The Semiotics of Theater [Hardcover]

The most thorough, systematic and convincing semiotics of the theater we have.... [L]ike those of Eco, it is an important conceptual synthesis, and a bibliographical gold mine. Modern Language Notes ... impresses with its thoroughness and the informed perspective of its author... Theatre Survey

Introduction
Theater as a Cultural System
The Theatrical Code

I. The Theatrical Code as a System

1. The Actors Activities as a Sign
Language-based Signs
Linguistic Signs
Paralinguistic Signs
Kinesic Signs
Mimic Signs
Gestural Signs
Proxemic Signs
2. The Actors Appearance as a Sign
Mask
Hairstyle
Costume
3. Spatial Signs
Theatrical Space
Stage Space
Decoration
Props
Lighting
4. Nonverbal Acoustic Signs
Sounds
Music
5. Theater as a Semiotic System
The Specificity of the Theatrical Sign
Structure and Hierarchy
Theatrical Communication
Theatriciality

II. The Theatrical Gesture as a Norm

6. The Gesture in Eighteenth-Century German Theater
From System to Norm
Problems of a Semiotic Historical Reconstruction
The Gestural Code in Eighteenth-Century German Theater
Preconditions: The Gestural Code of Baroque Theater
Changes in the Baroque Gestural Code during the Early Enlightenment
The Genesis of a Gestural Code for Bourgeois Illusionist Theater
Gestures in Theater as a Representational System of Meaning in the Discourse of the Epoch

III. The Theatrical Code as Speech

7. Performance as Theatrical Text
The Concept of the Theatrical Text
On the Constitution of the Theatrical Text
The Transformation of the Dramas Literary Text into the Thelã-