| Description |
1 online resource (137 pages) |
| Series |
Theatre symposium ; v. 16 |
|
Theatre symposium ; v. 16.
|
| Contents |
Introduction -- The commedia dell'arte as the quintessence of comedy / Stanley Vincent Longman -- Creating new comic stereotypes on the Croatian postwar/transition stage / Boris Senker -- A method to the madness: laughter research, comedy training, and improv / Patrick Bynane -- Comedy tonight ... and tomorrow: A funny thing happened on the way to the forum and Laughter through the ages / Diana Calderazzo -- Performing Molière's comedies: challenges and approaches / Biliana Stoytcheva-Horissian -- The laugh factor: humor and horror at Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol / Felicia J. Ruff -- When satire more than closed on Saturday night: Henry Fielding and the Licensing Act of 1737 / Steven Dedalus Burch -- Meat, bones, and laughter without words: finding Bergson's Laughter in Beckett's Act without words I / Christopher Morrison -- "The ptydepe word meaning 'wombat' has 319 letters": an information-age view of technology and satire in the works of Václav Havel / E. Bert Wallace -- Terry Johnson's Hysteria: laughter on the abyss of insight / Luc Gilleman -- Situations, happenings, gatherings, laughter: emergent British stand-up comedy in sociopolitical context / Broderick D.V. Chow |
| Summary |
For centuries scholars, philosophers, and practitioners have attempted to explain just what constitutes comedy, and though no one has come close to a definitive explanation, each attempt highlights some distinct facet of the genre--the genre that Woody Allen has said eats at the childrens table ... even in the world of scholarship. The essays gathered in Volume 16 of the annual journalTheatre Symposiumillustrate well the range of material that falls under the heading comedy as it is played on stage. Stanley Longmans essay on The Commedia dellArte as the Quintessence of Comedy introduces us to the inhabitants of Commediatown, character types who are descendents of the Greeks and ancestors, it seems, of almost everyone who came after. Boris Senker, an eyewitness to Croatias evolution from communism to democracy, reports on the all-too-real "Commedia" stereotypes that have found their way onto the stage in his homeland. Other essays address the improvisational nature of "Commedia"; the roots of laughter and the expectations inherent in presenting old schtick to a new generation; comedic technique, verbal and physical, in Molière; the use of the macabre to create humor in the "Théâtre du Grand Guignol"; the story of Henry Fielding, the theatre practitioner most responsible for the British governments crackdown on subversive material, via the Licensing Act of 1737; Becketts theatrical connections to the comedy theory of Henri Bergson; and do-it-yourself (DIY) comedy--happenings, situations, gatheringsas practiced in British stand-up comedy. Theatre Symposium: Volume 16provides just a glimpse into the possibilities for comedy on the stage. If the past examples allow for extrapolation into the future, the position of comedy as a means of communicating problems and solutions for societys woes is remarkably sound |
| Notes |
Essays from the 16th annual SETC Theatre Symposium held at the historic Hotel Morgan in Morgantown, West Virginia, in April 2007 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Comedy -- Congresses
|
|
PERFORMING ARTS -- Theater -- General.
|
|
Comedy
|
| Genre/Form |
Conference papers and proceedings
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| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Malarcher, Jay, 1960-
|
|
Southeastern Theatre Conference (U.S.)
|
| ISBN |
9780817382964 |
|
0817382968 |
|
9780817355104 |
|
0817355103 |
|
