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Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire (Broadway Legacies)
by Joshua RosenblumHow do musical theater songs actually get written? What enables some composer and lyricist partnerships to last for decades? Composer David Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., two of the most gifted songwriters of our time, are revered among musical theater lovers for their ground-breaking off-Broadway revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, as well as for the Broadway musicals Baby and Big. Rosenblum sets out to increase appreciation for Maltby and Shire's large and impressive body of work and establish their place in musical theater history. This book chronicles their sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership, giving full behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals, interspersed with deep-dive analyses of standout individual numbers. Other well-known artistic figures who feature prominently in the Maltby/Shire story include Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Stewart, Francis Ford Coppola, Craig Lucas, Mike Ockrent, Susan Stroman, John Weidman, Charles Strouse, Garth Drabinsky, Adam Gopnik, Jason Robert Brown, and Jonathan Tunick. Using his experiences as a Broadway conductor, music journalist, and professor of musical theater composition, as well as his long-term personal and professional acquaintance with both Maltby and Shire, Joshua Rosenblum is uniquely suited to chronicle their lives, careers, and creative output. The songwriters, both of whom are engaging and articulate in describing what they do, are quoted liberally throughout the book in exclusive interviews, creating the impression that one is spending time with two inspiring creative artists who happen to be great company.
Closer than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire (Broadway Legacies)
by Joshua RosenblumHow do musical theater songs actually get written? What enables some composer and lyricist partnerships to last for decades? Composer David Shire and lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr., two of the most gifted songwriters of our time, are revered among musical theater lovers for their ground-breaking off-Broadway revues Starting Here, Starting Now and Closer Than Ever, as well as for the Broadway musicals Baby and Big. Rosenblum sets out to increase appreciation for Maltby and Shire's large and impressive body of work and establish their place in musical theater history. This book chronicles their sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership, giving full behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals, interspersed with deep-dive analyses of standout individual numbers. Other well-known artistic figures who feature prominently in the Maltby/Shire story include Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Michael Stewart, Francis Ford Coppola, Craig Lucas, Mike Ockrent, Susan Stroman, John Weidman, Charles Strouse, Garth Drabinsky, Adam Gopnik, Jason Robert Brown, and Jonathan Tunick. Using his experiences as a Broadway conductor, music journalist, and professor of musical theater composition, as well as his long-term personal and professional acquaintance with both Maltby and Shire, Joshua Rosenblum is uniquely suited to chronicle their lives, careers, and creative output. The songwriters, both of whom are engaging and articulate in describing what they do, are quoted liberally throughout the book in exclusive interviews, creating the impression that one is spending time with two inspiring creative artists who happen to be great company.
Shakespeare and: The Merry Wives of Windsor (ISSN)
by Elizabeth SchaferSeismic 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.
Shakespeare and: The Merry Wives of Windsor (ISSN)
by Elizabeth SchaferSeismic 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.
Girls (Modern Classics)
by Theresa Ikoko“Scorchingly intelligent and as powerful as a gut punch.” The TimesThree ordinary girls, Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema. Best friends forever. All the big issues: love, sex, religion... and being kidnapped from their hometown in Nigeria.Fiercely funny and powerfully political, Theresa Ikoko's Girls explores enduring friendship, girlhood and the stories behind the headlines that quickly become yesterday's news.Winner of the 2015 Alfred Fagon Award and 2016 George Devine Award, Girls is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Daniel Bailey.
Desdemona (Modern Classics)
by Toni Morrison'This is a remarkable, challenging and bravely original work.' The GuardianRipped from the world by her husband's paranoia, Desdemona turns in death towards the memory of Barbary, the North African maid who raised her: together, they explore the contours of death, race, war, love and motherhood, in a moving elegy.Audacious with ambition, Desdemona is Toni Morrison's intimate reimagining of the fourth act of Shakespeare's Othello, mixing monologue with Rokia Traore's lyrical songs to re-examine the Bard's presentation of race and female suffering.Part-play, part-concert, part-quest into the afterlife, Desdemona is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Joyce Green MacDonald.
Girls (Modern Classics)
by Theresa Ikoko“Scorchingly intelligent and as powerful as a gut punch.” The TimesThree ordinary girls, Tisana, Ruhab and Haleema. Best friends forever. All the big issues: love, sex, religion... and being kidnapped from their hometown in Nigeria.Fiercely funny and powerfully political, Theresa Ikoko's Girls explores enduring friendship, girlhood and the stories behind the headlines that quickly become yesterday's news.Winner of the 2015 Alfred Fagon Award and 2016 George Devine Award, Girls is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Daniel Bailey.
Wolf Play (Modern Classics)
by Hansol Jung"There's an unruly quality to Jung's idea of what theater can be, jagged and untethered, coy and dreamlike. It's thrilling to see that potential unleashed on the vagaries of love." New York TimesA southpaw boxer is on the verge of their pro debut when their wife signs the adoption papers for a Korean boy: the boy's original adoptive father was all set to hand him over to a new home … until he realizes the boy would have no 'dad'. Caught in the middle, the child launches himself in a lone wolf's journey of finding a pack he can call his own.Mischievous and affecting, Hansol Jung's Wolf Play deftly explores the intricacies of the families we choose and un-choose, and how far we would all go to defend our pack.Nominated for seven Lucille Lortel Awards after its initial production was postponed by the Covid-19 outbreak, Wolf Play is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Dustin Wills.
Clete (Dave Robicheaux)
by James Lee BurkeIn the latest Robicheaux novel, Clete Purcel - veteran, private investigator, and former New Orleans cop - takes centre stage for the first time. ****Clete Purcel - private investigator, ex-member of the New Orleans Police Department, and war veteran with a hard shell and just a few soft spots - is Dave Robicheaux's longtime friend and partner in detective work. But he has a troubled past.When Clete leaves his car at the local car wash, only to return to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade from Mexican cartels to Louisiana, it feels personal - his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose, and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.Just as Clete starts to trail the culprits, Clara Bow hires Clete as a detective to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths all link back to a heavily tattooed man who seems to lurk around every corner. Clete is experiencing shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questioning Clara's ulterior motives when he and Dave start to hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could've imagined.Gripping, violent, yet interlaced with Clete's humor and consistent drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to a truly iconic series. ****PRAISE FOR JAMES LEE BURKE, THE AWARD-WINNING KING OF SOUTHERN NOIR: 'James Lee Burke is the heavyweight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed' Michael Connelly 'A gorgeous prose stylist' Stephen King 'No argument: James Lee Burke is among the finest of all contemporary American novelists' Daily Mail'The greatest crime writer currently at work' Spectator'The reigning champ of nostalgia noir' New York Times'Masterly' Sunday Telegraph
Enron: Under The Blue Sky; Fallout; Motortown; My Child; Enron (Modern Classics)
by Ms Lucy Prebble"The political theatre of the 21st century has arrived, in some style." The TimesThe most infamous scandal in corporate history. The most vilified figures in the financial world. The most audacious (and destructive) display of greed history has ever seen.Charting the notorious rise and fall of the eponymous company and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Lucy Prebble's Enron is a pulse-racing and rage-inducing parable, exploring the limits of greed... or lack thereof.Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Natasha Tripney.
Enron (Modern Classics)
by Ms Lucy Prebble"The political theatre of the 21st century has arrived, in some style." The TimesThe most infamous scandal in corporate history. The most vilified figures in the financial world. The most audacious (and destructive) display of greed history has ever seen.Charting the notorious rise and fall of the eponymous company and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, Lucy Prebble's Enron is a pulse-racing and rage-inducing parable, exploring the limits of greed... or lack thereof.Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Natasha Tripney.
Wolf Play (Modern Classics)
by Hansol Jung"There's an unruly quality to Jung's idea of what theater can be, jagged and untethered, coy and dreamlike. It's thrilling to see that potential unleashed on the vagaries of love." New York TimesA southpaw boxer is on the verge of their pro debut when their wife signs the adoption papers for a Korean boy: the boy's original adoptive father was all set to hand him over to a new home … until he realizes the boy would have no 'dad'. Caught in the middle, the child launches himself in a lone wolf's journey of finding a pack he can call his own.Mischievous and affecting, Hansol Jung's Wolf Play deftly explores the intricacies of the families we choose and un-choose, and how far we would all go to defend our pack.Nominated for seven Lucille Lortel Awards after its initial production was postponed by the Covid-19 outbreak, Wolf Play is published in Methuen Drama's Modern Classics series, featuring a new introduction by Dustin Wills.
Working with Children in Contemporary Performance: Ethics, Agency and Affect
by Sarah AustinThis book outlines how an innovative ‘rights-based’ model of contemporary performance practice can be used when working with children and young people.This model, framed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), challenges the idea of children as vulnerable and in need of protection, argues for the recognition of the child’s voice, and champions the creativity of children in performance. Sarah Austin draws on rich research and practitioner experience to analyse Youth Arts pedagogies, inclusive theatre practice, models of participation, the symbolic potential of the child in performance, and the work of contemporary theatre practitioners making work with children for adult audiences. The combined practical and written research reflected in this book offers a new, nuanced understanding of children as cultural agents, raising the prospect of a creative process that foregrounds deeper considerations of the strengths and capacities of children.This book would primarily appeal to scholars of theatre and performance studies, specifically those working in the field of applied theatre and theatre for children and young people. Additionally, the practice-based elements of the book are likely to appeal to theatre professionals working in youth arts or theatre for young audiences or associated fields.
Working with Children in Contemporary Performance: Ethics, Agency and Affect
by Sarah AustinThis book outlines how an innovative ‘rights-based’ model of contemporary performance practice can be used when working with children and young people.This model, framed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), challenges the idea of children as vulnerable and in need of protection, argues for the recognition of the child’s voice, and champions the creativity of children in performance. Sarah Austin draws on rich research and practitioner experience to analyse Youth Arts pedagogies, inclusive theatre practice, models of participation, the symbolic potential of the child in performance, and the work of contemporary theatre practitioners making work with children for adult audiences. The combined practical and written research reflected in this book offers a new, nuanced understanding of children as cultural agents, raising the prospect of a creative process that foregrounds deeper considerations of the strengths and capacities of children.This book would primarily appeal to scholars of theatre and performance studies, specifically those working in the field of applied theatre and theatre for children and young people. Additionally, the practice-based elements of the book are likely to appeal to theatre professionals working in youth arts or theatre for young audiences or associated fields.
Giving Voice: The Power of Theatre for Positive Change (ISSN)
by Carol J. MaplesThis book is a practical guide for using the power of theatre to address issues of oppression in areas such as race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, gender, and sexual harassment.Giving Voice charts a roadmap for the process of establishing a troupe, including auditioning members, utilizing authentic source material, directing rehearsals, guiding mindful growth among troupe members, and facilitating an inclusive forum environment. Rooted in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Opressed and using the nationally recognized Missouri State University’s Giving Voice troupe as a model, this book provides guidance for customizing the program’s principles to meet the needs of your school, community, organization, or business. Giving Voice forums bring professional development to a new level. Applications include diversity and cultural awareness training in educational settings for students, staff, faculty, and administrators, as well as those in non-profit and for-profit organizations.This book provides a powerful and proven approach to creating a truly inclusive climate. It is a guidebook for accessible use in the secondary and university setting in theatre and performance studies. It has also been shown to be effective for businesses and other organizations.
Giving Voice: The Power of Theatre for Positive Change (ISSN)
by Carol J. MaplesThis book is a practical guide for using the power of theatre to address issues of oppression in areas such as race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+, gender, and sexual harassment.Giving Voice charts a roadmap for the process of establishing a troupe, including auditioning members, utilizing authentic source material, directing rehearsals, guiding mindful growth among troupe members, and facilitating an inclusive forum environment. Rooted in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Opressed and using the nationally recognized Missouri State University’s Giving Voice troupe as a model, this book provides guidance for customizing the program’s principles to meet the needs of your school, community, organization, or business. Giving Voice forums bring professional development to a new level. Applications include diversity and cultural awareness training in educational settings for students, staff, faculty, and administrators, as well as those in non-profit and for-profit organizations.This book provides a powerful and proven approach to creating a truly inclusive climate. It is a guidebook for accessible use in the secondary and university setting in theatre and performance studies. It has also been shown to be effective for businesses and other organizations.
Shakespeare in the Theatre: Tina Packer (Shakespeare in the Theatre)
by Katharine GoodlandThis book examines the work of acclaimed director Tina Packer, founder of Shakespeare & Company, whose ground-breaking approach to performing Shakespeare has made her company among the most vibrant and enduring Shakespeare theatres in America. Tina Packer directed her first Shakespeare play at London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art in 1971. More than 50 years later she continues to direct and teach at Shakespeare & Company, which she founded in Lenox, Massachusetts in 1978. Drawing on new interviews with the original casts and creative teams as well as Tina Packer herself, this book is the first comprehensive analysis of all of her professional Shakespeare productions in their cultural and historical context. Over a career that spans 5 decades, Packer has directed or acted in virtually all of Shakespeare's plays, along with many other classical and contemporary works. As artistic director she guided her company through times of expansion as well as belt-tightening, driven by her conviction that the purpose of theatre is to heal and that to fulfil that purpose, acting must tell the truth. With in-depth case studies of 12 of her most significant productions, Katharine Goodland offers a clear account of Packer's work and contribution to Shakespearean theatre in America while illuminating the embedded nature of regional Shakespeare in communities across the United States.
Shakespeare in the Theatre: The Stratford Festival (Shakespeare in the Theatre)
by Dr Christie CarsonThis analysis of the Stratford Festival examines the full history of one of the largest and oldest dedicated centres for the performance of Shakespeare in North America. In English-speaking Canada, the Festival has become the unofficial national theatre, drawing both praise and criticism. Dividing its history into three distinct periods, the volume begins with the foundation of the company, moving through its middle years of expansion and securing stability, and ending with an exploration of staging Shakespeare in the 21st century. Through case studies of productions, covering each artistic director from Tyrone Guthrie to Antoni Cimolino, it highlights issues of national identity but also the relationship between actor and audience on the Festival's unique thrust stage. It not only explores the work of international stars such as Christopher Plummer, but also that of longstanding company members William Hutt and Martha Henry, emphasizing the Festival's collective spirit. This book argues that the Stratford Festival holds an influential position in the theatre world generally and in the Shakespeare performance environment specifically. Initially this was because of the original stage built for its opening, but increasingly it has been due to the way that it has used Shakespeare's work to articulate complex questions about identity and utilized technology to reach new audiences. The Festival and its collaborative working methods grew out of a particular social and political climate, and when the actors and directors who trained at the Festival took their training and its influences elsewhere, they spread its impact.
Shakespeare in the Theatre: The Stratford Festival (Shakespeare in the Theatre)
by Dr Christie CarsonThis analysis of the Stratford Festival examines the full history of one of the largest and oldest dedicated centres for the performance of Shakespeare in North America. In English-speaking Canada, the Festival has become the unofficial national theatre, drawing both praise and criticism. Dividing its history into three distinct periods, the volume begins with the foundation of the company, moving through its middle years of expansion and securing stability, and ending with an exploration of staging Shakespeare in the 21st century. Through case studies of productions, covering each artistic director from Tyrone Guthrie to Antoni Cimolino, it highlights issues of national identity but also the relationship between actor and audience on the Festival's unique thrust stage. It not only explores the work of international stars such as Christopher Plummer, but also that of longstanding company members William Hutt and Martha Henry, emphasizing the Festival's collective spirit. This book argues that the Stratford Festival holds an influential position in the theatre world generally and in the Shakespeare performance environment specifically. Initially this was because of the original stage built for its opening, but increasingly it has been due to the way that it has used Shakespeare's work to articulate complex questions about identity and utilized technology to reach new audiences. The Festival and its collaborative working methods grew out of a particular social and political climate, and when the actors and directors who trained at the Festival took their training and its influences elsewhere, they spread its impact.
Shakespeare in the Theatre: Tina Packer (Shakespeare in the Theatre)
by Katharine GoodlandThis book examines the work of acclaimed director Tina Packer, founder of Shakespeare & Company, whose ground-breaking approach to performing Shakespeare has made her company among the most vibrant and enduring Shakespeare theatres in America. Tina Packer directed her first Shakespeare play at London Academy for Music and Dramatic Art in 1971. More than 50 years later she continues to direct and teach at Shakespeare & Company, which she founded in Lenox, Massachusetts in 1978. Drawing on new interviews with the original casts and creative teams as well as Tina Packer herself, this book is the first comprehensive analysis of all of her professional Shakespeare productions in their cultural and historical context. Over a career that spans 5 decades, Packer has directed or acted in virtually all of Shakespeare's plays, along with many other classical and contemporary works. As artistic director she guided her company through times of expansion as well as belt-tightening, driven by her conviction that the purpose of theatre is to heal and that to fulfil that purpose, acting must tell the truth. With in-depth case studies of 12 of her most significant productions, Katharine Goodland offers a clear account of Packer's work and contribution to Shakespearean theatre in America while illuminating the embedded nature of regional Shakespeare in communities across the United States.
Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway (New Directions in Irish and Irish American Literature)
by Maria SzaszThe Irish Repertory Theatre: Celebrating Thirty-Five Years Off-Broadway is the first book-length history of the multi-award winning Off-Broadway Irish Repertory Theatre Company, from its beginning in 1988 to its thirty-fifth season in 2023. The book considers how the Irish Rep’s plays and musicals reflect the Irish diaspora, the relationship between Ireland and America, and what it means to be Irish and Irish American, both historically, and in the twenty-first century, including how the Irish Rep is showcasing more diverse voices and experiences, from women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and Irish and Irish American people of color.
A Child of Science (Nhb Modern Plays Ser.)
by Gareth Farr'One day this will work. One day we will gift two honest, decent, trusting volunteers a baby. I know this more than anything else in the world. I know it in my soul. We will do that.' In 1978, three pioneering doctors changed the world of fertility as we know it. Supported by an army of immensely brave women from all over the UK, Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards and Jean Purdy achieved the impossible: they created human life in vitro. Faced with fierce criticism and hostility, and hounded by the media for 'playing God', trials had to be kept largely under wraps. But the trio's determination to give hope to the thousands of families struggling to conceive eventually led to the first 'test-tube baby' and the creation of IVF, a procedure which has since supported the birth of over twelve million babies worldwide. Gareth Farr's play A Child of Science is a fictionalised account of this true story of ambition and courage, based on extensive research and interviews with embryologists and fertility doctors, as well as those affected by and enabled by IVF. It was first performed at Bristol Old Vic in 2024, directed by Matthew Dunster.
Dancing with Georges Perec: Embodying Oulipo (ISSN)
by Leslie SatinThis book explores the relationship of the life and work of the remarkable Parisian-Jewish writer Georges Perec (1936–1983) to dance."Dancing" addresses art-making parallels and their personal and sociocultural contexts, including Perec’s childhood loss of his parents in the Holocaust and its repercussions in the significance of the body, everydayness, space, and attention permeating his work. This book, emerging from the author Leslie Satin’s perspective as a dancer and scholar, links Perec’s concerns with those of dance and demonstrates that Perec’s work has implications for dance and how we think about it. Moreover, it is framed as a performative autobiographical enactment of the author's relationship to Perec, periodically linking their written, danced, and imagined lives.This exploration will be of great interest to dancers, dance scholars, and dance students interested in contemporary experimental dance and contemporary dance.
Dancing with Georges Perec: Embodying Oulipo (ISSN)
by Leslie SatinThis book explores the relationship of the life and work of the remarkable Parisian-Jewish writer Georges Perec (1936–1983) to dance."Dancing" addresses art-making parallels and their personal and sociocultural contexts, including Perec’s childhood loss of his parents in the Holocaust and its repercussions in the significance of the body, everydayness, space, and attention permeating his work. This book, emerging from the author Leslie Satin’s perspective as a dancer and scholar, links Perec’s concerns with those of dance and demonstrates that Perec’s work has implications for dance and how we think about it. Moreover, it is framed as a performative autobiographical enactment of the author's relationship to Perec, periodically linking their written, danced, and imagined lives.This exploration will be of great interest to dancers, dance scholars, and dance students interested in contemporary experimental dance and contemporary dance.
Sophia Robot: Post Human Being (ISSN)
by Thomas RiccioThis book considers David Hanson’s robots as a performative expression of our cultural moment, serving as a paradigm for the evolution of humanoid social robots.Mechanical beings have occupied the human imagination since antiquity. Now, they inhabit the pop-cultural imagination, embodying the apotheosis of humanity’s technological aspirations and dread. Sophia, Hanson’s most advanced robot, anticipates the future as she articulates the mythic pattern, narrative, anxieties, and hopes as old as humanity. Gendered as an attractive female with a face inspired by Queen Nefertiti and Audrey Hepburn, Sophia is a cipher, avatar, and turning point that brings humanity and technology a step closer to the emergence of a post-human species. The author is a transdisciplinary artist/scholar/educator working internationally in experimental performance, indigenous performance (ritual, shamanism), and social robotics. Hanson’s robots and Sophia are examined as performance media and events, as characters evolving as post-human narratives of technological beings. The emergent, complex, and collaborative relationships social robots have with technology, AI, performance, anthropology, mythology, psychology, sociology, popular culture, social media, politics, and economics are considered.