An invaluable handbook explaining the relationship between the drama text and the theory and practice of drama in performance. It also explains the meanings and methods of semiotics and addresses key texts from Sophocles to Caryl Churchill.

This invaluable student handbook is the first detailed guide to explain in detail the relationship between the drama text and the theory and practice of drama in performance. Beginning at the beginning, with accessible explanations of the meanings and methods of semiotics, Theatre as Sign System addresses key drama texts and offers new and detailed information about the theories of performance.

"The most thorough, systematic and convincing semiotics of the theater we have. . . . [L]ike those of Eco, it is an important conceptual synthesis, and a bibliographical gold mine." —Modern Language Notes" . . . impresses with its thoroughness and the informed perspective of its author . . . " —Theatre Survey" . . . a classic text . . . " —Theatre Research International"Immediately accessible to readers with some knowledge of theater but not much of semiotics. . . . For anyone with an interest in theater production and performance, or indeed theater history." —Marvin Carlson

A wide-ranging collection of specially commissioned essays by contributors of international standing about key aspects of the performing arts

Semiotics is an interdisciplinary field of research and Beckett s theatre is one which engages a large spectrum of subjects and concerns that touch upon multiple aspects of human experience. The Beckettian dramatic text, as shall be demonstrated in this book, is a fertile ground for a semiotic investigation that is orchestrated by the profound insights of C. S. Peirce. As it applies semiotics to Beckett s theatre, this book seeks to preserve, communicate and throw into relief those universal values in the playwright s works which remain unchallenged despite every change and every revolution in human societies. What this book will hopefully contribute to the general canon of theatrical studies is its study of the Beckettian dramatic text not as a model of the absurd tradition, but rather as a cultural product whose writer's thinking can scarcely be dissociated from the cultural environment within which it took shape, and whose deciphering requires the use of cultural codes and sub-codes which will undergo detailed examination in the course of analysis, a study that we may so generically call a cultural semiotic study of Beckett.

Analyzes the basic duality of theatre (the play is happening on a stage, but the story is happening at some other place and time), exploring how the two aspects both compete and complement each other and suggesting the social factors that impact the total process.

An introduction to theatrical directing using the concepts and terminology of semiotic theory