William Tydeman

Stand at the rim of Palo Duro Canyon or look down from any vista along the caprock, and let your imagination take over. Beneath an endless canopy of blue, you find yourself at the edge of an enormous island of rippling grassland that stretches from the New Mexico borderlands down through the Texas Panhandle. The Llano Estacado, Coronado’s legendary “staked plains,” comprises all or part of thirty-three counties in Texas and four in New Mexico. It covers approximately 32,000 square miles of arid prairie used primarily today for ranching and farming. It lies atop the vast Ogalalla Aquifer—its primary source of water—and partially covers the oil-bearing Permian Basin. Its population, outside of four mid-sized cities, is sparse. The Llano has always required and appealed to discerning eyes. The artists and writers gathered here are hardly the first to have felt the pull of this place or the urgency to capture its essence. Yet the idiosyncrasies and ideals, the successes and failures, the strangeness and beauty and power of the land and its people beckon fresh discovery. Look at the Llano with eyes open to possibility, and you will encounter the unexpected, a keener understanding of the ways in which landscape and life are always inescapably intertwined, thrumming, as Barry Lopez suggests, the eternal questions: Where are we? And where do we go from here?

Originally published in 1986, this volume illuminates the predominant theatrical styles of a particular period in dramatic history. It does this by reconstructing – as far as conjecture permits – the manner in which five major plays of the late Middle Ages might have been staged in fifteenth-century Britain. The author draws on his experience in producing medieval plays to discuss the business of staging in a novel way. General conclusions are drawn from specific examples and the qualities which give medieval English drama its idiosyncratic features and appeal are characterized.

This major work brings together, for the first time in a single volume, all the recognized sources of Marlowe's dramatic work. Many of the forty-two texts presented here are of outstanding interest in their own right. Together they illuminate the cultural milieu which fostered Marlowe's talent, and deepen our appreciation of his dramatic methods. * Each of the texts is accessibly presented for the modern reader and is fully annotated. * Works in Latin or foreign vernaculars are translated, many for the first time, and modern spelling and punctuation are used throughout. * The sources for each play are examined individually and are thoroughly edited. Few libraries provide the range of sources contained in this one volume. The editors include texts of works such as the English Faust-Book from which Marlowe borrowed heavily, and provide substantial extracts from other books with which he was no doubt familiar. This book is an invaluable resource for all those interested in Marlowe and the development of Elizabethan theatre.

This is the first book-length study of Oscar Wilde’s Salome, a play now regarded as central to his artistic achievement. Often drawing on little-known sources, the authors provide a detailed stage-history of this controversial work, and its transformation into opera, dance and film. Beginning with Sarah Bernhardt’s aborted production of 1892, the book surveys Salome’s principal realisations in the European theatre, including Lugné-Poe’s Parisian première of 1896, Reinhardt’s Berlin productions of 1902–3, attempts at presentation in pre-revolutionary Russia, and the play’s impact on the English stage between 1911 and 1990. A separate chapter explores a wealth of further interpretations, including Aubrey Beardsley’s challenging illustrations, Strauss’s operatic version and the provocative films created by Alla Nazimova and Ken Russell.

This 1996 book is a study of Oscar Wilde's Salome, a play now regarded as central to his artistic achievement. Often drawing on little-known sources, the authors provide a detailed stage-history of this controversial work, and its transformation into opera, dance and film. Beginning with Sarah Bernhardt's aborted production of 1892, the book surveys Salome's principal realisations in the European theatre, including Lugné-Poe's Parisian première of 1896, Reinhardt's Berlin productions of 1902–3, attempts at presentation in pre-revolutionary Russia, and the play's impact on the English stage between 1911 and 1990. A separate chapter explores a wealth of further interpretations, including Aubrey Beardsley's challenging illustrations, Strauss's operatic version and the provocative films created by Alla Nazimova and Ken Russell.

This major work brings together, for the first time in a single volume, all the recognized sources of Marlowe's dramatic work. Many of the forty-two texts presented here are of outstanding interest in their own right. Together they illuminate the cultural milieu which fostered Marlowe's talent, and deepen our appreciation of his dramatic methods. * Each of the texts is accessibly presented for the modern reader and is fully annotated. * Works in Latin or foreign vernaculars are translated, many for the first time, and modern spelling and punctuation are used throughout. * The sources for each play are examined individually and are thoroughly edited. Few libraries provide the range of sources contained in this one volume. The editors include texts of works such as the English Faust-Book from which Marlowe borrowed heavily, and provide substantial extracts from other books with which he was no doubt familiar. This book is an invaluable resource for all those interested in Marlowe and the development of Elizabethan theatre.

Popular and scholarly works on the Elizabethan stage have long familiarised readers and playgoers with the main features of a typical Shakespearian playhouse, yet medieval stage conditions remain far less well known, despite the amount of research in this area recently. In this survey of modern findings and theories (some unaviodably controversial), William Tydeman covers central aspects of western European theatre from the Dark Ages to the building of the first public theatres towards the end of the sixteenth century. The book begins by examining the ancient rituals from which drama sprang, the legacy bequeathed by the Roman stage to popular entertainers of the Middle Ages, and the rôle of the histrionic impulse in Christian worship. Subsequent chapters describe in some detail the varying methods of medieval staging - indoors, processional, and al fresco - settings, costumes, and effects, the way performers were chosen and organised, how the plays were financed and how their audiences responded. Half-tone and line illustrations clarify various points of theatrical detail in the text.