Table Of ContentAuthoring
Performance
WHAT IS THEATRE?
Edited by Ann C. Hall
Given the changing nature of audiences, entertainment, and media, the role of the-
atre in twenty-first-century culture is changing. The W HAT IS THEATRE? series
brings new and innovative work in literary, cultural, and dramatic criticism into
conversation with established theatre texts and trends, in order to offer fresh inter-
pretation and highlight new or undervalued artists, works, and trends.
ANN C. HALL has published widely in the area of theatre and film studies, is presi-
dent of the Harold Pinter Society, and is an active member in the Modern Language
Association. In addition to her book A Kind of Alaska: Women in the Plays of O’Neill,
Pinter, and Shepard, she has edited the collection of essays Making the Stage: Essays
on Theatre, Drama, and Performance. Hall is also the author of a book on the various
stage, film, print, and television versions of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera ,
Phantom Variations: The Adaptations of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, 1925
to the Present .
Published by Palgrave Macmillan:
Theatre, Communication, Critical Realism
By Tobin Nellhaus
Staging Modern American Life: Popular Culture in the Experimental Theatre of Millay,
Cummings, and Dos Passos
By Thomas Fahy
Authoring Performance: The Director in Contemporary Theatre
By Avra Sidiropoulou
Authoring
P
ERFORMANCE
tHE dIRECTOR IN
CONTEMPORARY THEATRE
A S
VRA IDIROPOULOU
AUTHORING PERFORMANCE
Copyright © Avra Sidiropoulou, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-12018-1
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29840-2 ISBN 978-1-137-00178-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137001788
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Sidiropoulou, Avra, 1972–
Authoring performance : the director in contemporary
theatre / Avra Sidiropoulou.
p. cm.—(What is theatre?)
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Theater—Production and direction. I. Title.
PN2053.S45 2011
792.02(cid:2)33—dc23 2011020683
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To you, Nikiforos, my first
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction Auteurism: New Theatre for Brave New Worlds 1
1 The Rise of the Modern Auteur 11
2 Enter Artaud 33
3 Beckett’s Turbulence 51
4 Auteur on the Road 75
5 The Means as an End 107
6 Conquering Texts 135
Afterword 159
Appendix : Six Case Studies 161
Notes 179
Bibliography 193
Index 205
Acknowledgments
AUTHORING PERFORMANCE: THE DIRECTOR IN CONTEMPORARY THEATRE
would not have been made possible without the help of a number of people.
One of these friends, my Romanist mentor S. D., has been instrumental in
getting the book on its way. His trust, unrelenting guidance, writer’s acu-
men, and academic’s informed feedback throughout this demanding process
have been more than invaluable. I thank him to eternity. I am also indebted
to my Palgrave editor, Samantha Hasey, for all her assistance and support
through every phase of the book’s making.
P rofessor Elizabeth Sakellaridou at the Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, more than anyone else, is behind the initial conception of the
book. I wish to thank her for all her encouragement and constructive com-
ments; her comprehensive expertise, together with our heartfelt exchange
of theatergoing experiences and the constant inter-circulation of ideas and
creative input have been a major fuel in my work. Professor Giorgos Pefanis
at the University of Athens has also been a priceless interlocutor in matters
of theatre criticism and theory.
S ome of the book’s research involved a great deal of work in the United
States. I have been very privileged to recurrently hold long conversations on
the nature of auteurism and the future of the theatre with director Robert
Woodruff and playwright Charles Mee, both of whom have been a great
source of inspiration not only in the writing of this book but also in the
shaping of a personal aesthetic in my directing work. Tom Dale Keever, a
theatre scholar and practitioner himself has been a sound source for pro-
duction history with an insider’s knowledge of the contemporary Broadway
and off-Broadway scenes. I am also forever grateful to my good friend Alisa
Regas for supporting me in every way possible during my time in New York
and sharing with me several meaningful evenings in the theatre.
In the course of writing, I have been in constant touch with theatre art-
ists from many parts of the world: from Greece, Cyprus, Germany, and
Turkey to the U.K. and United States to Japan, and Iran. Some of these
people I have been fortunate to consider personal friends: they have been
