BECKETT IN PERFORMANCE
A critical study of the strangely singular art of acting and directing Samuel Beckett plays. Based on personal experience of over seventy productions and two conversations with Beckett in the late 1980s, this widely cited and consulted book has been called an “essential study” of the 20th century’s most essential playwright. It includes interviews with legendary Beckett actors and directors such as Walter Asmus, Alvin Epstein, David Warrilow and Billie Whitelaw.
Winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism
THE THEATER OF HEINER MÜLLER
The first comprehensive study in English of the provocatively political, astonishingly inventive, maddeningly contradictory Heiner Müller—spiritual heir to Bertolt Brecht and the most important playwright produced by the now vanished country of East Germany. "Kalb's quest to try and penetrate some of the surfaces of what he calls this 'glacially infuriating writer' is engrossing, and he negotiates his own ambivalences and reservations about Müller as theatre-maker and man with both honesty and adroitness . . . As a piece of scholarship [this] is a breathtaking tour de force"
—Mary Luckhurst, New Theatre Quarterly
GREAT LENGTHS: SEVEN WORKS OF MARATHON THEATER
Memoir, critical monograph and historical inquiry in one, this book considers extreme length in the theater, looking closely at selected productions more than five hours long that were pinnacles of the author’s theatergoing over 30 years. Among the selections are: Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach, the Royal Shakespeare Company's Nicholas Nickleby, and the "durational works" of the British experimental company Forced Entertainment. Great Lengths offers a panoramic view of an art that countless info-age people seek out for increasingly rare experiences of awe, transcendence, and sustained immersion.
Winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism
Winner of the George Freedley Memorial Award
PLAY BY PLAY:
THEATER ESSAYS & REVIEWS, 1993-2002
“With this compilation, Kalb—former drama critic for The Village Voice and New York Press as well as a regular contributor to American Theatre and The New York Times—has proven himself an important documentarian of American theatre production history and deserves to be regarded as an important theatre practitioner . . . Kalb’s discerning and astute analysis of theatre, not simply productions, proves him to be one of America’s masters.”
—Tom Smith, Theatre Journal
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COLLECTED THEATER WRITINGS
“Kalb’s keen perceptual vision is constantly at work. Wherever he is or whatever he is doing at the moment, he will probably be found contemplating words spoken, observing the juxtaposition of his surroundings, and feeling the action and mood around him, trying to grasp their meaning and importance in relation to his ideal theatre production.”
—Siu Wong, Theatre Crafts International
