Tag: Drama

June 26, 2023

The Ethos of Drama Rhetorical Theory and Dramatic Worth

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Free Download The Ethos of Drama: Rhetorical Theory and Dramatic Worth By Robert L. King
2010 | 234 Pages | ISBN: 0813217415 | PDF | 2 MB
For the first time in the history of drama criticism, this book uses traditional rhetorical theory to evaluate moral values in plays from Shakespeare’s time to the present. In an accessible style free of jargon, Robert King first reviews other theories and critiques of drama to show that they ignore or minimize the argument from moral worth (ethos), the rhetorical proof that earns a speaker or work its credibility. As the literary genre most dependent on an audience for its full realization, drama in performance, he argues, offers rich opportunities for rhetorical criticism while those plays of social or political relevance virtually demand an ethically grounded approach. Proceeding from this premise, this innovative book insists on the continuing relevance of traditional rhetoric as crucial to an appreciation of aesthetic strategy and moral worth in plays from the Early Modern to contemporary periods. Ethos is applied as a standard for discovering a play’s worth in its control of syntax, diction, and stylistic devices; likewise it is used to judge character and persuasive argument. Among the artists discussed: Shakespeare, Chekhov, Arthur Miller, David Mamet, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, John Dryden, Thomas Otway, David Hare, Tom Stoppard, and Bernard Shaw. Commenting in general on plays he has seen in performance, King applies ethical theory to the values of various dramatic techniques like costume, staging, action, and role playing. As an ultimate test of the theory, his concluding chapters study plays that respond to questions of overriding moral concern: the Holocaust, apartheid, and nuclear weaponry. This title offers a groundbreaking approach to drama criticism.

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April 11, 2023

Rhythm and Timing of Movement in Performance Drama, Dance and Ceremony

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Free Download Rhythm and Timing of Movement in Performance: Drama, Dance and Ceremony By Janet Goodridge
1999 | 308 Pages | ISBN: 1853025488 | PDF | 28 MB
‘To be in the wrong rhythm is to be out of kilter. To be in the right rhythm is to be part of – entrained with – something greater than oneself. And to be self-aware of the effectiveness and possibilities of timing is to permit innovation, creativity, and individuality.Janet Goodridge’s Rhythm and Timing of Movement in Performance is a clearly written and enjoyable explication of how rhythm produces effects that can be said to "work" this text is itself a timely intervention, particularly given a context where options for the publication of dance research are limited.’- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute’This brilliantly researched book, based upon a lifetime of practical experience by one of the leading movement teachers in the country, is an invaluable resource book for generations of students. Wide-ranging and enormously readable, it is for all who are involved in the study and practice of theatre, dance or ritual.’- James Roose-Evans, theatre director and author of Experimental Theatre’Dr Goodridge keenly observes and analyses many dances and dance cultures throughout the world. This is an extraordinary and surprising book. Rich with insights gleaned and developed during her years of training and experience, the book will awaken dormant ideas in reader and inspire new ones.’- Joann W Kealiinohomoku PhD, Dance Ethnologist, President, Board of Directors Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Inc’A wonderfully resourceful book for all those working in, or interested in, the expressive arts – teaching, directing and performing – arts therapies, interpersonal communication and anthropology.’- Living Tao NewsletterDespite the richness of the subject and the importance frequently ascribed to the phenomena of rhythm and timing in the arts, the topic as a whole has been neglected. Janet Goodridge writes from a practical movement background and draws on a wide range of sources to illuminate the subject in relation to theatre, drama, dance, ceremony, and ritual.Written for all those working in, or interested in the expressive arts – teaching, directing and performing – arts therapies, inter-personal communication and anthropology, the book provides a first step towards a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary perspective.Part One will be useful as an introductory reader on the subject: it directs attention to a range of ideas and theories about rhythm, timing and time elements in performance, with quotations and examples from many sources. The chapters in Part Two indicate ways in which we may apply ideas and theories in performance observation and practice; factors and elements of movement rhythm and timing are described and classified, and suggestions are made for the development of skills in movement observation. In Part Three, contrasting approaches and descriptions of rhythm and timing in action are presented: in Yaqui Indian Easter ceremonies, in traditional Maring life (Papua New Guinea) and in a well-known British event – Trooping the Colour.

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April 9, 2023

The Methuen Drama Anthology of American Women Playwrights 1970 – 2020

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Free Download The Methuen Drama Anthology of American Women Playwrights 1970 – 2020 By Wesley Brown, Aimée K. Michel, Susan Yankowitz, Ntozake Shange, Beth Henley, Paula Vogel, Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage
2020 | 325 Pages | ISBN: 135006873X | PDF | 2 MB
"In this exciting new anthology, Wesley Brown and Aimée K. Michel bring together six wonderfully teachable plays by some of the greatest American women dramatists of the past fifty years– Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, Beth Henley, and Susan Yankowitz. The editors provide a helpful Introduction to the last 100 years of theatrical activity, from suffrage and anti-lynching plays, through the explosive 1960s, to recent Broadway triumphs, highlighting women’s struggle-a struggle that continues–to put their vision and voices on the American stage." Elin Diamond, Rutgers University, USAThis volume celebrates the iconoclastic power of six American women playwrights who pushed the boundaries of the form outside the box of conventional drama.Each play is accompanied by a short introduction providing the biographical background of the playwright as well as discussing the dramatic style of her writing, the extent to which her work is informed by major playwrights of the period, and how the specific work illustrates the overarching themes of her body of work.The plays included are:Gun by Susan YankowitzSpell #7: geechee jibara quik magic trance manual fortechnologically stressed third world people by Ntozake ShangeThe Jacksonian by Beth HenleyThe Baltimore Waltz by Paula VogelIn the Blood by Suzan-Lori ParksIntimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

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April 8, 2023

On the Queerness of Early English Drama Sex in the Subjunctive

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Free Download On the Queerness of Early English Drama: Sex in the Subjunctive by Tison Pugh
English | February 26, 2021 | ISBN: 1487508743 | True EPUB | 256 pages | 1.2 MB
Often viewed as theologically conservative, many theatrical works of late medieval and early Tudor England nevertheless exploited the performative nature of drama to flirt with unsanctioned expressions of desire, allowing queer identities and themes to emerge. Early plays faced vexing challenges in depicting sexuality, but modes of queerness, including queer scopophilia, queer dialogue, queer characters, and queer performances, fractured prevailing restraints. Many of these plays were produced within male homosocial environments, and thus homosociality served as a narrative precondition of their storylines.

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April 7, 2023

Modernists and the Theatre The Drama of W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf

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Free Download Modernists and the Theatre: The Drama of W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf by James Moran
English | January 13, 2022 | ISBN: 1350145491, 135028243X | True EPUB | 256 pages | 0.6 MB
Modernists and the Theatre is the first study to examine how theories of modernism intersect with those of the theatre within the works, philosophies and literary lives of six key modernist writers. Drawing on a wealth of unfamiliar archive material and fresh readings of neglected documents, James Moran reveals how these literary figures interacted with the theatre through playwriting, by engaging in philosophical debates and participating in theatrical performances. Chapters assess W.B. Yeats’s very earliest playwriting, Ezra Pound’s onstage acting, the interconnections between James Joyce’s and D.H. Lawrence’s sense of drama, Eliot’s thinking about theatre in Dublin, and the feminist politics of Virginia Woolf’s small-scale theatrical experiments.

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