Norman Roessler

Contributor

BSR Contributor Since May 8, 2010

Norman Roessler is an assistant professor at temple University. He lives in Philadelphia.

Norm Roessler is an assistant professor at Temple University and the editor of Communications, the Performance Journal of the International Brecht Society. He writes on German and American Theater and reviews plays along the Northeast Corridor as well as in Germany.

By this Author

6 results
Page 1
Slusar: Prison story, feminized.

Theatre Exile's "Iron' at the Fringe (1st review)

No place to hide
In Theatre Exile's production of Rona Munro's Iron, the stunning proximity of a converted South Philadelphia garage allows the audience to peer voyeuristically into the psychological dissection that occurs onstage.

Norman Roessler

Articles 2 minute read
Spitko, Blatt: A literary text with attention to the body and to space.

EgoPo's "Marat/Sade' (1st review)

So you want real theater?
Taking up where it left off with last season's Beckett Festival, EgoPo once again thumbs its nose at Philadelphia's conservative theater scene with Marat / Sade. Crash-land this cruel concoction in the enormous Sanctuary space at the Rotunda Theater and you just might find the year's most terribly satisfying theater pleasure.

Norman Roessler

Articles 6 minute read
Gregg Almquist, Rob Kahn, Dan Kern: Updating adultery.

Temple Repertory Theater's "Measure For Measure'

Is there a hypocrite in the house?
It's a wonder that anyone would take on such a complex and difficult work as Shakespeare's Measure For Measure. Yet director Douglas C. Wager and his new Temple Repertory theater team have navigated this riddle of a play with two original (albeit flawed) features.

Norman Roessler

Articles 4 minute read

John Waters and his "Role Models'

Beyond Pink Flamingoes
The renegade filmmaker John Waters's latest book is a paean to reading as a revolutionary act. His recent appearance at the Free Library was tame by comparison.

Norman Roessler

Articles 5 minute read
Nussbaum: Critical thinking?

Martha Nussbaum's ivory tower

Do as I say, not as I do: Martha Nussbaum defends the humanities
Professor Martha Nussbaum deplores the decline of liberal arts education, which she sees as the engine of democracy. And she champions Socratic dialogue as the stimulant for the liberal arts. So why was her recent Free Library appearance more monologue than dialogue?

Norman Roessler

Essays 4 minute read
Monterbrand (right) with Cameron Knight: How to act like a dictator. (Photo: N. Howatt.)

Brecht's 'Arturo Ui' in Delaware (1st review)

Brecht dissects Hitler (with a little help from Looney Tunes)
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Bertolt Brecht's 1941 Hitler parable set within a fictionalized Chicago underworld, is easily resistible. But once we hear the all-American “Looney Tunes” soundtrack of our childhood, our defenses are disarmed.

Norman Roessler

Articles 4 minute read