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Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up
by Patricia Ryan MadsonIn an irresistible invitation to lighten up, look around, and live an unscripted life, a master of the art of improvisation explains how to adopt the attitudes and techniques used by generations of musicians and actors. Let’s face it: Life is something we all make up as we go along. No matter how carefully we formulate a “script,” it is bound to change when we interact with people with scripts of their own. Improv Wisdomshows how to apply the maxims of improvisational theater to real-life challenges—whether it’s dealing with a demanding boss, a tired child, or one of life’s never-ending surprises. Patricia Madson distills thirty years of experience into thirteen simple strategies, including “Say Yes,” “Start Anywhere,” “Face the Facts,” and “Make Mistakes, Please,” helping readers to loosen up, think on their feet, and take on everything life has to offer with skill, chutzpah, and a sense of humor.
Introduction To Play Analysis
by Cal Pritner Scott WaltersFusing a variety of influences (Aristotle, Stanislavsky, Kenneth Burke, and structuralism), this new text takes students through progressively complex levels of play reading in which they: respond to a first reading; gather information from the play (including given circumstances); interpret the characters and relate them to the conflict; and synthesize perceptions that have been revealed through analysis. Its central principle is that conflict is the essence of drama: the book lays out a systematic process for analyzing plays, relating each element to the conflict explored in each play.
Invitation to the Party
by Donna Walker-Kuhne George C. WolfeAcknowledged as the nation's foremost expert on audience development involving America's growing multicultural population by the Arts and Business Council, Donna Walker-Kuhne has now written the first book describing her strategies and methods to engage diverse communities as participants for arts and culture. By offering strategic collaborations and efforts to develop and sustain nontraditional audiences, this book will directly impact the stability and future of America's cultural and artistic landscape. Donna Walker-Kuhne has spent the last 20 years developing and refining these principles with such success as both the Broadway and national touring productions of Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, as well as transforming the audiences at one of the U.S.'s most important and visible arts institutions, New York's Public Theater. This book is a practical and inspirational guide on ways to invite, engage and partner with culturally diverse communities, and how to enfranchise those communities into the fabric of arts and culture in the United States.Donna Walker-Kuhne is the president of Walker International Communications Group. From 1993 to 2002, she served as the marketing director for the Public Theater in New York, where she originated a range of audience-development activities for children, students and adults throughout New York City. Ms. Walker-Kuhne is an Adjunct Professor in marketing the arts at Fordham University, Brooklyn College and New York University. She was formerly marketing director for Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ms. Walker-Kuhne has given numerous workshops and presentations for arts groups throughout the U.S., including the Arts and Business Council, League of American Theaters and Producers, the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for Arts to name a few. She has been nominated for the Ford Foundation's 2001 Leadership for a Changing World Fellowship.
Japanese No Masks: With 300 Illustrations of Authentic Historical Examples
by Stanley Appelbaum Friedrich PerzynskiCombining elements of dance, drama, music and poetry, the performances of Japanese No theater are a highly stylized form of entertainment. Accompanying the sumptuous costumes worn during performances are elaborately carved No and Kyogen wooden masks--major works of art in their own right. This book, based on a classic two-volume German study, presents a wealth of illustrations and information relating to these magnificent theatrical devices.A new, informative introduction and extensive captions derived from the original text and newly translated, accompany the heart of the book--more than 120 full-page plates depicting museum-quality masks worn by actors playing gods, warriors, demons, and monsters, beautiful women, feudal lords, mad characters, and supernatural beings. All 303 illustrations from the original two-volume work are included.A unique introduction to classic Japanese theater for Western theatergoers, this volume will also serve as an excellent reference for students, scholars, and enthusiasts of No drama.
Julius Caesar: New Critical Essays (Shakespeare Criticism #Vol. 29)
by Horst ZanderThis book explores traditional approaches to the play, which includes an examination of the play in light of current history, in the context of Renaissance England, and in relation to Shakespeare's other Roman plays as well as structural examination of plot, language, character, and source material. Julius Caesar: Critical Essays also examines the current debates concerning the play in Marxist, psychoanalytic, deconstructive, queer, and gender contexts.
Julius Caesar - Literary Touchstone
by William Shakespeare"The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones. . . "How do you choose between the life of your friend and the future of your homeland? In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Brutus, "the noblest Roman of them all," has only his personal integrity to help him choose which is the greatest good and where he must place his allegiance. The wrong choice will result in certain personal and national devastation. With its stirring speeches and vivid images of men at both their noblest and most terrible, the play will leave the reader with a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. To make Julius Caesar more accessible to the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition provides in-depth explanation, as well as historical background. Convenient sidebar notes and an extensive glossary help the reader navigate the complexities of the text and enjoy the beauty of Shakespeare's verse, the wisdom of his insights, and the impact of his drama.
Kick Ass Plays for Women
by Jane Shepard2f per play / Drama / Unit set / Award-winning new playwright Jane Shepard comes to print with four powerful short plays for women. Edgy, original, and with a darkly funny humanity, here are four pieces that give new muscle to actresses, providing roles of exceptional range. All successfully produced on the New York stage, each play features two-woman casts, with age-open roles, in work that explores our tender, brave, and sometimes brutal search for meaning. Includes both comedy and drama, with a variety of settings and running times. An excellent introduction to the playwright, KickAss Plays For Women is a vital text for actresses of any age, or anyone hungry for compelling new plays. Nine (2f) Two women held in a life-threatening situation and the mind games they play to keep one another alive. Held in a cell and chained apart, their only currency is words, and balance of power is everything when a single word becomes the hanging point between life and death. Commencing (2f) The beautiful Kelli can't wait for the blind date her friends have set her up on. Until it turns out to be one very disappointed lesbian named Arlin. Mutually appalled, yet appallingly intrigued, they proceed to pull the screws loose on both straight and gay women's culture, to find the common ground beneath in the search for love & self. Friend of the Deceased (2f) An embittered widow lies in wait at her husband's grave for the appearance his mistress, and encounters a soulful teen. Unable to extract a confession from the girl, the widow offers to buy one, and finds that she has purchased a deeper truth. The Last Nickel (2f and 2 pupeteers) Theatrical, funny & touching, It's another long night for Jamie, with an obnoxious sister & a trio of sardonic puppets to keep her awake. Tinged with fun & sisterly nostalgia, the merriment comes inevitably to focus on the cause of Jamie's self destruction, and the loss that has brought her to the edge.
King Henry V (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)
by William Shakespeare Andrew GurrFor this updated edition of Shakespeare's most celebrated war play, Andrew Gurr has added a new section to his introduction which considers recent critical and stage interpretations. He analyzes the play's double vision of Henry as both military hero and self-seeking individual and demonstrates how the patriotic declarations of the Chorus are contradicted by the play's action. Gurr analyzes the play's more controversial sequences in the context of Elizabethan thought, in particular, the studies of the laws and morality of war written in the years before Henry V. An updated reading list completes the edition.
Lady Windermere's Fan (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays)
by Oscar WildeClever dialogue, fast-paced repartee, and pithy epigrams abound in this sparkling Victorian comedy of manners. The first of Oscar Wilde's dramas, the 1892 play attests to the author's legendary reputation as a wit and keen observer of ironic situations. In Lady Windermere's Fan, Wilde offers a splendidly satirical view of society's obsessive regard for appearances rather than reality.A paragon of morality, Lady Windermere firmly rejects the company of anyone exhibiting even the slightest deviation from the social code. Suspecting her husband of a dalliance with Mrs. Erlynne, a woman of dubious reputation, Lady Windermere rashly decides to abandon her secure position for the seductive charms of Lord Darlington. The voice of caution arises from an unexpected source when the mysterious Mrs. Erlynne reveals the calamitous effects of her own disregard for duty and virtue, and she augments her advice with an act of self-sacrifice. By laying claim to Lady Windermere's telltale fan, the woman from outside society shows the model of social propriety the difference between true morality and its semblance.More than a century after the play's debut, the luster of its humorous quips, merry bon mots, and thought-provoking paradoxes remains undimmed. This modestly priced edition of Wilde's scintillating comic masterpiece will delight lovers of drama and literature.
The Last Anniversary: A Novel
by Liane MoriartyFrom Liane Moriarty, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty, comes an unforgettable novel defined by her signature sharp wit, page-turning storyline, and lovable and eccentric characters.Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one who got away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was going to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island—home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery.Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family, where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions.As Sophie's life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around—and come up with your own fairy-tale ending.
The Learned Ladies
by Freyda Thomas MoliereThis rollicking version of Les Femmes Savantes delighted audiences Off Broadway in a production starring Jean Stapleton as Philamente, a most unliterary lady intent on having a high toned literary salon. She has neither literary nor common sense, which makes her easy prey for sycophantic con artist Trissotin. He passes himself off as a famous poet and becomes a permanent house guest. Philamente hopes to marry her daughter to Trissotin, but the daughter wishes to marry the unsuitable Clitandre. This version strays from a strictly literal translation of Moliere's play, often employing anachronisms in the rhymed couplets that will appall purists and absolutely delight everyone else. If you want your audiences to roll with laughter as they watch a play by a "famous dead playwright," this version is for you.
Letters from Backstage: The Adventures of a Touring Stage Actor
by Jason Alexander Michael KostroffEver wonder what it's like to be a real working actor? Wonder no more! Michael Kostroff is here to reveal, in hilarious detail, just what it's like to travel with the road companies of The Producers and Les Miserables. His firsthand account of the exciting, funny, and sometimes bizarre highlights of his journey includes working at a temp job when his agent calls to say, "You got the part!"; singing on a revolving stage while lugging a dead body; seeing ghosts in haunted theaters; and much more. Along the way, anecdotes about nailing an audition, keeping a performance fresh, and getting along with fellow cast members give useful tips for working actors. Anyone who wants to know what a life in the theater is really like needs this intimate and unforgettable narrative.
Local Shakespeares: Proximations and Power
by Martin OrkinThis remarkable volume challenges scholars and students to look beyond a dominant European and North American 'metropolitan bank' of Shakespeare knowledge. As well as revealing the potential for a new understanding of Shakespeare's plays, Martin Orkin adopts a fresh approach to issues of power, where 'proximations' emerge from a process of dialogue and challenge traditional notions of authority. Divided into two parts this book: encourages us to recognise the way in which 'local' or 'non-metropolitan' knowledges and experiences might extend understanding of Shakespeare's texts and their locations demonstrates the use of local as well as metropolitan knowledges in exploring the presentation of masculinity in Shakespeare's late plays. These plays themselves dramatise encounters with different cultures and, crucially, challenges to established authority.
Love-Lies-Bleeding
by Don DelilloLove-Lies-Bleeding, Don DeLillo's third play, is a daring, profoundly compassionate story about life, death, art and human connection. Three people gather to determine the fate of the man who sits in a straight-backed chair saying nothing. He is Alex Macklin, who gave up easel painting to do land art in the southwestern desert, and he is seventy now, helpless in the wake of a second stroke. The people around him are the bearers of a complicated love, his son, his young wife, the older woman -- his wife of years past -- who feels the emotional tenacity of a love long-ended. It is their question to answer. When does life end, and when should it end? In this remote setting, without seeking medical or legal guidance, they move unsteadily toward last things. Luminous, spare, unnervingly comic and always deeply moving, Love-Lies-Bleeding explores a number of perilous questions about the value of life and how we measure it.
The Lure of Perfection: Fashion and Ballet, 1780-1830
by Judith BennahumTHE LURE OF PERFECTION: FASHION AND BALLET, 1780-1830 offers a unique look at how ballet influenced contemporary fashion and women's body image, and how street fashions in turn were reflected by the costumes worn by ballet dancers. Through years of research, the author has traced the interplay between fashion, social trends, and the development of dance. During the 18th century, women literally took up twice as much space as men; their billowing dresses ballooned out from their figures, sometimes a full 55 inches, to display costly jewelry and fine brocade work; similar costumes appeared on stage. But clothing also limited her movement; it literally disabled them, making the dances themselves little more than tableaux. Movement was further inhibited by high shoes and tight corsets; thus the image of the rigidly straight, long-lined dancer is as much a product of clothing as aesthetics. However, with changing times came new trends. An increased interest in natural movement and the common folk led to less-restrictive clothing. As viewers demanded more virtuosic dancers, women literally danced their way to freedom. THE LURE OF PERFECTION will interest students of dance and cultural history, and women's studies. It is a fascinating, well-researched look at the interplay of fashion, dance, and culture-still very much a part of our world today.
Macbeth
by William ShakespeareNo dramatist has ever seen with more frightening clarity into the heart and mind of a murderer than has Shakespeare in this compelling tragedy of evil. Taunted into asserting his "masculinity" by his ambitious wife, Macbeth chooses to embrace the Weird Sisters' prophecy and kill his king-and thus, seals his own doom. Fast-moving and bloody, this drama has the extraordinary energy that derives from a brilliant plot replete with treachery and murder, and from Shakespeare's compelling portrait of the ultimate battle between a mind and its own guilt.Each Edition Includes:* Comprehensive explanatory notes * Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship * Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English* Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories * An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography. Notes and introduction provided by David Bevington and David Scott Kastan. [This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 9-10 at http://www.corestandards.org.]
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare Rex GibsonCambridge School Shakespeare editions offer an active approach to the Bard's works, treating each play as a script to be acted, explored and enjoyed.
Macbeth (Literary Touchstone Classics)
by William ShakespeareShakespeare's Macbeth is an intense examination of the corrupting nature of power, the ability of humans to choose their own destinies, and the lengths to which people will go to satisfy their own desires. The book includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked.
Mary Stuart
by Friedrich Schiller“Mary Stuart” is a play that gives us a fictional account of the last days of Mary Queen of Scots. In it we are treated to an entirely made up scene in which Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I meet face to face. And it is the stuff of great drama!
Medea
by EuripidesOne of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Medea centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea. Having married Medea and fathered her two children, Jason abandons her for a more favorable match, never suspecting the terrible revenge she will take. Euripides' masterly portrayal of the motives fiercely driving Medea's pursuit of vengeance for her husband's insult and betrayal has held theater audiences spellbound for more than twenty centuries. Rex Warner's authoritative translation brings this great classic of world literature vividly to life.
The Merchant of Venice
by William Shakespeare David Bevington David Scott KastanThis is one of Shakespeare's darkest comedies, for the romantic story of a young man, Bassanio, who has squandered his fortune and must borrow money to woo the wealthy lady he loves is set against the more disturbing story of the Jewish moneylender Shylock and his demand for the "pound of flesh" owed him by the Venetian merchant, Antonio. Here pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglement to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best.Each Edition Includes:* Comprehensive explanatory notes * Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship * Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English* Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories * An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition
by William ShakespeareWritten in the 1590s'reportedly for a wedding party attended by Queen Elizabeth I?A Midsummer Night's Dream has all the charm of an afternoon frolic in the countryside. Fairies and magical potions add to the delight as love is turned upside down. Shakespeare moves us with the imagery and rhythms of his verse, and we revel in the sharpness of his insight into life, love, and the human condition. Memorable characters abound, playfulness and mischief control the plot, and the play-within-a-play remains one of the great scenes in English comedy. To make A Midsummer Night's Dream more accessible for the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked. In doing this, it is our intention that the reader may more fully enjoy the beauty of the verse, the wisdom of the insights, and the impact of the play.
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Classics Illustrated
by William ShakespearePerhaps the most popular of all of Shakespeare's comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream humorously celebrates the vagaries of love. The approaching wedding festivities of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are delightfully crisscrossed with in-again, off-again romances of two young pairs of Athenian lovers; a fateful rivalry between the King and Queen of the Fairies; and the theatrical aspirations of a bumbling troupe of Athenian laborers. It all ends happily in wedding-night revelry complete with a play-within-a-play presented by the laborers to the ecstatic amusement of all. This edition, complete with explanatory footnotes, is reprinted from a standard British edition.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare David Bevington David Scott KastanMagic, love spells, and an enchanted wood provide the materials for one of Shakespeare's most delightful comedies. When four young lovers, fleeing the Athenian law and their own mismatched rivalries, take to the forest of Athens, their lives become entangled with a feud between the King and Queen of the Fairies. <P><P>Some Athenian tradesmen, rehearsing a play for the forthcoming wedding of Duke Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta, unintentionally add to the hilarity. <P> The result is a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, merriment and farce, all touched by Shakespeare's inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between art and life, dreams and the waking world.
Mister Paradise and Other One-Act Plays
by David E. Roessel Tennessee Williams Anne Jackson Nicholas Rand Moschovakis Eli WallachThirteen previously unpublished short plays now available for the first time. Tennessee Williams had a distinct talent for writing short plays and, not surprisingly, this remarkable new collection of never-before-published one-acts includes some of his most poignant and hilarious characters: the indefatigable, witty and tough drag queens of And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens...; the strange little man behind the nom de plume Mister Paradise; and the extravagant mistress who cheats on her married man in The Pink Bedroom. Most were written in the 1930s and early 1940s when Williams was already flexing his theatrical imagination. Chosen from over seventy unpublished one-acts, these are some of Williams's finest; several have premiered recently at The Hartford Stage Co., The Kennedy Center, the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival. Included in this volume: These Are the Stairs You Got to Watch Mister Paradise The Palooka Escape Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily? Summer At the Lake The Big Game The Pink Bedroom The Fat Man's Wife Thank You, Kind Spirit The Municipal Abattoir Adam and Eve on a Ferry And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens... Long associated with Williams, acclaimed stage and film actors Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson provide a fresh and challenging foreword for actors, directors, and readers.