Emmanuela Bakola
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569359
- eISBN:
- 9780191722332
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569359.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Cratinus, one of the great lost poets of fifth-century Athenian comedy and a canonical author of the classical world, had a formative influence on the comic genre, including Aristophanes himself. In ...
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Cratinus, one of the great lost poets of fifth-century Athenian comedy and a canonical author of the classical world, had a formative influence on the comic genre, including Aristophanes himself. In what is the first major monograph in the best part of a century devoted to this author, Emmanuela Bakola offers a modern, comprehensive overview of Cratinus and his position within the genre of Greek comedy using a methodologically innovative approach. Unlike traditional ways of addressing fragmentary drama, this book does not merely reconstruct plays or texts, but by drawing on a range of hermeneutic frameworks, it adopts a thematic approach which allows her to explore Cratinus' poetics. Major issues which this book addresses include the creation of a poetic persona within a performative tradition of vigorous interpoetic rivalry; comedy's interaction with lyric poetry, iambos, and the literary-critical debates reflected by these genres; the play with the boundaries of the comic genre and the interaction with satyr drama and tragedy, especially Aeschylus; the multiple levels of comic plot-construction and characterization; comedy's reflection on its immediate political, social, and intellectual context; stagecraft and dramaturgy; comedy and ritual. Whilst being firmly based on principles of rigorous textual analysis, philology, and papyrology, by taking a broad and diverse outlook this study offers not just an insight into Cratinus, but a way of opening up and enriching our understanding of fifth-century Athenian comedy in a dynamic evolving environment.Less
Cratinus, one of the great lost poets of fifth-century Athenian comedy and a canonical author of the classical world, had a formative influence on the comic genre, including Aristophanes himself. In what is the first major monograph in the best part of a century devoted to this author, Emmanuela Bakola offers a modern, comprehensive overview of Cratinus and his position within the genre of Greek comedy using a methodologically innovative approach. Unlike traditional ways of addressing fragmentary drama, this book does not merely reconstruct plays or texts, but by drawing on a range of hermeneutic frameworks, it adopts a thematic approach which allows her to explore Cratinus' poetics. Major issues which this book addresses include the creation of a poetic persona within a performative tradition of vigorous interpoetic rivalry; comedy's interaction with lyric poetry, iambos, and the literary-critical debates reflected by these genres; the play with the boundaries of the comic genre and the interaction with satyr drama and tragedy, especially Aeschylus; the multiple levels of comic plot-construction and characterization; comedy's reflection on its immediate political, social, and intellectual context; stagecraft and dramaturgy; comedy and ritual. Whilst being firmly based on principles of rigorous textual analysis, philology, and papyrology, by taking a broad and diverse outlook this study offers not just an insight into Cratinus, but a way of opening up and enriching our understanding of fifth-century Athenian comedy in a dynamic evolving environment.
Emmanuela Bakola
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569359
- eISBN:
- 9780191722332
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569359.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Chapter 5 explores dramaturgical and stagecraft aspects of Cratinus' comedies. First it discusses the construction and use of dramatic space in Odysseis, Plutoi, Nemesis, and Seriphioi, especially ...
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Chapter 5 explores dramaturgical and stagecraft aspects of Cratinus' comedies. First it discusses the construction and use of dramatic space in Odysseis, Plutoi, Nemesis, and Seriphioi, especially in the opening scenes. It also explores Cratinus' dramatization of the literary topos of the storm, his large stage props, machinery and change of scenes. In Dionysalexandros it discusses the role of costume and disguise, arguing that it constitutes a major aspect of the comedy's enagagement with Dionysiac initiation ritual. Finally, by looking at Pytine and Dionysalexandros it explores how Cratinus' use of imagery and personification was realized in performance and shaped the stage action.Less
Chapter 5 explores dramaturgical and stagecraft aspects of Cratinus' comedies. First it discusses the construction and use of dramatic space in Odysseis, Plutoi, Nemesis, and Seriphioi, especially in the opening scenes. It also explores Cratinus' dramatization of the literary topos of the storm, his large stage props, machinery and change of scenes. In Dionysalexandros it discusses the role of costume and disguise, arguing that it constitutes a major aspect of the comedy's enagagement with Dionysiac initiation ritual. Finally, by looking at Pytine and Dionysalexandros it explores how Cratinus' use of imagery and personification was realized in performance and shaped the stage action.
David Carnegie and Lori Leigh
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199641819
- eISBN:
- 9780191749025
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199641819.003.0024
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter discusses what was learned by the two directors of the first full production of Gary Taylor’s ‘creative reconstruction’ entitled The History of Cardenio. Performed at Victoria University ...
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This chapter discusses what was learned by the two directors of the first full production of Gary Taylor’s ‘creative reconstruction’ entitled The History of Cardenio. Performed at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Taylor’s play cut some material from Double Falsehoodthat was obviously by Theobald, and added new writing in the style of Fletcher and Shakespeare, including a subplot based on Don Quixote and Sancho. The two directors discuss their rehearsal process with Taylor, especially the importance of props such as a coffin and spurs; the options for staging a new scene showing the rape or seduction only reported in Double Falsehood; and the implications of an open and fluid stagecraft in the early modern style for questions such as locale and use of an upper level.Less
This chapter discusses what was learned by the two directors of the first full production of Gary Taylor’s ‘creative reconstruction’ entitled The History of Cardenio. Performed at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Taylor’s play cut some material from Double Falsehoodthat was obviously by Theobald, and added new writing in the style of Fletcher and Shakespeare, including a subplot based on Don Quixote and Sancho. The two directors discuss their rehearsal process with Taylor, especially the importance of props such as a coffin and spurs; the options for staging a new scene showing the rape or seduction only reported in Double Falsehood; and the implications of an open and fluid stagecraft in the early modern style for questions such as locale and use of an upper level.
Craig Jendza
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190090937
- eISBN:
- 9780190090968
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190090937.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Tragedy is the first book that examines how ancient Greek tragedy engages with the genre of comedy. While scholars frequently study paratragedy (how ...
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Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Tragedy is the first book that examines how ancient Greek tragedy engages with the genre of comedy. While scholars frequently study paratragedy (how Greek comedians satirize tragedy), this book investigates the previously overlooked practice of paracomedy: how Greek tragedians regularly appropriate elements from comedy such as costumes, scenes, language, characters, or plots. Drawing upon a wide variety of complete and fragmentary tragedies and comedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Rhinthon), this monograph demonstrates that paracomedy was a prominent feature of Greek tragedy. Blending a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, including traditional philology, literary criticism, genre theory, and performance studies, this book offers innovative close readings and incisive interpretations of individual plays. The author presents paracomedy as a multivalent authorial strategy: some instances impart a sense of ugliness or discomfort; others provide a sense of lightheartedness or humor. While the book traces the development of paracomedy over several hundred years, it focuses on a handful of Euripidean tragedies at the end of the fifth century BCE. The author argues that Euripides was participating in a rivalry with the comedian Aristophanes and often used paracomedy to demonstrate the poetic supremacy of tragedy; indeed, some of Euripides’s most complex uses of paracomedy attempt to reappropriate Aristophanes’s mockery of his theatrical techniques. The book theorizes a new, groundbreaking relationship between Greek tragedy and comedy that not only redefines our understanding of the genre of tragedy but also reveals a dynamic theatrical world filled with mutual cross-generic influence.Less
Paracomedy: Appropriations of Comedy in Greek Tragedy is the first book that examines how ancient Greek tragedy engages with the genre of comedy. While scholars frequently study paratragedy (how Greek comedians satirize tragedy), this book investigates the previously overlooked practice of paracomedy: how Greek tragedians regularly appropriate elements from comedy such as costumes, scenes, language, characters, or plots. Drawing upon a wide variety of complete and fragmentary tragedies and comedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Rhinthon), this monograph demonstrates that paracomedy was a prominent feature of Greek tragedy. Blending a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, including traditional philology, literary criticism, genre theory, and performance studies, this book offers innovative close readings and incisive interpretations of individual plays. The author presents paracomedy as a multivalent authorial strategy: some instances impart a sense of ugliness or discomfort; others provide a sense of lightheartedness or humor. While the book traces the development of paracomedy over several hundred years, it focuses on a handful of Euripidean tragedies at the end of the fifth century BCE. The author argues that Euripides was participating in a rivalry with the comedian Aristophanes and often used paracomedy to demonstrate the poetic supremacy of tragedy; indeed, some of Euripides’s most complex uses of paracomedy attempt to reappropriate Aristophanes’s mockery of his theatrical techniques. The book theorizes a new, groundbreaking relationship between Greek tragedy and comedy that not only redefines our understanding of the genre of tragedy but also reveals a dynamic theatrical world filled with mutual cross-generic influence.
Melissa Dickson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474443647
- eISBN:
- 9781474477055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474443647.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to the science of stagecraft, and to the endless recreations and adaptations of the wonders, magic, and treasures of the Arabian Nights that took place within the shows culture of ...
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This chapter turns to the science of stagecraft, and to the endless recreations and adaptations of the wonders, magic, and treasures of the Arabian Nights that took place within the shows culture of nineteenth-century Britain. These authorless, ownerless tales presented ideal theatrical opportunities to display the rich landscapes, domestic interiors and dazzling treasures of the East within the public spaces of Britain. In so doing, they facilitated a kind of ‘virtual’ tourism, whereby audiences might participate in the adventurer’s narrative of discovery, infiltration, exploration, and safe return, without ever leaving England. At the same time, however, such performances fostered a self-reflective, inward movement, as an imaginative destination of childhood became a physical space that might be stepped into, examined and explored. Performances of the Arabian Nights had a disturbing capacity to evoke and to disrupt childhood memories, as they were reliant upon a substantial amount of labour and technical expertise in order to realise fully the workings of magic and the apparently spontaneous eruption of the supernatural on stage. As a vehicle for exploring the material and technological limits of nineteenth-century stagecraft, the wonder and enchantment of the Arabian Nights thus became inextricably intertwined with the wonder of machinery and technical ingenuity, as new techniques were developed for representing fantasy and manufacturing magic.Less
This chapter turns to the science of stagecraft, and to the endless recreations and adaptations of the wonders, magic, and treasures of the Arabian Nights that took place within the shows culture of nineteenth-century Britain. These authorless, ownerless tales presented ideal theatrical opportunities to display the rich landscapes, domestic interiors and dazzling treasures of the East within the public spaces of Britain. In so doing, they facilitated a kind of ‘virtual’ tourism, whereby audiences might participate in the adventurer’s narrative of discovery, infiltration, exploration, and safe return, without ever leaving England. At the same time, however, such performances fostered a self-reflective, inward movement, as an imaginative destination of childhood became a physical space that might be stepped into, examined and explored. Performances of the Arabian Nights had a disturbing capacity to evoke and to disrupt childhood memories, as they were reliant upon a substantial amount of labour and technical expertise in order to realise fully the workings of magic and the apparently spontaneous eruption of the supernatural on stage. As a vehicle for exploring the material and technological limits of nineteenth-century stagecraft, the wonder and enchantment of the Arabian Nights thus became inextricably intertwined with the wonder of machinery and technical ingenuity, as new techniques were developed for representing fantasy and manufacturing magic.
Joanna Hofer-Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474420983
- eISBN:
- 9781474453738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420983.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter tracks multiple ways in which Oliver Twist and London’s cityscape were adapted for the stage in the late 1830s. It argues that London was a flexible frame through which the audience’s ...
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This chapter tracks multiple ways in which Oliver Twist and London’s cityscape were adapted for the stage in the late 1830s. It argues that London was a flexible frame through which the audience’s reception of Dickens’s work was mediated in early dramatisations, but also that the novel was imaginatively mapped on to the built environment. For example, Sadler’s Wells emphasise the proximity of the criminal scenes by staging their adaptation as a local drama, while the Surrey Theatre presents their play as an opportunity for armchair tourism. In staging alternative versions of the city, theatres presented differently nuanced portrayals of its inhabitants and perceived social problems. The dynamic re-presentation of Oliver Twist in early theatrical adaptations is thereby indicative of the malleability of Dickensian afterlives in nineteenth-century improvement debates, and these plays were likewise supposed to have an effect on contemporary city-life. Playscripts, stagecraft, actors’ performances, music, and the perceived identities of theatres and their audiences each played a role in curating these representations, and so this chapter adopts an intertheatrical methodology.Less
This chapter tracks multiple ways in which Oliver Twist and London’s cityscape were adapted for the stage in the late 1830s. It argues that London was a flexible frame through which the audience’s reception of Dickens’s work was mediated in early dramatisations, but also that the novel was imaginatively mapped on to the built environment. For example, Sadler’s Wells emphasise the proximity of the criminal scenes by staging their adaptation as a local drama, while the Surrey Theatre presents their play as an opportunity for armchair tourism. In staging alternative versions of the city, theatres presented differently nuanced portrayals of its inhabitants and perceived social problems. The dynamic re-presentation of Oliver Twist in early theatrical adaptations is thereby indicative of the malleability of Dickensian afterlives in nineteenth-century improvement debates, and these plays were likewise supposed to have an effect on contemporary city-life. Playscripts, stagecraft, actors’ performances, music, and the perceived identities of theatres and their audiences each played a role in curating these representations, and so this chapter adopts an intertheatrical methodology.
Alva Noë
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780190928216
- eISBN:
- 9780197601136
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190928216.003.0029
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter analyzes the role of boredom in art. One might say that boredom is the besetting sin not just of art but also of the lecture hall and the classroom. What all of these have in common is ...
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This chapter analyzes the role of boredom in art. One might say that boredom is the besetting sin not just of art but also of the lecture hall and the classroom. What all of these have in common is the structure of detachment. Some artists, writers, and teachers see boredom as the enemy; in their effort to deviate from the baseline, from boredom, they engage the audience. At its best, they do this by, in effect, putting on display a thing of value—knowledge, a story, a sculpture, or a painting—while also providing the tools the audience needs to understand it. At its worst, the impulse to deny boredom finds its expression in mere stagecraft and manipulation, in the willingness to pander and entertain. There is another approach to boredom in the arts, one that is perhaps more common in the avant-garde. If boredom stems from detachment, and if some measure of detachment is unavoidable in art (and in life), then getting bored is not just an irritating state, it is an opportunity.Less
This chapter analyzes the role of boredom in art. One might say that boredom is the besetting sin not just of art but also of the lecture hall and the classroom. What all of these have in common is the structure of detachment. Some artists, writers, and teachers see boredom as the enemy; in their effort to deviate from the baseline, from boredom, they engage the audience. At its best, they do this by, in effect, putting on display a thing of value—knowledge, a story, a sculpture, or a painting—while also providing the tools the audience needs to understand it. At its worst, the impulse to deny boredom finds its expression in mere stagecraft and manipulation, in the willingness to pander and entertain. There is another approach to boredom in the arts, one that is perhaps more common in the avant-garde. If boredom stems from detachment, and if some measure of detachment is unavoidable in art (and in life), then getting bored is not just an irritating state, it is an opportunity.
Anna Hannowa
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781874774693
- eISBN:
- 9781800340718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781874774693.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter discusses Jakub Rotbaum (1901–1994), artistic director and principal producer of the Vilna Troupe from 1929 to 1936. The Vilna Troupe was the best-known Jewish theatre company in Europe, ...
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This chapter discusses Jakub Rotbaum (1901–1994), artistic director and principal producer of the Vilna Troupe from 1929 to 1936. The Vilna Troupe was the best-known Jewish theatre company in Europe, and Rotbaum was its director and longest-lived artist. Rotbaum initiated the changes in the company's repertoire and artistic and ideological image, directed its groundbreaking performances of six plays, and won for the troupe the collaboration of the noted scenographer Andrzej Pronaszko. Critics of his own time considered Rotbaum a pioneer of social theatre and an innovator in stagecraft, as well as a transformative figure in Jewish literary theatre. The graphic quality of his stage conceptions and his use of pantomime and of rich musical accompaniments earned him public admiration and the acclaim of connoisseurs of both Polish and Jewish theatre.Less
This chapter discusses Jakub Rotbaum (1901–1994), artistic director and principal producer of the Vilna Troupe from 1929 to 1936. The Vilna Troupe was the best-known Jewish theatre company in Europe, and Rotbaum was its director and longest-lived artist. Rotbaum initiated the changes in the company's repertoire and artistic and ideological image, directed its groundbreaking performances of six plays, and won for the troupe the collaboration of the noted scenographer Andrzej Pronaszko. Critics of his own time considered Rotbaum a pioneer of social theatre and an innovator in stagecraft, as well as a transformative figure in Jewish literary theatre. The graphic quality of his stage conceptions and his use of pantomime and of rich musical accompaniments earned him public admiration and the acclaim of connoisseurs of both Polish and Jewish theatre.
Julia Lougovaya
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199665747
- eISBN:
- 9780191758201
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199665747.003.0011
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Non-Classical
Over the last twenty years, the semantics and dramatic significance of references to writing in Athenian drama, on the one hand, and the importance of space articulation, on the other, have been the ...
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Over the last twenty years, the semantics and dramatic significance of references to writing in Athenian drama, on the one hand, and the importance of space articulation, on the other, have been the subjects of various fruitful studies. Drawing upon both approaches, this chapter explores the role of inscriptions in defining dramatic space, looking both at inscriptions that are physically present on stage and those that are simply imagined or alluded to by characters. Any writing implies a medium or object on which the words are inscribed, but the correlation between the type of writing and the type of object varies. Some media, such as papyrus rolls or wooden tablets, can be used for virtually any record; the medium or sub-stratum that carries these texts is often of little significance by itself. Other inscribed objects, however, have significance independent of their inscriptions, such as tombs or votives to the gods. Between these two poles, there are types of inscriptions that are usually associated with certain kinds of objects, and it is this customary linkage which allows the object to become a metonymy for the text. The text's accessibility and the accepted practice of its circulation also affect this interchange. Concentrating on the plays of Aristophanes and Euripides, the chapter demonstrates the wide range of connotations afforded by inscriptions on stage, from the physical instruments of governance that a comic hero manipulates to enduring records against which the fleeting actions of a tragic character are measured. It also examines the correlation between the inscriptional landscape of Athenian drama and that of the city of Athens.Less
Over the last twenty years, the semantics and dramatic significance of references to writing in Athenian drama, on the one hand, and the importance of space articulation, on the other, have been the subjects of various fruitful studies. Drawing upon both approaches, this chapter explores the role of inscriptions in defining dramatic space, looking both at inscriptions that are physically present on stage and those that are simply imagined or alluded to by characters. Any writing implies a medium or object on which the words are inscribed, but the correlation between the type of writing and the type of object varies. Some media, such as papyrus rolls or wooden tablets, can be used for virtually any record; the medium or sub-stratum that carries these texts is often of little significance by itself. Other inscribed objects, however, have significance independent of their inscriptions, such as tombs or votives to the gods. Between these two poles, there are types of inscriptions that are usually associated with certain kinds of objects, and it is this customary linkage which allows the object to become a metonymy for the text. The text's accessibility and the accepted practice of its circulation also affect this interchange. Concentrating on the plays of Aristophanes and Euripides, the chapter demonstrates the wide range of connotations afforded by inscriptions on stage, from the physical instruments of governance that a comic hero manipulates to enduring records against which the fleeting actions of a tragic character are measured. It also examines the correlation between the inscriptional landscape of Athenian drama and that of the city of Athens.
Janice Norwood
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781526133328
- eISBN:
- 9781526155467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526133335.00007
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama
This chapter illustrates various routes into the dramatic profession in the Victorian period and analyses the potential advantages of different means of learning acting and stagecraft through ...
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This chapter illustrates various routes into the dramatic profession in the Victorian period and analyses the potential advantages of different means of learning acting and stagecraft through examination of the early performance history of selected actresses. Some commenced work as child performers while others began as adults after receiving private tuition from a professional, performing on the amateur stage or giving dramatic readings. Discussion of the strategy of gaining experience in provincial or minor London theatres before risking appearing on the more prestigious West End stages reveals multiple benefits in terms of skill enhancement and press and audience response. The examples are used to argue for the importance of British provincial theatres, not only as training grounds for performers but also as instrumental to the economic health and stability of both the actress and the theatrical industry.Less
This chapter illustrates various routes into the dramatic profession in the Victorian period and analyses the potential advantages of different means of learning acting and stagecraft through examination of the early performance history of selected actresses. Some commenced work as child performers while others began as adults after receiving private tuition from a professional, performing on the amateur stage or giving dramatic readings. Discussion of the strategy of gaining experience in provincial or minor London theatres before risking appearing on the more prestigious West End stages reveals multiple benefits in terms of skill enhancement and press and audience response. The examples are used to argue for the importance of British provincial theatres, not only as training grounds for performers but also as instrumental to the economic health and stability of both the actress and the theatrical industry.
Steve Sohmer
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526113276
- eISBN:
- 9781526124265
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526113276.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This chapter explains why Twelfth Night must begin with 1.2 rather than 1.1, and cites eighteenth- to nineteenth-century productions as conclusive evidence.
This chapter explains why Twelfth Night must begin with 1.2 rather than 1.1, and cites eighteenth- to nineteenth-century productions as conclusive evidence.
Dennis Meredith
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- August 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197571316
- eISBN:
- 9780197571347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197571316.003.0004
- Subject:
- Chemistry, Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
This chapter will help you more effectively reach your peers, but it also aims to enhance your communications with lay audiences. Giving compelling talks means freeing oneself from text by sufficient ...
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This chapter will help you more effectively reach your peers, but it also aims to enhance your communications with lay audiences. Giving compelling talks means freeing oneself from text by sufficient practice in learning the talk, speaking from points rather than reading from text. It also means organizing the talk to engage the audience, designing slides that communicate effectively as a complement to your performance, using dramatic and professional visuals to enhance your presentation, and using engaging stagecraft. Also useful are memorable models such as molecular models, demonstrations, and pass-arounds; combining them with speech and stagecraft will create a multimedia explanation of your work. Managing questions is also important to clarify points, to be responsive to your audience, and to avoid unproductive confrontation.Less
This chapter will help you more effectively reach your peers, but it also aims to enhance your communications with lay audiences. Giving compelling talks means freeing oneself from text by sufficient practice in learning the talk, speaking from points rather than reading from text. It also means organizing the talk to engage the audience, designing slides that communicate effectively as a complement to your performance, using dramatic and professional visuals to enhance your presentation, and using engaging stagecraft. Also useful are memorable models such as molecular models, demonstrations, and pass-arounds; combining them with speech and stagecraft will create a multimedia explanation of your work. Managing questions is also important to clarify points, to be responsive to your audience, and to avoid unproductive confrontation.
Patrick Kragelund
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198718291
- eISBN:
- 9780191787614
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198718291.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This book first examines the fragmentary evidence for Roman historical dramas (praetextae), from 200 BC down to 100 AD. Discussion centres on the genre’s kinship with tragedy as well as on generic ...
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This book first examines the fragmentary evidence for Roman historical dramas (praetextae), from 200 BC down to 100 AD. Discussion centres on the genre’s kinship with tragedy as well as on generic specifics: the use of historical topics and local formats, of an aetiological and teleological perspective, and of an episodic structure characterized by abrupt changes of time and settings. The fall of the Republic made deadly conflict between Romans (rather than with foreign enemies) a relevant topic for a plot. The sole surviving praetexta, the anonymous Octavia, offers a vivid re-creation of a crucial historical episode, the lethal strife with Seneca and the populous caused by Nero’s murderous divorce from his empress Octavia and marriage to Poppaea in 62 AD. This drama reflects scenic conventions and notions of the dramatic that radically transform our knowledge of the Roman stage. Discussion focuses on its dynamic changes of time and setting, its startling interplay of the verbal and visual and its integration of issues pervading the politics of the period just after the fall of Nero, which, it is argued, was its time of writing. An unacknowledged favourite of the Renaissance dramatists, who reinvented classical-style tragedy, the impact of this drama is in the final section traced from Italy through France to Elizabethan England, before returning to Italy where the composer Claudio Monteverdi in Venice pioneered one of the earliest preserved operas with a plot ultimately based on the Octavia.Less
This book first examines the fragmentary evidence for Roman historical dramas (praetextae), from 200 BC down to 100 AD. Discussion centres on the genre’s kinship with tragedy as well as on generic specifics: the use of historical topics and local formats, of an aetiological and teleological perspective, and of an episodic structure characterized by abrupt changes of time and settings. The fall of the Republic made deadly conflict between Romans (rather than with foreign enemies) a relevant topic for a plot. The sole surviving praetexta, the anonymous Octavia, offers a vivid re-creation of a crucial historical episode, the lethal strife with Seneca and the populous caused by Nero’s murderous divorce from his empress Octavia and marriage to Poppaea in 62 AD. This drama reflects scenic conventions and notions of the dramatic that radically transform our knowledge of the Roman stage. Discussion focuses on its dynamic changes of time and setting, its startling interplay of the verbal and visual and its integration of issues pervading the politics of the period just after the fall of Nero, which, it is argued, was its time of writing. An unacknowledged favourite of the Renaissance dramatists, who reinvented classical-style tragedy, the impact of this drama is in the final section traced from Italy through France to Elizabethan England, before returning to Italy where the composer Claudio Monteverdi in Venice pioneered one of the earliest preserved operas with a plot ultimately based on the Octavia.
Kevin Winkler
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- November 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190090739
- eISBN:
- 9780190090760
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190090739.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Dance, Popular
Tommy Tune’s skill in reassembling a musical’s various elements into a new entity was pushed to an extreme with Grand Hotel. He chopped up, or spliced, the book (by Luther Davis) and songs (by George ...
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Tommy Tune’s skill in reassembling a musical’s various elements into a new entity was pushed to an extreme with Grand Hotel. He chopped up, or spliced, the book (by Luther Davis) and songs (by George Forrest and Robert Wright) into a mosaic of melody, movement, and dialogue that conveyed the simultaneous urgent, heated activities of a hotel staff and guests. Tune workshopped Grand Hotel not in a rehearsal studio, but in a dilapidated hotel whose once-elegant ballroom evoked the ambiance of the show’s setting, 1928 Berlin. His desire for nonstop movement, with no waiting for set pieces to arrive, led him to utilize more than forty gold chairs that could be endlessly configured to create a suite of rooms, a hallway, or a bank of telephone operators. Grand Hotel’s direction and staging became inseparable from its book and musical program. It was more tightly choreographed than any previous Tune musical, with the theatrical equivalents of filmic quick cuts and dissolves. Tune was acknowledged as the last of the superstar director-choreographers, and Grand Hotel was one of the most strikingly staged musicals of its era. But there was grumbling that Tune’s dazzling stagecraft was in service of weak material and, moreover, that he preferred it that way, allowing him to come to the rescue and deliver a hit through his superior staging skills. The star of any Tommy Tune musical now appeared to be Tommy Tune.Less
Tommy Tune’s skill in reassembling a musical’s various elements into a new entity was pushed to an extreme with Grand Hotel. He chopped up, or spliced, the book (by Luther Davis) and songs (by George Forrest and Robert Wright) into a mosaic of melody, movement, and dialogue that conveyed the simultaneous urgent, heated activities of a hotel staff and guests. Tune workshopped Grand Hotel not in a rehearsal studio, but in a dilapidated hotel whose once-elegant ballroom evoked the ambiance of the show’s setting, 1928 Berlin. His desire for nonstop movement, with no waiting for set pieces to arrive, led him to utilize more than forty gold chairs that could be endlessly configured to create a suite of rooms, a hallway, or a bank of telephone operators. Grand Hotel’s direction and staging became inseparable from its book and musical program. It was more tightly choreographed than any previous Tune musical, with the theatrical equivalents of filmic quick cuts and dissolves. Tune was acknowledged as the last of the superstar director-choreographers, and Grand Hotel was one of the most strikingly staged musicals of its era. But there was grumbling that Tune’s dazzling stagecraft was in service of weak material and, moreover, that he preferred it that way, allowing him to come to the rescue and deliver a hit through his superior staging skills. The star of any Tommy Tune musical now appeared to be Tommy Tune.
Helen Eastman
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780198861072
- eISBN:
- 9780191893049
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861072.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Harrison’s engagement with ancient drama is not just textual and thematic; Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, The Labourers of Herakles, and The Kaisers of Carnuntum strove to re-create elements of original ...
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Harrison’s engagement with ancient drama is not just textual and thematic; Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, The Labourers of Herakles, and The Kaisers of Carnuntum strove to re-create elements of original fifth-century Athenian performance conditions with one-off, ephemeral productions and open air-settings. This was a deliberate progression from Harrison’s Oresteia, directed by Peter Hall, which had explored the use of masks and an all-male ensemble, but in a conventional indoor setting, across a longer run. This chapter considers the stagecraft of Harrison’s early work, from the material setting of the productions to the performance style developed by the actors, including their vocal style, direct address, and the use of dance (particularly clogging). Drawing on interviews with original company members, including the subsequent work of director Barrie Rutter at Northern Broadsides, and the experience for actors of being involved in such ground-breaking work, it looks at the development of Harrison’s stagecraft, particularly when he began to direct his own productions. The political dimension of Harrison’s stagecraft, including the visibility of the audience, is explored. Inevitable compromises, such as the extended run of Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, initially designed as a one-off event, are considered, as are the tensions between Harrison’s artistic and intellectual project and the wider theatre community.Less
Harrison’s engagement with ancient drama is not just textual and thematic; Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, The Labourers of Herakles, and The Kaisers of Carnuntum strove to re-create elements of original fifth-century Athenian performance conditions with one-off, ephemeral productions and open air-settings. This was a deliberate progression from Harrison’s Oresteia, directed by Peter Hall, which had explored the use of masks and an all-male ensemble, but in a conventional indoor setting, across a longer run. This chapter considers the stagecraft of Harrison’s early work, from the material setting of the productions to the performance style developed by the actors, including their vocal style, direct address, and the use of dance (particularly clogging). Drawing on interviews with original company members, including the subsequent work of director Barrie Rutter at Northern Broadsides, and the experience for actors of being involved in such ground-breaking work, it looks at the development of Harrison’s stagecraft, particularly when he began to direct his own productions. The political dimension of Harrison’s stagecraft, including the visibility of the audience, is explored. Inevitable compromises, such as the extended run of Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, initially designed as a one-off event, are considered, as are the tensions between Harrison’s artistic and intellectual project and the wider theatre community.
Karen Stohr
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190867522
- eISBN:
- 9780190867553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190867522.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, General
This chapter provides an account of how social practices and conventions are used to build moral neighborhoods. It draws on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical picture of human interaction to describe how ...
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This chapter provides an account of how social practices and conventions are used to build moral neighborhoods. It draws on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical picture of human interaction to describe how moral neighborhoods are constructed in social and physical spaces with methods that have parallels in theater. Social practices and conventions generate scripts for enacting narratives in which participants take up roles as their fictive moral selves. Moral stagecraft consists of the tools employed to create and sustain physical, social, and normative spaces in which those narratives can be enacted. The skill of moral stagecraft requires being able to take up, adapt, and improvise social roles, conventions, and practices in ways that support and sustain moral ideals in the face of unequal power relationships and other problematic social conditions.Less
This chapter provides an account of how social practices and conventions are used to build moral neighborhoods. It draws on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical picture of human interaction to describe how moral neighborhoods are constructed in social and physical spaces with methods that have parallels in theater. Social practices and conventions generate scripts for enacting narratives in which participants take up roles as their fictive moral selves. Moral stagecraft consists of the tools employed to create and sustain physical, social, and normative spaces in which those narratives can be enacted. The skill of moral stagecraft requires being able to take up, adapt, and improvise social roles, conventions, and practices in ways that support and sustain moral ideals in the face of unequal power relationships and other problematic social conditions.