Stars of Early Australian Theatre


Book Description

Biographies of stars from the early Australian stage, including George Lauri, Florence Young, Carrie Moore and many more.




Her Majesty's Theatre Melbourne


Book Description

This spectacular book is an affectionate celebration of Melbourne's Her Majesty's Theatre. Packed with evocative text and hundreds of rare, nostalgic images, it documents the shows and stars who've entertained Melburnians over the past 14 decades. Her Majesty's great stage has housed everything from Show Boat, Oklahoma! and Fiddler on the Roof to Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, Mary Poppins and The Rocky Horror Show - hundreds of shows, including an intriguing few that were not exactly box office bonanzas! Its dressing rooms have been home to Dame Nellie Melba, Anna Pavlova and Dame Joan Sutherland as well as Peter Allen, Dame Edna, Jerry Hall, and even Bananas in Pyjamas. It hasn't always been easy. Her Majesty's has survived two world wars, two serious depressions, the introduction of talkies and television, and a disastrous 1929 fire. Seventy years later it escaped almost certain demolition when it was purchased and completely refurbished by entrepreneur Mike Walsh. Your guide on this nostalgic ramble is noted Australian entertainment historian Frank Van Straten. He's mined not only the treasures in the theatre's extensive archive, but also the memories and memorabilia of many showbiz veterans. The result is a landmark publication that will delight everyone who loves the magic of the theatre - and, especially, The Maj.




The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre


Book Description

International in scope, this book is designed to be the pre-eminent reference work on the English-speaking theatre in the twentieth century. Arranged alphabetically, it consists of some 2500 entries written by 280 contributors from 20 countries which include not only top-level experts, but, uniquely, leading professionals from the world of theatre. A fascinating resource for anyone interested in theatre, it includes: - Overviews of major concepts, topics and issues; - Surveys of theatre institutions, countries, and genres; - Biographical entries on key performers, playwrights, directors, designers, choreographers and composers; - Articles by leading professionals on crafts, skills and disciplines including acting, design, directing, lighting, sound and voice.




Australian Theatre, Modernism and Patrick White


Book Description

In the early 1960s the board of governors of the Adelaide Festival of Arts in Australia rejected two Patrick White plays, The Ham Funeral in 1962 and Night on Bald Mountain in 1964. Australian Theatre, Modernism and Patrick White documents the scandal that followed the board’s rejections of White’s plays, especially as it acted against the advice of its own drama committee and artistic director on both occasions. Denise Varney and Sandra D’Urso analyze the two events by drawing on the performative behaviour of the board of governors to focus on the question of governance. They shed new light on the cultural politics that surrounded the rejections, arguing that it represents an instance of executive governance of cultural production, in this case theatre and performance. The central argument of the book is that aesthetic modernism in theatre and drama struggled to achieve visibility and acceptability, and posed a threat to the norms and values of early to mid-twentieth-century Australia. The recent productions indicate that despite the Adelaide Festival’s early hostile rejections, White’s plays endure.




The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre


Book Description

This volume featrues over 250,000 words and more than 125 photographs identifying and defining theatre in more than 30 countries from India to Uzbekistan, from Thailand to New Zealand and featuring extensive documentation on contemporary Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Australian theatre.




The Cambridge Companion to Australian Literature


Book Description

This book introduces in a lively and succinct way the major writers, literary movements, styles and genres that, at the beginning of a new century, are seen as constituting the field of 'Australian literature'. The book consciously takes a perspective that sees literary works not as aesthetic objects created in isolation by unique individuals, but as cultural products influenced and constrained by the social, political and economic circumstances of their times, as well as by geographical and environmental factors. It covers indigenous texts, colonial writing and reading, poetry, fiction and theatre throughout two centuries, biography and autobiography, and literary criticism in Australia. Other features of the companion are a chronology listing significant historical and literary events, and suggestions for further reading.







New Theatre Quarterly 78: Volume 20, Part 2


Book Description

Provides an international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet.




New York Star


Book Description




Our Australian Theatre in the 1990s


Book Description

AUSTRALIAN THEATRE in the 1990s is a vigorous enterprise displaying the energies and contradictions of a multicultural society. This collection of essays by leading scholars of Australian theatre and drama surveys the emergence and directions of the new theatrical energies which have challenged or redefined the Australian 'mainstream': Aboriginal, multicultural, Asian-Australian, women's, gay and lesbian, community and young people's theatre; and charts the exciting growth of physical theatre. The contributors assess the impact of evolving funding and industrial priorities, and examine the theoretical and cultural debates surrounding Australian playwriting and theatre-making from the 1970s Vietnam dramas to the postmodern present.