Casting the Art of Rhetoric with Theater and Drama: Taking Center Stage explores rhetoric and theater as they relate to one another, developing the understanding of rhetoric as theory and praxis. This book addresses rhetorical themes and cultural resonances, as well as the oft overlooked symbiosis of rhetoric and theater. Rather than addressing audiences as either observers of rhetorical artifacts or theatrical performance, this work demonstrates the intersection of the two, which strengthens theatrical events and their cultural significance. Overall, the volume showcases the many ways in which an understanding of the relationship between rhetorical and poetic theories can benefit dramatic convention and the breaking thereof.
Contributions by:
Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels,
Amanda Hill,
Ann Broda,
Casey Berner
Edited by:
Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels
Imprint: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions:
Height: 230mm,
Width: 154mm,
Spine: 30mm
Weight: 800g
ISBN: 9781666942026
ISBN 10: 1666942022
Pages: 456
Publication Date: 21 August 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter 1: Rhetorical Criticism as a Research Method for Analyzing Musical Theater Texts Valerie Lynn Schrader Chapter 2: The Rhetoric of identity and Ideology in the Broadway Musical Revival: An Exploration of the Musicals Oklahoma!, West Side Story and Parade Jessica Neu Chapter 3: Remember Who You Are: A Rhetorrectional Situation Analysis of “They Live in You” and “He Lives in You” from Disney’s The Lion King Ann Broda Chapter 4: A Farmer, a Lawyer and a Sage: Identity and Identification in Paulus and Page’s 1776 Emma Loerick and Casey Berner Chapter 5: Devising Democracy: Inclusive Rhetoric and Communication through Devised Theater Processes Courtney Helen Grile and Amanda Hill Chapter 6: Performance, Place and Public Memory: To Kill a Mockingbird at Monroeville’s Old Courthouse Museum Jefferson Walker Chapter 7: The Spectacle of Didacticism in the January 6th Hearings Tony Palmeri Chapter 8: Rhetorical Invitation in Straight Line Crazy: Evaluating Robert Moses’ Legacy through Drama Christopher Lee Adamczyk and Mary P. Caulfield Chapter 9: Understanding Christopher: How The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Develops Awareness of the Neurodivergent Community Valerie Lynn Schrader and Jessica Neu Chapter 10: Making Voice: Sign Language on Stage LaReina Hingson Chapter 11: Children’s Theater as Essential “Equipment for Living” John H. Saunders Chapter 12: The Missing Link in the Golden Chain: Judaic and Kabbalistic Eloquence in Thornton Wilder’s Plays Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels
Adrienne E. Hacker Daniels is professor emerita at Illinois College.
Reviews for Casting the Art of Rhetoric with Theater and Drama: Taking Center Stage
Spotlighting the ineluctable antistrophes between rhetoric and dramatic performance, Casting the Art of Rhetoric with Theater and Drama: Taking Center Stage showcases how the art of rhetoric and the rhetoric of art still have much to teach us. Hacker Daniels’s volume features a diverse troupe of trope experts and rhetorical critics who push the boundaries of rhetoric and theatre scholarship, offering readers illuminating anagnorises of the musical, political, legal, pedagogical, spatial, and religious stages of symbolic life. Bravo! * Christopher J. Oldenburg, Illinois College, USA * Hacker Daniels and her colleagues pull back the curtain on the debt of contemporary theatre to 2500 years of rhetoric and dramatic debate. This edited collection is smart, funny, highly readable, thought-provoking, and bound to incite debate. It is like taking a magic carpet from Athens to Broadway, from Sophocles to The Lion King, from Cicero to Thornton Wilder, from Shakespeare to Hamilton, from page to stage, from sheet music to aria, and from oratory to sign language for the deaf. * John Soliday, University of Miami, USA *
