First published in 1981, Michael Patterson's was the first book in any language to be devoted to the work of Germany's leading theatre director. Peter Stein's thoughtful and critical approach to a variety of dramatic texts - from Irish comedy to German classics, where his reputation largely rests - has resulted in a range of different acting and formal styles and some major textual adaptations. The rehearsing, performance and reception of these are thoroughly and vividly recreated here from interviews and archives and in the first-hand account of the workings of the theatre Stein made his own, the Schaubühne in West Berlin. Patterson discusses the apparent contradictions between the Schaubühne's original ideals as a model of socialist theatre and its present situation as one of the most highly subsidizes stages in Western Europe. Many productions are illustrated by photographs and imaginative reconstructions of particular scenes.

`It is a pleasure to read. Well-written, free of cant, impressively wide-ranging. The book is really an introduction to the avant-garde.' - John Lahr

This historical and critical survey of German drama in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries provides an introduction to major authors and works from Lessing, through Goethe, Schiller and Weimar Classicism, to Kleist, Grillparzer and Hebbel. F.J. Lamport traces the rise and development in the German-speaking world of the last form of "classical" poetic drama to appear in European literature. This development is seen as reflecting the intellectual and political ferment both within Germany and throughout Europe.

In Embodied Memory, Anat Feinberg offers the first English-language study of the controversial dramatist George Tabori. A Jewish-Hungarian playwright and novelist, Tabori is a unique figure in postwar German theatre -- one of the few theatre people since Bertolt Brecht to embody "the ideal union" of playwright, director, theatre manager, and actor. Revered as a "theatre guru, " Tabori's career, first in the United States and later in Germany, is fraught with controversy.

This book explores the notion that the emergent language of contemporary theatre, and more generally of modern culture, has links to much earlier forms of storytelling and an ancient worldview. This volume looks at our diverse and amalgamative theatrical inheritance and discusses various practitioners and companies whose work reflects and recapitulates ideas, approaches, and structures original to theatre’s ritual roots. Drawing together a range of topics and examples from the early Middle Ages to the modern day, Chadwick focuses in on a theatrical language which includes an emphasis on the psychosomatic, the non-linear, the symbolic, the liminal, the collective, and the sacred. This interdisciplinary work draws on approaches from the fields of anthropology, philosophy, historical and cognitive phenomenology, and neuroscience, making the case for the significance of historically responsive modes in theatre practice and more widely in our society and culture. Eleanor

The development of epic theater before, during, and after Brecht's time, and analysis of epic productions, showing the form's continued relevance.

Henrik Ibsen, the 'Father of Modern Drama', came from a seemingly inauspicious background. What are the key contexts for understanding his appearance on the world stage? This collection provides thirty contributions from leading scholars in theatre studies, literary studies, book history, philosophy, music, and history, offering a rich interdisciplinary understanding of Ibsen's work, with chapters ranging across cultural and aesthetic contexts including feminism, scientific discovery, genre, publishing, music, and the visual arts. The book ends by charting Ibsen's ongoing globalization and gives valuable overviews of major trends within Ibsen studies. Accessibly written, while drawing on the most recent scholarship, Ibsen in Context provides unique access to Ibsen the man, his works, and their afterlives across the world.

Albee in the theatre -- Casting practices and director's preparation -- The American dream -- The zoo story -- Fam and Yam and The sandbox -- Box and quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung -- Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? -- Marriage play -- Three tall women -- Albee's double authoring -- Albee and his collaborators on staging Albee : from The zoo story to The goat, or, Who is Sylvia?

This Introduction is an exciting journey through the different styles of theatre that twentieth-century and contemporary directors have created. It discusses artistic and political values, rehearsal methods and the diverging relationships with actors, designers, other collaborators and audiences, and treatment of dramatic material. Offering a compelling analysis of theatrical practice, Christopher Innes and Maria Shevtsova explore the different rehearsal and staging principles and methods of such earlier groundbreaking figures as Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Brecht, revising standard perspectives on their work. The authors analyse, as well, a diverse range of innovative contemporary directors, including Ariane Mnouchkine, Elizabeth LeCompte, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, Thomas Ostermeier and Oskaras Koršunovas, among many others. While tracing the different roots of directorial practices across time and space, and discussing their artistic, cultural and political significance, the authors provide key examples of the major directorial approaches and reveal comprehensive patterns in the craft of directing and the influence and collaborative relationships of directors.