Product Description

This Reader features extracts from primary texts by key practitioners of physical theatre – a term covering various forms of non-text-based theatre, ranging from experimental and visually-orientated performance to mime and masked theatre.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #286262 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 292 pages

From the Back Cover

Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader is an invaluable resource for students of physically orientated theatre and performance, drawing on a wide range of sources from all aspects of a hitherto underserved area of study. This book aims to trace the roots and development of physicality in theatre by combining practical experience of the field with a strong historical and theoretical underpinning.

In exploring the histories, cross-overs and intersections of physical theatres, this critical reader provides:

• 6 new, specially written essays, covering each of the book’s main themes, from technical traditions to contemporary practises.
• Discussion of issues such as the foregrounding of the body, training and performance processes, and the origins of theatre in both play and human cognition.
• A focus on the relationship and tensions between the verbal and the physical in theatre.

• Contributions from Augusto Boal, Stephen Berkoff, Étienne Decroux, Bertolt Brecht, David George, J-J. Rousseau, Ana Sanchez Colberg, Michael Chekhov, Jeff Nuttall, Jacques Lecoq, CLR James, Yoshi Oida, Mike Pearson, and Aristotle.

This book can be used as a standalone text, or with its companion volume, Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction, to provide a comprehensive illustration of the physical in theatre and performance. Together they map what physical theatres have been, are, and may be.

John Keefe is a senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University Undergraduate Centre, and a visiting fellow at Queen's University ISC specialising in performance-theatre-film studies. He is also a freelance director and performance dramaturg.

Simon Murray is a performer, director and academic. He is currently Director of Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, and author of Jacques Lecoq (2003). 

Theatre and Performance Studies

About the Author

John Keefe is a Senior Lecturer in Drama, Theatre, Performance and Film at the London Metropolitan University.

Dr Simon Murray is Director of Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, Totnes.  He is author of Jacques Lecoq in the Routledge Performance Practioners series (2003). 

Mike Alfreds

Aristotle

Peter J. Arnold

Eugenio Barba

Samuel Beckett

Steven Berkoff

Augusto Boal

Bertolt Brecht

Peter Brook

Hovey Burgess

Patrick Campbell

Franc Chamberlain

Michael Chekhov

Emilyn Claid

Anne Dennis

Alan S. Downer

Étienne Decroux

Terry Eagleton

Tim Etchells

David George

Mel Gordon

Trevor Griffiths

Albert Hunt

C.L.R. James

Jonathan Kalb

Alan Kaprow

Robert Kimball

Michael Kustow

Jacques Lecoq

Joan Littlewood

Lorna Marshall

Marcel Mauss

Dick McCaw

Phelim McDermott

Anaïs Nin

Jeff Nuttall

Yoshi Oida

Enrique Pardo

Patrice Pavis

Mike Pearson

Jonathan Pitches

Jeff Pressing

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Edward Said

Ana Sanchez-Colberg

Nicolai Savarese

Norbert Servos

Stephen Sondheim

Helen Spackman

David Wiles

David Williams