Performance Reconstruction and Spanish Golden Age Drama: Reviving and Revising the Comedia

by L. Vidler

Overview

Spanish Golden Age drama has resurfaced in recent years, however scholarly analysis has not kept pace with its popularity. This book problematizes and analyzes the approaches to staging reconstruction taken over the past few decades, including historical, semiotic, anthropological, cultural, structural, cognitive and phenomenological methods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137439758
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/17/2014
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History
Edition description:	2015
Pages:	187
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Laura Vidler is Professor of Spanish and Chair of Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of South Dakota, USA

Table of Contents

Introduction: Critical Theory and the Reconstruction of Early Modern Performance 1. Revisiting Comedia Reconstruction in a Revisionist Performance Environment 2. The Habitus of Corral Scenic Space 3. (Re)Placing the Corral Body 4. Staging the Object 5. Women/Objects on the Modern and Early Modern Stage: Two Exceptional Case Studies 6. Adaptation, Translation, and the Relevance of Classical Theatrical Performance 7. Theory Performance

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This book is an excellent analysis of the theories and staging practices of Spanish Golden Age Drama. After observing that research of the staging of the Spanish comedia did not begin until the late 1950s, Vidler underlines the fact that the first studies dedicated to the staging of Spanish comedia were mainly based on deductive techniques and the gathering of documentary evidence provided by lease agreements, company ledgers, and repair orders. Readers will learn to better appreciate Spanish Golden Age Drama and will also be able to enjoy the actual performance of each play, seeing the props, the movements of the actors, and the imaginary of physical theatrical space with a new lens. Above all, they will be able to better grasp a culture and worldview very different form their own." - Manuel Delgado, Program Director, Bucknell en España, Bucknell University, USA

Editorial Reviews

Vidler’s encounter with theory, and her insight into the «dislocation» of inanimate objects on stage in representative … will likely stimulate further thought amongst scholars and students, and perhaps even interest directors and other theatre practitioners involved in staging —or «reconstructing»— these and other early modern plays for postmodern audiences.” (Susan L. Fischer, Anuario Lope de Vega, revistes.uab.cat, Vol. 24, 2018)

“Laura L. Vidler’s … draws so productively on the state of knowledge about early modern English original practices … . would be a salutary exercise for anyone interested in either original or contemporary performance practices not only in Spain but also in England. … Early modern theater scholars who have not already worked out the radical potential of our field would do well to consult Vidler’s lucid and persuasive vindication. … is a manifesto for the field as a whole.” (Kathryn Prince, Shakespeare Bulletin, Vol. 33, Winter, 2015)

From the Publisher