Overview

Shaw's plays are nothing but talk. That complaint has echoed down the years, even receiving wry support from Shaw himself. Though critics has sometimes suggested that Shaw's Theatre of Ideas was thought-provoking but dramatically weak, the production record stands in refutation of this claim, for audiences throughout this century have responded to Shaw the Playwright by attending performances of his plays in numbers unrivaled by any of his contemporaries. A variety of perspectives demonstrate Shaw's performance qualities. Production records are used by two of the authors to demonstrate Shaw's remarkable ability to fill theaters, one providing a Shavian history of the Malvern Festival (where even his talky late plays were shown to be stageworthy), and the other detailing the phenomenal stage history of Man and Superman. Other authors focus on the visual and auditory aspects of the plays, examining how sets and props and onstage movement underscore and extend what is being said, and how meanings are conveyed not just by Shaw's words, but by the way an actor says those words-the emphases, the silences, and the interplay of words and sound effects. Two little-known pieces by Shaw included in this volume reveal his concern, as both playwright and director, with the effective utilization of staging elements. this theme is continued in essays examining his direction of The Devil's Disciple and Pygmalion.

Full Product Details

Author:   Daniel Leary ,  Daniel J. Leary ,  Daniel J. Leary
Publisher:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint:   Pennsylvania State University Press
Volume:   v. 3
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.603kg
ISBN:  

9780271003467

ISBN 10:   0271003464
Pages:   268
Publication Date:   01 October 1990
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Undergraduate ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Out of stock  

Table of Contents

CONTENTS 1. FROM PAGE TO STAGE TO AUDIENCE IN SHAW 1 Daniel Leary 2. LESS SCENERY WOULD MEAN BETTER DRAMA 25 Bernard Shaw 3. DIRECTING EARLY SHAW: ACTING AND MEANING IN MRS WARREN'S PROFESSION 29 Gladys M. Crane 4. THE ACTION OF SHAW'S SETTINGS AND PROPS 41 Charles A. Berst 5. SHAW LISTENS TO THE ACTORS: THE COMPLETION OF THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE 67 Robert F. Whitman 6. MAN AND SUPERMAN. NOTES FOR A STAGE HISTORY 79 T. F. Evans 7. FUSION OF CHARACTER AND SETTING: ARTISTIC STRATEGY IN MAJOR BARBARA 103 Robert G. Everding 8. BILL WALKER'S SOVEREIGN: A NOTE ON SOURCES 117 Cary M. Mazer 9. BEYOND THE VERBAL IN PYGMALION 121 Richard Hornby 10. THE DIRECTOR AS INTERPRETER: SHAW'S PYGMALION 129 Bernard F. Dukore 11. IMAGINING SAINT JOAN 149 Michael W. Pharand 12. HOW BERNARD SHAW PRODUCES PLAYS: AS TOLD BY LILLAH MCCARTHY 163 13. ON SPEAKING SHAW: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANN CASSON 169 Barbara J. Small 14. ON DIRECTING SHAW. AN INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN PORTER 181 Julius Novick 15. GENIUS LOCI : THE MALVERN FESTIVAL TRADITION 191 David Nathan REVIEWS THE EARLY PLAY MANUSCRIPTS IN FACSIMILE 219 Barbara Bellow Watson, Elsie B. Adams, Gale Larson, Frederick P.W. McDowell ,and Arthur Zucker MUSIC CRITICISM FOR DEAF STOCKBROKERS 235 Stanley Weintraub THE EVOLUTION OF SHAW'S THOUGHT 245 Warren Sylvester Smith SHAW IN THE HISPANIC WORLD 246 Elsie B. Adams A CONTINUING CHECKLIST OF SHAVIANA 251 John R. Pfeiffer CONTRIBUTORS 261

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