The week after Thanksgiving.A bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.A cheerful innkeeper.A young couple struggling to stay together.Thousands of inanimate objects, watching.

    17 selections from the critically acclaimed musical about Alexander Hamilton which debuted on Broadway in August 2015 to unprecedented advanced box office sales. Our collection features 17 selections in piano/vocal format from the music penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, including: Alexander Hamilton * Burn * Dear Theodosia * Hurricane * It's Quiet Uptown * My Shot * One Last Time * Satisfied * That Would Be Enough * Washington on Your Side * You'll Be Back * and more. Also includes a biography of Miranda.

    The musical is based on a dramatic 70-page slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Profusely illustrated, the book also includes an annotated script and a special CD with three songs from the Off-Broadway production and two all-new recordings for the Broadway production featuring Josh Groban with a 25-piece orchestra.

    But when an ordinary humdrum workday becomes anything but, the stakes for who will get to tell their own story become higher than ever.

    It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next—by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion—from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward.Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically.The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast—the Broadway hit.

    A nubile young actress wrestles with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist. And everyone discovers just how disappointing love, art, and growing up can be. In this irreverent, contemporary, and very funny remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Aaron Posner stages a timeless battle between young and old, past and present, in search of the true meaning of it all. Original songs composed by James Sugg draw the famously subtextual inner thoughts of Chekhov’s characters explicitly to the surface. STUPID FUCKING BIRD will tickle, tantalize, and incite you to consider how art, love, and revolution fuel your own pursuit of happiness.

    Some of these characters remain friends, others are like ex–lovers with whom we no longer have anything in common. All of them bring something out in us that will never go back in the box.’ In a varied and distinguished career, Harriet Walter has played almost all of Shakespeare’s heroines, notably Ophelia, Helena, Portia, Viola, Imogen, Lady Macbeth, Beatrice and Cleopatra, mostly for the Royal Shakespeare Company. But where, she asks, does an actress go after playing Cleopatra’s magnificent death? Why didn’t Shakespeare write more – and more powerful – roles for mature women? For Walter, the solution was to ignore the dictates of centuries of tradition, and to begin playing the mature male characters. Her Brutus in an all–female Julius Caesar at the Donmar Warehouse was widely acclaimed, and was soon followed by Henry IV. What, she asks, can an actress bring to these roles – and is there any fundamental difference in the way they must be played? In Brutus and Other Heroines, Walter discusses each of these roles – both male and female – from the inside, explaining the particular choices she made in preparing and performing each character. Her extraordinarily perceptive and intimate accounts illuminate each play as a whole, offering a treasure trove of valuable insights for theatregoers, scholars and anyone interested in how the plays work on stage. Aspiring actors, too, will discover the many possibilities open to them in playing these magnificent roles. The book is an exploration of the Shakespearean canon through the eyes of a self-identified ‘feminist actor’ – but, above all, a remarkable account of an acting career unconstrained by tradition or expectations. It concludes with an affectionate rebuke to her beloved Will: ‘I cannot imagine a world without you. I just wish you had put more women at the centre of your world/stage… I would love you to come back and do some rewrites.’

    But at a time when women are second-class citizens, can her charm and spirit protect her from the dangers of the court? And at what cost?

    This is the first collection from critically acclaimed playwright Duncan Macmillan, containing the plays Monster, Lungs, Every Brilliant Thing, 2071, and People, Places and Things.

    Set in gossipy late 18th-century England, with a fresh female voice, the play is full of humor, emotional depth, and bold theatricality. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY examines our reactions, both reasonable and ridiculous, to societal pressures. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart?

    

    In addition to these major projects, Stephens continued his role as a mentor of young writers, actors and directors, and continued to be one of the most frequent, outspoken and fiercely intelligent voices of the playwriting scene.In an exceptionally honest account, Simon Stephens opens up to us, through daily diary entries, his working practices, his inner-most thoughts, his philosophy on theatre, the arts and politics, and his feelings and reactions to specific projects he has worked on. Through this, we are given unprecedented access to the mind of one of the most important playwrights of the twenty-first century.

    The art created for a show provides audiences with a tangible, visual, and emotional connection with the theatrical experience. This collection of hundreds of behind-the-scenes photos, concept art, and posters, as well as personal anecdotes by and with some of Broadway’s most beloved stars, including John Leguizamo, Berry Gordy, Alison Bechdel, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Ruffalo, Patrick Stewart, Bernadette Peters, Joel Grey, Harvey Fierstein, Sting, Dolly Parton, Neil LaBute, Cherry Jones, and more serves as the document of record of the shows and performers that have graced New York stages for the past two decades. Stories and art cover working with Jonathan Larson’s family and the producers on the campaign for Rent; Nicole Kidman on her decision to bare all during her photo shoot for The Blue Room; selling the hip-hop Hamilton; and collaborating with the legendary Kander and Ebb on their revival of Chicago, in addition to stories about shows such as Annie Get Your Gun, Young Frankenstein, Freak, Avenue Q, Shrek, Pippin, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty, Gypsy, and Kinky Boots.

    A collection of the first 220 Q2Q Comics all hardbound together in a book! Includes commentary by the author for most of the comics, a collage of the original sketches, a "How to Draw Morty" tutorial, and other assorted goodies.

    Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."—New York TimesSet in the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility, this glorious and biting new comedy from David Lindsay-Abaire centers around Abby, who takes pride in her residence in one of the most coveted rooms in the rest home. Things turn sour quickly when she must take in Marilyn, a new roommate to share her precious space. In a satirical conflict of territory and control, Lindsay-Abaire spins a benign, typically mundane setting into an absurdist, colorful battleground. This high-stakes comedy examines our expectations of what it means to grow old in twenty-first century America, and what happens when a sense of possession collides with a mania of obsession.David Lindsay-Abaire's plays include Good People, Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, Wonder of the World, High Fidelity, A Devil Inside, and Rabbit Hole, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lindsay-Abaire wrote the book for Shrek the Musical, and the screen adaptation of Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman. Lindsay-Abaire is a proud New Dramatists alum, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Juilliard School, as well as a member of the WGA and the Dramatists Guild Council.

    From secret passageways to ghostly encounters. From Broadway debuts to landmark productions. Score a front row seat to read hundreds of stories about the most important stages in the world, seen through the eyes of the producers, actors, stagehands, writers, musicians, company managers, dressers, designers, directors, ushers, and door men and women who bring The Great White Way to life each night. You'll never look at Broadway the same way again.This is the third book in the multi-volume series that tells the stories of all of the Broadway theaters. This volume includes the Broadhurst, the Belasco, the Edison, the Lyric, the Majestic, the Schoenfeld, the St. James and the Walter Kerr: eight Broadway theaters that light up New York City.

    A world away, a mother prepares a bowl of soup to keep her son from leaving home. And a son cooks a meal for his dying father to say everything that words can’t. In this poignant and lyrical play, the making of a perfect meal is an expression more precise than language, and the medium through which life gradually reveals itself.

    When he in turn is killed at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, their son Orestes takes up the mantle of avenging his father, continuing the bloodshed until peace is ultimately found in the rule of law.Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies. This Restless House premiered at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in April 2016 in a co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland.

    Through Lenehan's keen reporter eyes, Much Ado explores the evolution of this complicated stage production, from casting to costumes to curtain call. In doing so, it provides readers with a deeper sense of the company's astonishing artistry and craft, a peek into the intricate technical logistics involved with outdoor theater, and a refreshing perspective on one of the Bard's most famous plays.Lenehan weaves together firsthand observations and literary analysis with interviews with key members of the APT's artistic ensemble and production staff—including lauded director David Frank, lead actors Colleen Madden (Beatrice) and David Daniel (Benedick), and set and costume designer Robert Morgan—to paint a remarkable portrait of one of our most treasured artistic institutions.

    Her plays constantly wrestle with the politics and poetics of the languages and relationships in Singapore: from WO(MEN), where the ties, secrets and silences within women from different generations are observed, to FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, where the years of hurts, misunderstandings, but also love between a couple are laid bare, and to NORMAL, where the casual coarseness of teenagers show off their street-smartness and disguises their hopes and despair.Deeply affecting and sensitively crafted, these plays firmly establish Faith Ng as a vital Singapore playwright.

    14 songs from the Broadway musical featuring songs penned by popular singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles and arranged with vocal line and piano accompaniment. Includes: Bad Idea * Everything Changes * I Didn't Plan It * It Only Takes a Taste * The Negative * Never Ever Getting Rid of Me * Opening Up * She Used to Be Mine * Soft Place to Land * What Baking Can Do * What's Inside * When He Sees Me * You Matter to Me * You Will Still Be Mine.

    He was, in other words, an "originalist." But aren't the laws written over 200 years ago subject to interpretationor even guesswork? Edward Gero stars as the late Justice Scalia in John Strand's insightful look at Scalia's life and legal philosophy. A full cast performance featuring: Edward Gero as Justice Antonin Scalia Kerry Warren as Cat Harlan Work as Brad Includes a post-show discussion about Antonin Scalia with Nina Totenberg, NPR's Legal Affairs Correspondent; Tara Kole, an entertainment attorney who clerked for Justice Scalia; John Bash, an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the United States Department of Justice; and Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who's argued 38 cases before the Supreme Court. Directed by Molly Smith. Recorded before a live audience at the Arena Stage, Washington, D.C.

    But hidden there is a secret no one wants to confront, and when they stumble upon it the friends set off an unstoppable chain of events. A supernatural thriller of suburban teenagers fleeing a mysterious plague.

    You use it every single day, but do you know how to look after it? Or to get the best out of it?This is a Voice is a practical toolkit of step-by-step vocal exercises to help speakers and singers of all abilities transform the quality of their voice. Bursting with advice from expert vocal coaches, it covers everything from warm ups, breathing, pacing and projection to techniques for speaking with confidence and singing jazz, pop, opera – even beatboxing – with style. Whether you’re a member of a choir or a professional singer, preparing for a big presentation or planning a wedding speech, This is a Voice will ensure that you make yourself heard.

    He has represented Viola Davis, Kathy Bates, Brian Dennehy, and W.H. Macy among many and gifted others. He shares his practical trade secrets in this extraordinarily comprehensive guide on how to get into show business. Topics include: The Schools * The Business * Showcases * Casting Directors * Agents * Auditions * Which Coast? * Producers * Staying Real * Negotiating 101 * Where Do I Fit? * Movies * TV: Where the Real Money Is (These Days) * and more! His clients rave: * "He saw more in me than I saw in myself." Kyra Sedgwick * "A great and resonant canyon of thanks to Philip Carlson for his invaluable work with a generation of young talent including me." Billy Crudup* "Philip Carlson is one of the wisest people on the subject of building a career that will last. Luck didn't have him representing New York's top character actors; wisdom, intelligence, patience and loyalty did. He was, and is, as good as it gets." Tim Blake Nelson* "Philip Carlson was my 'Guide in shining armor!' Smart, honest and hardworking, this book is his thinking and experience on a shelf." Idris Elba* "I was so fortunate to have found Philip when I did. I can't imagine a better introduction to the world of acting and the business of getting there." Liev Schreiber

    On the cusp of adulthood and about to leave the care home they've shared, the two friends road-test their impending freedom and living in the outside world.Ava must confront the mother she left behind. Tash will have to look for a new home. And both girls will go on living dangerously with the men who surround them.Raw, delicate and bold, Bird is a story of growing up outside a family but inside the fiercest of friendships. It was the winner of a Judges' Award in the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and premiered at Sherman Cymru in 2016 before transferring to the Royal Exchange, Manchester.

    Fetuses swap philosophy while awaiting their birth, a daughter eats dirt and doesn’t speak, a father is about to drive away and never return, and there’s an apple tree growing through the walls of the house. Whipping from astonishing tenderness to profound humor and back again, "Smokefall" explores the lives of a family in a lyrical treatise on the fragility of life and the power of love.

    Diseases and disorders have been wiped out. But Jess doesn’t belong. She slipped through the net and there’s something dangerous in her DNA, something that must be ‘cured’. Charlie is watching Jess. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep society safe.

    Hunter’s plays are populated with characters from the bleak side of the American economy. Laced with poetic images yet drawn with meticulous realism, Hunter’s plays linger in franchise restaurants, retirement facilities, mountain camps and struggling businesses. The five plays collected here, all set in Hunter’s home state of Idaho, demonstrate this writer’s knack for exposing, without condescension or easy moralizing, the pathos in marginalized lives.

    The book also includes the plays Violence and Son, Blackthorn, In the Pipeline, Mrs Reynolds and the Ruffian, Love Steals Us From Loneliness and the new monologue Mum & Dad.

    With this book, he presents his directorial method for the first time. The Theatre of Thomas Ostermeier provides a toolkit for understanding and enacting the strategies of his advanced contemporary approach to staging dramatic texts. In addition, the book includes:Ostermeier's seminal essays, lectures and manifestos translated into English for the first time. Over 140 photos from the archive of Arno Declair, who has documented Ostermeier's work at the Schaubuhne Berlin for many years, and by others. In-depth 'casebook' studies of two of his productions: Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (2012) and Shakespeare's Richard III (2015) Contributions from Ostermeier's actors and his closest collaborators to show how his principles are put into practice.An extraordinary, richly illustrated insight into Ostermeier's working methods, this volume will be of interest to practitioners and scholars of contemporary European theatre alike.

    The show turned him into a household name, causing him to be touted as the next James Bond. From a liberal upbringing in post-war Britain, boarding school escapades and life at RADA, Ogilvy enjoyed an acting career spanning more than fifty years, including TV show Upstairs, Downstairs and films Witchfinder General, No Sex Please: We're British and Death Becomes Her. His story plays host to a spectacular all-star cast including Boris Karloff, Hayley Mills, Penelope Keith, Derek Nimmo, Timothy Dalton, Derek Jacobi and Meryl Streep, and Ogilvy gives a vivid account from behind the scenes of the Golden Age of television and film.Once a Saint is an amusing and unvarnished story: a tremendously endearing tale from a working actor. His story is modest and endlessly charming, told in such a way that opens a reader's heart to him.

    The musical is based on a 1944 novel by Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of Siam, which in turn was adapted from the real-life reminiscences of Anna Leonowens, as recounted in her own books, The English Governess at the Siamese Court and The Romance of the Harem. It is 1862 in Siam when an English widow, Anna Leonowens, arrives with her young son at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, having been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives. The King is largely considered to be a barbarian by those in the West, and he seeks Anna's assistance in changing his image, if not his ways. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values, Anna and the King grow to understand and, eventually, respect one another in a truly unique love story. Along with the dazzling score, the incomparable Jerome Robbins ballet The Small House of Uncle Thomas is one of the all-time marvels of the musical stage.

    Grit and Glamour offers a tour-de-force journey into the visual glories of this exuberantly fashionable time. Iconic black-and-white and color photos from the Big Apple’s glamorous era paint an immersive picture of how the fashion gurus and stylish personalities of the decade influenced the way everyone dressed in public life. With photographs of the Stones, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, and the myriad celebrities and scene-makers that surrounded them, Tannenbaum’s lens provides an insider’s look at the wild fashions, flamboyant clothes and accessories of the 70s. Each section of the book focuses on a different aspect of the decade—from nightlife, fashion, and street scene to arts and entertainment and music, accompanied by insightful commentary and revealing anecdotes.

    Original dramas, comedies, musicals, and vaudeville, along with sophisticated productions of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Chekhov, were innovatively staged for crowds that rivaled the scene on Broadway. While these productions were in Yiddish and catered to Eastern European Jewish audiences (the largest immigrant group in the city at the time), their artistic and aesthetic creations and their play with politics and history came to influence all facets of the American stage. Vividly illustrated and with contributions from leading historians and critics, this history recounts in absorbing detail the heyday of “Yiddish Broadway” and its vital contribution to American Jewish life and its crossover to American culture. Performances grappled with Jewish nationalism, labor relations, women’s rights, religious observance, acculturation, and assimilation. They reflected a range of genres, from tear-jerkers to experimental theater, and introduced American audiences to avant-garde dramatic technique. The artists who came of age in this environment include Stella Adler, Eddie Cantor, Jerry Lewis, Sophie Tucker, Mel Brooks, and Joan Rivers. The story of the Yiddish theater is therefore a tale of creativity and legacy, immigrants who in the process of becoming Americans had an enormous impact on the country's cultural and artistic landscape. From the Bowery to Broadway is a companion to an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York scheduled for February 2016.

    But those 400 years have seen his plays banished and bowdlerized, faked and forged, traded and translated, re-mixed and re-cast. Shakespeare’s story is not one of a steady rise to fame; it is a tale of set-backs and sea-changes that have made him the cultural icon he is today. Each performance discussed here holds up a mirror to the era in which it was performed. The first stage appearance by a woman in 1660 and a black actor playing Othello in 1825 were landmarks for society as well as for Shakespeare’s reputation. The book explores productions as diverse as Peter Brook’s legendary A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mark Rylance’s ‘Original Practices’ Twelfth Night, and a Shakespeare forgery staged at Drury Lane in 1796, among many others. The illustrations include the only surviving playscript in Shakespeare’s hand, an authentic Shakespeare signature, and rare printed editions including the First Folio. These and other treasures from the British Library’s manuscript and rare book collections feature alongside film stills, costumes, paintings and production photographs.

    Not her blasé husband, the incompetent detective, or the neighborhood kidnapper who keeps introducing himself in the checkout line. As Fiona delves back into her memories of that fateful day, to uncover that crucial missing piece, grief and comedy collide, and ordinary turns of phrase take on dangerous new meanings.

    Loosely inspired by the legend of Sweeney Todd, EMPANADA LOCA is contemporary Grand Guignol horror in the style of Spalding Gray.

    But until now it has been hard to find out much more about it than that. According to the American theater historian Mel Gordon, no major history of the theater so much as mentions it, although it is a form of entertainment that held its own on the Paris stage for more than half a century. But Mr. Gordon has made a thorough job of filling the gap."—John Gross, The New York TimesHere is the expanded edition of 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.

    Winner of multiple awards, including the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play, the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Chimerica is 'gloriously rich and mind-expanding' (Guardian), and a 'tremendously bold piece of writing' (Evening Standard).

    Photographer Matt Humphrey and Actor John Schwab were granted unprecedented access to the backstage life of over 50 productions; this beautiful book is a record of an epic year from the most impressive productions of the year.

    Vienna has long been associated with many of the most significant composers in Western music - from Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, through the Strauss family, Brahms, Bruckner and Wolf, to Mahler, Lehar, Schoenberg and Webern. Today, venerable institutions like the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatsoper and the Vienna Boys' Choir, together with the shared pride of residents and visitors in its musical inheritance, ensure that the image of a musical city is undimmed.This book explores the history of music in Vienna, focussing on three different epochs, 1700, 1800 and 1900, an approach which allows the very different relationships between music and society that existed in each of these periods to be distinguished. Patronage, social function and audience are key considerations, set within wider political and cultural developments. The volume is populated by emperors, princes, performers, publishers and writers as well as composers, and deals with institutional and commercial characteristics alongside representative individual works.Music in Vienna focusses on the political and social role of music, broadening our understanding of the city as a musical capital. It will appeal to a wide readership, including music historians and political, cultural and social historians, as well as the interested general reader.David Wyn Jones is Professor of Music at Cardiff University.

    Talking to Brick Walls is a hybrid verbatim piece exploring adolescent and parent relationships. It was co-created by eleven young artists alongside facilitators Claire Christian and Ari Palani over a period of three and a half months. This is the conversation they wanted to have. The story the wanted to tell. The show they wanted to make.

    This accessible and complete history provides a comprehensive overview of Japanese theatre and its continuing global influence. Written by eminent international scholars, it spans the full range of dance-theatre genres over the past fifteen hundred years, including noh theatre, bunraku puppet theatre, kabuki theatre, shingeki modern theatre, rakugo storytelling, vanguard butoh dance and media experimentation. The first part addresses traditional genres, their historical trajectories and performance conventions. Part II covers the spectrum of new genres since Meiji (1868-), and Parts III to VI provide discussions of playwriting, architecture, Shakespeare, and interculturalism, situating Japanese elements within their global theatrical context. Beautifully illustrated with photographs and prints, this history features interviews with key modern directors, an overview of historical scholarship in English and Japanese, and a timeline. A further reading list covers a range of multimedia resources to encourage further explorations.

    It contextualizes it within the political and educational landscape of the last fifty years and examines its legacy today. Through this, Roger Wooster offers insights into future possibilities and applications in the field of Applied Theatre, drama in schools and pedagogical theory. With examples and analysis of international developments in TIE, and a foreword by Philip Taylor (NYU, USA), the volume provides a wide-ranging account of past and current practice.Across its three sections the volume examines the origins, work and legacy of TIE, considering for the first time its practical details. Each section features an Afterword by a leading practitioner reflecting on the work (including Warwick Dobson, Chris Vine and Anthony Jackson), and chapters draw on case studies and interviews with key practitioners. Chapter summaries and a companion website further enhance the text as a valuable teaching resource for theatre educators.