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Blood and Laughter: Plays
by Manjula PadmanabhanA neighbourhood that turns a blind eye to a recurring gruesome crime. A game show that puts the lives of its contestants on the line. An insidious tableau that pits three artists against each other. A world where organs of the poor are commercially harvested for the rich. Collected Plays brings together, in a much-anticipated series, the dramatic works of Onassis Prize-winning playwright and author Manjula Padmanabhan. Blood and Laughter, the first volume, presents within its covers Padmanabhan’s full-length plays – including the three-times cinematized Lights Out, the previously unpublished Mating Game Show and Artist’s Model, and the award-winning Harvest – all known for their masterful portrayal of the dilemmas of morality, relationships and the idea of justice. Horror, anticipation and chilling realism mark each of these works, drawing readers and audiences alike to the edge of their seats. With new introductions to the works that affirm the relevance of the themes of the plays, this collection showcases the playwright’s mastery of her art and reconfirms her standing among the leading dramatists of our time.
Laughter and Blood: Performance Pieces
by Manjula PadmanabhanConjoined triplets on a blind date. A lesson in human reproduction by a manic-prudish teacher. A heart-stopping game of cards. An instrument that tunes in to the music of our bodies’ organs. Collected Plays brings together, in a much-anticipated series, the dramatic works of Onassis prize-winning playwright and author Manjula Padmanabhan. Laughter and Blood, the second volume, presents within its covers Padmanabhan’s short performance pieces. From The Sextet and Ladies’ Night to Hidden Fires and Blind Date, these wildly inventive, subversive and often chilling plays introduce readers to the intrigues of inverted power structures, tantalizingly suggestive interactions and powerful voices from the fringe. With new introductions to the works that affirm the relevance of the themes of the plays, this collection showcases the playwright’s mastery of her art and reconfirms her standing among the leading dramatists of our time.
Shakespeare and Indian Theatre: The Politics of Performance
by Vikram Singh ThakurThis book looks at adaptations, translations and performance of Shakespeare's productions in India from the mid-18th century, when British officers in India staged Shakespeare's plays along with other English playwrights for entertainment, through various Indian adaptations of his plays during the colonial period to post-Independence period. It studies Shakespeare in Bengali and Parsi theatre at length. Other theatre traditions, such as Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi, have been included. The book dwells on the fascinating story of the languages of India that have absorbed Shakespeare's work and have transformed the original educated Indian's Shakespeare into the popular Shakespeare practice of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the unique urban-folkish tradition in postcolonial India.
Remember, Repeat, Inhabit: A Study of Antonin Artaud, Krzysztof Kieslowski and Nikhil Chopra
by Ronojoy SircarRemember, Repeat, Inhabit looks at three questions in relation to the idea of the viewer: What happens when one reads someone else's reading of someone else?What happens when something repeats itself in Kieslowski's work?Is there a possibility of an ontology of space?The book attempts to understand the idea of 'viewing' from the inside, not simply as an ontological premise but definitely affected by it. Three differing contexts are looked at-a French madman's notion of the 'self', a Polish filmmaker's notion of the 'everyday' and an Indian performance artist's notion of 'memory'. Through these on-the-surface contrasting artists and texts, a particular idea of a 'viewer' emerges. This viewer is the key to an understanding of something almost elemental in the nature of the idea of 'viewing' in the contemporary context of twenty-first-century Delhi.
Shakespeare and Indian Theatre: The Politics of Performance
by Vikram Singh ThakurThis book looks at adaptations, translations and performance of Shakespeare's productions in India from the mid-18th century, when British officers in India staged Shakespeare's plays along with other English playwrights for entertainment, through various Indian adaptations of his plays during the colonial period to post-Independence period. It studies Shakespeare in Bengali and Parsi theatre at length. Other theatre traditions, such as Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi, have been included. The book dwells on the fascinating story of the languages of India that have absorbed Shakespeare's work and have transformed the original educated Indian's Shakespeare into the popular Shakespeare practice of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the unique urban-folkish tradition in postcolonial India.
Key Concepts In Theatre/drama Education (PDF)
by Shifra SchonmannKey Concepts in Theatre/Drama Education provides the first comprehensive survey of contemporary research trends in theatre/drama education. It is an intriguing rainbow of thought, celebrating a journey across three fields of scholarship: theatre, education and modes of knowing. Hitherto no other collection of key concepts has been published in theatre /drama education. Fifty seven entries, written by sixty scholars from across the world aim to convey the zeitgeist of the field. The book's key innovation lies in its method of writing, through collaborative networking, an open peer-review process, and meaning-making involving all contributors. Within the framework of key-concept entries, readers will find valuable judgments and the viewpoints of researchers from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The volume clearly shows that drama/theatre educators and researchers have created a language, with its own grammar and lucid syntax. The concepts outlined convey the current knowledge of scholars, highlighting what they consider significant. Entries cover interdependent topics on teaching and learning, aesthetics and ethics, curricula and history, culture and community, various populations and their needs, theatre for young people, digital technology, narrative and pedagogy, research methods, Shakespeare and Brecht, other various modes of theatre and the education of theatre teachers.
International Theatre Olympics: The Artistic and Intercultural Power of Olympism
by Jae Kyoung KimThis pivot examines how the Theatre Olympics, born in 1995, have served to enrich each host country’s culture, community, and foreign relations. Looking at the host country’s political, social, and cultural circumstances, it considers how the festival expands the notion of Olympism beyond its application to the Olympic Games, expressing the spirit of Olympism and interculturalism in each country’s distinct cultural language.It also emphasizes the festival’s development over the twenty years of its existence and how each festival’s staging has reflected the national identity, theatre tradition, and cultural interest of the hosting country at that time, as well as how each festival director’s artistic principle has attempted to accomplish cultural exchange through their productions.
When role-play comes alive: A Theory and Practice
by Paul HeinrichThis book harnesses the theory and practice of dramatic arts for the applied use in communication education. It introduces readers to educational role-play and how to use it, arguing that complete immersion is crucial to successful learning. Educational role-play sprang into life in many places including the medical world in the 1960s. Now, fifty years later, the field has grown exponentially across the world. Heinrich discusses how through role play interactions become more authentic, discussion becomes more focused and people take risks, and grow. Early chapters in Part I focus on theory, show how and why role-play works, and introduce the key performative factors of aesthetic distance, defamiliarization, framing, and focus that produce its dynamism. Chapters in Part II discuss how these ideas inform every aspect of role-play practice, offer practical guidance on designing and running scenarios, how to be more confident and mindful as player or facilitator, and provide a wide array of techniques to handle challenging situations. Most of the examples are drawn from medical communication, but the insights and techniques are equally applicable to other fields such as business, law, policing, and the military. The book will be of interest to educators, workplace trainers and managers, facilitators, role-play actors, and scholars interested in role-play performance.
Transnational Performance, Identity and Mobility in Asia
by Iris H. Tuan Ivy I-Chu ChangThis pivot considers the history, methodology and practice of Asian theatre and investigates the role of Asian theatre and film in contemporary transnational Asian identities. It critically reviews the topics of transnationalism and intercultural political difference, arguing that the concept of Transnational Asian theatre or 'TransAsia' acan promote cultural diversity and social transformation. The book notably offers an understanding of theatre as a cultural laboratory, a repository for diverse histories and a forum for intercultural dialogue, allowing for a better understanding of sociocultural patterns surrounding transnational Asian identity and mobility.
Transnational Performance, Identity and Mobility in Asia
by Iris H. Tuan Ivy I-Chu ChangThis pivot considers the history, methodology and practice of Asian theatre and investigates the role of Asian theatre and film in contemporary transnational Asian identities. It critically reviews the topics of transnationalism and intercultural political difference, arguing that the concept of Transnational Asian theatre or 'TransAsia' acan promote cultural diversity and social transformation. The book notably offers an understanding of theatre as a cultural laboratory, a repository for diverse histories and a forum for intercultural dialogue, allowing for a better understanding of sociocultural patterns surrounding transnational Asian identity and mobility.
Theatre and National Identity in Colonial India: Formation Of A Community Through Cultural Practice
by Sharmistha SahaThis book critically engages with the study of theatre and performance in colonial India, and relates it with colonial (and postcolonial) discussions on experience, freedom, institution-building, modernity, nation/subject not only as concepts but also as philosophical queries. It opens up with the discourse around ‘Indian theatre’ that was started by the orientalists in the late 18th century, and which continued till much later. The study specifically focuses on the two major urban centres of colonial India: Bombay and Calcutta of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It discusses different cultural practices in colonial India, including the initiation of ‘Indian theatre’ practices, which resulted in many forms of colonial-native ‘theatre’ by the 19th century; the challenges to this dominant discourse from the ‘swadeshi jatra’ (national jatra/theatre) in Bengal, which drew upon earlier folk and religious traditions and was used as a tool by the nationalist movement; and the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) that functioned from Bombay around the 1940s, which focused on the creation of one national subject – that of the ‘Indian’. The author contextualizes the relevance of the concept of ‘Indian theatre’ in today’s political atmosphere. She also critically analyses the post-Independence Drama Seminar organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1956 and its relevance to the subsequent organization of ‘Indian theatre’. Many theatre personalities who emerged as faces of smaller theatre committees were part of the seminar which envisioned a national cultural body. This book is an important contribution to the field and is of interest to researchers and students of cultural studies, especially Theatre and Performance Studies, and South Asian Studies.
Hokkien Theatre Across The Seas: A Socio-Cultural Study
by Caroline ChiaThis book adopts a refreshing approach by examining Hokkien theatre in a region connected by maritime networks, notably southern Fujian, Taiwan, Kinmen and Singapore. It considers how regional theatre is shaped by broader socio-cultural and political contexts and the motivation to stay relevant in an era of modernisation and secularisation. Political domains are often marked out by land boundaries, but the sea concept denotes fluidity, allowing theatrical forms to spread across these ‘land-bounded’ societies and share a common language and culture."This is an insightful theatrical study on the web of Chinese cultural networks in southern China and Singapore, and by extension, between China and Southeast Asia in the twentieth century and beyond. Using diverse sources in multiple languages and extensive field ethnography, this is a ground-breaking study which is both didactic and inspiring."- Lee Tong Soon, author of Chinese Street Opera in Singapore (University of Illinois, 2009)."Focusing on Hokkien theatre, this book offers new insights into how Chinese performing art responds to geographical, temporal, and social changes. Historical sources in different languages are widely used to give access to the cultural characteristics of Hokkien theatre, offering valuable ethnographic reports on the contemporary practices of Hokkien theatre in Taiwan, Kinmen, and Singapore. The book comments on the changing ritualistic significance of Hokkien theatre, and help us understand how societies remember the past of a performing tradition, and shape its present."- Luo Ai Mei, Co-Editor of A Preliminary Survey of the Cantonese Eight Song Cycles in South China: History and Sources (2016)
Modernization of Asian Theatres: Process and Tradition
by Yasushi Nagata Ravi ChaturvediThis volume focuses on the theatre history of Asian countries, and discusses the specific context of theatre modernization in Asia. While Asian theatre is one of the primary interests within theatre scholarship in the world today, knowledge of Asian theatre history is very limited and often surprisingly incorrect. Therefore, this volume addresses a major gap in contemporary theatre studies. The volume discusses the conflict between tradition and modernity in theatre, suggesting that the problems of modernity are closely related to the idea of tradition. Although Asian countries preserved the traditional form and values of their respective theatres, they had to also confront the newly introduced values or mechanisms of European modernity. Several papers in this volume therefore provide critical surveys of the history of theatre modernization in Asian countries or regions—Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India Malaysia, Singapore, and Uyghur. Other papers focus on specific case studies of the history of modernization, discussing contemporary Taiwanese performances, translations of modern French comedy into Chinese, the modernization of Chinese Xiqu, modern Okinawan plays, Malaysian traditional performances, Korean national theatre, and Japanese plays during World War II. Renowned academics and theatre critics have contributed to this volume, making it a valuable resource for researchers and students of theatre studies, literature, and cultural studies.
Chinese Ibsenism: Reinventions of Women, Class and Nation
by Kwok-kan TamThis book is a study of the relation between theatre art and ideology in the Chinese experimentations with new selfhood as a result of Ibsen’s impact. It also explores Ibsenian notions of self, women and gender in China and provides an illuminating study of Chinese theatre as a public sphere in the dissemination of radical ideas. Ibsen is the major source of modern Chinese selfhood which carries notions of personal and social liberation and has exerted great impacts on Chinese revolutions since the beginning of the twentieth century. Ibsen’s idea of the self as an individual has led to various experimentations in theatre, film and fiction to project new notions of selfhood, in particular women’s selfhood, throughout the history of modern China. Even today, China is experimenting with Ibsen’s notions of gender, power, individualism and self.Kwok-kan Tam is Chair Professor of English and Dean of Humanities and Social Science at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. He was Head (2012-18) and is currently a member of the International Ibsen Committee, University of Oslo. He is a Foundation Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities. He has held teaching, research and administrative positions in various institutions, including the East-West Center, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Open University of Hong Kong. He has published numerous books and articles on Ibsen, Gao Xingjian, modern drama, Chinese film, postcolonial literature, and world Englishes. His recent books include Ibsen, Power and the Self: Postsocialist Experimentations in Stage Performance and Film (2019), The Englishized Subject: Postcolonial Writings in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia (2019), and a co-edited volume Fate and Prognostication in the Chinese Literary Imagination (2019).
Theatres of Dust: Climate Gothic Analysis in Contemporary Australian Drama and Performance Landscapes
by Linda HassallThrough a contemporary Gothic lens, the book explores theatre theories, processes and practices that explore; the impacts of continuing drought and natural disaster, the conflicts concerning resource extraction and mining and current political debates focussed on climate change denial. While these issues can be argued from various political and economic platforms, theatrical investigations as discussed here suggest that scholars and theatre makers are becoming empowered to dramaturgically explore the ecological challenges we face now and may face in the future. In doing so the book proposes that theatre can engage in not only climate change analysis and discussion but can develop climate literacies in a broader socio-cultural context.
Ecoscenography: An Introduction to Ecological Design for Performance
by Tanja BeerThis ground-breaking book is the first to bring an ecological focus to theatre and performance design, both in scholarship and in practice. Ecoscenography weaves environmental philosophies and practices across genres and fields to provide a captivating vision for the future of sustainable theatre production. The book forefronts leading designers that are driving this emerging field into the mainstream through their relational and reciprocal engagement with place, audiences, materials, and processes. Beyond its radical philosophy and framework, Ecoscenography makes a compelling case for pursuing an ecological ethic in theatre and performance design, not only as a moral imperative, but for the extraordinary possibilities that it offers for more-than-human engagement. Based on her personal insights as a leading ecological researcher and practitioner, Beer offers a rich resource for scholars, students and practitioners alike, opening up new processes and aesthetics of theatrical design that enhance the environmental and social advocacy of the field.
International Cases of Corporate Governance
by Jean Jinghan ChenThis book provides insights into current issues in corporate governance by examining twelve cases from the 2010s and 2020s where corporate governance was seen to be an issue. The cases are designed to introduce the reader to ‘real life’ episodes with corporate governance implications, shedding light on why corporate scandals continue to occuer, to what extent these are a corporate governance failure, and in which ways corporate governance – and the behaviour of those involved in ensuring good governance and an ethical culture in their business - may be improved in the future. This book will be of interest to businesspeople, students of business, and lawyers and motivate discussion on the reasons why corporate governance failed, or was seen to be inadequate.
Gendered Identity and the Lost Female: Hybridity as a Partial Experience in the Anglophone Caribbean Performances
by Shrabani BasuThis book offers an exploration of the postcolonial hybrid experience in anglophone Caribbean plays and performance from a feminist perspective.In a hitherto unattempted consideration of Caribbean theatre and performance, this study of gendered identities chronicles the postcolonial hybrid experience – and how it varies in the context of questions of sex, performance and social designation. In the process, it examines the diverse performances of the anglophone Caribbean. The work includes works by Caribbean anglophone playwrights like Derek Walcott, Mustapha Matura, Michael Gikes, Dennis Scott, Trevor Rhone, Earl Lovelace and Errol John with more recent works of Pat Cumper, Rawle Gibbons and Tony Hall. The study would also engage with Carnival, calypso and chutney music, while commenting on its evolving influences over the hybrid imagination.Each section covers the dominant socio-political thematics associated with the tradition and its effect on it, followed by an analysis of contemporaneously significant literary and cultural works – plays, carnival narrative and calypso and chutney lyrics as well as the experiences of performers. From Lovelace’s fictional Jestina to the real-life Drupatee, the book critically explores the marginalization of female performances while forming a hybrid identity.
From Stage to Screen: The Legacy of Traditional Chinese Theatre in Chinese Martial Arts Cinema Soundtracks
by Shuang WangChinese martial arts cinema is held to be a synthesis drawing on artistic conventions of traditional Chinese theatre. Film sound and music perform as the legitimate heirs of some of the aesthetic ideas and norms of traditional Chinese theatre. This book critically examines the history of this under-explored field of inquiry from a theoretically comparative perspective, demonstrating that the musical codes drawn from traditional theatre are a constantly changing component integral to Chinese martial arts cinema. It explores the interaction between traditional Chinese theatre and Chinese martial arts cinema in how the musical codes of the former have shaped the aesthetics of the latter uniquely. This departs from conventional existing studies that focus on “adaptation.” The book’s historical and theoretical approach connects film, theatre and music, and re-defines the status of distinctive domains of filmic expression, grounding theatre as the pivot – or “hinge” – of film aesthetics. The book proffers this unique angle of research to rethink and re-imagine film sound and audiovisual synchronisation. Primarily intended for scholars in Chinese cinema, film music, Chinese theatre and visual culture, this monograph also presents introductory and comprehensive material for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in film and media studies, film music, Chinese cinema, and Chinese theatre.
Performance Arts: Research in the Age of Digital Revolution (Digital Culture and Humanities #4)
by Kwok-Kan TamThis volume reshapes a contemporary understanding of research in theatre and performance arts. Bringing together distinguished scholars from all over the world, the book serves as an arena for international scholars to introduce innovative research methodologies and disseminate their research findings regarding VLT, data archiving, and digital history and discusses the impacts of digital culture in art production, stage performance, film, and literature. The Ibsen focus in the book is illustrative of the power of digital database research that is generating new relations in spatial-historical dimensions that have otherwise gone unnoticed. It demonstrates how a new methodology can bring practical benefits to handling big data with the support of digital technologies. In line with the post-pandemic landscape, this book engages a reflection on how the digital revolution has brought about changes and challenges, and constraints and breakthroughs within the field of theatre and performance arts. It is of appeal to theatre artists and practitioners, scholars, critics, librarians, digital archive engineers, and postgraduate students interested in theatre, performance studies, digital media, information technology, library science, communication, education, sociology, as well as political science. “The book investigates the latest methodological development in digital cultures and performance arts, which significantly contributes to the ever-changing and increasingly advanced technological culture in this field.” - Jessica Tsui-yan Li, York University, Canada"In line with the post-pandemic landscape, this book engages the reader in reflecting on how the digital revolution has brought about chances and challenges, constraints and breakthroughs to the field of theatre and performance arts. An original, eye-opening and inspiring volume at multiple levels, this book brings together distinguished scholars from all over the world." - Dr Anna Tso, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong
Beyond Shakespeare: Film Studies, Performance Studies, and Netflix
by Iris H. TuanWith joy and grace to accompany the readers to have the translocal tour to visit about thirty-seven works, this monograph applies the academic critical theories of Performance Studies, Film Studies, Psychoanalysis, Postmodernism, and Visual Culture, to interpreting the special selection works. The focus and common theme are on race, body, and class. With the background of COVID-19 since 2019 up to the present, the book offers the readers with the remarkable insight of human beings’ accumulated wisdom and experiences in surviving with the dreadful diseases like the plagues in Shakespeare’s time. After the supreme reading, may the global readers in the world acquire the knowledge and power to live in sustainability with education and entertainment of films, performances, and online streaming Netflix TV dramas.
Shakespeare and Protestant Poetics
by Jason GleckmanThis book explores the impact of the sixteenth-century Reformation on the plays of William Shakespeare. Taking three fundamental Protestant concerns of the era – (double) predestination, conversion, and free will – it demonstrates how Protestant theologians, in England and elsewhere, re-imagined these longstanding Christian concepts from a specifically Protestant perspective. Shakespeare utilizes these insights to generate his distinctive view of human nature and the relationship between humans and God. Through in-depth readings of the Shakespeare comedies ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, and ‘Twelfth Night’, the romance ‘A Winter’s Tale’, and the tragedies of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Hamlet’, this book examines the results of almost a century of Protestant thought upon literary art.
Computer Assisted Music and Dramatics: Possibilities and Challenges (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing #1444)
by Ambuja Salgaonkar Makarand VelankarThis book is intended for researchers interested in using computational methods and tools to engage with music, dance and theatre. The chapters have evolved out of presentations and deliberations at an international workshop entitled Computer Assisted Music and Dramatics: Possibilities and Challenges organized by University of Mumbai in honour of Professor Hari Sahasrabuddhe, a renowned educator and a pioneering computational musicologist (CM) of Indian classical music. The workshop included contributions from CM as well as musicians with a special focus on South Asian arts. The case studies and reflective essays here are based on analyses of genres, practices and theoretical constructs modelled computationally. They offer a balanced and complementary perspective to help innovation in the synthesis of music by extracting information from recorded performances. This material would be of interest to scholars of the sciences and humanities and facilitate exchanges and generation of ideas.
Utpal Dutt's Theatre: Continuities and Disjunctions in His Politics and Aesthetics (Performance Studies & Cultural Discourse in South Asia #1)
by Uddalak DuttaThis book offers the reader an in-depth understanding of Utpal Dutt’s entire career in drama. Covering Dutt’s career in proscenium, street theatre and Jatra, it analyzes the interesting exchange of dramatic art with politics in his theatre. Owing to a plethora of unsubstantiated opinions, Dutt is either revered by his followers or dismissed by his opponents, but hardly ever studied with necessary objectivity and intellectual rigour. The book attempts to bust the myth that Dutt was primarily a political propagandist who used theatre only as a means to achieve his political end. The remarkable range of Dutt’s subject matter makes him as internationally significant as he is loved by Indian theatre enthusiasts. His work has been discussed on various reputed international platforms. Yet there is a stark lacuna when it comes to intellectual attention devoted to Dutt’s theatre. This is the first book which attempts to introduce Dutt’s theatre comprehensively to an international readership. The book looks briefly at Dutt’s life, the impact of his politics on his theatre, the art of his characterization, his dramaturgy and stage technique, and the legacy of his work in theatre. It also offers the reader with a chronological list of the first performances of his original theatrical works and an exhaustive bibliography, which, it is hoped, shall prove especially useful for researchers. The book is designed for lay theatre enthusiasts as well as advanced students of theatre.
American Musicals in Context: From the American Revolution to the 21st Century
by Thomas A. GreenfieldAmerican Musicals in Context: From the American Revolution to the 21st Century gives students a fresh look at history-based musicals, helping readers to understand the American story through one of the country's most celebrated art forms: the musical.With the hit musical Hamilton (2015) captivating audiences and reshaping the way early U.S. history is taught and written about, this book offers insight into an array of musicals that explore U.S. history. The work provides a synopsis, overview of critical and audience reception, and historical context and analysis for each of 20 musicals selected for the unique and illuminating way they present the American story on the stage.Specifically, this volume explores musicals that have centered their themes, characters, and plots on some aspect of America's complex and ever-changing history. Each in its own way helps us rediscover pivotal national crises, key political decisions, defining moral choices, unspeakable and unresolved injustices, important and untold stories, defeats suffered, victories won in the face of monumental adversity, and the sacrifices borne publicly and privately in the process of creating the American narrative, one story at a time. Students will come away from the volume armed with the critical thinking skills necessary to discern fact from fiction in U.S. history.