Reality Principles

Herbert Blaus long sustained inquiry into theaters most provocative questionspresence, liveness, and finitudeare, at their deepest level, queries into life. Reality Principles returns us to Blaus inspiring provocations and extends them to new subjects9/11 and Ground Zero, the nature of charisma, Pirandello and Strindberg. Peggy Phelan, Stanford University Reality Principles gathers recent essays by esteemed scholar and theater practitioner Herbert Blau covering a range of topics. The books provocative essaysincluding The Emotional Memory of Directing, The Faith-Based Initiative of the Theater of the Absurd, Virtually Yours: Presence, Liveness, Lessness, The Human Nature of the Botwere given as keynotes and/or memorial lectures and are collected here for the first time. The essays take up a remarkable array of topicsfrom body art and the self-inflicted punishments of Stelarc, Orlan, and the Viennese Actionists, to Ground Zero and 9/11and allow Blau to address critical questions of theater and theory, performance and relevance, the absurd and the virtual, history and illusion, community and memory. Reality Principles offers a panoramic view of Herbert Blaus perspectives on life and the imitation of life on stage.