Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe

In the words of Ezra Talmor: To deal with European Culture in a Changing World is to deal, in fact, with the reciprocal relation between Politics and Economics on the one hand, and Culture on the other. In an era when economic forces are pushing towards European Economic Unity or towards the Globalisation of National Markets it is rather difficult to demarcate the role of Culture. While the European Narrative may have been written by Monnet, De Gaulle, and Adenauer, the Global Narrative is written by an unknown author or rather by Adam Smith's Invisible Hand. On the one hand the postmodernist claim that the Grand Narrative is dead is given the lie. A Grand Narrative is now being written not by Philosophers but by Managers of Multinationals. The Foucauldian "ça parle" (it speaks) is instantiated by the anonymous authors of the Global Narrative. The question to be asked is: What will happen to the rich mosaic of National European Cultures? The answer to this question is not only a matter of National Memory and National Identity, it is also a matter of the sources of cultural creativity. L'Europe de nations may have been the theatre of endless national wars but it was also the cradle of a very rich mosaic of national cultures. The point is: how will creative genius adapt to the two new trends - European Unification and Globalism? This volume brings together essays by leading scholars in a myriad of disciplines, all of which attempt to shed light on these issues.Contributions by:Nicholas Perdikis, Shari L. Boyd, William A Kerr, Sylvia MacPhee, Marcela Cristi, Anu Randveer, Martti Randveer, Viljar Jaamu, Vello Vensel, Anatoly Zotov, Warren Breckman, Douglas Moggach, Malgorzata Bogunia-Borowska, Alexandros Kioupkiolis, Eric W. Ruckh, Avron Kulak, Kevin P. Spicer, Bernard Zelechow, Dorothy M. Betz, Robert Stanley, Rosemary Gray, Jean-François Thibault, John Danvers, Ewa Macura, William A. Everett, Armand Singer, Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe

Between Nationalism and Globalism

European Culture in a Changing World

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe

[Anonymus AC02983902]

A lively and accessible biographical guide to the key figures in modern drama and performance. Its distinctive blend of information, analysis and anecdote makes for entertaining and enlightening reading.Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre is a lively and accessible biographical guide to the key figures in contemporary drama. All who enjoy the theatre will find their pleasure enhanced and their knowledge extended by this fascinating work of reference. Its distinctive blend of information, analysis and anecdote makes for entertaining and enlightening reading. Hugely influential innovators, household names, and a whole host of less familiar, international figures - all have their lives and careers illuminated by the clear and succinct entries. All professions associated with the theatre are represented here - actors and directors, playwrights and designers. By virtue of the broad range of its coverage, Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre offers a unique insight into the rich diversity of international drama today.

Who's who in Contemporary World Theatre

Per Brask

Since its inaugural issue in April, 2000, the journal Consciousness, Literature and the Arts has regularly published essays on the intersection of theatre and consciousness. Often these essays have seen theatre as a spiritual practice that for both the performer and her audience can bring about experiences that help heal the world, a shift in consciousness. This practice, though spiritual, is not ethereal but is rooted in doing, in actions, in breathing. That is, theatre is seen as an art form understood as part of a whole, as taking place in total Consciousness as well as expressing consciousness(es), making both breathing a source of meaning and shamanic journeying part of the creative process that brings into “being” imaginative resources for the actor that undermines traditional understandings of character/self/ego. All the pieces collected here, then, reveal a concern with consciousness and the theatre, the ways that performance can be a spiritual practice, a means a reaching higher levels of consciousness, as well as the ways the theatre may have healing effects on audiences by engaging them in wider and deeper levels of imagination, the levels where dualities disappear.

Performing Consciousness

Twenty major German cities have a total of twenty-four theatres specializing, at a high level of sophistication, in presenting light comedy. They have their own typical ambience, principles of artistic management and casting. There are playwrights, actors, directors and designers who work almost exclusively in the genre, called boulevard comedy, developing highly specialised approaches to their work. In almost all cases, the predominantly privately run boulevard comedy theatres in Germany have been able to attract larger audiences than municipal or state theatres in the same cities. The book provides a description and an analysis of this phenomenon, which is unique to Germany. Chapters focus on an analysis of ambience, artistic managers, artistic policies and artistic structures, on major characteristics of the plays presented on the stages of German boulevard comedy theatres, on aspects of translation and the cultural transfer of comedy and laughter and on aspects of production and reception, dealing in turn with actors, directors, media coverage and audiences.

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe

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