This collection of essays examines early modern drama in the context of book history, and focuses on the readership of plays that opens different perspectives on the relationship between the cultures of print and performance.

Shakespeare's plays have been adapted or rewritten in various, often surprising, ways since the seventeenth century. This groundbreaking anthology brings together twelve theatrical adaptations of Shakespeares work from around the world and across the centuries. The plays include The Woman's Prize or the Tamer Tamed John Fletcher The History of King Lear Nahum Tate King Stephen: A Fragment of a Tragedy John Keats The Public (El P(blico) Federico Garcia Lorca The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Bertolt Brecht uMabatha Welcome Msomi Measure for Measure Charles Marowitz Hamletmachine Heiner Müller Lears Daughters The Womens Theatre Group & Elaine Feinstein Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief Paula Vogel This Islands Mine Philip Osment Harlem Duet Djanet Sears Each play is introduced by a concise, informative introduction with suggestions for further reading. The collection is prefaced by a detailed General Introduction, which offers an invaluable examination of issues related to

Can you really write a play that lasts a minute? The one minute play offers a unique challenge to actors, directors and writers: how do you create a whole world, where actors have room to perform and where audiences have a true experience all in 60 seconds? One Minute Plays: A Practical Guide to Tiny Theatre demystifies the super-short-form play, demonstrating that this rich, accessible format offers great energy and variety not only to audiences but to everyone involved in its creation and performance. This handbook includes: An anthology of 200 one-minute plays selected from the annual Gone in 60 Seconds festival. A toolbox of exercises, methodologies and techniques for educators, practitioners and workshop leaders at all levels. Tips and advice on the demands of storytelling, inclusivity and creative challenges. Detailed practical information about creating your own minute festival, including play selection, running order, staging and marketing. Drawing on a wealth of experience, Steve Ansell and Rose Burnett Bonczek present an invaluable guide for anyone intrigued by the art of creating, producing and performing a one minute play.

This book endeavours to unravel the complicated skeins of Japanese theatre in the modern period and offers an appreciation of the richness of choice of presentational and representational theatre forms. Since the end of world War II there has been continuing but different conflict between the major theatrical genres. Kabuki continues to defend its ground successfully, but the 'new drama' (shingeki) became firmly established in its own right in the 1960s. It was a vigorous and exuberant 'underground' theatre which exploited anything and everything in the Japanese and western theatre traditions. Now, thirty years on, they too have been superseded. The youth theatre of the 1980s and 90s has thrown aside the concerns of the angry underground and developed a fast-moving bewilderingly kaleidoscopic drama of breath-taking energy.

It's like being at a crossroads - a point of absolute, unequivocal change. It makes the blood rush. Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. A young black American actor has been asked to take over the role. But as the public riot in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre? Lolita Chakrabarti's play creates imagined experiences based on the little-known, but true, story of Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor who, in the nineteenth century, built an incredible reputation on the stages of London and Europe. Red Velvet received its world premiere at the Tricycle Theatre, London, on 11 October 2012, starring Adrian Lester as Ira Aldridge. It was revived at the Tricycle Theatre on 23 January 2014, before transferring to St Ann's Warehouse, New York, on 25 March 2014. This second edition includes the revisions made to the script for the 2014 revival of the play. It also features contextual articles by Lolita Chakrabarti about the real Ira Aldridge, and a piece by Professor Ayanna Thompson about the significance of Aldridge's erasure from standard theatre history and the importance of the play in this regard.

Explores how women playwrights illuminate the contemporary world and contribute to its reshaping

-- Greg Bak, Early Modern Literary Studies

These volumes feature works from across Lai’s career, providing an exceptional selection of a diverse range of performances. Volume One contains: Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land Look Who's Crosstalking Tonight The Island and the Other Shore I Me She Him Ménage à 13

In this book, McMahon considers Early Modern revenge plays from a political science perspective, paying particular attention to the construction of family and state institutions. Plays set for close study are The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Malcontent and The Duchess of Malfi. The plays are read as unique events occupying positions in historical process concerning the privatisation of the family (by means of symbolism and concrete household strategies such as budgeting and surveillance) and the subsequent appropriation of the family and its methods by the state. The effect is that family becomes an unofficial organ of the state. This process, however, also involves the reform of the state along lines demanded by the private family. McMahon’s critical method, derived from the theory of Bourdieu, Bataille, and Girard, maps capital transactions to reveal emotionally charged, often idiosyncratic responses to issues of shared concern. Such issues include state corruption, the management of women, the performance of roles according to gender, the uses of surveillance, and the ethics of sacrifice.