{"title":"Shakespeare’s Polar Bears","authors":"Nick de Somogyi","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000277","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000277","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This is the third in a trilogy of articles for <span>NTQ</span> addressed to the ‘noises off’ supplied by Shakespeare’s earliest co-stars: the baited bears that competed for trade, fame, and patronage for the duration of his career as an actor-playwright. ‘Shakespeare and the Three Bears’ (NTQ 106, May 2011) sketched this context, exposing as a <span>canard</span>, via a mistakenly omitted comma, that there ever was a bear named Harry Hunks. ‘Shakespeare and the Naming of Bears’ (NTQ 135, August 2018) examined the influence of these rival entertainments on the structure and detail of <span>Romeo and Juliet.</span> ‘Shakespeare’s Polar Bears’ now expands that investigation by seeking to offer a long view of the dramatist’s association with, and attention to, such foul animal ‘sports’, and to supply a comprehensive context for the most famous stage direction in theatre history.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Edward Gordon Craig as Teacher-Dictator","authors":"Philippa Burt","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000289","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000289","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Edward Gordon Craig was a controversial and iconoclastic figure in the early twentieth-century British theatre. Underpinning his work as a director, designer, and essayist was a desire to secure obedience and loyalty from the people with whom he worked and to ensure that he was the unquestioned authority. Nowhere was this ambition clearer than in his School for the Art of the Theatre, which he ran in Florence from 1913 to 1914. This article draws on extensive archival research, providing a detailed examination of the School’s structure, organization, and curriculum and demonstrating the importance that Craig placed on discipline, which became the School’s governing principle. It contextualizes the School’s practice, discussing Craig’s work in and outside the theatre and his political views so as to consider why he prized discipline above all else. In particular, the article reveals, for the first time, his intense misogyny and celebration of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, and shows how this informed his school scheme and was informed by it.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"04 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Kunqu in Europe","authors":"Chengzhou He, Ting Yang","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000307","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This overview presents <span>kunqu</span>’s historical journey, suggesting its future trends on European stages. Over the decades, <span>kunqu</span> has grown from traditional performances to avant-garde adaptations, including notable versions of <span>The Peony Pavilion</span> by Peter Sellars and also Chen Shizheng, which fostered intercultural dialogue. Key performances by troupes and artists have modernized <span>kunqu</span>, as exemplified by Bai Xianyong’s youth edition of <span>The Peony Pavilion</span>, and its appeal to younger audiences. Pre- and post-performance lectures have enhanced European understanding of <span>kunqu</span>, contributing to its recognition internationally. The dynamic interplay between tradition and innovation, and local and global perception, reveals <span>kunqu</span>’s enduring relevance and its active role in cultural exchange.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Craiova International Shakespeare Festival Celebrates Thirty Years","authors":"Maria Shevtsova","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000356","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Emil Boroghină founded the Shakespeare Festival in Craiova in 1994 with the longer-term intention of making it an international festival of significant, indeed world, standing. This article, written in honour of Boroghină and dedicated to him, offers an overview of the Festival’s programming and related details from its triennial period to its present biennial existence. It draws particular attention to Boroghină’s selected outstanding directors (‘great directors, great productions’, in his words, and the title of one of his editions) without, however, losing sight of the Festival’s varied theatre activities, especially in the celebratory year of 2024.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hi and Mighty: On the Czech Theatre Showcases","authors":"Mark Brown","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000344","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Hi PerformanCZ visitor programmes, hosted regularly by the Czech Arts and Theatre Institute since 2018, have invited international theatre professionals, from directors and promoters to critics, to immerse themselves in the variety of theatre on the contemporary Czech stage. Showcased performances, themed in programmes dedicated to theatre for children and young people, puppet theatre, and text-based theatre, among other examples, are accompanied by symposia, meetings with Czech theatre-makers, theatre tours, and museum visits. In this article Mark Brown provides an overview of the Czech showcases from 2018 to 2024, while focusing particularly on four productions: Tomáš Dianiška’s <span>The Magnificent 294</span> (2020, showcased 2023); Jan Jirků’s <span>Zá-to-pek!</span> (2019, showcased 2022); director Jan Mikulášek’s staging of Thomas Bernhard’s novel <span>Woodcutters</span> (2018, showcased 2022 and 2023); and Brno’s Goose on a String Theatre’s collectively devised piece <span>Smokeout</span> (2022, showcased 2024). These productions markedly represent the diverse strengths of Czech theatre in the twenty-first century.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Burning Hope: Staging Queer Ecology in a Time of Wildfire","authors":"Kari Barclay","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000320","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article analyzes three contemporary plays by trans and gender-non-conforming artists from the United States that engage with forest fires and queer ecology. These three plays – MJ Kaufman’s <span>Sagittarius Ponderosa</span>, Agnes Borinsky’s <span>The Trees</span>, and Kari Barclay’s <span>How to Live in a House on Fire</span> – tie wildfire to colonial histories of fire suppression and imagine a just climate transition as linked to queer and trans self-reinvention. The article describes this dramaturgical tactic as ‘burning hope’ – letting go of straight, settler desire and gesturing toward reciprocal obligation with the non-human world. Building on Kim TallBear’s call to attend to organic matter and Stephen Pyne’s study of fire history in the ‘Pyrocene’, the article imagines theatre as a prescribed burn that can re-orient audience relations to futurity. Burning hope does not abandon hope; it recognizes grief as mobilization for environmentalist solidarities.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dialogue: The Role of the Editor","authors":"Philippa Burt, Maria Shevtsova","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000265","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000265","url":null,"abstract":"<p>World-renowned <span>New Theatre Quarterly</span> celebrates its fifty years of publication and its 200th issue, this being the last under the editorship of Maria Shevtsova. Simon Trussler, founder of <span>Theatre Quarterly</span> in 1971 (which closed for lack of funding in 1981) always considered <span>New Theatre Quarterly</span>, established with Cambridge University Press in 1985 – and with Clive Barker as co-editor – to be simply a continuation of <span>TQ.</span> Maria Shevtsova fully agreed. Forty issues of <span>TQ</span>, combined with one hundred and sixty editions of <span>NTQ</span>, gives the magic figure 200. The logistics of things, however, means that the number 160 appears on the cover of the present issue (the ‘New’ in <span>New Theatre Quarterly</span> standing for the newly resurgent journal on the back of its predecessor). This present issue also celebrates Maria Shevtsova’s twenty years of co-editorship with Simon Trussler, together with five more years of sole editorship of the journal following his death in 2019 (commemorated in NTQ 142, May 2020; see also their respective editorials, ‘One Hundred Issues and After’, in NTQ 100, November 2009).</p><p>Twenty-five years of absolute commitment and tireless work call for recognition and thanks. Assistant editor Philippa Burt here discusses with Shevtsova her vision for the journal, and how her scholarship, research, teaching, as well as her numerous academic and outreach activities in multiple media, connected with her editorial commitment. This conversation took place on 19 June 2024.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"33 6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142939877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mysticism as Transgression in Chista Yasrebi’s Rahil","authors":"Narges Montakhabi Bakhtvar","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000216","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As a prominent figure in the contemporary Iranian theatre scene, Chista Yasrebi uses her plays to call for female liberation in the country while navigating the existing political constraints, including censorship. Her 1996 play <span>Rahil</span>, for example, acts as a political allegory through its narrative of the titular woman’s desire for transcendence within the patriarchal realm of Persian mysticism. In its close analysis of the play, this article identifies the historical significance of mystic women in Iran and examines Yasrebi’s use of mysticism to comment on the complexities of gender politics, the oppression faced by Iranian women, and the need for social resistance. Further, it draws on key concepts from Alain Badiou’s political philosophy to demonstrate how Rahil’s journey into mysticism can be seen as an act of transgression. It argues that Yasrebi’s work enriches the ongoing discourse on the role of women in Iranian society and the broader struggle for political transformation.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142397916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Documentary and Community Theatre with Young People in Madrid: The Creative Process of Mundo Quinta","authors":"Luisa García-Manso","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000174","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000174","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mundo Quinta is a documentary theatre creation programme for adolescents in Madrid, launched by Espacio Abierto Quinta de los Molinos and directed by the theatre company Cross Border Project. This publicly funded programme started in 2018 and is currently celebrating its sixth season. Each season takes place during the academic year and culminates in the premiere of a new play. This article combines empirical and ethnographical methods with theatre analysis to examine the foundations, artistic vision, and creative process of Mundo Quinta, and to analyze how artistic quality is ensured in the final productions. The research undertaken focuses on the fourth season, and identifies the techniques used to create the verbatim theatre play <span>¿Me quieres alfileres?</span> (<span>Multiformas de quereres</span>) [<span>Do You Love Me?</span> (<span>Multiforms of Love</span>)] in 2022 with designated young participants.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"123 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142397912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Not Billington, not Zoella, and Definitely not a ‘Fangirl’: Social Distinction within Communities of Amateur Theatre Critics","authors":"Megan Vaughan","doi":"10.1017/s0266464x24000186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0266464x24000186","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In theatre criticism, the lines between professional and amateur have softened considerably since the turn of the twenty-first century, with much attention – academic and journalistic – given to the impact of amateur theatre criticism on theatre-making and marketing, on newspapers, and on theatre scholarship. So far, however, the voices and perspectives of amateur critics themselves have largely been absent from research. To rectify this absence, this study applies sociological concepts from Pierre Bourdieu and Sarah Thornton to thirty-five interviews undertaken with practising theatre bloggers in the United Kingdom in order to understand their relative positions within three intersecting fields: the field of professional theatre reviewing; the field of online ‘influencing’; and the smaller and more specific field of ‘amateur’ theatre criticism. Here, the study undertaken finds a significant proportion of practitioners using the counterpoint of the ‘fangirl’ – whose practices of appreciation and etiquette are widely disparaged – to advocate for their own purportedly more intellectual and professional approaches to critique.</p>","PeriodicalId":43990,"journal":{"name":"NEW THEATRE QUARTERLY","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2024-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142397996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}