Devising Theatre with Stan’s Cafe

Devising Theatre with Stan’s Cafe
Author: Mark Crossley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2017-10-19
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1474267068

Since it was founded in 1991, British theatre company Stan's Cafe has garnered an international reputation for artistic innovation, and prolific, eclectic performance projects. Their work has toured nationally and internationally, with 2003's Of All The People In All The World having been performed in over fifty cities around the world. Embracing site-specific, immersive, durational, non-text-based as well as scripted work, Stan's Cafe's portfolio defies simple categorization. Running through all their work however is a collaborative devising process that champions a playful experimentation with form. Devising Theatre with Stan's Cafe reveals and reflects on their theatre-making process, providing an illuminating and accessible account of their work and the approaches, techniques and philosophies which underpin and inspire it. Co-authored by artistic director James Yarker and Dr Mark Crossley, the book is places their work within wider context of contemporary theatre and is the perfect companion to anyone looking to make their own original theatre or performance work. For theatre students, fans and theatre-makers, Devising Theatre with Stan's Cafe is an inspiring account and practical guide to contemporary performance practice.

Adrian Lester and Lolita Chakrabarti: A Working Diary

Adrian Lester and Lolita Chakrabarti: A Working Diary
Author: Adrian Lester
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2020-07-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1350092797

“An exhilarating, fascinating and eye-opening journey with two of our most inspirational creatives. A must-read for anyone interested in the crafts of acting and writing or considering a career as a self-employed artist. Lolita and Adrian don't shy away from documenting the reality of our profession – the endless multi-tasking, the long unpaid hours, and the peaks and troughs of generating your own work and being a creative-for-hire. Equally though they celebrate the joy and satisfaction when all that sweat and risk finally pays off.” Meera Syal CBE In this insightful joint working diary, the creative powerhouse of a couple, Lolita Chakrabarti and Adrian Lester, chronicle 16 months of their fascinating working lives, including their experiences working on the stage adaptation of Life of Pi, an original series of monologues about the NHS, the film adaptation of Red Velvet and the TV series The Rook, among many other projects. As readers, we experience, first-hand, their experiences as two of the most proactive and versatile theatre makers today, working across a range of media and exciting collaborations.

A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre

A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre
Author: Jess Thorpe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2019-09-19
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 135002595X

Winner of the 2021 Music & Drama Education Award for Outstanding Drama Education Resource Much of the theatre we make starts with a script and a story given to us by someone else. But what happens when we're required to start from scratch? How do we begin to make theatre using our own ideas, our own perspective, our own stories? A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre, written by the artistic directors of the award-winning young people's performance company Junction 25 and is aimed at those new to devising or wanting to further develop their skills. It explores creative ways to create original theatre from a contemporary stimulus. It offers a structure within which to approach the creative process, including ideas on finding a starting point, generating material, composition and design; it offers practical ideas for use in rehearsal; and it presents grounding in terminology that will support a confident and informed approach to production. The book features contributions from some of the young performers who have been a part of Junction 25's work to date, as well as key artists and companies that work professionally in devised theatre, including case studies from Quarantine, the Team, Mammalian Diving Reflex, Nic Green and Ontroerend Goed. The work of Junction 25 is used to illustrate the concepts and ideas set out in the book. Ideal for any student faced with the challenge of creating work from scratch, A Beginner's Guide to Devising Theatre offers constructive guidance, which supports the requirements of students taking Drama and Theatre Studies courses. The book includes a foreword by theatre critic Lyn Gardner.

Theatre in the Dark

Theatre in the Dark
Author: Adam Alston
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2017-08-10
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1474251196

Theatre in the Dark: Shadow, Gloom and Blackout in Contemporary Theatre responds to a rising tide of experimentation in theatre practice that eliminates or obscures light. It brings together leading and emerging practitioners and researchers in a volume dedicated to exploring the phenomenon and showcasing a range of possible critical and theoretical approaches. This book considers the aesthetics and phenomenology of dark, gloomy and shadow-strewn theatre performances, as well as the historical and cultural significances of darkness, shadow and the night in theatre and performance contexts. It is concerned as much with the experiences elicited by darkness and obscured or diminished lighting as it is with the conditions that define, frame and at times re-shape what each might 'mean' and 'do'. Contributors provide surveys of relevant practice, interviews with practitioners, theoretical reflections and close critical analyses of work by key innovators in the aesthetics of light, shadow and darkness. The book has a particular focus on the work of contemporary theatre makers – including Sound&Fury, David Rosenberg and Glen Neath, Lundahl & Seitl, Extant, and Analogue – and seeks to deepen the engagement of theatre and performance studies with what might be called 'the sensory turn'. Theatre in the Dark explores ground-breaking areas that will appeal to researchers, practitioners and audiences alike.

Heiner Müller's Democratic Theater

Heiner Müller's Democratic Theater
Author: Michael Wood
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2017
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1571139982

Analyzes not just Müller's texts but also the theatrical events that emerged from them, showing that from the beginning of his career Müller tried to create democracy both within and outside the theater.

Top Girls

Top Girls
Author: Caryl Churchill
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2018-02-22
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1350028592

Marlene thinks the eighties are going to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just frightened. Since its premiere in 1982, Top Girls has become a seminal play of the modern theatre. Set during a period of British politics dominated by the presence of the newly elected Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill's play prompts us to question our notions of women's success and solidarity. Its sharp look at the society and politics of the 1980s is combined with a timeless examination of women's choices and restrictions regarding career and family. This new Student Edition features an introduction by Sophie Bush, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, UK prepared with the contemporary student in mind. METHUEN DRAMA STUDENT EDITIONS are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. A well as the complete text of the play itself, this volume contains: · A chronology of the play and the playwright's life and work · an introductory discussion of the social, political, cultural and economic context in which the play was originally conceived and created · a succinct overview of the creation processes followed and subsequent performance history of the piece · an analysis of, and commentary on, some of the major themes and specific issues addressed by the text · a bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study.

DNA

DNA
Author: Dennis Kelly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2021-05-20
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1350188069

This new Student Edition of Dennis Kelly's popular play DNA contains introductory commentary and notes by Clare Finburgh Delijani, which gives an in-depth analysis of the play's context and themes. As well as the complete text of the play, this new Methuen Drama Student Edition includes: · An introduction to the playwright and social context of the play · Discussion of the context, themes, characters and dramatic form · Overview of staging and performance history of the play · Bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study. Dennis Kelly's play DNA centres on friendship, morality and responsibility in odd circumstances. When a group of young friends are faced with a terrible accident, they deliberately make the wrong choices to cover it up and find themselves in an unusually binding friendship where no one will own up to what they've done.