A study of post-colonial drama and theatre. It examines how dramatists from various societies have attempted to fuse the performance idioms of their traditions with the Western dramatic form, demonstrating how the dynamics of syncretic theatrical texts function in performance.
From 1972 to 1975, Susan Meiselas spent her summers photographing and interviewing women who performed striptease for smalltown carnivals in New England, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. As she followed the girl shows from town to town, she portrayed the dancers on stage and off, photographing their public performances as well as their private lives. She also taped interviews with the dancers, their boyfriends, the show managers and paying customers. Meiselas' frank description of the lives of these women brought a hidden world to public attention. Produced during the early years of the women's movement, "Carnival Strippers" reflects the struggle for identity and self-esteem that characterized a complex era of change. This revised edition contains a new selection of Meiselas' black-and-white photographs together with the original interview excerpts. Additionally, an audio CD featuring a collage of participants' voices and a 1977 interview with the photographer are included. Essays by Sylvia Wolf and Deirdre English reflect on the importance of this body of work within the history of photography and the history of feminism.
This beautifully illustrated volume features work by leading writers and experts on carnival from around the world, and includes two stunning photo essays by acclaimed photographers Pablo Delano and Jeffrey Chock. Editor Milla Cozart Riggio presents a body of work that takes the reader on a fascinating journey exploring the various aspects of carnival - its traditions, its history, its music, its politics - and prefaces each section with an illuminating essay. Traditional carnival theory, based mainly on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Victor Turner, has long defined carnival as inversive or subversive. The essays in this groundbreaking anthology collectively reverse that trend, offering a re-definition of 'carnival' that focuses not on the hierarchy it temporarily displaces or negates, but a one that is rooted in the actual festival event. Carnival details its new theory in terms of a carnival that is at once representative and distinctive: The Carnival of Trinidad - the most copied yet least studied major carnival in the world.
When Ben tries to hide from bullies at a carnival, he is drawn into a sideshow that promises to make his dreams of popularity and good grades come true, if only he signs a contract agreeing to give up a few minutes of his time.
In his short story “The Hunger Artist,” Kafka imagined the theatrical career of a “professional faster” whose performance consists merely in displaying his own starving body before an avid audience. Kafka thus paradoxically suggested that hunger, mere emptiness working its way through declining bodies, may be a privileged theatrical object. Hunger often signals an anchorage in socio-historical reality, and invites extreme situations on stage, articulating large-scale cataclysms (famines, the devastation of war) with personal tragedies (hunger-strikes, anorexia, etc.) in which characters experience the tenuousness of their own lives. Whether in the comic or in the tragic mode, staged hunger metaphorizes various kinds of starvation – material greed, spiritual, emotional, sexual starvation, and even linguistic insufficiency. This volume explores the aesthetic and ethical issues raised by hunger on the stage in the English-speaking world. It investigates the paradox of the hypervisibility of the thinning body and shows how, throughout history, hunger has given shape to innovative, powerfully transgressive dramaturgies.
The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Theater collects a critical mass of border-crossing scholarship on the intersections of dance and theatre. Taking corporeality as an idea that unites the work of dance and theater scholars and artists, and embodiment as a negotiation of power dynamics with important stakes, these essays focus on the politics and poetics of the moving body in performance both on and off stage. Contemporary stage performances have sparked global interest in new experiments between dance and theater, and this volume situates this interest in its historical context by extensively investigating other such moments: from pagan mimes of late antiquity to early modern archives to Bolshevik Russia to post-Sandinista Nicaragua to Chinese opera on the international stage, to contemporary flash mobs and television dance contests. Ideologically, the essays investigate critical race theory, affect theory, cognitive science, historiography, dance dramaturgy, spatiality, gender, somatics, ritual, and biopolitics among other modes of inquiry. In terms of aesthetics, they examine many genres such as musical theater, contemporary dance, improvisation, experimental theater, television, African total theater, modern dance, new Indian dance theater aesthetics, philanthroproductions, Butoh, carnival, equestrian performance, tanztheater, Korean Talchum, Nazi Movement Choirs, Lindy Hop, Bomba, Caroline Masques, political demonstrations, and Hip Hop. The volume includes innovative essays from both young and seasoned scholars and scholar/practitioners who are working at the cutting edges of their fields. The handbook brings together essays that offer new insight into well-studied areas, challenge current knowledge, attend to neglected practices or moments in time, and that identify emergent themes. The overall result is a better understanding of the roles of dance and theater in the performative production of meaning.
A Straightforward, No-nonsense Instructional Guidebook on Pistol Shooting Practical Pistol holds nothing back, sharing the knowledge collected from a plethora of expert sources. Top shooters such as Bob Vogel, Dave Sevigny, and Matt Mink collaborated with Ben Stoeger to compile the so-called “Grand Master Secrets” into one easy-to-read location. This book answers the "how to" questions about shooting technique. How do you hold the gun? How do you shoot fast? The knowledge in Practical Pistol answers these questions and many more, spanning from marksmanship fundamentals to shooting on the move and competition skills such as stage breakdown and managing match pressure. Finally, this book contains many little tips, drills, and exercises to help improve any shooter’s ability.
Why is folly essential to the functioning of a healthy society? Why is theatre a natural home for madness? The answers take the reader on a journey embracing Shakespeare and Jonson, Brecht and Beckett, Büchner and Boal. From Falstaff to Fo via Figaro, this study examines the art of telling truth to power and surviving long enough to have a laugh.
Although definitely a part of the Caribbean, these two islands are unique, refusing to conform with the stock Caribbean image created by glossy brochures and travel agencies. They are both generous and Caribbean-spirited, but quite capable of going their own way. This Adventure Guide takes you across the nation from mountains and hills to grasslands, savannahs and palm-lined beaches, offering the intrepid traveler a ticket to explore. Birdwatchers are drawn by the chance to see the beautiful scarlet ibis. Night-time excursions allow visitors to watch the miraculous egg-laying practices of the leatherback turtle. And caiman smaller versions of the South's alligators are a common sight. And then there's Carnival, which offers wild dances, fantastical costumes and frenzied revellers. Whatever your reason to visit T&T, you have the right guide in hand. Accommodations, restaurants, travel tips, sights, museums, excursions it's all here. A special section is dedicated to the nation's booming yachting industry, with details on marinas, facilities and services. "I wish I'd had this book the first time I visited Trinidad and Tobago. The book fully describes the culture of these island people and this knowledge would make a trip to these wonderful islands even more enjoyable. I also believe it's a good choice for readers who can't make the trip but still want to taste the culture." -- Amazon customer "I've been to TNT once for two weeks and am returning again in a few months. I bought the book to refresh my memory and, more importantly, get me excited about my return trip. It's a great read, and as the back cover suggests, it really is written for the traveler who wants to experience more than just sunbathing. However, once you've been to Trindad and Tobago, you discover that they are not your generic Caribbean islands. Visiting Trindad and Tobago is more of a cultural vacation than an island getaway. Once you step foot off the plane at Piarco airport, you'll never want to leave, or you'll want to go back once every year. The two islands are full of charisma, and O'Donnell and Pefkaros do a good job of capturing this spirit in the book. You really cannot be intimidated by the cultures of TNT. From the street vendor corn soup, to crab and dumplings, "down de islands", Maracas, Pigeon Point, Speyside, fried flying fish, Caribs, lorries, maxis, wining, Trinidad's great bar/club scene, the Northern Range, etc. - this book virtually covers all Trinidad and Tobago vacation opportunities and experiences." -- Amazon customer "An excellent take-long tote, as is the more adventurous Trinidad & Tobago, 2nd Edition by Kathleen O'Donnell and Stassi Pefkaros, which updates information on adventure travel with special focus on the wildlife and culture of the islands." -- Midwest Book Review