Drawing on the experiences and insights of theorists and practitioners from across the world, Learning Through Theatre shows how theatre can, and does, promote:

• participatory engagement;
• the use of innovative theatrical form; 
• work with young people in a range of educational settings; and
• social and personal change.

Now transatlantically edited by Anthony Jackson and Chris Vine, Learning Through Theatre offers exhilarating new reflections on the book’s original aim: to define, describe and debate the salient features, and wider political context, of one of the most important – and radical – developments in contemporary theatre.

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Incredible praise for The Pleasures of the Imagination:

"Pleasures of the Imagination paints a kaleidoscopic picture of eighteenth-century culture that is both erudite and accessible." - Heather Mcpherson, University of Alabama at Birmingham

"Like all really original achievements it makes us sharply rethink things we supposed we knew well, but it does so with humour and humanity, and through the text runs Brewer's remarkable intellect: forceful, lucid and penetrating." - Simon Schama

"The marvel of this book is that in writing in exuberant detail about the past, Brewer succeeds in illuminating the present… This book wears its massive scholarship lightly. I hope some of our new political masters have time to read it, for it is a history that teaches us many lessons." - Peter Hall, The Observer

"Brewer ranges over almost every corner of the English mind with sharp, darting observation… This is a book to treasure as it treasures a past we thought we had lost." - Pat Rogers, Sunday Telegraph

"A model of the new cultural history… It shows how the English came to feel not just strong but civilized too, polite as well as powerful. God's chosen people, of the age of Cromwell, were reinventing themselves as Shakespeare's heirs." - Roy Porter, The Independent

A fascinating piece of historical scholarship awaits you. Click here to learn more!
 

We are offering a 20% discount on Stanislavski titles from Routledge. Just add the discount STA13 to your basket. End date 31/5/2013
 

London Drama's non-residential two day Workshop-Conference: Drama Now! ~ and the Way Ahead 2013 takes place at Goldsmiths College, New Cross in partnership with Goldsmiths Centre for Arts and Learning (CAL).

This Conference is the second one that London Drama has organised and builds on the developments and gains made at the 2012 Conference with workshops covering Classroom Drama Methods, After-School Drama, Personal Skills (Improvisation, Voice). At a time when the arts in education are facing even more challenges, the Conference is designed to inspire and support key teaching practices and is an opportunity to meet fellow practitioners from a range of sectors, and exchange ideas for your future career!

Our aim is to bring together a diverse range of Drama, Theatre and Performing Arts teachers and practitioners, who are currently involved in the field of education, from London and beyond in order to enable links and put you in touch with one another to share current projects and practice.

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In the past decade there has been a proliferation of festivals of Live Art in the UK and growing support for Live Art in major venues. Nevertheless, while specific artists have been afforded critical essays and monographs, there is a relative absence of scholarly work on Live Art as a historically and culturally specific mode of artistic production. Through essays by leading scholars and critical interviews with influential artists in the sector, Critical Live Art addresses the historical and cultural specificity of contemporary experimental performance, and explores the diversity of practices that are carried out, programmed, read or taught as Live Art.

This book is based on a special issue of Contemporary Theatre Review.

Recommend to your librarian!

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Questions of ensemble – what it is, how it works – are both inherent to a variety of Western theatre traditions, and re-emerging and evolving in striking new ways in the twenty-first century. The Contemporary Ensemble draws together an unprecedented range of original interviews with world-renowned theatre-makers in order to directly address both the former and latter concerns.

Reflecting on ‘the ensemble way of working’ within this major new resource are figures including:

Michael Boyd, Hermann Wündrich, Yuri Butusov, Max Stafford-Clark, Elizabeth LeCompte, Lyn Gardner, Adriano Shaplin, Phelim McDermott; and Emma Rice;

representing companies including:

The RSC; The Berliner Ensemble; The Satirikon Theatre; Out of Joint; The Wooster Group; Kneehigh Theatre; Song of the Goat; The Riot Group; The Neo-Futurists; Shadow Casters; and Ontroerend Goed.

All 22 interviews were conducted especially for the collection, and draw upon the author’s rich background working as scholar, educator and dramaturg with a variety of ensembles. The resulting compendium radically re-situates the ensemble in the context of globalisation, higher education and simplistic understandings of ‘text-based’ and ‘devised’ theatre practice, and traces a compelling new line through the contemporary theatre landscape.

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The annual lecture, sponsored by Routledge, provides an opportunity to welcome a major international figure to speak on a subject related to Stanislavski’s work and legacy. Our lecturer this year, Professor Philip Zarrilli. His numerous books include Acting (Re)Considered, When the Body Becomes All Eyes, and Kathakali Dance-Drama: Where Gods and Demons Comes to Play. Psychophysical Acting: an intercultural approach after Stanislavski, Zarrilli’s long-awaited book on the process of training actors through a psychophysical approach based on Asian martial arts and yoga was published in 2009 by Routledge and was selected the ATHE 2010 Outstanding Book of the Year.

His lecture begins by asking, given Stanislavsky’s constant search for ever more dynamic explanatory paradigms and frameworks for understanding the work of the actor in order to ‘live the role’, and his parallel search for how to utilize alternative paradigms in problem-solving specific problems of acting, what paradigms and/or frameworks might he have chosen today to inform his work with actors? This actor-friendly lecture will take us on a journey toward a ‘phenomenology of acting’ for the 21st century that takes account of exciting recent developments that combine post-Merleau-Ponty phenomenology, cognitive science, and enactment theory.

All delegates at the event recive a 20% discount on our performance titles. Use discount code ZARRILLI at www.routledge.com.

Find out more.

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We are hosting a contest to celebrate the skill of prop builders everywhere and the release of Eric Hart's new book, The Prop Building Guidebook: For Theatre, Film, and TV!

Enter the contest to win a prize worth $500!

This book lays the groundwork for an artisan to determine what materials and techniques to use to build these props. Walking the reader through the various tools and techniques used in historical and contemporary prop-making, the author presents a process for deciding the materials and methods to build any prop. With an explanation of how the craft and its products have developed over time, the budding artisan will understand not just how and when to use certain techniques or materials, but also why to use them and what advantages they give.

It arms the prop maker with a structured procedure for approaching the construction of any prop. Illustrated with step-by-step examples of how to use each construction method, and explanations of different types of materials, this book gives the beginner prop artisan a strong foundation to approach the construction of props and answers the question, "How should I begin?"

Enter the contest here.

Find out more about the book here.

 

In this volume, a range of voices address the issue of dance preservation through memory, artistic choice, interpretation, imagery and notation, as well as looking at relevant archives, legal structures, documentation and artefacts. The intertwining of dance preservation and creativity is a core theme discussed throughout this text, pointing to the essential continuity of dance history and dance innovation. The demands of preservation stretch across time, geographies, institutions and interpersonal connections, and this book focuses on the fascinating web that supports the fragile yet urgent effort to sustain our dancing heritage.

Recommend to your libraran.

This volume focuses on the highly debated topic of theatrical translation, one brought on by a renewed interest in the idea of performance and translation as a cooperative effort on the part of the translator, the director, and the actors. Exploring the role and function of the translator as co-subject of the performance, it addresses current issues concerning the role of the translator for the stage, as opposed to the one for the editorial market, within a multifarious cultural context.

Chapters emphasize the idea of dramatic translation as a particular and extremely challenging type of performance, while consistently exploring its various textual, intertextual, intertranslational, contextual, cultural, and intercultural facets. The notion of performance is applied to textual interpretation as performance, interlingual versus intersemiotic performance, and (inter)cultural performance in the adaptation of translated texts for the stage, providing a wide-ranging discussion from an international group of contributors, directors, and translators.

‘One of the great stories of the American theater…, the Workshop not only built an international reputation with its daring choice of plays and nontraditional productions, it also helped launch a movement of regional, or resident, companies that would change forever how Americans thought about and consumed theater.’ – Elin Diamond, from the Introduction

Most of the productions were accompanied by a stunningly concise and often provocative programme note by Blau. These documents now comprise, within their compelling perspective, a critique of the modern theatre. They vividly reveal what these now canonical works could mean, first time round, and in the context of 1950s and 60s American culture, in the shadow of the Cold War.

Programming Theater History curates these notes, with a selection of the Workshop's incrementally artful, alluring programme covers, Blau's recollections, and evocative production photographs, into a narrative of indispensable artefacts and observations. The result is an inspiring testimony by a giant of American performance theory and practice, and a unique reflection of what it is to create theatre history in the present. Order your copy today!
 

The first edition of Acting Power was a groundbreaking work of acting theory which applied sociological and psychological principles to actor training. The book went on to influence a generation of theatre and performance studies students and academics, and was translated into five languages.

This carefully revised 21st Century Edition (re)considers, in the context of today’s field:

• questions such as ‘should actors act from the inside or the outside?’ and ‘should the actor live the role or present the role?’
• contemporary research into communication theory, cybernetics, and cognitive science
• brilliantly illuminating and witty exercises for solo study and classroom use, and a through-line of useful references to classic plays
• penetrating observations about the actor’s art by more than 75 distinguished professional actors and directors.

Cohen’s elegant and rigorous updates emphasise the continuing relevance of his uniquely integrated and life-affirming approach to this field. The new edition draws on his extraordinarily rich career as teacher, scholar, director, translator and dramaturg. It is a recipe for thrilling theatre in any genre.

‘This book, above all else, is an attempt to explore the qualities of acting power…. to suggest to you, the actor, an approach toward not merely good acting but powerful acting. Great actors display the power to frighten – and the power to seduce – and can shift between the one and the other like a violinist can her notes.’
– From the Preface

Order a complimentary exam copy if you teach a related course.

The book explores:

•how to prepare a breakdown
•where to source actors
•how to prepare for a casting session
•how to make casting decisions
•how a cast is put together
•how deals are done
•ethics and the law, with special reference to casting children
•how a casting director contributes to the initial development of the script
•how the casting works from fringe theatre to Hollywood blockbusters
The Casting Handbook considers actors’, producers’, agents’ and directors’ relationship with a casting director, the day to day work that is casting, and how approaching it in a professional and informed manner can make the difference to the final product.

Including interviews with actors, agents, directors, casting directors and producers; case studies; exercises; and a fact file of useful templates and contacts, this book offers a thorough induction into the casting process, suitable for students and early career professionals in any media. Read more or order a copy.