A Drama of Reform

A Drama of Reform
Author: Benedict J. Groeschel
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1586171143

ÊA Drama of ReformÊis the story of the new order founded by Fr. Benedict Groeschel and seven other Capuchin friars, and of the first two decades of a reform in religious life begun in 1987. United in the desire to be authentic disciples of Jesus Christ and following in the footsteps of Saint Francis, they want to encourage the army of Christians of all denominations who are discouraged by the erosion of Gospel values in our culture. This inspirational volume combines more thanÊ100 dramatic photosÊfrom the interesting and varied aspects of their daily lives. Along with the wonderful photos, members of the two independent communities of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal provide short essays on their life, which will enable others to experience the earnestness and enthusiasm of this young and fervent group. More than one hundred sisters and friars from a dozen countries have come together with the common desire to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ after the example of Saint Francis and the tradition of the Capuchin reform. Well-known for their work with the poor and homeless in the South Bronx and other deprived areas, these Franciscans communicate a deep sense of the joy and love of those trying to be totally committed to living the Gospel in an increasingly de-Christianized world.

The Drama of Reform

The Drama of Reform
Author: Tamara Atkin
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Christian drama, English
ISBN: 9782503546513

The chapters in this book include: 'Spectacle and Sacrilege: The Croxton'; 'Performance and Polemic'; 'Staging Iconoclasm: Lewis Wager's 'Life and Repentaunce of Mary Magdalene' and Cranmer's Laws Against Images'; and much more.

Resisting Spirits

Resisting Spirits
Author: Maggie Greene
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2019-08-09
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0472054309

Resisting Spirits is a reconsideration of the significance and periodization of literary production in the high socialist era, roughly 1953 through 1966, specifically focused on Mao-era culture workers’ experiments with ghosts and ghost plays. Maggie Greene combines rare manuscript materials—such as theatre troupes’ annotated practice scripts—with archival documents, memoirs, newspapers, and films to track key debates over the direction of socialist aesthetics. Through arguments over the role of ghosts in literature, Greene illuminates the ways in which culture workers were able to make space for aesthetic innovation and contestation both despite and because of the constantly shifting political demands of the Mao era. Ghosts were caught up in the broader discourse of superstition, modernization, and China’s social and cultural future. Yet, as Greene demonstrates, the ramifications of those concerns as manifested in the actual craft of writing and performing plays led to further debates in the realm of literature itself: If we remove the ghost from a ghost play, does it remain a ghost play? Does it lose its artistic value, its didactic value, or both? At the heart of Greene’s intervention is “just reading”: the book regards literature first as literature, rather than searching immediately for its political subtext, and the voices of dramatists themselves finally upstage those of Mao’s inner circle. Ironically, this surface reading reveals layers of history that scholars of the Mao era have often ignored, including the ways in which social relations and artistic commitments continued to inform the world of art. Resisting Spirits thus illuminates the origins of more famous literary inquisitions, showing how the arguments surrounding ghost plays and the fates of their authors place the origins of the Cultural Revolution several years earlier, with a radical new shift in the discourse of theatre.

Spectacles of Reform

Spectacles of Reform
Author: Amy E. Hughes
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2012-12-17
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0472118625

In the nineteenth century, long before film and television brought us explosions, car chases, and narrow escapes, it was America's theaters that thrilled audiences, with “sensation scenes” of speeding trains, burning buildings, and endangered bodies, often in melodramas extolling the virtues of temperance, abolition, and women's suffrage. Amy E. Hughes scrutinizes these peculiar intersections of spectacle and reform, revealing the crucial role that spectacle has played in American activism and how it has remained central to the dramaturgy of reform. Hughes traces the cultural history of three famous sensation scenes—the drunkard with the delirium tremens, the fugitive slave escaping over a river, and the victim tied to the railroad tracks—assessing how these scenes conveyed, allayed, and denied concerns about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. These images also appeared in printed propaganda, suggesting that the coup de théâtre was an essential part of American reform culture. Additionally, Hughes argues that today’s producers and advertisers continue to exploit the affective dynamism of spectacle, reaching an even broader audience through film, television, and the Internet. To be attuned to the dynamics of spectacle, Hughes argues, is to understand how we see. Her book will interest not only theater historians, but also scholars and students of political, literary, and visual culture who are curious about how U.S. citizens saw themselves and their world during a pivotal period in American history.

The Oxford Handbook of American Drama

The Oxford Handbook of American Drama
Author: Jeffrey H. Richards
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 593
Release: 2014-02
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0199731497

This volume explores the history of American drama from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. It describes origins of early republican drama and its evolution during the pre-war and post-war periods. It traces the emergence of different types of American drama including protest plays, reform drama, political drama, experimental drama, urban plays, feminist drama and realist plays. This volume also analyzes the works of some of the most notable American playwrights including Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller and those written by women dramatists.

The Reform of Renewal

The Reform of Renewal
Author: Benedict J. Groeschel
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 206
Release: 1990-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0898702860

ÊThis clear and unequivocal call for personal reform as the basis of authentic renewal in society and in the Church is rooted in several sources. The work of an internationally recognized Biblical scholar (Rudolph Schnackenburg) is woven in with the observations of contemporary social critics as well as behavioral scientists. The author does not spare anyone's feelings in an attempt at a critical and objective analysis of the serious problems of the Catholic Church and "mainstream" religious denominations in America. This book definitively places the onus for reform on the individual Christian striving to follow the Gospel in our materialistic and selfish culture. Because of its roots in Scripture and in the long history of reform in the Church, this book offers the reader a well-founded hope that the first signs of real renewal in the Church are beginning to appear. Includes index.

Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform

Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform
Author: Xiaomei Chen
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-03-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 047207475X

The profound political, economic, and social changes in China in the second half of the twentieth century have produced a wealth of scholarship; less studied however is how cultural events, and theater reforms in particular, contributed to the dynamic landscape of contemporary Chinese society. Rethinking Chinese Socialist Theaters of Reform fills this gap by investigating the theories and practice of socialist theater and their effects on a diverse range of genres, including Western-style spoken drama, Chinese folk opera, dance drama, Shanghai opera, Beijing opera, and rural theater. Focusing on the 1950s and ’60s, when theater art occupied a prominent political and cultural role in Maoist China, this book examines the efforts to remake theater in a socialist image. It explores the unique dynamics between official discourse, local politics, performance practice, and audience reception that emerged under the pressures of highly politicized cultural reform as well as the off-stage, lived impact of rapid policy change on individuals and troupes obscured by the public record. This multidisciplinary collection by leading scholars covers a wide range of perspectives, geographical locations, specific research methods, genres of performance, and individual knowledge and experience. The richly diverse approach leads readers through a nuanced and complex cultural landscape as it contributes significantly to our understanding of a crucial period in the development of modern Chinese theater and performance.

Reform of the Reform?

Reform of the Reform?
Author: Thomas Kocik
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2010-01-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1681495406

Disturbed by the direction in which the post Vatican II liturgical reforms have moved, two fictitious representatives of mutually antagonistic movements debate the remedy for "correct" liturgical reform. This unique work presents a debate between a "traditionalist" who argues for a return to the pre-Vatican II liturgy, and a reformist (no liberal himself) who advocates a new liturgical reform more in keeping with what the Council fathers had in mind. They bring to the debate the insights of renowned authorities on the liturgy, including Cardinal Ratzinger, Msgr. Klaus Gamber, Michael Davies, Fr. Brian Harrison and Fr. Aidan Nichols. This book is written for anyone interested in the Church's liturgy, and the controversies surrounding the liturgical renewal. It is both a primer for those who lack the theological and liturgical expertise to articulate their dissatisfaction with the state of the liturgy, and an excellent resource for those specialists who would appreciate having a single volume for consulting salient points from numerous authorities.

Mainstream Culture Refocused

Mainstream Culture Refocused
Author: Xueping Zhong
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2010-07-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0824860667

Serialized television drama (dianshiju), perhaps the most popular and influential cultural form in China over the past three decades, offers a wide and penetrating look at the tensions and contradictions of the post-revolutionary and pro-market period. Zhong Xueping’s timely new work draws attention to the multiple cultural and historical legacies that coexist and challenge each other within this dominant form of story telling. Although scholars tend to focus their attention on elite cultural trends and avant garde movements in literature and film, Zhong argues for recognizing the complexity of dianshiju’s melodramatic mode and its various subgenres, in effect "refocusing" mainstream Chinese culture. Mainstream Culture Refocused opens with an examination of television as a narrative motif in three contemporary Chinese art-house films. Zhong then turns her attention to dianshiju’s most important subgenres. "Emperor dramas" highlight the link between popular culture’s obsession with emperors and modern Chinese intellectuals’ preoccupation with issues of history and tradition and how they relate to modernity. In her exploration of the "anti-corruption" subgenre, Zhong considers three representative dramas, exploring their diverse plots and emphases. "Youth dramas’" rich array of representations reveal the numerous social, economic, cultural, and ideological issues surrounding the notion of youth and its changing meanings. The chapter on the "family-marriage" subgenre analyzes the ways in which women’s emotions are represented in relation to their desire for "happiness." Song lyrics from music composed for television dramas are considered as "popular poetics." Their sentiments range between nostalgia and uncertainty, mirroring the social contradictions of the reform era. The Epilogue returns to the relationship between intellectuals and the production of mainstream cultural meaning in the context of China’s post-revolutionary social, economic, and cultural transformation. Provocative and insightful, Mainstream Culture Refocused will appeal to scholars and students in studies of modern China generally and of contemporary Chinese media and popular culture specifically.