1st Edition

Signs of Performance An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Theatre

By Colin Counsell Copyright 1996
    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    250 Pages
    by Routledge

    Signs of Performance provides the beginning student with working examples of theatrical analysis. Its range covers the whole of twentieth century theatre, from Stanislavski to Brecht and Samuel Beckett to Robert Wilson. Colin Counsell takes an historical look at theatre as a cultural practice, clearly tracing connections between:
    * Key practitioners' ideas about performance
    * The theatrical practices prompted by those ideas
    * The resulting signs which emerge in performance
    * The meanings and political consequences of those signs
    It provides an understandable theoretical framework for the study of theatre as a an signifying practice, and offers vivid explanations in clear, direct language. It opens up this fascinating field to a broad audience.

    . Introduction. 1. Stanislavski's 'System' 2. Strasberg's 'Method' 3. Brecht and Epic Theatre 4. Beckett and the Avant-Garde 5. Peter Brook and Ritual Theatre 6. Robert Wilson and the Theatre of Visions 7. Postmodernism and Performance Art.

    Biography

    Colin Counsell is a lecturer in English Literature and Theatre Studies at the University of North London. He has worked in the theatre both as a performer and as a director.