Theatre studies Books

Hansard; noun The official report of all parliamentary debates. Hansard is an intimate domestic drama about a long and troubled marriage. It is also a comedy about politics and identity and the failings of the ruling class. Set around the passing of the...

Directions for Directing: Theatre and Method lays out contemporary concepts of directing practice and examines specific techniques of approaching scripts, actors, and the stage. Addressed to both young and experienced directors but also to the broader...

This book is a guide to introducing the craft of playwriting into the secondary English curriculum at key stage 3, using the TEEP (Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme) framework. The authors also provide a particular focus on applying this...

'Adrian Noble vigorously highlights the extraordinary rhythmic, linguistic patterns Shakespeare gives the speaker. Any actor will find this book invaluable. For any student of Shakespeare it should be essential.' (From the Foreword by Ralph Fiennes)'How...

Kristin Linklater is one of the most internationally recognised names in the field of voice training, and this volume explores her work and life while also putting her work into practice. Charting the development of Linklater's process, including her...

This volume brings together nineteen important articles by Pamela M. King, one of the foremost British scholars working on Early English Drama. Unique to this collection are five articles on the 'living' traditions of performances in Spain,...

In her study of Chinese shadow theatre Fan Pen Li Chen documents and corrects misconceptions about this once-popular art form. Drawing on extensive research and fieldwork, she argues that these plays served a mainly religious function during the Qing...

The nineteenth-century study of hysteria at the Salpêtrière hospital was a medical project, but also a theatrical one. The hysteric's public appearance was a continual ethical provocation, pointing not only to the vulnerability of her person but to the...

The first anthology dedicated to critically assess the role of the human sensorium in performance - from ritual to theatre, from dance to architecture. The anthology gathers original essays by leading international scholars and artists.

No Caution! empowers young actors to create auditions that feel like opening night. This book is designed to help students prepare for university, college, and conservatory auditions. However, these are professional techniques. The philosophy and...

This book gives a new view on the legacy of Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999), one of the central, and yet misunderstood, figures who shaped 20th-century theatre, focusing on his least known last phase of work on ancient songs and the craft of the performer...

What does it mean to "fail" in performance? How might staging failure reveal theatre's potential to expand our understanding of social, political and everyday reality? What can we learn from performances that expose and then celebrate their ability to...

Leon Rubin and I Nyoman Sedana, both international theatre professionals as well as scholars, collaborate to give an understanding of performance culture in Bali from inside and out.The book describes four specific forms of contemporary performance that...

The Decroux Sourcebook is the first point of reference for any student of the 'hidden master' of twentieth century theatre. This book collates a wealth of key material on Etienne Decroux, including:an English translation of Patrice Pezin's 'Imaginary...

In this second, fully revised edition of his acclaimed study of Barker's work, Charles Lamb sets out to make emotional sense of the characters and their interactions.This is a detailed exploration of the 'scene of seduction' - the challenge, the secret,...

Breaking new ground in the study of performance theory, this maverick and powerful project from renowned Renaissance scholar and queer theorist Simon Shepherd presents a unique take on theory and the physical reality of theatre.Examining a range of...

Moliere's plays are the cornerstone of the French Classical dramatic repertoire. Adapted and exploited in his day by dramatists of the English Restoration, they are now again growing in popularity. In this detailed and fascinating volume, Gerry McCarthy...

This is the first in-depth examination of contemporary intercultural performance by women around the world. Contemporary feminist performance is explored in the contexts of current intercultural practices, theories and debates. Holledge and Tompkins...

Radical Street Performance is the first volume to collect together the fascinating array of writings by activists, directors, performers, critics, scholars and journalists who have documented street theatre around the world. More than thirty essays...

Originally published in 1983 the first edition rapidly established itself as a core student text. Now fully revised and up-dated it remains the only book to address the rationale, process, techniques and methodologies specific to the study of dance...

The Radical in Performance investigates the crisis in contemporary theatre, and celebrates the subversive in performance. It is the first full-length study to explore the link between a western theatre which, says Kershaw, is largely outdated and the...

This acclaimed volume is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of Jerzy Grotowski's long and multi-faceted career. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Grotowski's life and work.Edited by the two leading experts on Grotowski, the...

In this rich interdisciplinary study Tim Scholl provides a provocative and timely re-evaluation of the development of ballet from the 1880s to the middle of the twentieth century. In the light of a thoughtful re-appraisal of dance classicism he locates...

Over the past thirty years Ariane Mnouchkine's 'Théâtre du Soleil' has become one of the most celebrated companies in Europe, and Mnouchkine one of its best-known directors. Collaborative Theatre is the first in-depth sourcebook in English on 'Théâtre du...

Latinx Actor Training presents essays and pioneering research from leading Latinx practitioners and scholars in the United States to examine the history and future of Latino/a/x/e actor training practices and approaches.Born out of the urgent need to...

Text and Performance in Contemporary British Theatre interrogates the paradoxical nature of theatre texts, which have been understood both as separate literary objects in their own right and as material for performance. Drawing on analysis of...

Applied Theatre with Youth is a collection of essays that highlight the value and efficacy of applied theatre with young people in a broad range of settings, addressing challenges and offering concrete solutions.This book tackles the vital issues of our...

Sports Plays is a volume about sports in the theatre and what it means to stage sports. The chapters in this volume examine sports plays through a range of critical and theoretical approaches that highlight central concerns and questions both for sports...

From the late forties through the sixties, Elia Kazan was the most important and influential director in America, and the only one who managed simultaneously to dominate both theater and film. In that role he manifestly shaped the conception and writing,...

Empty Figure on an Empty StageThe Theatre of Samuel Beckett and His GenerationLes EssifAn original and exciting approach to the theatre of the absurd.This study considers the ways playwrights draw meaning from emptiness. With reference to actual...

Drawing from newly available archives, Jeffrey Veidlinger uses the dramatic story of the Moscow State Yiddish Theater, the premiere secular Jewish cultural institution of the Soviet era, to demonstrate how Jewish writers and artists were able to promote...

In France, both political culture and theatrical performances have drawn upon melodrama. This "melodramatic thread" helped weave the country's political life as it moved from monarchy to democracy. By examining the relationship between public ceremonies...

The book highlights the many possibilities of the innovative work of these dramatists, and this will, it is to be hoped, help the editors to achieve one of their other key goals: productions of the plays in English." -Times Literary SupplementThis...

... a ground-breaking contribution to the field of African literature... " -Research in African LiteraturesAnyone with the slightest interest in West African cultures, performance or theatre should immediately rush out and buy this book." -Leeds African...

In this no-nonsense guide, author Amy Rogers Schwartzreich offers crucial advice for every stage of the musical theatre college audition.

Published in France in 1987, this is the book in which Lecoq first set out his philosophy of human movement, and the way it takes expressive form in a wide range of different performance traditions. He traces the history of pantomime, sets out his...

Jacques Lecoq and the British Theatre brings together the first collection of essays in English to focus on Lecoq's school of mime and physical theatre.

The first serious challenge to the mythology that surrounds the revolution in British theatre sparked off by Osborne's play Look Back in Anger.

This second edition of Making an Entrance is a practical and thought-provoking introduction to teaching dance with disabled and non-disabled students, updated with expanded coverage, new and revised exercises, and chapters that cover post-pandemic and...

Drawing on the author's two decades of watching, writing, and teaching about puppetry from a critical perspective, this is a collection of insights into how we watch, understand, and appreciate puppetry.

Innovative and engaging, A Good Night Out for the Girls looks beyond the confines of the political theatre paradigm that has been the mainstay of feminist theatre interests and theorising. In a departure from the many feminist theorists and philosophers...

The Ultimate Musical Writer's Planner is an all-in-one workbook to help brainstorm, develop, plan and calendar your new musical. Much more than a simple notebook or calendar, the Ultimate Musical Writer's Planner is the only musical writing...

THE LURE OF PERFECTION: FASHION AND BALLET, 1780-1830 offers a unique look at how ballet influenced contemporary fashion and women's body image, and how street fashions in turn were reflected by the costumes worn by ballet dancers. Through years of...

This study explores the relationship between performances of Shakespeare's plays and the ways in which they engage with traumatic events and histories. It investigates the ethical and political implications of attempts to represent trauma in performance,...

'Dr. Radosavljević has an excellent and extensive grasp of her subject, and deep understanding of not only the history of these groups, but how they function, and how each contributes to the field of ensemble theatre.' - David Crespy, University of...