Unbalancing Acts: Foundations for a Theater

By Richard Foreman, Richard Foreman, Richard. Foreman

Book Overview

"Absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in theater, or indeed, the idea of culture in contemporary America."

--From the Foreword by Peter Sellars

"Like Brect, Foreman is a genius not only of the written drama and of directing, but of theory as well...He makes theater free us, turn us on, and prepare us for action. He has been my most important mentor, teaching me the most important things I know about the theater."

--Eric Bogosian

"Very important and enormously entertaining. Unbalancing Acts is easy to read, is accessible, and is full of good plays and good ideas about theater, about writing, and about the life of the mind."

--Richard Schechner

This compendium includes the plays The Cure, Film Is Evil: Radio Is Good, Symphony of Rats, What Did He See?, and Lava, as well as several essays on the craft.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559360763
• ISBN13: 9781559360760
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Foundation for a new theatre

The opening essay, "Foundations For A Theatre," is the clearest and most linear statement to date of Richard Foreman's work, which re-considers the entire process of making theatre (from the formulation of a script to rehearsal to performance) and what kind of experience an evening of theatre may convey. No one is creating theatre like Richard Foreman, whose associative (and sometimes dissociative) writing process contrives to capture a truthful portrait of his own perception at work. In rehearsal, Foreman creates an environment rebelling against any mimetic presentation of everyday reality, which is a kind of shared dream. He uses every theatrical element at his disposal to surprise and dazzle the spectator, and bring awareness to our radical impulses before our intellects "understand" them (and change them into something else).Although his project sounds very cerebral, his theatre is very much about the senses, and his art grabs you on a gut level. The book includes several plays, though it might have been helpful to include a script without the production stage directions to help understand the way he generates a script. (A later book, MY HEAD WAS A SLEDGEHAMMER, does include this and it helps a great deal.) Also, more photographs and illustrations would support his essay on visual design and use of space.This artist is way ahead of his time, using theatre to address the process of perception itself rather than narrative thinking. The importance of this book, addressing this work to a general reader, may not be appreciated for quite some time.