Marvin Albert Carlson

"Using examples from theatrical cultures and performances around the world and from classical times to the contemporary, The Haunted Stage explores the ways in which theatre reuses material, both physical and narrative, and how this process relates to theatrical reception. Any regular theatregoer is familiar with the effect of a performance calling to mind the actor's previous performances in earlier productions. Sometimes this reinforces the impression the production is seeking to give, and other times it distracts, but the ghost in the memory of the spectator in either case crucially informs the process of reception."--BOOK JACKET.

"Speaking in Tongues presents a unique account of how language has been employed in the theatre, not simply as a means of communication but also as a stylistic and formal device, and for a number of cultural and political operations. The use of multiple languages in the contemporary theatre is in part a reflection of a more globalized culture, but it also calls attention to how the mixing of language has always been an important part of the functioning of theatre." "The book begins by investigating various "levels" of language - high and low style, prose and poetry - and the ways in which these have been used historically to mark social positions and relationships. It next considers some of the political and historical implications of dialogue theatre, as well as theatre that literally employs several languages, from classical Greek examples to the postmodern era. Carlson treats with special attention the theatre of the postcolonial world, and especially the triangulation of the local language, the national language, and the colonial language, drawing on examples of theatre in the Caribbean, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Finally, Carlson considers the layering of languages in the theatre, such as the use of supertitles or simultaneous signing." "Speaking in Tongues draws important social and political conclusions about the role of language in cultural power, making a vital contribution to the fields of theatre and performance."--Jacket.

"Performance uses the alphabet as an organizational device to present a series of short pieces that approach performance from multiple perspectives and various compositional strategies. Pelias's essays, poetry, dialogue, personal narratives, quick speculations, and other literary genres explore the key themes in this field, encapsulating the essence of performance studies for the novice and providing food for thought for the expert. Its brief, evocative, and reflexive pieces introduce performative writing as a method of research for those in performance and many other fields"--

"Theatrical playing, Hamlet famously averred, holds a mirror up to nature. But unlike the reflections in the mirror, the theater's images are composed of real objects, most notably bodies, that have an independent existence outside the world of reflection. Throughout Western theater history there have been occasions when the reality behind the illusion was placed on display. In recent years theaters in Europe and North America have begun calling attention to the real in their work--presenting performers who did not create characters and who may not even have been actors, but who appeared on stage as themselves; texts created not by dramatic authors but drawn from real life; and real environments sometimes shared by actors and performers and containing real elements accessible to both. These practices, argues Marvin Carlson, constitute a major shift in the practical and phenomenological world of theater, and a turning away from mimesis, which has been at the heart of the theater since Aristotle. Shattering Hamlet's Mirror: Theatre and Reality examines recent and contemporary work by such groups as Rimini Protokoll, Societas Raffaelo Sanzio, the Gob Squad, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, and Foundry Theatre, while revealing the deep antecedents of today's theater, placing it in useful historical perspective. While many may consider it a post-postmodern phenomenon, the "theater of the real," as it turns out, has very deep roots" -- From the publisher.

"This volume contains four representative French comedies of the period from the death of Moliere to the French Revolution." "Translated in a poetic form that seeks to capture the wit and spirit of the originals, these four plays suggest something of the range of the Moliere inheritance, from comedy of character through the highly popular sentimental comedy of the mid eighteenth century, to comedy that employs the Moliere tradition for more contemporary political ends." "In addition to their humor, these comedies provide social documents that show changing ideas about such perennial social concerns as class, gender, and politics through the turbulent century that ended in the revolutions that gave birth to the modern era."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume contains the first translation of the only three plays that survive from the medieval Arabic theater: the farces The Shadow Spirit, The Amazing Preacher and the Stranger, and The Love-Stricken One and the Lost One who Inspires Passion, created by Ibn Daniyal in thirteenth-century Cairo.