A highly engaging comedy of intrigue, The Barber of Seville portrays the resourceful Figaro foiling a jealous old man's attempts to keep his beautiful ward from her lover. The Marriage of Figaro — condemned by Louis XVI for its daring satire of nobility and privilege — depicts a master and servant set in opposition by their desire for the same woman. With characteristic lightness of touch, Beaumarchais created an audacious farce of disguise and mistaken identity that balances wit, frivolity and seriousness in equal measure.John Wood's lively translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing the author's turbulent life and multifarious careers, and examines each play in detail. This edition also includes Beaumarchais's notes on the characters and costumes.'He has everything — pleasantry, seriousness, reason, vigour, pathos, eloquence of every kind' VOLTAIRE

    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

    Written with the full co-operation of Sondheim himself, it examines each of Sondheim's masterpieces - including West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods - as well as the other Sondheim productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in repertory, as revivals, as opera, on film, and on television. this account is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Sondheim and his associates.

    Is it possible? An unfrocked monk against us Leads rascal troops, a truant friar dares write Threats to us! Then 'tis time to tame the madman! Trubetskoy, set thou forth, and thou Basmanov; My zealous governors need help. Chernigov Already by the rebel is besieged; Rescue the city and citizens.

    Being an Actor traces his stage journey from the letter he wrote to Laurence Olivier that led him to his first job, to his triumph as Mozart in the original production of Amadeus. This new edition continues to tell the story of his past two decades onstage. Callow discusses his occasionally ambivalent yet always passionate feelings about both film and theatre, conflicting sentiments partially resolved by his acclaimed return to the stage with his solo performances in The Importance of Being Oscar and The Mystery of Charles Dickens, seen in the West End and on Broadway in 2002.Being an Actor is a guide not only to the profession but also to the intricacies of the art, told with wit, candour, and irrepressible verve by one if the great figures of the stage.

    Viola Spolin's improvisational techniques changed the very nature and practice of modern theater. The first two editions of Improvisation for the Theater sold more than 100,000 copies and inspired actors, directors, teachers, and writers in theater, television, film. These techniques have also influenced the fields of education, mental health, social work, and psychology.

    is a series of women's monologues tackling many different aspects of the complex female psyche.

    The tavern is owned by a tempestuous Irishman who is a s proud as he is ill-tempered and is determined to show his pride and importance to the Yankee townsmen.

    As a woman, as an African-American, her artistic objectivity and sensitivity to history combine with, but do not overshadow, her capacity to dig for truth and present it flat out as she sees it – with a finger snap or a shout and sometimes with a wink. Among the most satisfying roles I’ve undertaken on stage is surely Miss Leah in Flyin’ West. She brings the bushel nuggets of drama and humor that capture the ear, the heart and the imagination. She’s devilish, too.” –Academy Award® Nominee Ruby Dee“Ms. Cleage writes with amazing grace and killer instinct.” –Alvin Klein, New York Times “Pearl Cleage is a brilliant storyteller. I am always engrossed in the drama and compassion she brings to her characters. Flyin’ West, Bourbon at the Border, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Late Bus to Mecca and Chain are marvelous examples of a playwright at the top of her form, bravely moving into the new century.” –Woodie King, Jr., Producing Director, New Federal TheatrePearl Cleage’s body of work for the stage provides us with a remarkable and penetrating look at the African-American experience over the last 100 years. This volume collects her major full-length plays and one-acts, including Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, Bourbon at the Border, Chain and Late Bus to Mecca.PEARL CLEAGE is an Atlanta-based writer whose recent plays have premiered at The Alliance Theatre Company with subsequent productions throughout the country. Her first novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day was a recent Oprah’s Book Club Selection and a national bestseller. She is a former columnist of the Atlanta Tribune and a contributor to Essence Magazine.

    Honest, witty and direct, The Golden Rules of Acting is every actor’s best friend – in handy paperback form.‘When auditioning, rehearsing or in a performance, take a risk – the worst that can happen is that you get embarrassed. You won’t die.’Easy to dip into, fully illustrated throughout, and designed to be both instructive and empowering, The Golden Rules of Acting won’t tell you how to act – but it will tell you how to be an actor.‘Always remember, the people auditioning you want you to be brilliant. They want you to solve their casting problem.'If you’re a working actor, drama-school student, someone who wants to become an actor, or simply someone who has a dream and wants to make it a reality, this book is for you.‘NEVER harmonise when singing ‘Happy Birthday’ – this has nothing to do with work, it’s just all actors do it & it’s bloody annoying.’Andy Nyman learnt the golden rules of acting the hard way, through twenty-five years of working in theatre, film and television. On stage, he co-wrote, co-directed and starred in the West End hit Ghost Stories, and won an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment for co-writing and directing Something Wicked This Way Comes with his regular collaborator Derren Brown. His many film appearances include Severance and Frank Oz’s Death at a Funeral.

    Franklin J. Hildy contributes his scholarship and experience throughout the book and, in particular, to a discussion of English Theatre/Shakespeare (Ch. 5). Reorganized with more uniform chapter lengths and a clearer chronology, the ninth edition continues to provide the most thorough and accurate assessment of theatre history available. For anyone involved with, or interested in, the theatre.

    Starring Leonardo DiCaprio (What's Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries) and Claire Danes (My So-Called Life, Little Women) as the doomed lovers, the film is set in a modern city. The actors speak Shakespeare's words--but with their own American accents.Readers can now experience this new vision of Shakespeare's violent, tragic play alongside the Bards original text, in a special single volume that features an introduction by the film's director.--back cover

    Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, refleting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page -- through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show's creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent's life-affirming message all the more poignant.

    In a critical preface, Bentley finds all four works to be a Gogolian treatment of love - or the lack of love - and by the same token, thoroughly original works of dramatic art. Also includes a piece on Gamblers by the eminent Polish critic Jan Kott.

    Lloyd, who lives with Mae, spends his time caring a little too much for the farm animals; he scorns to learn from a book, and treats Mae with angry disrespect. When Lloyd becomes ill, Mae goes searching for a diagnosis, and brings their simple, yet eloquent, neighbor Henry home with her, in order to help her read the difficult medical language. The ensuing love / hate triangle that brews between the three creates a toxic environment, and Mae, whose love and respect for Henry turn to impatience and resentment after an accident renders him helpless, determines that to escape the ill-luck of her life, she must escape the men who depend upon her.