Robert Wilson Popular Books
Robert Wilson Biography & Facts
Robert Wilson (born October 4, 1941) is an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who has been described by The New York Times as "[America]'s – or even the world's – foremost vanguard 'theater artist.'" He has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and lighting designer. Wilson is best known for his collaboration with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs on Einstein on the Beach, and his frequent collaborations with Tom Waits. In 1991, Wilson established The Watermill Center, "a laboratory for performance" on the East End of Long Island, New York, regularly working with opera and theater companies, as well as cultural festivals. Wilson "has developed as an avant-garde artist specifically in Europe amongst its modern quests, in its most significant cultural centers, galleries, museums, opera houses and theaters, and festivals". Early life and education Wilson was born in Waco, Texas, the son of Loree Velma (née Hamilton) and D.M. Wilson, a lawyer. He had a difficult youth as the gay son of a conservative family. "When I was growing up, it was a sin to go to the theater. It was a sin if a woman wore pants. There was a prayer box in school, and if you saw someone sinning you could put their name in the prayer box, and on Fridays everyone would pray for those people whose names were in the prayer box." He was stuttering and taken to a local dance instructor called Bird "Baby" Hoffman, who helped him overcome his stutter. After attending local schools, he studied business administration at the University of Texas from 1959 to 1962. He moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1963 to change fields, study art and architecture. At some point he went to Arizona to study architecture with Paolo Soleri at his desert complex. Wilson found himself drawn to the work of pioneering choreographers George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, and Martha Graham, among others. He engaged in therapeutic theater work with brain-injured and disabled children in New York. He received a BFA in architecture from the Pratt Institute in 1965. He directed a "ballet for iron-lung patients where the participants moved a fluorescent streamer with their mouths while the janitor danced dressed as Miss America". During this period, he also attended lectures by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy (widow of László Moholy-Nagy), and studied painting with artist George McNeil. Career Theater In 1968, he founded an experimental performance company, the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds (named for a teacher who helped him manage a stutter while a teenager). With this company, he directed his first major works, beginning with 1969's The King of Spain and The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud. He began to work in opera in the early 1970s, creating Einstein on the Beach with composer Philip Glass and choreographer Lucinda Childs. This work brought the artists worldwide renown. Following Einstein, Wilson worked increasingly with major European theaters and opera houses. For the New York debut of his first opera, the Metropolitan Opera allowed Wilson to rent the house on a Sunday, when they did not have a production, but would not produce the work. In 1970, Wilson and a group of collaborators, including choreographer Andy deGroat and the dancer and actor Sheryl Sutton, devised the "silent opera" Deafman Glance in Iowa City, where it premiered at the Center for New Performing Arts on December 15. The large cast of the premiere production of Deafman Glance included Raymond Andrews and Ana Mendieta. The show subsequently traveled to the Nancy Festival in France and to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It later opened in Paris, championed by the designer Pierre Cardin. The Surrealist poet Louis Aragon loved it and published a letter to the Surrealist poet André Breton (who had died in 1966), in which he praised Wilson as: "What we, from whom Surrealism was born, dreamed would come after us and go beyond us". In 1975, Wilson dissolved the Byrds and started to use professional actors. In 1983/84, Wilson planned a performance for the 1984 Summer Olympics, the CIVIL warS: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down; the complete work was to have been 12 hours long, in 6 parts. The production was only partially completed; the full event was canceled by the Olympic Arts Festival, due to insufficient funds. In 1986, the Pulitzer Prize jury unanimously selected the CIVIL warS for the drama prize, but the supervisory board rejected the choice and gave no drama award that year. In 1990 alone, Wilson created four new productions in four different West German cities: Shakespeare's King Lear in Frankfurt, Chekhov's Swan Song in Munich, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf's Orlando in West Berlin, and The Black Rider a collaboration by Wilson, Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs, in Hamburg. In 1997, he was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize. In 1998, Wilson staged August Strindberg's A Dream Play, at Stockholms Stadsteater, Sweden. It later headlined festivals in Recklinghausen, Nice, Perth, Bonn, Moscow, New York and London. In 2010 Wilson was working on a new stage musical with composer (and long-time collaborator) Tom Waits and the Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh. His theatrical production of John Cage's Lecture on Nothing, which was commissioned for a celebration of the Cage centenary at the 2012 Ruhrtriennale, had its U.S. premiere in Royce Hall, UCLA, by the Center for the Art of Performance. Wilson performed Lectures on Nothing in its Australian premiere at the 2019 Supersense festival at the Arts Centre Melbourne. In 2013 Wilson, in collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov and co-starring Willem Dafoe, developed The Old Woman, an adaptation of the work by the Russian author Daniil Kharms. The play premiered at MIF13, Manchester International Festival. Wilson wrote that he and Baryshnikov had discussed creating a play together for years, perhaps based on a Russian text. The final production included dance, light, singing and bilingual monolog. Since 1999, Wilson has premiered nine theatrical works in Berlin. By contrast, as of 2013, his last commission in the United States was 21 years ago. As of 2010, he continued to direct revivals of his most celebrated productions, including The Black Rider in London, San Francisco, Sydney, Australia, and Los Angeles; The Temptation of St. Anthony in New York and Barcelona; Erwartung in Berlin; Madama Butterfly at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow; and Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Wilson also directs all Monteverdi operas for the opera houses of La Scala in Milan and the Palais Garnier in Paris. In 2021 Wilson directed a revival of Shakespeare's The Tempest at the Ivan Vazov National Theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2022 he directed UBU, a theatrical performance, premiered at Es Baluard Museu in Palma. Visual art and design In addition to his work for the stage, Wilson has created sculpture, drawings, and furniture designs. Exhibited in D.... Discover the Robert Wilson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Robert Wilson books.
Best Seller Robert Wilson Books of 2024
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We Belong to Gaia
James LovelockIn twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.James Lovelock's We Belong to Gaia draws on decades of wisdom to lay out the history of our rem...
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Dirty Tricks
Shane O'SullivanThe victory of Richard Nixon in the US presidential election of 1968 swung on an “October Surprise” a treasonous plot engineered by key figures in the Republican Party to keep the ...
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Goliath
Matt Stoller“Every thinking American must read” (The Washington Book Review) this startling and “insightful” (The New York Times) look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism has t...
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Death at the Orange Locks
Anja de Jager'A novel brilliantly evoking the isolation of a woman with an unbearable weight on her conscience' Sunday Times Keeping it in the family...After her painful divorce four years ago,...
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Mental State
Dr Mark CrossA manifesto about what's wrong with Australia's mental health system and a guidebook for how to treat it, by a neurotic shrink who lives it every day.Psychiatrist Dr Mark Cross has...
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Masks of the Illuminati
Robert A. WilsonThis American underground classic is a rollicking cosmic mystery featuring Albert Einstein and James Joyce as the ultimate space/time detectives. One fateful evening in a suit...
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The Most Dammed Country in the World
Dai QingIn twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement.The courageous, unflinching speeches and writings collected in The Most Dammed Country in the W...
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The Norman Conquest
Robbie WilsonA book designed to be used for revision of for ISEB Common Entrance. This book considers the Norman Conquest with a particular focus on the Battle of Hastings. This book was ...
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Dios - La ciencia - Las pruebas
Michel-Yves Bolloré & Olivier BonnassiesEn este libro se revelan, tras tres años de trabajo en colaboración con una veintena de científicos y especialistas de alto nivel, las pruebas modernas de la existencia de Dios. Du...
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The Spy Who Was Left Behind
Michael PullaraThe shocking true story of international intrigue “a highly detailed, engrossing work” (Kirkus Reviews)involving the 1993 murder of CIA officer Freddie Woodruff by KGB agents and t...
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The Tower
Uwe TellkampIn derelict Dresden a cultivated, middleclass family does all it can to cope amid the Communist downfall. This striking tapestry of the East German experience is told through the t...
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Home at Grasmere
Dorothy Wordsworth & William WordsworthA continuous text made up of extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal and a selection of her brother's poems. Dorothy Wordsworth kept her Journal 'because I shall give William pl...
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Thanks For Nothing
Jack DeeComedian Jack Dee's hilarious account of how he became quite such a miserable git and a stand up comedian.'A brilliant book. So funny. It's my bible' Paul O'GradyIn this hilariousl...
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The Venetian Legacy
Philip Gwynne Jones'An unputdownable thriller' Gregory Dowling'It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice... art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an alm...
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A Cold Death in Amsterdam
Anja de JagerThe first Lotte Meerman mystery Amsterdambased Lotte Meerman is a cold case detective recovering from the emotional devastation of her previous investigation. She is angry and ment...
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A Death in Rembrandt Square
Anja de JagerGuilty until proven innocent . . .It's hard for anyone to have their work scrutinised in public. For Amsterdambased detective Lotte Meerman, listening to the Right to Justice podc...
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Get Honest or Die Lying
Charlamagne Tha GodFrom Charlamagne Tha God, multihyphenate mogul, host of the morning radio phenomenon The Breakfast Club, and founder and CEO of iHeartRadio’s Black Effect Podcast Network, a rundow...
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Robert G. Wilson v. State Texas
Supreme Court of TexasOn August 17, 1979, Werner Fuchs, president of Westphalia Fertilizer and Grain in Lott, contacted appellant, manager of Transco Corporation in Plainview, and offered to sell 800,00...
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A Death in the Medina
James von Leyden'Clever, captivating and colourful; an absorbing thriller rich in atmosphere' Philip Gwynne Jones, author of The Venetian Game and Vengeance in VeniceDeath stalks the medina of Mar...
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There Once Was a Limerick Anthology
Michael CrolandHumor buffs and poetry lovers will laugh out loud with this captivating collection of more than 350 limericks. A limerick is a fiveline rhyming poem with a bouncy rhythm, and commo...
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The Song of the Dodo
David Quammen“Compulsively readablea masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism.” Bill McKibben, AudubonA brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope and farreaching in it...
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Hooking Up
Tom WolfeOnly yesterday boys and girls spoke of embracing and kissing (necking) as getting to first base. Second base was deep kissing, plus groping and fondling this and that. Third base...
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Blind Lake
Robert Charles Wilson2017 Aurora Awards Best of the Decade Finalist2004 Hugo Award Finalist for Best NovelRobert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." Hi...
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Lion of Light
Robert Anton WilsonThis eclectic collection presents a series of articles outlining Robert Anton Wilson's unique perspective on the notorious scoundrel and mystic, Aleister Crowley the Man, the Mage...
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The Serial Killers
Colin Wilson & Donald SeamanAs the number of serial killers worldwide has risen steadily from the emergence of Jack the Ripper in 1888 to Harold Shipman and Ivan Milat, the backpacker killer of the Australia...
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Death on the Canal
Anja de Jager'. . . a novel brilliantly evoking the isolation of a woman with an unbearable weight on her conscience' Sunday TimesWhere do your loyalties lie? With the truth or with your collea...
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The Last Days of the Romanovs
N. Sokolov"At Ekaterinburg, on the night of July i6, 1918, the Imperial Family and their faithful attendants eleven persons in all were led into a small room in the house where they ha...
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Vengeance in Venice
Philip Gwynne Jones'An unputdownable thriller' Gregory Dowling'It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice... art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an alm...
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Robert Wilson
Maria ShevtsovaRobert Wilson is an American–European director who is also a performer, installation artist, writer, designer of light and much more besides – a crossover polymath who dissolves bo...
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The Great Plant-Based Con
Jayne BuxtonWINNER OF THE INVESTIGATIVE FOOD WORK AWARD AT THE GUILD OF FOOD WRITERS AWARDS 2023'The most incredible book' Delia Smith'Persuasive, entertaining and well researched' Sunday Time...
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The Maze of Cadiz
Aly Monroe'Atmospheric and surprising' The Sunday Times 'Cotton's investigating is clever and fascinating' GuardianBook 1 in the Peter Cotton spy thriller series, for fans of John le Carré a...
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A Cold Case in Amsterdam Central
Anja de JagerHaving been shot in the shoulder in the line of duty, Dutch police detective Lotte Meerman returns to work after four months of painful recovery yet not all her colleagues are hap...
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Robert Wilson v. State Indiana
Supreme Court Of IndianaCleveland Cleary, M.D., appeals the trial courts valuation of his interest in three professional corporations in a marital dissolution proceeding. Dr. Cleary raises four issues for...
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Harold Holmes v. Robert Wilson
Supreme Court of TexasAt the Conclusion of all the evidence, the defendant moved the court for a directed verdict on the basis of an alleged insufficiency of material evidence upon which to predicate li...
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How the Scots Made America
Michael FryEver since they first set foot in the new world alongside the Viking explorers, the Scots have left their mark. In this entertaining and informative book, historian Michael Fry sho...
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Mind on Fire
Arnold Thomas FanningShortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019 '[A] painfully intense, courageous and gripping account of [Fanning's] journey to the underworld of madness and back. This is a brave a...
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State Idaho v. Robert Wilson
Supreme Court of Idaho No. 10164Defendant (appellant) Robert Wilson was convicted and adJudged guilty of the crime of rape.[Footnote 1] He was sentenced to fifteen years in the Idaho State Penitentiary. He has ap...
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The Search for Order, 1877-1920
Robert H. WiebeAt the end of the Reconstruction, the spread of science and technology, industrialism, urbanization, immigration, and economic depressions eroded Americans' conventional beliefs in...
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Robert E. Wilson v. North Coventry Township
Commonwealth Court of PennsylvaniaRobert and Florence Wilson (Wilsons) and Mildred LaFreeda (LaFreeda) (collectively landowners) appeal an order of the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County (trial court) which re...
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Last Boat from Tangier
James von LeydenDeath stalks the streets of Tangier . . .When Detective Karim Belkacem's best friend and colleague, Abdou, goes missing during an investigation into an illegal cartel, Karim is sen...
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The Angels of Venice
Philip Gwynne Jones'An unputdownable thriller' Gregory Dowling 'It is no surprise to find that Philip Gwynne Jones lives in Venice... art and architecture interweave into a story that builds to an a...
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The Venetian Masquerade
Philip Gwynne Jones'An irresistible concoction of crime and culture' Daily MailA game of blackmail and betrayal is played among the backstreets and canals of Venice . . .Carnevale is in full swing, t...