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Ms-Directing Shakespeare
"First published in Great Britain by the Women's Press Ltd., 1998"--Title page verso.
Elizabeth Schafer
None
Theatre and Christianity
This critical new title in the Theatre & series explores the fluctuating relationship between theatre and Christianity by focusing on key points of intersection - the challenge of realism and the real, the treatment of women and the role of amateur performance. It covers a wide range of examples from medieval times to today, examining how theatre and Christianity have sometimes clashed dramatically and sometimes embraced one another to great effect. Engaging and enlightening, this book offers an insight into the complex dynamic between theatre and Christianity perfect for undergraduate and postgraduate students of theatre or religious studies.
Shakespeare and (Eco-)Performance History
Seismic shifts in the theatrical meanings of The Merry Wives of Windsor have taken place across the centuries as Shakespeare’s frequently performed play has relocated to Windsor across the world, journeying along the production/adaptation/appropriation continuum. This (eco-)performance history of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor not only offers the first in-depth analysis of the play in production, with a particular focus on the representation of merry women, but also utilises the comedy’s forest-aware dramaturgy to explore Mistress Page’s concept of being ‘frugal in my mirth’ in relation to sustainable theatre practices. Herne’s Oak – the fictitious tree in Windsor Forest where everyone meets in the final scene of the play – is utilised to enable a maverick but ecologically based reframing of the productions of Merry Wives analysed here. This study engages with gender, physical comedy, and cultural relocations of Windsor across the world to offer new insight into Merry Wives and its theatricality.
The Taming of the Shrew
Table of contents
Twelfth night
For four centuries Twelfth Night has inspired theatre directors and performers: some have found class war; some have seen Malvolio as a tragic hero; some have found a passive Viola and others have found an action woman. Whether a production's emphasis is on gender bending, festivity, or trying to reinvent Shakespeare as Chekhov, the sheer variety of Twelfth Nights on offer over the centuries attests to the play's power as a stimulus to theatrical creativity. The dazzling range of the Twelfth Nights considered here includes the productively wayward as well as the conventionally respectable, productions which play to the contemporary market as well as those that seek to flout tradition. This indispensable stage history covers changing fashions in the fortunes of Twelfth Night, and includes a survey of a wide variety of theatrical interpretations of the play in the English-speaking world.
Lilian Baylis
Based on new and original research, this biography documents the life of Lilian Baylis--an esteemed theatrical producer, manager, and the founding mother of the British National Theatre, the Royal Ballet, and the English National Opera. Setting out to discover how Baylis was able to manage two theatres and three companies, bring the very best of high culture to working people, and still haul in a profit, this biography looks beyond the famous comic anecdotes that surround her life and discovers the private woman behind the public persona. From her early career as a musician and dancer to the career-changing breaks she offered to actors such as Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier, this insightful work reveals how Baylis achieved so much and the personal cost of her successes.
The Witch
The Witch (1615/16?), categorised by its author as 'a tragi-comedy', pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against the malevolent practices of Hecate and her witches' coven, leaving the audience with the impression that human malevolence is by far the fiercer and more effective. This edition sets the play into its dramatic and literary contexts, ranging from Shakespeare's Macbeth and Middleton's own later tragedies to Reginald Scot's sceptical Discovery of Witchcraft and King James's virulent Daemonologie. It also argues that Middleton wrote it as a topical satire to capitalise on the scandal involving Frances Howard, who obtained a divorce from the Earl of Essex on the grounds that he had been sexually incapacitated by witchcraft; she was also rumoured to have tried to poison him. Middleton exposes his noble characters precisely by letting them get away with murder.
Ben Jonson and Theatre
Ben Jonson and Theatre is an investigation and celebration of Jonson's plays from the point of view of the theatre practitioner as well as the teacher. Reflecting the increasing interest in the wider field of Renaissance drama, this book bridges the theory/practice divide by debating how Jonson's drama operates in performance. Ben Jonson and Theatre includes: * discussions with and between practitioners * essays on the staging of the plays * edited transcripts of interviews with contemporary practitioners The volume includes contributions from Joan Littlewood, Sam Mendes, John Nettles, Simon Russell Beale and Geoffrey Rush, Oscar-winning actor for Shine.
