Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe

In recent years, philosophical debate of the concept of beauty has seen a remarkable renaissance. The twelve essays presented in this book provide a broad basis for a thorough reassessment of the European traditions of beauty in the arts (fine arts, performing arts, media arts) and in literature and film, not as a return to some distant, and allegedly ideal past, but as a constructive means of realising the potential of the arts for the 21st century.

The Future of Beauty in Theatre, Literature and the Arts

Heinz-Uwe Haus

Heinz-Uwe Haus was the first renowned director from the German Democratic Republic to (be allowed to) direct in the USA. This book presents relevant material written in relation to his productions, specifically of Bertolt Brecht’s plays. This includes Haus’s notes for his casts, announcements of the productions in the media, newspaper reviews and academic articles about the productions, conference contributions, and reflections by cast members (both professional actors and university faculty) and designers (set, costume, light, music). The material on the productions is then discussed in the contexts of approaches to directing, actor training, the academic debate of Brecht in the USA, and historical and biographical dimensions. A conversation with Haus as the final chapter of the book further contextualises the material brought together here.

Directing and Training Experiences

Heinz-Uwe Haus and Brecht in the USA

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.

Boulevard Comedy Theatre in Germany

Against the background of personal, institutional and cultural trajectories, this book considers dance, opera, theatre and practice as research from a consciousness studies perspective. Highlights include a conversation with Barbara Sellers-Young on the nature of dance; an assessment of the work of International Opera Theater; a new perspective on liveness and livecasts; a reassessment, with Anita S. Hammer, of the concept of a universal language of the theatre; a discussion of two productions of new plays; the development of a new concept of theatre of the heart; a comparison of Western and Thai positions on the concept of beauty; and an examination of the role of conflict for theatre. The final chapter of the book is taken up by the author’s first novel, which launches the new genre of spiritual romance.

Trajectories, 2014-2018

Consciousness, Performing Arts and Literature

The essays collected in this volume were initially presented at the Third International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts, held at the University of Lincoln, May 16-18, 2009. The conference was organised on the basis of the success of its predecessors in 2005 and 2007, and on the basis of the success of the Rodopi book series Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, which has to date seen twenty-one volumes in print, with another twelve in press or in the process of being written. The 2009 conference and the book series highlight the continuing growth of interest within the interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies, and in the distinct disciplines of theatre studies, literary studies, film studies, fine arts and music in the relationship between the object of these disciplines and human consciousness. Fifty-six delegates from twenty-one countries across the world attended the May 2009 conference in Lincoln; their range of disciplines and approaches is reflected well in this book.

Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts 2009

For centuries the theatre has been one of the major forms of art. How did acting, and its institutionalization in the theatre, begin in the first place? In some cultures complex stories relate the origin of acting and the theatre. And over time, approaches to acting have changed considerably. In the West, until the end of the 19th century, those changes occurred within the realm of acting itself, focusing on the question of whether acting should be 'natural' or 'formal.' Approaches to acting were closely related to the trends in culture at large. Acting became more and more professional and sophisticated as philosophical theories developed and knowledge in the human sciences increased. In the 20th century, the director was established as the most important force in the theater--able to lead actors to pinnacles of their art which they could not have achieved on their own. Approaches to acting in non-Western cultures follow quite different patterns. This book provides a clear overview of different approaches to acting, both historical and contemporary, Western and non-Western, and concludes with a challenge to the future of the art.

Past and Present

Approaches to Acting

The book discusses a range of questions relevant to understanding the phenomenon of theatre against a consciousness studies background.

Explanatory Scope and Future Potential

Theatre and Consciousness

This book brings together essays based on papers presented at the 6th International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts (CTLA), held from June 10 to 12, 2015, at St Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, New York. The conference was attended by seventy delegates from twenty countries across the world – the twenty-three essays collected here come from delegates from twelve of those countries. The range of contributions reflects the variety of material presented and discussed at the conference, across the fields of philosophy, literature, fine arts, music, dance, performance and theatre. The book, the sixth in the series, will appeal to the growing international community of researchers active and interested in the study of literature, theatre and the arts from a consciousness studies perspective.

Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts 2015

The late 1980s saw the dissolution of the Iron Curtain and the development of democracy in Eastern European countries that had been oppressed by a range of varieties of communist totalitarian regimes. In Germany, this development led to the abolition of the so-called German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the re-unification of Germany. Heinz-Uwe Haus was one of the leading voices of the movement credited with being instrumental in the collapse of communism in the GDR. In addition, as a leading theatre director in GDR times and beyond, his thinking and action have always combined politics and theatre and the arts overall. In this book, Haus provides a unique narrative of the context before German unification, unification itself, and the aftermath of unification across the decades since. He explores the difficulties on the way, from the perspective of the insider. Haus then widens the context from post-unification Germany to encompass issues of broader current relevance, such as Europe, America and Islam. Theatre provides the conceptual framework for this wide-ranging debate.

Heinz-Uwe Haus on Culture and Politics

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe

[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

The essays on dimensions of theatre ethics at the heart of contributions to this volume demonstrate how individual academics and theatre artists have thought about the ethical implications of theatre, and present the concepts and paradigms that have guided and influenced their thinking. They raise relevant issues and debate these in clearly defined, but not uniform ways—ways that have helped them to come to terms with the issues they raise. The reader may agree or disagree with individual authors or individual arguments. If such agreement or disagreement supports them to form and develop their own opinions and resultant actions, this book has served its purpose. This volume arises from the 2007 and 2008 TaPRA conferences and all of its essays, at one level or another, reflect upon what is possible within the environment of theatre. Possibility is one form of ethical engagement with the boundaries of philosophy and performance and reminds us of the inherently political aspect of any ethical question. So whilst the most obviously ethically oriented papers appear towards the end of the volume, in a separate section, let us bear in mind that throughout certain limits of representation will always be in question for any understanding of theatre.

Boundaries of Theatre, Performance and Philosophy

Ethical Encounters

This book presents to the reader a selection of the considerable amount of material written and published in relation to Heinz-Uwe Haus's productions of Brecht’s plays and Brechtian productions by other dramatists, especially ancient Greek drama, in Cyprus and Greece since his production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle marked the launch of the Cyprus National Theatre in 1975 after the country’s political turmoil that had culminated in the Turkish invasion. This includes material written by Haus at the time for his cast, announcements of the productions in the media, newspaper reviews and academic articles about the productions, conference contributions, and reflections by cast members (both professional actors and university faculty) and designers (set, costume, light, music). His work in Cyprus and Greece led to further collaborations on productions of ancient Greek plays across the world.

Heinz-Uwe Haus and Theatre Making in Cyprus and Greece

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

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe and co-authors take the exploration of the subjective dimension of theatre, its spiritual context, its relation to consciousness and natural law, further than ever before, thanks to the context provided by the thinking of German geobiologist Hans Binder. We present relevant aspects of Binder’s approach as precisely as possible, then take Binder’s approach for granted to tease out the implications of that approach to the issues of theatre, including nostalgia, intercultural theatre, theatre criticism, dealing with demanding roles, the canon, theatre and philosophy, digital performance, practice as research, and applied theatre. Overall, the book proposes an overarching emphasis on the importance of living in the present and the concomitant need to abandon obsolete but still powerful patterns of the past. In this context, theatre, according to Binder, has a global responsibility for the new world in which humans are liberated from the scourge of the past. Theatre has the power and thus the responsibility to be path-breaking for a new “fiction”, to show to people, in a playful and creative manner, the direction in which the new consciousness can move. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe is Professor of Drama at the Lincoln School of Performing Arts, University of Lincoln. He has numerous publications on the topic of ‘Theatre and Consciousness’ to his credit, and is founding editor of the peer-reviewed web-journal Consciousness, Literature and the Arts and the book series of the same title with Rodopi.

Spirituality and Subjectivity in the Performing Arts

Observing Theatre

The essays collected in this volume were initially presented at the Fifth International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts, held at the University of Lincoln, June 15–17, 2013. The conference was organised on the basis of the success of its predecessors in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011, and on the basis of the success of the Rodopi book series Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, which has to date seen 34 volumes in print, with another 12 in press or in the process of being written. The 2013 conference and the book series highlight the continuing growth of interest within the interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies, and in the distinct disciplines of theatre studies, literary studies, film studies, fine arts and music in the relationship between the object of these disciplines and human consciousness. 35 delegates from 12 countries across the world attended the June 2013 conference in Lincoln; their range of disciplines and approaches is reflected well in this book.

Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe

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