Book contents
- The Stage Works of Philip Glass
- The Stage Works of Philip Glass
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Selected Stage Works of Philip Glass
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Background
- Part II Stage Works
- Chapter 5 Theater
- Chapter 6 Language and Philosophy
- Chapter 7 Themes, Genres, and Archetypes
- Chapter 8 Multimedia and Hybrid Genres
- Chapter 9 Dance
- Chapter 10 Music
- Chapter 11 Critical and Audience Reception
- Chapter 12 Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - Theater
from Part II - Stage Works
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2022
- The Stage Works of Philip Glass
- The Stage Works of Philip Glass
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Music Examples
- Selected Stage Works of Philip Glass
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Background
- Part II Stage Works
- Chapter 5 Theater
- Chapter 6 Language and Philosophy
- Chapter 7 Themes, Genres, and Archetypes
- Chapter 8 Multimedia and Hybrid Genres
- Chapter 9 Dance
- Chapter 10 Music
- Chapter 11 Critical and Audience Reception
- Chapter 12 Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Glass’s stage works were influenced by various playwrights and directors, including Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett, who challenged conventional notions of society and order. They employed characters that audiences would not be likely to identify with emotionally, taking the subject out of the narrative so that characters became a means to an end rather than an end in themselves. Brecht’s works are emotionally distancing, often with banners placed onstage to form a counterpoint between actions onstage and written interpretations of these actions. Glass incorporated these types of characters and characteristics into his own stage works. Stage director Jerzy Grotowski’s approach included an emphasis on ritual, where performers participated in types ceremony, an approach Glass adopted in many of his own stage works. Richard Foreman’s Living Theater and the ensemble’s seven-hour production of Frankenstein became Glass’s first opportunity to observe extended theatrical time, and he witnessed a similar approach in Indian Kathakali, an ancient form of classical dance–music theater. Glass’s first stage work, Einstein on the Beach (1976), used this sense of extended theatrical time, as did many of his other stage works.
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- Information
- The Stage Works of Philip Glass , pp. 73 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022