Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat

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Contemporary theatrical productions as diverse in form as experimental performance, new writing, West End drama, musicals and live art demonstrate a recurring fascination with adapting existing works by other artists, writers, filmmakers and stage practitioners. Featuring seventeen interviews with internationally-renowned theatre and performance artists, Theatre and Adaptation provides an exceptionally rich study of the variety of work developed in recent years. First-hand accounts illuminate a diverse range of approaches to stage adaptation, ranging from playwriting to directing, Javanese puppetry to British childrens theatre, and feminist performance to Japanese Noh. The transition of an existing source to the stage is not a smooth one: this collection examines the practices and the complex set of negotiations each work of transition and appropriation involves. Including interviews with Socetas Raffaello Sanzio, Handspring Puppet Company, Katie Mitchell, Rimini Protokoll, Elevator Repair Service, Simon Stephens, Ong Keng Sen and Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the volume reveals performances enduring desire to return, rewrite and repeat.

Reviews

In Theatre and Adaptation: Return, Rewrite, Repeat, Margherita Laera has compiled seventeen interviews with adaptors of theatre from around the world, including the adaptation work of directors, actors, translators, and more. The international scope of these interviews makes for a noteworthy read, and the language is clear and easy to follow. A brief introduction by each interviewer is included to give the reader a sense of the subjects work and any theoretical background needed to understand the content. This clarity and explanation makes this book accessible even to undergraduate student readers. This book is a useful addition to the conversation surrounding adaptation because it broadens the idea of what adaptation is and can be on a global scale. These interviews are a great start for practitioners and students who want to investigate how the theatrical skill-set might be used in a globalized world. As a whole, Theatre and Adaptation is delightfully diverse, interesting, and inspiring and a helpful addition to a teachers bookshelf. * Theatre Topics *

Author Bio

Margherita Laera is a lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. She specialises in contemporary European theatre, translation and transnational performance, and is also a professional arts journalist and theatre translator. Her publications include Reaching Athens: Community, Democracy and Other Mythologies in Adaptations of Greek Tragedy (2013).