Popular Performance
Published on 20. April 2017
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-4742-4734-4 (ISBN)
Description
There is no fourth wall in popular performance. The show is firmly rooted in the here and now, and the performers address the audience directly, while the audience answer back with laughter, applause or heckling. Performer and role are interlaced, so that we are left uncertain about just how the persona we see onstage might relate to the private person who presents it to us.
Popular Performance defines and surveys varieties of performance where the main purpose is to entertain, and where there is no shame in being trivial, frivolous or nonsensical as long as people go home happy at the end of the show. Contributions by new and established scholars focus particularly on how it is made, explaining the techniques of performance and production that make it so appealing to audiences. With sections examining how popular performance works in a range of historical and contemporary examples, readers will gain insights into:
* performance forms associated with the variety tradition: music hall, vaudeville, cabaret, variety
* performance forms associated with circus: wild west shows, clowning
* issues relating to the identity of the performer in relation to magic, burlesque, pantomime in contemporary performance
* issues relating to venue and audience in relation to contemporary street theatre, stand-up, and live sketch comedy.
Popular Performance defines and surveys varieties of performance where the main purpose is to entertain, and where there is no shame in being trivial, frivolous or nonsensical as long as people go home happy at the end of the show. Contributions by new and established scholars focus particularly on how it is made, explaining the techniques of performance and production that make it so appealing to audiences. With sections examining how popular performance works in a range of historical and contemporary examples, readers will gain insights into:
* performance forms associated with the variety tradition: music hall, vaudeville, cabaret, variety
* performance forms associated with circus: wild west shows, clowning
* issues relating to the identity of the performer in relation to magic, burlesque, pantomime in contemporary performance
* issues relating to venue and audience in relation to contemporary street theatre, stand-up, and live sketch comedy.
Reviews / Votes
An interesting collection of academic treatments of areas of performance that perhaps do not get as much attention, which has to be welcomed. * British Theatre Guide * Richly detailed ... This book will provide a valuable starting point for those seeking to orient themselves in the field, and its accessible written style makes it ideal for undergraduates. * New Theatre Quarterly *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
8 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
511 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4742-4734-4 (9781474247344)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Adam Ainsworth | Oliver Double | Louise Peacock
Popular Performance
E-Book
04/2017
1st Edition
Methuen Drama
€39.99
Available for download
Persons
Adam Ainsworth is senior lecturer in Drama at Kingston University, London, UK. His research interests include 19th-century pantomime, music hall and variety theatre and he is currently undertaking doctoral research that will produce the first detailed history of the Empire Theatre at Kingston-upon-Thames. He co-convenes the TaPRA Popular Performance Working Group.
Oliver Double started his career as a professional comedian before lecturing on and teaching drama and comedy at the University of Kent, UK. He is the author of many journal articles on stand-up comedy and comedians. His publications include Stand Up: On Being A Comedian (2005) and Getting the Joke (2nd edition, 2014).
Louise Peacock is assistant professor of theatre practice at the University of Southern California, USA. She is the author of Serious Play: Modern Clown Performance (2009) and Slapstick and Comic Performance: Comedy and Pain (2014). She is a member of the editorial board of Comedy Studies.
Oliver Double started his career as a professional comedian before lecturing on and teaching drama and comedy at the University of Kent, UK. He is the author of many journal articles on stand-up comedy and comedians. His publications include Stand Up: On Being A Comedian (2005) and Getting the Joke (2nd edition, 2014).
Louise Peacock is assistant professor of theatre practice at the University of Southern California, USA. She is the author of Serious Play: Modern Clown Performance (2009) and Slapstick and Comic Performance: Comedy and Pain (2014). She is a member of the editorial board of Comedy Studies.
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1 From Domestic Song to Drawing Room Recitation: Dan Leno's Music Hall Repertoire (Caroline Radcliffe, University of Birmingham, UK)
Chapter 2 American Vaudeville (Leigh Woods, Professor of Theatre, University of Michigan, USA)
Chapter 3 It's 1922 and at the Munich Kammerspiele Karl Valentin performs Der Christbaumbrettl at Die rote Zibebe (Michael Wilson, Professor of Drama, Loughborough University, UK)
Chapter 4 Packed from Pit to Ceiling: the Kingston Empire (Adam Ainsworth, Kingston University, UK)
Chapter 5 Grock: Genius among Clowns (Louise Peacock, University of Hull, UK)
Chapter 6 Something Wicked: the Theatre of Derren Brown (Michael Mangan, Loughborough University, UK)
Chapter 7 Performing the Burlesque Body: The Explicit Female Body as Palimpsest (Dr. Lynn Sally, Metropolitan College of New York, USA)
Chapter 8 "Hiya Fans!" Celebrity Performance and Reception in Modern British Pantomime (Simon Sladen, V&A Museum, UK)
Chapter 9 With them, Not at Them (Bim Mason, Circomedia, UK)
Chapter 10 What's special about stand-up comedy? Josie Long's Lost Treasures of the Black Heart (Sophie Quirk, University of Kent, UK)
Chapter 11 'It feels like a group of friends messing around onstage.' Pappy's and live sketch comedy (Oliver Double, University of Kent, UK)
Conclusion
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
Notes on Contributors
Chapter 1 From Domestic Song to Drawing Room Recitation: Dan Leno's Music Hall Repertoire (Caroline Radcliffe, University of Birmingham, UK)
Chapter 2 American Vaudeville (Leigh Woods, Professor of Theatre, University of Michigan, USA)
Chapter 3 It's 1922 and at the Munich Kammerspiele Karl Valentin performs Der Christbaumbrettl at Die rote Zibebe (Michael Wilson, Professor of Drama, Loughborough University, UK)
Chapter 4 Packed from Pit to Ceiling: the Kingston Empire (Adam Ainsworth, Kingston University, UK)
Chapter 5 Grock: Genius among Clowns (Louise Peacock, University of Hull, UK)
Chapter 6 Something Wicked: the Theatre of Derren Brown (Michael Mangan, Loughborough University, UK)
Chapter 7 Performing the Burlesque Body: The Explicit Female Body as Palimpsest (Dr. Lynn Sally, Metropolitan College of New York, USA)
Chapter 8 "Hiya Fans!" Celebrity Performance and Reception in Modern British Pantomime (Simon Sladen, V&A Museum, UK)
Chapter 9 With them, Not at Them (Bim Mason, Circomedia, UK)
Chapter 10 What's special about stand-up comedy? Josie Long's Lost Treasures of the Black Heart (Sophie Quirk, University of Kent, UK)
Chapter 11 'It feels like a group of friends messing around onstage.' Pappy's and live sketch comedy (Oliver Double, University of Kent, UK)
Conclusion
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
Notes on Contributors