McAllister offers a history of black theater pioneer William Brown's career and places his productions within the broader context of U.S. social, political, and cultural history.

“Makes new sense of aspects of popular culture we have all grown up with and thought we knew only too well. Most bridges religious studies and theater, political theory and American studies, high criticism and middlebrow performance. Her book will help us see better how Jews and their Jewishness did not merely ‘enter’ American popular culture, but did so much to invent it.”—Jonathan Boyarin Leonard and Tobee Kaplan Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Thought, University of North Carolina For centuries, Jews were one of the few European cultures without any official public theatrical tradition. Yet in the modern era, Jews were among the most important creators of popular theater and film–especially in America. Why? In Theatrical Liberalism, Andrea Most illustrates how American Jews used the theatre and other media to navigate their encounters with modern culture, politics, religion, and identity, negotiating a position for themselves within and alongside Protestant American liberalism by reimagining key aspects of traditional Judaism as theatrical. Discussing works as diverse as the Hebrew Bible, The Jazz Singer, and Death of a Salesman—among many others—Most situates American popular culture in the multiple religious traditions that informed the worldviews of its practitioners. Offering a comprehensive history of the role of Judaism in the creation of American entertainment, Theatrical Liberalism re-examines the distinction between the secular and the religious in both Jewish and American contexts, providing a new way of understanding Jewish liberalism and its place in a pluralist society. With extensive scholarship and compelling evidence, Theatrical Liberalism shows how the Jewish worldview that permeates American culture has reached far beyond the Jews who created it.

Productivity Through Wellness for Live Entertainment and Theatre Technicians provides the tools for individuals and organizations to achieve a healthy work–life balance and increase productivity in the production process of live entertainment. Through examination of the limits of the human body, the fundamentals of motivation, and best practices of project management, the reader will develop operational mindfulness and look at new ways to achieve work–life balance. The book explores case studies that show how organizations are promoting work–life balance and reaping the benefits of increased productivity, makes recommendations to reduce burnout and increase productivity among technicians, and discusses how to deal with the various phases of production. An excellent resource for live entertainment technicians, production managers, technical directors, arts managers, managers in live entertainment, and students in Technical Direction and Production Management courses, Productivity Through Wellness for Live Entertainment and Theatre Technicians offers practical solutions to improve the quality of life of employees, reduce the burnout and injuries of overwork, and maximize the value of an hour.

Looking for a job in the theatre and entertainment industry can be daunting, especially when you are newly entering the work market. How do you take the skills and experience acquired through study and present them to prospective employers in the arts industry? Where does your search begin and what should you consider as you plan your future career steps? What is expected in a portfolio and what should you expect in an interview? This book provides straightforward strategies and practical exercises to turn anxiety into excitement and help you develop the job search skills and materials that will empower you to go after the job you want, and get it. If you are about to graduate or just ready to make a change, this book will teach you how to plan for your career as a designer, technician, or stage manager, and put your best professional persona forward when applying for jobs. Topics include resumes, cover letters, business cards and portfolios that will get you moved to the top of the pile; what to expect at an interview and how to answer any interview question; the how and why of negotiating for your worth; long term career planning, financial implications and much more. Filled with practical advice, examples of letters, resumes, CVs and portfolios, and with guidance from industry professionals, it will equip you to plan and succeed in your job search and career development in the entertainment industry.

Bertolt Brecht turned to cabaret; Ariane Mnouchkine went to the circus; Joan Littlewood wanted to open a palace of fun. These were a few of the directors who turned to popular theatre forms in the last century, and this sourcebook accounts for their attraction. Popular theatre forms introduced in this sourcebook include cabaret, circus, puppetry, vaudeville, Indian jatra, political satire, and physical comedy. These entertainments are highly visual, itinerant, and readily understood by audiences. Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook follows them around the world, from the bunraku puppetry of Japan to the masked topeng theatre of Bali to South African political satire, the San Francisco Mime Troupe's comic melodramas, and a 'Fun Palace' proposed for London. The book features essays from the archives of The Drama Review and other research. Contributions by Roland Barthes, Hovey Burgess, Marvin Carlson, John Emigh, Dario Fo, Ron Jenkins, Joan Littlewood, Brooks McNamara, Richard Schechner, and others, offer some of the most important, informative, and lively writing available on popular theatre. Introducing both Western and non-Western popular theatre practices, the sourcebook provides access to theatrical forms which have delighted audiences and attracted stage artists around the world.

Renaissance Fun is about the technology of Renaissance entertainments in stage machinery and theatrical special effects; in gardens and fountains; and in the automata and self-playing musical instruments that were installed in garden grottoes. How did the machines behind these shows work? How exactly were chariots filled with singers let down onto the stage? How were flaming dragons made to fly across the sky? How were seas created on stage? How did mechanical birds imitate real birdsong? What was ‘artificial music’, three centuries before Edison and the phonograph? How could pipe organs be driven and made to play themselves by waterpower alone? And who were the architects, engineers, and craftsmen who created these wonders? All these questions are answered. At the end of the book we visit the lost ‘garden of marvels’ at Pratolino with its many grottoes, automata and water jokes; and we attend the performance of Mercury and Mars in Parma in 1628, with its spectacular stage effects and its music by Claudio Monteverdi – one of the places where opera was born. Renaissance Fun is offered as an entertainment in itself. But behind the show is a more serious scholarly argument, centred on the enormous influence of two ancient writers on these subjects, Vitruvius and Hero. Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture were widely studied by Renaissance theatre designers. Hero of Alexandria wrote the Pneumatics, a collection of designs for surprising and entertaining devices that were the models for sixteenth and seventeenth century automata. A second book by Hero On Automata-Making – much less well known, then and now – describes two miniature theatres that presented plays without human intervention. One of these, it is argued, provided the model for the type of proscenium theatre introduced from the mid-sixteenth century, the generic design which is still built today. As the influence of Vitruvius waned, the influence of Hero grew.