An analysis of reality and "the real" as presented in contemporary artistic creation, Practising the Real on the Contemporary Stage examines the responses given by performing arts to the importance placed on reality beyond representation. This book proposes four historic itineraries defined by the ways in which the issue of the real is addressed: the representation of visible reality and its paradoxes, the place of the real on the lived body, the limits placed on representation by experiences of pain and death, and those practices that denounce the real. Practising the Real on the Contemporary Stage will be warmly welcomed by scholars of aesthetics and contemporary artistic practice. 

José Antonio Sánchez is professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts and head of the Art History Department at the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Charlie Allwood is a graduate of Sheffield University and of Queen Mary, University of London and specializes in the translation of art, architecture, culture, and theatre articles. He lives in Barcelona.