The Creative Spirit: An Introduction to Theatre - Softcover

Arnold, Stephanie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0073514144 ISBN 13: 9780073514147

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social, 2007

Synopsis

Focusing on the collaborative and creative processes that go into productions, Stephanie Arnold introduces students to the theatre through the plays themselves and people who write them, create them, and act in them. A rich context is provided for each play with a discussion of the playwright’s other works, sources for the play, timelines that provide historical and cultural background, and a section on a particular production of the play to give students a sense of experiencing the theatre industry at close hand. The Creative Spirit includes complete scripts of five plays: August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Wakako Yamauchi's And the Soul Shall Dance, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Milcha Sanchez Scott's Dog Lady, and Sam Shepard's Buried Child.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Provides inclusive coverage of the broad range of contemporary theatre. The text begins by looking at multicultural origins of performance in the United States and goes on to explore plays by August Wilson, Wakako Yamauchi, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, and Sam Shepard.
Includes complete scripts of five contemporary plays: August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Wakako Yamauchi's And the Soul Shall Dance, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Marsha Norman's Getting Out, and Sam Shepard's Buried Child. In-depth exploration of the play texts as well as the background of the plays surrounds the scripts.
Emphasizes the collaborative and creative processes that go into productions. By looking at the script and reading interviews with the artists involved in the productions highlighted in the chapters, students will have a better understanding of how a play production comes together.
Offers students the chance to envision their own production of a play. The final chapter gives students the opportunity to put into action the information they've read about producing a play and offers step-by-step suggestions for designing a plan. The model play script included is Sam Shepard's Buried Child; other plays (including whatever is being produced on campus or locally) can easily be substituted.
Includes "In Context Boxes" with timelines of significant historical and cultural events, which allow students to better understand both the playwright's vision and the action of the play.
Provides a concise overview of theatre history. Though the text emphasizes contemporary theatre, Chapter 2 contains a brief overview and Chapters 4-6 include sections that cover the antecedents of contemporary theatre.
Includes photographs and discussions of alternative productions. By comparing two different productions of the same play (And the Soul Shall Dance), as well as different production methods (e.g., the entrance of the Angel in Angels in America) students will see that there are as many different interpretations of a play as there are productions.
A new chapter devoted exclusively to the musical theatre has been added (see Chapter 14).
A complete new play has been added: Getting Out by Marsha Norman (see Chapter 10).
The complete script of Angels in America is now included instead of the long excerpt included in the first edition.
The text has been reorganized into 15 chapters, and the "notebook" sections have been fleshed out into full chapters.
A new chapter on genre includes excerpts and discussion of well-known comedies and tragedies, including examples from Shakespeare and Moliere.
An Instructor's Manual written by Stephanie Arnold, as well as a computerized test bank, now accompany the text. In addition to test items, the manual includes additional background material about the plays and playwrights included in the text, as well as teaching suggestions.

About the Author:

Stephanie Arnold received her B.A. degree in English from Stanford University and then continued her studies at the University of Wisconsin where she received an M.F.A. degree in directing and a Ph.D. in dramatic literature and theory. Before joining the Lewis & Clark College faculty in 1986, she taught at Mills College and the University of California, Riverside.

Stephanie Arnold teaches acting, directing, and dramatic literature including a special topics course in Latino Theatre. The productions she has directed include works by classical and contemporary playwrights as well as musicals and opera. She is currently at work on the fifth edition of her textbook, The Creative Spirit: An Introduction to Theatre, which is published by McGraw-Hill and in use at colleges and universities around the country. She has recently returned from leading the Lewis & Clark College off campus study program to New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities Social
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0073514144
• ISBN 13: 9780073514147
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 562