The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage, 1940-1950
作者: Samuel L. Leiter;
ISBN13: 9780313275104
类型: 精装(精装书)
语种: 英语(English)
出版日期: 1992-11-01
出版社: Greenwood Press
页数: 1000
重量(克): 1555
尺寸: 23.3934 x 15.5956 x 5.2324 cm
The most reliable source for data on productions of the New York stage, both Broadway and Off Broadway, is now complete from 1920 through 1950 with the publication of this third volume devoted to the 1940s. The volumes for 1920-1930 and 1930-1940 have been called invaluable, indispensable, essential, and other superlatives by reviewers, widely utilized by theatre scholars and researchers, consulted by companies producing revivals, and quoted by Playbill magazine in answering readers' queries. The continuing series represents a remarkable achievement for theatre historian Samuel Leiter, who singlehandedly has set out to provide such detailed coverage of New York theatre in the twentieth century.
Like its predecessor volumes, The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage, 1940-1950 provides a description of every legitimate production--play, musical, revue, or revival; English-language or foreign-language, domestic or import--staged in the New York professional theatre and reviewed by the press during the decade: in this case, nearly 1150 productions. Each listing begins with genre designation and subject categorization and proceeds to writing and production credits, theatre, opening dates, and run. The narrative text that follows, provides, along with plot summary, a lively account of background, anecdotal commentary from biographies and autobiographies, and critical responses to play and production with reference to and quotes from reviews. Ten appendixes offer listings of plays chronologically and in categories as well as play sources, awards, information on theatres, institutional theatres, foreign companies, reviewers, and various statistics. A selected bibliography and indexes of proper names and titles complete the work. The volume introduction is itself a history of New York theatre in the period of World War II and its aftermath. It deals with the hazardous business of theatre, both commercial and nonprofit, with the critical establishment of the day, with the increasing professionalism of Off Broadway, with ethnic theatre and visiting companies, and provides a fascinating overview of production highlights. Although the 1940s is not regarded as a landmark era in American theatre, it did see first productions of such classics as Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's breakthrough musical Oklahoma This volume and the predecessor volumes of this encyclopedia series are indispensable reference tools.
我一直以为,我对于纽约戏剧史的了解已经算得上全面,直到我读到了书中关于“先锋舞蹈剧场”的部分。这部分内容完全超出了我原先对“戏剧”的定义范畴。它细致地描绘了二十世纪中叶,那些拒绝被传统剧场框架束缚的艺术家们,如何将肢体、光影、声音实验融合在一起,创造出那种介于戏剧、现代舞和行为艺术之间的全新表达形式。书中对其中一位以“静默表演”著称的艺术家的解读,简直是神来之笔,作者没有试图去解释其意义,而是用极其克制的语言描述了观众在长达十分钟的绝对静默中感受到的焦虑与释放。这本书的作者显然不是一个简单的编纂者,而是一位深谙艺术史脉络的思考者,他通过对这些零散片段的梳理,成功地构建出了一条清晰的、脉络分明的“非主流艺术”如何在主流剧场夹缝中生存、发展并最终反哺主流的清晰路径。这是一部需要反复研读、每次都会有新发现的巨著。
评分说实话,初拿到手的时候,我对这么大部头的作品实用性持怀疑态度,毕竟现在的演出信息大多都可以在线查到。然而,这本书的价值恰恰在于“不可在线获取”的部分。它收录了大量战后初期,那种还未被数字化记录的民间剧团和社区剧场的活动记录。这些记录的翔实程度令人咋舌,包括了当时演出的票价、观众的平均年龄、甚至还有几份当时报纸对演出的“尖酸刻薄”的评论摘要。这些一手资料极大地丰富了我对那个时代戏剧生态的理解——它远比我们想象的要更加多元、更加充满政治张力。我特别沉迷于阅读那些早年剧评人的文字,他们那种毫不留情的直率和对艺术理想的执着追求,放在今天这个“一切皆可被原谅”的娱乐至死时代,显得如此珍贵和具有冲击力。
评分这套书真是令人大开眼界,我花了整整一个周末才大致翻完第一卷,简直就像是坐上了时光机,直接回到了那个霓虹闪烁、剧院林立的纽约黄金时代。我尤其喜欢它对早期外百老汇(Off-Broadway)的细致梳理,很多如今的戏剧巨匠,比如那个以实验剧场闻名的导演,早年在一些不起眼的小剧场里摸爬滚打的经历,都被挖掘得清清楚楚。那些描述性的文字非常有画面感,仿佛能闻到老剧院里木头和尘土混合的味道,看到幕布拉开时灯光打在演员脸上的那种粗粝的美感。它不仅仅是一本剧目记录,更像是一部社会史的侧写,通过舞台的变迁,展现了移民文化、爵士乐的兴起对戏剧主题和表演风格产生的潜移默化的影响。书中对某些早已消失的剧院的建筑细节描述,简直是建筑爱好者的一场盛宴,光是光影和结构分析就足够让人沉醉,足以弥补我无法亲身到场观看的遗憾。
评分我原本以为这本厚重的参考书会是那种枯燥的流水账式记录,但我错了,它绝对是为真正的戏剧迷准备的“圣经”。最让我感到惊喜的是它在收录剧目时所展现出的百科全书式的严谨和广度。它没有仅仅停留在那些获得托尼奖的“大制作”上,而是深入到那些只演了几十场,甚至可能只在某个大学附属小剧场试演过的边缘作品。这种深度挖掘的态度,让我这个自诩为老剧迷的人都感到汗颜,原来我错过了多少重要的“地下”浪潮。特别是关于服装设计和舞台布景的变迁部分,配图虽然不多,但文字描述精准到位,比如某位先锋设计师如何利用极简主义的灯光来烘托人物的内心挣扎,那种分析已经上升到了艺术理论的高度。这本书的索引系统做得极其出色,即便是查找一个不知名演员在某一季客串的某个角色,也能迅速定位,效率高到让人惊叹,这对于进行学术研究的学者来说,简直是无价之宝。
评分这套书给我带来最大的冲击是关于“剧场精神”的重建。翻阅它,我仿佛能听到百老汇黄金时代那种集体主义的、对“大制作”的狂热崇拜。它详尽地记载了那个年代,剧院老板、制作人、明星演员之间那种错综复杂的关系网,权力如何影响剧目的生杀大权,以及幕后交易的种种细节。书中对几位早期音乐剧黄金搭档的创作过程分析尤其精彩,他们如何从一次即兴的玩笑,发展成日后影响深远的经典唱段,那种灵感迸发的瞬间,被文字捕捉得栩栩如生。读到那些关于“完美谢幕”的段落时,我不禁感叹,今天的演出似乎更侧重于视觉奇观和技术炫耀,而遗失了那种纯粹的、演员与观众之间心跳同步的震撼感。这本书让我开始重新审视,我们现在所追求的“成功”的标准,到底是什么。
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