover contemporary material from experts, critics and artists from across the world. The contributions are in a language and style that allow them to be read either as aids to formal study or as elements of discussion to interest the general reader.
Theatre and Europe (1957 to 1995)
Scene
Dance, Movement & Spiritualities
Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance
