検索キーワード： 歴史・批評

Written in 1593, King Richard III is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. This play differs from its predecessors, being amore structured piece, examining the development and motivations of a single character, Richard Duke of Gloucester, who will stop at nothing to gain control of the throne occupied by his brother Edward IV.

An argument for taking a stolen title back. In 1595, in the Italian city of Padua, a medical student climbed a dark staircase and came out standing at a wooden rail, inside a funnel of carved walnut six galleries deep, every eye aimed at one lit table. The Greek word for a theater means the seeing-place, and the men at that rail knew what kind of room they were in. The anatomists knew too. They had built a theater on purpose. For most of Western history, art meant a principled, teachable discipline of making and doing, judged by its work.

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers - and also our brains - create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change.

There has never been a show business book quite like The Show Won't Go On, the first comprehensive study of a bizarre phenomenon: performers who died onstage. From the comedy magician who dropped dead on live television to the amateur thespian who expired during a play called The Art of Murder, the book is a celebration of lives both famous and obscure, as well as a dramatic and accurate recounting of events leading to the moments they died "doing what they loved."  

Writing with his customary verve and wit, author Ethan Mordden follows the steady liberation of gay themes on the American stage. The story begins in the early twentieth century, when gay characters were virtually banned from productions. The 1920s saw a flurry of plays closed on moral grounds as well as the Wales Padlock Act, which forbade representation of "sex degeneracy". While authorities made consistent attempts to shutter the movement, the public remained curious, and after a few decades of war making, a truce broke out when The Boys In the Band became a national smash hit.

Joel Grey, the Tony and Academy Award-winning Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret finally tells his remarkable life story. Born Joel David Katz to a wild and wooly Jewish American family in Cleveland, Ohio in 1932, Joel began his life in the theater at the age of 9, starting in children’s theater...

We often imagine Shakespeare as a solitary genius. But the playwright’s dazzling imagination was enabled and inspired by the blazing charisma and unruly temper of his toweringly ambitious lead actor, Richard Burbage. Today, Burbage’s name is almost forgotten, but his presence haunts the...

Sixty years ago, Peter Brook opened The Empty Space with a bare stage, a man walking across it, and someone watching, and the theatre took the sentence as scripture. The Occupied Space answers at the anniversary: the floor was never bare. Somebody owns it, somebody polices it, and somebody pays for it. The figure who crosses it can die, and the room knows. Written from inside the working theatre, this book puts the most quoted stage doctrine of its century on trial without borrowing a sentence of it.

London’s West End is a global success story, staging phenomenal hit shows that have delighted millions of spectators and generated billions of pounds in revenue. In Good Nights Out, Aleks Sierz provides a thematic survey of such popular theatre shows that were enormous commercial successes...

"Informative, provocative and entertaining all at the same time." - Michael Billington This is a wide-ranging and accessible account of new writing in British theatre during the 2010s, written in a boldly experimental style. A guide to the key plays and playwriting innovations, it enlightens...

मुद्राराक्षस म्हणजे मुद्रेच्या -अंगठीच्या योगे जिंकला गेलेला राक्षस. नाव राक्षस असले तरी हा सदगुणी अमात्य...

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh gives intimate access to the mind of one of the most brilliant dramatists of his century, whose plays reshaped the American theater and the nation's sense of itself. This astute, deeply researched biography sheds a light on Tennessee Williams's warring family, his guilt, his creative triumphs and failures, his sexuality and numerous affairs, his misreported death, even the shenanigans surrounding his estate.

Peter Brook's seminal book, The Empty Space, sets out many of the ideas about theater which have informed his lifelong work as a theater director, from his iconic "white box" production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and his groundbreaking adaptation of The Mahabharata, to his ongoing work at the International Centre for Theatre Research. More than 50 years on from its first publication in 1968, The Empty Space remains a cornerstone of thinking about theater.

The riveting story of the rivalry between the two most renowned actresses of the nineteenth century: legendary Sarah Bernhardt, whose eccentricity on and off the stage made her the original diva, and mystical Eleonora Duse, who broke all the rules to popularize the natural style of acting we...

How is immersive and interactive technology integrated into theatre? How did the 'digital boom' and Covid-19 pandemic expand this integration? How does this integration affect the work, and the accessibility of the work? This brief study examines the intersection of the augmented, mixed, and...

What are neurodiverse aesthetics? How and where do neurodiverse aesthetics appear, and how do they positively affect the wider theatrical culture? How can we all contribute to a neurodiversity-affirming theatre industry? This brief study celebrates neurodiversity and deconstructs...

From the legendary New Yorker theater critic and Tony Award winner, a moving memoir about American theater’s golden age. In These Foolish Things, the acclaimed author and seminal drama critic of the New Yorker for more than twenty years captures the events and people who informed his life...

Trace the dramatic history of live performance as humanity's sacred storytelling rituals evolve into commercial Broadway. This immersive narrative reveals how the earliest gatherings transformed into a global arts and entertainment industry. Discover the architectural wonders, visionary...

Uncover the psychological secrets of theatrical illusions in this captivating journey through performing arts history. From the divine miracles of ancient temples to the elaborate machinery of Victorian theaters, this narrative reveals how professional conjurors have continuously hacked human...

Experience the thrilling evolution of performing arts and cultural storytelling from ancient rituals to digital stages. Whether you are commuting through a busy city or relaxing at home, this fast-moving historical journey transports you directly into the heart of live drama. Discover how early...