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Journal articles on the topic 'Urban theatre'
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1
van den Berg, Klaus. "The Geometry of Culture: Urban Space and Theatre Buildings in Twentieth-Century Berlin." Theatre Research International 16, no. 1 (1991): 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0307883300009986.
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In her 1983 book, Semiotik des Theaters, Erika Fischer-Lichte referred to theatre as part of ‘die Geometrie der Kultur’, a network of relationships materialized in space that symbolizes cultural experience. The concept of the geometry of culture may enable us to show how, in an urban space, different strands of human activities find their expression in the outline of urban space. Lewis Mumford demonstrates in The City in History that political programmes, economic interests, and cultural concepts influence the city's organization as well as the functions which individual buildings take in the urban environment. Cultural historians and semioticians such as Mary Henderson, Monika Steinhauser, Michael Hays, and Marvin Carlson have adopted this perspective for their investigations of the history of theatre in various metropolitan areas. For example, Henderson studies the relationship between the theatres and the financial district in New York City; Michael Hays and Monika Steinhauser analyse particular urban monuments, such as the Lincoln Center in New York and the Paris Opera. Marvin Carlson analyses how theatre buildings have been integrated historically as public monuments in various urban settings. Within the context of such studies I will examine the spatial and aesthetic re-alignments that World War II forced upon the integration of theatre buildings in Berlin, taking as case studies four major theatres: the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, the Deutsches Theater, the Schillertheater and the Volksbühne.
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Bhuyan, Abul Basher MD Ziaul Haque. "The synthesis of tradition in contemporary theatre of Bangladesh: “The theatre of roots”." ТЕАТР. ЖИВОПИСЬ. КИНО. МУЗЫКА, no. 4 (2022): 84–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.35852/2588-0144-2022-4-84-104.
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The article examines how the Eastern traditional theatre responded to the Western theatre in the context of the British colonial regime in the Indian subcontinent. From this point of view, the dialogue between cultures was practically not considered. Hence, this study is devoted to understanding the synthesis of European theatre and traditional theatre, which began to be considered a rural art form by the early twentieth century, meaning something simple or low. In contrast, urban theatre of the European type was perceived as something refined or high. Rabindranath Tagore had not been fully successful in synthesizing heterogeneous theatrical traditions in his lyrical plays. The Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), an all-India organization of progressive writers-artists-activists, was established in Mumbai (Bombay) in 1943, played a significant role in creating the new cultural expression in the map of colonial Bengali theatre. Also, after obtaining independence in 1971, the theatre artists of Bangladesh sought a new language of performance in the urban theater, which would embody the people’s lives, hopes, and dreams. Eventually, the national cultural movement emerged in the decade of 90s in the last century. The movement was called the “Theatre of Roots”, which attempted to synthesize the traditional elements with the Western forms and enjoyed great popularity. Therefore, the article analyzes the play Wheel by Selim Al Deen, directed by Syed Jamil Ahmed, the most significant examples of the “Theatre of Roots” movement. In the study of this production, an analysis of the artistic process of synthesis of traditions in the modern urban theatre of Bangladesh is carried out.
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Wang, Chen, and Heng Li. "Built Environmental Variations Between Regular and Imax Theatres." Open House International 43, no. 4 (December 1, 2018): 41–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ohi-04-2018-b0006.
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The movie substitutes such as home cinema, video on demand (VOD), and plasma televisions leaded to a declining attendance of patrons to movie theatres, which urged the invention of IMAX theatre to call movie lovers back to cinemas. Many cinemas plan to renovate their regular digital theatre auditoriums into IMAX theatre auditoriums, but there lack of study for built environmental variations between regular and IMAX theatres. Through the combination of a questionnaire survey and a case study on a leading cinema company in Malaysia, the Tanjong Golden Village Cinemas (TGV), this paper aims to identify the structural and architectural differences between regular digital theatre auditorium and IMAX theatre auditorium in the perspectives of acoustic and visual experiences. The most significant factor influencing the satisfaction of visualization in IMAX is “immersive of picture” followed by “sharpness of colour” and “feels as part of the picture”. The most significant indicators for audio experience in IMAX is “direction of object”, which enable an audience to trace the direction and position of an object on the screen without looking at it. The built environmental variations between regular and IMAX theatres in terms of screen, camera and projection methods, seating, architectural layout, wall design, and sound system arrangement were thoroughly compared in the case study.
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DUTT, BISHNUPRIYA. "Introduction." Theatre Research International 42, no. 3 (October 2017): 323–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s030788331700061x.
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These three essays on distinct research areas and case studies cover a broad history of educational institutions in India, their focus on theatre and cultural education, and their role in creating citizens active in the public sphere and civic communities. The common point of reference for all the three essays is the historical transition from pre- to post-independence India, and they represent three dominant genres of Indian theatre practice: the amateur progressive theatre emerging out of sociopolitical movements; the State Drama School, which has remained at the core of the state's policy and vision of a national theatre; and college theatre, which comprises the field from which the National School of Drama sources its acting students, as well as new audiences for urban theatres.
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Kladaki, Maria, and Kostantinos Mastrothanasis. "Shakespeare’s Plays at the Royal Theatre in Athens in the Early 20th Century." European Journal of Language and Culture Studies 1, no. 6 (December 19, 2022): 52–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.24018/ejlang.2022.1.6.53.
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In the early 20th century, the idea of creating a state theatre in Greece matured, that was responsible for establishing the foundation of a national dramatic tradition, as well as of the art of histrionics which until that time was characterized by amateurism. The Royal Theatre opened its doors to the public in 1900 and was based on the model of German Court theatres. In other words, theatre was considered a superior form of art that had to be kept away from the lower social classes. The absence of a powerful urban class and the lack of cohesion between the urban class and the lower classes favored the role of the Court, which was influenced by Drama when it comes on shaping its public guise and consolidate its dominance, by ensuring that a specific theatre style, aesthetics and ideology were preserved. Shakespeare’s performances in Greece were based on uncritical copying of practices applied in Europe in the light of the country’s agonizing struggle to build a new national and urban class identity. The audience of the Royal Theatre was seeking its own identity within that phantasmagorical ambience; that is for points of convergence with the western model, so as to receive social recognition and feel self-justified, as participation in such events were classified as “cultured persons”. The theatrical environment itself and the utilization of works of the English poet's works played a role in solidifying the idea in Greece that Shakespeare’s plays are the exclusive privilege of the urban class.
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Settimo, Teatro. "A Theatre for Urban Renewal." New Theatre Quarterly 7, no. 25 (February 1991): 27–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00005169.
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Teatro Settimo is a theatre group which was created in the Italian industrial city of Turin in 1979 by a group of theatre-making friends who wished to discover a kind of left-wing theatre that would respond directly to the problems of an urban environment. Their story is one of institutionalized success achieved – and then deliberately rejected, as the problems of administering that success, with all its attendant bureaucracy, threatened to stifle the original impulses behind the company. Their most recent production, Stabat Mater, was presented at the ‘Divina’ conference held in Turin in June 1990, as described elsewhere in this issue. Lizbeth Goodman and Gabriella Giannachi spoke there to members of the group, which has since brought Stabat Mater to the ‘Theatre under Threat’ conference in Cambridge last October.
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Wooden, Isaiah Matthew. "Macelle Mahala. Black Theater, City Life: African American Arts Institutions and Urban Cultural Ecologies." Modern Drama 66, no. 4 (December 1, 2023): 577–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/md-66-4-rev7.
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Macelle Mahala’s Black Theater, City Life: African American Art Institutions and Urban Cultural Ecologies demonstrates how the Black theatre companies and institutions it explores have transformed their respective communities into important sites of civic and artistic engagement.
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Haddad, Naif Adel, Leen Adeeb Fakhoury, and Talal S. Akasheh. "Notes on anthropogenic risks mitigation management and recovery of ancient theatres’ heritage." Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development 8, no. 3 (August 20, 2018): 222–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jchmsd-11-2016-0062.
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Purpose Ancient theatres and odea are one of the most significant and creative socio-cultural edutainment centres of human history that are still in use. They stood and served as huge multi-functional structures for social, religious, propaganda and political meeting space. Meanwhile, ancient theatres’ sites have an intrinsic value for all people, and as a vital basis for cultural diversity, social and economic development, they should continue to be a source of information for future generations. Though, all places with ancient theatre heritage should be assessed as to their potential risk from any anthropogenic or natural process. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The main paper’s objective is to discuss mainly the anthropogenic and technical risks, vulnerability and impact issues on the ancient classical theatres. While elaborating on relevant recent studies, where the authors were involved in ERATO and ATHENA European projects for ancient theatres and odea, this paper provides a brief overview of the main aspects of the anthropogenic qualitative risks and related issues for selected classical antiquity theatres. Some relevant cases are critically presented and investigated in order to examine and clarify the main risk mitigation issues as an essential prerequisite for theatre heritage preservation and its interface with heritage reuse. Findings Theatre risk mitigation is an ongoing and challenging task. By preventive conservation, theatre anthropogenic qualitative risks’ management can provide a framework for decision making. The needed related guidelines and recommendations that provide a systematic approach for sustainable management and planning in relation mainly to “ancient theatre compatible use” and “theatre technical risks” are analysed and presented. This is based on identification, classification and assessment of the theatre risk causes and contributing factors and their mitigation. Originality/value The paper also suggests a new methodological approach for the theatre anthropogenic qualitative risk assessment and mitigation management, and develop some recommendations that provide a systematic approach for theatre site managers and heritage experts to understand, assess, and mitigate risks mainly due to anthropogenic and technical threats.
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Fink, Ben. "Secular Communion in the Coalfields: The Populist Aesthetic and Practice of Roadside Theater." TDR/The Drama Review 64, no. 4 (December 2020): 16–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/dram_a_00963.
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Roadside Theater is a populist theatre company. Refusing liberal elitism, activist vanguardism, and the authoritarian pseudo-populism of Donald Trump, Roadside works in grassroots partnerships that cross racial, political, and rural-urban lines. Combining theatre production, community organizing, and economic development, this work creates the conditions for residents of the Appalachian coalfields and neighbors nationwide to confront exploitative power structures and divisive culture wars, tell their own stories, build shared power and wealth, and create a future where “We Own What We Make.”
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Starzyk, Agnieszka, Kinga Rybak-Niedziółka, Janusz Marchwiński, Ewa Rykała, and Elena Lucchi. "Spatial Relations between the Theatre and Its Surroundings: An Assessment Protocol on the Example of Warsaw (Poland)." Land 12, no. 6 (June 13, 2023): 1225. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land12061225.
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Theater as a place, but also as a field of human and team activity involving the creation of performances performed in the presence of the viewer, has a centuries-old history. This study aims at examining the links between theatre architecture/space and public spaces, trying to answer to what extent these objects have become attractors in its space and how they affect the activity of cultural and social life. The subjects of the study are Warsaw theatres, both historical and contemporary, in the context of their impact on the surrounding public spaces. A specific methodology was elaborated to evaluate potential impacts. According to the spatial relations between the theatre and its surroundings, they are clustered in the following typologies: emanation, isolation, and interference theatre. The research methods applied for defining and solving the scientific problem are: (i) critical analysis, (ii) comparative analysis, (iii) observation without intervention, and (iv) intuitive method based on the author’s personal experience. The conclusions are based on empirical research, with particular emphasis on the research material obtained by field research. The results of the research allow one to draw conclusions regarding the influence of theatrical places on public spaces in the city structure. The mission of the theater is changed, activating events and building social bonds. Theater space and its surroundings are shaped in accordance with these new standards and social expectations to be transformed into a public space of a cultural nature. Thus, presently, urban theatrical space is a site for spectacle, with a social and cultural mission. Theater space and its surroundings should be shaped in accordance with changing standards and social expectations, and it should be a public space of a cultural nature.
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Sahu, Ipsita. "From the Ruins of Chanakya: Exhibition History and Urban Memory." BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies 9, no. 1 (June 2018): 73–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0974927618767285.
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Unlike the somewhat natural decay of other single screen theatres of Delhi, the demolition of the famous Chanakya cinema (1969–2008) was an iconoclastic event. When the theatre was demolished in 2008 to pave the way for a multiplex and shopping mall, a wide and intensifying wave of dissent reigned, as the city was rudely awakened to the realities of urban transformation. At a time when film theatres had started to decline in India with the emergence of home entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s, Chanakya theatre offered a distinctive culture of cinema and urban leisure to the middle-class residents of Delhi, foreshadowing the multiplex imagination decades before its arrival. This article attempts to understand the Chanakya story and its theatrical legacy as a prehistory of globalisation. It explores the phenomenon of Chanakya’s auratic presence in the city’s imagination as it maps the theatre’s biographical journey, starting from its precarious inception in one of the more remote areas of Delhi through to its prominent place in the city’s cultural life for almost 30 years, followed by its afterlife as a potent emblem symbolising the end of a bygone era in the city’s collective memory. The micro-analysis of the Chanakya story explores the complex circuits within which architecture, film text, urban materiality and public memory converge.
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Betts, Mary Beth, Randolph Carter, and Robert Reed Cole. "Joseph Urban: Architecture, Theatre, Opera, Film." Design Issues 11, no. 3 (1995): 74. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1511777.
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Gallagher, Kathleen, and Jonothan Neelands. "Drama and theatre in urban contexts." Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 16, no. 2 (May 2011): 151–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2011.566986.
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Hickey‐Moody, Anna C. "Performing new spaces:the theatre of urban." Critical Studies in Education 49, no. 2 (September 2008): 199–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17508480802072939.
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Frank, Marion. "Theatre in the Service of Health Education: Case Studies from Uganda." New Theatre Quarterly 12, no. 46 (May 1996): 108–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00009933.
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International organizations are increasingly turning to theatre as a means of raising development issues, exploring options, and influencing behaviour. This paper examines some structures and techniques inherent in this type of applied theatre, analyzing two plays used to supplement AIDS education programmes in Uganda. One is a video production by a typical urban popular theatre group, while the second production analyzed exemplifies the Theatre for Development approach through its sub-genre, Campaign Theatre, used to raise awareness on health issues, hygiene, sanitation, child care, and the environment. The study analyzes the performance of the two plays and addresses some contradictions arising from the involvement and influence of external organizations. Marion Frank is a graduate of Bayreuth University in Germany, whose extensive field research has resulted in the publication of AIDS Education through Theater (Bayreuth African Studies Series, Bayreuth, 1995). Dr. Frank is currently living in the US, where as a Visiting Scholar at Duke University she is now working on a research project aiming to establish a closer link between literary/cultural studies and medicine/medical anthropology.
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Saro, Anneli. "Mobility and Theatre: Theatre Makers as Nomadic Subjects." Nordic Theatre Studies 27, no. 1 (May 12, 2015): 90. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/nts.v27i1.24242.
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This article discusses the pros and cons of theatrical mobility, investigating situ- ations where theatre is breaking its traditional practices of being local and urban by becoming mobile, international and rural. The main features in this context are guest performances at home and abroad, the importation of guest directors, performers, designers et cetera, and finally, site-specific and open-air productions. The structure of the analysis is based on these features, partly derived from the historical development of theatre but partly also from the aim of contrary thinking, insisting that contrary to the widespread assumption of nomadism as something indigenous or postmodern, nomadic attitudes can also be detected in quite traditional forms of theatre making and living. While touring at home and abroad provides opportunities for theatre makers to practice nomadic life style, summer theatre creates an opportunity for spectators to experience nomadism in more local spaces. The above mentioned features are analysed in the context of Estonian theatre, drawing occasional parallels with the neighbouring country of Finland. Each section goes through three periods of Estonian theatre history; 1) the period before the Second World War when theatres belonged to societies; 2) the period between 1940 and 1991 when Estonia was a part of the Soviet Union and all theatrical activities were subject to state control; 3) the period of independence and globalization. Since each period had a different imprint on theatrical mobility, the phenomenon will be investigated in relation to the political, social and cultural contexts, using Bruno Latour’s concept of actor-network-theory as a methodological tool.
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MAKEHAM, PAUL. "Performing the City." Theatre Research International 30, no. 2 (July 2005): 150–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s030788330500115x.
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Lewis Mumford, writing in the 1930s, understood the city as a ‘theater of social action’. Mumford's ideas remain important in the context of the contemporary post-industrial city, in which theatricality and performativity are key drivers of so-called ‘experience economies’. Increasingly, urban planners are attuned to such theatrical notions as the ‘urban scene’ and ‘urban drama’ in framing policy. Adopting interpretive strategies enabled by Performance Studies, this paper gives an account of some of the ways in which theatre and performance are made manifest in cities. It considers some of the implications of urban performativity, arguing that good city planning demands an ethics of performance, whereby citizens become spectators and co-performers in the urban drama.
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ZUR NIEDEN, GESA. "The internationalization of musical life at the end of the nineteenth century in modernized Paris and Rome." Urban History 40, no. 4 (April 10, 2013): 663–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0963926813000357.
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ABSTRACT:This article examines the relationship between the processes of urban renovation in European capitals and the internationalization of musical theatre productions, using the example of theatres constructed in Paris and Rome at the end of the nineteenth century. Due to the limited availability of governmental and municipal funding, the more popular theatres in both capitals came to provide an important space for musical productions on an avant-garde level, with international repertoires and casts.
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DIAMOND, CATHERINE. "The Palimpsest of Vietnamese Contemporary Spoken Drama." Theatre Research International 30, no. 3 (October 2005): 207–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s030788330500146x.
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Unlike most Southeast Asian theatres, Vietnam has created a sizeable corpus of scripted spoken dramas that continue to be popular in performance with urban audiences. Initially influenced by French classicism and Ibsenist realism, the Vietnamese spoken drama, kich noi, very quickly adapted to local social realities and survives by readily incorporating topical subjects. While keeping abreast of current social issues, the theatre nonetheless makes use of its multi-cultural heritage, and in any given modern performance one can see the layers of influence – traditional Sino-Vietnamese hat boi/tuong; Vietnamese cheo theatre, Cham dance, French realism, Soviet constructivism and socialist realism, and most recently, western performance art. The Vietnamese playwrights, set designers, directors, and actors have combined aspects of the realistic theatre with the conventions of their suppositional traditional theatre to come up with a hybrid that is uniquely Vietnamese. It is argued that these manifold layers should be regarded as a kind of palimpsest rather than just as pastiche.
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Graver, David, and Loren Kruger. "South Africa's National Theatre: the Market or the Street?" New Theatre Quarterly 5, no. 19 (August 1989): 272–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00003341.
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The original Theatre Quarterly devoted a large portion of one issue-TQ28 (1977—78) to the theatre of South Africa. It is, of course, important to relate new developments in the theatre of that troubled nation to the context of its changing political situation – considering, for example, how far a reflection of the realities of the urban black experience is now more typical than the ‘acceptable’ face represented by the once-popular ‘tribal musicals’. Here. David Graver and Loren Kruger contrast two approaches to the theatre of anti-apartheid. The internationally known (and now relatively stable) Market Theatre of Johannesburg, they argue, today largely reaches an educated, liberal, and elite audience, and sustains what is essentially a European literary tradition: but other plays written and directed by blacks — notably since the Soweto uprising of 1976 — have developed a more appropriately African style. Often, these, have emerged from the theatre companies within the black townships, such as the Bachaki Theatre Company - whose Top Down is here the focus of analysis. David Graver is currently Mellon Fellow in Drama at Stanford University: his articles have appeared in Theatre Journal and in NTQ, and he is now completing a book on the theory and practice of the avant-garde. Loren Kruger teaches in the University of Chicago, has published in Theatre Journal and the Brecht Yearbook, and is working on a study of theatres with national aspirations in Europe and the USA.
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Yta, Edisua Merab. "Beyond Watt Market Roundabout Audiences: Redesigning Tourists Oriented Theatres in Calabar." Jurnal Office 6, no. 1 (September 8, 2020): 71. http://dx.doi.org/10.26858/jo.v6i1.15008.
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Calabar, a coastal town in South-South Nigeria, has had a long-standing history of cultural tourist-oriented theatre performances. And today, its image as a tourist city has grown in leaps because of the Christmas Festival (A 32-day entertainment art and cultural events) it hosts annually plus other tourism products or attractions that complement the festival. Carnival seems to be a major attraction. Other attractions are not emphasized. This study explored how tourism-oriented theatres can be developed to add to existing attractions and increase varieties for tourists. The study used a combination of research methods including experiential theatre performances, participant observation, and focus group discussion. Findings show that local culture and arts and creative industries i.e., theatre can be used to promote destinations and enhance their attractiveness. They can help build the image of the city and promote indigenous arts and culture. This research significantly models the utility of theatre in the service of tourism and urban development. Some key recommendations this research makes include, the collaboration of the tourism industry, the performing arts sectors, and private business owners. Creating demand and market for specially packaged theatre products for tourists working with travel agencies to ensure that theatre is taken from the mainstream to the tourists.
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Yta, Edisua Merab. "Beyond Watt Market Roundabout Audiences: Redesigning Tourists Oriented Theatres in Calabar." PINISI Discretion Review 4, no. 1 (August 22, 2020): 73. http://dx.doi.org/10.26858/pdr.v4i1.14790.
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Calabar, a coastal town in South-South Nigeria, has had a long-standing history of cultural tourist-oriented theatre performances. And today, its image as a tourist city has grown in leaps because of the Christmas Festival (A 32-day entertainment art and cultural events) it hosts annually plus other tourism products or attractions that complement the festival. Carnival seems to be a major attraction. Other attractions are not emphasized. This study explored how tourism-oriented theatres can be developed to add to existing attractions and increase varieties for tourists. The study used a combination of research methods including experiential theatre performances, participant observation, and focus group discussion. Findings show that local culture and arts and creative industries i.e., theatre can be used to promote destinations and enhance their attractiveness. They can help build the image of the city and promote indigenous arts and culture. This research significantly models the utility of theatre in the service of tourism and urban development. Some key recommendations this research makes include, the collaboration of the tourism industry, the performing arts sectors, and private business owners. Creating demand and market for specially packaged theatre products for tourists working with travel agencies to ensure that theatre is taken from the mainstream to the tourists.
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Urban, Eva. "Multilingual Theatre in Brittany: Celtic Enlightenment and Cosmopolitanism." New Theatre Quarterly 34, no. 3 (July 13, 2018): 283–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x1800026x.
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In this article Eva Urban describes a historical tradition of Breton enlightenment theatre, and examines in detail two multilingual contemporary plays staged in Brittany: Merc’h an Eog / Merch yr Eog / La Fille du Saumon (2016), an international interceltic co-production by the Breton Teatr Piba and the Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru (the Welsh-language national theatre of Wales); and the Teatr Piba production Tiez Brav A Oa Ganeomp / On avait de jolies maisons (2017). She examines recurring themes about knowledge, enlightenment journeys, and refugees in Brittany in these plays and performances, and presents the argument that they stage cosmopolitan and intercultural philosophical ideas. Eva Urban is Senior Research Fellow at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University Belfast. She has held a Région de Bretagne Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Centre for Breton and Celtic Studies, University of Rennes 2, a research lectureship in the English Department, University of Rennes 2, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of Community Politics and the Peace Process in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama (Peter Lang, 2011) and has published articles in New Theatre Quarterly, Etudes Irlandaises, Caleidoscopio, and chapters in book collections.
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Davis, Jim, and Victor Emeljanow. "New Views of Cheap Theatres: Reconstructing the Nineteenth-Century Theatre Audience." Theatre Survey 39, no. 2 (November 1998): 53–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0040557400010140.
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Our views about nineteenth-century London theatre audiences are often dominated by essentialist descriptions via which subjective impressions have been transmuted into received orthodoxy. In this article, with reference to topography, demography (based on the 1841–1861 censuses), police reports, and patterns of urban transportation, we are attempting to counter some of these received orthodoxies, using as our model a re-evaluation of what is meant by a “transpontine” or “Surrey-side” audience with reference to the Coburg (Victoria) and Surrey Theatres.
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Kozien-Wozniak, Magdalena. "Theatre Architecture and Urban Culture: Project ‘A Theatre in Rio de Janeiro’." IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 471 (February 24, 2019): 112057. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/11/112057.
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Quercia, Francesca. "Theatre Associations in Working Class Neighbourhoods: between Politicisation and Public Action." Swiss Journal of Sociology 47, no. 3 (November 1, 2021): 431–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/sjs-2021-0023.
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Abstract For about thirty years now, in the context of urban policies, number of theater associations carry out projects in working-class neighborhoods providing active participation of their inhabitants. Based on an ethnographic survey in France and Italy, this article highlights the discursive politicisation processes within these associations. Participatory theatre provides a framework a priori conducive to generate “public spirited-political conversations”. However, these processes can be hampered by a set of public funding constraints.
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Hakala, Taryn. "Melodramatic Mayhew: J.B. Johnstone’s How We Live in the World of London." Victorian Popular Fictions Journal 3, no. 2 (December 17, 2021): 115–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.46911/axja8957.
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The British stage of the1850s produced a flurry of dramas influenced by Henry Mayhew’s work on urban poverty, many of which were written for the “minor” theatres of London’s East End and the south side of the Thames. Often dismissed as literary “hacks,” the writers for these theatres and their works have been largely undervalued and understudied. This article shines a spotlight on one such writer, John Beer Johnstone, whose How We Live in the World of London; Or, London Labour and the London Poor premiered at the Surrey Theatre on 24 March 1856. Taking a positive view of literary “piracy,” I argue that Johnstone’s play cleverly re-imagines Mayhew’s social journalism and subverts prevalent stereotypes of the urban poor for the Surrey’s mixed audiences.
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Moore, Paul S. "Movie Palaces on Canadian Downtown Main Streets: Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver." Articles 32, no. 2 (May 24, 2013): 3–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1015713ar.
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The emergence of movie palaces is traced for St. Catherine Street in Montreal, Yonge Street in Toronto, and Granville Street in Vancouver. Beginning in 1896, film shows were included in a range of urban amusement places. When dedicated movie theatres opened by 1906, they were quickly built throughout the city before the downtown "theatre districts" became well defined. Not until about 1920 were first-run vaudeville-movie palaces at the top of a spatial hierarchy of urban film-going, lasting into the 1950s. After outlining the formation of movie palace film-going, the paper notes how the downtown theatres were next to each city's major department store. A theoretical analysis of how amusement and consumption make "being downtown" significant in everyday urban life follows. A review of the social uses of electric lighting and urban amusements finds that movie palace marquees become a symbol for the organization of downtown crowds and consumers into attentive mass audiences. A brief account of the decline of the movie palace, from the 1970s to 2000, concludes by reviewing the outcomes of replacement by multiplex theatres, demolition, or preservation.
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Chourmouziadou, Kalliopi. "The function of the First Ancient Theatre of Larissa within the soundscape of the contemporary urban fabric." RIVISTA ITALIANA DI ACUSTICA, no. 1 (November 2023): 21–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.3280/ria1-2023oa14848.
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During the process of urban development in Greece a part of the first ancient theatre of Larissa was revealed. Today, after several expropriations and support frameworks, the theatre is fully excavated and partly reconstructed. Recently, an International Open Ideas Competition was launched for the urban regeneration of the surrounding area and the enhancement of the theatre's value and function. This paper presents the historic information of the theatre, it describes its evolution through the centuries, responding to the city's development, it investigates its acoustics based on previous measurements, noise maps, land use and the contemporary soundscape. Moreover, it discusses the competition axes and urban design approaches aiming to identify the effect of the application of design proposals to the theatre's function and future use.
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Saivetz, Deborah. "‘What Counts is the Landscape’: the Making of Pino DiBuduo's ‘Invisible Cities’." New Theatre Quarterly 16, no. 1 (February 2000): 50–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00013452.
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In October 1998 the Italian director Pino DiBuduo visited the Newark, New Jersey, campus of Rutgers University on the occasion of the major international conference, ‘Arts Transforming the Urban Environment’ For the occasion, he transformed a bleakly concrete teaching block on the Newark campus into a site for the latest of his Invisible Cities projects. These had originated in his Teatro Potlach company's residency in the Italian village of Fara Sabina in 1991, where DiBudo's intention – as in a number of site-specific variations on Invisible Cities since – was to render ‘visible’ aspects of the everyday urban environment which we no longer have the imagination or the patience to ‘see’. While Deborah Saivetz looks also at this original Italian project, and at a later version in Klagenfurt, Austria, she concentrates here on the Newark production, whose development she recorded – in this opening article in her own and DiBuduo's words, and in the following piece through the experiences and recollections of the participants. Deborah Saivetz holds a doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is currently Assistant Professor of Theater in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the Newark campus of Rutgers University. Her directorial work includes productions for the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, the Drama League of New York's Directors’ Project, New York's Alchemy Courthouse Theater, and the Parallax Theater Company in Chicago. She has also worked with JoAnne Akalaitis as assistant director on John Ford's ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and created original theatre pieces with Chicago's Industrial Theater and Oxygen Jukebox.
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Cochrane, Claire. "Theatre and Urban Space: the Case of Birmingham Rep." New Theatre Quarterly 16, no. 2 (May 2000): 137–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00013658.
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In NTQ61, Deborah Saivetz described the attempts over the past decade of the Italian director Pino DiBuduo to create ‘invisible cities’ – performances intended to restore the relationship between urban spaces and their inhabitants, through exploring the actual and spiritual histories of both. Earlier in the present issue, Baz Kershaw suggests some broader analogies between the theatre and its macrocosmic environment. Here, Claire Cochrane, who teaches at University College, Worcester, narrows the focus to a particular British city and the role over time of a specific theatre in relation to its urban setting. Her subject is the history and development of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in relation to the city – of which its founder, Barry Jackson, was a lifelong resident – as an outcome of the city's growth in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, which made it distinctive in terms of its manufactures, the workers and entrepreneurs who produced them, and a civic consciousness that was disputed yet also shared. She traces, too, the transition between old and new theatre buildings and spaces which continued to reflect shifting class and cultural relationships as the city, its politicians, and its planners adapted to the second half of the twentieth century.
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McEwen, Celina. "Wild Territory: Examining Urban Theatre Projects’ Recent Artist in Residence Theatre-making Work." International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review 1, no. 1 (2006): 59–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.18848/1833-1866/cgp/v01i01/35331.
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Rufolo, Dana. "Developing Street Theater on Human Rights in a Multilingual Country: An Introspective Article." Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Dramatica 68, no. 1 (March 30, 2023): 115–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.24193/subbdrama.2023.1.06.
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"This article looks at different approaches to staging Street Theater about Human Rights in a multilingual environment. Theater on the streets intended to convince passers-by to stop and watch a short skit needs to attract with visual and theatrical techniques, but since Human Rights are conceptual, the actors need to get their message across using words audience members can mull over. How can a maximum number of passers-by be reached in an urban environment where there are three, even four, national languages? Research is ongoing. Keywords: street theatre, mime, amateur actors, Amnesty International, human rights. "
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MORRIS, GAY. "Dinosaurs Become Birds: Changing Cultural Values in Cape Town Theatre." Theatre Research International 42, no. 2 (July 2017): 146–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s030788331700027x.
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This article examines a significant change in the hierarchies of value in cultural production in urban Cape Town, where there has been a bifurcation of theatre in the urban centre and on the township periphery. Theatre at these two sites differs in aesthetic character, themes and infrastructural resources, which derive from a history of legislated racial separatism that is still evident today socially, culturally, educationally and in the development of the city itself. Here, I identify changes that have come about in recent years not so much because of the government's policy of redress, but because leading artists are using their pre-eminence and institutions to catalyse educational experiences, performance platforms and a positive marketing environment for theatre and artists from the townships. The Baxter Theatre and its Zabalaza Festival serve as a case study.
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Amitabh Kumar and Dr. Vivek Kumar Dwivedi. "From Proscenium to Public: Explorations of Body and Space in Sircar’s Third Theatre." Creative Launcher 8, no. 2 (April 30, 2023): 59–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.53032/tcl.2023.8.2.08.
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The name of Badal Sircar, the Bengali playwright, actor and theatre activist, holds a very prestigious position in the history of modern Indian theatre. Both in the field of the Indian mainstream proscenium theatre and in that of the Alternative/Street theatre, he has made significant contribution to the Indian drama. In the post-independence period, when Indian theatre world was caught in the debate of “modern” and “Indian”, he established a brand-new genre of theatre called “Third Theatre”. Third Theatre provided a potent resolution to the inherent dichotomy in modern Indian drama by skillfully reconciling indigenous theatrical tools and techniques with the Western proscenium tradition of a text-based, plot-driven idea of theatre. Sircar’s style is thus a hybrid of folk theatre and proscenium theatre. This was a creative attempt to create an alternate media to effectively spread the playwright's views among the populace. With all these innovative ideas, philosophies and techniques, Sircar’s primary purpose was to bridge the gap between the drama and the audience, between the rural and the urban, between the form and the content etc., and to attain to the ideals of liveness and direct communication in theatrical experience. This effort aids him in breaking sharply with the modern Bengali theatre, which is fixated on the manner of presentation used in the English Victorian drama, and elevating it to a hitherto unattainable level of artistry. The present paper seeks to explore how Badal Sircar experimented with the body of the actor and with the performance space in order to create a syncretic form of theatre accessible equally to the rural and urban.
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Cohen-Cruz, Jan. "A Hyphenated Field: Community-Based Theatre in the USA." New Theatre Quarterly 16, no. 4 (November 2000): 364–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00014111.
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Jan Cohen-Cruz argues that in the hyphen separating community theatre from community-based theatre lies a world of difference – of intention as of realization. Where community theatre tends to assemble the more self-confident members of a majority group to emulate successes from the Broadway repertoire, community-based theatre prefers to draw upon minority and deprived groups in an attempt to create original modes of performance that help the participants make sense of and improve their society. Drawing upon her own experiences and those of other community-based theatre practitioners over a period extending back to the heady days of the 'sixties, Jan Cohen-Cruz identifies weaknesses and failures as well as strengths – as also the ambiguous area where the success of the product may carry dangers of compromise or unhappy collaboration. Associate Professor of Drama Jan Cohen-Cruz co-edited Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism, and edited Radical Street Performance: an International Anthology. Her articles have appeared in TDR, High Performance, American Theatre, Urban Resources, Women and Performance, The Mime Journal, African Theatre, and the anthology But Is It Art? From 1995 to 1997 Cohen-Cruz co-directed NYU Tisch School of the Arts AmeriCorps project – President Clinton's domestic Peace Corps – focusing on violence reduction through the arts. She has since co-directed Urban Ensemble, through which Tisch School of the Arts students undertake community-based art internships.
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Mbwangi, Julien Mbwangi. "Qu’est-ce que le théâtre africain?" Afrika Focus 28, no. 2 (February 26, 2015): 132–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2031356x-02802009.
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This article gives the broad outlines of our thesis entitled: The African theatre and its characteristics. Analysis of some defining criteria through the urban kikongophone theatre”. We will give more information about the problem statement and the methodology used to write this thesis. This thesis is a contribution to the theorization and conceptualization of African aesthetics, more in particular African theatre.”
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Serino, Marco. "Theatre Provision and Decentralization in a Region of Southern Italy." New Theatre Quarterly 29, no. 1 (February 2013): 61–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x13000067.
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Since the mid-twentieth century, urban cultural policies have tended to broaden citizens’ access to cultural and arts facilities in most European cities. Italy saw its theatre infrastructure being enhanced by the teatri stabili which have emerged since the late 1940s, in developed urban contexts, and the decentralization of theatre activities during the 1970s, in the suburbs of cities as well as in small regional towns. This changed the distribution of theatregoing accessibility, but not sufficiently to make opportunities equal across the country's different geographical areas. In the present article Marco Serino discusses the decentralization of theatre in Italy, in particular as it has affected the southern Campania region, basing his argument on his own census of the venues in existence in southern Campania in 2008. Social, economic, and political issues are involved in the discussion since these always influence theatre policy and practice. Marco Serino was awarded his PhD in Sociology, Social Analysis, and Public Policies in 2010 at the University of Salerno, Italy. His research focuses on cultural and communication processes, particularly on theatre organizations and audiences.
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Skrine, Peter, Elsa Strietman, and Peter Happé. "Urban Theatre in the Low Countries 1400-1625." Modern Language Review 103, no. 3 (July 1, 2008): 913. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20468008.
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Kavanagh, R. Mshengu. "Theatre for development in Zimbabwe: an Urban Project." Journal of Southern African Studies 16, no. 2 (June 1990): 340–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057079008708239.
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Deiana, Rita, and Caterina Previato. "Geophysical Surveys for Archaeological Research in Urban Areas: The Case of the Roman Theatre in Padua." Heritage 6, no. 2 (January 22, 2023): 946–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/heritage6020052.
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The Roman theatre of Padua stood in the area now occupied by Prato della Valle, a huge elliptical-shaped square with a central green part (Isola Memmia) surrounded by a canal, built in the second half of the 18th century and part of the modern urban city center of Padua. Some still-preserved remains of the Roman theatre stand at the bottom of this canal. Recently, in 2017, emptying and cleaning the canal and excavating these remains, which had been known in the past, new geometrical and archaeological information has been collected. To date, however, there are no specific indications about additional preserved buried parts of the Roman theatre and its overall extent between the central and the outer part of Prato della Valle. Therefore, several electrical resistivity tomographies (ERT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR) sections were collected in 2017 to gather new information. The results of geophysical prospecting with recent archaeological evidence and historical documents, even the complexity of the urban environment, provide further details on the possible extent and location of additional buried remains of the Roman theatre, opening new archaeological considerations and issues related to the use of ERT and GPR in urban contexts.
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Jákfalvi, Magdolna. "The Urban Theatre of the Present : The 40 Years of the Katona József Theatre." Theatron 17, no. 4 (2023): 75–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.55502/the.2023.4.75.
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Katona József Theatre closed its 40th season on June 16, 2023. Director Gábor Máté said that “the entire staff at the Katona József Theatre can be proud that, despite the ongoing economic difficulties, the 40th season was completed in a manner worthy of the institution’s roots.” During the anniversary celebrations, I watched the performances and was haunted by the thought of taking a look at the Katona (as the people of Budapest call it) from the outside of its cultural framework and creative idiom. For forty years, the Katona has provided a most intensely stimulating discourse on artistic creation in Hungarian, with a specific theatrical idiom and a continuous self-reflective redefinition of its own status. In search of such ideas as “roots” and “worthy manner”, in this paper I juxtapose the 1982 and 2022 seasons to evaluate this complexity as it can be understood and perceived from the perspective of European urban theatre cultures.
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Huang, Changyong. "Shanghai." TDR: The Drama Review 65, no. 2 (June 2021): 150–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1054204321000137.
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From the opening of treaty ports in 1843, the modern history of performing arts in Shanghai traces more than 170 years of development. This history not only summarizes the modern development of Chinese performing arts; it is also representative of the historical development of Chinese urban space and city culture. Theatre arts, culture, and urban development intertwine, as they are refracted through the rise and fall of theatre buildings, yielding a fascinating legacy of cosmopolitan Shanghai.
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Edmondson, Laura. "Tanzanian Theatre and the Mapping of Home." Theatre Research International 27, no. 2 (June 18, 2002): 164–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s030788330200024x.
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Tanzanian popular theatre consists of a dizzying variety of ‘traditional’ dances, plays, acrobatics, and musical acts that freely borrow from traditions across the globe. In a stark contrast to the fluidity of these performances, however, the plays maintain a rigid division between representations of the urban city and rural home. This demarcation operates along the gendered lines described by Anne McClintock, in which the village is coded as the feminized model of tradition in contrast to the ‘male’, modern world of the city, leading to stereotypical roles of the innocent rural girl and the lustful urban woman. At the same time, the participatory, improvisational quality of popular performance clears a space for the ‘unnatural’ urban women in the audience to resist these stereotypes. Also, the theatre troupe Muungano creates plays which challenge essentialist constructions of the primordial ‘home’, allowing complex interactions of geography and gender to be revealed and explored.
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Sadhana, Paroma. "Contours of Cinema Theatres and Bombay City." Journal of Heritage Management 2, no. 2 (December 2017): 112–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2455929617734933.
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Bombay cannot be divorced from Bollywood, its medusa-like industry. While the relationship between the city of Bombay and the cinema it produces has been much talked about, this article seeks to look at the history of single-screen cinema theatres that are testimony to the urban history of Bombay. They are the receptacle in which cinema meets its audience. Within the darkened space of the theatre, a heterogeneous audience meets for a homogenous activity—to consume cinema. On the outside, their façades bear the marks of a city’s growth—be it Art-Deco theatres like Liberty, or warehouse structures like Chandan. Their unique style also becomes a geographical marker for the city’s public to navigate their way—countless bus stops and lanes are named after theatres, and a quick chat with the city’s slightly older residents will reveal how they identify neighbourhoods with theatres. This article traces the history of theatres and entertainment in Bombay (from the 1850s) vis-à-vis the city’s urban history. The contention is that as the city grew upwards from its southern tip, expanding in girth, so did the cinema theatres multiply situating themselves along the south-north running railway lines. Thus, to understand the urban growth of Bombay, a unique lens is exploring the history of cinema theatres. In understanding this, the article will highlight the importance of single-screen cinema theatres, and the reason why their sites and spaces need to be preserved.
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Özkuvancı, Özge, and Alessandro Camiz. "Rebasification of the Roman theatre in mediaeval Zaragoza." Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning 4, no. 3 (December 17, 2023): 372–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.47818/drarch.2023.v4i3103.
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This study aims to illustrate the formation of the urban tissue over the Roman theatre in the walled core of Zaragoza. Within the scope of the study, the typological plan of the city was prepared using the building surveys taken in 1911, and the plan was interpreted as a historical organism. The basic types in the city are determined, and methods of the process-based typology are used to reveal the formation process of a selected urban tissue that is an example of the rebasification of a specialized building. In this example, a Roman theatre was repurposed as a foundation for constructing residential buildings and affected the formation process of the urban block until its discovery.
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Breitinger, Eckhard. "Popular Urban Theatre in Uganda: between Self-Help and Self-Enrichment." New Theatre Quarterly 8, no. 31 (August 1992): 270–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x00006904.
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In this article Eckhard Breitinger traces the sources of present-day popular theatre in Uganda back to the situation shortly before and after independence, when Europeans, Indians, Goans, and Ugandans each had their own separate cultural and theatrical traditions. Theatrical activity came to a virtual standstill under the repressive regimes of Obote and Amin, when many prominent theatre people were killed or exiled, but quickly began to flourish again after 1986: in downtown Kampala semi-professional groups thus produce commercial comedies, while in the suburbs amateur companies use theatre to supplement their meagre incomes. Meanwhile, government and aid organizations involve themselves mainly in theatre for education, particularly health education, and the campaign against Aids has generated new needs – met by a new style of ‘morality play’, here illustrated and analyzed in detail. Eckhard Breitinger teaches American, African, and Caribbean literature at the University of Bayreuth, and has also taught in Jamaica, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, and France. He is a translator of radio plays, author of monographs on the gothic novel and American radio drama, and editor of several books on African and new English literature. Presently he is editor of Bayreuth African Studies, and directing a research project on cultural communication in Africa.
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Furnée, Jan Hein. "Visiting the theatre." Histoire urbaine 38, no. 3 (2013): 133. http://dx.doi.org/10.3917/rhu.038.0133.
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Melgaço, Lucas, and Rosamunde Van Brakel. "Smart Cities as Surveillance Theatre." Surveillance & Society 19, no. 2 (June 25, 2021): 244–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.24908/ss.v19i2.14321.
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In this opinion piece, we challenge the dominating view that surveillance in smart cities is driven by surveillance capitalism alone. Whilst this literature unpicks important factors and trends, we argue that a focus on surveillance capitalism as a sole driver risks ignoring the more intricate realities of surveillance assemblages. They are often propelled by many different desires and power relations (Haggerty and Ericson 2000). We argue for a more nuanced analysis of the drivers instead, taking into account practices in other countries beyond the United States and the United Kingdom. We argue that much of the existent research skews the picture due to inherent bias, and seldom observed drivers are revealed when smart city developments in different countries such as Belgium and Brazil are considered. We suggest that what we call “surveillance theatre,” the performative uses of surveillance that characterize security discourses, is an overlooked yet important driver of smart city development. Such a driver is particularly evident when it comes to security discourses.
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Sponsler, Claire. "Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends. By Jody Enders. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002; pp. xxx + 324; 9 illus. $35 cloth." Theatre Survey 46, no. 1 (May 2005): 159–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0040557405360091.
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Death by Drama is revisionist theatre history at its invigorating best. Taking her cue from modern studies of urban legends, Jody Enders treats theatrical apocrypha—such as the well-known account of a convicted heretic who was supposedly executed on stage during a performance of the drama of Judith and Holofernes in 1549 in Tournai—not as fact, as such stories have often unquestioningly been taken, but as medieval urban legends that reveal spectators' attitudes toward the theatre as a place of potential threat where the true and the false dangerously mix. Looking at such legends as expressions of a culture's specific hopes, fears, and anxieties, Enders examines the “ways in which early France told, retold, invented, and reinvented stories of the tenuous boundaries between theatre and real life, thereby helping audiences to confront the nature of artistic representation” (xxiv). Although Enders's focus is medieval French theatre, her reach extends to modern theatre, film, and media, and her impeccable historical scholarship is enriched by savvy recourse to contemporary critical theory and performance studies. The resulting book shakes up settled assumptions about “what really happened” on the medieval stage, while raising profound questions about theatre's social functions then and now.