Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theater
Languages : en
Pages : 104
Book Description
The New Theatrical Observer and Censor of the Stage
Author: Music for the Melodramatic Theatre in Nineteenth-Century London and New York
Author: Michael V. PisaniPublisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609382307
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 415
Book Description
Throughout the nineteenth century, people heard more music in the theatre—accompanying popular dramas such as Frankenstein, Oliver Twist, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Lady Audley’s Secret, The Corsican Brothers, The Three Musketeers, as well as historical romances by Shakespeare and Schiller—than they did in almost any other area of their lives. But unlike film music, theatrical music has received very little attention from scholars and so it has been largely lost to us. In this groundbreaking study, Michael V. Pisani goes in search of these abandoned sounds. Mining old manuscripts and newspapers, he finds that starting in the 1790s, theatrical managers in Britain and the United States began to rely on music to play an interpretive role in melodramatic productions. During the nineteenth century, instrumental music—in addition to song—was a common feature in the production of stage plays. The music played by instrumental ensembles not only enlivened performances but also served other important functions. Many actors and actresses found that accompanimental music helped them sustain the emotional pitch of a monologue or dialogue sequence. Music also helped audiences to identify the motivations of characters. Playwrights used music to hold together the hybrid elements of melodrama, heighten the build toward sensation, and dignify the tragic pathos of villains and other characters. Music also aided manager-directors by providing cues for lighting and other stage effects. Moreover, in a century of seismic social and economic changes, music could provide a moral compass in an uncertain moral universe. Featuring dozens of musical examples and images of the old theatres, Music for the Melodramatic Theatre charts the progress of the genre from its earliest use in the eighteenth century to the elaborate stage productions of the very early twentieth century.
Theatre Censorship in Britain
Author: H. FreshwaterPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230237010
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 223
Book Description
This exploration of the wide variety of censorship that has shaped theatrical performance in twentieth and twenty-first century Britain examines the unpredictable outcomes of censorship, deep-seated anxieties about the performative influence of the stage, and the complex questions raised by acts of theatrical censorship.
Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century
Author: John H. HouchinPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521818193
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
John Houchin explores the impact of censorship in twentieth-century American theatre. He argues that theatrical censorship coincides with significant challenges to religious, political and cultural traditions. Along with the well-known instance of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, other almost equally influential events shaped the course of the American stage during the century. The book is arranged in chronological order. It provides a summary of censorship in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America and then analyses key political and theatrical events between 1900 and 2000. These include a discussion of the 1913 riot after the Abbey Theatre touring produdtion of Playboy of the Western World; protests against Clifford Odet's Waiting for Lefty, performed by militant workers during the Depression; and reactions to the recent play Angels in America.
The Theatre and the State in Singapore
Author: Terence ChongPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136869476
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive examination of the contemporary English-language theatre field in Singapore. It describes Singapore theatre as a politically dynamic field that is often a site for struggle and resistance against state orthodoxy, and how the cultural policies of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) have shaped Singapore theatre. The book traces such cultural policies and their impact from the early 1960s, and shows how the PAP used theatre – and arts and culture more widely – as a key part of its nation building programme. Terence Chong argues that this diverse theatre community not only comes into regular conflict with the state, but often collaborates with it - depending on the rewards at stake, not to mention the assortment of intra-communal conflicts as different practitioners and groups vie for the same resources. It goes on to explore how new forms of theatre, especially English-language avant garde theatre, represented resistance to such government cultural control; how the government often exerts its power ‘behind-the-scenes’ to preserve its moral legitimacy; and conversely how middle class theatre practitioners’ resistance to state power is strongly influenced by class and cultural capital. Based on extensive original research including interviews with theatre directors and other theatre professionals, the book provides a wealth of information on theatre in Singapore overall, and not just on theatre-state relations.
Theatre Censorship in Honecker's Germany
Author: Barrie BakerPublisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9783039110865
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Book Description
The full story of state-supervised theatre in East Germany during the Honecker era (1971-1989). Censorship in many forms is brought to light, as well as the social and political pressures, revealing the true burden of coercion on the theatrical profession, including targeted operations by the secret police assisted by informers.
Time in Romantic Theatre
Author: Frederick BurwickPublisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303096079X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
The shift in temporal modalities of Romantic Theatre was the consequence of internal as well as external developments: internally, the playwright was liberated from the old imperative of “Unity of Time” and the expectation that the events of the play must not exceed the hours of a single day; externally, the new social and cultural conformance to the time-keeping schedules of labour and business that had become more urgent with the industrial revolution. In reviewing the theatre of the Romantic era, this monograph draws attention to the ways in which theatre reflected the pervasive impact of increased temporal urgency in social and cultural behaviour. The contribution this book makes to the study of drama in the early nineteenth century is a renewed emphasis on time as a prominent element in Romantic dramaturgy, and a reappraisal of the extensive experimentation on how time functioned.
English Drama of the Early Modern Period 1890-1940
Author: Jean ChothiaPublisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315504197
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239
Book Description
The period 1890-1940 was a particularly rich and influential phase in the development of modern English theatre: the age of Wilde and Shaw and a generation of influential actors and managers from Irving and Terry to Guilgud and Olivier. Jean Chothia's study is in two parts beginning with a portrait of the period, setting the narrative context and considering the dramatic social and cultural changes at work during this time. It then focuses on some of the main themes in the theatre, from Shaw and comedy, to the rise of political and radio drama, providing an interpretative framework for the period. This volume will be of great benefit to students and academics of English literature and drama, as it covers the work of the major dramatists of the period as well as considering the dramatic output of literary figures, such as James, Eliot and Lawrence.
New Theatre Quarterly 29: Volume 8, Part 1
Author: Clive BarkerPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521429405
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 108
Book Description
One of a series discussing topics of interest in theatre studies from theoretical, methodological, philosophical and historical perspectives.
Stage Fright
Author: Paul Du QuenoyPublisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271048077
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
"Explores the relationship between culture and power in Imperial Russia. Argues that Russia's performing arts were part of a vibrant public culture that was usually ambivalent or hostile to the tumultuous political events of the revolutionary era"--Provided by publisher.