We are hosting a contest to celebrate the skill of prop builders everywhere and the release of Eric Hart's new book, The Prop Building Guidebook: For Theatre, Film, and TV!

Enter the contest to win a prize worth $500!

This book lays the groundwork for an artisan to determine what materials and techniques to use to build these props. Walking the reader through the various tools and techniques used in historical and contemporary prop-making, the author presents a process for deciding the materials and methods to build any prop. With an explanation of how the craft and its products have developed over time, the budding artisan will understand not just how and when to use certain techniques or materials, but also why to use them and what advantages they give.

It arms the prop maker with a structured procedure for approaching the construction of any prop. Illustrated with step-by-step examples of how to use each construction method, and explanations of different types of materials, this book gives the beginner prop artisan a strong foundation to approach the construction of props and answers the question, "How should I begin?"

Enter the contest here.

Find out more about the book here.

 

SCUDD represents the interests of Drama, Theatre and Performing Arts in the Higher Education sector in the UK. All delegates attending the SCUDD Conference will receive a 20% discount off key Routledge titles by using discount code SCUDD13.

Check your delegate pack for our discount flyer highlighting some of our key titles, including:

An Introduction to Theatre Design
Performance Studies: An Introduction, 3rd Edition
Theatre in Practice: A Student's Handbook
The Expressive Actor: Integrated Voice, Movement and Acting Training
Games for Actors and Non-Actors
An Actor's Work: A Student's Diary
The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre
The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre

We will be regularly celebrating 'Featured Artists' on the RPA news page with snippets of RPA content available for you to view free online for a limited time.

Why not sample some free access to two short videos from our current 'featured artist', the renowned Russian actor-trainer Andrei Droznin. This content is usually available for subscribers to the Routledge Performance Archive but we're offering you a sneaky peek for a limited time.

We’re also offering 20% off Droznin's Routledge DVD until 15 March. Visit the website and enter the discount code RPAFEB to receive your discount.

Look out for more featured video and audio samples and related discount offers!

In this volume, a range of voices address the issue of dance preservation through memory, artistic choice, interpretation, imagery and notation, as well as looking at relevant archives, legal structures, documentation and artefacts. The intertwining of dance preservation and creativity is a core theme discussed throughout this text, pointing to the essential continuity of dance history and dance innovation. The demands of preservation stretch across time, geographies, institutions and interpersonal connections, and this book focuses on the fascinating web that supports the fragile yet urgent effort to sustain our dancing heritage.

Recommend to your libraran.

This volume focuses on the highly debated topic of theatrical translation, one brought on by a renewed interest in the idea of performance and translation as a cooperative effort on the part of the translator, the director, and the actors. Exploring the role and function of the translator as co-subject of the performance, it addresses current issues concerning the role of the translator for the stage, as opposed to the one for the editorial market, within a multifarious cultural context.

Chapters emphasize the idea of dramatic translation as a particular and extremely challenging type of performance, while consistently exploring its various textual, intertextual, intertranslational, contextual, cultural, and intercultural facets. The notion of performance is applied to textual interpretation as performance, interlingual versus intersemiotic performance, and (inter)cultural performance in the adaptation of translated texts for the stage, providing a wide-ranging discussion from an international group of contributors, directors, and translators.

‘One of the great stories of the American theater…, the Workshop not only built an international reputation with its daring choice of plays and nontraditional productions, it also helped launch a movement of regional, or resident, companies that would change forever how Americans thought about and consumed theater.’ – Elin Diamond, from the Introduction

Most of the productions were accompanied by a stunningly concise and often provocative programme note by Blau. These documents now comprise, within their compelling perspective, a critique of the modern theatre. They vividly reveal what these now canonical works could mean, first time round, and in the context of 1950s and 60s American culture, in the shadow of the Cold War.

Programming Theater History curates these notes, with a selection of the Workshop's incrementally artful, alluring programme covers, Blau's recollections, and evocative production photographs, into a narrative of indispensable artefacts and observations. The result is an inspiring testimony by a giant of American performance theory and practice, and a unique reflection of what it is to create theatre history in the present. Order your copy today!
 

The first edition of Acting Power was a groundbreaking work of acting theory which applied sociological and psychological principles to actor training. The book went on to influence a generation of theatre and performance studies students and academics, and was translated into five languages.

This carefully revised 21st Century Edition (re)considers, in the context of today’s field:

• questions such as ‘should actors act from the inside or the outside?’ and ‘should the actor live the role or present the role?’
• contemporary research into communication theory, cybernetics, and cognitive science
• brilliantly illuminating and witty exercises for solo study and classroom use, and a through-line of useful references to classic plays
• penetrating observations about the actor’s art by more than 75 distinguished professional actors and directors.

Cohen’s elegant and rigorous updates emphasise the continuing relevance of his uniquely integrated and life-affirming approach to this field. The new edition draws on his extraordinarily rich career as teacher, scholar, director, translator and dramaturg. It is a recipe for thrilling theatre in any genre.

‘This book, above all else, is an attempt to explore the qualities of acting power…. to suggest to you, the actor, an approach toward not merely good acting but powerful acting. Great actors display the power to frighten – and the power to seduce – and can shift between the one and the other like a violinist can her notes.’
– From the Preface

Order a complimentary exam copy if you teach a related course.

The book explores:

•how to prepare a breakdown
•where to source actors
•how to prepare for a casting session
•how to make casting decisions
•how a cast is put together
•how deals are done
•ethics and the law, with special reference to casting children
•how a casting director contributes to the initial development of the script
•how the casting works from fringe theatre to Hollywood blockbusters
The Casting Handbook considers actors’, producers’, agents’ and directors’ relationship with a casting director, the day to day work that is casting, and how approaching it in a professional and informed manner can make the difference to the final product.

Including interviews with actors, agents, directors, casting directors and producers; case studies; exercises; and a fact file of useful templates and contacts, this book offers a thorough induction into the casting process, suitable for students and early career professionals in any media. Read more or order a copy.
 

'This ever improved 3rd edition of Performance Studies: An Introduction will facilitate Schechner’s masterful ability to bring newcomers into and through this complex, richly interdisciplinary material. With new media links, videos, and up-to-the-minute additions, the book continues to be a terrific resource for those of us leading our students to the deep well that constitutes the field.' - Jill Dolan, Princeton University, USA

'This new edition is Schechner brought right up to date. As father of the field, Schechner steps into the moment with the new companion website. It's outstanding online support for the text is exactly what we need. As usual, he is a game changer.' - Anna Deveare-Smith, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU

Among the topics discussed are the performing arts and popular entertainments, rituals, play and games, and the performances of everyday life. Supporting examples and ideas are drawn from the social sciences, performing arts, poststructuralism, ritual theory, ethology, philosophy, and aesthetics.

This third edition is accompanied by an all-new companion website curated by a dedicated media editor, Sara Brady, with the following resources for instructors and students:

• Interactive glossary
• Multiple choice questions
• Powerpoint Slides.
• Videos
• Website links for further study
• Tutorials on specific skills within Performance Studies
• Sample Discussion Questions
• Exercises and Activities
• Sample Syllabi.

Revised with 25 new extracts and biographies, up-to-date coverage of global and intercultural performances, and further exploration of the growing international presence of Performance Studies as a discipline, Performance Studies is the definitive overview for undergradutes, with primary extracts, student activities, key biographies and over 200 images of global performance.

Read more or order a complimentary exam copy.

*Online access for 14 days from activation, to all content published in 2011 and 2011 Volumes from selected journals. Voucher can only be activated once and is valid until 31/12/2013

New Year, New Content

• Cross-referencing!

In collaboration with our partners, Digital Theatre, we will be contributing to a new platform of theirs, The Journal: A Global Culture Mix. Check out our occasional RPA takeovers of this superb free resource, featuring small clips and content by RPA contributors: http://journal.digitaltheatre.com/

• New subscriptions

Along with the snow, December and January brought a flurry of international subscriptions to the RPA from Australia, continental Europe and USA, including our first Ivy League subscriber, Columbia University. The Archive is slowly becoming internationally ubiquitous!

• Exciting new content – live from 31st January

Exclusive footage from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s National Video Archive of Performance Recordings, including interviews with:
- Michael Frayn on the nature of live performance
- Sir Peter Hall on masks
- William Gaskill on theatre in the 1950s
- Kwame Kwei-Armah on Black theatre in Britain

Interviews conducted by Duška Radosavljevic:
- The director, Mike Alfreds (audio)
- The playwright, Adriano Shaplin (video)

The Dream: a collaboration between Rena Mirecka and Maciej Stawinski.

• Forthcoming content & features

Fresh for spring: more video content coming in April 2013! Exciting new features: short essay-commentaries on the RPA practitioners, commissioned by our Consultant Editor, Prof. Maggie Gale, and written by international experts and Routledge authors. These commentaries will offer essential background information and criticism to supplement the audio-visual content.

Our latest content update included:

• Exclusive footage from the Victoria & Albert Museum’s National Video Archive of Performance Recordings, including interviews with:
- Michael Frayn on the nature of live performance
- Sir Peter Hall on masks
- William Gaskill on theatre in the 1950s
- Kwame Kwei-Armah on Black theatre in Britain

• Interviews conducted by Duska Radosavljevic:
- Mike Alfreds (audio)
- Adriano Shaplin (video)

• The Dream, a collaboration between Rena Mirecka and Maciej Stawinski.

The next update to the Routledge Performance Archive will be launched in April.

Free Trial

The simplest way to learn more about the Routledge Performance Archive is to experience it for yourself.
To arrange your no obligation free trial please visit the website www.routledgeperformancearchive.com

We are delighted to announce that The Heart of Teaching: Empowering Students in the Performing Arts is now available. The Heart of Teaching is a book about teaching and learning in the performing arts. Its focus is on the inner dynamics of teaching: the processes by which teachers can promote—or undermine—creativity itself. It covers the many issues that teachers, directors and choreographers experience, from the frustrations of dealing with silent students and helping young artists ‘unlearn’ their inhibitions, to problems of resistance, judgment and race in the classroom.

‘Stephen Wangh tackles an important but rarely discussed aspect of performance teaching. He brings a particular set of hard-won insights based on extensive teaching and personal experience, and doesn’t shy away from teasing out the difficult personal lessons drawn from that experience.’
Anthony Jackson, University of Manchester, UK

The Heart of Teaching speaks to experienced teachers and beginning teachers in all disciplines, but is particularly relevant to those in the performing arts, from which most of its examples are drawn. It brings essential insight and honesty to the discussion of how to teach. Find out more.
 

Read more...

In 1939, a young, inexperienced actor wrote to a famous actress of his acquaintance, asking for advice on playing comedy. She responded enthusiastically, and they corresponded variously over the next year. The Craft of Comedy, a record of these exchanges, soon emerged as one of the few classic texts in the field of comedy acting.

This major new edition takes a brilliant book and makes it better. Editor Robert Barton has devised extensive supplementary material, including:

• An introduction to the correspondents, the culture of the time, and the evolution of their book;

• Summaries, definitions, and exercises and practice scenes for readers wishing to explore Athene Seyler’s invaluable advice;

• Photographs, additional essays by Seyler, and a guide to easily accessed video clips of her performing.

Read more..

Stanislavski: The Basics is an engaging introduction to the life, thought and impact of Konstantin Stanislavski.

Read more...

Regarded by many as a great innovator of twentieth century theatre, this book examines Stanislavski’s:

• life and the context of his writings

• major works in English translation

• ideas in practical contexts

• impact on modern theatre.

With further reading throughout, a glossary of terms and a comprehensive chronology, this text makes the ideas and theories of Stanislavski available to an undergraduate audience.

Order your complimentary exam copy...