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Richard Foreman: Plays and Manifestos (The Drama review series)

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Richard Foreman is one of the most important avant-garde artists working in the theatre today. He has written thirty-nine plays since 1967 and directed and designed twenty-one of them. Twelve of these were produced by the ONTOLOGICAL_HYSTERIC THEATRE, which he founded in 1968. Here, collected for the first time, are eight of the twelve plays, presented in the order of their production: ANGELFACE, 1968; TOTAL RECALL (SOPHIA=(WISDOM) PART 2), 1970; HcOhTiEnLa (or) HOTEL CHINA, 1971; SOPHIA = (WISDOM) Part 3: THE CLIFFS, 1972; CLASSICAL THERAPY or A WEEK UNDER THE INFLUENCE..., 1973; VERTICAL MOBILITY (SOPHIA =(WISDOM): Part 4), 1974; PAIN(T), 1974; RHODA IN POTATOLAND (HER FALL STARTS), 1976. Also included here are the three ONTOLOGICAL-HYSTERIC manifestos, in which Foreman posits his singular ideas on art and theatrical theory, The scripts are documented by numerous photographs from the original productions and the manifestos are illustrated with sketches from Foreman's production notebooks.

ONTOLOGICAL-HYSTERIC THEATRE is a form of "concrete" theatre that has successfully created sizable body of work sharing the structuralist and phenomenological esthetic that has dominated music, painting, avant-garde film and dance for over twenty years.

In her perceptive introduction Kate Davy elucidates the term "ontological-hysteric," examines the influence of Gertrude Stein's theories, discusses the method of generating the plays and skillfully guides the reader to an understanding of how to approach the texts. In addition, she has organized the first comprehensive chronology of Foremmn's work, listing all his plays, the dates written, and the place and date of every production.
--- from book's back cover