James Peck - Böcker

This volume assesses the contributions of David Belasco, Arthur Hopkins, and Margaret Webster, whose careers shaped the artistic and specialist identity of the Broadway director. Their work spans almost a century and captures the rapidly changing social and cultural landscape of 20th-century America. While their aesthetic styles differed greatly, they were united in their mastery of theatre craft and their impact on theatrical collaboration. The essays in this volume explore how these directors established and exploited Broadway as the epicentre of theatre in the United States, blended the role of producer and director, and managed the tensions between commercial success and artistic ambition.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

This volume assesses the accomplishments of three mid-20th century, North American stage directors: Harold Clurman, Orson Welles, and Margo Jones. Though their theatre-making endeavours were distinct, each produced work that challenged preconceived notions of theatre-making, all while working within the structure of a company. As directors drawn to the potential rewards of collaboration, all also were keenly adept at understanding how the relationship with a company of collaborators is often marked by struggle and crisis. The essays in this volume explore how these accomplished directors not only created bold work, but also drew on the complex energies of the theatre companies with which they worked to reimagine the shape and scope of theatre directing.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each major North American theatre director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

This volume chronicles the lives and artistry of Elia Kazan, Jerome Robbins, and Lloyd Richards. Their commitment to staging new works, which often focused on the experiences of immigrant and working-class families, significantly expanded the scope and possibilities of American theatre across the 20th century. It illuminates too their collaborations with a range of innovative theatre artists, including Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, Marlon Brando, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and August Wilson.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work oftwenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

George Abbott, Vinnette Carroll, and Harold (Hal) Prince were trailblazing figures who helped shape and define the Broadway musical over the course of the 20th century. Their careers expanded the boundaries of the genre, highlighting the critical role of the director in the creation of a new musical. As theatre history, the essays in this volume help to complicate and deepen the reader’s understanding of the musical genre of Broadway and of the enduring legacies of these three pioneers. As lessons in theatrical direction, they illustrate the particular issues involved in directing musicals, as well as the stakes of working commercially at the highest levels of the industry.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

Richard Schechner, Lee Breuer, and Anne Bogart share a spirit of profound adventure and that adventure is the redefinition of theatre itself. They are rare hybrids; the confluence of their theatrical roles as directors, scholars, theorists and teachers has placed them among the most influential thinker/practitioners of their generation. This book reveals the ways in which their consistent inquiry enabled them to re-examine, re-frame, and re-invent their own practice. The essays in this volume explore the ways in which Schechner, Breuer and Bogart have established powerful legacies of consistently innovative theatre most often created in the company of an ensemble of collaborative artists. Their influence is undeniable in the reformulation of theatre practices from the 1970s onward.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

This volume assesses the work of Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, and Robert Wilson, three artists who have revolutionized the craft of directing and the art of theatre in both related and unique ways. Though their early artistic backgrounds differ, ranging from architecture, music and dance to writing, they are similar in that none of them began their career as a director per se or received formal training as such. They each assumed the director’s role based on the demands of their complex artistic visions, which combine art forms, but resist synthesis, finding expression in the differences and tensions between the forms. The essays in this volume explore how these auteur directors combine text, movement, film, sound and music, installation and visual arts to achieve their visions, employing multi-perceptual modes to evoke full and rich theatrical experiences.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

This volume focuses on three artists who embrace media and technology as essential elements of their theatrical expression: Elizabeth LeCompte, Ping Chong, and Robert Lepage. Diverse in their aesthetic interests, they nevertheless share an approach to directing that includes technological media on stage as central to a rigorously crafted production concept. Technological elements live alongside and negotiate with the theatre’s human players, disclosing, shaping, and even intruding on the dramas they enact. The essays in this volume explore how all three directors have provided decisive responses to a question that has dogged the theatre for at least the last century: what relationship can theatre, an art form grounded in live, ephemeral, expression, have to technology?The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

The three directors gathered in this volume all approach theatre-making in part as an act of citizenship. Jesusa Rodríguez, Peter Sellars, and Reza Abdoh differ markedly in many important respects, but they all come to the theatre as an intervention in the public sphere. Rodríguez, Sellars, and Abdoh blend a spirit of social critique with acts of democratic community building. These essays examine how theatre, for them, is not a sphere of aesthetic experience insulated from the divisions, antagonisms, and alliances of a conflicted society. It is a way to forge fleeting but consequential communities that might reverberate through that society and affect its future development.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

The Great North American Stage Directors: Set 1 offers an authoritative account of the work, lineage and legacy of the major theatre directors prior to 1970, where the role of the director is seen primarily as interpreter. Across the four volumes it provides a uniquely rich study of the genealogy and development of a practice through focus on individual directors and the wider context and artform in which they worked. For professional practitioners and those developing their skills, as well as those engaged in the analysis of theatre practices, forms and history, it will prove an essential resource.Each volume provides substantial treatment of three major directors, with each director considered by two specialists, combining analysis of the director’s practical craft with accounts of the historical, cultural and theoretical context of their practice. Links between the featured directors and other artists and directors from the period are traced to round out the picture of influences and artistic development. Volume 1: David Belasco, Arthur Hopkins, Margaret Webster: Broadway Luminaries (edited by Cheryl Black, University of Missouri, USA)Volume 2: Harold Clurman, Orson Welles, Margo Jones: The Director in the Company (edited by Jonathan Chambers, Bowling Green State University, USA)Volume 3: Elia Kazan, Jerome Robbins, Lloyd Richards: Urban Spaces, Poetic Realisms (edited by Harvey Young, Boston University, USA)Volume 4: George Abbott, Vinnette Carroll, Harold Prince: Musical Theatre Innovators (edited by Henry Bial, University of Kansas, USA, and Chase Bringardner, Auburn University, USA)Featuring 36 illustrations, the eight volumes from Sets 1 and 2 of The Great North American Stage Directors series combine to present the most authoritative survey available on North American theatre directors.

Across the four volumes this set provides a uniquely rich study of the genealogy and development of a practice through focus on individual directors and the wider context and art form in which they worked. For professional practitioners and those developing their skills, as well as those engaged in the analysis of theatre practices, forms and history, it will prove an essential resource.Each volume provides substantial treatment of three major directors, with each director considered by two specialists, combining analysis of the director’s practical craft with accounts of the historical, cultural and theoretical context of their practice. Links between the featured directors and other artists and directors from the period are traced to round out the picture of influences and artistic development.Volume 5: Richard Schechner, Lee Breuer, Anne Bogart: Company Experiments (edited by Joan Herrington, Western Michigan University, USA)Volume 6: Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson: Landscapes of Perception (edited by Ann Shanahan, Purdue University, USA)Volume 7: Elizabeth LeCompte, Ping Chong, Robert Lepage: Multi-Media Interrogations (edited by Claudia Orenstein, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA, and James Peck, Muhlenberg College, USA)Volume 8: Jesusa Rodriguez, Peter Sellars, Reza Abdoh: Theatre in the Public Sphere (edited by James Peck, Muhlenberg College, USA)Featuring 64 illustrations, the eight volumes from Sets 1 and 2 of The Great North American Stage Directors series combine to present the most comprehensive and authoritative survey available on North American theatre directors.

The Great North American Stage Directors: Set 1 offers an authoritative account of the work, lineage and legacy of the major theatre directors prior to 1970, where the role of the director is seen primarily as interpreter. Across the four volumes it provides a uniquely rich study of the genealogy and development of a practice through focus on individual directors and the wider context and artform in which they worked. For professional practitioners and those developing their skills, as well as those engaged in the analysis of theatre practices, forms and history, it will prove an essential resource.Each volume provides substantial treatment of three major directors, with each director considered by two specialists, combining analysis of the director’s practical craft with accounts of the historical, cultural and theoretical context of their practice. Links between the featured directors and other artists and directors from the period are traced to round out the picture of influences and artistic development.Volume 1: David Belasco, Arthur Hopkins, Margaret Webster: Broadway Luminaries (edited by Cheryl Black, University of Missouri, USA)Volume 2: Harold Clurman, Orson Welles, Margo Jones: The Director in the Company (edited by Jonathan Chambers, Bowling Green State University, USA)Volume 3: Elia Kazan, Jerome Robbins, Lloyd Richards: Urban Spaces, Poetic Realisms (edited by Harvey Young, Boston University, USA)Volume 4: George Abbott, Vinnette Carroll, Harold Prince: Musical Theatre Innovators (edited by Henry Bial, University of Kansas, USA, and Chase Bringardner, Auburn University, USA)The eight volumes from Sets 1 and 2 of The Great North American Stage Directors series combine to present the most authoritative survey available on North American theatre directors.

This volume focuses on three artists who embrace media and technology as essential elements of their theatrical expression: Elizabeth LeCompte, Ping Chong, and Robert Lepage. Diverse in their aesthetic interests, they nevertheless share an approach to directing that includes technological media on stage as central to a rigorously crafted production concept. Technological elements live alongside and negotiate with the theatre’s human players, disclosing, shaping, and even intruding on the dramas they enact. The essays in this volume explore how all three directors have provided decisive responses to a question that has dogged the theatre for at least the last century: what relationship can theatre, an art form grounded in live, ephemeral, expression, have to technology?The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

The three directors gathered in this volume all approach theatre-making in part as an act of citizenship. Jesusa Rodríguez, Peter Sellars, and Reza Abdoh differ markedly in many important respects, but they all come to the theatre as an intervention in the public sphere. Rodríguez, Sellars, and Abdoh blend a spirit of social critique with acts of democratic community building. These essays examine how theatre, for them, is not a sphere of aesthetic experience insulated from the divisions, antagonisms, and alliances of a conflicted society. It is a way to forge fleeting but consequential communities that might reverberate through that society and affect its future development.The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

Across the four volumes this set provides a uniquely rich study of the genealogy and development of a practice through focus on individual directors and the wider context and art form in which they worked. For professional practitioners and those developing their skills, as well as those engaged in the analysis of theatre practices, forms and history, it will prove an essential resource.Each volume provides substantial treatment of three major directors, with each director considered by two specialists, combining analysis of the director’s practical craft with accounts of the historical, cultural and theoretical context of their practice. Links between the featured directors and other artists and directors from the period are traced to round out the picture of influences and artistic development.Volume 5: Richard Schechner, Lee Breuer, Anne Bogart: Company Experiments (edited by Joan Herrington, Western Michigan University, USA)Volume 6: Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman, Robert Wilson: Landscapes of Perception (edited by Ann Shanahan, Purdue University, USA)Volume 7: Elizabeth LeCompte, Ping Chong, Robert Lepage: Multi-Media Interrogations (edited by Claudia Orenstein, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, USA, and James Peck, Muhlenberg College, USA)Volume 8: Jesusa Rodriguez, Peter Sellars, Reza Abdoh: Theatre in the Public Sphere (edited by James Peck, Muhlenberg College, USA)The eight volumes from Sets 1 and 2 of The Great North American Stage Directors series combine to present the most comprehensive and authoritative survey available on North American theatre directors.

This book addresses a central question about the Cold War that has never been adequately resolved. Why did the United States go to such lengths, not merely to ""contain"" the People's Republic of China, but to isolate it from all diplomatic, cultural, and economic ties to other nations? Why, in other words, was American policy more hostile to China than to the Soviet Union, at least until President Nixon visited China in 1972? The answer, as set out here, lies in the fear of China's emergence as a power capable of challenging the new Asian order the United States sought to shape in the wake of World War II. To meet this threat, American policy-makers fashioned an ideology that was not simply or exclusively anticommunist, but one that aimed at creating an integrated, cooperative world capitalism under U.S. leadership - an ideology, in short, designed to outlive the Cold War. In building his argument, James Peck draws on a wide variety of little-known documents from the archives of the National Security Council and the CIA. He shows how American officials initially viewed China as a ""puppet"" of the Soviet Union, then as ""independent junior partner"" in a Sino-Soviet bloc, and finally as ""revolutionary model"" and sponsor of social upheaval in the Third World. Each of these constructs revealed more about U.S. perceptions and strategic priorities than about actual shifts in Chinese thought and conduct. All were based on the assumption that China posed a direct threat not just to specific U.S. interests and objectives abroad but to the larger vision of a new global order dominated by American economic and military power. Although the nature of ""Washington's China"" may have changed over the years, Peck contends that the ideology behind it remains unchanged, even today.