The Making of Modern Drama

The Making of Modern Drama
Author: Richard Gilman
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2000-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780300079029

This critical exploration of modern drama begins with Büchner and Ibsen and then discusses the major playwrights who have shaped modern theater. A new introduction by the author assesses developments of recent years.

Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater

Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater
Author: W. B. Worthen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2015-01-30
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0520286871

The history of drama is typically viewed as a series of inert "styles." Tracing British and American stage drama from the 1880s onward, W. B. Worthen instead sees drama as the interplay of text, stage production, and audience. How are audiences manipulated? What makes drama meaningful? Worthen identifies three rhetorical strategies that distinguish an O'Neill play from a Yeats, or these two from a Brecht. Where realistic theater relies on the "natural" qualities of the stage scene, poetic theater uses the poet's word, the text, to control performance. Modern political theater, by contrast, openly places the audience at the center of its rhetorical designs, and the drama of the postwar period is shown to develop a range of post-Brechtian practices that make the audience the subject of the play. Worthen's book deserves the attention of any literary critic or serious theatergoer interested in the relationship between modern drama and the spectator.

A History of Modern Drama, Volume I

A History of Modern Drama, Volume I
Author: David Krasner
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2011-08-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1444343742

Covering the period 1879 to 1959, and taking in everything from Ibsen to Beckett, this book is volume one of a two-part comprehensive examination of the plays, dramatists, and movements that comprise modern world drama. Contains detailed analysis of plays and playwrights, connecting themes and offering original interpretations Includes coverage of non-English works and traditions to create a global view of modern drama Considers the influence of modernism in art, music, literature, architecture, society, and politics on the formation of modern dramatic literature Takes an interpretative and analytical approach to modern dramatic texts rather than focusing on production history Includes coverage of the ways in which staging practices, design concepts, and acting styles informed the construction of the dramas

Modern Drama

Modern Drama
Author: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2016
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0199658773

This book tells the story of modern drama through its seminal, groundbreaking plays and performances, and the artistic diversity that these represent. Exploring the new note of artistic hostility between dramatists and their audience, Shepherd-Barr draws on a range of theories and performances to reveal what makes modern drama 'modern'.

Reading Modern Drama

Reading Modern Drama
Author: Alan Louis Ackerman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781442612815

Exploring the relationship between dramatic language and its theatrical aspects, Reading Modern Drama provides an accessible entry point for general readers and academics into the world of contemporary theatre scholarship. This collection promotes the use of diverse perspectives and critical methods to explore the common theme of language as well as the continued relevance of modern drama in our lives. Reading Modern Drama offers provocative close readings of both canonical and lesser-known plays, from Hedda Gabler to e.e. cummings' Him. Taken together, these essays enter into an ongoing, fruitful debate about the terms 'modern' and 'drama' and build a much-needed bridge between literary studies and performance studies.

Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s

Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s
Author: Katherine E. Kelly
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1134802374

Modern Drama by Women 1880s-1930s offers the first direct evidence that women playwrights helped create the movement known as Modern Drama. It contains twelve plays by women from the Americas, Europe and Asia, spanning a national and stylistic range from Swedish realism to Russian symbolism. Six of these plays are appearing in their first English-language translation. Playwrights include: * Anne-Charlotte Leffler Edgren (Sweden) * Amelai Pincherle Rosselli (Italy) * Elsa Berstein (Germany) * Elizabeth Robins (Britain) * Marie Leneru (France) * Alfonsina Storni (Argentina) * Hella Wuolijoki (Finland) * Hasegawa Shigure (Japan) * Rachilde (France) * Zinaida Gippius (Russia) * Djuna Barnes (USA) * Marita Bonner (USA) This groundbreaking anthology explodes the traditional canon. In these plays, the New Woman represents herself and her crises in all of the styles and genres available to the modern dramatist. Unprecedented in diversity and scope, it is a collection which no scholar, student or lover of modern drama can afford to miss.

Brecht and Company

Brecht and Company
Author: John Fuegi
Publisher: Grove Press
Total Pages: 804
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802139108

The result of twenty-five years of research on three continents, Brecht and Company is a revolutionary portrait of one of the world's greatest theater artists -- and the people upon whom he built his reputation. A noted Brecht scholar, John Fuegi traces the evolution of Brecht's parasitic relationships and aggressive ambition through close analysis of diaries, letters, and drafts of the literary works, revealing a man who was personally dazzling, a genius at assembling and directing the plays created in his workshop, but ultimately lacking in literary stamina, for which he depended on his lovers. A landmark study about the life and times of one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century theater, Brecht and Co. will forever change our understanding of Brecht and his oeuvre. "[An] enormous, fascinating biography." -- The New Yorker "One of the most important critical studies of the century." -- New York Magazine

Modern Armenian Drama

Modern Armenian Drama
Author: Nishan Parlakian
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2001-02-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780231502665

Available in English for the first time, Modern Armenian Drama presents seven classic works from the Armenian stage. Spanning over a century (1871–1992), the plays explore such diverse themes science and religion, socioeconomic injustice, women's emancipation, and political reform through the medium of all the major European dramatic genres. Nishan Parlakian and S. Peter Cowe provide a comprehensive introduction to the history of Armenian drama, giving a valuable overview of its importance and development in Armenia, as well as a brief biography for each playwright. A preface to each play helps in placing the work within the context of historical and cultural issues of the time. Like the plays of Ibsen and O'Neill, the plays presented in this anthology are considered modern classics. They have an enduring quality and appeal to audiences who see them today. The editors have collected translations of the best examples of Armenian theater from its renaissance in the mid-nineteenth century to the present.

The Social Significance of the Modern Drama

The Social Significance of the Modern Drama
Author: Emma Goldman
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2023-10-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

Emma Goldman's 'The Social Significance of the Modern Drama' is a groundbreaking analysis of the role that drama plays in reflecting and shaping society. Published in 1914, amidst a period of significant social and political upheaval, Goldman delves into the works of playwrights such as Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, and August Strindberg to explore how their plays challenge traditional norms and power structures. She argues that the modern drama serves as a powerful tool for social change and liberation, drawing connections between art and political activism. Goldman's writing style is passionate and incisive, drawing on her own experiences as an anarchist and feminist to provide a unique perspective on the cultural landscape of her time. Her insights continue to resonate today, making this book a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of art, politics, and social justice.