Theatres of Conscience offers an invaluable and essential insight into four touring British theatre companies whose work and contributions to post-war British theatre have largely gone unnoticed. Combining a rigorous scholarly evaluation of their work and their broadly ideological and ethical contribution to wider post-war developments in British theatre. Peter Billingham offers the reader a unique insight into four companies which, motivated by enthusiasm, principles and creative innovation, sought to take the theatre of conscience to theatre-less communities in wartime Britain and during the following decade. Contemporaries of - amongst others - Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, the Pilgrim Players, the Adelphi Players, the Compass Players and the Century Theatre represent a significant but rather overlooked phase in the development of twentieth-century British theatre.

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This book explores an under-researched body of work from the early decades of the twentieth century, connecting plays, performances and practitioners together in dynamic dialogues. Moving across national, generational and social borders, the book reads experiments in Britain during this period alongside theatrical innovations overseas.

British theatre from 1900 to 1950 has been subject to radical re-evaluation with plays from the period setting theatres alight and gaining critical acclaim once again; this book explains why, presenting a comprehensive survey of the theatre and how it shaped the work that followed. Rebecca D'Monte examines how the emphasis upon the working class, 'angry' drama from the 1950s has led to the neglect of much of the century's earlier drama, positioning the book as part of the current debate about the relationship between war and culture, the middlebrow, and historiography. In a comprehensive survey of the period, the book considers: - the Edwardian theatre; - the theatre of the First World War, including propaganda and musicals; -the interwar years, the rise of commercial theatre and influence of Modernism; - the theatre of the Second World War and post-war period. Essays from leading scholars Penny Farfan, Steve Nicholson and Claire Cochrane give further critical perspectives on the period's theatre and demonstrate its relevance to the drama of today. For anyone studying 20th-century British Drama this will prove one of the foundational texts.

New Theatre Quarterly provides a lively international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. It shows that theatre history has a contemporary relevance, that theatre studies need a methodology, and that theatre criticism needs a language. Articles in volume 73 include: Performance, Embodiment, Voice: the Theatre/Dance Cross-overs of Dodin, Bausch, and Forsythe; The Performative Self: Improvisation for Self and Other; The Events of June 1848: the 'Monte Cristo' Riots and the Politics of Protest; Culture, Memory, and American Performer Training; 'The Maker and the Tool': Charles Parker, Documentary Performance, and the Search for a Popular Culture; Simple Pleasures: the Ten-Minute Play, Overnight Theatre, and the Decline of the Art of Storytelling; Archive or Memory? The Detritus of Live Performance; NTQ Reports and Announcements; NTQ Book Reviews.

What is the relationship between touring and other kinds of theatre work? How should theatre circulate, and how are we to understand this circulation? What impact do tour routes have beyond the dissemination of what is on stage? Whose travel stories are told within the theatre, and by whom? This concise study argues that we should pay more attention to how, why and where theatre travels. Moving away from prevailing metaphors of 'strolling players' and 'the circuit', this volume examines in more detail what theatre is doing when it tours, and why it matters. Enlivened with a wide range of examples – from Ancient Rome to internet livestreams, solo tours to national theatres, and Shakespeare to post-apocalyptic fiction – Theatre & Travel distinguishes between different versions of theatre touring to uncover both the possibilities and the inequalities that it entails. Proposing that travel is central to our understanding of theatre, the book asks what changes might need to happen to enable theatre to travel better in the world.

Jacques Lecoq and the British Theatre brings together the first collection of essays in English to focus on Lecoq's school of mime and physical theatre. For four decades, at his school in Paris, Jacques Lecoq trained performers from all over the world and effected a quiet evolution in the theatre. The work of such highly successful Lecoq graduates as Theatre de Complicite (The Winter's Tale with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Visit, The Street of Crocodiles and The Causcasian Chalk Circle with the Royal National Theatre) has brought Lecoq's work to the attention of mainstream critics and audiences in Britain. Yet Complicte is just the tip of the Iceberg. The contributors to this volume, most of them engaged in applying Lecoq's work, chart some of the diverse ways in which it has had an impact on our conceptions of mime, physical theatre, actor training, devising street theatre and interculturalism. This lively - even provocative - collection of essays focuses academic debate and raises awareness of the impact of Lecoq's work in Britain today.

This is an authoritative account of the career of Sydney Box, one of British cinema's most successful and significant producers. Concentrating on the period 1940-65, it highlights the crucial but often misunderstood role that the producer plays in the film making process and, using largely unpublished material, affords an exceptional insight into the workings of the film industry. This study will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in British cinema and television history, but its focus on the frequently misrepresented or misunderstood role of the producer will make it valuable for students of film generally.

What value does theatre have in Britain at the beginning of the twenty-first century? How has theatre responded to the challenge of remaining relevant in the media-saturated world of today? These are the questions that underpin this stimulating study of some of the leading dramatists of contemporary British theatre. At the Sharp End sets the scene examining how the forces that created a revolution in theatre fifty years ago have been replaced by a new wave of political and social issues. It goes on to explore the ways in which five key writers have sought to reflect and wrestle with the changing character of modern Britain. The work of David Edgar, David Greig, Mark Ravenhill, Tanika Gupta and Tim Etchells' company Forced Entertainment is considered, with recent plays examined in detail, an interview with each writer; and suggestions of other writers and plays for reading and comparison. At the Sharp End provides the perfect companion for anyone wanting to understand the changing face of contemporary drama and the writers whose work is making an impact on our stages today.

Cecil Davies' The Adelphi Players: The Theatre of Persons represents a uniquely interesting contribution to our understanding of touring British theatre in the mid-twentieth-century, post-war period. This book will interest everyone - whether student, academic or general reader - who wants to know more about issues concerning the recent history of British theatre. In their values and aims, the Adelphi Players pre-empted many of the post-war developments that we associate with the non-commercial, fringe and community theatre movement. In Richard Heron Ward founder of the Adelphi-Players, we encounter a dramatist, novelist, essayist and poet who has been unusually neglected in terms of our appreciation of the English literature of the broad left in the 1930s, `40s and `50s. The Adelphi Players has been edited by Peter Billingham, who has also provided an introduction placing Ward and the Adelphi players in the wider social, cultural and ideological context.