Performing at first in Yiddish and German, the play’s subject matter wasn’t deemed contentious until it was produced in English, when the American audiences were scandalized by the onstage depiction of an amorous affair between two women. Paula Vogel’s newest work traces the trajectory of the show’s success through its tour in Europe to its abrupt and explosive demise on Broadway in 1923—including the arrest of the entire production’s cast and crew.Paula Vogel's play How I Learned to Drive received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Lortel Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and New York Drama Critics Awards for Best Play, as well as earning Vogel her second Obie. Other plays include The Baltimore Waltz, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Long Christmas Ride Home, A Civil War Christmas, and Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq. She has also had a distinguished career as a teacher and mentor to younger playwrights, first at Brown University and currently at the Yale School of Drama.Based on real events, a provocative new drama from a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright about one of Broadway’s greatest controversies

    The Carney farmhouse is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor.Developed by Sonia Friedman Productions, The Ferryman premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in April 2017, before transferring to the West End. The production was directed by Sam Mendes.

    Set in 2008, the powerful crux of this new play is knowing the fate of the characters long before it's even in their sights.Based on Nottage's extensive research and interviews with real residents of Reading, Sweat is a topical reflection of the present and poignant outcome of America's economic decline.

    Combining investigative zeal and theatrical imagination with insider access, Oslo invites you into the chambers where the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization were forged during nine fraught months in 1993.” — New York Times“A riveting political thriller. Oslo makes a complex historical event feel intimate and profoundly affecting.”— Associated Press“Gripping, big-boned and remarkably entertaining. Oslo feels excruciatingly necessary and timely.”—New York MagazineWhen the Israeli prime minister and the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization shook hands on the White House lawn in 1993, the world watched in awe. Oslo tells the story of the key people who orchestrated this momentous occasion, emphasizing the intricate (and sometimes comical) human journey that led to this historic event. The diplomats and politicians from Israel, Palestine, Norway, and America who participated in the behind-the-scenes discussions come to life in Rogers’ wonderfully complex characters. As much a story about people as politics, Oslo casts a bright light on the humans behind the history.Oslo premiered in the fall of 2016 in a sold-out run at Lincoln Center and opens on Broadway in April 2017.J.T. Rogers’ plays include Blood and Gifts, The Overwhelming, White People, and Madagascar. He was nominated for a 2009 Olivier Award for his work as one of the original playwrights for The Great Game: Afghanistan. He is a 2012 Guggenheim fellow in playwriting. Other recent awards include NEA/TCG and NYFA fellowships, the Pinter Review Prize for Drama, the American Theatre Critics Association’s Osborne Award, and the William Inge Center for the Arts’ New Voices Award.A politically charged drama from acclaimed playwright J.T. Rogers

    Time to make your dreams come true.

    For each, the chaos of what has come before brings with it a painful legacy.“I have Stayed. I have Stayed – I have Stayed for as long as I possibly can.”

    As scandal swirls in their community and old heroes are unmasked, the English assignment becomes uncomfortably relevant for the students. The line between witch and heroine blurs in this post-Me Too examination of power, love, and sex education.

    The arrival of a hapless governess and a moor-hen set all three on a strange and dangerous path. The Moors is a dark comedy about love, desperation, and visibility.1 M, 5 F.

    He directed both the London and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, each of which ran for ten years. He directed Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III on both stage and screen. In short: He is one of today's most successful and admired theatrical impresarios.In Balancing Acts, Hytner gives us a detailed behind-the-scenes look at his creative process. From reviving classic musicals and mastering Shakespeare to commissioning new plays, he shows theater making to be a necessarily collaborative exercise, and he writes insightfully about the actors and playwrights he's worked with: Derek Jacobi, Richard Griffiths, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard among them. With a cultural range that spans from The Mikado to The Lady in the Van, Balancing Acts is not only a memoir but a gathering of illuminating notes on the art of directing and a thoughtful meditation on the purpose of theater.

    From world-famous musicals to West End shows, from cutting-edge plays to Shakespeare in its original staging, from outdoor performance to intimate fringe theatre, the range and quality are unsurpassed. Leading theatre critic Michael Coveney invites you on a tour of forty-five theatres that make the London stage what it is. With stories of the architecture, the people and the productions which have defined each one, alongside sumptuous photographs by Peter Dazeley of the public areas, auditorium and backstage, this illustrated overview of London's Theatres is a book like no other. A must for fans of the stage!

    The Jungle Book is her favourite film and she knows all the lines. She's sure she'll be a superb Shere Khan.But not everyone thinks so. Her classmate Rajat is always making fun of her stammer. Her English teacher thinks its risky to let her get on stage and her principal seems to agree. The more anxious Manya gets, the worse her stammer becomes. Will Manya lose her dream role? Can she overcome her fears and learn to roar?This book was a winner in the Children First writing competition, organised by Parag, an initiative of Tata Trusts and Duckbill Books

    With frankness, humor, and a pro-actor sensibility, working actor Michael Kostroff explodes commonly accepted mythologies and offers a more logical, more effective approach to the whole process. It has completely changed the way I view auditions. — Chad Manuel, Chicago Want to learn why we constantly get in our own way before we even set foot in the room? Michael has made a detailed, brilliant study of the most common traps, and how to avoid them. — Peter Van Norden, Los Angeles Michael’s expertise, sense of humor, and just old-fashioned good sense does the impossible: It actually makes the actor comfortable with the audition process. — J. R. Orlando, San Jose I’m a psychotherapist who specializes in working with creative artists. Among many other issues, we always talk about their audition anxiety. In Audition Psych 101, Michael Kostroff has validated everything I believe about the audition process. Let him save you a lot of disappointment and frustration.— Lee D. Kassan, psychotherapist/psychoanalyst It brought the joy and fun back into the audition process, which ultimately has allowed for more callbacks and many more bookings.— Mick Guire, New York City I can’t wait for my next audition. (Holy mackerel, did I just write that?) — Deborah Linehan, New York City

    It's part of a larger movement to say: There's an embarrassment of riches here."— Sheila Callaghan for the KilroysNot your typical book of monologues, this new collection embodies the mission of the Kilroys, an advocacy group founded in 2013 to raise awareness for the underutilized work of female and trans* playwrights. The collection is comprised of ninety-nine monologues, each from a different play off "The List" from 2014 and 2015, featuring the most unproduced (or under-produced), yet highest-recommended, plays by women in the United States. The monologues selected for this volume serve to highlight the talents of these writers in a wide array of pieces that vary in genre, style, and gender.As it says on their website, the Kilroys "Make Trouble and Plays."The Kilroys are a gang of playwrights and producers in Los Angeles, California, who advocate for the visibility of women playwrights in theatre. Founded in 2013, the Kilroys are named after the iconic graffiti tag "Kilroy Was Here" that was first left by WWII soldiers in unexpected places, a playfully subversive way of making their presence known. The members include Zakiyyah Alexander, Bekah Brunstetter, Sheila Callaghan, Carla Ching, Annah Feinberg, Sarah Gubbins, Laura Jacqmin, Joy Meads, Kelly Miller, Meg Miroshnik, Daria Polatin, Tanya Saracho, and Marisa Wegrzyn.

    Along the way, he discovered that the hard-earned lessons he was learning onstage could be applied to his life, too. Life is Like a Musical features 50 tips and anecdotes, with chapters such as "Let Someone Else Take a Bow," "Dance Like Everyone's Watching," and "Save the Drama for the Stage." This charming and clever guide will appeal to all ages and inspire readers to remember that they're the stars of their own life story.

    . . . A deft playwright, Morisseau plays expertly with social mores and expectations. She also reframes commonplace things so that we see them in new light."—StarTribune on Detroit '67"A deeply moral and deeply American play, with a loving compassion for those trapped in a system that makes sins, spiritual or societal, and self-betrayal almost inevitable."—The New York Times on Skeleton CrewThree provocative dramas make up Dominique Morisseau's sweeping examination of the sociopolitical history of Detroit: Detroit '67, which takes place during the race riots of 1967, Paradise Blue, set in a small jazz club in Detroit's Blackbottom neighborhood, and Skeleton Crew, which explores an auto plant on the eve of the 2008 financial collapse. These plays serve to showcase the economic and racial tensions the city has faced throughout the past century, which are often buried by recurrent headlines of poverty and misery that diminish Detroit's vibrant emotional past. With empathetic storytelling and an ear for the voice of her home community, Morisseau brings to light the race and class divides of not only Detroit but the nation as a whole.Dominique Morisseau's plays include Detroit '67, Paradise Blue, Skeleton Crew, Sunset Baby, Follow Me to Nellie's, Third Grade, Black at Michigan, Socks, Roses Are Played Out and Love and Nappiness. Morisseau is a recipient of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, two NAACP Image Awards, a commendation from the Primus Prize by the American Theatre Critics Association, and the winner of the 2012 Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award by National Theatre Conference.

    This hit musical, inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox motion picture, came to Broadway in April 2017. Our vocal selections feature piano/vocal arrangements of 14 songs by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, including: Close the Door * Everything to Win * Journey to the Past * Learn to Do It * Once upon a December * Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart) * A Rumor in St. Petersburg * Still * and more.

    It charts Adam's progress from Egypt to Scotland, across borders and genders, in his search for a place to call home.The play was first performed by the National Theatre of Scotland at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017.

    The key witness is a woman whose life seems a world away from theirs. At home, their own lives begin to unravel as every version of the truth is challenged.Consent, Nina Raine’s powerful, painful, funny play, sifts the evidence from every side and puts Justice herself in the dock. It premiered as a co-production between the National Theatre and Out of Joint, directed by Roger Michell at the National Theatre in 2017.

    A haunting, candid ode to the nature of time and love as two parallel stories unfold in unexpected ways.

    From an award-winning Cree playwright comes two powerful solo shows that promise visceral journeys into the lives of marginalized characters.

    From the best-selling playwright of Many Moons and Little Light, a feminist call to action.

    R. Gurney, and a host of other major creative voices of the theater discuss the art of playwriting, from inspiration to production, in a volume that marks the tenth anniversary of the Yale Drama Series and the David Charles Horn Foundation Prize for emerging playwrights.   Jeffrey Sweet, himself an award-winning dramatist, hosts a virtual roundtable of perspectives on how to tell stories onstage featuring extensive interviews with a gallery of gifted contemporary dramatists. In their own words, Arthur Kopit, Marsha Norman, Christopher Durang, David Hare, and many others offer insights into all aspects of the creative writing process as well as their personal views on the business, politics, and fraternity of professional theater. This essential work will give playwrights and playgoers alike a deeper and more profound appreciation of the art form they love.

    For six years of her childhood, Claudette and her sister Valerie were left with their grandmother while their mother moved from Jamaica to Canada to start a new chapter for her family. But in that time, Daphne remarried and had another daughter.Now Montreal-based Claudette is in her late thirties, visiting her dying mother in Toronto, but that doesn’t stop her anger and abandonment issues from bubbling up. It doesn’t stop Daphne from voicing her opinions on how Claudette lives her life, either. With Daphne, Claudette, and Valerie all under one roof again, each family member is forced to confront their emotions while there’s still time.

    Seventy years later, a mysterious KGB agent spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love. In 2010, an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. Set in Russia over the course of ninety years, this thrilling and epic new play by Rajiv Joseph traces the stories of seven men and women connected by history, myth and conspiracy theories.

    In A Whole New World, readers will discover the journey from ancient legend to screen to stage in the words of its creators.

    Introduced to The Golden Dawn cult by Bram Stoker, the second in command at the Lyceum Theatre, she is commissioned to create a tarot deck for the members to use in their quest for magic. Golden Dawn's most evil member, Aleister Crowley, becomes obsessed with unlocking the mysteries of the Tarot. His obsession peaks when he sees the power of her deck and realizes he can create a rival deck, leading him to manifest magical power to harm Pamela's incarnates of her cards.

    Such landmarks as Company, 1776, The Great White Hope, Hair, Follies and Pippin are but a small sampling of the original productions Fassler saw, funded entirely from the money earned as a Long Island paper boy. His eyewitness account to some of the greatest shows and stars of the 1960s and 70s (with visits backstage to a number of them), is furthered by conversing over the past four years with 100 men and women who were part of this remarkable time. Threading his own stories with theirs, the book features memories and insights from the likes of Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bette Midler, Sheldon Harnick, James Earl Jones, Austin Pendleton, Ken Howard, Hal Linden, Stacy Keach, Jane Alexander and Mike Nichols among many others. With a half-century of theatregoing behind him, and dozens of credits over a long career as an actor and writer, Ron Fassler invites us to revisit the plays that impacted him as a young teenager and future artist. Included are indepth studies of the lives and careers of some of Broadway's finest actors: Julie Harris, Joseph Maher, Maureen Stapleton and John McMartin--all brought to life in vivid detail and sharp observation. UP IN THE CHEAP SEATS: A HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF BROADWAY is a first-of-its-kind hybrid that mixes the personal and the professional; a delightful and intimate portrait of a time in the theatre that once was ... and will never be again.

    She doesn't want to have a baby. She doesn't want to laugh at racist jokes in the local pub. She's got to get out.And when her Gran signs her up for a drama school audition in London without telling her: "my brain is just as confused as my skin. Should I stay here? Or should I try move to London. Stay.Go.Stay.Go.Stay.Go.Stay..."

    From his life experience, White has learned the secret of tapping his inner resources to meet the challenge of routine and repetition in work and relationships.Searching for that perfect gift for the Broadway fan in your life? Explore more from Disney Editions:How Does the Show Go On? An Introduction to the Theater - The Frozen EditionThe Lion King: Pride Rock on BroadwayThe Lion King: Twenty Years on Broadway and Around the WorldDisney Aladdin: A Whole New World - The Road to Broadway and BeyondPeter and the Starcatcher: Acting Edition

    While Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is kept at the front during Napoleon’s invasion in 1812, his betrothed, a young Natasha, catches the attention of Moscow society’s notorious playboy—the dashing, rogue Anatole. It falls to Prince Andrei’s friend, the wealthy, slothful, philosophizing aristocrat Pierre to rescue Natasha’s reputation and make amends between her and Andrei.A Vintage Shorts ebook Selection.

    Cicero, the greatest orator of his age, devotes all his energy and cunning to preserve the rule of law, and defend Rome’s Republic against the predatory attacks of political rivals, discontented aristocrats, and would-be military dictators.Imperium is a backstage view of Ancient Rome at its most bloody and brutal, told through the eyes of Tiro, Cicero’s loyal secretary.Adapted by Mike Poulton from Robert Harris’s bestselling The Cicero Trilogy, it was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in November 2017 in an epic event comprising six plays presented in two performances.

    Dazed by their experience, they look for a path home. But they discover that this unfamiliar land is not what it seems - and that, though they may be together, they have never been further apart.Unflinchingly honest and tenderly lyrical, Meet Me at Dawn is a modern fable exploring the triumph of everyday love, the mystery of grief, and the temptation to become lost in a fantasy future that will never be.Meet Me at Dawn by Zinnie Harris premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2017.

    Brook also revisits his seminal concept of the 'empty space', considering how theatre – and the world – have changed over the span of his long and distinguished career.Threaded throughout with intimate and revealing stories from Brook's own life, Tip of the Tongue is a short but sparkling gift from one of the greatest artists of our time.

    While dealing with the impossible expectations of her parents, she is trying to understand why her brother has taken his own life. It’s not until a fateful school detention that she meets three other students as lost as she is.

    Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. Following a critically acclaimed premiere at Ars Nova in New York City, and a subsequent Off Broadway transfer, this award winning musical expands the possibilities for this genre with its daring score and bold storytelling.

    Get to know how it works. You will soon feel how good it is to sound like you.In The Voice Exercise Book, Jeannette Nelson - Head of Voice at the National Theatre - shares the voice exercises she uses with many of Britain's leading actors to help to keep their voices in shape. Her belief is that all of us, not just actors, can learn to use our voices well.Whether you perform professionally or you just want to be understood clearly and easily, you can improve your voice by knowing how it works and by practising simple exercises. The aim is not to 'fake it' – to try to sound like someone else. It is to find your authentic voice: to be honestly and clearly you in any situation.'Jeannette’s warm-up sessions are tremendous and this book extends those exercises.' Zoë Wanamaker CBE'Jeannette’s knowledge is astonishing, and her approach so gentle and effective.' Derren Brown'She makes voice production endlessly fascinating and fun. There is no one better.' Rory Kinnear'A must for anyone who is serious about producing a strong, clean noise from their voice box.' Sir Lenny Henry

    In 1921, Soviet scholars opened the box, and discovered a play. The title page was missing. The play they found has too many characters, too many themes, too much action. It's generally dismissed as unstageable. Like life.

    Some may recognize Roger as Nicholas Nickleby and others will know him as Kirstie Alley's boyfriend on Cheers. When he died of brain cancer in 2015, Broadway dimmed all the lights in his honor -- a true stage legend. Pulled straight from Rick's enormous and broken heart, Finding Roger will touch everyone who reads it. It's a story of profound loss -- but also a love story for the ages.

    He asked if she could get in and help him back to the highway, and said he could bring her back to her bike after. Molly declined, out of interest for her own safety. The next things Molly remembers are dirt, branches, trees, pain, and darkness.Molly is now a spirit.Mustering up some courage, she pieces together her short life for herself and her family while she reassembles her bicycle—the same one that was found thrown into the trees on the side of the road. Juxtaposed with flashes of news, sounds, and videos, Molly’s chilling tale becomes more and more vivid, challenging humanity not to forget her presence and importance.

    A mother, father, aunt, and uncle must learn how to move forward after the trauma and re-learn how to interact with one another with forgiveness, humour, and love.It’s been a year since Paul and Lucille’s son Craig committed suicide, and their once-solid family bonds are starting to break down. While the now-separated couple tries to honour their son, Lucille’s sister Liset and her husband Jim refuse to discuss their nephew. The ties that keep the four together as sisters, best friends, and spouses are strained by grief and guilt… until a visit from a fox changes everything.

    This play is about activism, community and fighting for acceptance with words, music, humour and heart. On Edinburgh's Forth Street, two friends Bob and Sigrid are opening their new lesbian, gay and feminist bookshop, Lavender Menace. A trailblazing venture that will become the beating heart for Edinburgh's LGBT+ community. Now on the eve of the shop's fifth birthday, sales assistants Paul and David take a look back at its origins, its importance, its celebration of queer culture, how things have changed for the better (maybe)... And straight away, the arguments begin! Love Song to Lavender Menace is a beautifully funny and moving exploration of the love and passion it takes to make something happen and the loss that is felt when you have to let it go.

    An area we call the Twilight Zone.Adapted by Anne Washburn (Mr Burns) and directed by Olivier Award-winner Richard Jones, this world premiere production of the acclaimed CBS Television Series The Twilight Zone lands on stage for the first time in its history. Or its present. Or its future.

    Coles deftly interweaves Canada’s colonial history with online gaming as our Indigenous protagonist struggles to understand and reconcile her past, present and future.Annie Runningbird doesn’t have time for the games boys want her to play. She’s aging out of foster care on her next birthday. The system has decided she is an adult, so Annie must make adult decisions. Where will she live? How will she make money? Demanding grown-up choices preoccupy the young girl’s mind as she navigates relationships with boys and men in her company. Does she like Isaac, a cute yet naive boy she met at the mall food court? Can she trust Louis, her older and increasingly overbearing foster care worker? Who can Annie depend on in her ever-shifting world? This intel is important. Because Annie needs to win the very real game she’s playing. She must save herself to save the day.

    It is a unique theatrical hybrid that combines cinematography with the raw immediacy of a performance piece intimately connected to real life in real time. Through a series of audio interviews, playwright Tetsuro Shigetmatsu discovers vast worlds contained within his emotionally remote father – from the ashes of World War II and Hiroshima to swinging London in the 1960s and work in broadcasting at the BBC. As the playwright learns about how his own father was once a son, he realizes all the ways in which he himself needs to step up and become a better dad. This funny, poignant story of one immigrant family and their intergenerational conflicts reminds us that no matter how far we journey out into the world to find ourselves – across decades and continents – we never stop being our parents’ children. It is the story of two generations of CBC broadcasters and the radio silence between them. Nominated for six Jessie Awards. Remount completely sold out in Vancouver and scheduled for productions across Canada in 2017.Cast of 1 man.

    This gripping companion piece to The Last Wife reimagines the little-known story of Elizabeth I before she was queen.

    On the furthest outreaches of the Roman Empire – at the very edge of the known world – rebellion is brewing.The King of the Iceni has died and his widow, Boudica, has tried to claim her rightful throne. For her insolence in defying Rome, the queen has been flogged, her daughters have been raped, and they have been banished from their homeland. But now, Queen Boudica has returned. And this time she has an army.She will have revenge. She will have blood. She will make Rome quake in fear.

    A single bathroom. And a world of men.Mary's found some porn in their bin, and needs to talk about it. But Jo's in the bath, fantasizing about being someone else. And Celia just wants to look her best for the party tonight.With a vibrant, stylistic freedom, this play interrogates the effects of society's objectification of women.

    Actioning is one of the most widely used rehearsal techniques for actors. It helps bring clarity to every moment or thought in the text, energising rehearsals and bringing performances to life. Actioning will enable you to discover and unlock newfound energy, range, variety and clarity of body and voice, by: - Interrogating the text and making initial action verb choices; - Playing your chosen actions, both verbally and physically; - Maintaining an imaginative and emotional connection with each moment; - Signposting each thought to your scene partner From the publishers of the internationally successful Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus, this is the first in-depth exploration of Actioning for student actors, those who train them, and professionals working in the industry, whether they're brand new to the technique or have been practising it for years. This step-by-step guide draws on concepts from Stanislavsky, using sample scenes from classic plays such as The Seagull and The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as contemporary pieces, and is filled with exercises to demonstrate the technique at work.

    In The Young Actor's Handbook, Jeremy Kruse, an actor, writer, producer, and director who teaches method acting, acting for camera, improvisation, and sketch comedy at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, mends this mangled genre, distilling invaluable lessons and years of experience down to a lean, mean, intuitive hundred page primer. Rather than bludgeoning the uninitiated with dense paragraphs, vague concepts, and opaque examples, The Young Actor's Handbook ignites the beginning actor's creative soul with inspirational acting exercises, acting theory, writing exercises, and insight into what it means to be an actor. This concise and pragmatic manual will guide and inform the young actor, beginning actor, novice acting teacher, or anyone who wants to understand acting through a broad and diverse survey of essential knowledge. The teachings of Richard Boleslavsky, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen, Michael Shurtleff, Lee Strasberg, and Constantin Stanislavsky are eloquently and accessible rendered, as are basics of script analysis, camera technique, the audition mindset, agent acquisition, and the actor's life. Whether you're a curious novice, veteran acting teacher, or even an interested observer, The Young Actor's Handbook will enhance your understanding of this vast and rewarding craft.

    How he writes about the process and craft of acting is at once intensely personal and relatable by others. Readers are invited to participate as though present in this master teacher's classes. Each human being, and thus each actor, is unique. Howard encourages actors to uncover their own ways of working, using their particular abilities and personality traits. Going beyond the craft and into human psychology and the importance of acting as a life force, readers will see new and deeper ways to study and practice, to be introspective, and to arrive at places of revelation about their craft.The Actor Uncovered will have much to say to beginners, to those who are advanced, and to professional and working actors. Howard discusses such topics as:  Techniques, styles, and methods in a changing societyRelaxation, concentration, and the breathThe relationships among actor, director, and writerMemoryOn camera versus on stageObstacles After more than seventy years as a professional actor, director, and teacher, Howard shows how living creatively and invoking one's own personality can lead to a successful career as an actor.

    By exploring Shakespeare's engagements with the humanist traditions of early modern England and Europe, Rhodri Lewis reveals a Hamlet unseen for centuries: an innovative, coherent, and exhilaratingly bleak tragedy in which the governing ideologies of Shakespeare's age are scrupulously upended.This book establishes that life in Elsinore is measured not by virtue but by the deceptions and grim brutality of the hunt. It also shows that Shakespeare most vividly represents this reality in the character of Hamlet: his habits of thought and speech depend on the cultures of pretence that he affects to disdain, ensuring his alienation from both himself and the world around him.Lewis recovers a work of far greater magnitude than the tragedy of a young man who cannot make up his mind. He shows that in Hamlet, as in King Lear, Shakespeare confronts his audiences with a universe that received ideas are powerless to illuminate--and where everyone must find their own way through the dark.A major contribution to Shakespeare studies, this book is required reading for all students of early modern literature, drama, culture, and history.

    Inspired by Donald Trump’s leaked sexually aggressive comments, the show is a confronting exploration of the phenomenon the then presidential candidate later dismissed as ‘locker room banter’.But can this be true? Is this simply a loathsome individual or one who speaks to a silent majority? Gary McNair wants to think we are better than this, and is having honest conversations with men about women to see if he is right or wrong. The words of these men are performed by a cast of women in this verbatim piece.

    The book begins with an overview of the basics of playwriting and goes on to cover all aspects of the new-play workshopping process: selecting a director and/or dramaturg to run the workshop sessions, assembling a team of actor/readers and dealing with constructive criticism, putting together a staged reading of one's work, structuring a successful talkback, and properly and professionally submitting one's work to theaters. Throughout the book are essays by well-known theater professionals: playwrights, teachers, dramaturgs, an artistic director, a spoken word performer, and workshopping experts. The book is written in a friendly, nonacademic style, but should be valuable for educators as well as practitioners of theater.

    Ideal for a range of readers from drama students to aspiring theatre practitioners, and for those working in community and professional theatres, Long Story Short gathers plays that create complete and moving stories that transcend the page in about ten minutes each.

    As they embark on journeys from the only homes they’ve ever known, they’re challenged to think for themselves and to fight for what they want and believe in.In Up the Garden Path, Rosa, a young Barbadian seamstress, offers to pose as her brother to go to the Niagara Region in Ontario to work. There, she meets an aspiring actress obsessed with Joan of Arc, the ghost of a black Loyalist soldier who wants to die and a boss who can’t keep the starlings away from his failing vineyard. Finding it impossible to ignore their demands, but not wanting to be found out and sent home, Rosa has to stop and figure out what she really wants instead of what everyone around her needs.Based on Bernard Shaw’s short story, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God follows a black girl who is abandoned by a white missionary for asking too many questions. Taking matters into her own hands, the Black Girl sets off to find out who or what God really is. Along the way she meets a number of characters who have very different views on God, but the Black Girl’s unrelenting questions create conflict, and in the end she’s forced to make her own decisions on God and her search.

    In this fast-moving, candid, conversational, and entertaining memoir, Harold Prince, the most honored director in the history of the American theater (22 Tony Awards and counting), looks back over his 70-year (and counting!) career. Featuring original material from Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre, Prince provides a fresh, new perspective on his writing from the vantage point of today. Sense of Occasion gives an insider's recollection of the making of such landmark musicals as West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and Phantom of the Opera, with Prince's perceptive comments about his mentor George Abbott and his many celebrated collaborators, including Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, John Kander, Boris Aronson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Angela Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Zero Mostel, Carol Burnett, and Joel Grey. As well as detailing his titanic successes that changed the form and content of the American musical theater, Prince even-handedly reflects on the shows that didn't work, most memorably and painfully Merrily We Roll Along . Throughout, he offers insights into the way business is conducted on Broadway, drawing sharp contrasts between past and present. This thoughtful, complete account of one of the most legendary and long-lived careers in theater history, written by the man who lived it, is an essential work of personal and professional recollection.

    Over the next four years Videofag became a hub for counterculture in the city, playing host to a litany of performances, screenings, parties, exhibitions, and all manner of queer fuckery. But hosting a city in their house took its toll and eventually William and Jordan broke up, closing the space for good in June 2016. The Videofag Book is a chronicle of those four years told in three parts: a personal history of Videofag by William and Jordan; a community oral history compiled by Chandler Levack; and A Man Vanishes, a noir theatrical thriller set at Videofag by playwright Greg MacArthur.

    With over three thousand different versions of the show, which story will you see?With four actors to play the cast of ten and roles selected with a roulette, our La Ronde embraces life’s game of chance and the blindness of desire and fortune.

    Penned by veteran Broadway insider Peter Bogyo, readers will gain an appreciation and understanding of what the business half of show business is all about. For the first time ever, gain backstage access to the fast-paced and glamorous world of Broadway. Broadway General Manager is an invaluable resource that examines actual production and operating budgets for a Broadway show and shares contracts for award-winning actors, directors, and designers, all of which are analyzed extensively. Also included are in-depth discussions on such topics as:How to get started as a general managerNegotiating contractsHow the producing entity functionsProgramming the box officeThe issues related to hiring employeesBinding insuranceFinancial overviewMaintaining the run of a showWhat to do when sales start to slumpClosing a showAnd much moreLaced with humorous insights and personal anecdotes, Broadway General Manager will delight both the average theater lover as well as individuals with a serious interest in commercial arts management.

    Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign shows how American politics changed during the 1960s. The "Daisy" ad aired only once, but its presence is still evident in political campaigns today.Sean Devine is artistic director of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Theatre in Vancouver.

    This book will begin in five minutes. I repeat: five minutes, dear.* Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Acting (But Were Afraid To Ask, Dear.** After all, the Dom Perignon won’t buy itself.

    Rent FAQ includes biographical info on the musical's brilliant creator, Jonathan Larson, who tragically passed away at age 35 the night before the show began preview performances. Other chapters focus on the creative team and original cast; the development of the script and score from early drafts and workshop performances to the version we know and love today; the movie version, tours, and much more. The section "Rent Cultural Literacy" is a guide to all the titles and real people referenced in the show and the East Village and Alphabet City locations that Rent helped make famous; another chapter provides clues to the characters and tips for anyone thinking about auditioning for the musical, or putting on a production! A final chapter provides a rundown, with numerous photos, of revivals and local productions all over the country, including regional, community, and dinner theaters, and high school and college versions. Rent FAQ is a treasure trove of information, background, and fun facts for the show's devotees as well as anyone who might be lucky enough to be discovering the musical for the first time!

    Peering down the barrel of a uniquely American crisis, she begins to suspect that when it comes to gun violence, we’re all part of the problem.

    Cloudstreet follows the fluctuating fortunes of two families who inhabit a rambling old house in Perth.

    Ever since his rise to fame playing the part of Merrick in the TV adaptation of 'The Jewel in the Crown' (an adaptation of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet), he has been consistently employed on stage and film in a huge variety of roles. Most recently he completed a long run in the title role of Mike Bartlett's award-winning play Charles III, which then transferred to Broadway. His versatility is astonishing.Throughout this book, Pigott-Smith writes fascinatingly about theatrical, acting, and production technique, giving unique insight into the actor's trade. Like the books of Anthony Sher and Simon Callow, this book says much about the actor's art of delivery. There is also perceptive critical appreciation of other acting geniuses he has worked with -- Peggy Ashcroft, Ian McKellen, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and countless others.Accompanied by black and white photographs, Do You Know Who I Am? is an immensely entertaining memoir from a great theatrical talent.Tim Pigott-Smith died in April 2017, shortly before this book was published, having passed final proofs for press.

    This riveting account of the life and career of Albert Finney examines how one of Britain’s greatest actors built a glittering career without sacrificing his integrity. It’s also the story of an actor who went his own way, did his share of roistering and yet outlived his contemporaries to become one of our most durable international stars. Bon vivant, perennial rebel, self-effacing character star, charismatic charmer, mentor to a generation of working-class artists, a byword for professionalism, lover of horseflesh—and female flesh—Finney is all these things and more—as Gabriel Hershman’s colourful and incisive biography reveals.

    This succinct and engaging text examines the complex relationship between theatre and disability, bringing together a wide variety of performance examples in order to explore theatrical disability through the conceptual frameworks of disability as spectacle, narrative, and experience.Accessible and affordable, this is an ideal resource for theatre students and lovers everywhere.

    Then he stumbles upon Brenda, a sad young woman who’s about to end her life. Convinced he’s fallen in love, Duncan strikes up a desperate deal: if he can get her to laugh, she'll give life another shot, but if she doesn’t even giggle, he'll help her go through with her plan. There’s just one catch: Duncan isn’t funny. At all. So he borrows Pat, his second-favourite comedian, to help him come up with the perfect routine. But Pat is having a hard time mustering his sense of humour after a bad break-up, and the last thing he wants to do is teach a lonely loser the difference between knock-knock jokes and schadenfreude while chained to a typewriter.A tragicomedy of three misfits, Punch Up navigates a hostage situation and a life-or-death comedy lesson to show just how far we’ll go for a laugh.

    The village must choose a new Daughter to sail with the fishing boats and bless the waters, keeping them safe from the roaming orcas for another year.Fan hopes with all her heart to be chosen. But her sister Maggie says she must never go with the boats. Because something happened to Maggie out there. Something no one will admit.

    The following year he was invited to perform at the White House – the first actor ever to receive such an invitation – but Williamson’s spectacular early success was not to last. Despite a number of impressive leading roles, his film career was less successful, although his portrayal of Merlin in "Excalibur" remains a popular favourite. Later, his appearances dwindled and finally ceased altogether. Nicol Williamson was an incendiary talent who once burned brightly – did he simply burn himself out or were there other reasons for his downfall?Over the course of 4 years, Martin Dowsing interviewed and corresponded with more than 50 people who knew Williamson, including many of his colleagues, his family and his closest friends. The author was also granted exclusive access to an unbroadcast 4-hour career-spanning interview with Williamson filmed in 2005. This book reveals how Williamson’s bizarre career path was shaped by his unique outlook on life, his enormous personality and his own personal demons. “A welcome and well researched account of the life and work of perhaps the greatest British actor of his generation.” Peter Gill, playwright and theatre director “Startlingly honest, balefully funny at times, and respectful of the huge talent that inspired it, this is an extraordinarily rich and detailed biography. Nicol was the most unforgettable character I knew and worked with, and this account vividly illuminates his genius and his demons.” Leslie Megahey, director on Nicol Williamson’s one-man show "Jack – A Night on the Town with John Barrymore"

    Turner's startling account of his prophecy and the insurrection was recorded and published by attorney Thomas R. Gray. Nathan Alan Davis writes a timely new play that imagines Turner's final night in a jail cell in Jerusalem, Virginia as he is visited by Gray and they reckon with what has passed, and what the dawn will bring. Woven with vivid imagery and indelible lyricism, Nat Turner in Jerusalem examines the power of an individual's resolute convictions and their seismic reverberations through time.

    A haunting, poetic story about four characters struggling to find grace and humanity, Paradise explores trauma, mental illness, addiction, and the lengths we'll go to for personal freedom.

    What exactly do we mean by audience “immersion”? How might immersion in a Punchdrunk production be described, theorised, situated or politicised? What is valued in immersive experience - and are these values explicit or implied?Immersive Theatre and Audience Experience draws on rehearsals, performances and archival access to Punchdrunk, providing new critical perspectives from cognitive studies, philosophical aesthetics, narrative theory and computer games. Its discussion of immersion is structured around three themes: interactivity and game; story and narrative; environment and space. Providing a rigorous theoretical toolkit to think further about the form’s capabilities, and offering a unique set of approaches, this book will be of significance to scholars, students, artists and spectators.

    The result is a series of individual masterclasses that will be invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays.‘Absorbing and original… Curry’s actors are often thinking and talking as that other professional performer, Shakespeare himself, might have done.’ TLS on Shakespeare On Stage: Vol. 1

    Yet this relationship is also beset with doubts about theatre's capacity to intervene in the social world. This fresh and insightful text thinks through the intersections and tensions between theatre and protest. Exploring the cross-fertilization of international theatre and protest across the 12th and 21st centuries, Lara Shalson illuminates how and why these two are mutually influencing and enriching forms.

    With such a barrage, it can be tough to sort them all out. Yet here's the list, from Absurdity to Zeugma, all defined through the clever wordplay of Hamilton. In fact, musicals use all the rhythm and rhyme patterns of history's top poets, and the literary skill of crafting characters and straddling genre. Further, the rap battles reveal a list of logical fallacies and top argumentation strategies that could empower lawyers or speech writers at the level of this famed Founding Father. Going deeper, the book lists the themes, motifs, allusions, and so on of the show, revealing sneaky foreshadowing and subtle symbols. For die-hard fans of the show, or those mastering rhetorical terms, logic, and the power of words, it's a delightful geek guide.

    Whatever that means...

    Although Shakespeare remains the most recognizable playwright of the Elizabethan age, there were many others whose work continues to entertain and educate students of drama to this day. This anthology collects timeless comedies that both informed Shakespeare's work and took inspiration from the Bard himself.Six plays include Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, the comedy that made the author's reputation; Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay by Robert Greene, a groundbreaking play in terms of multiple-plot structure; The Shoemaker's Holiday, or The Gentle Craft by Thomas Dekker, the "Dickens of English theater"; All Fools, George Chapman's sprightly romp; A Trick to Catch the Old One by Thomas Middleton, one of the era's most prolific and successful playwrights; and Eastward Ho!, a collaborative work by Chapman, Jonson, and John Marston.

    His imperishable portraits of Tartuffe, King Lear, Lear's Fool, Feste, Khlestakov, Duke Vincentio, Titus Andronicus, Timon, Argan, Lady Bracknell, James Tyrone, Sr., and Prospero ensured that he will be remembered as long as there is cultural memory. Offstage, he could be charming and witty or moody and oppressively grand. He remained the Duke of "Dark Corners" to many who wished to know him more intimately. In this detailed, probing, and thought-provoking biography, Keith Garebian weaves together Hutt's private and public lives, his most intense conflicts, deepest yearnings and anxieties in order to show how Hutt brought his life to his work and work to his life in a manner that left him vulnerable to wounds of the heart yet open to radical re-invention as an actor.