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Canadian Theatre Studies
See also: Theatre > National Theatre
Studies and Theatre Criticism, History
& Theory New
The Opening Act: Canadian Theatre History 1945 - 1953
Susan McNicoll
The conventional opinion is that professional Canadian theatre began in 1953 with the foundin of the Stratford Festival. But how could this be, when the marjority of those taking the stage at Stratford were professional Canadian actors. This book succeeds in recreating this earlier period of dynamic new beginnings in Canada's professional theatre. Softcover, 327 pp. $24.95.
A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch
Fraidie Martz & Andrew Wilson
Legendary giant of Canadian theatre.
John Hirsch arrived in Winnipeg in 1947, a 17-year-old Hungarian orphan of the Holocaust, knowing no English. Ten years later, he co-founded the Manitoba Theatre Centre, establishing a model for regional theatres across North America. He went on to direct award-winning productions in Los Angeles, New York, Stratford and Toronto - everything from Guys and Dolls to The Tempest - and to work with actors like Len Cariou, Martha Henry, Anthony Hopkins, and Maggie Smith. Notorious for his fiery temper, budget - blowing sets, and artistic risk-taking, he had a stormy four years as CBC's head of TV drama in the 1970s (high and low points include King of Kensington and Peter Lougheeds lawsuit over The Tar Sands), and an even stormier tenure as Artistic Director at the Stratford Festival from 1981 to 1985. He died in 1989 of AIDS.
Praise for John Hirsch:
"In life and on stage, John Hirsch knew how to corrupt his audience with pleasure. Swift of mind and of gesture, Hirsch was a dazzling director - playful, witty, and daring; as a friend and collaborator, he was some kind of rabbinical Hungarian mensch. Unforgettable." - John Lahr, Senior Drama Critic, The New Yorker.
Theatre and Performance in Toronto
Laura Levin
Volume twenty-one of Critical Perspectives on Candian Theatre in English. Contributors include Alan Filewood, M. NourbeSe Philip, Moynan King, and others. Softcover, 210 pp. $25.00.
Solo Performance
Ric Knowles
Volume twenty of Critical Perspectives on Candian Theatre in English. Contributors include Alesandar Sasa Dundjerovic, Ric Knowles, Ann Wilson and others. Softcover, 206 pp. $25.00.
Community Engaged Theatre and Performance
Julie Salverson
Volume nineteen of Critical Perspectives on Candian Theatre in English. Contributors include David S. Craig, Yvette Nolan, Nisha Sajnani, and others. Softcover, 200 pp. $25.00.
Asian Canadian Theatre
Nina Lee Aquino & Ric Knowles
A collection of essays emerging from the international GENesis conference held by fu-GEN Theatre Company examing the formation, history, and practice of Asian Canadian Theatre. Softcover, 276 pp. $25.00.
Identifying Mavor Moore
Allan Boss
A cultural giant, mavor moore had his hands in some of the greatestt achievements in the construction of Canada;s theatrical identity, and yet he is relatively unknow to the Canadian theatre community. Allan Boss relocates Moore in Canada's cultural history. Softcover, 206 pp. $24.95.
The Shaw Festival: The First Fifty Years
L.W. Conolly
Drawing extensively on the Shaw Festival archives housed at the University of Guelph, author Leonard Conolly recounts in this beautifully illustrated book the remarkable story of the genesis, founding, and development of one of Canad's greatest cultural success stories. Hardcover, 320 pp. $50.00.
Theatre in Atlantic Canada
Linda Burnett
Theatre in Atlantic Canada marks the 16th volume in the highly regarded series Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English. In it a wide array of topics in Maritime performance are covered, from Alan Filewood's look at the political dramaturgy of Mummer's troupes, to Roberta Barker's fascinating examination of Penny Dreadful, a show created by soon to be legendary Halifax troupe, Zuppa Circus. Softcover, 206 pp. $25.00.
Canadian Shakespeare
Susan Knutson
Looking at what has been done with Shakespeare in Canada, starting in the 1980s, this book focuses on Canadian Shakespeare in relation to theatre performance and pedagogy, selecting from the remarkable body of published work in this area, as well as including two never-before-published essays. Softcover, 214 pp. $25.00.
Popular Political Theatre and Performance
Julie Salverson
This collection of new and previously published writing presents an exchange of voices, sometimes in disagreement and creative tension, working through the stories, dreams, adventures, analyses, and dilemmas of popular political theatre in English Canada, between the early 1980s and the present day. Softcover, 215 pp. $25.00.
No Culture, No Future
Simon Brault Translated by Jonathan Kaplansky
A longtime advocate of the arts in Montreal, Brault has taken action to re-establish that city as one of the most culturally accomplished communities in Canada. No Culture, No Future is part of his campaign to convince the people and governments of cities across Canada that investment in the arts benefits all citizens. $21.00.
Ex Machina: From Page to Stage
Patrick Caux & Bernard Gilbert
In 1993 Robert Lepage suggested to his colleagues that a specific image and identity be found for his next working group. He imposed one condition - the word "theatre" was not to be part of the name of the new company. This book documents the results of that landmark decision: the dynamic creative arts company Ex Machina, constantly on the move in search of new forms of storytelling. Softcover, $29.95.
My Subtext Was Too Loud: Further Anecdotes from the Canadian Theatre
Vernon Chapman
This, the second volume of Vernon Chapman's reminiscences, covers the years 1970 until his death in 2008. They continue to tell of Chapman's rich experiences as an actor, director and artistic director in theatres across Canada and in television and film. His ability to recount in sometimes very amusing and always accurate detail, makes this theatre memoir a must read for anyone interested in Canadian cultural history.
Chapman imbues his memoirs with the openess and generosity which marked him as a performer and a true "man of the theatre." Softcover 22.00 Includes CD with extensive production photos.
Burlesque West: Showgirls, Sex, and Sin in Postwar Vancouver
Becki L. Ross
Lavishly illustrated and thoroughly documented, Burlesque West is the first critical history of Vancouver's notorious striptease scene. Drawing on extensive archival materials and interviews with fifty former dancers, strip-club owners, booking agents, choreographers, and musicians, Becki L.Ross has weaved together a fascinating social history of the phenomenon that combines sex, art, entertainment, and commerce. Like its subject, this book is sure to stimulate, delight, and, maybe even, offend. Softcover, 373 pp. $29.95.
Risking the Void: The Scenography of Cameron Porteous
Sean Breaugh & Patricia Flood
Not simply a scenographer, Cameron Porteous is a first-rate visual artist. With an aesthetic steeped in the codes of modernism -- less is more, form follows function, and God is in the details -- he has created a world-class body of work for the Canadian stage. This splendid volume brings together a remarkable array of visual material -- photographs, sketches, painting, and models -- to pay tribute to his stunning artistry. Softcover, 92 pp. $29.95.
Developing Nation: New Play Creation in English-Speaking Canada
Bruce Barton
Repeatedly, throughout this collection, dramaturgy resists the mantle of stable definition and instead insists on perpetually redefining itself in relation to its context: the people, projects, and parameters it operates upon and within. Yet, as other entries in this collection demonstrate, this wary elusiveness concerning definitions in no way precludes concrete description and analysis of its "working parts." Softcover, 208 pp. $25.00.
Design and Scenography
Natalie Rewa
This anthology explores the crucial collaboration that happens between directors and designers in the theatre. By focusing on a variety of artists and creative approaches, these essays seek to demystify the process of visualizing a script for the stage. Special consideration is given to the decidedly Canadian preoccupation with cultural and regional diversity that is so central to Canadian national identity. Softcover, 162 pp. $30.00.
Art and Politics: The History of the National Arts Centre
Sarah Jennings
This is the story of the creation and first four decades of one of Canada's pre-eminent cultural organizations. While it documents the history of the country's National Arts Centre in Ottawa, it also describes the arts in Canada from the 1960s to the present. Written in a gripping documentary style, moving from episode to episode, the story is enriched by the personal memories of those who participated in the making of the NAC, including the leading artists, managers, officials, and politicians who were involved. Hardcover, 426 pp. $50.00.
"Ethnic," Multicultural, and Intercultural Theatre
Ric Knowles & Ingrid Mundel
This volume traces some of the critical histories of theatre in Canada that have represented "ethnic," multicultural, or intercultural communities and collaborations since the late 1980s. Included are essays by Angela Baldassarre, Lorena Gale, Ric Knowles, Carol Off, Guillermo Verdecchia, Jerry Wasserman, and several others. Softcover, 206 pp. $25.00.
A History of Canadian Culture
Jonathan F. Vance
From Dorset sculpture to the Barenaked Ladies, award-winning historian Jonathan F. Vance reveals a storyteller's ear for narrative. In a country this diverse, 'culture' has different meanings. Vance tells a story from the wind-swept Arctic where a stranded Innu woman, fighting to survive, took the time to decorate her clothing with rich designs. In this fascinating text, Vance considers a range of relevent topics. Hardcover, 500 pp. $39.95.
A Gift for their Mother
Muriel Gold
A Gift for their Mother is a most valuable contribution to Canadian theatre history. Muriel Gold's well researched and entertaining book documents and pays tribute to the efforts to create and sustain English and Yiddish theatre at Montreal's Saidye Bronfman Centre. Softcover, 336 pp. $29.95.
The Royal Alexandra Theatre: A Celebration Of 100 Years
Robert Brockhouse
with a photo essay by Edward Burtynsky
The Royal Alexandra Theatre: A Celebration Of 100 Years is the story of a Canadian national landmark and beloved Toronto institution and of the dogged and devoted champions - from Mulock to Mirvish - who have kept it alive, thriving and triumphant for a century. Filled with seldom-seen archival photos and tales of the stars of the theatre's past, it features a complete chronology of all the shows that have ever played the Royal Alex - from Top O' Th' World in 1907 to Dirty Dancing. The Royal Alexandra Theatre gives you the inside information why and how the theatre was built as it is, from the world's first women's hat-check room to the steep slope of the upper balcony. The book features a photo essay by the world-renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky. Hardcover, 352 pp. $39.95.
The Theatricality of Robert Lepage
Aleksandar Sasa Dundjerovic
Robert Lepage, one of the pioneers and the main exponents of mixed-media performance, is internationally renowned for a notoriously distinct aesthetic. In the first book to explore Lepage's practical work, Aleksandar Dundjerovic offers a comprehensive analysis of his creative process and transformative mise-en-scene. Softcover, 252 pp. $32.95.
Where Stories Meet: An Oral History of De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre
Shannon Hengen
Where Stories Meet is both history and commentary. Vivid accounts of the early and middle years of North America's longest running Aboriginal theatre, De-ba-jeh-mu-jig, when the resourcefulness of the founding members was challenged to the limit, intermix with incisive views on the place of Aboriginal theatre in the Canadian mainstream today. Softcover, 108 pp. $19.95.
Space and the Geographies of Theatre
Michael McKinnie
The essays comprising this collection demonstrate a welcome diversity of critical interest and critical practice. The contributions demonstrate that Canadian theatre criticism has a healthy contribution to make to geographical investigations of theatre internationally. Softcover, 226 pp. $25.00.
Queer Theatre in Canada
Edited by Rosalind Kerr
"While the material presented in these articles may appear to be too diverse to allow us to come to any conclusion as to where Canadian English queer theatre is today, I hope that I have at least set out a path to follow from those first gay liberation plays to the complex interrogations of the intersections of sexualities which seem to inform so much of the work."- from the Introduction by Rosalind Kerr. Softcover, 282 pp. $30.00.
City Stages: Theatre and Urban Space in a Global City
Michael McKinnie
In every major city, there exists a complex exchange between urban space and the institution of the theatre. City Stages is an interdisciplinary and materialist analysis of this relationship as it has existed in Toronto since 1967. Locating theatre companies - their sites and practices - in Toronto's urban environment, Michael McKinnie focuses on the ways in which the theatre has adapted to changes in civic ideology, environment, and economy. Hardcover, 178 pp. $45.00.
Field of Stars: Songs of the Canadian Musical Theatre Volume 1 ed Jim Betts
This compilation spans 52 years of Canadian musical theatre. It includes the sheet music for 17 songs from these hit show, a CD of the piano/vocal performances of each song, and a bonus CD of the individual piano accompaniments. Among the shows included are Pelagie, Eight to the Bar, House of Martin Guerre, Billy Bishop Goes to War, Dracula: A Chamber Musical. Coil Bound, 2 CD's. $41.95.
Two Hands Clapping
Kit Brennan
A goldmine for actors seeking two-person plays, Two Hands Clapping features full-length, one act, and short scripts for two actors, as well as in-depth interviews with playwrights. The playwrights are Canadian and include established writers, as well as voices that are just beginning to make their mark in Canadian theatre. Plays include: Afterglow by Peter Boychuk, Lola Shuffles the Cards by Kit Brennan. Jane's Thumb by Kelley Jo Burke, 3... 2... 1 by Nathan Cuckow and Chris Craddock, The Dinner Party by Rose Cullis, The House Wife by Ruth Lawrence and Sherry White, Poochwater by Mike McPhaden, and The File by Greg Nelson. Softcover, 330 pp. $24.95.
Reflections
in a Dancing Eye: Investigating the Artist's Role in Canadian Society
Joysanne Sidimus & Carol Anderson
Featuring 47 prominant Canadians - artists, politicians, scientists, academics,
and business leaders, Reflections in a Dancing Eye is a timely
look at the role of the arts and the artists in Canadian society. Part conversation,
part memoir, each unique reply begins from the same set of questions. Contributors
include June Callwood, Wayson Choy, Evelyn Hart, Karen Kain, Mark Kingwell, Zacharias
Kunuk, Silken Laumann, David MacFarlane, Preston Manning, Svend Robinson, Albert
Schultz, and Veronica Tennant. Softcover, 403 pp. $32.95.
Broadway
North: The Dream of a Canadian Musical Theatre
Mel Atkey
Did you know that the idea behind the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes was first
tried out in Toronto? That Canada produced the world's longest-running annual
revue? Or that Anne of Green Gables has played more performances
at the Charlottetown Festival than South Pacific did in its
original Broadway production? All this and more is illuminated in Mel Atkey's
enthusiastic tribute to Canadian musical theatre. Softcover, 309 pp. $29.95.
Theatre Without Borders
Robert Astle
An in-depth look at the amazing crew of eccentrics, absurdist, puppeteers, clowns, raconteurs and solo performance artists who influence and invigorate the current theatre scene in Canada. The companies profiled are from coast to coast and include: Harro Maskow & Robin Patterson/Theatre Beyond Words, Daniel Meillieur & Monique Rioux/Les Deux Mondes, Yves Dagenais, aka Omer Veilleux, Michele Smith & Dean Gilmour /Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Leah Cherniak & Martha Ross/Theatre Columbus, Wayne Specht/Axis Theatre, Wendy Gorling, renowned teacher and performer, Ronnie Burkett/Theatre of Marionettes, and S. Hunter, C. Murray, S. Wallace & M. MacLean /Jest in Time. Softcover, 144 pp. $22.95.
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