Drama: Starting out

How do we analyse a play? This question and more are answered in a simple and accessible manner. The theory of modern drama is explained and illustrated by means of examples taken from more than thirty English South African plays.

In a post-Apartheid kitchen, a single night, both brutal and tender, unfolds between a black farm laborer, his master's daughter, and the woman who has raised them both. John and Mies Julie spiral into a deadly battle over power, sexuality and memory.

The five plays collected here offer a unique insight into the role of theatre in a situation of oppression. They were produced in close collaboration with their original black amateur casts, drawing on their lives and everyday experiences in the townships. They range from the early apprentice work of the brash but vital Sophiatown plays, No-Good Friday and Nongogo, to the freer, more urgent, and profound New Brighton plays, including the most famous Sizwe Bansi is Dead and The Island, and the previously unavailable The Coat.

"Explores the facilitator's role within a range of socially engaged theatre and community theatre settings. ... Part One offers an introduction to the concept, role and practice of facilitation and its applications in different contexts and cultural locations. ...

Robert Cohen's book, Acting Power, follows the tradition of his other book, Acting One, and has been the veritable bible for acting teachers for the last quarter century.' - David Krasner, Emerson College 'This book, above all else, is an attempt to explore the qualities of acting power...

This volume brings together dynamic perspectives on the concept of liveness in the performing arts, engaging with the live through the particular analytical focus of audiences and experience.

Ms. Bioh, a native New Yorker whose parents emigrated from Ghana in 1968, has made it her mission, theatrically and personally, to tell stories about African and African-American characters that buck expectation and defy stereotype." (New York Times)

'Masks are empowering... They enable you to take risks. They provoke you into working with the reckless logic of a six-year-old or the enigmatic stillness of someone wiser than you'll ever be. But above all, masks let you be you without your habitual limitations.'