{"product_id":"9780472027903","title":"Reality Principles: From the Absurd to the Virtual","description":"\u003cp\u003e“Herbert Blau’s long sustained inquiry into theater’s most provocative questions—presence, liveness, and finitude—are, at their deepest level, queries into life. \u003ci\u003eReality Principles\u003c\/i\u003e returns us to Blau’s inspiring provocations and extends them to new subjects—9\/11 and Ground Zero, the nature of charisma, Pirandello and Strindberg.”\u003cbr\u003e—Peggy Phelan, Stanford University\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eReality Principles\u003c\/i\u003e gathers recent essays by esteemed scholar and theater practitioner Herbert Blau covering a range of topics.  The book’s provocative essays—including “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 Bot”—were given as keynotes and\/or memorial lectures and are collected here for the first time. The essays take up a remarkable array of topics—from body art and the self-inflicted punishments of Stelarc, Orlan, and the Viennese Actionists, to Ground Zero and 9\/11—and allow Blau to address critical questions of theater and theory, performance and relevance, the absurd and the virtual, history and illusion, community and memory. \u003ci\u003eReality Principles\u003c\/i\u003e offers a panoramic view of Herbert Blau’s perspectives on life and the imitation of life on stage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Michigan Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47119875309808,"sku":"9780472027903","price":36.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780472027903_p0.jpg?v=1763706894","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780472027903","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}