Synopsis "The Great European Stage Directors Set 2: Volumes 5-8: Post-1950"
The Great Stage Directors Set II offers an an authoritative account of the work, lineage and legacy of the major European theatre directors from the second half of the twentieth century. Across the four volumes and the companion series Set I: European Pre-1950, it provides a uniquely rich study of the genealogy and development of a practice through focus on individual directors and the wider context and artform in which they worked. For professional practitioners and those developing their skills, as well as those engaged in the analysis of theatre practices, forms and history, it will prove an essential resource. Each volume provides substantial treatment of three major directors, with each director considered by two specialists, combining analysis of the director's practical craft with accounts of the historical, cultural and theoretical context of their practice. Links between the featured directors and other artists and directors from the period are traced to round out the picture of influences and artistic development. Volume 5: Grotowski, Brook, Barba (edited by Paul Allain, University of Kent, UK): the 'moment' and the method of Grotowski; 'anthropology' and 'interculturalism' Volume 6: Littlewood, Planchon, Strehler: refunctioning or 'translating' written text, and the development of new modes of 'post-Brechtian' staging Volume 7: Barrault, Stein, Mnouchkine (edited by Felicia Hardison Londré, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA): views on company structures; while having sometimes a politically tense relationship with their context, each comes to occupy the position of a nationally respected artist, indeed an institution.
