Staging and Stage Décor: Early Modern Spanish Theater

Staging and Stage Décor: Early Modern Spanish Theater
Author: Bárbara Mujica
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2022-06-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1648894356

This is the first book on staging and stage décor to focus specifically on early modern Spanish theater, from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. The introduction provides an overview of Spanish theater design from the 16th century, with particular attention to the corral theater and Lope de Vega. The scope of the book is vast. Some of the articles deal with early modern stagings, while others deal with contemporary productions. The collection contains articles by an international array of specialists on topics such as scenography and costuming, lighting, and performance space. It also broaches little-studied areas such as the use of alternative performance spaces, most notably prisons. The book provides in-depth analyses of particular archetypes - the melancholiac, the queen, the astrologer - and how they were, and are, staged. The focus on performance and performance space, costuming, set design, lighting, and audience seating make this a truly unique volume. This book is designed for students of Spanish literature and theater, researchers interested in theater history and early modern Spain, as well as theater professionals.

Stages of Desire

Stages of Desire
Author: Michael Kidd
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 1999-07-01
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0271040580

Within the rich tradition of Spanish theater lies an unexplored dimension reflecting themes from classical mythology. Through close readings of selected plays from early modern and twentieth-century Spanish literature with plots or characters derived from the Greco-Roman tradition, Michael Kidd shows that the concept of desire plays a pivotal role in adapting myth to the stage in each of several historical periods. In Stages of Desire, Kidd offers a new way of looking at the theater in Spain. Reviewing the work of playwrights from Juan del Encina to Luis Riaza, he suggests that desire constitutes a central element in a large number of Greco-Roman myths and shows how dramatists have exploited this to resituate ancient narratives within their own artistic and ideological horizons. Among the works he analyzes are Timoneda's Tragicomedia llamada Filomena, Castro's Dido y Eneas, and Unamuno's Fedra. Kidd explores how seventeenth-century playwrights were constrained by the conventions of the newly formed national theater, and how in the twentieth century mythological desire was exploited by playwrights engaged in upsetting the melodramatic conventions of the entrenched bourgeois theater. He also examines the role of desire both in the demythification of prominent classical heroes during the Franco regime and in the cultural critique of institutionalized discrimination in the current democratic period. Stages of Desire is an original and broad-ranging study that highlights both change and continuity in Spanish theater. By elegantly combining theory, literary history, and close textual analysis, Kidd demonstrates both the resilience of Greco-Roman myths and the continuing vitality of the Spanish stage.

Divination on stage

Divination on stage
Author: Folke Gernert
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2021-02-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 311073480X

Magicians, necromancers and astrologers are assiduous characters in the European golden age theatre. This book deals with dramatic characters who act as physiognomists or palm readers in the fictional world and analyses the fictionalisation of physiognomic lore as a practice of divination in early modern Romance theatre from Pietro Aretino and Giordano Bruno to Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca and Thomas Corneille.

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama
Author: McGraw-Hill, inc
Publisher: VNR AG
Total Pages: 538
Release: 1984
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780070791695

Ranging from the earliest drama to the theater of the 1980's this encyclopedia includes coverage of national drama and theater around the world, theater companies, and musical comedy. Arrangement of the 1,300 entries is alphabetically by name or subject with nearly 950 of these devoted to individual playwrights and their works.

The Comedia in English

The Comedia in English
Author: Susan Paun De García
Publisher: Tamesis Books
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2008
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9781855661691

"The bringing of Spanish seventeenth-century verse plays to the contemporary English-speaking stage involves a number of fundamental questions. Are verse translations preferable to prose, and if so, what kind of verse? To what degree should translations aim to be 'faithful'? Which kinds of plays 'work', and which do not? Which values and customs of the past present no difficulties for contemporary audiences, and which need to be decoded in performance?Which kinds of staging are suitable, and which are not? To what degree, if any, should one aim for 'authenticity' in staging? In this volume, a group of translators, directors, and scholars explores these and related questions."--Jacket

Rewriting Theatre

Rewriting Theatre
Author: Charles Ganelin
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 1994
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780838752593

The Reception Theory orientation discusses how the recast was received in its time; performance reviews contemporary with the new versions of old plays indicate the controversy elicited between those who believed, on the one hand, that the "classics" should be preserved as they have been handed down, and on the other, that a work of art is never "finished" and is always open to new stagings and interpretations. Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and others have been and continue to be reinterpreted in the light of new literary, social, and political orientations.

Spain

Spain
Author: Andrew Whittaker
Publisher: Thorogood Publishing
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2008
Genre: Film
ISBN: 1854186051

* Provides a deeper, long-term understanding of the nation and its people * Designed to supplement the "usual suspect" guide books A guidebook can show you where to go, a phrasebook what to say when you get there. Only Speak the Culture: Spain will lead you to the nation's soul. Spain boasts a rich and sometimes misunderstood culture, itself infused with the influences of other great and distant civilizations. Spanish life, language and culture in its widest sense is a major force of growing influence. How many outside it understand its origins and significance? Through exploring the people, the movements and the lifestyles that have shaped the Spanish experience, you will come to an intimate understanding of Spain and the Spanish. There are many travel guides and manuals on living in Spain. Speak the Culture: Spain is different: a superbly designed, informed and entertaining insight into Spanish life and culture and who the Spanish really are. For new residents, business travelers, holidaymakers, students and lovers of Spain everywhere, Speak the Culture: Spain is an engaging companion and guide to an enviably rich civilization at the heart of Europe. Excerpt "As you might expect Spain's traditional vernacular architecture isn't easily pigeonholed; regionalism generates marked variation. Available building materials and, more significantly, climate have always dictated how people build their houses or outbuildings. The Spaniards' approach to living arrangements is more easily summed up. They're nothing if not sociable; while northern Europeans anxiously section off their own plot of terra firma, in Spain they seem to enjoy living on top of each other, clustered in apartments and houses around the plaza mayor. It's not like they're short of space either--a population density of around 85 per sq km is one of the lowest in Europe."

Theatre Histories

Theatre Histories
Author: Daphne P. Lei
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 1069
Release: 2024-07-30
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1040046312

This updated fourth edition of Theatre Histories offers a critical overview of global theatre, drama, and performance, spanning a broad wealth of world cultures and periods, integrating them chronologically or thematically, and showing how they have often interacted. Bringing together a group of scholars from a diverse range of backgrounds and approaches to the history of global theater, this introduction to theatre history places theatre into its larger historical contexts and attends to communication’s role in shaping theatre. Its case studies provide deeper knowledge of selected topics in theater and drama, and its “Thinking Through Theatre Histories” boxes discuss important concepts and approaches used in the book. Features of the fully updated fourth edition include: Deeper coverage of East Asian and Latin American theater. Richer treatment of popular culture. More illustrations, photographs, and information about online resources. New case studies, include several written by authoritative scholars on the topic. Pronunciation guidance, both in the text and as audio files online. Timelines. An introduction on historiography. A website with additional case studies, a glossary, recordings of the pronunciation of important non-English terms, and instructor resources. A case studies library listing, including both those in print and online, for greater instructor choice and flexibility. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate courses in theatre history, world theatre and introduction to theatre, and anyone looking for a full and diverse account of the emergence, development, and continuing relevance of theatre to cultures and societies across the world.

Reading for the Stage

Reading for the Stage
Author: Isaac Benabu
Publisher: Tamesis Books
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2003
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781855660885

Approaches to the playtext applied to the works of Calderon and his contemporaries.