Mel Gordon on the Grand Guignol

Mel Gordon in conversation with Russell Blackwood (Director of Thrillpeddlers Theater)

Theatre of Fear and Horror: The Grisly Spectacle of the Grand Guignol of Paris 1897-1962

from Feral House Press

Mel Gordon returns to City Lights celebrating the expanded edition of his classic outré book, The Grand Guignol, first published in 1988 and now long out of print.

Like the original anthology, it includes an illustrated introduction to the theater of Paris and abroad, a breakdown of its stage tricks, a summary of one hundred plots, extensive photo documentation, André de Lord's essay, "Fear in Literature," and two originally produced Grand Guignol scripts.

The expanded edition also contains additional graphic and textual material including a color insert of Grand Guignol posters; the 1938 autobiographical account of Maxa, the company's leading female performer entitled "I Am the Maddest Woman in the World"; and the controversial playscript Orgy in the Lighthouse.

Mel Gordon is Professor Emeretus in the Theater, Dance and Performace Studies Department at the University of California at Berkeley and is the author of numerous books including: Dada Performance; Erik Jan Hanussen; Expressionist Texts; The Grand Guignol: The Theatre of Horror and Terror; Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the Commedia dell'Arte; Mikhoels the Wise; The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber; The Stanislavsky Technique in America; The Stanislavsky Technique: Russia; Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin; Horozontal Collaboration:The Erotic World of Paris, 1920-1946, and co-writer of Meyerhold, Eisenstein and Biomechanics: Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia as well as one hundred and thirty articles and entries on American, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Yiddish theater and cinema. He has directed over twenty productions in Frankfurt, Houston, New York City, Paris, and Zurich. He is the former Associate Editor of The Drama Review. He has taught at Lee Strasberg Institute, Michael Chekhov Studio, New York University, and Yale University.