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Theater and drama professionals and professors address the role of Paris as an international theater city and the intercultural webs of Parisian theater. Essays address Peter Brook and Le Centre International de Creations Theatrales; Jacques Lecoq and his "Ecole Internationale de Theatre" in Paris; Ariane Mnouchkine and the Theatre du Soleil; and Augusto Boal and the Theatre de l'Opprime. In the second part, the input of different national theater traditions to the internationalism of Paris is explored, including Germany, Russia, Spain, Argentina, the US, and Africa. Distributed by Palgrave. c. Book News Inc.
This book offers a radically new account of the rich and varied culture of contemporary Spain. It focuses on three intellectuals who chronicle contemporary life (including journalist Francisco Umbral); three filmmakers who engage with the many nationalisms of the Spanish state (Victor Erice,Bigas Luna, and Julio Medem); and three crucial topics that are expressed in many media (the replaying of history, the rise and fall of the city, and the practice of everyday life). Ranging from the ethnographic photography of Cristina Garcia Rodero to the high tech architecture of SantiagoCalatrava and from the hyperrealist painting of Antonio Lopez to the neo-flamenco dance of Joaquin Cortes, this book is also the first to draw on theorists of the intellectual field, the production of space, and the arts of bricolage (Pierre Bourdieu, Henri Lefebvre, and Michel de Certeau). Refutingthe charge that contemporary Spanish culture is trivial or superficial, this book argues that it is fully engaged in the aesthetic and historical project of modernity.
Beginning with a reassessment of the 1920s and 30s, this text looks beyond a consideration of just the most successful Spanish playwrights of the time, and discusses also the work of directors, theorists, actors and designers.
In The Aesthetics of the Ephemeral, Jennifer Duprey examines five contemporary plays from Barcelona: Olors and Testament by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, Antígona by Jordi Coca, Forasters by Sergi Belbel, and Temptació by Carles Batlle. She argues that in both the theatrical text and its performance an aesthetics of the ephemeral materializes that is related to specific manifestations of cultural and historical memory in Spain and Catalonia. These manifestations of memory include historical concerns such as the possibility of another form of justice in predicaments of violence after the Civil War, and they also include contemporary issues such as the production of ruins by the processes of gentrification in Barcelona, the complexity of immigration in Spain, and the destruction or preservation of Catalan cultural legacies. In her analysis of these topics, Duprey engages and expands on theories related to questions of subjectivity and identity in late modernity. This book will be of interest to those concerned with Iberian cultural studies and with how theater reflects on and contributes to contemporary political dialogue.
This book examines troupes, plays, festivals, performative practices, and audiences active during the final years of the Franco dictatorship and the beginning of the transition to democracy. This period, spanning 1968 to 1982, is considered the historical moment that most directly shaped contemporary Spanish politics and society. The dominant narrative of the Transition has long portrayed it as a normalized, non-confrontational, and consensual process steered by political elites. But the world of Spanish theater tells a very different story - one in which ordinary Spaniards played a vital role in the transition to democracy. The chapters of this book draw on censorship files, photographs, au...
"Barcelona, the cultural epicenter of Catalunya, is presently experiencing the most dynamic and polemical period in its modern theater history. It is the commanding hub of an energetic theater scene that in recent years has witnessed an exuberant outpouring of new dramatists, a steady crescendo in theater attendance, and a continual increase in the international presence of Catalan directors, playwrights, and companies. Barcelona's post-Olympian cultural landscape, moreover, comprises several architecturally striking theater projects. The diversity of opportunities to stage plays in Catalan at an assortment of city spaces is unprecedented, ranging in variety from commercial locales to public...
The subject of cultural memory, and of the body’s role in its creation and dissemination, is central to current academic debate, particularly in relation to performance. Viewed from a variety of theoretical positions, the actions of the meaning-bearing body in culture and its capacity to reproduce, challenge or modify existing formulations have been the focus of some of the most influential studies to emerge from the arts and humanities in the last two and a half decades. The ten essays brought together in Performance, Embodiment and Cultural Memory address this subject from a unique diversity of perspectives, focusing on topics as varied as live art, puppetry, memorial practice, ‘cultural performance’ and dance. Dealing with issues ranging from modern nation building to the formation of diasporic identities, this volume collectively considers the ways in which the human soma functions as a canvas for cultural meaning, its forms and actions a mnemonics for constructions of a shared past. This volume is required reading for those interested in how bodies, both on stage and in everyday life, 'perform' meaning.
Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre is a lively and accessible biographical guide to the key figures in contemporary drama. All who enjoy the theatre will find their pleasure enhanced and their knowledge extended by this fascinating work of reference. Its distinctive blend of information, analysis and anecdote makes for entertaining and enlightening reading. Hugely influential innovators, household names, and a whole host of less familiar, international figures - all have their lives and careers illuminated by the clear and succinct entries. All professions associated with the theatre are represented here - actors and directors, playwrights and designers. By virtue of the broad range of its coverage, Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre offers a unique insight into the rich diversity of international drama today.
The essays brought together in this collection offer new perspectives on the eros/death relation in a wide selection of dramatic texts, theatrical practices and cultural performances.
'An invaluable book that we shall all be using for a long time to come' - Michael Billington Contemporary European Theatre Directors is an ambitious and unprecedented overview of many of the key directors working in European theatre over the past fifty years. It is a vivid account of the vast range of work undertaken in European theatre during this period, situated lucidly in its artistic, cultural and political context. The resulting study is a detailed guide to the generation of directors whose careers were forged and tempered in the changing Europe of the 1980s and 1990s. The featured directors are: Calixto Bieito, Piotr Borowski, Romeo Castellucci, Frank Castorf, Patrice Chéreau, Lev Do...