In (toward) a phenomenology of acting, Phillip Zarrilli considers acting as a ‘question’ to be explored in the studio and then reflected upon. This book is a vital response to Jerzy Grotowski’s essential question: "How does the actor ‘touch that which is untouchable?’" Phenomenology invites us to listen to "the things themselves", to be attentive to how we sensorially, kinesthetically, and affectively engage with acting as a phenomenon and process. Using detailed first-person accounts of acting across a variety of dramaturgies and performances from Beckett to newly co-created performances to realism, it provides an account of how we ‘do’ or practice phenomenology when training, performing, directing, or teaching. Zarrilli brings a wealth of international and intercultural experience as a director, performer, and teacher to this major new contribution both to the practices of acting and to how we can reflect in depth on those practices. An advanced study for actors, directors, and teachers of acting that is ideal for both the training/rehearsal studio and research, (toward) a phenomenology of acting is an exciting move forward in the philosophical understanding of acting as an embodied practice.

“What is it that we’re doing, when we’re acting well?” This is the question famously posed by Earle Gister, the legendary head of the acting department at Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1999. In Acting Action, actor, director, and teaching artist Hugh O’Gorman invites readers to explore the question in detail. Focusing on playing action—one of the essential components of acting passed on to renowned acting teachers Earle Gister and Lloyd Richards by Paul Mann—Acting Action is divided into two parts: context and practice. The first section provides a thorough examination of the theory behind the core elements of playing action. The second section presents a step-by-step rehearsal guide for actors to integrate playing action into their preparation process. Acting Action offers a foundation for how to get started and build the core of a performance. More precisely, it provides a practical guide for actors, directors, and teachers in the technique of playing action, addressing a void in the world of actor training by illuminating what exactly to do in the moment-to-moment act of acting.

Fifteen writers explore the experimental, interdisciplinary and radically transgressive field of contemporary live art in South Africa, focusing on a wide range of perspectives, personalities and theoretical concerns Contemporary South African society is chronologically ‘post’ apartheid, but it continues to grapple with material redress, land redistribution and systemic racism. Acts of Transgression represents the complexity of this moment in the rich potential of a performative art form that transcends disciplinary boundaries and aesthetic conventions. The contributors, who are all significantly involved in the discipline of performance art, probe its intersection with crisis and socio-political turbulence, shifting notions of identity and belonging, embodied trauma and loss. Narratives of the past and visions for the future are interrogated through memory and the archive, thus destabilising entrenched colonial systems. Collectively analysing the work of more than 25 contemporary South African artists, including Athi-Patra Ruga, Mohau Modisakeng, Steven Cohen, Dean Hutton, Mikhael Subotzsky, Tracey Rose and Donna Kukama, among others, the analysis is accompanied by a visual record of more than 50 photographs. For those working in the fields of theatre, performance studies and art, this is a must-have collection of critical essays on a burgeoning and exciting field of contemporary South African research.

On a glorious summer's afternoon, young Alice happens upon a smartly dressed rabbit looking at his watch and muttering 'I'm too late!' This being an unexpected occurrence, she follows him down a nearby rabbit hole and falls in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll's timeless children's stories Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There are magically brought to life in this new adaptation by Adrian Mitchell, specially commissioned for a Christmas production by the RSC. The amazing Lobster Quadrille, the Queen of Hearts' infamous croquet match and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party are just a few of the remarkable events and characters in this enchanting play.

An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance chronicles the history and development of theatre from the Roman era to the present day. As the most public of arts, theatre constantly interacted with changing social, political and intellectual movements and ideas, and Robert Leach’s masterful work restores to the foreground of this evolution the contributions of women, gay people and ethnic minorities, as well as the theatres of the English regions, and of Wales and Scotland. Highly illustrated chapters trace the development of theatre through major plays from each period; evaluations of playwrights; contemporary dramatic theory; acting and acting companies; dance and music; the theatre buildings themselves; and the audience, while also highlighting enduring features of British theatre, from comic gags to the use of props. Continuing on from the Enlightenment, Volume Two of An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance leads its readers from the drama and performances of the Industrial Revolution to the latest digital theatre. Moving from Punch and Judy, castle spectres and penny showmen to Modernism and Postdramatic Theatre, Leach’s second volume triumphantly completes a collated account of all the British Theatre History knowledge anyone could ever need.

A collection of thoughtful and provocative reflections on how theatre practitioners think about and engage with audiences, as well as define and explore sites for performance. Through shared experience and ritual, live performance functions as a catalytic medium for progress and evolution. In the hands of artists and audience, the stage is set for the re-makings of commonwealth, or necessary revolution.Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for GUAPA, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the Isabel Allende novel.

"All I ever wanted was a man who wouldn't ask me questions" Across the foyer of a crowded theatre, a handsome young man catches sight of the most expensive prostitute in town. When they meet, a mutual obsession is ignited- one that tears both their worlds apart. Set amidst the glittering splendours and miseries of 19th century Paris, Camille has scandalised and fascinated audiences and theatres, cinemas and opera houses for over a hundred and fifty years. Neil Bartlett's new version returns to the original novel for its shockingly frank and emotional portrayal of a woman who can afford anything - except to fall in love. Camille opened at the Lyric Hammersmith on 6th March 2003.

Sutton’s Complicit is a powerful play that explores the world’s current political climate and the consequences that arise when civil liberties become a privilege rather than a universal right. There's a hard road; there's an easy road - which one would you take? Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ben Kritzer finds himself faced with this very dilemma, as he is stands in front of a Supreme Court Grand Jury.Will Kritzer defend his belief in the freedom of the press, or will he protect his family from the threats facing them? Refusing to hold any punches, Complicit is a political thriller bound to have you questioning your belief in the state and personal security.Gritty, provocative and poignant, Complicit is a thought-provoking and timely play with deep rooted significance within our society. A production directed by Kevin Spacey opened at the Old Vic Theatre, London in February 2009.

Cross-Gender China, the outcome of more than twenty years of theatrical and sociological research, deconstructs the cultural implications of cross-gender performance in today's China. The recent revival in male-to-female cross-gender nandan performance in Chinese theatre raises a multitude of questions: it may suggest new gender dynamics, or new readings of old aesthetic traditions in new socio-cultural contexts. Interrogating the positions of the gender being performed and the gender doing the performing, this volume gives a broad cultural account of the contexts in which this unique performance style has found new life.

With a childhood surrounded by alcoholism and petty cruelties, an adolescence of rebellion and punkish anarchy and an adulthood peppered with heroin addiction, voluntary crucifixion, failed suicide and a penchant for sex with prostitutes, Sebastian Horsley’s life was always destined to become a work of art. An artist, dandy and author who was perhaps best known for having undergone a voluntary crucifixion in the Philippines before beginning a regular column in The Erotic Review, Horsley’s memoirs focused on his dysfunctional family, his drug addictions, sex, and his love of prostitutes, and unsurprisingly became a cult literary sensation. Soho Theatre's theatrical version, has been adapted from Horsley’s no-holds-barred memoir and directed by fellow moral delinquent Tim Fountain. This insane tale of the prototype of modern day dandyism has now found its spiritual platform in the heart of the crazy village he likes to call home. Dandy In The Underworld premiered at Soho Theatre in the summer of 2010.

Devising Theatre and Performance is a hands-on guide for artists, students and teachers of performance at any stage of their practice. It offers a wide range of creative prompts and pathways enriched with critical thinking tools and questions, a hybrid approach Hill and Paris call ‘Curious Methods’. This is a welcome addition to the field, created and curated by two experienced artists who have operated at the international interface of academia and professional practice for over three decades. The collection is packed with fun, creative, thoughtful exercises distilled from over twenty years of running interdisciplinary artist workshops and teaching both devising and performance making. As well providing numerous exercises and suggestions for devising, composing and editing original works, this book offers tools for giving and receiving feedback, critical reflection and framing artistic work within academic research contexts. Readers can choose to dip in and out, to follow the book as a course or to work section by section, focusing on organizing principles such as working from the body, working with site, working with objects or performance activism. The book includes a detailed production workbook and a practice-based research workbook you can tailor to your own projects. The 'Curious Methods' approach encourages users to take the time and space their practice deserves while offering tools, nourishment and encouragement and inviting them to take risks beyond their comfort zones. The exercises are carefully described so that they can easily be tested out by readers, and are well contextualized in relation to vivid examples from contemporary performance practice and relevant political contexts. This compelling approach goes beyond many other books on theatre devising, which merely provide performance recipes; they do so by repeatedly highlighting the vital cultural relevance and potential personal impact of the experiments that they invite us to undertake. The primary audience for this important new book will be academics, instructors and students in courses on devised theatre, improvisation, performance art, experimental performance and practice-based research. It will be essential for classroom use, for students of theatre and performance and live art – undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D., teachers and all those needing strategies for getting started. It will also appeal to readers from the broader arts, humanities and social sciences who are seeking resources for integrating creative methods into their research.

Devising Theatre and Performance is a hands-on guide for artists, students and teachers of performance at any stage of their practice. It offers a wide range of creative prompts and pathways enriched with critical thinking tools and questions, a hybrid approach Hill and Paris call ‘Curious Methods’. This is a welcome addition to the field, created and curated by two experienced artists who have operated at the international interface of academia and professional practice for over three decades. The collection is packed with fun, creative, thoughtful exercises distilled from over twenty years of running interdisciplinary artist workshops and teaching both devising and performance making. As well providing numerous exercises and suggestions for devising, composing and editing original works, this book offers tools for giving and receiving feedback, critical reflection and framing artistic work within academic research contexts. Readers can choose to dip in and out, to follow the book as a course or to work section by section, focusing on organizing principles such as working from the body, working with site, working with objects or performance activism. The book includes a detailed production workbook and a practice-based research workbook you can tailor to your own projects. The 'Curious Methods' approach encourages users to take the time and space their practice deserves while offering tools, nourishment and encouragement and inviting them to take risks beyond their comfort zones. The exercises are carefully described so that they can easily be tested out by readers, and are well contextualized in relation to vivid examples from contemporary performance practice and relevant political contexts. This compelling approach goes beyond many other books on theatre devising, which merely provide performance recipes; they do so by repeatedly highlighting the vital cultural relevance and potential personal impact of the experiments that they invite us to undertake. The primary audience for this important new book will be academics, instructors and students in courses on devised theatre, improvisation, performance art, experimental performance and practice-based research. It will be essential for classroom use, for students of theatre and performance and live art – undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D., teachers and all those needing strategies for getting started. It will also appeal to readers from the broader arts, humanities and social sciences who are seeking resources for integrating creative methods into their research.

"He's a beast I tell you - a real animal" What happens when you've lived only for pleasure, and you finally run out of time? When you've broken every promise, outraged every decency and slept your way through half of Europe - where do you turn as the clock starts to tick towards midnight? Neil Bartlett's new translation brings out all the dark undercurrents of Molière's wickedly black comedy.

Liveness is a pivotal issue for performance theorists and artists. As live art covers both embodiment and disembodiment, many scholars have emphasized the former and interpreted the latter as the opposite side of liveness. In this book, the author demonstrates that disembodiment is also an inextricable part of liveness and presence in performance from both practical and theoretical perspectives. By applying phenomenological theory to live performance, the author investigates the possible realisation of aesthetic dynamics in live art via re-engagement with the notions of embodiment, especially in the sense provided by philosophers such as Gabriel Marcel and Morris Merleau-Ponty. Creative practices from leading performance artists such as Franko B, Ron Athey, Manuel Vason and others, as well as experimental ensembles such as Goat Island, La Pocha Nostra, Forced Entertainment and the New Youth are discussed, offering a new perspective to re-frame human-human relationships such as the one between actor and spectator and collaborations in live genres In addition, the author presents a new interpretation model for the human-material in live genres, helping to bridge the aesthetic gaps between performance art and experimental theatre and providing an ecological paradigm for performance art, experimental theatre and live art.

• This book is especially appealing to theatre professors and students as it provides a glimpse into the mind of one of theatre's founding fathers of experimental stage work. • Could be a significant text for the field of innovative theatre and avant-garde art in general.• Lee Breuer has been a well-known, widely lauded staple in the downtown theatre scene in New York since the early 80s.• The book is beautifully illustrated with photographs throughout.• Breuer's most famous work, The Gospel at Colonus, earned an Obie Award for Best Musical, and was nominated for a Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Grammy Award, and an Emmy Award. • Besides The Gospel at Colonus, other works of Breuer's earned him several Obie Awards, including the Obie Award for Best New American Play in 1978 ( Shaggy Dog Animation ), the Obie Award for Playwriting in 1980 ( A Prelude to Death in Venice ), and the Obie Award for Direction in 2004 ( Mabou Mines DollHouse ).• Breuer received a Macarthur Fellowship in 1997 and a Guggenheim Fellowship for Humanities in 1977.

'The past is a very dangerous place'   Two people, united by blood and separated by time, weave the tapestry of their lives. Loretta arrives in Victorian England as a wide-eyed young Ayah for two children. Her dream is to earn enough money to pay for a ticket back to her beloved Indian homeland. However fate intervenes leaving her destined to a controversial, colourful life in Victorian London. A century later, Loretta's great great grandson Kalil leaves his East African homeland to start a life in England. He dreams of respect and the good life for his family but, as it did for his ancestor, fate intervenes.

In How to Audition On Camera, Casting Director Sharon Bialy answers the twenty-five questions actors ask most frequently about how to nail an audition. What is the casting director looking for? If you mess up, can you start over? What is the most common mistake experienced actors make? Should you audition off book or can you look at the page? Should you dress in character? How much can you improvise? Actors—both novice and professional—are often misled by myths and outdated prescriptions. This guide replaces such misinformation with concise and accurate advice from someone who is in the room helping to make the decision on who gets the job. Bialy gets readers started immediately on the road to screen acting success.

'Not as if I always lived here, mind you…I started off in Govan. Never dreamt in those days I'd end up this side of the river. Real step up in the world that was…I'm grateful for it. Despite everything, I'm grateful for it' Glasgow, the 1970s. Martha and Amie are old neighbours, trapped in their decaying tenement and cut off from family and friends. With the present closing in and the future uncertain, Martha and Amie's real companions are the past and their memories of ordinary lives peopled by extraordinary characters and their struggles and triumphs. I Didn't Always Live Here is a compassionate and heart-rending journey into the forgotten lives of the dispossessed and elderly, as well as an uplifting journey into the human spirit's capacity to cope with social exclusion and financial hardship. One of multi-award-winning playwright and poet Stewart Conn's earliest works, I Didn't Always Live Here now receives its first production since its world premiere at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre in 1967.

Much more than an archive, these are the vivid, still pertinent voices and messages of the pioneers worldwide. The nineteen articles chosen by the editors of Applied Theatre Research represent key themes and elements from the early days of applied theatre that are still – and indeed now more than ever – relevant. They are all high-quality articles, some of which were highly influential in their own time. All of them still have plenty to say to today’s applied theatre, both in their own terms and sometimes in terms of how their publication influenced the development at the time of this still-expanding field, or refracted it in ways that give us new insights with hindsight. They have been arranged in sections according to some of the key themes – and problematic issues – that were discovered, thought out and sometimes stumbled across by the pioneer writers in the collection. Each section is preceded by a critical editorial commentary on those themes, besides thorough introductions to all the articles and in some cases re-evaluations. The editors have added substantial additional new material to the collection and in doing so, bring their own applied theatre experience to bear on these themes, as they raise general questions that are wide-ranging, contemporary and urgent: from the vital and contested issues of power, partnerships and the giving of voice through theatre to applied theatre’s proactive response to COVID-19, to the need to identify, take account of and address the needs of all stakeholders in any applied theatre project.  The articles are grouped in six sections, covering areas such as diversity of geography, community contexts, forms of applied theatre and organizational factors that characterize applied theatre; the definition and nature of applied theatre; how the best intentioned projects could be compromised by any of the many opportunities for applied theatre to go wrong; opportunities for change it can offer and the incorporation of new media technologies, and ethnographic performance, two factors that have now become major preoccupations for our field, particularly in the years since the articles were written. The final section recognizes that applied theatre has been around not for 30 years, but for thousands, and in countless cultures. The editorial chapters have strong connections with the rest of the book, but are written with the editors’ deep insights into the field, and are sharp in their focus and context. The book offers useful insights into the start of applied theatre and its development as an area of practice and research. The chapter collection is relevant and includes influential names in the field who have contributed significantly to the development of applied theatre over time. The primary market will be academics and advanced practitioners in applied theatre, drama education and theatre studies – including the expanding fields of drama therapy, theatre and health etc. It will also be useful for educators exploring creative pedagogy and drama in education strategies across the curriculum.  It will be valuable introductory background reading for advanced undergraduate and post-graduate students in drama, theatre studies and theatre arts, performance studies and community theatre.  

Much more than an archive, these are the vivid, still pertinent voices and messages of the pioneers worldwide. The nineteen articles chosen by the editors of Applied Theatre Research represent key themes and elements from the early days of applied theatre that are still – and indeed now more than ever – relevant. They are all high-quality articles, some of which were highly influential in their own time. All of them still have plenty to say to today’s applied theatre, both in their own terms and sometimes in terms of how their publication influenced the development at the time of this still-expanding field, or refracted it in ways that give us new insights with hindsight. They have been arranged in sections according to some of the key themes – and problematic issues – that were discovered, thought out and sometimes stumbled across by the pioneer writers in the collection. Each section is preceded by a critical editorial commentary on those themes, besides thorough introductions to all the articles and in some cases re-evaluations. The editors have added substantial additional new material to the collection and in doing so, bring their own applied theatre experience to bear on these themes, as they raise general questions that are wide-ranging, contemporary and urgent: from the vital and contested issues of power, partnerships and the giving of voice through theatre to applied theatre’s proactive response to COVID-19, to the need to identify, take account of and address the needs of all stakeholders in any applied theatre project.  The articles are grouped in six sections, covering areas such as diversity of geography, community contexts, forms of applied theatre and organizational factors that characterize applied theatre; the definition and nature of applied theatre; how the best intentioned projects could be compromised by any of the many opportunities for applied theatre to go wrong; opportunities for change it can offer and the incorporation of new media technologies, and ethnographic performance, two factors that have now become major preoccupations for our field, particularly in the years since the articles were written. The final section recognizes that applied theatre has been around not for 30 years, but for thousands, and in countless cultures. The editorial chapters have strong connections with the rest of the book, but are written with the editors’ deep insights into the field, and are sharp in their focus and context. The book offers useful insights into the start of applied theatre and its development as an area of practice and research. The chapter collection is relevant and includes influential names in the field who have contributed significantly to the development of applied theatre over time. The primary market will be academics and advanced practitioners in applied theatre, drama education and theatre studies – including the expanding fields of drama therapy, theatre and health etc. It will also be useful for educators exploring creative pedagogy and drama in education strategies across the curriculum.  It will be valuable introductory background reading for advanced undergraduate and post-graduate students in drama, theatre studies and theatre arts, performance studies and community theatre.  

JARMAN (all this maddening beauty) and Other Plays is a collection of three radically poetic works for live performance by OBIE award–winning playwright Caridad Svich. The playtexts include a lyrical meditation on the legacy of iconic queer artist Derek Jarman, a meditation on displacement and human suffering (Carthage/Cartagena) and an intimately operatic reflection on Penelope and Odysseus (The Orphan Sea). Accompanied by scholarly essays placing the plays in context, this book showcases the beautiful strangeness and profound resistance in Svich’s work.

JARMAN (all this maddening beauty) and Other Plays is a collection of three radically poetic works for live performance by OBIE award–winning playwright Caridad Svich. The playtexts include a lyrical meditation on the legacy of iconic queer artist Derek Jarman, a meditation on displacement and human suffering (Carthage/Cartagena) and an intimately operatic reflection on Penelope and Odysseus (The Orphan Sea). Accompanied by scholarly essays placing the plays in context, this book showcases the beautiful strangeness and profound resistance in Svich’s work.

Joseph Chaikin, legendary director of the Open Theatre, established the Winter Project in 1973 with veteran actors from the Open Theatre and others including Dramaturg Mira Rafalowicz. This ensemble experimented with new forms and techniques and produced five theatre pieces including the Obie-award winning Tourists and Refugees in 1980. This books examines the Winter Project?s process and methodology and includes the full scripts of the plays that were produced. The analysis will be useful for Theatre scholars and practitioners as well as cultural historians interested in the American avant-garde of the 1960s an 1970s.

'I took my tears and turned them into paintings' In the electric calm of a blue-painted room, a dying woman reassembles the images of an extraordinary life. The woman is Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. The life is one of struggle - with love, with the body, with her country, and most of all, with her art. La Casa Azul is a collaboration between Quebeçois playwright Sophie Faucher, who also played Frida Kahlo in this production, and internationally acclaimed director Robert Lepage.