Re-Direction: A Theoretical and Practical Guide PDF
Preview Re-Direction: A Theoretical and Practical Guide
RE: DIRECTION Re: direction is an extraordinary resource for practitioners and students of directing. It provides a collection of groundbreaking interviews, primary sources and essays on twentieth-century directing theories and practices around the world. Helpfully organized into four key areas of the subject, the book explores theories of directing, the boundaries of the director’s role, the limits of categorization, and the history of the theatre and performance art. Exceptionally useful and thought-provoking introductory essays by editors Schneider and Cody guide the reader through the wealth of material included here. Re: direction is the kind of book anyone interested in theatre history should own, and which will prove an indispensable toolkit for a lifetime of study. Rebecca Schneider is a member of the graduate faculty of Cornell University’s Department of theatre, Film, and Dance where she teaches Performance Studies, Visual Culture and Theatre History. She is the author of numerous works in theatre, performance art, and performance theory. Gabrielle Cody is Associate Professor of Drama and Chair in the Department of Drama and Film at Vassar College, where she has taught since 1992. She received her M.F.A. in Directing from the University of Minnesota, and her Doctorate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism from Yale University. WORLDS OF PERFORMANCE What is a ‘performance’? Where does it take place? Who are the participants? Not so long ago these were settled questions, but today such orthodox answers are unsatisfactory, misleading, and limiting. ‘Performance’ as a theoretical category and as a practice has expanded explosively. It now comprises a panoply of genres ranging from play, to popular entertainments, to theatre, dance, and music, to secular and religious rituals, to ‘performance in everyday life’, to intercultural experiments, and more. For nearly forty years, The Drama Review (TDR), the journal of performance studies, has been at the cutting edge of exploring these questions. The Worlds of Performance Series is designed to mine the extraordinary riches and diversity of TDR’s decades of excellence, bringing back into print important essays, interviews, artists’ notes, and photographs. New materials and introductions bring the volumes up to date. Each World of Performance book is a complete anthology, arranged around a specific theme or topic. Each World of Performance book is an indispensable resource for the scholar, a textbook for the student, and an exciting eye-opener for the general reader. Richard Schechner Editor TDR Series Editor OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES Acting (Re)Considered edited by Phillip B. Zarrilli Happenings and Other Acts edited by Mariellen R. Sandford A Sourcebook of Feminist Theatre and Performance: On and Beyond the Stage edited by Carol Martin The Grotowski Sourcebook edited by Richard Schechner and Lisa Wolford A Sourcebook of African-American Performance: Plays, People, Movements edited by Annemarie Bean Brecht Sourcebook edited by Carol Martin and Henry Bial RE: DIRECTION A THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL GUIDE Edited by Rebecca Schneider and Gabrielle Cody First published 2002 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2002 editorial matter, Rebecca Schneider and Gabrielle Cody All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Re: direction : a theoretical and practical guide / [edited by] Rebecca Schneider and Gabrielle Cody. p. cm. – (Worlds of performance) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0–415–21390–8 (alk. paper) – ISBN 0–415–21391–6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Theater – Production and direction. I. Schneider, Rebecca. II. Cody, Gabrielle 1956- III. Series. PN2053 .D537 2001 792′.0233 – dc21 2001019654 ISBN 0–415–21390–8 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–23191–6 (pbk) CONTENTS List of illustrations Acknowledgments General introduction Rebecca Schneider and Gabrielle Cody Part I Directors of classical revolt 1 Introduction to Part I Rebecca Schneider 2 The reign of the theatrical director: Antoine and Lugné-Pöe Bettina L. Knapp 3 Stanislavsky: uncensored and unabridged Sharon Marie Carnicke 4 Three Sisters at the MAT M. N. Stroyeva 5 My Russian notebook, 1934 Lee Strasberg 6 An interview with Okhlopkov Lee Strasberg and Sidney Kingsley 7 Meyerhold’s production of The Magnanimous Cuckold Nick Worrall 8 Reality is not enough: an interview with Alan Schneider Richard Schechner 9 Brecht as director Carl Weber 10 The revolutionary moment Lee Baxandall 11 Paradise Now!: notes The Living Theatre 12 From Art in Everyday Life Linda Montano 13 Invisible Theatre Augusto Boal Part II Auteur theatre 14 Introduction to Part II Gabrielle Cody 15 Artaud’s Les Cenci An account by Roger Blin, Artaud’s letters, and critical reviews 16 Tadeusz Kantor’s journey Jan Klossowicz 17 Theatre and therapy: Robert Wilson Bill Simmer 18 Vessel: the scenography of Meredith Monk – an interview Brooks McNamara 19 Foreman’s PAIN (T) and Vertical Mobility Kate Davy 20 Pearls for Pigs: program notes Richard Foreman 21 AIDS and avant-garde classicism: Reza Abdoh’s Quotations from a Ruined City John Bell 22 Woman, man, dog, tree: two decades of intimate and monumental bodies in Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Gabrielle Cody 23 Haiku in the flesh: Oguri’s theatre of transmutation Meiling Cheng Part III Theatres of community and transculturation 24 Introduction to Part III Gabrielle Cody 25 Collective creation Theodore Shank 26 An interview with Grotowski Richard Schechner, Theodore Hoffman, Jacques Chwat, Mary Tierney 27 Talking with Peter Brook Richard Schechner, Jean-Claude Carrière, Joel Jouanneau, Georges Banu 28 Building up the muscle: an interview with Ariane Mnouchkine Josette Féral 29 The Other history of intercultural performance Coco Fusco 30 Nomadmedia: on Critical Art Ensemble Rebecca Schneider Part IV Montage, reiteration, revision 31 Introduction to Part IV Rebecca Schneider 32 Eisenstein’s Wiseman Daniel Gerould 33 Montage of attractions Sergei Eisenstein 34 Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company Ron Argelander 35 Ridiculous Theatre, scourge of human folly Charles Ludlam 36 Family of the f.p.: notes on the Theatre of the Ridiculous Stefan Brecht 37 Is there a text on this stage? Theatre, authorship, interpretation Gerald Rabkin 38 Island hopping: rehearsing the Wooster Group’s Brace Up! Euridice Arratia 39 Hamlet at world’s end: Heiner Müller’s production in East Berlin Maik Hamburger 40 Suzan-Lori Parks and Liz Diamond: doo-a-diddly-dit-dit – an interview Steven Drukman 41 Three Sisters at millennium’s end: Richard Schechner’s production at La Mama Rebecca Schneider Index Illustrations 7.1 Kasimir Malevich’s The Knife Grinder, 1912 Computer-generated examples of Meyerhold’s exploration of the materials of mass production. ‘To take a basic “literary” 7.2 word like TEXT and rob it of its semantic attachment, to deform it and restructure it architecturally.’ 7.3 Rendering of L. F. Popova’s set for The Magnanimous Cuckold 7.4 State Theatre set, Moscow 1922. Popova’s ‘mechanized’ set for The Magnanimous Cuckold 13.1 Augusto Boal conducting a workshop at NYU 16.1 The 1980 production of Wielopole, Wielopole 16.2 The 1988 production of I Shall Never Return 17.1 Robert Wilson performing with Christopher Knowles, at Shiraz in Iran during the Eighth Festival of the Arts in 1974 17.2 Raymond Andrews in Deafman Glance 17.3 Christopher Knowles in The $ Value of Man (1975) 20.1 Rehearsing Pearls for Pigs 22.1 Dance ‘Cattle call’ in Bausch’s Kontakthof The Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House stage is transformed into a pool of ankle-deep water for Arien by Pina 22.2 Bausch 23.1 The 1988 premiere of Oguri’s thestreamofconsciousness 23.2 The 1988 premiere of Oguri’s thestreamofconsciousness 25.1 Ann Halprin explaining the score for one of her pieces at the Dancers’ Workshop of San Francisco 25.2 Mabou Mines’ Red Horse Animation 25.3 The AgitProp group performing outdoors in London 28.1 Nirupama Nityanaudau and Simon Abkarian as Iphigenia and Agamemnon in the 1992 production of Les Atrides 29.1 Fusco and Gómez-Peña, Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit . . ., 1992–4 29.2 Fusco and Gómez-Peña, Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit . . ., 1992–4 41.1 Act I of Three Sisters, directed by Richard Schechner 41.2 Act II of Three Sisters, directed by Richard Schechner 41.3 Act III of Three Sisters, directed by Richard Schechner 41.4 Act IV of Three Sisters, directed by Richard Schechner Acknowledgments Thanks are due to Talia Rodgers of Routledge for encouraging this project in every respect. We are also grateful to The Drama Review’s editor, also editor of the Worlds of Performance Series, Richard Schechner, for allowing us to take his journal and ‘do as we think best’ in our approach, choices, and organization of material. When he took issue with our perspective he always allowed himself to be convinced. We are also thoroughly indebted to editorial assistants Monika Gay, Magdalena Romanska, and Harvey Young of Cornell University for invaluable help with research, leg-work, and general editing, and also to Alexa Torgensen of Vassar for hours of scanning and spell-checking. The following were first published in The Tulane Drama Review and are reprinted with permission of TDR (NB the prefix ‘T’ is a style used by TDR, denoting each issue not by volume and number but by individual issue): ‘The Three Sisters at the MAT’ by M. N. Stroyeva, Tulane Drama Review 9, 1 (T25) 1964: 42–56 and ‘Reality is not enough: an interview with Alan Schneider’ by Richard Schechner, Tulane Drama Review 9, 3 (T27) 1965: 118–54. The following were first published in TDR: The Drama Review and are reprinted with permission of The Drama Review: ‘My Russian notebook, 1934’ by Lee Strasberg was published as ‘Lee Strasberg’s Russian notebook (1934),’ TDR 17, 1 (T57) 1973: 106–12; ‘An interview with Okhlopkov’ by Lee Strasberg and Sidney Kingsley, TDR 17, 1 (T57) 1973: 121–3; ‘Meyerhold’s production of The Magnanimous Cuckold’ by Nick Worrall was published as ‘Meyerhold’s production of The Magnificent Cuckhold,’ TDR 17, 1 (T57) 1973: 14–34; ‘Brecht as director’ by Carl Weber, TDR 12, 1 (T37) 1967: 101–7; ‘The revolutionary moment’ by Lee Baxandall, TDR 13, 2 (T42) 1968: 92–107; ‘Paradise Now: notes’ by the Living Theatre, TDR 13, 2 (T43) 1969: 90–107; ‘Antonin Artaud’s Les Cenci’ by Roger Blin et al., TDR 16, 2 (T54) 1972: 90–145; ‘Robert Wilson and therapy’ by Bill Simmer, TDR 20, 1 (T69) 1976: 99–110; ‘Vessel: the scenography of Meredith Monk: an interview’ by Brooks McNamara, TDR 16, 1 (T53) 1972: 87–103; ‘Foreman’s PAIN(T) and Vertical Mobility’ by Kate Davy, TDR 18, 2 (T62) 1974: 26–37; ‘An interview with Grotowski’ by Richard Schechner, TDR 13, 1 (T41) 1968: 29–41; ‘Eisen-stein’s Wiseman’ by Daniel Gerould, TDR 18, 1 (T61) 1974: 71–6; ‘Montage of attractions’ by Sergei Eisenstein, TDR 18, 1 (T61) 1974: 97–106; ‘Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company’ by Ron Argelander, TDR 18, 2 (T62) 1974: 81–6; ‘Ridiculous Theatre, scourge of human folly’ by Charles Ludlam, TDR 19, 4 (T68) 1975: 70. ‘Family of the f.p.: notes on the Theatre of the Ridiculous’ by Stefan Brecht, TDR 13, 1 (T41) 1968: 117–41. The following were published in The Drama Review: A Journal of Performance Studies and are reprinted with permission of MIT Press: ‘Stanislavsky: uncensored and unabridged’ by Sharon Marie Carnicke, TDR 37, 1 (T137) 1993: 22–37; ‘Invisible Theatre’ by Augusto Boal, TDR 34, 3 (T127) 1990: 24–34; ‘Tadeusz Kantor’s journey’ by Jan Klossowicz, TDR 30, 3 (T111) 1986: 98–155; ‘Pearls for Pigs: program notes’ by Richard Foreman, TDR 42, 2 (T158) 1998: 157–9; ‘AIDS and avant-garde classicism: Reza Abdoh’s Quotations from a Ruined City’ by John Bell, TDR 39, 4 (T148) 1995: 21–47; ‘Woman, man, dog, tree: two decades of intimate and monumental bodies in Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater’ by Gabrielle Cody, TDR 42,2 (T158) 1998: 115–31; ‘Talking with Peter Brook’ by Richard Schechner, Jean-Claude Carrière, Joel Jouanneau, Georges Banu, TDR 30, 1 (T109) 1986: 54–71; ‘Nomadmedia: on Critical Art Ensemble’ by Rebecca Schneider, TDR 44, 4 (T168) 2000: 120–31; ‘The Other history of intercultural performance’ by Coco Fusco, TDR 38, 1 (T141) 1993: 143–67; ‘Island hopping: rehearsing the Wooster Group’s Brace Up!’ by Euridice Arratia, TDR 36, 4 (T136) 1992: 121–42; ‘Suzan-Lori Parks and Liz Diamond: doo-a-diddly-dit-dit, an interview’ by Steven Drukman, TDR 39, 3 (T147) 1995: 56–75. ‘The reign of the theatrical director’ by Bettina L. Knapp was originally published in The French Review 6, 6 (l988) and is reprinted with permission of The French Review. The selection from Art in Everyday Life by Linda Montano, Station Hill, NY: Astro Artz, 1981; ‘Collective creation’ by Theodore Shank, TDR 16, 2 (T54) 1972: 3–31; and ‘Building up the muscle: an interview with Ariane Mnouchkine’ by Josette Feral, TDR 33, 4 (T124) 1989: 97–106, are reprinted with permission of the authors. ‘Is there a text on this stage?’ was originally published in Performing Arts Journal 26/27 (l985) and is reprinted with permission of the journal. ‘Hamlet at world’s end: Heiner Müller’s production in East Berlin’ by Maik Hamburger is reprinted from Shakespeare and Cultural Traditions, edited by Tetsuo Kishi, Roger Pringle, and Stanley Wells, London: Associated University Presses, 1994. It is reprinted with permission of the Associated University Presses. ‘Review of Three Sisters’ by Rebecca Schneider was published in Theater Journal 49, 3 (1997): 365–7 and is reprinted with permission of the journal. Note Notes at the ends of chapters are by the author(s) of those chapters unless otherwise indicated.
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