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Theatre, Globalization and the Cold War

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Editors:
  1. Christopher B. Balme

    1. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Berenika Szymanski-Düll

    1. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Offers a multi-faceted new way of understanding Cold War theatre through a transnational lens
  • Takes a multi-disciplinary approach to analysing international relations during the Cold War
  • Draws on exclusive archival sources to further investigate this fascinating topic

Part of the book series: Transnational Theatre Histories (TTH)

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Table of contents (18 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  2. Introduction

    • Christopher B. Balme, Berenika Szymanski-Düll
    Pages 1-22

  3. Shifting Borders: Tours and Touring

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 23-23
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    2. A Cold War Battleground: Catfish Row versus the Nevsky Prospekt

      • Charlotte M. Canning
      Pages 25-43

    3. Spirituals, Serfs, and Soviets: Paul Robeson and International Race Policy in the Soviet Union at the Start of the Cold War

      • Christopher Silsby
      Pages 45-57

    4. The Politics of an International Reputation: The Berliner Ensemble as a GDR Theatre on Tour

      • David Barnett
      Pages 59-71

    5. ‘A tour to the West could bring a lot of trouble…’—The Mazowsze State Folk Song and Dance Ensemble during the First Period of the Cold War

      • Berenika Szymanski-Düll
      Pages 73-85

    6. Song and Dance Ensembles in Central European Militaries: The Spread, Transformation and Retreat of a Soviet Model

      • Václav Šmidrkal
      Pages 87-106

    7. Theatre, Propaganda and the Cold War: Peter Brook’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in Eastern Europe (1972)

      • Zoltán Imre
      Pages 107-129

  4. Institutions and Institutional Imbrications

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 131-131
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    2. MI5 Surveillance of British Cold War Theatre

      • James Smith
      Pages 133-150

    3. Creating an International Community during the Cold War

      • Hanna Korsberg
      Pages 151-163

    4. The Cultural Cold War on the Home Front: The Political Role of Theatres in Communist Kraków and Leipzig

      • Kyrill Kunakhovich
      Pages 165-186

  6. Postcolonial Perspectives

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 271-271
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Keywords

About this book

This book examines how the Cold War had a far-reaching impact on theatre by presenting a range of current scholarship on the topic from scholars from a dozen countries. They represent in turn a variety of perspectives, methodologies and theatrical genres, including not only Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook, but also Polish folk-dancing, documentary theatre and opera production. The contributions demonstrate that there was much more at stake and a much larger investment of ideological and economic capital than a simple dichotomy between East versus West or socialism versus capitalism might suggest. Culture, and theatrical culture in particular with its high degree of representational power, was recognized as an important medium in the ideological struggles that characterize this epoch. Most importantly, the volume explores how theatre can be reconceptualized in terms of transnational or even global processes which, it will be argued, were an integral part of Cold War rivalries.

Reviews

“Theatre, Globalization, and the Cold War brings together a diverse group of scholars to broaden examples and ultimately understandings of the role of theatrical culture during the Cold War. The transnational focus of this collection places more familiar sites alongside less studied ‘battlefields,’ in order to consider the many ways that power was contested in and through performance.” (Kate Elswit, author of “Watching Weimar Dance”)

Editors and Affiliations

  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

    Christopher B. Balme, Berenika Szymanski-Düll

About the editors

Christopher Balme holds the Chair in Theatre Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. His current research interests focus on the legacy of modernism in the globalization of the arts; theatre and the public sphere; and the relationship between media and performance. He is director of the Global Theatre Histories project.

Berenika Szymanski-Düll is Lecturer in Theatre Studies at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. Her current research interests include international touring theatre in the 19th century, theatre and migration and Performance Art in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. She is an associate of the Global Theatre Histories research project. 

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