Colin Counsell – författare

Signs of Performance provides the beginning student with working examples of theatrical analysis. Its range covers the whole of twentieth century theatre, from Stanislavski to Brecht and Samuel Beckett to Robert Wilson. Colin Counsell takes an historical look at theatre as a cultural practice, clearly tracing connections between:* Key practitioners' ideas about performance* The theatrical practices prompted by those ideas* The resulting signs which emerge in performance* The meanings and political consequences of those signsIt provides an understandable theoretical framework for the study of theatre as a an signifying practice, and offers vivid explanations in clear, direct language. It opens up this fascinating field to a broad audience.

Signs of Performance provides the beginning student with working examples of theatrical analysis. Its range covers the whole of twentieth century theatre, from Stanislavski to Brecht and Samuel Beckett to Robert Wilson. Colin Counsell takes an historical look at theatre as a cultural practice, clearly tracing connections between:* Key practitioners' ideas about performance* The theatrical practices prompted by those ideas* The resulting signs which emerge in performance* The meanings and political consequences of those signsIt provides an understandable theoretical framework for the study of theatre as a an signifying practice, and offers vivid explanations in clear, direct language. It opens up this fascinating field to a broad audience.

This revolutionary introductory performance studies coursebook brings together classic texts in critical theory and shows how these texts can be used in the analysis of performance.The editors put their texts to work in examining such key topics as:* decoding the sign* the politics of performance* the politics of gender and sexual identity* performing ethnicity* the performing body* the space of performance* audience and spectatorship* the borders of performance.Each reading is clearly introduced, making often complex critical texts accessible at an introductory level and immediately applicavble to the field of performance. The ideas explored within these readings are further clarified through innovative, carefully tested exercises and activities.

This revolutionary introductory performance studies coursebook brings together classic texts in critical theory and shows how these texts can be used in the analysis of performance.The editors put their texts to work in examining such key topics as:* decoding the sign* the politics of performance* the politics of gender and sexual identity* performing ethnicity* the performing body* the space of performance* audience and spectatorship* the borders of performance.Each reading is clearly introduced, making often complex critical texts accessible at an introductory level and immediately applicavble to the field of performance. The ideas explored within these readings are further clarified through innovative, carefully tested exercises and activities.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceOne of the best-known eighteenth-century comedies of manners, Sheridan's first play, and still his most popular.Lydia Languish, a young woman from a good family, holds to an impossible romantic ideal of love, and resolves only to marry a pauper. So Jack Absolute pretends to be a poor soldier in order to win her hand. Meanwhile, Jack's father is attempting to procure the match through the proper channel of Lydia's guardian, and Jack becomes a rival to himself, before he is finally challenged to duels by rival suitors in both his identities...Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre, London, in 1775.This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceBen Jonson's comedy, one of the finest of the Jacobean era.Volpone is a Venetian aristocrat, a loveable rogue who enjoys the cunning pursuit of wealth more than money itself. Pretending to be mortally ill, he watches as his greedy neighbours swarm around him with expensive gifts in the hope of inheriting his fortune.Volpone was premiered by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, London, in 1606.This edition of Volpone, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited by R.B.Parker, and introduced by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceThe annual fair for St Bartholomew's Day is a bawdy celebration peopled by tricksters, thieves, prostitutes, pedlars and entertainers. Also drawn to the festivities are a group of ordinary citizens who find their respectable lives turned upside down, and their intolerant attitudes challenged by what they experience.Ben Jonson's Jacobean comedy was first performed at the Hope Playhouse in London in 1614.This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little PriceFrancis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a five-act satire on chivalric romances, generally considered the earliest whole parody (or pastiche) play in English.The play's structure is that of a play within a play. The intended performance of The London Merchant - the tale of an apprentice's efforts to win the hand of his master's daughter - is interrupted by a request from the audience to stage the story of a heroic grocer who kills a lion with a pestle. Rafe is dragged from the audience to play this hero. Both stories get muddled up and the conventions of theatre get thoroughly mauled.The play was first performed at Blackfriars Theatre, London, in 1607.This edition in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Colin Counsell.