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Upcoming Theater Book Releases for December 2011

Welcome to BroadwayWorld.com's new upcoming release calendar for Broadway and theatre related Books for December, 2011. For a complete schedule of upcoming releases as well as searchable databases of thousands of the top theatre books, cds and videos, click here.

The Sketchbooks of Jocelyn Herbert
by Stephen Farthing, Richard Eyre
Released on Royal Academy Publications on 12/1/11

From her early work with such writers as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, and John Osborne, to her time with Laurence Olivier at The National Theatre, Jocelyn Herbert (1917–2003) pioneered a simple yet atmospheric set design style that remains influential today. Britain’s leading stage designer brought her innovative approach to the big screen on such films as Lindsay Anderson’s Isadora. Published ... (more...)

The Cultural Politics of Twentieth-Century Spanish Theater: Representing the Auto Sacramental
by Carey Kasten
Released on Bucknell University Press on 12/1/11

The Cultural Politics of Twentieth-Century Spanish Theater argues that twentieth-century artists used the Golden Age Eucharist plays called autos sacramentales to reassess the way politics and the arts interact in the Spanish nation’s past and present, and to posit new ideas for future relations between the state and the national culture industry. The book traces the phenomenon of the twentieth-c... (more...)

Stage and Screen: Adaptation Theory from 1916 to 2000
by Bert Cardullo
Released on Continuum on 12/1/11

Far too often young theater and film artists, as well as educators, make the jump from film to theater without being fully aware of the ways in which the qualities of each medium affect content and artistic expression. Starting with a history of the relationship between theater and film, the collection includes essays from a variety of writers, directors, and theorists by examining the differences... (more...)

Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels and Stage Europeans in African American Performance
by Marvin McAllister
Released on The University of North Carolina Press on 12/2/11

In the early 1890s, black performer Bob Cole turned blackface minstrelsy on its head with his nationally recognizEd Whiteface creation, a character he called Willie Wayside. Just over a century later, hiphop star Busta Rhymes performed a whiteface supercop in his hit music video "Dangerous." In this sweeping work, Marvin McAllister explores the enduring tradition of "whiting up," in which African ... (more...)

Authoring Performance: The Director in Contemporary Theatre
by Avra Sidiropoulou
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/6/11

Provides a comparative approach to the internationally wide-spread phenomenon of the contemporary director-auteur in the theatre, urging a historical and theoretical exploration of the visions, methods, and stage idioms in the work of established artists. Sidiropoulou examines prominent examples of both older and more recent director-auteur work, aiming at re-asserting – to its artistic and academ... (more...)

The Stage Lighting - The Technicians Guide: An On-The-Job Reference Tool
by Skip Mort
Released on Methuen Drama on 12/6/11

Stage technicians or “teckies” traditionally apprentice for knowledge about their craft. This is a new, unique practical guide for teckies that can be read or used as a reference manual for all aspects of stage lighting, from equipment to lighting a performance space to special effects and design. Information is easily accessed through tabbed sections and keywords. The information in each chap... (more...)

Hat Box: The Collected Lyrics of Stephen Sondheim
by Stephen Sondheim
Released on Knopf on 12/6/11

A new boxed set from Knopf featuring Stephen Sondheim lyric books: Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes and Look I Made a Hat: with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Wafflings, Diversions and Anecdotes. ... (more...)

The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights
by Aleks Sierz, Martin Middeke, Peter Paul Schnierer
Released on Methuen Drama on 12/6/11

The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights is an authoritative guide to the work of twenty-five playwrights who have risen to prominence since the 1980s. Written by an international team of scholars , it provides an illuminating survey and analysis of each writer's plays and will be invaluable to anyone interested in, studying or teaching contemporary drama. Among the many playwr... (more...)

Playing with Theory in Theatre Practice
by Megan Alrutz, Julia Listengarten, M. Van Duyn Wood
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/6/11

Through a collection of original essays and case studies, this book introduces ideas and raises questions about building dynamic, theoretically minded production work. Artists and scholars grapple with the shifting value and function of theory in theatre, exploring the multi-faceted and complex relationship between theory and theatre practice.... (more...)

Trusting Performance: A Cognitive Approach to Embodiment in Drama
by Naomi Rokotnitz
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/6/11

This exciting new work argues for the exploration of drama as a conduit to deep emotional learning that has the ability to change the somatic identity of performers and audiences alike. Rokotnitz suggests that the preference for reciprocity exhibited by human physiological systems also extends into psychological and cognitive processes. Modeling her epistemological inquiry upon the paradigms insta... (more...)

Inspired Drama Teaching: A Practical Guide for Teachers
by Keith West
Released on Contiuum on 12/8/11

A practical guide to teaching and championing drama across the curriculum. The ideas in this book will inspire even the most unlikely thespian. ... (more...)

Billy the Kid and Other Plays
by Rudolfo Anaya
Released on University of Oklahoma Press on 12/10/11

While award-winning author Rudolfo Anaya is known primarily as a novelist, his genius is also evident in dramatic works performed regularly in his native New Mexico and throughout the world. Billy the Kid and Other Plays collects seven of these works and offers them together for the first time. Like his novels, many of Anaya’s plays are built from the folklore of the Southwest. This volume ope... (more...)

Ibsen's Foreign Contagion: Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Wing Pinero and Modernism on The London Stage
by T.Carlo Matos
Released on Academica Press, LLC on 12/15/11

..Matos's important book provides a well-researched, well-written ,and fascinating discussion of the notion of contagion from Ibsen and into Pineo and Jones. Professor Gregory Tague, St Francis College, editor of Origins of English Literary Modernism,1870-1914 The Independent Theatre's production of Ghosts at the Royalty Theatre, London in 1891 precipitated one of the most famous theatrical quarre... (more...)

Political and Protest Theatre after 9/11: Patriotic Dissent
by Jenny Spencer
Released on Routledge on 12/15/11

This collection documents and examines political and protest theatre produced between the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Obama’s election in 2008 by British and American artists responding to their own governments’ actions and policies during this time. The plays take up topics such as the ongoing wars on terror, Blair’s support of U.S. policies, the flawed intelligence that led to the Iraq war, and il... (more...)

Scenic Art for the Theatre
by Susan Crabtree, Peter Beudert
Released on Focal Press on 12/15/11

Now in its Third Edition, Scenic Art for the Theatre: History, Tools and Techniques continues to be the most trusted source for both student and professional scenic artists. With new information on scenic design using Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other digital imaging softwares this test expands to offer the developing artist more step-by-step instuction and more practical techniques for work in ... (more...)

Embodying Difference: Scripting Social Images of the Female Body in Latina Theatre
by Linda Saborio
Released on Fairleigh Dickinson University Press on 12/16/11

Embodying Difference: Scripting Social Images of the Female Body in US Latina Theatre explores contemporary theatrical productions by Latina dramatists in the United States and focuses on the effects that neoliberal politics, global market strategies, gender formation, and racial and ethnical marginalization have had on Latinas. Through the analysis of select plays by dramatists Nao Bustamante, Co... (more...)

The Limits of Performance in the French Romantic Theatre
by Susan McCready
Released on Manchester University Press on 12/20/11

This volume analyzes major French plays of the 1830s, focusing on their theatricality, and on the ways in which they expose the workings of the theatre rather than conceal them. Through an examination of performance within these plays, the study posits that the stage is a privileged site of demonstration, a literal "proving ground" that lends a physical reality to abstract values announced in the ... (more...)

An Actor's Craft: The Art and Technique of Acting
by David Krasner
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/20/11

An Actor's Craft is a handbook for acting students that provides critical approaches and guidance. Speaking passionately about the art of acting, David Krasner illuminates the multifaceted job of an actor. Combining technique with personal examples, he demonstrates how to achieve excellence in performance, how to recognize quality acting, and how to use the technique of acting in an advanced w... (more...)

Performance Affects: Applied Theatre and the End of Effect
by James Thompson
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/20/11

Performance Affects, now in paperback and with a new preface, explores performance projects in disaster and war zones to argue that joy, beauty and celebration should be the inspiration for the politics of community-based or participatory performance practice. Applied Theatre has traditionally concentrated on effects - impacts, themes communicated or 'truths' revealed. Performance Affects challeng... (more...)

Shakespeare and Genre: From Early Modern Inheritances to Postmodern Legacies
by Anthony R. Guneratne
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/20/11

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The Theatres of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia: Performance Traditions of the Maghreb
by Khalid Amine, Marvin Carlson
Released on Palgrave Macmillan on 12/20/11

Modern international studies of world theatre and drama have begun to acknowledge the Arab world only after the contributions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Within the Arab world, the contributions of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco to modern drama and to post-colonial expression remain especially neglected, a problem that this book addresses.... (more...)

Religion, Theatre, and Performance: Acts of Faith
by Lance Gharavi
Released on Routledge on 12/21/11

This book examines the intersection of religion and theatrical performance in modernity/postmodernity. Religion, no longer sequestered in the "private sphere," has become an explicitly public force. It stimulates and complicates public actions; it is a crucial component of performance. The writings here suggest that performance studies and religious studies can inform one another, leading to i... (more...)

Drama at the Heart of the Secondary School: Projects to Promote Authentic Learning
by John Rainer, Martin Lewis
Released on Routledge on 12/27/11

Drama at the Heart of the Secondary School provides a rationale for the curricular centrality of drama together with rich and detailed examples of cross-phase thematic projects which are drama-led, but which promote learning across a wide range of curriculum areas, from the humanities and other arts, to English and literacy, science and PSHE. Each unit explores relevant and stimulating themes a... (more...)

Maria Irene Fornes
by Scott T. Cummings
Released on Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists on 12/27/11

Maria Irene Fornes provides an enlightening introduction to a pivotal figure in both Hispanic-American and experimental theater. From her theatrical origins in 1960s Cuba to her precedent plays for the US stage, this book presents an important guide of work to this politically-charged playwright. ... (more...)

Performing Greek Comedy
by Alan Hughes
Released on Cambridge University Press on 12/28/11

Alan Hughes presents a new complete account of production methods in Greek comedy. The book summarises contemporary research and disputes, on such topics as acting techniques, theatre buildings, masks and costumes, music and the chorus. Evidence is re-interpreted and traditional doctrine overthrown. Comedy is presented as the pan-Hellenic, visual art of theatre, not as Athenian literature. Recent ... (more...)

New Playwriting Strategies: Language and Media in the 21st Century
by Paul C. Castagno
Released on Routledge on 12/30/11

New Playwriting Strategies has become a canonical text in the study and teaching of playwriting, offering a fresh and dynamic insight into the subject. This thoroughly revised and expanded second edition explores and highlights the wide spread of new techniques that form Contemporary Theatre writing, as well as their influence on other dramatic forms. Paul Castagno builds on the innovative play... (more...)

The Making of the West End Stage
by Jacky Bratton
Released on Cambridge University Press on 12/31/11

All roads lead to London - and to the West End theatre. This book presents a new history of the beginnings of the modern world of London entertainment. Putting female-centred, gender-challenging managements and styles at the centre, it redraws the map of performance history in the Victorian capital of the world. Bratton argues for the importance in Victorian culture of venues like the little Stran... (more...)

David Hare (Writers and their Work)
by Jeremy Ridgeman
Released on Northcote House Publishers on 12/31/11

A short, clear, critical study of David Hare's work for theatre, film and television, concentrating on questions of staging, performance and narrative and dramatic form.... (more...)