This 2002 Companion is designed for readers interested in past and present productions of Shakespeares plays; both in and beyond Britain. The first six chapters describe aspects of the British performing tradition in chronological sequence; from the early staging of Shakespeares own time; through to the present day. Each relates Shakespearean developments to broader cultural concerns and adopts an individual approach and focus; on textual adaptation; acting; stages; scenery or theatre management. These are followed by three explorations of acting: tragic and comic actors and women performers of Shakespeare roles. A section on international performance includes chapters on interculturalism; on touring companies and on political theatre; with separate accounts of the performing traditions of North America; Asia and Africa. Over forty pictures illustrate peformers and productions of Shakespeare from around the world. An amalgamated list of items for further reading completes the book.
#1475260 in eBooks 2002-05-30 2002-05-30File Name: B00AA8JRT2
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Read it! Now! Excellent!!! Great book for music lovers!By Todd WeinerExcellent Book! Finally a book getting to the heart of the festival and music scene going on here in the USA over the past 20 or so years. If you love music; or like it at all; and have any interest in the current state of the music scene beyond the corporate music machine; then this is a must read. If you know a ton about this already; you will still learn something valuable here. This book takes the reader through a sociological timeline of what happened with the formative bands that created todays scene; within the context of a huge number of recent interviews with many of the genres best performers and industry professionals. In a well debated way Peter Conners explains how the Jam moniker actually came to be. Specifically; this genre of jamband has evolved out of a necessity to distinguish exactly why this form of music really is different and so powerful. And he explains why it deserves its own label (as occurred for jazz and even rock n roll) where a short label attempts to explain huge musical territory. Of course the jam moniker falls short; but it does make for fascinating creative debate among the key players and the author shows why its earned its place in describing whats going on. JAMerica is also a very creative read; as the author utilizes some very innovative techniques in laying out the stories via his interviewees. Instead of laying out all the interviews by labeling each musician and bantering back and forth with questions and answer format; the author creates a conversation where it feels as if all of the folks involved are in the same room having a conversation. If youve ever experienced a jamband concert; youll enjoy the parallel here: the way the book builds on structure within a form that feels improvised and every voice is heard clearly; and it just gets better and better as the show builds. WAY too many great artists to mention; but as a start some of my favorite amazing quotes and interviews were by the likes of Taj Mahal; Mickey Hart; Bill Kreutzmann; Perry Farrell; John Popper; David Graham; and Bela Fleck. Check it out!!3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Maybe Im biased; but this is great!!By S. RobinsonWhat better way to understand the history and growth of the jam band scene than from the mouths of those who lived it; created it; and remember it. This book is the first Ive ever seen to delve into all the various elements that wound up creating a "scene" that; at the time; didnt seem like it was actually going to be a scene. Not until in our collective rear view mirror did those events appear to meaningfully lead into what is now one of the biggest collective cash machines in touring rock and roll today. Peter Conners exhaustively interviewed dozens and dozens of the folks who were there at the beginning (and those whove come along since) to get the story from the horses mouth. Great job Peter!!The *only* thing that might catch readers is that the list of whos-who doesnt come until near the end of the book; so many readers may be confused as to whos talking. This is easily remedied by dog-earing the listing in the back and just using that as an index to go back to whenever you dont recognize the name of the interviewee.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. There were a lot of interesting tidbitsBy StacyI started out really liking this book and was interested in all the interesting information; until I began reading about one of the bands that are featured in the book. Three times the author quoted one member of this band as his source and three times the info ro quote should have been attributed to another member of the band. How do I know? I work for the band in question and know that the information is incorrect. So; once I discovered this I wondered how much of the other information I was reading was incorrect or misquoted.