Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre'

Download Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre' PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350157414
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre' by : Josh Stenberg

Download or read book Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre' written by Josh Stenberg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a stimulating introduction to the Hokkien music drama known as liyuanxi ('pear garden theatre'), heir and current expression of one of China's oldest unbroken xiqu ('Chinese opera') traditions. It considers the genre's history prior to the 20th century, its signal successes before and after the Cultural Revolution, and its national prominence today. Beginning with an analysis of the form's aesthetics and techniques, it proceeds to an overview of its rich and distinctive narrative repertoire, including several dramas unique to the genre. Josh Stenberg illustrates liyuanxi's distinctive musical and narrative qualities and presents the performance art's place, not only in Chinese drama and theatre history, but also in the culture of the historic port city of Quanzhou and the broader Hokkien region and diaspora. This study focuses on the work of the only professional theatre troupe in the genre, the Fujian Province Liyuanxi Experimental Theatre (FPLET), and examines the practice of director and leading actor Zeng Jingping, whose performances have focused attention on the genre's expression of women's desires and ambitions, and on her colleague, playwright Wang Renjie. It argues that new scripts engage with the issues of contemporary China while respecting the genre's traditions and conventions, and have led to rewritings of traditional repertoire by younger female authors. Stenberg's book skilfully demonstrates how a traditional theatre can adapt and thrive in a contemporary society, providing an indispensable introduction while whetting the appetite for the genre's exhilarating live performances.

Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre'

Download Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre' PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350157406
Total Pages : 193 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre' by : Josh Stenberg

Download or read book Liyuanxi - Chinese 'Pear Garden Theatre' written by Josh Stenberg and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a stimulating introduction to the Hokkien music drama known as liyuanxi ('pear garden theatre'), heir and current expression of one of China's oldest unbroken xiqu ('Chinese opera') traditions. It considers the genre's history prior to the 20th century, its signal successes before and after the Cultural Revolution, and its national prominence today. Beginning with an analysis of the form's aesthetics and techniques, it proceeds to an overview of its rich and distinctive narrative repertoire, including several dramas unique to the genre. Josh Stenberg illustrates liyuanxi's distinctive musical and narrative qualities and presents the performance art's place, not only in Chinese drama and theatre history, but also in the culture of the historic port city of Quanzhou and the broader Hokkien region and diaspora. This study focuses on the work of the only professional theatre troupe in the genre, the Fujian Province Liyuanxi Experimental Theatre (FPLET), and examines the practice of director and leading actor Zeng Jingping, whose performances have focused attention on the genre's expression of women's desires and ambitions, and on her colleague, playwright Wang Renjie. It argues that new scripts engage with the issues of contemporary China while respecting the genre's traditions and conventions, and have led to rewritings of traditional repertoire by younger female authors. Stenberg's book skilfully demonstrates how a traditional theatre can adapt and thrive in a contemporary society, providing an indispensable introduction while whetting the appetite for the genre's exhilarating live performances.

Korean Pansori as Voice Theatre

Download Korean Pansori as Voice Theatre PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350174904
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Korean Pansori as Voice Theatre by : Chan E. Park

Download or read book Korean Pansori as Voice Theatre written by Chan E. Park and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-11-16 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces readers to the historical, performative, and cultural context of pansori, a traditional Korean oral story-singing art. Written by a scholar-practitioner of the form, this study is structured in three parts and begins by introducing readers to the technical, aesthetic, and theoretical components of pansori, as well as the synthesis of vocal and percussive elements that stage the narrative. It moves on to reflect on the historical contexts of pansori, alongside Korea's transformation from Joseon monarchy to modern statehood. It argues that with colonial annexation came modernist influences that Korean dramatists and audiences used to create new genres of performance, using the common thread of pansori. The book's third part explores the interplay of preservation and innovation, beginning in the post-war period and continuing with developments in the 20th and 21st centuries that coincide with Korea's imprint on cultural globalization. Along with Korea's growth as a world economic center, a growing enthusiasm for Korean culture around the world has increased the transmission and visibility of pansori. This study argues that tradition and innovation are not as divergent as they are sometimes imagined to be and that tradition is the force that enables innovation. Drawing on Chan E. Park's ethnographic work and performance practice, this book interweaves expert knowledge of both the textual and performative aspects of pansori, rendering legible this dramatic tradition.

Kattaikkuttu

Download Kattaikkuttu PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350236624
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Kattaikkuttu by : Hanne M. de Bruin

Download or read book Kattaikkuttu written by Hanne M. de Bruin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-21 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to offer a clear introduction to Kattaikkuttu (or Terukkuttu), a vibrant, vocal and physical outdoor Tamil theatre tradition from India. It describes the theatre's characteristic heroic nature as expressed through its principal, male kattai characters, explores its history, social status and ritual context, and examines the production of all-night plays. After placing Kattaikkuttu in the wider, competitive context of the performing arts in India, Hanne M. de Bruin introduces readers to some of the debates about the form and provides an overview of the different elements that make up a Kattaikkuttu performance. It considers its performance spaces and the way the form has changed, such as its transition towards an independent and more professional theatre genre, as well as the opening up of the form to different castes and to women. It covers the production and frameworks of all-night performances, uses the Mahabharata play Karna Moksam as a case study and examines recent changes in the Kattaikkuttu repertory. In addition, the book looks in more detail at the role of the performer, including the training of a Kattaikkuttu novice, the performance score of actor-singers that underlie a specific role or vesam, and a seasoned performer's agency in interpreting well-known roles. Finally, the study turns to recent innovations, in particular the creation of new work and the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam.

Modern Tragedy

Download Modern Tragedy PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350139793
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Modern Tragedy by : James Moran

Download or read book Modern Tragedy written by James Moran and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-23 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What distinguishes modern tragedy from other forms of drama? How does it relate to contemporary political and social conditions? To what ends have artists employed the tragic form in different locations during the 20th century? Partly motivated by the urgency of our current situation in an age of ecocidal crisis, Modern Tragedy encompasses a variety of drama from throughout the 20th century. James Moran begins this book with John Millington Synge's Riders to the Sea (1904), which shows how environmental awareness might be expressed through tragic drama. Moran also looks at Brecht's reworking of Synge's drama in the 1937 play Señora Carrar's Rifles, and situates Brecht's script in the light of the theatre practitioner's broader ideas about tragedy. Brecht's tragic thinking – informed by Hegel and Marx – is contrasted with the Schopenhauerian approach of Samuel Beckett. The volume goes on to examine theatre makers whose ideas were partly motivated by applying an understanding of the tragic narrative of Synge's Riders to the Sea to postcolonial contexts. Looking at Derek Walcott's The Sea at Dauphin (1954), and J.P. Clark's The Goat (1961), Modern Tragedy explores how tragedy, a form that is often associated with regressive assumptions about hegemony, might be rethought, and how aspects of the tragic may coincide with the experiences and concerns of authors and audiences of colour.

Badhai

Download Badhai PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350174556
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Badhai by : Adnan Hossain

Download or read book Badhai written by Adnan Hossain and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full-length book to provide an introduction to badhai performances throughout South Asia, examining their characteristics and relationships to differing contexts in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Badhai's repertoires of songs, dances, prayers, and comic repartee are performed by socially marginalised hijra, khwaja sira, and trans communities. They commemorate weddings, births and other celebratory heteronormative events. The form is improvisational and responds to particular contexts, but also moves across borders, including those of nation, religion, genre, and identity. This collaboratively authored book draws from anthropology, theatre and performance studies, music and sound studies, ethnomusicology, queer and transgender studies, and sustained ethnographic fieldwork to examine badhai's place-based dynamics, transcultural features, and communications across the hijrascape. This vital study explores the form's changing status and analyses these performances' layered, scalar, and sensorial practices, to extend ways of understanding hijra-khwaja sira-trans performance.

Chinese Street Opera in Singapore

Download Chinese Street Opera in Singapore PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252055896
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chinese Street Opera in Singapore by : Tong Soon Lee

Download or read book Chinese Street Opera in Singapore written by Tong Soon Lee and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2024-02-12 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Singapore declared independence from Malaysia in 1965, Chinese street opera has played a significant role in defining Singaporean identity. Carefully tracing the history of amateur and professional performances in Singapore, Tong Soon Lee reflects on the role of street performance in fostering cultural nationalism and entrepreneurship. He explains that the government welcomes Chinese street opera performances because they combine tradition and modernism and promote a national culture that brings together Singapore's four main ethnic groups--Eurasian, Malay, Chinese, and South Asian. Chinese Street Opera in Singapore documents the ways in which this politically motivated art form continues to be influenced and transformed by Singaporean politics, ideology, and context in the twenty-first century. By performing Chinese street opera, amateur troupes preserve their rich heritage, underscoring the Confucian mind-set that a learned person engages in the arts for moral and unselfish purposes. Educated performers also control behavior, emotions, and values. They are creative and innovative, and their use of new technologies indicates a modern, entrepreneurial spirit. Their performances bring together diverse ethnic groups to watch and perform, Lee argues, while also encouraging a national attitude focused on both remembering the past and preparing for the future in Singapore.

Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture

Download Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 041577716X
Total Pages : 1158 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (157 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture by : Edward Lawrence Davis

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture written by Edward Lawrence Davis and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2005 with total page 1158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Chinese Theatre

Download Chinese Theatre PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 0521186668
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (211 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chinese Theatre by : Jin Fu

Download or read book Chinese Theatre written by Jin Fu and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese opera has a history of over 800 years. However, since the early twentieth century, following increased contact with the West, drama without music has also become popular in China. The development and prosperity of modern drama has created a new landscape for Chinese theater, which, as a whole, has become more diverse.

Hokkien Theatre Across The Seas

Download Hokkien Theatre Across The Seas PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9811318344
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (113 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hokkien Theatre Across The Seas by : Caroline Chia

Download or read book Hokkien Theatre Across The Seas written by Caroline Chia and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book adopts a refreshing approach by examining Hokkien theatre in a region connected by maritime networks, notably southern Fujian, Taiwan, Kinmen and Singapore. It considers how regional theatre is shaped by broader socio-cultural and political contexts and the motivation to stay relevant in an era of modernisation and secularisation. Political domains are often marked out by land boundaries, but the sea concept denotes fluidity, allowing theatrical forms to spread across these ‘land-bounded’ societies and share a common language and culture. "This is an insightful theatrical study on the web of Chinese cultural networks in southern China and Singapore, and by extension, between China and Southeast Asia in the twentieth century and beyond. Using diverse sources in multiple languages and extensive field ethnography, this is a ground-breaking study which is both didactic and inspiring." - Lee Tong Soon, author of Chinese Street Opera in Singapore (University of Illinois, 2009). "Focusing on Hokkien theatre, this book offers new insights into how Chinese performing art responds to geographical, temporal, and social changes. Historical sources in different languages are widely used to give access to the cultural characteristics of Hokkien theatre, offering valuable ethnographic reports on the contemporary practices of Hokkien theatre in Taiwan, Kinmen, and Singapore. The book comments on the changing ritualistic significance of Hokkien theatre, and help us understand how societies remember the past of a performing tradition, and shape its present." - Luo Ai Mei, Co-Editor of A Preliminary Survey of the Cantonese Eight Song Cycles in South China: History and Sources (2016)

Mediums, Puppets, and the Human Actor in the Theatres of the East

Download Mediums, Puppets, and the Human Actor in the Theatres of the East PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mediums, Puppets, and the Human Actor in the Theatres of the East by : Poh Sim Plowright

Download or read book Mediums, Puppets, and the Human Actor in the Theatres of the East written by Poh Sim Plowright and published by Edwin Mellen Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of mediums, puppets and the human actor in the theatres of the east. It brings together a powerful universal myth - that of the Birdwoman, which has been the inspiration of several Asian theatres and the subject of many Asian plays - and the connection between string-puppet and human actor movements within the Asian theatrical tradition. It is a study of theatre as ritual and power-struggle, and the author presents an analysis of Lady Joruri, herself a semi-mythical figure, who gave her name to the world's most sophisticated puppet theatre.

Decades of Modern American Drama

Download Decades of Modern American Drama PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
ISBN 13 : 9781472572646
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (726 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Decades of Modern American Drama by : Julia Listengarten

Download or read book Decades of Modern American Drama written by Julia Listengarten and published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of modern American drama from the 1930s to the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century

Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries

Download Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350200875
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries by : Nely Keinänen

Download or read book Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries written by Nely Keinänen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-27 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charting the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries in the 19th century, this opens up an area of global Shakespeare studies that has received little attention to date. With case studies exploring the earliest translations of Hamlet into Danish; the first translation of Macbeth and the differing translations of Hamlet into Swedish; adaptations into Finnish; Kierkegaard's re-working of King Lear, and the reception of the African-American actor Ira Aldridge's performances in Stockholm as Othello and Shylock, it will appeal to all those interested in the reception of Shakespeare and its relationship to the political and social conditions. The volume intervenes in the current discussion of global Shakespeare and more recent concepts like 'rhizome', which challenge the notion of an Anglocentric model of 'centre' versus 'periphery'. It offers a new assessment of these notions, revealing how the dissemination of Shakespeare is determined by a series of local and frequently interlocking centres and peripheries, such as the Finnish relation to Russia or the Norwegian relation with Sweden, rather than a matter of influence from the English Cultural Sphere.

Consuming Scenography

Download Consuming Scenography PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350110906
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Consuming Scenography by : Nebojša Tabacki

Download or read book Consuming Scenography written by Nebojša Tabacki and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-25 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Longlisted for the PQ Best Publication Award in Performance Design & Scenography 2023 Consuming Scenography offers an insight into contemporary scenographic practice beyond the theatre. It explores the ways in which scenography is used to create a global cultural impact and accelerate profits in the site-specific context of themed shopping malls. It analyses the effect of the architectural, aesthetic, spatial, material and sensory aspects of design through their performative encounters with consumers in order to offer a better understanding of performance design. In the first part the author explores the spatial seduction of an enclosed market space and traces the origins of scenographic temporality in permanent architectonic spaces for trade and commerce, from ancient Greek and Roman roofed markets and Oriental bazaars to 19th-century arcades and department stores to modern-day shopping malls.The second section addresses the site-specific theatricality of the shopping mall, considering the use of performative aspects of scenography in the creation of corporate identity. It engages with production and consumption of experience in themed shopping malls, using historical, aesthetical, social and political lenses. In the final section, the author intertwines fluidity of market changes with flexibility of scenographic matter, drawing attention to both contradictions and prospects that merging of scenography and architecture can bring along. Considering a variety of case studies of themed shopping malls, including the Ibn Battuta Mall in Dubai, Terminal 21 in Bangkok, the Villaggio in Doha and Montecasino in Johannesburg, as well as further examples from Europe, USA and Asia – this book provides a wide-ranging critical examination of the ways in which scenographic thinking and practices are exploited in wider cultural contexts for impact, branding, and higher profits.

Minority Stages

Download Minority Stages PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824880277
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Minority Stages by : Josh Stenberg

Download or read book Minority Stages written by Josh Stenberg and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-08-31 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minority Stages: Sino-Indonesian Performance and Public Display offers intriguing new perspectives on historical and contemporary Sino-Indonesian performance. For the first time in a major study, this community’s diverse performance practices are brought together as a family of genres. Combining fieldwork with evidence from Indonesian, Chinese, and Dutch primary and secondary sources, Josh Stenberg takes a close look at Chinese Indonesian self-representation, covering genres from the Dutch colonial period to the present day. From glove puppets of Chinese origin in East Java and Hakka religious processions in West Kalimantan, to wartime political theatre on Sumatra and contemporary Sino-Sundanese choirs and dance groups in Bandung, this book takes readers on a tour of hybrid and diverse expressions of identity, tracing the stories and strategies of minority self-representation over time. Each performance form is placed in its social and historical context, highlighting how Sino-Indonesian groups and individuals have represented themselves locally and nationally to the archipelago’s majority population as well as to Indonesian state power. In the last twenty years, the long political suppression of manifestations of Chinese culture in Indonesia has lifted, and a wealth of evidence now coming to light shows how Sino-Indonesians have long been an integral part of Indonesian culture, including the performing arts. Valorizing that contribution challenges essentialist readings of ethnicity or minority, complicates the profile of a group that is often considered solely in socioeconomic terms, and enriches the understanding of Indonesian culture, Southeast Asian Chinese identities, and transnational cultural exchanges. Minority Stages helps counter the dangerous either/or thinking that is a mainstay of ethnic essentialism in general and of Chinese and Indonesian nationalisms in particular, by showing the fluidity and adaptability of Sino-Indonesian identity as expressed in performance and public display.

Theory for Theatre Studies: Space

Download Theory for Theatre Studies: Space PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350006084
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Theory for Theatre Studies: Space by : Kim Solga

Download or read book Theory for Theatre Studies: Space written by Kim Solga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-02-07 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Space: it's everywhere, all around, a given. It's abstract and yet not abstract at all, because it governs all human relations, shapes the way we understand our place on the planet, and orients us toward others (for better and for worse). How do theatre scholars understand space and place in performance? What tools do they use to theorize the political work space does on – and beyond – the stage? How can students use these tools to unpack the workings of space and place in the performances they see, the plays they study, and the experiences they have outside their classrooms? Theory for Theatre Studies: Space provides a comprehensive introduction to the 'spatial turn' in modern theatre and performance theory, exploring topics as diverse as embodied space, environmental performance politics and urban performance studies. The book is written in accessible prose and features in-depth case studies of Platform's audio walk And While London Burns, Katie Mitchell's Fraülein Julie, Young Jean Lee's The Shipment, and Evalyn Parry and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory's Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools. TfTS: Space begins with fresh readings of historical dramatic theory, discusses twentieth-century theoretical trends at length, and ends by asking what it will take (and what work is already underway) to decolonize the Western, settler-colonial stage. Online resources to accompany this book are available at: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/theory-for-theatre-studies-space-9781350006072/

Theories of Performance:

Download Theories of Performance: PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350118079
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Theories of Performance: by : Kélina Gotman

Download or read book Theories of Performance: written by Kélina Gotman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Theories of Performance: Critical and Primary Sources offers a comprehensive collection of key writings on a subject which has come to permeate fields as diverse as theatre, comparative literature, philosophy, geography, history, English, science and technology studies, in what has been termed the transdisciplinary 'performative turn'. The collected essays draw upon writing from these diverse disciplines, together illustrating how performance has become an ever more vibrant and plastic discursive practice. It includes perspectives from regions and disciplines less well-represented in performance theory up to now, including from East Asia and the Middle East, as well as from material sciences and engineering, physics, and education theory. Selections also include indigenous and otherwise politically marginalized perspectives from within and outside the academic field of Performance Studies. Each volume is introduced by the editor and arranged thematically, with writings in chronological sequence so that the development of ideas can be traced within a theme. The set includes 90 essays covering the following major areas: discipline, method, documentation, and body politic. Together the four volumes of Theories of Performance present a major scholarly resource for the field"--