Best of
Theatre

1990

A Few Good Men


Aaron Sorkin - 1990
    The Navy lawyer, a callow young man more interested in softball games than the case, expects a plea bargain and a cover up of what really happened. Prodded by a female member of his defense team, the lawyer eventually makes a valiant effort to defend his clients and, in so doing, puts the military mentality and the Marine code of honor on trial.

City of Angels


Larry Gelbart - 1990
    The book also includes an introduction by Larry Gelbart, illustrations by Al Hirschfeld, production photographs, and original costume designs.

Opening Night on Broadway: A Critical Quotebook of the Golden Era of the Musical Theatre, ...


Steven Suskin - 1990
    Suskin combines the glitter and excitement of nearly 300 Broadway premieres with the expert commentary of a true show business insider. Includes a Broadway scorecard. Photos.

Love Letters and Two Other Plays: The Golden Age, What I Did Last Summer


A.R. Gurney - 1990
    R. Gurney has wittily captured the manners of upper-middle-class WASP America, but never as gracefully or with such dazzling economy as in Love Letters. Tracing the lifelong correspondence of the staid, dutiful lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and the lively, unstable artist Melissa Gardner, the story of their bittersweet relationship gradually unfolds from what is written--and what is left unsaid--in their letters. A smash hit both off and on Broadway, Love Letters captures Andy and Melissa with a precision of detail and depth of feeling that only Gurney can command. Two other, thematically related plays by Gurney, The Golden Age and What I Did Last Summer, are included, providing a trio of wry and affectionate paeans to love lost, found, and fleetingly glimpsed.

On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line


Robert Viagas - 1990
    The show is based on a remarkable series of taped discussions made in the mid 1970s with some of the top "gypsies" (veteran Broadway dancers), many of whom went on to play characters based on themselves in the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning musical. In many ways, On the Line: The Creation of "A Chorus Line" is a continuation of the show itself. In this collective oral history, the 19 original cast members tell how they got involved with the project, how they labored through the months of workshops that shaped it, and what its success has meant for their lives and careers. They paint intimate and frank portraits of co-creators Michael Bennett, Joseph Papp, Ed Kleban - and each other. Originally published in 1990, the book has been updated to continue telling their stories over the past 16 years. Wayne Cilento ("I Can Do That") has become a Tony-winning choreographer of shows like Wicked and Aida; Kelly Bishop ("Can the adults smoke?") has become a TV star; Trish Garland has become a California fitness guru, and so forth.

Once on This Island: Vocal Selections


Lynn Ahrens - 1990
    With full-color photos from the production. Includes: We Dance * Waiting for Life * Rain * Forever Yours * Ti Moune * Mama Will Provide * Some Girls.

Two Rooms - Acting Edition


Lee Blessing - 1990
    "The two rooms of the title are a windowless cubicle in Beirut where an American hostage is being held by Arab terrorists and a room in his home in the United States which his wife has stripped of furniture so that, at least symbolically, she can share his ordeal."Two Rooms received its world premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse in California on June 21, 1988. The cast is two men and two women.

Intimate Nights: The Golden Age of New York Cabaret


James Gavin - 1990
    But that doesn’t mean it's dry and academic. Good heavens, no! Settle in for racy tales of nightlife, revealed in interviews with dozens of the people who lived it: Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, Mabel Mercer, Bette Midler, and many more. Author James Gavin has tracked down rare, early stories about the legends who came out of New York nightclubs—and that means Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Nichols and May, Johnny Mathis, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce, among others. Part cultural history, part celebrity gossip, Intimate Nights offers an intimate look at the creatures of the nightclubs.

All His Jazz: The Life And Death Of Bob Fosse


Martin Gottfried - 1990
    Born in Chicago, young Fosse began his career tap-dancing as part of the Riff Brothers in sleazy strip joints, where he encountered the erotic style that later became his signature. Best known for his Broadway hits (The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity, and Chicago), he was also a successful movie director. Three of his five films were nominated for Academy Awards: Cabaret, Lenny, and the autobiographical All That Jazz. A compulsive womanizer, he had many affairs, even during his three marriages, the last of which was to actress Gwen Verdon, with whom he shared his most fruitful Broadway collaborations. As his fame grew, so too did his insecurities and addictions. He survived two heart attacks and several epileptic seizures, only to die on a street corner in Washington, D.C., in Verdon’s arms. After his death Fosse became a Broadway legend. Based on interviews with friends, family, and colleagues, this eloquent biography provides a vivid connection between Bob Fosse’s life and his work for stage and screen.

The Last Flapper


William Luce - 1990
    F. Scott Fitzgerald: the glamorous, fun loving and tragic Zelda. As in The Belle of Amherst, Lucifer's Child and Bronte, Luce reveals the contradictions and mysteries of an extraordinary woman while fashioning a moving yet witty play. Set in an insane asylum on the last day of Zelda's life, the

The Way We Live Now: American Plays and the AIDS Crisis


M. Elizabeth OsbornPaula Vogel - 1990
    Full of grief and love, the plays included in this anthology confront this emotional issue personally and passionately. Alive on the page as well as the theatre, they show us this tragedy of our times.

By Means of Performance: Intercultural Studies of Theatre and Ritual


Richard Schechner - 1990
    This volume investigates performance behavior in a variety of circumstances and cultures. The contributors consider such issues as the relationship between training and the finished performance; whether performance behavior is universal or culturally specific; and the relationships among ritual and aesthetics, popular entertainment and religion, and sports and theater and dance.

Drawing a Circle in the Square: Street Performing in New York's Washington Square Park


Sally Harrison-Pepper - 1990
    Based primarily upon original research, it makes a contribution that is as much toward a particular subject. Promoting the study of performance as an important and valuable vehicle for inter-disciplinary research and thought, it is a model of the kinds of research being developed in the emerging field of performance studies.

Ten Tiny Fingers, Ten Tiny Toes


Sue Townsend - 1990
    A play by one of Britain's best-selling writers"Set in the year 2001 where the class system is numbered from one to five and only the upperclasses are allowed to breed, Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes is about the births of a perfect but illegal 'class five' baby, and an imperfect 'government' baby bought by a 'class three' mother and exterminated at birth because of her nine toes…compulsive viewing…insanity is served up as commen sense - to sinister effect." Kate Kellaway, Observer

Playing The Game


Christine Poulter - 1990
    Primarily written for directors, drama teachers and drama students, it will be of use to anyone who, in job interviews, committee meetings or any situation, needs these skills.

Major Plays of Chikamatsu


Chikamatsu Monzaemon - 1990
    Like other playwrights before him, Chikamatsu created characters who are members of a society driven by its mores. However, unlike those of other playwrights of the period, Chikamatsu's characters have multidimensional personalities and unconventional voices, making his art more realistic and complex.Includes The Love Suicides at Sonezaki (Sonezaki Shinjū), The Drum of the Waves of Horikawa (Horikawa Nami no Tsuzumi), Yosaku from Tamba (Tamba Yosaku), The Love Suicides in the Womens Temple (Shinjū Mannensō), The Courier for Hell (Meido no Hikyaku), Gonza the Lancer (Yari no Gonza), The Uprooted Pine (Nebiki no Kadomatsu), The Girl from Hakata or Love at Sea (Hakata Kojorō Namimakura), The Love Suicides at Amijima (Shinjū Ten no Amijima), The Battles of Coxinga (Kokusenya Kassen), The Woman-Killer and the Hell of Oil (Onnagoroshi Abura Jigoku)

Early Works: Actos / Bernabe / Pensamiento Serpentino


Luis Valdez - 1990
    EARLY WORKS: ACTOS, BERNABE AND PENSAMIENTO SERPENTINE is three books in one: 1) a collection of one act plays by Valdez and the famous farmworker theater, El Teatro Campesino, 2) one of the first fully realized, full-length plays by Valdez alone, and 3) an original narrative poem by Luis Valdez. In the first part are collected the original, improvised works of El Teatro Campesino that deal with the exploitation of Mexican farm labor in the California fields, the discrimination found by Mexicans in the schools, and Mexicans being turned into cannon fodder by the U.S. Army in Vietnam. Bernabe is a touching, Lorcaesque poetic drama about a town fool's enchantment and ultimate unity with the earth. Pensamiento serpentino is a long, philosophical poem, based on Mayan thought and cosmology, which analyzes the cultural, religious and political circumstances of Mexican Americans and prepares a metaphysical framework for their future.

Orson Welles on Shakespeare: The W.P.A. and Mercury Theatre Playscripts


Richard France - 1990
    This volume is the only publication available of the fully annotated playscripts of Wells' W.P.A Federal Theatre Project and Mercury Theatre adaptations, including the Voodoo Macbeth, the modern-dress Julius Caesar and Welles' compilation of history plays, Five Kings.

Dramatherapy with Families, Groups and Individuals: Waiting in the Wings


Sue Jennings - 1990
    This framework primarily deals with dramatherapy in the non-clinical setting such as family centres, residential children's homes, social services resources and intermediate treatment centres. Separate chapters cover current theory, methodology and application in specific client areas including child abuse. The author addresses work with children and adults, both individually and in groups, illustrated by case history examples. A final chapter concentrates on the needs of the therapist and shows how dramatherapy can be used as a personal resource.

Moliere's Theatrical Bounty: A New View of the Plays


Albert Bermel - 1990
    His emphasis is theatrical rather than literary, philosophical, or biographical, although he necessarily brings these considerations to bear when discussing certain plays.Bermel introduces a new methodology, one featuring the type of scrutiny directors, actors, and designers apply to any play before and during rehearsal. Thus he studies the dramatic implications of each scene or part of a scene by noting which characters are present, which ones are absent, and why. He analyzes each role, explores interactions among characters, traces the significance of structure, considers how much information is provided and who provides it, and examines such notable background factors as setting, season, and scenic arrangement. Using this methodology, Bermel provides new interpretations of Molière’s most celebrated plays and demonstrates that many of the less famous plays also deserve attention.Previous Molière critics have been conservative, especially in that they favor traditional stagings; Bermel, however, encourages new explorations of the plays. His main intention is to keep Molière alive and vital for present and future readers and audiences. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his attention to, and sympathy for, female characters and their points of view.