The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate
by Peter Brook
Our Price: $12.12
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $11.24 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Peter BrookEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 1995-12-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 141
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Reviews of The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate
Book Review: An innovator's ideas about Theatre
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not very knowledgeable about Theatre and certainly not about Theory of Theatre. I found this book quite abstract and difficult to understand. Its opening sentences sets the tone for the whole work.
"I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. An actor moves across this space while someone is watching and a piece of theatre is engaged."
This would seem to detach Theatre from local trappings and customs.
The book consists in an effort to define four kinds of Theatre, the Deadly or Conventional commercial theatre: the Holy Theatre based on sacred repetition , the Rough Theatre that of people in the steet, and the Immediate Theatre, the flowing transformative Theatre which Brook himself is trying to do.
As the author is considered one of the most revolutionary and important of modern Theatre directors I believe the book might be of value to those actually involved in 'doing Theatre' more than it is to the general reader.
Summary of The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate
Peter Brook's career, beginning in the 1940s with radical productions of Shakespeare with a modern experimental sensibility and continuing to his recent work in the worlds of opera and epic theater, makes him perhaps the most influential director of the 20th century. Cofounder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and director of the International Center for Theater Research in Paris, perhaps Brook's greatest legacy will be The Empty Space. His 1968 book divides the theatrical landscape, as Brook saw it, into four different types: the Deadly Theater (the conventional theater, formulaic and unsatisfying), the Holy Theater (which seeks to rediscover ritual and drama's spiritual dimension, best expressed by the writings of Artaud and the work of director Jerzy Grotowski), the Rough Theater (a theater of the people, against pretension and full of noise and action, best typified by the Elizabethan theater), and the Immediate Theater, which Brook identifies his own career with, an attempt to discover a fluid and ever-changing style that emphasizes the joy of the theatrical experience. What differentiates Brook's writing from so many other theatrical gurus is its extraordinary clarity. His gentle illumination of the four types of theater is conversational, even chatty, and though passionately felt, it's entirely lacking in the sort of didactic bombast that flaws many similar texts. --John LongenbaughBook Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Books and e-Books
Kindle Shortcuts and Kindle-friendly Websites. This concise Kindle user guide describes keyboard shortcuts and hidden Kindle features for both Kindle 2 and Kindle 1. Updated 04/ 28/ 2009by MobileReference, mobi
MobileReference; MobileReference; Release date: 2009-04-03; Published: 2009-04-03; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Best price: $0.99
Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)by Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2006-09-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
The Shackby William P. Young
Windblown Media; Published: 2008-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops:
The Twilight Saga Collectionby Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2008-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $43.87
Price in other shops:
Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutesby Lifetime Television
Voice; Published: 2009-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2)by Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2008-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.75
Price in other shops:
Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3)by Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2007-08-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.19
Price in other shops:
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)by Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown Young Readers; Published: 2008-08-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops:
The Lost Symbolby Dan Brown
Doubleday Books; Published: 2009-09-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.63
Price in other shops:
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifestoby Mark R. Levin
Threshold Editions; Published: 2009-03-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Open Doorby Peter Brook
Anchor; Published: 2005-01-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.26
Price in other shops:
An Actor Preparesby Constantin Stanislavski
Theatre Arts Book; Published: 1989-04-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Playsby David Ball Ph.D.
Southern Illinois University Press; Published: 1983-07-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.85
Price in other shops:
The Dramatic Imagination: Reflections and Speculations on the Art of the Theatre (Theatre Arts Book)by Robert Ed Jones
Theatre Arts Book; Published: 2004-07-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.21
Price in other shops:
A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art in Theatreby Anne Bogart
Routledge; Published: 2001-07-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.14
Price in other shops:
The Viewpoints Book: A Practical Guide to Viewpoints and Compositionby Anne Bogart, Tina Landau
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 2005-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.11
Price in other shops:
Theatre of the Oppressedby Augusto Boal
Theatre Communications Group; Published: 1993-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.11
Price in other shops:
Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aestheticby Bertolt Brecht
Hill and Wang; Published: 1977-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.90
Price in other shops:
The Theater and Its Doubleby Antonin Artaud
Grove Press; Published: 1994-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.27
Price in other shops:
Towards a Poor Theatre (Theatre Arts (Routledge Paperback))by Grotowski
Theatre Arts Book; Published: 2002-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.90
Price in other shops: