Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80500 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Back Cover
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.

About the Author
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.

Customer Reviews

Excellent overview of the main theories in Theatre Studies.
Signs of Peformance is broken down into very definite topics, ranging from Stanislavski to Postmodernism, so it is easy to pick and choose the elements most crucial to your study. However, I ended up reading the entire book, because of the interesting topics, and its very accesible dialogue! The book is peppered with useable, memorable examples of the all the theories, very useful when writing an essay, either at A level, or as a Postgraduate.