HELP!

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

I'm writing an essay, for a book, on the History of Street Performing. I have some ideas, but I don't want the final product to be under-researched. Anyone have a clue for me on where to study up on our story?

[em]

um, a good start would be british and european history books as street theatre was going on here 100s of years ago in, i suspect, greek times or further back! before America, as it is now known, was born!

[em]

oh and i'll see what i can dig up over here...

[Neil Brown]

Taxi,
This may not be the most helpful piece of information you are going to be given, but it's all I can think of. Em mentioned SP going perhaps as far back as the ancient Greeks. I know that there is hieroglyph of a man doing cups and balls (I guess as a street show), so this would presumably be one of the first examples. I can't think where this is located, or where you would go to find out, assuming you don't know of it already. Perhaps some other P.netter could help?
Neil

[le pire]

Yo Taxi!

Here's a bibliography given to me by none other than the Butterflyman himself:

Street Theater and Other Outdoor Performances by Bim Mason

Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology by Cohen-Cruz

On the Streets: A Guide to New York Citys Buskers by W. Boyle

The Tricks of the Trade", Dario Fo

- "On the High Wire", Phillipe Petit


I highly recommend:

"Commedia Dell'Arte: An Actor's Handbook", John Rudlin

"Passing the Hat: The Life of Street Performers in America," Patricia J. Campbell

Drawing a Circle in the Square: Street Performing in New York's Washington Square Park", Sally Harrison-Pepper, Richard Schechner

"Guerrilla Theater: Scenarios for Revolution.", John. Weisman

There is an EXECELLENT French magazine called "Les Artes de la Rue", but it's in French...

Hope this helps...

étienne

p.s. You've got BEAUTIFUL website, Taxi!

[ 03-02-2003: Message edited by: le pire ]</p>

[Stephon]

[quote]Originally posted by Neil Brown:
<strong>I know that there is hieroglyph of a man doing cups and balls (I guess as a street show), so this would presumably be one of the first examples. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Not that long ago Penn & Teller did a special where in they went to the chamber that has that heiroglyph in it. They inspected it quite closely and carefully and came to the conclusion that it was not really someone performing the cups and balls. Even just seeing the thing on the television without close inspection, I think someone was really reaching when they decided it represented the first record of someone performing that trick.

[martin ewen]

'The fool, his social and literary history'
published in 58, the whiter of the two hawai 5/4/3/2/1?juggling guys has a copy signed by the writer. (and with the pall bearers historical list)_he lucked out, can't remember the authors name. Tragic and comic,- both, I'm confused
Be ideal as a preface as it covers verbatum stuff from pre christian fools.
Incredable source, you borrow it , I'll scan it.
This from memory
King Solomine had his fool who disagreed with the baby halfing Bluff/judgement and was the only character who had the ability to question the judgement of an omnipotent king (sadly not included in the book), the king responded by a recorded dialouge that went something like this
" You annoy me, I am benevolent and so will only ask that I never set eyes on yours again." (I'm improvising but the 'eyes on yours' bit is crutial)
He wimps off, and then, in the weakest link in this whole story, told from 2500 years ago, the king, revisits the kitchen and there in the disused but still warm oven, the fool is curled with his back towards the king, (thus not 'ever setting eyes on again')
So now the king gets the guards and says, you've been a good servant and a good source of laughs, but I'm sorry but I'm going to have you killed,l you are to be hung, however I will give you the benefit of choosing the tree from which you hang, and this really old translation made by some brit from Oxford in 1958 translates the rest of the story to be, 'and so he went to so-and-so provience, and from there to so-and-so provience,and from there to so-and -so provience, leaving you with the picture of a condemned man cheerfully dragging a couple of guards around for the rest of their live's, rejecting trees where he could be hung.
What this has to do with street theatre is actually miniscule. I'm bored and people are insensible everywhere.

[Seamus]

'The Buskers: a history of street entertainment' David Cohen 1945
Publisher: Newton Abbot ; North Pomfret, Vt. : David & Charles, c1981.
ISBN: 0715380265

[mommaK]

Taxi,

I think I have a copy of The Buskers:History in the office. I'll check tomorrow for you and let you know.....

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Thanks, Kell, et all, especially for the compliment, Etienne, you wild thing. I asked Robert and got the same biblio recently. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me.

What about it, Hawaii boys? I just showed your video to my Circus Arts class at Millbrook School, and they voted it in ahead of the Bindlestiffs and Brady. I'll be good to your book, I promise.

Martin: pleasant story. I'll keep it in mind, especially before mouthing off to a king. Or a girlfriend.

[jugglermatt1]

"dont be croth with uth poor vagabondth . People mutht be amuthed . They cant be alwayth a learning , nor yet they cant be alwayth a working , they aint made for it . You mutht have us thquire . Do the with thing and the kind thing too , and make the betht of uth ; not the wurtht !"
Mr Sleary in Hard Times .
Taken from the book "puppets in Yorkshire "by Walter Wilkinson .Perhaps the first road book ,Walter being a punch and Judy man walking aroung Yorkshire with his cart/show in the Summer of the early 1930s ( although the quote is much earlier ) Fantastic read , Ill send you my copy if you tell me Where .

[Mr.Taxi Trix]

Well, that's different. Sounds all oldish, too. Thanks!

Extreme Skills Productions
149 Popple Swamp Road
Cornwall Bridge, CT USA 06754

[jugglermatt1]

Due to my unfallible stupidity , "do the with thing " , should read , "do the withe thing "

[le pire]

For all the people who "no speak so good the English," here's a little translation. Renaissance Man was being a bit overly-clever-- in Old English the "s" or "ss" sound was written with a letter that no longer exists. It resembled a big "f" more than a "th" so who knows why he used "th," but anyway, here's what that yank Rennie freak ( [img]smile.gif[/img] ) meant:

<strong>"dont be cross with us poor vagabonds . People must be amused . They cant be always a learning , nor yet they cant be always a working , they aint made for it . You must have us squire . Do the wise thing and the kind thing too , and make the best of us ; not the worst !" </strong>

étienne

[ 03-11-2003: Message edited by: le pire ]</p>

[Guest]

"For all the people who "no speak so good the English," here's a little translation. Renaissance Man was being a bit overly-clever-- in Old English the "s" or "ss" sound was written with a letter that no longer exists. It resembled a big "f" more than a "th" so who knows why he used "th," but anyway, here's what that yank Rennie freak ( [img]smile.gif[/img] ) meant:"

Huh? What? I've yet to participate in this thread! Rennie freak? Issa job, mate! How the devil did I get pulled into this...oh, t'was some Frog...you know what they're like about facts. "The French don't care what they DO actually, so long as they pronounce it properly" (H. Higgins. Wimpole St. London)