Theatre & Performance Studies

Voice: Onstage and Off is a comprehensive guide to the process of building, mastering, and fine-tuning the voice for performance. Every aspect of vocal work is covered, from the initial speech impulse and the creation of sound, right through to refining the final product in different types of performance.

This introduction to theater design explains the theories, strategies, and tools of practical design work for the undergraduate student. This is an essential guide for students and teachers of theater design. Readers will form not only a strong ability to explain and understand the process of design, but also the basic skills required to conceive and realize designs of their own.
 

Andrei Droznin’s Physical Actor Training presents a unique introduction to the master teacher behind a program of stage movement training that is taught all over the world. Aimed at both scholars and theater professionals, it is comprised of a DVD containing an interview and a vivid selection of his exercises, plus an accompanying booklet featuring two practical essays along with an introduction to his work by Paul Allain.
 

An Actress Prepares is the first book to interrogate Method acting from a specifically feminist perspective. Rose Malague addresses "the Method" not only with much-needed critical distance, but also the crucial insider's view of a trained actor.

'I've been waiting for someone to write this book for years: a thorough-going analysis and reconsideration of American approaches to Stanislavsky from a feminist perspective … lively, intelligent, and engaging.' 
Phillip Zarrilli, University of Exeter

"Piscator is the greatest theater man of our time." Bertolt Brecht

The Piscator Notebook is a compelling record of the genealogy of political theater practice in the early 20th Century, from Europe to the US. But it is also a stunningly personal reflection on the pleasures and challenges of learning about theater, charged with essential insights for the student and teacher, actor and director.
 

Designed to take readers right into the heart of radical performance, Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Roberto Sifuentes use a series of crucial practical exercises, honed in workshops worldwide, to help create challenging theater which transcends the boundaries of nation, gender, and racial identity.

The intersections of religion, politics, and performance form the loci of many of the most serious issues facing the world today, sites where some of the world’s most pressing and momentous events are contested and played out. That this circumstance warrants continued, thoughtful, and imaginative engagement from those within the fields of theater and performance is one of the guiding principles of this volume.

This collection documents and examines political and protest theater produced between the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Obama’s election in 2008 by British and American artists responding to their own governments’ actions and policies during this time.

Shannon Jackson is the director of the Arts Research Center at University of California at Berkeley where she is also Professor of Rhetoric and of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies. Her award-winning previous publications include Professing Performance (2004) and Lines of Activity (2000). Request a complimentary exam copy of Social Works here. 

We were saddened to hear about the death of Jean Benedetti last week. Jean was a world renowned scholar of Russian and Russian Theatre who translated our new editions of Stanislavski’s An Actor’s Work and An Actor’s Work on a Role, and also Stanislavski’s biography My Life in Art. All were acclaimed translations, which brought through Stanislavski’s intent and essence more clearly and directly than the original English-language versions. Professor Benedetti was a honorary patron of The Stanislavski Centre and you can read some of the thoughts and recollections of his friends and colleagues in the link above.

The Routledge Performance Archive is a developing resource produced in partnership with Digital Theatre, providing unique access to an exciting range of audio and visual material from past and present practitioners of performance. This innovative collection delivers essential video direct to the classroom, lecture theater and library. Take the tour and find out more!