Charley's Aunt

Charley's Aunt PDF Author: Brandon Thomas
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1471771393
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 118

Get Book Here

Book Description
"I'm no ordinary woman..." Jack is in love with Kitty, Charley with Amy and both need Charley's Aunt to help. But when she doesn't turn up, they coerce their friend and fellow student into posing as the widowed millionaire, so they can confess their feelings to the girls. Things become more complicated when first, Jack's father and then Amy's uncle turn up. Both take a keen interest in Charley's Aunt, "from Brazil - where the nuts come from." One of the most popular comic farces of all time, Charley's Aunt has been loved since its original performances in 1893 and the continuous four year run that followed. The original dialogue is retained in this edition, refreshed with modern stage direction and a new introduction.

Charley's Aunt

Charley's Aunt PDF Author: Brandon Thomas
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1471771393
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 118

Get Book Here

Book Description
"I'm no ordinary woman..." Jack is in love with Kitty, Charley with Amy and both need Charley's Aunt to help. But when she doesn't turn up, they coerce their friend and fellow student into posing as the widowed millionaire, so they can confess their feelings to the girls. Things become more complicated when first, Jack's father and then Amy's uncle turn up. Both take a keen interest in Charley's Aunt, "from Brazil - where the nuts come from." One of the most popular comic farces of all time, Charley's Aunt has been loved since its original performances in 1893 and the continuous four year run that followed. The original dialogue is retained in this edition, refreshed with modern stage direction and a new introduction.

Farce

Farce PDF Author: Jessica Milner Davis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351520237
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
Farce has always been relegated to the lowest rung of the ladder of dramatic genres. Distinctions between farce and more literary comic forms remain clouded, even in the light of contemporary efforts to rehabilitate this type of comedy. Is farce really nothing more than slapstick-the "putting out of candles, kicking down of tables, falling over joynt-stools," as Thomas Shadwell characterized it in the seventeenth century? Or was his contemporary, Nahum Tate correct when he declared triumphantly that "there are no rules to be prescribed for that sort of wit, no patterns to copy; and 'tis altogether the creature of imagination"? Davis shows farce to be an essential component in both the comedic and tragic traditions. Farce sets out to explore the territory of what makes farce distinct as a comic genre. Its lowly origins date back to the classic Graeco-Roman theatre; but when formal drama was reborn by the process of elaboration of ritual within the mediaeval Church, the French term "farce" became synonymous with a recognizable style of comic performance. Taking a wide range of farces from the briefest and most basic of fair-ground mountebank performances to fully-fledged five-act structures from the late nineteenth century, the book reveals the patterns of comic plot and counter-plot that are common to all. The result is a novel classification of farce-plots, which serves to clarify the differences between farce and more literary comic forms and to show how quickly farce can shade into other styles of humor. The key is a careful balance between a revolt against order and propriety, and a kind of Realpolitik which ultimately restores the social conventions under attack. A complex array of devices in such things as framing, plot, characterization, timing and acting style maintain the delicate balance. Contemporary examples from the London stage bring the discussion u

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest PDF Author: Oscar Wilde
Publisher: First Avenue Editions ™
ISBN: 1467756547
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 93

Get Book Here

Book Description
Jack Worthing gets antsy living at his country estate. As an excuse, he spins tales of his rowdy brother Earnest living in London. When Jack rushes to the city to confront his "brother," he's free to become Earnest and live a different lifestyle. In London, his best friend, Algernon, begins to suspect Earnest is leading a double life. Earnest confesses that his real name is Jack and admits the ruse has become tricky as two women have become enchanted with the idea of marrying Earnest. On a whim, Algernon also pretends to be Earnest and encounters the two women as they meet at the estate. With two Earnests who aren't really earnest and two women in love with little more than a name, this play is a classic comedy of errors. This is an unabridged version of Oscar Wilde's English play, first published in 1899.

The Comedy of Errors

The Comedy of Errors PDF Author: William Shakespeare
Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
ISBN: 9781420926231
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 84

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The Comedy of Errors" is the story of two identical twins named Antipholus who are separated following a shipwreck 25 years earlier. Antipholus of Ephesus grows up in Ephesus with his mother, while Antipholus of Syracuse grows up in Syracuse with his father. Despite a ban on travel between the two cities, their father, Egeon, travels from Syracuse to Ephesus to try and find his long lost son and wife.

Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy

Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy PDF Author: Kathleen McCarthy
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824702
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
What pleasures did Plautus' heroic tricksters provide their original audience? How should we understand the compelling mix of rebellion and social conservatism that Plautus offers? Through a close reading of four plays representing the full range of his work (Menaechmi, Casina, Persa, and Captivi), Kathleen McCarthy develops an innovative model of Plautine comedy and its social effects. She concentrates on how the plays are shaped by the interaction of two comic modes: the socially conservative mode of naturalism and the potentially subversive mode of farce. It is precisely this balance of the naturalistic and the farcical that allows everyone in the audience--especially those well placed in the social hierarchy--to identify both with and against the rebel, to feel both the thrill of being a clever underdog and the complacency of being a securely ensconced authority figure. Basing her interpretation on the workings of farce and naturalism in Plautine comedy, McCarthy finds a way to understand the plays' patchwork literary style as well as their protean social effects. Beyond this, she raises important questions about popular literature and performance not only on ancient Roman stages but in cultures far from Plautus' Rome. How and why do people identify with the fictional figures of social subordinates? How do stock characters, happy endings, and other conventions operate? How does comedy simultaneously upset and uphold social hierarchies? Scholars interested in Plautine theater will be rewarded by the detailed analyses of the plays, while those more broadly interested in social and cultural history will find much that is useful in McCarthy's new way of grasping the elusive ideological effects of comedy.

Encyclopedia of Humor Studies

Encyclopedia of Humor Studies PDF Author: Salvatore Attardo
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 148334617X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 985

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Encyclopedia of Humor: A Social History explores the concept of humor in history and modern society in the United States and internationally. This work’s scope encompasses the humor of children, adults, and even nonhuman primates throughout the ages, from crude jokes and simple slapstick to sophisticated word play and ironic parody and satire. As an academic social history, it includes the perspectives of a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, child development, social psychology, life style history, communication, and entertainment media. Readers will develop an understanding of the importance of humor as it has developed globally throughout history and appreciate its effects on child and adult development, especially in the areas of health, creativity, social development, and imagination. This two-volume set is available in both print and electronic formats. Features & Benefits: The General Editor also serves as Editor-in-Chief of HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research for The International Society for Humor Studies. The book’s 335 articles are organized in A-to-Z fashion in two volumes (approximately 1,000 pages). This work is enhanced by an introduction by the General Editor, a Foreword, a list of the articles and contributors, and a Reader’s Guide that groups related entries thematically. A Chronology of Humor, a Resource Guide, and a detailed Index are included. Each entry concludes with References/Further Readings and cross references to related entries. The Index, Reader’s Guide themes, and cross references between and among related entries combine to provide robust search-and-browse features in the electronic version. This two-volume, A-to-Z set provides a general, non-technical resource for students and researchers in such diverse fields as communication and media studies, sociology and anthropology, social and cognitive psychology, history, literature and linguistics, and popular culture and folklore.

Pure Filth

Pure Filth PDF Author: Noah D. Guynn
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812251687
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book Here

Book Description
As Noah D. Guynn observes, early French farce has been summarily dismissed as filth for centuries. Renaissance humanists, classical moralists, and Enlightenment philosophes belittled it as an embarrassing reminder of the vulgarity of medieval popular culture. Modern literary critics and theater historians often view it as comedy's poor relation—trite, smutty pap that served to divert the masses and to inure them to lives of subservience. Yet, as Guynn demonstrates in his reexamination of the genre, the superficial crudeness and predictability of farce belie the complexities of its signifying and performance practices and the dynamic, contested nature of its field of reception. Pure Filth focuses on overlooked and occluded content in farce, arguing that apparently coarse jokes conceal finely drawn, and sometimes quite radical, perspectives on ethics, politics, and religion. Engaging with cultural history, political anthropology, and critical, feminist, and queer theory, Guynn shows that farce does not pander to the rabble in order to cultivate acquiescence or curb dissent. Rather, it uses the tools of comic theater—parody and satire, imitation and exaggeration, cross-dressing and masquerade—to address the urgent issues its spectators faced in their everyday lives: economic inequality and authoritarian rule, social justice and ethical renewal, sacramental devotion and sacerdotal corruption, and heterosocial relations and household politics. Achieving its subtlest effects by employing the lewdest forms of humor, farce reveals that aspirations to purity, whether ethical, political, or religious, are inevitably mired in the very filth they repudiate.

Every Man in His Humour

Every Man in His Humour PDF Author: Ben Jonson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106

Get Book Here

Book Description


Comedy for Animators

Comedy for Animators PDF Author: Jonathan Lyons
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1317679555
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book Here

Book Description
While comedy writers are responsible for creating clever scripts, comedic animators have a much more complicated problem to solve: What makes a physical character funny? Comedy for Animators breaks down the answer by exploring the techniques of those who have used their bodies to make others laugh. Drawing from traditions such as commedia dell’arte, pantomime, Vaudeville, the circus, and silent and modern film, animators will learn not only to create funny characters, but also how to execute gags, create a comic climate, and use environment as a character. Whether you’re creating a comic villain or a bumbling sidekick, this is the one and only guide you need to get your audience laughing! Explanation of comedic archetypes and devices will both inspire and inform your creative choices Exploration of various modes of storytelling allows you to give the right context for your story and characters Tips for creating worlds, scenarios, and casts for your characters to flourish in Companion website includes example videos and further resources to expand your skillset--check it out at www.comedyforanimators.com! Jonathan Lyons delivers simple, fun, illustrated lessons that teach readers to apply the principles of history’s greatest physical comedians to their animated characters. This isn’t stand-up comedy—it’s the falling down and jumping around sort!

The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy

The Cambridge Companion to Roman Comedy PDF Author: Martin T. Dinter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107002109
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 449

Get Book Here

Book Description
Provides a comprehensive critical engagement with Roman comedy and its reception presented by leading international scholars in accessible and up-to-date chapters.