Samuel Leiter - Böcker

The most reliable source for data on productions of the New York stage, both Broadway and Off Broadway, is now complete from 1920 through 1950 with the publication of this third volume devoted to the 1940s. The volumes for 1920-1930 and 1930-1940 have been called invaluable, indispensable, essential, and other superlatives by reviewers, widely utilized by theatre scholars and researchers, consulted by companies producing revivals, and quoted by Playbill magazine in answering readers' queries. The continuing series represents a remarkable achievement for theatre historian Samuel Leiter, who singlehandedly has set out to provide such detailed coverage of New York theatre in the twentieth century.Like its predecessor volumes, The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage, 1940-1950 provides a description of every legitimate production--play, musical, revue, or revival; English-language or foreign-language, domestic or import--staged in the New York professional theatre and reviewed by the press during the decade: in this case, nearly 1150 productions. Each listing begins with genre designation and subject categorization and proceeds to writing and production credits, theatre, opening dates, and run. The narrative text that follows, provides, along with plot summary, a lively account of background, anecdotal commentary from biographies and autobiographies, and critical responses to play and production with reference to and quotes from reviews. Ten appendixes offer listings of plays chronologically and in categories as well as play sources, awards, information on theatres, institutional theatres, foreign companies, reviewers, and various statistics. A selected bibliography and indexes of proper names and titles complete the work. The volume introduction is itself a history of New York theatre in the period of World War II and its aftermath. It deals with the hazardous business of theatre, both commercial and nonprofit, with the critical establishment of the day, with the increasing professionalism of Off Broadway, with ethnic theatre and visiting companies, and provides a fascinating overview of production highlights. Although the 1940s is not regarded as a landmark era in American theatre, it did see first productions of such classics as Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's breakthrough musical Oklahoma! This volume and the predecessor volumes of this encyclopedia series are indispensable reference tools.

The careers, directing accomplishments, ideas, and techniques of six distinguished directors of the European stage--each considered a master of the art--are surveyed in depth by author Samuel L. Leiter in this groundbreaking study. Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Max Reinhardt, Jacques Copeau, Bertolt Brecht, and Jean-Louis Barrault, representative of the broad spectrum of directorial art as it has developed in this century, are examined in six exhaustively detailed, yet compact chapters. In Leiter's informative introduction, salient aspects of the director's art exemplified by these innovators are identified and examined: choice of repertory from the intellectually provocative to the escapist; stylistic attitudes toward production from Stanislavsky's spiritual naturalism to Meyerhold's biomechanics and constructivism; rehearsal methods from the dictatorial to the openly collaborative; and a continuing fascination with the shape and function of the performance space. Many of the directors emerge as multifaceted hommes de theatre--writing, directing, acting, designing sets and lighting, and producing. The theoretical writings of the majority of these great directors have become the foundation for Western theatre thought in our time. Each chapter contains capsule descriptions of the landmark productions of the individual director and the volume concludes with a section of brief chronologies for each person and a select bibliography.A single director is the subject of each of the six chapters, which are organized into numerous subsections that discuss the individual's career, his overarching conceptions of theatre art and directing, and finally his actual working methods. Almost every chapter has information on a director's repertory, major productions, theoretical concerns, techniques of working with actors, playwrights, designers, and composers, casting methods, production preparations, and rehearsal processes. Taken as a whole, these chapters reveal the wide divergence of directorial styles and techniques and the multiplicity of approaches open to exponents of the art. The separate chronologies and select bibliography are especially helpful. Students of stage directing and their teachers, active professionals in the field, and literate general readers who seek a broader understanding of twentieth century theatre and stage direction will find this a handy and invaluable resources. This work could be profitably used as a text or supplementary reading for classes in stage directing and is a companion to Leiter's From Belasco to Brook: Representative Directors of the English-Speaking Stage (Greenwood Press, 1991).

This multifaceted study, the companion volume to Leiter's From Stanislavsky to Barrault: Representative Directors of the European Stage (Greenwood Press, 1991), provides exhaustively detailed, yet compact accounts of the careers and accomplishments of eight outstanding directors of the English-speaking stage as well as separate, thorough bibliographies and chronologies of each. Samuel L. Leiter selected directors David Belasco, Harley Granville-Barker, George Abbott, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, Margaret Webster, Elia Kazan, Joan Littlewood, and Peter Brook as exemplars of the broad spectrum of directorial art as it has developed in the twentieth century; his cogent introduction identifies salient aspects of that art and reveals the wide divergence of directorial styles and techniques employed by the group. From commercial to classic to avant garde, their stylistic attitudes toward production include Belasco's minutely detailed naturalism, Guthrie's whimsical interpretations of the classics, and Littlewood's improvisational, anti-establishment, left-wing stance. Their varied rehearsal methods show how these directorial greats transformed the nature of the theatre experience through their unique vision of what stage production could encompass. Innovations by these directors in both the shape and function of the performance space are highlighted as are their theatre writings, many of which form the foundation for Western theatrical thought in our times.Following the introduction, each of the eight chapters is organized into subsections that discuss the individual director's career, concept of theatre art and directing, and actual working methods. Each director is thoroughly assessed in terms of repertory, major productions, theoretical concerns, casting methods, rehearsal processes, and techniques of working with actors, playwrights, designers, and composers. Separate chronologies and a select bibliography complete the work, which will have significant appeal to a diverse group of readers, from stage directing students and their teachers to active professionals in the field and those general readers seeking a broader understanding of twentieth century theatre and stage direction. An excellent choice for text or supplementary reading for classes in stage directing.

Kabuki has been a part of Japanese culture for nearly four centuries. The plays performed today are generally selected from a classic repertoire that gradually ceased to develop once Japan broke the chains of its isolationist policy and began the surge toward Westernization. The plays largely reflect the values of feudal Japan, and they portray a world of noble samurai overcoming evil adversaries, adulterous lovers overcoming their dilemmas through double suicide, parents sacrificing their children in the name of loyalty to a superior, and children giving up their lives for the sake of their parents. Productions typically contain spectacular sets, elaborate costumes, and colorful makeup. Though kabuki is so essential to the heritage of Japan, it still remains largely a beautiful mystery to the West. This reference book is a comprehensive guide to the fascinating world of kabuki.An extensive revision and expansion of the 1979 Kabuki Encyclopedia, this volume is the most comprehensive guide to Japan's kabuki theatre in any language other than Japanese. The present volume includes many new illustrations, a lengthy and detailed index, thorough cross-referencing, greatly expanded descriptions of plays, an extensive bibliography of English-language and Japanese sources, and more than 400 new entries. A major feature is the inclusion of Japanese characters for all main entry terms, titles, and names. The entries are arranged alphabetically, and the volume's appendices include a chronological table of kabuki history, a list of all major or formal play titles, a list of all variant or popular titles, genealogical charts, and a list of all major actors' stage nicknames (yago) currently in use.

Provides a comprehensive and even-handed overview of the very contentious subject of affirmative action.Racism, sexism, and ethnic discrimination have long represented a seemingly intractable problem. Affirmative action was conceived as an attack on these ingrained problems, but today it is widely misunderstood. This volume reviews new developments in affirmative action law, policy, and ideological conflict in the areas of employment, education, voting, and housing. The revised edition adds a discussion of age, disability, and sexual-orientation discrimination, providing a truly comprehensive portrait of affirmative action that is informed by history, law, political science, sociology, and economics.

Provides a comprehensive and even-handed overview of the very contentious subject of affirmative action.Racism, sexism, and ethnic discrimination have long represented a seemingly intractable problem. Affirmative action was conceived as an attack on these ingrained problems, but today it is widely misunderstood. This volume reviews new developments in affirmative action law, policy, and ideological conflict in the areas of employment, education, voting, and housing. The revised edition adds a discussion of age, disability, and sexual-orientation discrimination, providing a truly comprehensive portrait of affirmative action that is informed by history, law, political science, sociology, and economics.