Böcker av Ric (University of Guelph Knowles

International theatre and live-arts festivals too often come under the exclusive purview of tourism and city branding. Exploring their potential to foster communication across cultural difference, this book demonstrates how they might better serve one of the most urgent processes of our times: intercultural negotiation and exchange.

Ric Knowles' study is a politically urgent, erudite intervention into the ecology of theatre and performance festivals in an international context. Since the 1990s there has been an exponential increase in the number and type of festivals taking place around the world. Events that used merely to be events are now 'festivalized': structured, marketed, and promoted in ways that stress urban centres as tourist destinations and "e;creative cities"e; as targets of corporate enterprise. Ric Knowles examines the structure, content, and impact of international festivals that draw upon and represent multiple cultures and the roles they play in one of the most urgent processes of our times: intercultural negotiation and exchange. Covering a vast geographical sweep and exploring festival models both new and ancient, the work sets compelling new standards of practice for post-pandemic festivals.

Reading the Material Theatre, first published in 2004, demonstrates a method of theatrical performance analysis taking into account the entire theatre experience, from production to reception. It includes five case studies of the cultural work performed by repertory and touring theatre companies and by international festivals.

This wide-ranging study demonstrates how meaning is produced in the process of creating, viewing and analysing theatre. Moving from the history and theory of drama and theatre semiotics to the practical application of an expanded semiotic approach, this accessible book includes contemporary case studies and cross-cultural analysis.