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Boston's Theater District (Images of America)
by Dale StinchcombDowntown Boston once thrived as a dazzling bohemia of burlesque halls, movie palaces, dime museums, and regal stages. By 1915, more than 20 theaters crowded along a quarter-mile stretch of lower Washington Street. The theater district gave birth to vaudeville and incubated some of America's most darling musicals and daring new dramas en route to Broadway. Theatergoers flocked to Tremont and Boylston Streets to watch the latest tryouts. Some productions flopped; others, like Oklahoma! and Paul Robeson's Othello, were runaway hits. Still others earned the coveted seal of disapproval, "Banned in Boston," from zealous city censors. Overrun by seedy venues in the 1970s, the Combat Zone, as it came to be known, seemed to justify old Puritan fears that the stage would corrupt public morals. Only in recent years has the district rebounded through careful restoration of storied playhouses like the Boston Opera House, the Majestic, and the Colonial--grand vestiges of a booming cultural corridor still vibrant today.
Botanical Shakespeare: An Illustrated Compendium of all the Flowers, Fruits, Herbs, Trees, Seeds, and Grasses Cited by the World's Greatest Playwright
by Gerit QuealyA captivating, beautifully illustrated, one-of-a-kind color compendium of the flowers, fruits, herbs, trees, seeds, and grasses cited in the works of the world’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare, accompanied by their companion quotes from all of his plays and poems. With a foreword by Dame Helen Mirren—the first foreword she has ever contributed.In this striking compilation, Shakespeare historian Gerit Quealy and respected Japanese artist Sumié Hasegawa combine their knowledge and skill in this first and only book that examines every plant that appears in the works of Shakespeare.Botanical Shakespeare opens with a brief look at the Bard’s relationship to the plants mentioned in his works—a diversity that illuminates his knowledge of the science of botany, as well as the colloquy, revealing his unmatched skill for creating metaphorical connections and interweaving substantive philosophy. At the heart of the book are "portraits" of the over 170 flowers, fruits, grains, grasses, trees, herbs, seeds and vegetables that Shakespeare mentions in his plays and poems. Botanical Shakespeare features a gorgeous color illustration of each, giving a "face" to the name, alongside the specific text in which it appears and the character(s) who utter the lines in which it is mentioned.This fascinating visual compendium also includes a dictionary describing each plant—such as Eglantine, a wild rose with a slight prickle, cherished for its singular scent, superior to any other rose; and the difference between apples and apple-john—along with indices listing the botanical by play/poem, by character, and genus for easy reference, ideal for gardeners and thoughtful birthday gift-giving.This breathtaking, incomparable collection of exquisite artwork and companion quotes offers unique depth and insight into Shakespeare and his timeless work through the unusual perspective of the plants themselves.
Both Sides Of The Story
by Jason MilliganMonologues. One hundred monologues (50 for men and 50 for women) are arranged in pairs for contrasting characters who express differing views on wide-ranging topics, a scheme that helps performers of all ages gain valuable insights that enhance their ability to showcase acting skills. There is something for everyone in this sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, always compelling book of audition materials.
Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom
by Jordan Tannahill Kirsten BowenWinner of the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best New Canadian Play of 2016Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom presents wildly apocryphal retellings of two events—one historic, one mythic—that reconsider the official record through decidedly queer and feminist lenses.Painter Sandro Botticelli is an irrepressible libertine, renowned for his weekend-long orgies as much as he is for his great masterpieces of the early Renaissance. But things get complicated when Lorenzo de’ Medici commissions Botticelli to paint a portrait of his wife, Clarice. What emerges is the famed The Birth of Venus and a love triangle involving Botticelli’s young assistant Leonardo that risks setting their world alight. For while Florence of 1497 is a liberal city, civil unrest is stoked by the charismatic friar Girolamo Savonarola who begins calling for sodomites to be burned at the pyre.In the Bible she is unnamed, referred to simply as “Lot’s wife.” In Sunday in Sodom, Edith recounts how her husband welcomed two American soldiers into their house, the fury this sparked in their village, and the chain of events that led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But most importantly, Edith sets the record straight as to why, after being told not to, she looked back upon the destruction of her hometown and turned into a pillar of salt.
Bottle Fly (Yale Drama Series)
by Jacqueline Goldfinger Nicholas WrightAn earthy, cruel, and hilarious family drama of profound and reckless love Set in a bar in the Florida Everglades, this biting, brutally funny multigenerational family drama concerns a Gulf Coast couple, their disabled young ward, two lesbian tenants, and the bonds that bind them all together. It is a powerful story born out of the playwright’s own experiences with the rapidly changing social environment of rural Florida, where long-standing traditions and beliefs can collide, sometimes dangerously, with new ideas of personhood, identity, and self-realization. A rich and colorful mélange of American classes and cultures, this drama recounts a profoundly human struggle to reconcile the masks worn at home with the ones donned to go out into the world.
Boublil and Schönberg’s Les Misérables (The Fourth Wall)
by Sarah Whitfield"One more dawn! One more day! One day more!" Did Les Misérables make you miserable? Or did it inspire you? When Sarah Whitfield was a teenager, her Dad frequently embarrassed her with his love of this musical above all others. So, after he was diagnosed with late stage cancer, Whitfield set out to find out why this musical meant so much to him and to its worldwide following. In this new book, she asked her Dad and 350 other people how they felt about this musical, exploring people’s personal connections with the show. In the middle of some of the hardest moments in family life, Whitfield explores how the musical might help us deal with some of our most difficult experiences and give us hope for when ‘tomorrow comes’.
Boudica: Una obra en tres actos
by Andrés Sotelo Soria Laurel A. RockefellerMientras el mundo occidental se derrumbaba a mano de las poderosas legiones romanas, una mujer se atrevió a luchar por la libertad de Inglaterra. Adaptado de la creativa biografía narrativa “Boudica, Reina Británica de los Icenos”, Boudica cuenta la historia de la reina más grande y legendaria de la antigua Britania en una forma accesible para lectores de todas las edades y producciones de todos los presupuestos. Las notas de producción incluyen información histórica detallada de los vestuarios y sugerencias para la escenografía exacta de ese periodo.
Boudica's Odyssey in Early Modern England
by Samantha Frénée-HutchinsThis diachronic study of Boudica serves as a sourcebook of references to Boudica in the early modern period and gives an overview of the ways in which her story was processed and exploited by the different players of the times who wanted to give credence and support to their own belief systems. The author examines the different apparatus of state ideology which processed the social, religious and political representations of Boudica for public absorption and helped form the popular myth we have of Boudica today. By exploring images of the Briton warrior queen across two reigns which witnessed an act of political union and a move from English female rule (under Elizabeth I) to British/Scottish masculine rule (under James VI & I) the author conducts a critical cartography of the ways in which gender, colonialism and nationalism crystallised around this crucial historical figure. Concentrating on the original transmission and reception of the ancient texts the author analyses the historical works of Hector Boece, Raphael Holinshed and William Camden as well as the canonical literary figures of Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. She also looks at aspects of other primary sources not covered in previous scholarship, such as Humphrey Llwyd’s Breuiary of Britayne (1573), Petruccio Ubaldini’s Le Vite delle donne illustri, del regno d’Inghilterra, e del regno di Scotia (1588) and Edmund Bolton’s Nero Caesar (1624). Furthermore, she incorporates archaeological research relating to Boudica.
Boudicca, Una Rappresentazione Teatrale In Tre Atti
by Valentina Chirico Laurel A. RockefellerMentre il mondo occidentale cade di fronte alle possenti legioni di Roma, una donna osa combattere per la libertà dei Britanni. Adattamento teatrale del romanzo biografico "Boudicca: la regina degli Iceni", "Boudicca" racconta la storia della più grande e leggendaria regina della Britannia celtica in un formato piacevole e accessibile ai lettori di tutte le fasce d'età e alle produzioni teatrali con qualsiasi budget disponibile.
Boulevard of Dreams (Fearless Series #2)
by Mandy GonzalezBetter Nate than Ever meets Love Sugar Magic in this spooky second novel in the Fearless middle grade series from Hamilton and Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez about a group of young thespians who time travel back to 1950s Broadway.Twelve-year-old Relly can&’t wait for his beloved grandfather to finally see him on stage! Along with the rest of the Fearless Squad, Relly has just opened Our Time, a brand-new musical at the infamous Ethel Merman Theater. Though his grandfather would prefer his grandson pursue something more &“practical,&” Relly just knows when he sees the show, he will change his mind and come around on Relly&’s love of theater and dance. But right before their night show, a member of the Squad loses their phone down an open manhole. When the entire Squad goes down to help retrieve it, they find themselves in 1950s Manhattan. A big problem, considering the curtain goes up in about two hours—and over sixty years in the future! With a series of clues, Relly discovers that his grandfather was a popular tap dancer, working the nightclub circuit and pursuing his dream of performing—something he&’s been discouraging Relly from doing lately. Perhaps this accidental fall into a different time wasn&’t so accidental after all. Can Relly help his grandfather and make it back in time for places in the show?
Boundaries of Violence in Early Modern England (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Matthew Carter Samantha DresselThis book explores the possibilities and limitations of violence on the Early Modern stage and in the Early Modern world. This collection is divided into three sections: History-cal Violence, (Un)Comic Violence, and Revenge Violence. This division allows scholars to easily find intertextual materials; comic violence may function similarly across multiple comedies but is vastly different from most tragic violence. While the source texts move beyond Shakespeare, this book follows the classic division of Shakespeare’s plays into history, comedy, and tragedy. Each section of the book contains one chapter engaging with modern dramatic practice along with several that take textual or historical approaches. This wide-ranging approach means that the book will be appropriate both for specialists in Early Modern violence who are looking across multiple perspectives, and for students or scholars researching texts or approaches.
Bourdieu in the Studio: Decolonising and Decentering Actor Training Through Ludic Activism (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Evi StamatiouThis book offers tools to address the growing and urgent interest in exposing and challenging unconscious biases in the studio, exploiting how actor training uniquely combines elements of education and culture. It is the first practical and rigorous investigation of Pierre Bourdieu’s idea that domination and inequality are embodied in surreptitious ways. This book adapts and develops the techniques of Joan Littlewood and Ariane Mnouchkine that juxtapose the social with the comedic to theatricalise Bourdieusian concepts, inviting critical consciousness and critical praxis in the studio. It constructs the creative intervention Ludic Activism that can be practically applied in an actor training context. Actors from diverse training backgrounds were trained to use Ludic Activism, co-investigating how the Bourdieu-inspired vocabulary and pedagogy can facilitate the acknowledgement and tackling of dispositions during theatre-making. Ludic Activism developed the participants’ social representations into progressive and compassionate versions, reinforcing an understanding and use of their positionality in performance through a set of authorial acting tasks. This book is an advanced study for actors, directors, and teachers of acting for both the training/rehearsal studio and research. The methodology, account of the process, and evaluation of the creative intervention – including illustrations and selected videos that can be accessed on the Routledge website, under the Support Material section, here: https://www.routledge.com/Bourdieu-in-the-Studio-Decolonising-and-Decentering-Actor-Training-Through/Stamatiou/p/book/9781032306070 – demonstrate a decolonising and decentering trajectory for actor training.
Box of Secrets
by Hailane BragaThey say the truth is always better than the lie. But sometimes, certain truths are better when left unsaid. Have you ever thought about telling everyone that the person is ugly? Annoying? Stinky? Ahh! However, my truth is not as simple as that. My truth is something scary. That changes the whole life of a person, or not, depending on what attitude will be taken. Are you curious? So read my story, but don't judge me, it could be you, after all. I never thought it would happen to me, in fact, I never believed it would be possible. If I was asked what I would do if that happened, I would say to run, run away, but it is quite different when it happens to us. It is a formed life, which changes with just one fact, news. That is why I say: certain truths must be taken to the grave. If I could choose? I would choose not to know, ever! If it was you, if you were me, what would you do?
[boxhead]
by Darren O'DonnellDr. Thoughtless Actions, a young geneticist, awakes one morning to find a cardboard box secured to his head. Unable to wrench it off, he attempts suicide, not only failing but also, unbeknownst to himself, cloning himself, creating Dr. Wishful Thinking. The two losers fall in love, fall in science, and fail to make a baby. Their conversation, an intricately woven semantic circus, traverses boxedness, love, and the more ridiculous areas of metaphysical speculation. Through a series of rapid exchanges, verbal games, and musical numbers, they discover that all their thoughts come from God, all their words come from the devil, and their desire for love is a habit acquired from the cinema. Sound familiar? Don't be so hard on yourself. [boxhead]: a bedtime story for your brain.
Boy Gets Girl: A Play
by Rebecca GilmanWhat is a stalker? And what kind of life can a woman lead when she knows she is being followed, obsessively and perhaps dangerously, by one?This is the dilemma facing Theresa Bedell, a reporter in New York, in Rebecca Gilman's tensely fascinating new play. When Theresa goes on an awkward blind date with a friend of a friend, she sees no reason to continue the relationship--but the man, an attractive fellow named Tony, thinks otherwise. While Theresa is at first annoyed yet flattered by his continuing attention, her attitude gradually changes to one of fear and fury when he starts violently to menace her and those around her.In brilliantly delineating the kind of terror a woman in full control of her life feels when everything around her suddenly seems to be a threat, Gilman probes the dark side of relationships in the 1990s with the rich insight and compelling characterizations that have distinguished her earlier plays and made her one of the most exciting young playwrights working today.
The Boy Who Changed World
by Patricia MalangoHigh School \ Comedy \ 8m, 6f, optional extras \ 3 exteriors or 1 set. \ A prehistoric teenager has a problem: he is flunking fighting, hunting, and fishing and he faces the certain death of exile. To impress glamorous Dorothy, he invents painting, poetry, and music all humiliating failures. Just in time to save himself he invents the wheel and the villagers reward him with the status of manhood; it even looks as if his father will be elected mayor after all. Dorothy is available now, but George has learned the meaning of love and chooses another.
The Boy Who Killed Poncho Villa
by Jack FrakesLoosely based on THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD . It's rodeo time in Tombstone, 1912. The girls admire local cowboys like Red Roberts, while feisty Peggy Fletcher longs for past romantic heroes. A rumor spreads that Pancho Villa, the notorious Mexican bandit, is in town. But Danny Jones, a shy young man, arrives to claim he killed Pancho Villa by hitting him over the head with his ukelele. Just as the townspeople accept Danny as a hero, Pancho Villa arrives with head bandaged and furiously looking for Danny. Helen Hunt, the town flirt gets rid of Pancho so Danny can take her to the barn dance. Meanwhile, citizens enter Danny in the donkey race, which he wins - becoming a more popular hero! As Peggy and Helen bicker over Danny's affections, Pancho Villa returns to get even. Again Danny clobbers Pancho with his ukelele. The townspeople now think Pancho is really dead! But since they saw "the killing" they prepare to lynch Danny. Again, Pancho returns to ask Danny to join his band in Mexico, and teach him to play the "guitarito." Danny agrees. As they leave as "amigos", Peggy follows in pursuit of the boy who almost killed Pancho Villa!
The Boy Who Would Be Shakespeare: A Tale of Forgery and Folly
by Doug StewartStewart, a freelance journalist who writes about history and the arts, tells the story of the falsification of documents by a 19-year old British clerk, William-Henry Ireland, in 1795, who tried to pass them off as Shakespeare's in an attempt to impress his father. Since nothing survived in Shakespeare's own hand, he was able to produce letters, deeds, poetry, drawings, and a play that he claimed were Shakespeare's, which was staged in 1796. Stewart describes Ireland's family and life, his father's obsession with collecting antiquities, the cult of Shakespeare that existed at the time, publication of the papers, the inquiry into the forgeries, and his confession. A few facsimiles of the forgeries are included. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Boydell's Shakespeare Prints: 90 Engravings
by Josiah Boydell John BoydellThis impressive collection of engravings illustrating the dramatic works of Shakespeare takes a new look at the long-neglected area of romantic early-19th-century art. Nearly 100 illustrations depict dramatic scenes from AMidsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Tempest, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Measure for Measure, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear, and 26 other plays. A monumental effort begun in 1787, the engravings speak as passionately to the viewer today as they did more than 200 years ago.
The Boys in the Band: Flashpoints of Cinema, History, and Queer Politics
by Matt BellThe Boys in the Band’s debut was revolutionary for its fictional but frank presentation of a male homosexual subculture in Manhattan. Based on Mart Crowley’s hit Off-Broadway play from 1968, the film’s two-hour running time approximates real time, unfolding at a birthday party attended by nine men whose language, clothing, and behavior evoke a range of urban gay “types.” Although various popular critics, historians, and film scholars over the years have offered cursory acknowledgment of the film’s importance, more substantive research and analysis have been woefully lacking. The film’s neglect among academics belies a rich and rewarding object of study. The Boys in the Band merits not only the close reading that should accompany such a well-made text but also recognition as a landmark almost ideally situated to orient us amid the highly complex, shifting cultural terrain it occupied upon its release—and has occupied since. The scholars assembled here bring an invigorating variety of methods to their considerations of this singular film. Coming from a wide range of academic disciplines, they pose and answer questions about the film in remarkably different ways. Cultural analysis, archival research, interviews, study of film traditions, and theoretical framing intensify their revelatory readings of the film. Many of the essays take inventive approaches to longstanding debates about identity politics, and together they engage with current academic work across a variety of fields that include queer theory, film theory, gender studies, race and ethnic studies, and Marxist theory. Addressing The Boys in the Band from multiple perspectives, these essays identify and draw out the film’s latent flashpoints—aspects of the film that express the historical, cinematic, and queer-political crises not only of its own time, but also of today. The Boys in the Band is an accessible touchstone text in both queer studies and film studies. Scholars and students working in the disciplines of film studies, queer studies, history, theater, and sociology will surely find the book invaluable and a shaping influence on these fields in the coming years.
The Bram Fischer Waltz: A play
by Harry KalmerAlthough widely known as the Afrikaner communist who saved Nelson Mandela from the gallows, very little is known about Bram Fischer the man. Fischer was a respected Senior Advocate at the Johannesburg Bar who chose to side with the oppressed and went underground to join the armed struggle. He was arrested on 5 November 1965 after almost ten months on the run. ‘I owed it to the political prisoners, to the banished, to the silenced and to those under house arrest not to remain a spectator, but to act.’ These words spoken by Bram Fischer in his statement from the dock during his treason trial were followed by a life sentence. Scion of a proudly Afrikaner family that included a prime minister and a judge president of the Orange Free State, he would seem to be an unlikely hero of the liberation movement. Uncompromising in his political beliefs and driven by an unshakeable integrity and a commitment to the dream of a non-racial democracy, Fischer was also humorous, fun-loving and a family man, devoted to his wife and children. The many facets of this remarkable man are reflected in The Bram Fischer Waltz, Harry Kalmer’s lyrical tribute. A brief and intense work, with the protagonist as narrator, this one person play takes the audience through a roller coaster of emotions as it tells Fischer’s story. The play won The Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award when it premiered in English at 2013 the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and was awarded the Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts in 2014. The text is supplemented by a foreword by George Bizos and an introduction by the playwright, reflecting on the path that led him to write the play, and an afterword by Yvonne Malan, entitled ‘The Power of Moral Courage’.
Bram Stoker, Dracula and the Victorian Gothic Stage
by Catherine WynneBram Stoker worked in the theatre for most of his adult life, as theatre reviewer in Dublin in the 1870s and as business manager at London's Royal Lyceum Theatre in the final two decades of the 19th century. Despite this, critical attention to the influence of the stage on Stoker's writing has been sparse. Bram Stoker, Dracula and the Victorian Gothic Stage addresses this lacuna, examining how Stoker's fictions respond to and engage with Victorian theatre's melodramatic climate and, in particular, to supernatural plays, Gothic melodramas and Shakespearean productions that Henry Irving and Ellen Terry performed at the Lyceum. Bram Stoker, Dracula and the Victorian Gothic Stage locates the writer between stage and page. It reconsiders his literary relationships with key actors, and challenges the biographical assumption that Henry Irving provided the model for the figure of Count Dracula.
Branding Texas
by Leigh ClemonsAsk anyone to name an archetypal Texan, and you're likely to get a larger-than-life character from film or television (say John Wayne's Davy Crockett or J. R. Ewing of TV's Dallas) or a politician with that certain swagger (think LBJ or George W. Bush). That all of these figures are white and male and bursting with self-confidence is no accident, asserts Leigh Clemons. In this thoughtful study of what makes a "Texan," she reveals how Texan identity grew out of the history--and, even more, the myth--of the heroic deeds performed by Anglo men during the Texas Revolution and the years of the Republic and how this identity is constructed and maintained by theatre and other representational practices. Clemons looks at a wide range of venues in which "Texanness" is performed, including historic sites such as the Alamo, the battlefield at Goliad, and the San Jacinto Monument; museums such as the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum; seasonal outdoor dramas such as Texas! at Palo Duro Canyon; films such as John Wayne's The Alamo and the IMAX's Alamo: The Price of Freedom; plays and TV shows such as the Tuna trilogy, Dallas, and King of the Hill; and the Cavalcade of Texas performance at the 1936 Texas Centennial. She persuasively demonstrates that these performances have created a Texan identity that has become a brand, a commodity that can be sold to the public and even manipulated for political purposes.
Brave New Workshop: Promiscuous Hostility and Laughs in the Land of Loons (Landmarks)
by Rob HubbardIn 1958, former circus aerialist Dudley Riggs opened a Minneapolis coffeehouse with a stage for performers and created an American comedic institution. What started as a way to draw customers on slow nights became the Brave New Workshop, a comedy theater sinking its satirical talons deep into the culture of Minneapolis-St. Paul for over half a century. This theater helped launch the careers of many talented performers, including satirist-turned-senator Al Franken and his Saturday Night Live partner in comedy, Tom Davis, as well as comedian Louie Anderson, Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, screenwriter Pat Proft of the Naked Gun films and many others. Author Rob Hubbard tells the story of the hilarity, irreverence and imagination of the Brave New Workshop--a funhouse mirror to the world around it."If you've lived in Chicago, you know what Second City is. If you've lived in the Twin Cities, you know what the Brave New Workshop is. Founder Dudley Riggs and the Brave New Workshop played a big part in my comedy career. Read the real history of this company and the actors and writers from it who have influenced comedy on television and the big screen for over 50 years."- Louie Anderson
Bravely Fought The Queen: A Stage Play In Three Acts
by Mahesh DattaniFirst staged in Mumbai in 1991, Bravely Fought the Queen juggles between two spaces-centre stage where an empirical drama removes the mask of hypocrisy from a seemingly 'normal' urban household; and a small, rear backdrop from which emerges the raison d'être of each protagonist. The family in focus is that of two brothers, Jiten and Nitin, who run an advertising agency and are married to sisters: Dolly and Alka. Their mother, Baa, moves between the two households, attached more to her memories of the past than to any present reality. Marital friction, sibling rivalry, the traditional tension between mother-in law and daughters-in-law, the darker moments of business and personal dealings, the play takes us through the entire gamut of emotional experience as it winds to a climactic finish. With its relentless pace, crisp idiom and unflinching insight into the urban milieu, this is a play that confirms Mahesh Dattani's reputation as India's most influential playwright.