Overview

"In twenty-four chapters David Kaplan offers ideas, opinions, theories, and facts for someone who wants to be a theater artist today in hopes of creating their own vision of theater-making, one informed by, and in the context of, theater history. This book explores what theater artists have done before and what they, inspired by history, might do next. A non-lineal theater history, Shakespeare Shamans, and Show Biz explores theater as a shaman's vision, as a storyteller's heritage, as religious propaganda, as a mirror of life, as a critique of society, as a prompt for hard laughter, as fantasy, and as national epic, with plays as different (and the same) as the writings of August Wilson, Gertrude Stein, Shakespeare, and people who never made it into history. Each chapter explores a particular theme: ""The Middle Ages as a State of Mind,"" ""Commedia dell'arte and Molière,"" ""Shakespeare-To Begin,"" ""Euripides-Forever Modern,"" ""Aeschylus-Writing in an Age of Certainty,"" ""Sophocles and Aristotle-Defining Tragedy,"" ""Greek Comedy,"" ""Roman Theater,"" ""Asian Classics and Rules"" (Bunrakuken, Chikamatsu, Zeami), China-The Pear Garden and the Red Pear Garden,"" ""Neoclassic Theater and Why There is Such a Thing,"" ""Shakespeare's Classic,"" ""Bad Boys Breaking the Rules"" (Brecht, Ibsen, and Jarry), ""Inside Outside"" (Ibsen, Strindberg, Turgenev, Stanislavsky, Chekhov, Antoine), ""Beyond Illusion"" (Appia, Craig, Poel), ""Melodrama and Popular Theater in America"" (Aiken, Brice, Cohan, Stone, Tyler, Bert Williams), ""American Classic: Eugene O'Neill and Martha Graham,"" ""Expressionism to Epic"" (Brecht, Meyerhold, O'Neill, Piscator, Treadwell), ""American Agitprop: Overt and Disguised"" (Adler, Clurman, Flanagan, Kazan, Le Gallienne, Miller, Odets, Robeson, Strasberg, Wilder), ""Poetry of the Theater"" (Artaud, Breton, Cocteau, Ionesco, Kharms, Stein), ""Personal Mythology"" (Genet, Lorca, Mishima, Strindberg), ""Two Masters: Samuel Becket and Tennessee Williams,"" ""Theater of Identity"" (Baraka, Ensler, Kramer, Wilson), and ""Missing from History"" (Bonner, Fornés, Kennedy, Maeterlinck)."

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9781601822093

Table of Contents

Reviews

Understanding the past is validation for welcoming the new. David Kaplan serves up the past with delightful relish. His openness to its values expands the space for new insights. -Felicia Hardison Londre, University of Missouri Curators' Distinguished Professor Emerita of Theatre In his stimulating comprehensive consideration of culture and literature, David Kaplan has gifted us an intriguing discourse replete with insight and anecdote. -Suzanne Esper, Director, William Esper Studio Theater historians wince and my (hundreds of) students indulge in medieval dance, the minuet, and gossip of the French court because of David Kaplan's text. Anchored in storytelling and artifact, this text tracts the human history of theater and its connections to plays performed today. -Patricia Cregan Navarra, Hofstra University An inspiringly evocative, inspirational, and provocative storyteller, David Kapan truly understands the deep structure of theater history, illuminating the connectivity of our past and how it impacts the present without pretension or historical distance. -Mark Charney, Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at Texas Tech University

"""Understanding the past is validation for welcoming the new. David Kaplan serves up the past with delightful relish. His openness to its values expands the space for new insights."" -Felicia Hardison Londré, University of Missouri Curators' Distinguished Professor Emerita of Theatre ""In his stimulating comprehensive consideration of culture and literature, David Kaplan has gifted us an intriguing discourse replete with insight and anecdote."" -Suzanne Esper, Director, William Esper Studio ""Theater historians wince and my (hundreds of) students indulge in medieval dance, the minuet, and gossip of the French court because of David Kaplan's text. Anchored in storytelling and artifact, this text tracts the human history of theater and its connections to plays performed today."" -Patricia Cregan Navarra, Hofstra University ""An inspiringly evocative, inspirational, and provocative storyteller, David Kapan truly understands the deep structure of theater history, illuminating the connectivity of our past and how it impacts the present without pretension or historical distance."" -Mark Charney, Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at Texas Tech University"

Author Information

David Kaplan is the author of Five Approaches to Acting. He directs plays and teaches classes worldwide. Putting theory into practice, he refines theory. He has taught in Russia, Hong Kong, Ankara, Mexico, Italy, and the US.

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