Lilian Baylis


Book Description

Based on new and original research, this biography documents the life of Lilian Baylis--an esteemed theatrical producer, manager, and the founding mother of the British National Theatre, the Royal Ballet, and the English National Opera. Setting out to discover how Baylis was able to manage two theatres and three companies, bring the very best of high culture to working people, and still haul in a profit, this biography looks beyond the famous comic anecdotes that surround her life and discovers the private woman behind the public persona. From her early career as a musician and dancer to the career-changing breaks she offered to actors such as Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier, this insightful work reveals how Baylis achieved so much and the personal cost of her successes.




Opera for Everybody


Book Description

Susie Gilbert traces the development of ENO from its earliest origins in the darkest Victorian slums of the Cut, where it was conceived as a vehicle of social reform, through two world wars, and via Sadler's Wells to its great glory days at the Coliseum and beyond. Setting the company's artistic achievements within the wider context of social and political attitudes to the arts and the ever-changing theatrical style, Gilbert provides a vivid cultural history of this unique institution's 150 years. Inspired by the idealism of Lilian Baylis, the company has been based on the belief that opera in the vernacular can not only reach out to even the least privileged members of society but also create a potent and immediate communication with its audience. With full access to ENO's archive, Gilbert has unearthed a rich range of material and held numerous interviews with a fascinating array of personalities, to weave an absorbing tale of life both in front and behind the scenes of ENO as it developed over the years.




Living Headship


Book Description

`The book has a wide appeal to existing heads, aspiring heads, lecturers and writers about headship. The contributors to this book have lifted the curtain on the realities of headships and, in the process, have added to our understanding of what school leadership is all about these days' - Managing Schools Today Practitioners and trainers understand how vitally important school leadership is to the practice of headship. Living Headship presents the experiences of successful heads working in primary and secondary schools. We hear in their accounts the authentic voices of heads determined to ensure that their leadership enhances the performance of their schools. Some have been in post for many years, and




The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership


Book Description

The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: The Nineteenth Century and Beyond provides a comprehensive exploration of women’s participation in musical leadership from the nineteenth century to the present. Global in scope, with contributors from over thirty countries, this book reveals the wide range of ways in which women have taken leadership roles across musical genres and contexts, uncovers new histories, and considers the challenges that women continue to face. The volume addresses timely issues in the era of movements such as #MeToo, digital feminisms, and the resurgent global feminist movements. Its multidisciplinary chapters represent a wide range of methodologies, with historical musicology, models drawn from ethnomusicology, analysis, philosophy, cultural studies, and practice research all informing the book. Including almost fifty chapters written by both researchers and practitioners in the field, it covers themes including: Historical Perspectives Conductors and Impresarios Women’s Practices in Music Education Performance and the Music Industries Faith and Spirituality: Worship and Sacred Musical Practices Advocacy: Collectives and Grass-Roots Activism The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: The Nineteenth Century and Beyond draws together both new perspectives from early career researchers and contributions from established world-leading scholars. It promotes academic-practitioner dialogue by bringing contributions from both fields together, represents alternative models of women in musical leadership, celebrates the work done by women leaders, and shows how women challenge accepted notions of gendered roles. Offering a comprehensive overview of the varied forms of women’s musical leadership, this volume is a vital resource for all scholars of women in music, as well as professionals in the music industries and music education today.




Macbeth


Book Description

This is a detailed account of the theatre history of Shakespeare's Macbeth from 1607 to the present day. The shortest of the tragedies, Macbeth is compressed, complex and ambiguous and has been variously interpreted. The Introduction describes major productions and performers including David Garrick, Sarah Siddons, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Laurence Olivier. Sarah Siddons, the greatest Lady Macbeth, portrayed her as a ruthlessly ambitious woman who dominated her husband. Irving, on the other hand, saw Macbeth as 'a bloody-minded villain', unlike his wife, played by Ellen Terry, who was gentle and devoted. Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, in the most successful production of the last century, were united in their ambition and pursuit of evil. A detailed commentary alongside the New Cambridge Shakespeare text of the play describes how specific episodes and passages have been interpreted in the theatre.




The London Stage 1910-1919


Book Description

Theatre in London has celebrated a rich and influential history, and in 1976 the first volume of J. P. Wearing’s reference series provided researchers with an indispensable resource of these productions. In the decades since the original calendars were produced, several research aids have become available, notably various reference works and the digitization of relevant newspapers and periodicals. This second edition of The London Stage 1910–1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel provides a chronological calendar of London shows from January 1910 through December 1919. The volume chronicles more than 3,000 productions at 35 major central London theatres during this period. For each entry the following information is provided: Title Author Theatre Performers Personnel Opening and closing dates Number of performances Other details include genre of the production, number of acts, and a list of reviews. A comment section includes other interesting information, such as a plot description, first-night audience reception, noteworthy performances, staging elements, and details of performances in New York either prior to or after the London production. Among the plays staged in London during this decade were Chu Chin Chow, The Gaol Gate, Hindle Wakes, Justice, Kismet, Pygmalion, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, as well as numerous musical comedies (British and American), foreign works, operas, and revivals of English classics. A definitive resource, this edition revises, corrects, and expands the original calendar. In addition, approximately 20 percent of the material—in particular, information on adaptations and translations, plot sources, and comments—is new. Arranged chronologically, the shows are fully indexed by title, genre, and theatre. A general index includes numerous subject entries on such topics as acting, audiences, censorship, costumes, managers, performers, prompters, staging, and ticket prices. The London Stage 1910–1919 will be of value to scholars, theatrical personnel, librarians, writers, journalists, and historians.




The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare


Book Description

This is a reference text on Shakespeare's works, times, life, and afterlives. It offers stimulating and authoritative coverage of every aspect of Shakespeare and his writings, including their reinterpretation in the theatre, in criticism, and in film.




The Making of Markova


Book Description

In pre-World War I England, a frail Jewish girl is diagnosed with flat feet, knock knees, and weak legs. In short order, Lilian Alicia Marks would become a dance prodigy, the cherished baby ballerina of Sergei Diaghilev, and the youngest ever soloist at his famed Ballets Russes. It was there that George Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Henri Matisse designed her costumes, and Igor Stravinsky taught her music—all when the re-christened Alicia Markova was just 14. Given unprecedented access to Dame Markova’s intimate journals and correspondence, Tina Sutton paints a full picture of the dancer’s astonishing life and times in 1920s Paris and Monte Carlo, 1930s London, and wartime in New York and Hollywood. Ballet lovers and readers everywhere will be fascinated by the story of one of the twentieth century’s great artists.




Philanthropy and the Construction of Victorian Women's Citizenship


Book Description

This book uses Cons's and Cavendish's partnership and work as an illuminating point of departure for exploring the larger topic of women's philanthropic campaigns in late Victorian and Edwardian society.




John Guare


Book Description

Best known for his plays Six Degrees of Separation and The House of Blue Leaves, John Guare is a major figure in the contemporary American theater. Other notable works by Guare include Bosoms and Neglect, Landscape of the Body, and the Lydie Breeze series. His career began with off-off-Broadway experimentation in the sixties and continues through the present. In that time Guare has created many imaginative, eccentric plays that reflect the chaos, violence, and loneliness of life in our time. He frequently combines outrageous farce with painfully serious subject matter. This sourcebook is both a convenient reference and a resource for further investigation of Guare's works. The volume chronicles his achievements with a chronology and biographical essay. It also includes summaries of his published and unpublished plays, overviews of the critical reception of each work, production credits, a primary bibliography of dramatic and nondramatic writings, and extensive annotated bibliographies of reviews and other secondary material.