The Twentieth Century Performance Reader is the key introductory text to all types of performance. Extracts from fifty practitioners, critics and theorists from the fields of dance, drama, music, theatre and live art make up an essential sourcebook for students, researchers and practitioners. A bestseller since its publication in 1996, this second edition has been fully updated and includes: New writings by practitioners and theorists Notes about each writer A completely new introduction. Each extract is fully supplemented by a contextual summary, a biography of the writer, and suggestions for further reading. Organised alphabetically, this reader makes it possible to compare major writings on all types of performance in one volume. The ways in which different performance practitioners' ideas inter-relate are pointed out in a series of detailed cross-references for readers. In so doing it becomes clear that one of the key features of twenty first century performance is its boundlessness and its capacity to cross borders. All who enjoy or work with live innovative performance will find this book invaluable.
Table of Contents
Deadly Theatre 15. Trisha Brown: Trisha Brown: an Interview 16. Judith Butler: Performative Acts and Gender Constitution 17. John Cage: Four Statements on the Dance 18. Marvin Carlson: What is Performance? 19. Jacques Copeau: Current Trends/The Director as Partly Actor 20. Edward Gordon Craig: The Actor and the Uber-Marionette 21. Merce Cuningham: You Have to Love Dancing To Stick To It 22. Isadora Duncan: The Dancer of the Future 23. tim Etchells: On Performance Writing 24. Richard Foreman: How To Write a Play 25. Susan Leigh Fister: Choreographing History 26. Roselee Goldberg: Performance Art from Futurism to the Present 27. Jerzy Grotowski: Statement of Principle 28. Tatsumi Hijikata: Man, Once Dead, Crawl Back! 29. Doris Humphrey: The Art of Making Dances 30. Alfred Jarry: Of the Futility of the "Theatrical" in Theatre 31. Bill T. Jones: A Conversation 32. Tadeusz Kantor: The Theatre of Death: A Manifesto 33. Allan Kaprow: Assemblages, Environments and Happenings 34. Elizabeth LeCompte: Interview 35. Robert Lepage: Robert Lepage in discussion 36. F T Marinetti: The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism 37. John Martin: Characteristics of the Modern Dance 38. Vsevolod Meyerhold: First Attempts at a Stylised Theatre 39. Heiner Muller: 19 Answers by Heiner Muller 40. Erwin Piscator: Epic Satire 41. Yvonne Rainer 42. Hans Richter: How Did Dada Begin? 42. Richard Schechner: The Five Avant Gardes or none? 44. Oskar Schlemmer: Man and Art Figure 45. Wole Soyinka: Theatre in African Traditional Cultures: Survival Patterns 46. Konstantin Stanislavski: Intonations and Pauses 47. stelarc: Interview 48. Mary Wigman: The Philosophy of Modern Dance 49. Raymond Williams: Argument: Text and Performance 50. Robert Wilson: Interview A Chronology of Texts A Bibliography of Performance Index
Author Biography
Michael Huxley is head of performing arts at De Montfort University, Leicester, and author of articles and reviews on dance and dance theatre. He is actively engaged in promoting the performing arts within higher education at degree level. Noel Witts is head of postgraduate theatre studies at Hull University's Scarborough Campus, and also teaches postgraduate scenography at the London Institute, where he is visiting research fellow. He is the author of ten major documentaries on aspects of European theatre and has written arts programmes fore the Open University.
