How Theatre Means

[Ric Knowles]

Hello Candrama,

Please excuse the following self-promotion:

This message announces my new book from Palgrave Macmillan, *How Theatre Means*, and invites folks to consider it for undergraduate or graduate courses they may be teaching on performance analysis, theory, semiotics, or theatrical devising. I now have advance copies, and the official release is July 4th.

I hope that you will take a look at it and consider it for your courses. The book attempts to address both theory and practice, and to move between the two. Part One, "Theory" begins with an introduction "From Practice to Theory," and includes chapters on "Meaning," "Theatre," and "Disseminations"; Part Two, "Practice," begins with an introduction "From Theory to Practice," and includes chapters on "Script Analysis and Devising" and "Performance Analysis." Central concerns that run throughout the book are the analysis of performance across cultures, and the consideration of semiotic approaches in relation to others such as phenomenological, affective, feminist, queer, materialist, postmodern and postdramatic approaches. I have been told that the practical section on "Devising" is likely to be of particular use to students and practitioners.

It's been my intention to make the subject of the production of meaning in the theatre as clear and accessible as possible--in a cover blurb Patricia Ybarra calls it "an excellent volume. Lucid, clear, and accessible, it makes semiotic theory relevant to a new audience." And it uses many Canadian examples and case studies, while circling throughout around two central shows: Ibsen's *A Doll House* and Monique Mojica's *Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way*.

Thanks for indulging me. I would love to hear feedback on the book.

Best,

Ric 


Ric Knowles
Editor, Theatre Journal
Professor of Theatre Studies
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
N1G 2W1

ph: 519-824-4120, x52931 (w)
FAX: 519-824-0560
email: rknowles at uoguelph.ca
http://www.uoguelph.ca/sets/sets-ric-knowles