The Ecologies of Amateur Theatre

The Ecologies of Amateur Theatre

Author: Helen Nicholson

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-10-26

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1137508108

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This book is the first major study of amateur theatre, offering new perspectives on its place in the cultural and social life of communities. Historically informed, it traces how amateur theatre has impacted national repertoires, contributed to diverse creative economies, and responded to changing patterns of labour. Based on extensive archival and ethnographic research, it traces the importance of amateur theatre to crafting places and the ways in which it sustains the creativity of amateur theatre over a lifetime. It asks: how does amateur theatre-making contribute to the twenty-first century amateur turn?


Book Synopsis The Ecologies of Amateur Theatre by : Helen Nicholson

Download or read book The Ecologies of Amateur Theatre written by Helen Nicholson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first major study of amateur theatre, offering new perspectives on its place in the cultural and social life of communities. Historically informed, it traces how amateur theatre has impacted national repertoires, contributed to diverse creative economies, and responded to changing patterns of labour. Based on extensive archival and ethnographic research, it traces the importance of amateur theatre to crafting places and the ways in which it sustains the creativity of amateur theatre over a lifetime. It asks: how does amateur theatre-making contribute to the twenty-first century amateur turn?


Ecologies of Theater

Ecologies of Theater

Author: Bonnie Marranca

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13:

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"I have always wondered what Gertrude Stein meant when she called a play a landscape. The marvel of her image revealed itself decade by decade as I discovered how essential landscape, field, and geography are in the conceptual vocabulary of American performance, and the extent to which the idea of nature (or the real) was transposed into a description of performance space by avant-garde artists. That this space would also be a spiritual space accounts for the emphasis on mind and perception in American performance whose subject has always been vision, or revelation."--from the Introduction How do geography and climate influence a work? How is narrative embedded in landscape? What is the ecology of an image? In Ecologies of Theater, Bonnie Marranca elaborates a new perspective on performance that links ecology and aesthetics. She writes of dramaturgy as an ecology in the work of Robert Wilson, and the mus/ecology of John Cage; the autobiology of Rachel Rosenthal and spiritual style of Maria Irene Fornes and Meredith Monk; and the landscape histories of Heiner Mller and Isak Dinesen. In more than two dozen essays, Marranca considers theater history and the modernist heritage in the context of landscape, culture, and art.


Book Synopsis Ecologies of Theater by : Bonnie Marranca

Download or read book Ecologies of Theater written by Bonnie Marranca and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I have always wondered what Gertrude Stein meant when she called a play a landscape. The marvel of her image revealed itself decade by decade as I discovered how essential landscape, field, and geography are in the conceptual vocabulary of American performance, and the extent to which the idea of nature (or the real) was transposed into a description of performance space by avant-garde artists. That this space would also be a spiritual space accounts for the emphasis on mind and perception in American performance whose subject has always been vision, or revelation."--from the Introduction How do geography and climate influence a work? How is narrative embedded in landscape? What is the ecology of an image? In Ecologies of Theater, Bonnie Marranca elaborates a new perspective on performance that links ecology and aesthetics. She writes of dramaturgy as an ecology in the work of Robert Wilson, and the mus/ecology of John Cage; the autobiology of Rachel Rosenthal and spiritual style of Maria Irene Fornes and Meredith Monk; and the landscape histories of Heiner Mller and Isak Dinesen. In more than two dozen essays, Marranca considers theater history and the modernist heritage in the context of landscape, culture, and art.


English Theatre and Social Abjection

English Theatre and Social Abjection

Author: Nadine Holdsworth

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-08-18

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1137597771

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Focusing on contemporary English theatre, this book asks a series of questions: How has theatre contributed to understandings of the North-South divide? What have theatrical treatments of riots offered to wider debates about their causes and consequences? Has theatre been able to intervene in the social unease around Gypsy and Traveller communities? How has theatre challenged white privilege and the persistent denigration of black citizens? In approaching these questions, this book argues that the nation is blighted by a number of internal rifts that pit people against each other in ways that cast particular groups as threats to the nation, as unruly or demeaned citizens – as ‘social abjects’. It interrogates how those divisions are generated and circulated in public discourse and how theatre offers up counter-hegemonic and resistant practices that question and challenge negative stigmatization, but also how theatre can contribute to the recirculation of problematic cultural imaginaries.


Book Synopsis English Theatre and Social Abjection by : Nadine Holdsworth

Download or read book English Theatre and Social Abjection written by Nadine Holdsworth and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on contemporary English theatre, this book asks a series of questions: How has theatre contributed to understandings of the North-South divide? What have theatrical treatments of riots offered to wider debates about their causes and consequences? Has theatre been able to intervene in the social unease around Gypsy and Traveller communities? How has theatre challenged white privilege and the persistent denigration of black citizens? In approaching these questions, this book argues that the nation is blighted by a number of internal rifts that pit people against each other in ways that cast particular groups as threats to the nation, as unruly or demeaned citizens – as ‘social abjects’. It interrogates how those divisions are generated and circulated in public discourse and how theatre offers up counter-hegemonic and resistant practices that question and challenge negative stigmatization, but also how theatre can contribute to the recirculation of problematic cultural imaginaries.


Greek Tragedy, Education, and Theatre Practices in the UK Classics Ecology

Greek Tragedy, Education, and Theatre Practices in the UK Classics Ecology

Author: David Bullen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-06-12

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 1040095267

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Through a series of case studies, this book explores the interrelations among Greek tragedy, theatre practices, and education in the United Kingdom. This is situated within what the volume proposes as ‘the Classics ecology’. The term ‘ecology’, frequently used in Theatre Studies, understands Classics as a field of cultural production dependent on shared knowledge circulated via formal and informal networks, which operate on the basis of mutually beneficial exchange. Productions of Greek tragedy may be influenced by members of the team studying Classics subjects at school or university, or reading popular works of Classical scholarship, or else by working with an academic consultant. All of these have some degree of connection to academic Classics, albeit filtered through different lenses, creating a network of mutual influence and benefit (the ecology). In this way, theatrical productions of Greek drama may, in the long term, influence Classics as an academic discipline, and certainly contribute to attesting to the relevance of Classics in the modern world. The chapters in this volume include contributions by both theatre makers and academics, whose backgrounds vary between Theatre Studies and Classics. They comprise a variety of case studies and approaches, exploring the dissemination of knowledge about the ancient world through projects that engage with Greek tragedy, theories and practices of theatre making through the chorus, and practical relationships between scholars and theatre makers. By understanding the staging of Greek tragedy in the United Kingdom today as being part of the Classics ecology, the book examines practices and processes as key areas in which the value of engaging with the ancient past is (re)negotiated. This book is primarily suitable for students and scholars working in Classical Reception and Theatre Studies who are interested in the reception history of Greek tragedy and the intersection of the two fields. It is also of use to more general Classics and Theatre Studies audiences, especially those engaged with current debates around ‘saving Classics’ and those interested in a structural, systemic approach to the intersection between theatre, culture, and class.


Book Synopsis Greek Tragedy, Education, and Theatre Practices in the UK Classics Ecology by : David Bullen

Download or read book Greek Tragedy, Education, and Theatre Practices in the UK Classics Ecology written by David Bullen and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-12 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a series of case studies, this book explores the interrelations among Greek tragedy, theatre practices, and education in the United Kingdom. This is situated within what the volume proposes as ‘the Classics ecology’. The term ‘ecology’, frequently used in Theatre Studies, understands Classics as a field of cultural production dependent on shared knowledge circulated via formal and informal networks, which operate on the basis of mutually beneficial exchange. Productions of Greek tragedy may be influenced by members of the team studying Classics subjects at school or university, or reading popular works of Classical scholarship, or else by working with an academic consultant. All of these have some degree of connection to academic Classics, albeit filtered through different lenses, creating a network of mutual influence and benefit (the ecology). In this way, theatrical productions of Greek drama may, in the long term, influence Classics as an academic discipline, and certainly contribute to attesting to the relevance of Classics in the modern world. The chapters in this volume include contributions by both theatre makers and academics, whose backgrounds vary between Theatre Studies and Classics. They comprise a variety of case studies and approaches, exploring the dissemination of knowledge about the ancient world through projects that engage with Greek tragedy, theories and practices of theatre making through the chorus, and practical relationships between scholars and theatre makers. By understanding the staging of Greek tragedy in the United Kingdom today as being part of the Classics ecology, the book examines practices and processes as key areas in which the value of engaging with the ancient past is (re)negotiated. This book is primarily suitable for students and scholars working in Classical Reception and Theatre Studies who are interested in the reception history of Greek tragedy and the intersection of the two fields. It is also of use to more general Classics and Theatre Studies audiences, especially those engaged with current debates around ‘saving Classics’ and those interested in a structural, systemic approach to the intersection between theatre, culture, and class.


Ecodramaturgies

Ecodramaturgies

Author: Lisa Woynarski

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-11-25

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 3030558533

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This book addresses theatre’s contribution to the way we think about ecology, our relationship to the environment, and what it means to be human in the context of climate change. It offers a detailed study of the ways in which contemporary performance has critiqued and re-imagined everyday ecological relationships, in more just and equitable ways. The broad spectrum of ecologically-oriented theatre and performance included here, largely from the UK, US, Canada, Europe, and Mexico, have problematised, reframed, and upended the pervasive and reductive images of climate change that tend to dominate the ecological imagination. Taking an inclusive approach this book foregrounds marginalised perspectives and the multiple social and political forces that shape climate change and related ecological crises, framing understandings of the earth as home. Recent works by Fevered Sleep, Rimini Protokoll, Violeta Luna, Deke Weaver, Metis Arts, Lucy + Jorge Orta, as well as Indigenous activist movements such as NoDAPL and Idle No More, are described in detail.


Book Synopsis Ecodramaturgies by : Lisa Woynarski

Download or read book Ecodramaturgies written by Lisa Woynarski and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses theatre’s contribution to the way we think about ecology, our relationship to the environment, and what it means to be human in the context of climate change. It offers a detailed study of the ways in which contemporary performance has critiqued and re-imagined everyday ecological relationships, in more just and equitable ways. The broad spectrum of ecologically-oriented theatre and performance included here, largely from the UK, US, Canada, Europe, and Mexico, have problematised, reframed, and upended the pervasive and reductive images of climate change that tend to dominate the ecological imagination. Taking an inclusive approach this book foregrounds marginalised perspectives and the multiple social and political forces that shape climate change and related ecological crises, framing understandings of the earth as home. Recent works by Fevered Sleep, Rimini Protokoll, Violeta Luna, Deke Weaver, Metis Arts, Lucy + Jorge Orta, as well as Indigenous activist movements such as NoDAPL and Idle No More, are described in detail.


Women’s Amateur Theatre in Rural Britain, 1919–1945

Women’s Amateur Theatre in Rural Britain, 1919–1945

Author: Bonnie White

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-30

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1000997952

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Women’s Amateur Theatre in Rural Britain is the first book-length study of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes’ amateur drama groups, which served as an umbrella organisation for women’s amateur drama. This work addresses a key historical gap by covering the activities, lives, and labour of women in rural England, Wales, and Scotland. It challenges gender-based assumptions about the value of women’s amateur theatre, highlighting the need for leisure opportunities and social connections in rural villages. The rapid expansion of women’s amateur drama groups is assessed in conjunction with major developments of the period, including the effect of post-1918 reconstruction efforts in rural regions, the revaluation of informal adult education schemes, the law’s influences and restrictions on amateur performances, and the impact of the Second World War on the ability of the Women’s Institutes to carve out a space for all-women’s drama groups that empowered women through education and skill-building programmes to aid in personal and community development. The broad scope of this research will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars, and non-specialists interested in cultural history and the lives of rural women after the First World War.


Book Synopsis Women’s Amateur Theatre in Rural Britain, 1919–1945 by : Bonnie White

Download or read book Women’s Amateur Theatre in Rural Britain, 1919–1945 written by Bonnie White and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women’s Amateur Theatre in Rural Britain is the first book-length study of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes’ amateur drama groups, which served as an umbrella organisation for women’s amateur drama. This work addresses a key historical gap by covering the activities, lives, and labour of women in rural England, Wales, and Scotland. It challenges gender-based assumptions about the value of women’s amateur theatre, highlighting the need for leisure opportunities and social connections in rural villages. The rapid expansion of women’s amateur drama groups is assessed in conjunction with major developments of the period, including the effect of post-1918 reconstruction efforts in rural regions, the revaluation of informal adult education schemes, the law’s influences and restrictions on amateur performances, and the impact of the Second World War on the ability of the Women’s Institutes to carve out a space for all-women’s drama groups that empowered women through education and skill-building programmes to aid in personal and community development. The broad scope of this research will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars, and non-specialists interested in cultural history and the lives of rural women after the First World War.


Theatre Ecology

Theatre Ecology

Author: Baz Kershaw

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-12-13

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 0521877164

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A study into the relationships between performance, theatre and environmental ecology.


Book Synopsis Theatre Ecology by : Baz Kershaw

Download or read book Theatre Ecology written by Baz Kershaw and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-12-13 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study into the relationships between performance, theatre and environmental ecology.


Redefining Theatre Communities

Redefining Theatre Communities

Author: Szabolcs Musca

Publisher: Intellect (UK)

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781789380767

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Redefining Theatre Communities explores the interplay between contemporary theatre and communities. It considers the aesthetic, social and cultural aspects of community-conscious theatre-making. It also reflects on transformations in structural, textual and theatrical conventions, and explores changing modes of production and spectatorship.


Book Synopsis Redefining Theatre Communities by : Szabolcs Musca

Download or read book Redefining Theatre Communities written by Szabolcs Musca and published by Intellect (UK). This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Redefining Theatre Communities explores the interplay between contemporary theatre and communities. It considers the aesthetic, social and cultural aspects of community-conscious theatre-making. It also reflects on transformations in structural, textual and theatrical conventions, and explores changing modes of production and spectatorship.


Theatre with a Purpose

Theatre with a Purpose

Author: Don Watson

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-12-28

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1350232068

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This study of British amateur theatre in the inter-war period examines five different but interwoven examples of the belief, common in theatrical and educational circles at the time, that amateur drama had a purpose beyond recreation. Amateur theatre was at the height of its popularity as a cultural practice between the wars, so that by 1939 more British people had practical experience of putting on plays than at any time before or since. Providing an original account of the use of drama in adult education projects in deprived areas, and of amateur theatre in government-funded centres for the unemployed in the 1930s, it discusses repertoires, participation by working- class people and pioneering techniques of play-making. Amateur drama festivals and competitions were intended to raise standards and educate audiences. This book assesses their effect on play-making, and the use of innovative one-act plays to express contentious material, as well as looking at the Left Book Club Theatre Guild as an attempt to align the amateur theatre movement with anti-fascist and anti-war movements. A chapter on the Second World War rectifies the neglect of amateur theatre in war-time cultural studies, arguing that it was present and important in every aspect of war-time life. Don Watson builds on current scholarship and makes use of archival sources, local newspapers, unpublished scripts and the records of organizations not usually associated with the theatre. His work explores the range and diversity of amateur drama between the wars and the contributions it made to British theatre.


Book Synopsis Theatre with a Purpose by : Don Watson

Download or read book Theatre with a Purpose written by Don Watson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-12-28 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of British amateur theatre in the inter-war period examines five different but interwoven examples of the belief, common in theatrical and educational circles at the time, that amateur drama had a purpose beyond recreation. Amateur theatre was at the height of its popularity as a cultural practice between the wars, so that by 1939 more British people had practical experience of putting on plays than at any time before or since. Providing an original account of the use of drama in adult education projects in deprived areas, and of amateur theatre in government-funded centres for the unemployed in the 1930s, it discusses repertoires, participation by working- class people and pioneering techniques of play-making. Amateur drama festivals and competitions were intended to raise standards and educate audiences. This book assesses their effect on play-making, and the use of innovative one-act plays to express contentious material, as well as looking at the Left Book Club Theatre Guild as an attempt to align the amateur theatre movement with anti-fascist and anti-war movements. A chapter on the Second World War rectifies the neglect of amateur theatre in war-time cultural studies, arguing that it was present and important in every aspect of war-time life. Don Watson builds on current scholarship and makes use of archival sources, local newspapers, unpublished scripts and the records of organizations not usually associated with the theatre. His work explores the range and diversity of amateur drama between the wars and the contributions it made to British theatre.


Black Theater, City Life

Black Theater, City Life

Author: Macelle Mahala

Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Published: 2022-08-15

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 0810145162

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Macelle Mahala’s rich study of contemporary African American theater institutions reveals how they reflect and shape the histories and cultural realities of their cities. Arguing that the community in which a play is staged is as important to the work’s meaning as the script or set, Mahala focuses on four cities’ “arts ecologies” to shed new light on the unique relationship between performance and place: Cleveland, home to the oldest continuously operating Black theater in the country; Pittsburgh, birthplace of the legendary playwright August Wilson; San Francisco, a metropolis currently experiencing displacement of its Black population; and Atlanta, a city with forty years of progressive Black leadership and reverse migration. Black Theater, City Life looks at Karamu House Theatre, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Theatre Company, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the African American Shakespeare Company, the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, and Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company to demonstrate how each organization articulates the cultural specificities, sociopolitical realities, and histories of African Americans. These companies have faced challenges that mirror the larger racial and economic disparities in arts funding and social practice in America, while their achievements exemplify such institutions’ vital role in enacting an artistic practice that reflects the cultural backgrounds of their local communities. Timely, significant, and deeply researched, this book spotlights the artistic and civic import of Black theaters in American cities.


Book Synopsis Black Theater, City Life by : Macelle Mahala

Download or read book Black Theater, City Life written by Macelle Mahala and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2022-08-15 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Macelle Mahala’s rich study of contemporary African American theater institutions reveals how they reflect and shape the histories and cultural realities of their cities. Arguing that the community in which a play is staged is as important to the work’s meaning as the script or set, Mahala focuses on four cities’ “arts ecologies” to shed new light on the unique relationship between performance and place: Cleveland, home to the oldest continuously operating Black theater in the country; Pittsburgh, birthplace of the legendary playwright August Wilson; San Francisco, a metropolis currently experiencing displacement of its Black population; and Atlanta, a city with forty years of progressive Black leadership and reverse migration. Black Theater, City Life looks at Karamu House Theatre, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh Playwrights’ Theatre Company, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the African American Shakespeare Company, the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, and Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company to demonstrate how each organization articulates the cultural specificities, sociopolitical realities, and histories of African Americans. These companies have faced challenges that mirror the larger racial and economic disparities in arts funding and social practice in America, while their achievements exemplify such institutions’ vital role in enacting an artistic practice that reflects the cultural backgrounds of their local communities. Timely, significant, and deeply researched, this book spotlights the artistic and civic import of Black theaters in American cities.