New Sites For Shakespeare: Theatre, the Audience, and AsiaIn the course of exploring the theatrical cultures of South and East Asia, eminent Shakespeareanist John Russell Brown developed some remarkable theories about the nature of performance, the state of Western 'Theatre' today, and the future potential of Shakespeare's plays. In New Sites for Shakespeare he outlines his passionate belief in the power of theatre to reach mass audiences, based on his experiences of popular Asian performances. It is a personal polemic, but it is also a carefully argued and brilliantly persuasive study of the kind of theatrical experience Shakespeare's own contemporaries enjoyed. This is a book which cannot be ignored by anyone who cares about the live performing arts today. Separate chapters consider staging, acting, improvisation, ceremonies and ritual, and an analysis of the experience of the audience is paramount throughout. |
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achieve acting action active actors and audience amongst Asian Asian theatres attention audience's become behaviour boy actors Bunraku ceremony characters contemporary costumes critic cross-gender casting crowd dialogue director drama dramatist effect Elizabethan theatre ence encouraged entire entry experience focus give Hamlet happens on stage Henry the Fifth images imagination improvisation individual instinctive involved Jatra Kabuki Kerala King Lear Kutiyattam leading actors lives Macbeth mance Marathi Margi Madhu means mind night occasion onnagata open stage organisation Orissa Othello performance persons Peter Brook physical play's playtext political practice present Puri Ravana reactions rehearsals relationship repetition response Richard the Third ritual roles Russell Brown scene seemed seen sensations sense sexual Shakespeare's plays Shakespeare's texts share sometimes sound speak spectators speech story theatre company theatre director theatre of Japan theatrical tion Twelfth Night visual watch whole words