Experimental theatre from Stanislavsky to today

by James Roose-Evans

"The story of re-discovery in the modern theatre"

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1971

About the author

James Roose-Evans, theater director and author, was born in London on November 11, 1927. He completed his education at Oxford University in 1957. Roose-Evans began his career as an actor, but by 1954 had started directing. He founded the Hampstead Theatre Club in 1959, and served as artistic director until 1971. In 1969, while at the Hampstead, Roose-Evans also founded and became director of Stage Two, an experimental theater workshop and research center.

Roose-Evans also lectured at, and conducted various theater workshops in the United States throughout his career. In addition, he has directed numerous West End productions, including Under Milk Wood, Cider with Rosie, Private Lives, The Happy Apple, An Ideal Husband, Spitting Image, 84 Charing Cross Road, The Seven Year Itch, The Best of Friends, and Mate, a Personal Affair. Roose-Evans has also authored books on theater, as well as a series of children's books in the 1970s. He is a member of the Royal Society of Arts, the Welsh Arts Council, Southeast Wales Art Association, and the Welsh Dance Theatre.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, all of it: Grotowski, Bread & Puppet, The Living, Meyerhold, Martha Graham, Cage, Brook. Julian Beck on why the Living Theatre is so assaultive, with its "wild, daemonic energies": "If only we can make the audience feel pain at a public ceremony, this may be the route by which we enable him to find the way back to his feelings, so that he will never want to commit violence again." Julian further hopes that it will "drive people to change things." Nope. Whenever I see the Living, I feel so assaulted that I want to run home and bury my head in my pillow. Fear is not a change motivator.