Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama
Written by Jordan Tannahill
Narrated by Johnnie Walker
5/5
()
About this audiobook
How dull plays are killing theatre and what we can do about it.
Had I become disenchanted with the form I had once fallen so madly in love with as a pubescent, pimple-faced suburban homo with braces? Maybe theatre was like an all-consuming high school infatuation that now, ten years later, I saw as the closeted balding guy with a beer gut he’d become. There were of course those rare moments of transcendencethat kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between?
A lot of plays are dull. And one dull play, it seems, can turn us off theatre for good. Playwright and theatre director Jordan Tannahill takes in the spectrum of English-language drama – from the flashiest of Broadway spectacles to productions mounted in scrappy storefront theatres – to consider where lifeless plays come from and why they persist. Having travelled the globe talking to theatre artists, critics, passionate patrons and the theatrically disillusioned, Tannahill addresses what he considers the culture of ‘risk aversion’ paralyzing the form.
Theatre of the Unimpressed is Tannahill’s wry and revelatory personal reckoning with the discipline he’s dedicated his life to, and a roadmap for a vital twenty-first-century theatre – one that apprehends the value of ‘liveness’ in our mediated age and the necessity for artistic risk and its attendant failures. In considering dramaturgy, programming and alternative models for producing, Tannahill aims to turn theatre from an obligation to a destination.
Jordan Tannahill
JORDAN TANNAHILL is an internationally acclaimed playwright who was born in Ottawa and is currently based in London. Two of his plays have won a Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. He has written one previous novel, Liminal, which was published to much acclaim and named one of the best Canadian novels of 2018 by CBC Books. CBC Arts named him as “one of sixty-nine LGBTQ Canadians, living or deceased, who has shaped the country’s history.” He is a regular columnist on CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter.
More audiobooks from Jordan Tannahill
The Listeners: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Minority: 3 Solo Plays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Theatre of the Unimpressed
Related audiobooks
The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverything Was Possible (Updated Edition): The Birth of the Musical Follies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Acting: The First Six Lessons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Musical Theatre For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History of Theatre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Shakespearean Actor Prepares Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater 1st Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Master of Ceremonies: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Thing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Memoirs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Directing Great Television: Inside TV’s New Golden Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life isn't everything: Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows Are Built Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Your Comedic Voice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen of Will Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDreams of Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sanford Meisner Approach: Workbook One, An Actor's Workbook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAct: The Modern Actor’s Handbook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare & Company: When Action is Eloquence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNext Fall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Viewings Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Frozen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Continuity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Red Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Motherfucker with the Hat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Drag Roast of Heklina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lonely Dad Conversations Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Theatre of the Unimpressed
1 rating0 reviews