Edward Gordon Craig's ideas regarding set and lighting have had an enormous impact on the development of the theatre we know today. In this new and updated edition of his well-known study of Edward Gordon Craig, Professor Christopher Innes shows how Craig's stage work and theoretical writings were crucial to the development of modern theatre. This book contains extensive documentation and re-evaluates his significance as an artist, actor, director and writer. Craig is placed in historical ...

Examining the development of avant garde theatre from its inception in the 1890s right up to the present day, Christopher Innes exposes a central paradox of modern theatre; that the motivating force of theatrical experimentation is primitivism. What links the work of Strindberg, Artaud, Brook and Mnouchkine is an idealisation of the elemental and a desire to find ritual in archaic traditions. This widespread primitivism is the key to understanding both the political and aesthetic aspects o...

From the 1920s through the 1950s, two individuals, Joseph Urban and Norman Bel Geddes, did more, by far, to create the image of America” and make it synonymous with modernity than any of their contemporaries. Urban and Bel Geddes were leading Broadway stage designers and directors who turned their prodigious talents to other projects, becoming mavericks first in industrial design and then in commercial design, fashion, architecture, and more. The two men gave shape to the most quintesse...

This Introduction is an exciting journey through the different styles of theatre that twentieth-century and contemporary directors have created. It discusses artistic and political values, rehearsal methods and the diverging relationships with actors, designers, other collaborators and audiences, and treatment of dramatic material. Offering a compelling analysis of theatrical practice, Christopher Innes and Maria Shevtsova explore the different rehearsal and staging principles and methods ...

First published in 1999, this volume aims to develop the field of theatre studies by promoting the study of performative elements and thus fostering their consideration in the critical interpretation of dramatic literature. The authors additionally suggest ways of approaching and evaluating the work of individual performers, as well as of directors, designers and producers. It is an archival guide which covers manuscript and ephemera, rather than published texts, and attempts to indicate t...

Unrivalled in its coverage of recent work and writers, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights surveys and analyses the breadth, vitality and development of theatrical work to emerge from America over the last fifty years.This authoritative guide leads you through the work of 25 major contemporary American playwrights, discussing more than 140 plays in detail. Written by a team of 25 eminent international scholars, each chapter provides:· a biogr...

The success of individual nation states today is often measured in terms of their ability to benefit from and contribute to a host of global economic, political, socio-cultural, technological, and educational networks. This increased multifaceted international inter-dependence represents an intuitively contradictory and an immensely complex situation. This scenario requires that national governments, whose primary responsibility is towards their citizenry, must relinquish a degree of contr...

A comprehensive collection of dramatisations of Daphne du Maurier’s works'Containing performances from well-known actors from past and present, Daphne du Maurier: The BBC Radio Collection is a rich feast for all fans of the writer's work.' - Entertainment FocusDaphne du Maurier was one of the 20th century’s most popular writers. Extraordinarily prolific, she produced a string of bestsellers, many of which were adapted as a...

A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre provides essential primary sources which document one of the key movements in modern theatre. Christopher Innes has selected three writers to exemplify the movement, and six plays in particular:* Henrik Ibsen - A Dolls House and Hedda Gabler* Anton Chekhov - The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard* George Bernard Shaw - Mrs Warren's Profession and Heartbreak House.Innes'...

Remote island. Haunted hotel.Forty staff. One guest per night.This is the Drowned Baby Inn, a premiere horror theme park reserved for the wealthiest of patrons. By day the guests are pampered with luxuries-five star meals, spa, sauna-all one could ask of an upscale resort.By night they are free to explore this labyrinth-rooms littered with murdered mannequins; hallways echoing with unseen footsteps; every corner exuding a malice from a time long gone and past. The g...

Gripping crime dramas featuring Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector John ApplebyA double bill of Scottish crime writer Michael Innes’ DI John Appleby novels adapted with a full cast. Written during the golden age of detective fiction, these two gems from the archive are a thrilling listen for any fan of quality detective crime drama.In Appleby**’**s End Appleby of the Yard is played by veteran star of stage and screen,

A roadside burial site, a ring of standing stones and the remnants of derelict mine workings are just a foretaste of what awaits young couple Mark Sheppard and Stephanie Latimer as they find themselves lost on Dartmoor on a cold late September evening. With time and the weather against them, they finally stumble upon The Moor Inn, a sanctuary of wood panelling, rough oak beams and fine ales. The pub's claim to fame, they soon learn, is a magnificent fire that has been kept alight continuou...