Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities

Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities PDF Author: Peter Rankin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1783195835
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
The Official Biography by Peter Rankin ‘My only gift is to grow a show,’ said Joan Littlewood, annoyed by what she had not achieved. Even so, her ability to do just that put her and her company, Theatre Workshop, head and shoulders above mid twentieth-century theatre. In the year when she would have been a hundred, which includes three revivals and a commemorative stamp, Peter Rankin, who worked with Joan for 38 years and in whose flat she died, takes the papers she left him and goes back to the beginning. As she told him: ‘You know me better than I know myself.’ Drawing on Littlewood's personal archive, Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities observes at close hand one of the most influential theatre makers of the twentieth century. 'the most galvanising director in mid-20th century Britain.’ Peter Brook 'one of two undoubted geniuses of the post-war British theatre, the other being Peter Brook.’ Sir Peter Hall 'Joan Littlewood brought theatre to the people of east London and revolutionised the international theatre landscape with her bold and powerful productions. She was an inspiration to many and it’s important that we recognise the significance of her work...’ Kerry Michael, Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Stratford East

Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities

Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities PDF Author: Peter Rankin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1783195835
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Official Biography by Peter Rankin ‘My only gift is to grow a show,’ said Joan Littlewood, annoyed by what she had not achieved. Even so, her ability to do just that put her and her company, Theatre Workshop, head and shoulders above mid twentieth-century theatre. In the year when she would have been a hundred, which includes three revivals and a commemorative stamp, Peter Rankin, who worked with Joan for 38 years and in whose flat she died, takes the papers she left him and goes back to the beginning. As she told him: ‘You know me better than I know myself.’ Drawing on Littlewood's personal archive, Joan Littlewood: Dreams and Realities observes at close hand one of the most influential theatre makers of the twentieth century. 'the most galvanising director in mid-20th century Britain.’ Peter Brook 'one of two undoubted geniuses of the post-war British theatre, the other being Peter Brook.’ Sir Peter Hall 'Joan Littlewood brought theatre to the people of east London and revolutionised the international theatre landscape with her bold and powerful productions. She was an inspiration to many and it’s important that we recognise the significance of her work...’ Kerry Michael, Artistic Director, Theatre Royal Stratford East

Architecture, Media, Archives

Architecture, Media, Archives PDF Author: Ana Bonet Miró
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350345385
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Over 60 years on from its inception, the celebrated Fun Palace civic project – developed in the 1960s by the radical theatre director Joan Littlewood and the architect Cedric Price – continues to capture the architectural imagination. Despite the building itself never being realized, much of the previous analysis of the Fun Palace has been devoted to Price and his drawings. The critical role that Littlewood played, however, remains largely unrecognized by architectural scholarship, and a whole area of the project's cultural agenda remains overlooked. Architecture, Media, Archives is the first serious study of the complex relations between Littlewood and Price, reframing the Fun Palace as an extended media project and positioning Littlewood more clearly as co-designer. Drawing on extensive archival material, the book considers how, due to a lack of institutional support, the aims of the Fun Palace – to transform the passive mass-audiences of post-war consumer society into active citizens, through forms of self-directed, pleasure-led and open exchange – were realized through different 'sites of information' throughout the 1960s. From broadsheets, pamphlets and journals to films and press news, the book addresses the conditions of production, circulation, storage and reception of these 'sites' and reveals how they not only recorded the transformation of the project, but also fundamentally enhanced and informed its meaning in specific ways. The book also raises important questions about the agency of the Fun Palace archive in shaping the reception of the project in the decades since its inception, presenting its analysis through a novel 'Fun Palace Reception Index and Chart', fundamentally altering our view of the project itself and transforming the way in which we understand the technological and cultural production of the 1960s.

Joan's Book

Joan's Book PDF Author: Joan Littlewood
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474233244
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 601

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Book Description
'Once upon a time, the London theatre was a charming mirror held up to cosiness. Then came Joan Littlewood, smashing the glass, blasting the walls, letting the wind of life blow in a rough, but ready, world. Today, we remember this irresistible force with love and gratitude.' (Peter Brook) Along with Peter Brook, Joan Littlewood, affectionately termed 'The Mother of Modern Theatre', has come to be known as the most galvanising director of mid-twentieth-century Britain, as well as a founder of so many of the practices of contemporary theatre. The best-known work of Littlewood's company, Theatre Workshop, included the development and premieres of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey, Brendan Behan's The Hostage and The Quare Fellow, and the seminal Oh What A Lovely War. This autobiography, originally published in 1994, offers an unparalleled first-hand account of Littlewood's extraordinary life and career, from illegitimate child in south-east London to one of the most influential directors and practitioners of our times. It is published along with an introduction by Philip Hedley CBE, previously Artistic Director of Theatre Royal Stratford East and Assistant Director to Joan Littlewood.

Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making

Writing in Collaborative Theatre-Making PDF Author: Sarah Sigal
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137331704
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This engaging text explores the role of the writer and the text in collaborative practice through the work of contemporary writers and companies working in Britain, offering students and aspiring writers and directors effective practical strategies for collaborative work.

Who Is In the Room?

Who Is In the Room? PDF Author: Brooke O'Harra
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040089275
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
With this book, Brooke O’Harra takes up directing as an artistic practice in and of itself. Speaking beyond and against craft, O’Harra drives the art of directing forward. O’Harra investigates a series of important questions: How do we wrest our work from institutional imperatives of public building and culture building? How can an artist-driven discourse lead us toward the urgencies of artists and their publics in this moment? How do we “make” plays? How do we activate the relationships of making, whether between artists in the rehearsal room or between the production and the audience? Brooke addresses all aspects of the directorial process: reckoning with the script through dramaturgy, working within the rehearsal room, collaborating with other artists, as well as staging and production. This exploration will be of great interest to students and scholars in performance studies with a particular interest in directing.

Audio Drama Modernism

Audio Drama Modernism PDF Author: Tim Crook
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811582416
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Audio Drama and Modernism traces the development of political and modernist sound drama during the first 40 years of the 20th Century. It demonstrates how pioneers in the phonograph age made significant, innovative contributions to sound fiction before, during, and after the Great War. In stunning detail, Tim Crook examines prominent British modernist radio writers and auteurs, revealing how they negotiated their agitational contemporaneity against the forces of Institutional containment and dramatic censorship. The book tells the story of key figures such as Russell Hunting, who after being jailed for making ‘sound pornography’ in the USA, travelled to Britain to pioneer sound comedy and montage in the pre-Radio age; Reginald Berkeley who wrote the first full-length anti-war play for the BBC in 1925; and D.G. Bridson, Olive Shapley and Joan Littlewood who all struggled to give a Marxist voice to the working classes on British radio.

The Performer's Tale

The Performer's Tale PDF Author: Vanessa Morton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1800245130
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
A vivid and compelling biography of Patience Collier – an actress whose career spanned a golden age of performance from the 1930s to the 1980s – and an overview of theatre, film, TV and radio in Britain over half a century. Though Patience Collier's name has faded from public consciousness since her death in 1987, it still conjures cool memories of iconic television and film from the 1970s and 1980s – Sapphire and Steel, Who Pays the Ferryman, Fiddler on the Roof and The French Lieutenant's Woman. Fearsome, eccentric and unpredictable, Patience Collier was an actress whose perfectionism shone through in her every performance, and who worked alongside many of the most celebrated actors and directors of her time. Drawing on Collier's diaries, letters and photographs as well as interviews with those who worked with her, Vanessa Morton paints a portrait of a gifted and eccentric woman weaving her way through the twentieth century, and gives a panoramic overview of theatre, film, TV and radio in Britain over half a century. Part social history, part cultural history, The Performer's Tale is a richly entertaining account of an actor's life and times. 'I never met Patience Collier. Now, having read Vanessa Morton's richly entertaining book, I feel as if I did' Michael Billington, former theatre critic of the Guardian

Shakespeare and Stanislavsky

Shakespeare and Stanislavsky PDF Author: Annie Tyson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350249777
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
This book provides actors, directors, teachers and students with a clear, practical guide to applying the work of influential theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavsky to Shakespeare. Shakespeare and Stanislavsky provides a guide for actors, acting students, directors and teachers who want to apply the work of influential theatre practitioner, Stanislavsky, to the process of rehearsing and workshopping Shakespeare's play texts. Acting tutor and director, Annie Tyson, makes applying Stanislavsky's methods to Shakespeare simple and accessible. She rejects and dispels the myth held by some that Stanislavsky and Shakespeare are incompatible, showing instead how the Shakespearean text offers clues to specific acting choices that are intricately connected to action and character. Drawing on years of acting, directing and teaching experience at the Drama Centre London and RADA, Tyson's guide is full of practical tips and humour. This guide also includes a series of interviews with actors and directors who explain their approach to applying Stanislavsky to Shakespeare.

Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists

Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists PDF Author: Celia Brayfield
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1448218209
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
'Make this your next inspirational read. Trust us, it's Oprah's Book Club worthy' Vice In London in 1958, a play by a 19-year-old redefined women's writing in Britain. It also began a movement that would change women's lives forever. The play was A Taste of Honey and the author, Shelagh Delaney, was the first in a succession of young women who wrote about their lives with an honesty that dazzled the world. They rebelled against sexism, inequality and prejudice and in doing so challenged the existing definitions of what writing and writers should be. Bypassing the London cultural elite, their work reached audiences of millions around the world, paved the way for profound social changes and laid the foundations of second-wave feminism. After Delaney came Edna O'Brien, Lynne Reid-Banks, Charlotte Bingham, Nell Dunn, Virginia Ironside and Margaret Forster; an extraordinarily disparate group who were united in their determination to shake the traditional concepts of womanhood in novels, films, television, essays and journalism. They were as angry as the Angry Young Men, but were also more constructive and proposed new ways to live and love in the future. They did not intend to become a literary movement but they did, inspiring other writers to follow. Not since the Brontës have a group of young women been so determined to tell the truth about what it is like to be a girl. In this biographical study, the acclaimed author, Celia Brayfield, tells their story for the first time.

Directing the Decades

Directing the Decades PDF Author: Sue Dunderdale
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000430901
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Directing the Decades is an examination of the development of theatre in the UK since the revolution of the 1950s until the present day, viewed through the individual progress of a female director from a working-class background. In this book, theatre history and lessons on directing are interwoven: the history is presented decade by decade, examining particular productions. Each historical theatre chapter is followed by a method chapter examining directorial influences and techniques predominant in each decade, as well as examining the working experience of the author in that decade. The book also includes practical advice on the directing process, including exercises, plans for rehearsals, and camera plans. Sue Dunderdale offers a unique perspective on the evolution of theatre directing in the UK, and her work, which served as the foundation of the creation of the Theatre Lab and Directing program at RADA, continues to influence working directors today. Directing the Decades will be of interest to students and practitioners of theatre directing, acting, and theatre history, and to theatregoers with a consciousness of class and how it impacts on our lives. The book also offers access to online transcripts of interviews with 16 practitioners, including Rufus Norris, Michelle Terry, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Indhu Rubasingham, Nadia Latif, and Nadia Fall.