Tollini, Frederick Paul

About the author:Frederick Tollini, SJ, received his PhD in Theatre History from Yale University and is Associate Professor of Theatre at Santa Clara University. In connection with his teaching of Shakespeare and Theatre History, Dr. Tollini has published a two-volume history of theatre, Performance and Culture (American Heritage Press) and numerous articles in professional journals. A past President of the California Educational Theatre Association, he has been involved in university theatre production as director, actor and translator for over thirty years.

Scene Design at the Court of Louis XIV - The Work of the Vigarani Family and Jean Berain

2003 0-7734-6675-4
This study adds another insight into the period of Luis XIV – that the confluence of the theatrical arts from older traditions developed to shape a distinctly French style which all pertained to the glorification of the Sun King. While previous studies have stressed the literary and musical side of the performances of the period, this study examines the settings and scene designs which completed the picture for the mythologies. Besides giving an account of the festivities of Versailles and setting them in their social environment, this work relates the spectacles to the political and social milieu, incorporating both contemporary literary theory and cultural history.

Shakespeare Productions of Max Reinhardt

2005 0-7734-6231-7
This study's intellectual center of gravity is Reinhardt's experimental early work in Wilhelm and Berlin, culminating in the 1913/14 Deutsches' Theater Shakespeare Cycle, but touching as well on large-scale postwar productions at the Grossess Schauspielhaus. More than a half-century after his death, Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) and the once vibrant theater associated with his name remain only a vague and distant memory. In America he is remembered chiefly for large-scale spectacular productions, for Everyman because of its continued association with the Salzburg Festival, and for the memorable 1935 Midsummer Night's Dream film, one of Hollywood's costliest productions up to that time. Other significant aspects of Reinhardt's distinguished career, such as his fascination and lifelong experimentation with all manner of theatrical styles, emerging stage technologies, acting techniques, and theatrical venues have by now mostly been forgouen. In Europe, where memory runs deeper, Reinhardt's genius and achievements are still periodically celebrated.