Performing Arts : Theater

The Early Stuart Masque studies the complex impact of movements, costumes, words, scenes, music, and special effects in English illusionistic theatre of the Renaissance. It will be a valuable resource for all who are interested in English drama, dance, and music of the early modern period, including scholars and students within English literature, as well as modern artists, directors, and producers. - ;The Early Stuart Masque: Dance, Costume, and Music studies the complex impact of movements, costumes, words, scenes, music, and special effects in English illusionistic theatre of the Renaissance. Drawing on a massive amount of documentary evidence relating to English productions as well as spectacle in France, Italy, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, the book elucidates professional ballet, theatre management, and dramatic performance at the early Stuart court. Individual. studies take a fresh look at works by Ben Jonson, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Carew, John Milton, William Davenant, and others, showing how court poets collaborated with tailors, designers, technicians, choreographers, and aristocratic as well as professional performers to create a dazzling event. Based on extensive. archival research on the households of Queen Anne and Queen Henrietta Maria, special chapters highlight the artistic and financial control of Stuart queens over their masques and pastorals. Many plates and figures from German, Austrian, French, and English archives illustrate accessibly-written introductions to costume conventions, early dance styles, male and female performers, the dramatic symbolism of colours, and stage design in performance. With splendid costumes and choreographies,. masques once appealed to the five senses. A tribute to their colourful brilliance, this book seeks to recover a lost dimension of performance culture in early modern England. - ;Ravelhofer breaks new ground in exploring how masques actually worked...This is a valuable study full of new information culled fro more...

Price: $55.00

A biography equal to the outsized personality of one of Broadway’s best-loved stars. From her breakout rendition of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” in 1930 to her triumphant performance as Gypsy’s Mama Rose in 1959, Ethel Merman defined Broadway stardom for two generations of music lovers. Merman’s singing voice—brassy, penetrating, and undeniably American—has transcended genre and era to become a cultural icon. As an entertainer she burned with unstoppable energy. Offstage she was the original diva, a woman who knew what she wanted and brooked no interference. Her spats and frequently off-color zingers have become part of theater lore. In this entertaining and authoritative biography, Brian Kellow traces Merman’s life from her childhood in Queens, New York, through her three decades at the peak of Broadway celebrity. In an era dominated by outsized personalities and egos, none was more vibrant and powerful than Merman’s, yet beneath the tough-dame image was an enormously vulnerable and often lonely woman. Kellow’s book, which includes recollections from more than 120 of Merman’s friends, colleagues, and family members, stands as the definitive biography and an affectionate portrait of an unforgettable star. Fans of Broadway history and of the great Ethel Merman will find Kellow’s biography an irresistible read. more...

Price: $16.00

Attending to the dialogue between the comic events in plays by female writers of the 18th century and the plays' more predictable comic endings illuminates the philosophical, political and legal arguements about women and marrige that fascinated the playwrights and the theatre-going public. more...

Price: $100.00

An exciting study of contemporary drama from a feminist perspective. Working through a generational mix of writers, Aston charts the significant political and aesthetic changes in women's playwriting at the century's end, including Timberlake Wertenbaker, Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane, among others. more...

Price: $73.00

Meineck and Woodruff's new annotated translations of Sophocles' Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes combine the same standards of accuracy, concision, clarity, and powerful speech that have so often made their Theban Plays a source of epiphany in the classroom and of understanding in the theatre. more...

Price: $9.95