- Table View
- List View
Improvisation Hypermedia and the Arts since 1945 (Performing Arts Studies #Vol. 4)
by Roger Dean Hazel SmithFirst Published in 1997. The authors’ purpose in this book is to dissect developments in improvisation in the arts since 1945, with a particular emphasis on process and technique. The approach is analytical and theoretical but is also relevant to practitioners and their audience. Their key argument is that improvisation has been of great importance and value in the contemporary arts, particularly because of its potential to develop new forms (often by breaking definitions).
Improvisation in the Expressive and Performing Arts: eBook
by Beliz Demircioglu Stephen K. LevineThis book explores the process of improvisation and outlines the ideal conditions for an inspirational creative state. Examining her own process as an artist and drawing on interviews with peers, the author considers how the forces of shaping (intellect-driven decisions) and letting-go (more intuitive moves) interact in improvisation.The book follows the journey of seven performing arts graduates and undergraduates, examining their experiences of improvisation and the interplay of shaping and letting-go. It reveals how the approach and methods of expressive arts can enrich an improviser's experience and spur the desire for discovery.
Improvisation On the Edge
by Rinde Eckert Joan Sunderland Ruth ZaporahDirected not only toward actors, dancers, and other performing artists who draw upon improvisation as part of their craft, this Zen-infused memoir of a life lived creatively will pique the interest of anyone in search of liberation from self-limiting concepts. What does it mean to live in a body? What does it mean to improvise? Do we wonder whether we're capable of improvising--to make up things as we go, step into the unknown, take a risk that changes our notion of ourselves and the world? Author Ruth Zaporah has been a professional physical theater performer, writer, director, and teacher for forty years. Early on she realized that with a shift of perception, every moment of an improvisation holds both the familiar and the utterly new. With the same shift, so does every moment of life; every moment holds both the known and the unknown. And, as Zaporah says, "The body leads the way in this book. In each chapter the world is experienced by it and of it. It is the body that adds richness, wildness, and grace. The body invokes images and feelings. It is the body that imagines." Improvisation on the Edge recounts events from Zaporah's life such as improvisational shows in the war zones of Sarajevo and Kosovo; apprenticing with a Huichol medicine woman from Chiapas, Mexico; understanding the concept of "practice" while on a beach; a bus ride in Cuba; a car ride in Estonia; the intricacies of onstage collaborations. Interspersed are chapters about awareness, listening, adapting, resiliency, time, space, silence, simplicity--all within the context of everyday life in the body. In several other chapters, Ruth writes from the logical (and nonlinear) voice of the improviser as she is on stage, within the immediate embodied process. A fascinating glimpse into the mind of an artist and true master of improvisation, this book will appeal to performers, teachers, and anyone who has ever needed to "wing it" with confidence and grace. Table of Contents 1. Something That Needs Listening To 2. Mirror Mirror 3. On My Wall 4. Tutu Solitude 5. A Mind in Three Episodes 6. A Splish Splash Orchestra 7. A Take on Talk 8. Bobby's River 9. Roar 10. Meet Yourself Babe 11. Nuts and Bolts 12. Out of Chaos 13. Changing Course 14. The Flying Shaman 15. You Could Say Death 16. Ain't It The Truth 17. The Raging Boomerang 18. See This Feel That 19. Stalking War 20. Your Mother Just Died Christina, Leave the Backdoor Open 21. The Illusive Genture 22. A Pack of Lies 23. Again Gun and Boys 24. A Ride in Estonia 25. Art and Heart 26. Floating to the Surface 27. Stuffed With Junk 28. A Chair in Cuba 29. Any Where Practice 30 Teacher Says 31. Older and Under
Improvisation Starters Revised and Expanded Edition: More Than 1,000 Improvisation Scenarios for the Theater and Classroom
by Philip BernardiImprovisation is an essential and invaluable technique for the actor's repertoire: It asks you to think beyond a script - and its memorized lines, movements, and facial expressions - to deliver a performance filled with honesty, insight, nuance, and verisimilitude.Improvisation Starters Revised and Expanded provides more than 1,000 brand-new scenarios that will help you:Depict confl ict by focusing on differing beliefs, motivations, and needsUse contrasts to show the clash of personalities and emotionsCreatively incorporate props and specific lines of dialogue within an improvised sceneExplore character relationships with various locationsTake on the role of inanimate objects and animalsFrom the classroom to the community theater group - and even in business, language, and technology classes - improvisation is the perfect tool for thinking critically, communicating clearly, building self-confi dence, and developing interpersonal skills. With this revised edition of Improvisation Starters, you’ll bring new vitality to the stage or set - and have fun in the process!
The Improvisation Studies Reader: Spontaneous Acts
by Ajay Heble Rebecca CainesImprovisation is a performance practice that animates and activates diverse energies of inspiration, critique, and invention. In recent years it has coalesced into an exciting and innovative new field of interdisciplinary scholarly inquiry, becoming a cornerstone of both practical and theoretical approaches to performance. The Improvisation Studies Reader draws together the works of key artists and thinkers from a range of disciplines, including theatre, music, literature, film, and dance. Divided by keywords into eight sections, this book bridges the gaps between these fields. The book includes case studies, exercises, graphic scores and poems in order to produce a teaching and research resource that identifies central themes in improvisation studies. The sections include: Listening Trust/Risk Flow Dissonance Responsibility Liveness Surprise Hope Each section of the Reader is introduced by a newly commissioned think piece by a key figure in the field, which opens up research questions reflecting on the keyword in question. By placing key theoretical and classic texts in conversation with cutting-edge research and artists’ statements, this book answers the urgent questions facing improvising artists and theorists in the mediatized Twenty-First Century.
Improvisation the Michael Chekhov Way: Active Exploration of Acting Techniques
by Wil KilroyImprovisation the Michael Chekhov Way: Active Exploration of Acting Techniques provides readers with dozens of improvisational exercises based on the acting techniques of Michael Chekhov. The book features key exercises that will help the actor explore improvisation and expand their imagination through the technique. Exercises that have been successfully taught for decades via the intensive trainings from the National Michael Chekhov Association are now clearly laid out in this book, along with information on how these performance-based techniques can be applied to a script and even provide life benefits. Guidance on how to use the exercises both in a group setting and as an individual is provided, as well as tools for lesson plans for up to a year of actor training. These step-by-step exercises will allow readers to expand their range of expression, discover the joy of creating unique characters, improve stage presence and presentation skills, and find new, creative ways to look at life. Improvisation the Michael Chekhov Way is written to be used by individual actors and practitioners and in group settings such as acting or improvisation courses, and to benefit anyone wishing to enhance their creativity and imagination.
Improvised Dance: (In)Corporeal Knowledges
by Nalina WaitThis book elucidates the technical aspects of improvised dance performance and reframes the notion of labour in the practice from one that is either based on compositionally formal logic or a mysterious impulse, to one that addresses the (in)corporeal dimensions of practice. Mobilising the languages and conceptual frameworks of theories of affect, embodied cognition, somatics, and dance, this book illustrates the work of specialist improvisers who occupy divergent positions within the complex field of improvised dance. It offers an alternative narrative of the history and current practice of Western improvised dance centred on the epistemology of its (in)corporeal knowledges, which are elusive yet vital to the refinement of expertise. Written for both a disciplinary-specific and interdisciplinary audience, this book will interest dance scholars, students, and practising artists.
Improvised Theatre and the Autism Spectrum: A Practical Guide to Teaching Social Connection and Communication Skills
by Gary Kramer Richie PloeschThis guide provides educators, professionals, and parents with an easy-to-follow and comprehensive approach to utilizing improvised theatre as a tool to teach social and communication skills to individuals on the autism spectrum. Opening with the philosophy of the curriculum and the considerations of mental health, play, and environmental factors on individuals with autism, the book then breaks down specific activities, suggests course sequencing, and explains how each activity works and applies to desired outcomes. Packed with dozens of activities and explanations, the book includes all the information necessary to design a full curriculum or create an at-home learning program for parents. By combining the fun and engaging atmosphere of improvisational theatre with the systematic teaching of social skills, professionals and parents can cultivate learning in a way that keeps students engaged while providing long-lasting improvements in social interaction, self-confidence, and communication.
Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music through Jazz
by Gretchen L. Carlson2023 Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) Jazz Awards for Books of the Year—Honorable Mention RecipientOn December 4, 1957, Miles Davis revolutionized film soundtrack production, improvising the score for Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud. A cinematic harbinger of the French New Wave, Ascenseur challenged mainstream filmmaking conventions, emphasizing experimentation and creative collaboration. It was in this environment during the late 1950s to 1960s, a brief “golden age” for jazz in film, that many independent filmmakers valued improvisational techniques, featuring soundtracks from such seminal figures as John Lewis, Thelonious Monk, and Duke Ellington. But what of jazz in film today? Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music through Jazz provides an original, vivid investigation of innovative collaborations between renowned contemporary jazz artists and prominent independent filmmakers. The book explores how these integrative jazz-film productions challenge us to rethink the possibilities of cinematic music production. In-depth case studies include collaborations between Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee (Malcolm X, When the Levees Broke), Dick Hyman and Woody Allen (Hannah and Her Sisters), Antonio Sánchez and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman), and Mark Isham and Alan Rudolph (Afterglow). The first book of its kind, this study examines jazz artists’ work in film from a sociological perspective, offering rich, behind-the-scenes analyses of their unique collaborative relationships with filmmakers. It investigates how jazz artists negotiate their own “creative labor,” examining the tensions between improvisation and the conventionally highly regulated structures, hierarchies, and expectations of filmmaking. Grounded in personal interviews and detailed film production analysis, Improvising the Score illustrates the dynamic possibilities of integrative artistic collaborations between jazz, film, and other contemporary media, exemplifying its ripeness for shaping and invigorating twenty-first-century arts, media, and culture.
Improvising Tradition: 18 Quilted Projects Using Strips, Slices, and Strata
by Alexandra LedgerwoodImprovisational piecing methods anchored within traditional quilting designs. Improvising Tradition pairs improvisationally pieced elements with more structured, and perhaps more familiar, quilt patterns to create projects that share a fresh, clean, and modern aesthetic. Author Alexandra Ledgerwood introduces readers to three basic improv piecing techniques: strip sets, piecing improvised strata, and slice and insert, then marries them with traditional quilting designs such as log cabins, coin and bar quilts, and even Hawaiian quilts. By using improvised elements within traditional patchwork quilt designs, Alexandra merges new and old quilting styles into projects that will appeal to a wide range of quilters. Eighteen original and modern quilting projects combine the beauty and familiarity of traditional techniques with the fresh, fun spirit of improvised quilting.
Impure Acts: The Practical Politics of Cultural Studies
by Henry A. GirouxHenry A. Giroux challenges the contemporary politics of cynicism by addressing a number of issues including the various attacks on cultural politics, the multicultural discourses of academia, the corporate attack on higher education, and the cultural politics of the Disney empire.
In a Daze Work: A Pick-Your-Path Journey Through the Daily Grind
by Siobhán GallagherChoose your way to a perfect day with this adventurous book full of personality, tongue-in-cheek wordplay, and gorgeous illustrations. From small-talk to dating to death, In A Daze Work is an exciting, playful new spin on the minute and mundane decisions that make up your daily life. Each flip of the page puts you in control of the story: Will you stay in or go out? Do you wake up or sleep in? How will you navigate a bad date, or a party full of cookie-cutter couples (available in vanilla flavor only)? More important, where will your decisions take you? Bringing humor and sly self-reflection to the humdrum details of adulthood, this relatable visual journey will help you find the extraordinary (or at least hilarious) moments in any day of the week. ----*Features American Illustration award-winning art
In a Glamourous Fashion: The Fabulous Years of Hollywood Costume Design (Routledge Revivals)
by W. Robert LaVineFirst published in 1981, In A Glamourous Fashion is not only a fascinating look at film fashion portraying the glamour and glitter of Hollywood’s heyday; but is also an invaluable reference source for any student of the film, of costume, or of the social history. It documents some of the best work of the designers – names like Adrian, Cecil Beaton, Edith Head – but tells the often-dramatic story of their careers and their relationships with legendary stars such as Garbo, Dietrich, Monroe and many more. Here are the stories behind the screen’s most famous costumes: Walter Plunkett’s ‘curtain dress’ for Scarlett O’Hara; the red Jezebel gown Orry-Kelly designed for Bette Davis; the slinky back satin sheath Rita Hayworth wore in Gilda; and the extravagant gown – ₤ 15, 000 worth of mink – worn by Ginger Rogers in Lady in the Dark. The photographs and original sketches are an essential and decorative complement to the text; there is an index, bibliography, and a full list of Academy Award winners for costume design.
In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity
by Frank KrutnikTaking issue with many orthodox views of Film Noir, Frank Krutnik argues for a reorientation of this compulsively engaging area of Hollywood cultural production. Krutnik recasts the films within a generic framework and draws on recent historical and theoretical research to examine both the diversity of film noir and its significance within American popular culture of the 1940s. He considers classical Hollywood cinema, debates on genre, and the history of the emergence of character in film noir, focusing on the hard-boiled' crime fiction of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain as well as the popularisationof Freudian psychoanalysis; and the social and cultural upheavals of the 1940s. The core of this book however concerns the complex representationof masculinity in the noir tough' thriller, and where and how gender interlocks with questions of genre. Analysing in detail major thrillers like The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Out of the Past and The Killers , alongside lesser known but nonetheless crucial films as Stranger on the Third Floor, Pitfall and Dead Reckoning Krutnik has produced a provocative and highly readable study of one of Hollywood most perennially fascinating groups of films.
In and Out of the Mind: Greek Images of the Tragic Self
by Ruth PadelRuth Padel explores Greek conceptions of human innerness and the way in which Greek tragedy shaped European notions of mind and self. Arguing that Greek poetic language connects images of consciousness, even male consciousness, with the darkness attributed to Hades and to women, Padel analyzes tragedy's biological and daemonological metaphors for what is within.
In Balanchine’s Company
by Barbara FisherDuring her twelve years with Ballet Society and the New York City Ballet, Barbara Milberg worked under the direction of George Balanchine. She rose from corps de ballet to soloist, danced leading roles in Swan Lake and Illuminations, and performed in celebrated world premieres. In this observant and poignant memoir, she shares her recollections of Balanchine, his craft and his values, and lends insight into surprising aspects of his personality. Fisher gives readers a rare glimpse inside Balanchine's artistry, including vivid accounts of the makings of such important ballets as Schoenberg's Opus 34, AGON, and the world-famous Nutcracker. Told through the eyes of a young dancer in what seemed a truly magical place and time, In Balanchine's Company is ideal for ballet fans young and old. Rich in anecdote, insight, and humor, it offers a unique perspective on one of the twentieth century's cultural giants. Ebook Edition Note: All illustrations have been redacted.
In-Between: Architectural Drawing And Imaginative Knowledge In Islamic And Western Traditions (Ashgate Studies in Architecture)
by Hooman KolijiContemporary technical architectural drawings, in establishing a direct relationship between the drawing and its object, tend to privilege the visible physical world at the expense of the invisible intangible ideas and concepts, including that of the designer’s imagination. As a result, drawing may become a utilitarian tool for documentation, devoid of any meaningful value in terms of a kind of knowledge that could potentially link the visible and invisible. This book argues that design drawings should be recognized as intermediaries, mediating between the world of ideas and the world of things, spanning the intangible and tangible. The notion of the 'Imaginal' as an intermediary between the invisible and visible is discussed, showing how architectural drawings lend themselves to this notion by performing as creative agents contributing not only to the physical world but also penetrating the realm of concepts. The book argues that this 'in-between' quality to architectural drawing is essential and that it is critical to perceive drawings as subtle bodies that hold physical attributes (for example, form, proportion, color), highly evocative, yet with no matter. Focusing on Islamic geometric architectural drawings, both historical and contemporary, it draws on key philosophical and conceptual notions of imagination from the Islamic tradition as these relate to the creative act. In doing so, this book not only makes important insights into the design process and act of architectural representation, but more broadly it adds to debates on philosophies of the imagination, linking both Western and Islamic traditions.
In Between Subjects: A Critical Genealogy of Queer Performance
by Amelia JonesThis volume is a study of the connected ideas of "queer" and "gender performance" or "performativity" over the past several decades, providing an ambitious history and crucial examination of these concepts while questioning their very bases. Addressing cultural forms from 1960s–70s sociology, performance art, and drag queen balls to more recent queer voguing performances by Pasifika and Māori people from New Zealand and pop culture television shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, the book traces how and why "queer" and "performativity" seem to belong together in so many discussions around identity, popular modes of gender display, and performance art. Drawing on art history and performance studies but also on feminist, queer, and sexuality studies, and postcolonial, indigenous, and critical race theoretical frameworks, it seeks to denaturalize these assumptions by questioning the US-centrism and white-dominance of discourses around queer performance or performativity. The book’s narrative is deliberately recursive, itself articulated in order performatively to demonstrate the specific valence and social context of each concept as it emerged, but also the overlap and interrelation among the terms as they have come to co-constitute one another in popular culture and in performance and visual arts theory, history, and practice. Written from a hybrid art historical and performance studies point of view, this will be essential reading for all those interested in art, performance, and gender, as well as in queer and feminist theory.
In-Between Worlds: Performing [as] Bauls in an Age of Extremism (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Sukanya ChakrabartiThis book examines the performance of Bauls ‘folk’ performers from Bengal, in the context of a rapidly globalizing Indian economy and against the backdrop of extreme nationalistic discourses. Recognizing their scope beyond the musical and cultural realm, Sukanya Chakrabarti engages in discussing the subversive and transformational potency of Bauls and their performances. In-Between Worlds argues that the Bauls through their musical, spiritual, and cultural performances offer ‘joy’ and ‘spirituality,’ thus making space for what Dr. Ambedkar in his famous 1942 speech had identified as ‘reclamation of human personality’. Chakrabarti destabilizes the category of ‘folk’ as a fixed classification or an origin point, and fractures homogeneous historical representations of the Baul as a ‘folk’ performer and a wandering mendicant exposing the complex heterogeneity that characterizes this group. Establishing ‘folk-ness’ as a performance category, and ‘folk festivals’ as sites of performing ‘folk-ness,’ contributing to a heritage industry that thrives on imagined and recreated nostalgia, Chakrabarti examines different sites that produce varied performative identities of Bauls, probing the limits of such categories while simultaneously advocating for polyvocality and multifocality. While this project has grounded itself firmly in performance studies, it has borrowed extensively from fields of postcolonial studies and subaltern histories, literature, ethnography and ethnomusicology, and cosmopolitan studies.
In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.
by Wil HaygoodHe was, for decades, one of the most recognizable figures in the cultural landscape, his image epitomizing a golden age of American show business. His career spanned a lifetime, but for years he has remained hidden behind the persona he so vigorously generated, and so fiercely protected. Now, in this surprising, illuminating, and compulsively readable biography, we are taken beyond the icon, into the extraordinary, singular life of Sammy Davis, Jr. In scrupulous detail and with stunning powers of evocation, Wil Haygood takes us back to the era of vaudeville, where it all began for four-year-old Sammy who ran out onstage one night and stole the show. From then on it was a motherless childhood on the road, singing and dancing his way across a segregated America with his father and the formidable showman Will Mastin, struggling together to survive the Depression and the demise of vaudeville itself. With an ambition honed by poverty and an obsessive need for applause, Sammy drove his way into the nightclub circuit of the 1940s and 1950s, when, his father and Mastin aging and out of style, he slowly began to make a name for himself, hustling his way to top billing and eventually to recording contracts. From there, he was to stake his claim on Broadway, in Hollywood, and, of course, in Las Vegas. Haygood brings Sammy's showbiz life into full relief against the backdrop of an America in the throes of racial change. Sammy grew up trapped between the worlds of blacks and whites, with so much invested in both. He made his living entertaining white people but was often denied service in the very venues he played. Drafted into a newly integrated U.S. Army in the 1940s, he saw up close the fierce tensions that seethed below the surface. Dragged into the civil rights movement, he witnessed a hatred that often erupted into violence. In his broad and varied friendships and alliances (with Frank Sinatra; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Richard Nixon; Sidney Poitier; Marilyn Monroe, to name just a few), not to mention his romances (his relationship with Kim Novak and his marriage to the blond beauty May Britt drew death threats), he forged uncharted paths across racial lines. Admired and reviled by both blacks and whites, he was tormented all his life by raging insecurities, and never quite came to terms with his own skin. Ultimately, his only true sense of his identity was as a performer.Based on painstaking research and more than 250 interviews, Wil Haygood brings us a sweeping and vivid cultural history of the twentieth century, chronicling black entertainment from its beginnings and the birth of popular culture as we know it. In Black and White transcends simple biography to become an important record, both celebratory and elegiacal, of a vanished America and its greatest entertainer.
In Broad Daylight
by Gabriele PedullaFrom plasma screens to smartphones, today moving images are everywhere. How have films adapted to this new environment? And how has the experience of the spectator changed because of this proliferation? In Broad Daylight investigates one of the decisive shifts in the history of Western aesthetics, exploring the metamorphosis of films in the age of individual media, when the public is increasingly free but also increasingly resistant to the emotive force of the pictures flashing around us. Moving deftly from philosophy of mind to film theory, from architectural practice to ethics, from Leon Battista Alberti to Orson Welles, Gabriele Pedullà examines the revolution that is reshaping the entire system of the arts and creativity in all its manifestations.
In Camera: Perfect Pictures Straight Out Of The Camera
by Gordon LaingWith amazing low-light capabilities, incredible definition, intelligent autofocus and a host of other features, digital cameras have now become so powerful that they have left their users behind. Most photographers can take competent shots in a range of conditions, or fix imperfect exposures in Photoshop or Lightroom, but very few have the skill to push their cameras to the limit and capture the perfect shot, under all conditions, with no post-processing required.In Camera is the perfect way to take your photography to that level; to master your camera, understand light, exposure and composition, and make amazing photographs, whatever your camera, without cheating after the event. One hundred of Gordon's beautiful photos are given his own expert commentary; full settings and camera details are included, and a host of tips and tricks let photographers of any level learn something from every example. The shots are taken with a wide range of cameras, and the emphasis is on getting results by improving your own skills, not wasting money on expensive equipment.
In Camera: Perfect Pictures Straight Out Of The Camera
by Gordon LaingWith amazing low-light capabilities, incredible definition, intelligent autofocus and a host of other features, digital cameras have now become so powerful that they have left their users behind. Most photographers can take competent shots in a range of conditions, or fix imperfect exposures in Photoshop or Lightroom, but very few have the skill to push their cameras to the limit and capture the perfect shot, under all conditions, with no post-processing required.In Camera is the perfect way to take your photography to that level; to master your camera, understand light, exposure and composition, and make amazing photographs, whatever your camera, without cheating after the event. One hundred of Gordon's beautiful photos are given with his own expert commentary; full settings and camera details are included, and a host of tips and tricks let photographers of any level learn something from every example. The shots are taken with a wide range of cameras, and the emphasis is on getting results by improving your own skills, not wasting money on expensive equipment.
In Camera: How to Get Perfect Pictures Straight Out of the Camera
by Gordon LaingWith amazing low-light capabilities, incredible definition, intelligent autofocus and a host of other features, digital cameras have now become so powerful that they have left their users behind. Most photographers can take competent shots in a range of conditions, or fix imperfect exposures in Photoshop or Lightroom, but very few have the skill to push their cameras to the limit and capture the perfect shot, under all conditions, with no post-processing required.In Camera is the perfect way to take your photography to that level; to master your camera, understand light, exposure and composition, and make amazing photographs, whatever your camera, without cheating after the event. One hundred of Gordon's beautiful photos are given with his own expert commentary; full settings and camera details are included, and a host of tips and tricks let photographers of any level learn something from every example. The shots are taken with a wide range of cameras, and the emphasis is on getting results by improving your own skills, not wasting money on expensive equipment.
In Concert: Performing Musical Persona
by Philip AuslanderThe conventional way of understanding what musicians do as performers is to treat them as producers of sound; some even argue that it is unnecessary to see musicians in performance as long as one can hear them. But musical performance, counters Philip Auslander, is also a social interaction between musicians and their audiences, appealing as much to the eye as to the ear. In Concert: Performing Musical Persona he addresses not only the visual means by which musicians engage their audiences through costume and physical gesture, but also spectacular aspects of performance such as light shows. Although musicians do not usually enact fictional characters on stage, they nevertheless present themselves to audiences in ways specific to the performance situation. Auslander’s term to denote the musician’s presence before the audience is musical persona. While presence of a musical persona may be most obvious within rock and pop music, the book’s analysis extends to classical music, jazz, blues, country, electronic music, laptop performance, and music made with experimental digital interfaces. The eclectic group of performers discussed include the Beatles, Miles Davis, Keith Urban, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Frank Zappa, B. B. King, Jefferson Airplane, Virgil Fox, Keith Jarrett, Glenn Gould, and Laurie Anderson.