Updated and enlarged, this groundbreaking collection surveys the major critical currents and approaches in drama, theater, and performance

A valuable, provoking, important addition to any theatre scholar or practitioner's library, especially since feminist theory is a relative newcomer to the world of theatre.

Teaching Critical Performance Theory offers teaching strategies for professors and artist-scholars across performance, design and technology, and theatre studies disciplines. The book’s seventeen chapters collectively ask: What use is theory to an emerging theatre artist or scholar? Which theories should be taught, and to whom? How can theory pedagogies shape and respond to the evolving needs of the academy, the field, and the community? This broad field of enquiry is divided into four sections covering course design, classroom teaching, the studio space, and applied theatre contexts. Through a range of intriguing case studies that encourage thoughtful theatre practice, this book explores themes surrounding situated learning, dramaturgy and technology, disability and inclusivity, feminist approaches, race and performance, ethics, and critical theory in theatre history. Written as an invaluable resource for professionals and postgraduates engaged in performance theory, this collection of informative essays will also provide critical reading for those interested in drama and theatre studies more broadly.

Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose -- and, if at all possible, cure -- the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen Eric Bronner provides sketches of leading representatives of the critical tradition (such as George Lukács and Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas) as well as many of its seminal texts and empirical investigations. This Very Short Introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors. Bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency, alienation and reification, the culture industry and repressive tolerance, non-identity and utopia. He argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hidden transformative possibilities. In this newly updated second edition, Bronner targets new academic interests, broadens his argument, and adapts it to a global society amid the resurgence of right-wing politics and neo-fascist movements.

A vital multi-volume collection of critical writings and key source material for the field of performance theory that reflects the radical developments in the broader transdisciplinary critical landscape.

Theory for Performance Studies: A Student's Guideis a clear and concise handbook to the key connections between performance studies and critical theory since the 1960s. Philip Auslander looks at the way the concept of performance has been engaged across a number of disciplines. Beginning with four foundational figures – Freud, Marz, Nietzsche and Saussure – Auslander goes on to provide guided introductions to the major theoretical thinkers of the past century, from Althusser to Zizek. Each entry offers biographical, theoretical, and bibliographical information along with a discussion of each figure's relevance to theatre and performance studies and suggestions for future research. Brisk, thoughtful, and engaging, this is an essential first volume for anyone at work in theatre and performance studies today. Adapted from Theory for Religious Studies, by William E. Deal and Timothy K. Beal.

Over the last few centuries, the world as we know it has seen remarkable change and the arts – including theatre – have faced new challenges. Theatre is now no longer a simple point of entertainment laced with instruction or dissent, but is perceived as a more collaborative idea that looks at ever-changing paradigms. All over the world, theatre now is a dynamic process that simultaneously retains tradition and delves into extreme experimentations. This book represents a starting point for a much-needed critical interrogation. It looks at the constant features of European theatre and brings in some Indian elements, positing both in their respective locations, as well as looking at the symbiosis that has been functioning for some time.