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The Resource Modern drama and the rhetoric of theater, W.B. Worthen

Modern drama and the rhetoric of theater, W.B. Worthen

Creator
Summary
In Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater, W.B. Worthen examines how the dynamic interplay between dramatic text and stage production shapes the audience's experience in the modern theater. Dividing the "rhetoric" of theatrical performance into three modes--realistic, poetic, and political--Worthen traces the course of British and American drama from the 1880s through the 1980s, showing how textual conventions and performance practices direct the interpretive performance of the theater audience. The realistic theater translates the objectivity associated with science into a vehicle for treating social class. Worthen examines realism's onstage representation of social "others" for an invisible, privileged offstage audience; he discusses the problem drama of the turn of the century (Robins, Shaw, Galsworthy, Glaspell), the experiments of O'Neill, Rice, and the American Method, and the contemporary realism of Pinter, Shepard and Bond. Where realistic theater relies on the "natural" qualities of the stage scene, poetic theater uses the poet's word, the text, to control performance. The plays of Yeats, Auden, Eliot, and Beckett explore the kinds of authority--over actors and audiences--that poetic theater can achieve. Modern political theater, by contrast, openly places the audience at the center of its rhetorical designs, and the drama of the postwar period (Barnes, Brenton, Churchill, Fornes, Nichols, Osborne, Soyinka) is shown to develop a range of post-Brechtian practices that make the audience the subject of the play. Treating a wide variety of plays and drawing extensively on performance history, Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater outlines the strategies that have produced both the modern drama onstage and the modern audience in the theater
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
x, 230 p.
Contents
  • Chekhov's camera : the rhetoric of stage realism
  • Invisible women : problem drama, 1890-1920
  • Invisible actors : O'Neill, the Method, and the masks of "character"
  • Visible scenes : American realism and the absent audience
  • Empty spaces and the power of privacy : Pinter, Shepard, and Bond
  • Poetic theater and the work of acting
  • The discipline of speech : Yeats's dance drama
  • The discipline of performance : The dance of death and Murder in the cathedral
  • The discipline of the text : Beckett's theater
  • Transforming the field of theater
  • Breaking the frame of history : Hitler dances and The Churchill play
  • History and the frame of genre : Laughter! and Poppy
  • Framing gender : Cloud nine and Fefu and her friends
  • Postscript : Sidi's image : theater and the frame of culture
Isbn
9780520074682
Link
Instance
Label
Modern drama and the rhetoric of theater
Title
Modern drama and the rhetoric of theater
Statement of responsibility
W.B. Worthen
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
In Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater, W.B. Worthen examines how the dynamic interplay between dramatic text and stage production shapes the audience's experience in the modern theater. Dividing the "rhetoric" of theatrical performance into three modes--realistic, poetic, and political--Worthen traces the course of British and American drama from the 1880s through the 1980s, showing how textual conventions and performance practices direct the interpretive performance of the theater audience. The realistic theater translates the objectivity associated with science into a vehicle for treating social class. Worthen examines realism's onstage representation of social "others" for an invisible, privileged offstage audience; he discusses the problem drama of the turn of the century (Robins, Shaw, Galsworthy, Glaspell), the experiments of O'Neill, Rice, and the American Method, and the contemporary realism of Pinter, Shepard and Bond. Where realistic theater relies on the "natural" qualities of the stage scene, poetic theater uses the poet's word, the text, to control performance. The plays of Yeats, Auden, Eliot, and Beckett explore the kinds of authority--over actors and audiences--that poetic theater can achieve. Modern political theater, by contrast, openly places the audience at the center of its rhetorical designs, and the drama of the postwar period (Barnes, Brenton, Churchill, Fornes, Nichols, Osborne, Soyinka) is shown to develop a range of post-Brechtian practices that make the audience the subject of the play. Treating a wide variety of plays and drawing extensively on performance history, Modern Drama and the Rhetoric of Theater outlines the strategies that have produced both the modern drama onstage and the modern audience in the theater
Additional physical form
A digital reproduction is available from E-Editions, a collaboration of the University of California Press and the California Digital Library's eScholarship program.
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1955-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Worthen, William B.
Dewey number
822/.9109
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Index
index present
LC call number
PR736
LC item number
.W64 1992
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • English drama
  • American drama
  • Theater
  • Theater
  • American drama
  • English drama
  • Theater
  • Theater
  • English-speaking countries
  • Toneelstukken
  • Retorica
  • Toneelvoorstellingen
  • Drama
  • Dramentheorie
  • Englisch
  • Publikum
  • Theater
  • Großbritannien
  • USA
  • Drama
  • Publikum
  • Theater
  • Dramentheorie
  • Englisch
  • USA
  • Großbritannien
Label
Modern drama and the rhetoric of theater, W.B. Worthen
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-219) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Chekhov's camera : the rhetoric of stage realism -- Invisible women : problem drama, 1890-1920 -- Invisible actors : O'Neill, the Method, and the masks of "character" -- Visible scenes : American realism and the absent audience -- Empty spaces and the power of privacy : Pinter, Shepard, and Bond -- Poetic theater and the work of acting -- The discipline of speech : Yeats's dance drama -- The discipline of performance : The dance of death and Murder in the cathedral -- The discipline of the text : Beckett's theater -- Transforming the field of theater -- Breaking the frame of history : Hitler dances and The Churchill play -- History and the frame of genre : Laughter! and Poppy -- Framing gender : Cloud nine and Fefu and her friends -- Postscript : Sidi's image : theater and the frame of culture
Control code
ocm23732871
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
x, 230 p.
Isbn
9780520074682
Isbn Type
(cloth : alk. paper)
Lccn
91017677
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o23732871
  • (OCoLC)23732871
Label
Modern drama and the rhetoric of theater, W.B. Worthen
Link
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-219) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Chekhov's camera : the rhetoric of stage realism -- Invisible women : problem drama, 1890-1920 -- Invisible actors : O'Neill, the Method, and the masks of "character" -- Visible scenes : American realism and the absent audience -- Empty spaces and the power of privacy : Pinter, Shepard, and Bond -- Poetic theater and the work of acting -- The discipline of speech : Yeats's dance drama -- The discipline of performance : The dance of death and Murder in the cathedral -- The discipline of the text : Beckett's theater -- Transforming the field of theater -- Breaking the frame of history : Hitler dances and The Churchill play -- History and the frame of genre : Laughter! and Poppy -- Framing gender : Cloud nine and Fefu and her friends -- Postscript : Sidi's image : theater and the frame of culture
Control code
ocm23732871
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
x, 230 p.
Isbn
9780520074682
Isbn Type
(cloth : alk. paper)
Lccn
91017677
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
  • (Sirsi) o23732871
  • (OCoLC)23732871

Subject

Genre

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