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Black and Asian Theatre In Britain: A History
by Colin ChambersBlack and Asian Theatre in Britain is an unprecedented study tracing the history of ‘the Other’ through the ages in British theatre. The diverse and often contradictory aspects of this history are expertly drawn together to provide a detailed background to the work of African, Asian, and Caribbean diasporic companies and practitioners. Colin Chambers examines early forms of blackface and other representations in the sixteenth century, through to the emergence of black and Asian actors, companies, and theatre groups in their own right. Thorough analysis uncovers how they led to a flourishing of black and Asian voices in theatre at the turn of the twenty-first century. Figures and companies studied include: Ira Aldridge Henry Francis Downing Paul Robeson Errol John Mustapha Matura Dark and Light Theatre The Keskidee Centre Indian Art and Dramatic Society Temba Edric and Pearl Connor Tara Arts Yvonne Brewster Tamasha Talawa. Black and Asian Theatre in Britain is an enlightening and immensely readable resource and represents a major new study of theatre history and British history as a whole. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The Black Album: Adapted for the Stage (Revolutionary Writing Ser. #5)
by Hanif KureishiReligion is for the benefit of the masses, not for brain-box types like you. Those simpletons require strict rules for living, otherwise they would still think the earth sits on three fishes. But you mind-wallahs must know it's a lot of balls.An Asian kid from Kent goes to college in London and teams up with a sympathetic group of anti-racists. But it's 1989, the year of the fatwa, and as Shahid begins a hedonistic affair with his lecturer, his radical Muslim friends want to steer him away from the decadence of the West.We're not blasted Christians. We don't turn the other buttock. We will fight for our people who are being tortured anywhere - in Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, East End!Hanif Kureishi's witty stage adaptation of his strikingly prescient and acclaimed novel, The Black Album, humorously considers how the events of 1989 have shaped today's world, where fundamentalism battles liberalism.A co-production with Tara Arts, The Black Album premiered at the National Theatre, London, in July 2009.
Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches
by Sharrell Luckett Tia M. ShafferBlack Acting Methods seeks to offer alternatives to the Euro-American performance styles that many actors find themselves working with. A wealth of contributions from directors, scholars and actor trainers address afrocentric processes and aesthetics, and interviews with key figures in Black American theatre illuminate their methods. This ground-breaking collection is an essential resource for teachers, students, actors and directors seeking to reclaim, reaffirm or even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts.
Black Acting Methods: Critical Approaches
by Sharrell Luckett Tia M. ShafferBlack Acting Methods seeks to offer alternatives to the Euro-American performance styles that many actors find themselves working with. A wealth of contributions from directors, scholars and actor trainers address afrocentric processes and aesthetics, and interviews with key figures in Black American theatre illuminate their methods. This ground-breaking collection is an essential resource for teachers, students, actors and directors seeking to reclaim, reaffirm or even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts.
Bitter Lemons (Modern Plays)
by Lucy HayesYou look down to retrieve the ball but all you can see isLemonsLemons filling up the goalLemons writhing in the netLemons glistening and convulsing on the grassIn the pressurised worlds of football and finance, two women carve their own path.After the loss of her dad, a goalkeeper prepares for the league final, while an ambitious banker battles her fears of being tokenised to secure a promotion. But as their pitches get closer, worlds collide as life shifts unexpectedly and in parallel. How do you face your biggest challenge yet?Winner of a Pleasance Edinburgh National Partnership Award and supported by Bristol Old Vic, Bitter Lemons is an explosive debut play from Lucy Hayes, tackling the pressures on women's bodies and the power society holds over them.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in August 2023.
Bitter Lemons (Modern Plays)
by Lucy HayesYou look down to retrieve the ball but all you can see isLemonsLemons filling up the goalLemons writhing in the netLemons glistening and convulsing on the grassIn the pressurised worlds of football and finance, two women carve their own path.After the loss of her dad, a goalkeeper prepares for the league final, while an ambitious banker battles her fears of being tokenised to secure a promotion. But as their pitches get closer, worlds collide as life shifts unexpectedly and in parallel. How do you face your biggest challenge yet?Winner of a Pleasance Edinburgh National Partnership Award and supported by Bristol Old Vic, Bitter Lemons is an explosive debut play from Lucy Hayes, tackling the pressures on women's bodies and the power society holds over them.This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, in August 2023.
Bites (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Kay AdsheadMoving from the biggest democracy on the planet to the newest, Bites takes us back to Afghanistan via Texas. In the last diner at the end of a world ravaged by war, a menu of love, death and revenge is served by the ‘hired help'. Seven courses make for a poetic feast of universal tales looking back to the forgotten war and forward to a nightmarish future.Produced at the Bush Theatre, London in January 2005 (Mama Quillo in association with The Bush).
Bitch Boxer (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Charlotte JosephineMeet Chloe, 21 from Leytonstone. She likes the simple things in life: cherry sambuca, hairbrush-in-the-mirror karaoke with Rihanna and winding her Dad up. Oh, and she's a boxer. London, 2012. Women will step into the Olympic boxing ring for the very first time. And it's in Stratford. Down the road. As Chloe trains for the fight of her life, she is left winded by two life-changing events. In a man's world, can she prove she's still worth the title? Fighting fit from sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of the Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season, you are invited ringside, for an adrenaline-fuelled, no-holes-barred one-woman show unafraid to document the blood, the sweat...and all the tears.
A Bit of Me: From Basildon to Broadway, and back
by Denise Van OutenDenise Van Outen, original 90s 'ladette', West End star and primetime TV favourite, reveals for the first time the true story of grit and graft beneath the famous Essex sparkle.In this refreshingly candid memoir, Denise speaks openly and sensitively about her rollercoaster career, her struggles in a past high-profile relationship and the betrayal she suffered at the hands of those once closest to her, with the hope that in doing so, she can help empower others to avoid and overcome any similar difficulties they may face.Denise shot to fame on The Big Breakfast in her early twenties. After a decade grafting through theatre jobs and children's TV shows, she was finally living the dream. However her life soon turned into a nightmare off-screen and behind the headlines as her heart was broken in a very public relationship, whilst her every move was printed in the tabloids thanks to her phone being tapped. After receiving a panning by the critics for her late night TV show aimed at the post-pub crowd, she then auditioned for and accepted an offer to play Roxie Hart in Chicago, which turned out to be a life-changing experience. The role took her to Broadway, where she caught the eye of one Andrew Lloyd Webber, eventually landing a judging role on Any Dream Will Do, which saw her rise back to primetime and the career that she loves, where she has stayed and flourished. Now, in her first memoir, Denise tells her story with disarming candour, unafraid to reveal vulnerabilities beneath the cheerful exterior. Tackling difficult subjects of corrosive self-doubt, betrayal, invasions of privacy and professional struggles, interjected with the familiar humour that we all know and love, A Bit of Me is personal, at times raw, often mischievous and always compelling. Denise has lived the life, learned the lessons, and Basildon to Broadway and back is a hell of a journey.
The Birthday Party: The Birthday Party; The Room; The Dumb Waiter; A Slight Ache; The Hothouse; A Night Out; The Black And White; The Examination (Pinter, Harold Ser.)
by Harold PinterStanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare.The Birthday Party was first performed in 1958 and is now a modern classic, produced and studied throughout the world.
Birthday (Modern Plays)
by Joe PenhallThe birth of their daughter should be one of the happiest days of Ed and Lisa's life. An NHS maternity ward and their somewhat unusual circumstances make for an unsettling and satisfyingly comic sequence of events that tests their relationship to the core, and raises intrinsic questions about the nature of birth and renewal, fear and isolation.Subverting the received gender roles to darkly comic and disturbing effect, the play charts Ed and Lisa's personally fraught experience at the behest of an NHS labour ward. Penhall expertly weaves an acutely funny and emotionally charged sequence of events: he pitches wryly observed gender perceptions of a quite literal life and death situation against an indictment of the NHS system. The beautifully observed writing is at once vicious and searingly tender.Birthday achieves an intensely comic counterpoint to teh visceral domestic drama sutured to bigger issues of aspiration, sacrifice, who we are, how we communicate, the triumph of tolerance, nature and ultimately love.
Birthday (Modern Plays)
by Joe PenhallThe birth of their daughter should be one of the happiest days of Ed and Lisa's life. An NHS maternity ward and their somewhat unusual circumstances make for an unsettling and satisfyingly comic sequence of events that tests their relationship to the core, and raises intrinsic questions about the nature of birth and renewal, fear and isolation.Subverting the received gender roles to darkly comic and disturbing effect, the play charts Ed and Lisa's personally fraught experience at the behest of an NHS labour ward. Penhall expertly weaves an acutely funny and emotionally charged sequence of events: he pitches wryly observed gender perceptions of a quite literal life and death situation against an indictment of the NHS system. The beautifully observed writing is at once vicious and searingly tender.Birthday achieves an intensely comic counterpoint to teh visceral domestic drama sutured to bigger issues of aspiration, sacrifice, who we are, how we communicate, the triumph of tolerance, nature and ultimately love.
The Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick
by Norman S. PoserThe Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick is a vivid description of the eighteenth-century London theatre scene—a time when the theatre took on many of the features of our modern stage. A natural and psychologically based acting style replaced the declamatory style of an earlier age. The theatres were mainly supported by paying audiences, no longer by royal or noble patrons. The press determined the success or failure of a play or a performance. Actors were no longer shunned by polite society, some becoming celebrities in the modern sense. The dominant figure for thirty years was David Garrick, actor, theatre manager and playwright, who, off the stage, charmed London with his energy, playfulness, and social graces. No less important in defining eighteenth-century theatre were its audiences, who considered themselves full-scale participants in theatrical performances; if they did not care for a play, an actor, or ticket prices, they would loudly make their wishes known, sometimes starting a riot. This book recounts the lives—and occasionally the scandals—of the actors and theatre managers and weaves them into the larger story of the theatre in this exuberant age, setting the London stage and its leading personalities against the background of the important social, cultural, and economic changes that shaped eighteenth-century Britain. The Birth of Modern Theatre brings all of this together to describe a moment in history that sowed the seeds of today’s stage.
The Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick
by Norman S. PoserThe Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick is a vivid description of the eighteenth-century London theatre scene—a time when the theatre took on many of the features of our modern stage. A natural and psychologically based acting style replaced the declamatory style of an earlier age. The theatres were mainly supported by paying audiences, no longer by royal or noble patrons. The press determined the success or failure of a play or a performance. Actors were no longer shunned by polite society, some becoming celebrities in the modern sense. The dominant figure for thirty years was David Garrick, actor, theatre manager and playwright, who, off the stage, charmed London with his energy, playfulness, and social graces. No less important in defining eighteenth-century theatre were its audiences, who considered themselves full-scale participants in theatrical performances; if they did not care for a play, an actor, or ticket prices, they would loudly make their wishes known, sometimes starting a riot. This book recounts the lives—and occasionally the scandals—of the actors and theatre managers and weaves them into the larger story of the theatre in this exuberant age, setting the London stage and its leading personalities against the background of the important social, cultural, and economic changes that shaped eighteenth-century Britain. The Birth of Modern Theatre brings all of this together to describe a moment in history that sowed the seeds of today’s stage.
Birdsong: Wm Format (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Sebastian Faulks Rachel WagstaffWhile staying as the guest of a factory owner in pre-First World War France, Stephen Wraysford embarks on a passionate affair with Isabelle, the wife of his host. The affair changes them both for ever. A few years later Stephen finds himself back in the same part of France, but this time as a soldier in the Battle of the Somme, the bloodiest encounter in British military history. As his men die around him, Stephen turns to his enduring love for Isabelle for the strength to continue and to save something for future generations.For the first time, this beautiful and terrible story about love, courage and the endurance of the human spirit is brought to the stage in a version by Rachel Wagstaff, directed by famed director Trevor Nunn.
The Birds and Other Plays
by Aristophanes David Barrett Alan H. SommersteinThe plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In THE BIRDS, two frustrated Athenians join the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds'. THE KNIGHTS is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, while THE ASSEMBLY WOMEN deals with the battle of the sexes as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of PEACE, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and WEALTH reflects on the economic catastrophe that hit Athens after the war.
Birds and Other Creatures in Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare, Descartes, and Animal Studies (Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture)
by Rebecca Ann BachThis book explores how humans in the Renaissance lived with, attended to, and considered the minds, feelings, and sociality of other creatures. It examines how Renaissance literature and natural history display an unequal creaturely world: all creatures were categorized hierarchically. However, post-Cartesian readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance literature have misunderstood Renaissance hierarchical creaturely relations, including human relations. Using critical animal studies work and new materialist theory, Bach argues that attending closely to creatures and objects in texts by Shakespeare and other writers exposes this unequal world and the use and abuse of creatures, including people. The book also adds significantly to animal studies by showing how central bird sociality and voices were to Renaissance human culture, with many believing that birds were superior to some humans in song, caregiving, and companionship. Bach shows how Descartes, a central figure in the transition to modern ideas about creatures, lived isolated from humans and other creatures and denied ancient knowledge about other creatures’ minds, especially bird minds. As significantly, Bach shows how and why Descartes’ ideas appealed to human grandiosity. Asking how Renaissance categorizations of creatures differ so much from modern classifications, and why those modern classifications have shaped so much animal studies work, this book offers significant new readings of Shakespeare’s and other Renaissance texts. It will contribute to a range of fields, including Renaissance literature, history, animal studies, new materialism, and the environmental humanities.
Birds and Other Creatures in Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare, Descartes, and Animal Studies (Perspectives on the Non-Human in Literature and Culture)
by Rebecca Ann BachThis book explores how humans in the Renaissance lived with, attended to, and considered the minds, feelings, and sociality of other creatures. It examines how Renaissance literature and natural history display an unequal creaturely world: all creatures were categorized hierarchically. However, post-Cartesian readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance literature have misunderstood Renaissance hierarchical creaturely relations, including human relations. Using critical animal studies work and new materialist theory, Bach argues that attending closely to creatures and objects in texts by Shakespeare and other writers exposes this unequal world and the use and abuse of creatures, including people. The book also adds significantly to animal studies by showing how central bird sociality and voices were to Renaissance human culture, with many believing that birds were superior to some humans in song, caregiving, and companionship. Bach shows how Descartes, a central figure in the transition to modern ideas about creatures, lived isolated from humans and other creatures and denied ancient knowledge about other creatures’ minds, especially bird minds. As significantly, Bach shows how and why Descartes’ ideas appealed to human grandiosity. Asking how Renaissance categorizations of creatures differ so much from modern classifications, and why those modern classifications have shaped so much animal studies work, this book offers significant new readings of Shakespeare’s and other Renaissance texts. It will contribute to a range of fields, including Renaissance literature, history, animal studies, new materialism, and the environmental humanities.
Birdland (Modern Plays)
by Simon StephensEverything can be quantified. All worth can be quantified. Artistic worth. Human worth. Material worth. Everything. Some food is simply better than other food. Isn't it? Some clothes are better than other clothes. Aren't they?The last week of a massive international tour and rock star Paul is at the height of his fame. Everybody knows his name. Whatever he wants he can have. He can screw anybody he wants to. He can buy anything he desires. He can eat anything. Drink anything. Smoke anything. Go anywhere. As the inevitability of the end of the road looms closer and a return home becomes a reality, for Paul the music is starting to jar.Birdland received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs on 3 April 2014.
Birdland (Modern Plays)
by Simon StephensEverything can be quantified. All worth can be quantified. Artistic worth. Human worth. Material worth. Everything. Some food is simply better than other food. Isn't it? Some clothes are better than other clothes. Aren't they?The last week of a massive international tour and rock star Paul is at the height of his fame. Everybody knows his name. Whatever he wants he can have. He can screw anybody he wants to. He can buy anything he desires. He can eat anything. Drink anything. Smoke anything. Go anywhere. As the inevitability of the end of the road looms closer and a return home becomes a reality, for Paul the music is starting to jar.Birdland received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre Downstairs on 3 April 2014.
Birch Plays: Where the Shot Rabbits Lay; Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall; The Brink; Black Mountain (Contemporary Dramatists)
by Brad BirchBirch Plays: 1 celebrates the work of Welsh writer Brad Birch. Winner of the 2016 Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court Theatre Birch is the writer in residence at Undeb Theatre and is currently on attachment at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. His work has been produced by the Royal Court, Sherman Cymru, Theatre503 and the National Youth Theatre as well as around the world in Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany and Spain.Bringing together plays from throughout his career to date this remarkable collection includes a selection of previously published and unpublished works along with an introduction by the author.Where the Shot Rabbits Lay (Royal Court, 2012) - "There are some lovely grace notes in Brad Birch's intimate father-son tale" (Time Out London)Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall (Soho Theatre, 2013) - "a lovely play of sharp edges, falsehoods and unsaid thoughts, twinning great humour and strong emotion throughout" (WhatsOnStage)The Brink (Orange Tree, 2016) - "short, sharp, shockingly entertaining" (The Guardian)Black Mountain (Paines Plough Roundabout, Edinburgh, 2017) - "This is a real rarity: a psychological thriller that feels psychologically accurate – and it actually thrills too." (Scotsman)
Birch Plays: Where the Shot Rabbits Lay; Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall; The Brink; Black Mountain (Contemporary Dramatists)
by Brad BirchBirch Plays: 1 celebrates the work of Welsh writer Brad Birch. Winner of the 2016 Harold Pinter Commission for the Royal Court Theatre Birch is the writer in residence at Undeb Theatre and is currently on attachment at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. His work has been produced by the Royal Court, Sherman Cymru, Theatre503 and the National Youth Theatre as well as around the world in Russia, the USA, Italy, Germany and Spain.Bringing together plays from throughout his career to date this remarkable collection includes a selection of previously published and unpublished works along with an introduction by the author.Where the Shot Rabbits Lay (Royal Court, 2012) - "There are some lovely grace notes in Brad Birch's intimate father-son tale" (Time Out London)Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall (Soho Theatre, 2013) - "a lovely play of sharp edges, falsehoods and unsaid thoughts, twinning great humour and strong emotion throughout" (WhatsOnStage)The Brink (Orange Tree, 2016) - "short, sharp, shockingly entertaining" (The Guardian)Black Mountain (Paines Plough Roundabout, Edinburgh, 2017) - "This is a real rarity: a psychological thriller that feels psychologically accurate – and it actually thrills too." (Scotsman)
Biographical Theatre: Re-Presenting Real People?
by U. CantonMarilyn Monroe, Vincent van Gogh or the victims of rendition flights – the number and variety of historical and contemporary figures represented on British stages is amazing. This book develops a new theoretical framework for the representation of real life figures on stage and examines different ways in which they can be included in performances.
Billy Wonderful (Modern Plays)
by Nick LeatherA programme text edition published to coincide with the world premiere at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, on 12 March 2009.Billy is in the squad and it's wonderful. He's down the wing and he's flying. He doesn't believe in much, but he believes in this ... in football. As the Blues and the Reds come out to play, it's D-Day for Billy ... Derby Day.But in the scramble for success, can Billy keep his head or will he fall foul of fame and fortune? Nick Leather, one of the North West's most prominent young playwrights, brings us a fast-paced coming of age story pulsing with all the excitement and physicality of Match Day.