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The Business of American Theatre
by William GrangeThe Business of American Theatre is a research guide to the history of producing theatre in the United States. Covering a wide range of subjects, the book explores how traditions of investment, marketing, labor union contracts, advertising, leasing arrangements, ticket scalping, zoning ordinances, royalties, and numerous other financial transactions have influenced the art of theatre for the past three centuries. Yet the book is not a dry reiteration of hits and flops, bankruptcies and bamboozles. Nor does it cover "everything about it that's appealing, everything the traffic will allow" (as Irving Berlin did in the song "There's No Business Like Show Business"). It is instead a highly readable resource for anyone interested in how money, and how much money, is critical to the art and artists of theatre. Many of those artists make appearances in the book: Richard Rodgers and his keen eye for investment, Jacob Shubert and his construction of "the bridge of thighs" for his showgirls at the Winter Garden, the significance of the Disney Souvenir Shop near the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway, and the difference between a Broadway show losing millions of dollars or making billions in one night. Consider this book a go-to resource for readers, students, and scholars of the theatre business.
The Business of Broadway: An Insider?s Guide to Working, Producing, and Investing in the World?s Greatest Theatre Community
by Mitch Weiss Perri GaffneyNew York’s Broadway theatre scene has long been viewed as the "top of the heap” in the world theatre community. Taking lessons from the very best, this innovative guide delves into the business side of the renowned industry to explain just how its system functions. For anyone interested in pursuing a career on Broadway, or who wants to grow a theatre in any other part of the world, The Business of Broadway offers an in-depth analysis of the infrastructure at the core of successful theatre. Manager/producer Mitch Weiss and actor/writer Perri Gaffney take readers behind the scenes to reveal what the audience--and even the players and many producers--don’t know about how Broadway works, describing more than 200 jobs that become available for every show. A variety of performers, producers, managers, and others involved with the Broadway network share valuable personal experience in interviews discussing what made a show a hit or a miss, and how some of the rules, regulations, and practices that are in place today were pioneered.
The Business of English Restoration Theatre, 1660–1700
by null Deborah C. PayneDeborah C. Payne's ground-breaking study traces the historical origins of a dilemma still bedevilling theatre companies: how to reconcile audience demand for novelty with profitability. As a solution, English acting companies in 1660 adopted an unprecedented theatrical duopoly. Implicit to its economic logic were scarcity, prestige, and innovation: attributes that, it was hoped, would generate wealth and exclusivity. Changes to playhouse architecture, stagecraft, dramatic repertory, and company practices were undertaken to create this new, upmarket theatre of “great expences.” So powerful was the promise of the duopoly and so enthralling the wholesale transformation of the theatrical marketplace that management—despite dwindling box office—resisted change for 35 years. Drawing upon network and behavioural economic theory, Professor Payne shows why the acting companies clung to an economic model inimical to their self-interest. Original archival research further bolsters this radically new perspective on an exciting and crucial period in English theatre. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The Business of Theatrical Design
by James MoodyFor theatrical design students and theater professionals, here is the essential guide to marketing your skills, furthering your career, and operating a successful business! In The Business of Theatrical Design, design veteran James Moody shares his proven techniques to help costume, scenic, and lighting designers become successful businesspeople. Here is the latest information regarding IRS, state, and business liabilities; salary and fee scales; equipment costs; professional organizations; union and contract issues; and much more. Plus dozens of working producers, promoters, and designers share their insights and offer a thorough, true-to-life profile of this competitive industry. An indispensable resource for anyone looking to pursue a career in the theater!
The Business of Theatrical Design, Second Edition
by James MoodyWritten by a leading design consultant and carefully updated with the latest information on the industry, this is the essential guide to earning a living, marketing skills, furthering a design career, and operating a business. With more than thirty years of backstage and behind-the-scenes experience in theater, film, television, concerts, and special events, James Moody shares his success secrets for the benefit of design students and working designers. Topics include: Finding and landing dream assignmentsNegotiating feesSetting up ideal working spacesBuilding the perfect staffOvercoming fears of accounting and record-keepingChoosing the right insuranceJoining the right unions and professional organizationsAnd more In addition to revealing how to get the great design jobs in traditional entertainment venues, the author shows designers how to think outside the box and seize creative, lucrative opportunities—such as those in theme parks, in concert halls, and with architectural firms. Providing the keys for passionate, talented designers to become successful businesspeople, The Business of Theatrical Design is a must-read for novices and established professionals alike.
But He Doesn't Know the Territory
by Meredith WillsonComposer Meredith Willson once described The Music Man as "an Iowan's attempt to pay tribute to his home state." Never once forgetting his roots, Willson reflects on the ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, and finally successes of the making of one of America's most popular musicals. His whimsical, personable writing style will bring readers back in time with him to the 1950s to experience firsthand the exciting trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway masterpiece. A newfound admiration for The Music Man--and the man behind the music--is sure to follow.
"But He Doesn't Know the Territory": The Story behind Meredith Willson's The Music Man
by Meredith WillsonChronicles the creation of Meredith Willson&’s The Music Man—reprinted now as the Broadway Edition Composer Meredith Willson described The Music Man as &“an Iowan&’s attempt to pay tribute to his home state.&” Now featuring a new foreword by noted singer and educator Michael Feinstein, this book presents Willson&’s reflections on the ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, and finally successes of making one of America&’s most popular musicals. Willson&’s whimsical, personable writing style brings readers back in time with him to the 1950s to experience firsthand the exciting trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway masterpiece. Fresh admiration of the musical—and the man behind the music—is sure to result.
But Why Bump Off Barnaby
by Rick AbbotMystery Farce / 4m, 6f / This lunatic show poses a fascinating mystery. When Barnaby Folcey is murdered at a family gathering at Marlgate Manor, it transpires that he had a motive to murder everybody else but no one had a reason to want him dead. While dying, he scrawled the letters "b- a-r," which can implicate everyone. While the bizarre group frantically tries to unmask the murderer, people vanish, poison is found in the sherry and the police take forever to arrive. Meanwhile, there's a secret treasure to be found, a mystifying limerick to decode and all sorts of doom to be avoided before the killer is finally unmasked and destroyed using one of the funniest methods ever seen on a stage.
Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit
by Marlon M. BaileyButch Queens Up in Pumpsexamines Ballroom culture, in which inner-city LGBT individuals dress, dance, and vogue to compete for prizes and trophies. Participants are affiliated with a house, an alternative family structure typically named after haute couture designers and providing support to this diverse community. Marlon M. Bailey's rich first-person performance ethnography of the Ballroom scene in Detroit examines Ballroom as a queer cultural formation that upsets dominant notions of gender, sexuality, kinship, and community.
Butcher
by Nicolas BillonAn old man in a military uniform is dumped at the police station--he won't speak English but has a lawyer's card in his pocket. A seemingly innocuous encounter gets stranger and stranger as we gradually realize no one is who they seem and the Balkan wars' traumas continue to play out. The "It Kid" of Canadian theater, award-winning playwright Nicolas Billon, returns with a devastating parable.Nicolas Billon's plays and translations have been produced at the Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, and Canadian Stage. Fault Lines won the Governor General's Award, and his first play, The Elephant Song, is being developed into a film starring Catherine Keener.
Butoh America: Butoh Dance in the United States and Mexico from 1970 to the early 2000s (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Tanya CalamoneriButoh America unearths the people and networks that popularized Butoh dance in the Americas, through a focused look at key artists, producers, and festivals in United States and Mexico. This is the first book to gather these histories into one narrative and look at the development of American Butoh. From its inception in San Francisco in 1976, American Butoh aligned with avant-garde performance art in alternative venues such as galleries and experimental theaters. La MaMa in New York and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato both served to legitimize the form as esteemed experimental performance. A crystalizing moment in each of the three locations—San Francisco, New York, and Mexico City—has been a grand-scale festival featuring prominent Japanese and numerous other international artists, as well as fostering local communities. This book stitches together the flow of people and ideas, highlights the connections in the Butoh diaspora, and incorporates interviewee perspectives regarding future directions for the genre in the Americas.
Butoh, as Heard by a Dancer (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Dominique Savitri BonarjeeThis book explores the origins of Butoh in post-war Japan through orality and transmission, in conjunction with an embodied research approach. The book is a gathering of seminal artistic voices – Yoshito Ohno, Natsu Nakajima, Yukio Waguri, Moe Yamamoto, Masaki Iwana, Ko Murobushi, Yukio Suzuki, Takao Kawaguchi, Yuko Kaseki, and the philosopher, Kuniichi Uno. These conversations happened during an extended research trip I made to Japan to understand the context and circumstances that engendered Butoh. Alongside these exchanges are my reflections on Butoh’s complex history. These are primarily informed by my pedagogical and performance encounters with the artists I met during this time, rather than a theoretical analysis. Through the words of these dancers, I investigate Butoh’s tendency to evade categorization. Butoh’s artistic legacy of bodily rebellion, plurality of authorship, and fluidity of form seems prescient and feels more relevant in contemporary times than ever before. This book is intended as a practitioner's guide for dancers, artists, students, and scholars with an interest in non-Western dance and dance history, postmodern performance, and Japanese arts and culture.
Butterscotch
by Barbara L. SmithComedic drama / 3m, 2f / Interior / Butterscotch is a candy yellow 1947 Ford at the center of an unlikely friendship between a New York restaurant critic and a man who loves roadside diners. The critic has come to a small Pennsylvania town to persuade his fiancee's father to attend their wedding in New York. The bride, a news correspondents off on assignment, has not even told her cantankerous, ailing father she is getting married. Adding to the bucolic fray are an elderly neighbor who has her fading eyesight on the widowed father, dad's hunting buddy and a nervous ex New Yorker whose condo ruined a favorite hunting spot. Father and future son in law share only a dislike for each other, but the vintage car brings about a surprising end to a seemingly hopeless impasse.
Buyer & Cellar: The Original Script for the Off Broadway Hit
by Jonathan TolinsThe original script of the award-winning off-Broadway play—“irresistibly entertaining [and] surprisingly moving” (Paul Rudnick). Alex More has a story to tell. A struggling actor in LA, he takes a job working in the Malibu basement of a beloved megastar. One day, the Lady Herself comes downstairs to play. It feels like real bonding in the basement—but will their relationship ever make it upstairs? A winner of the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, Buyer & Cellar is an outrageous comedy about the price of fame, the cost of things, and the oddest of odd jobs. “Jonathan Tolins has concocted an irresistible one-man play from the most peculiar of fictitious premises . . . This seriously funny slice of absurdist whimsy creates the illusion of a stage filled with multiple people, all of them with their own droll point of view.” —The New York Times “A gorgeous play: funny and beautifully observed and richly insightful.” —Moisés Kaufman “Tolins’s writing is smart, sharp, and hilarious—and he paints a vivid picture that even a perfectionist like Barbra would have to applaud.” —James Lapine
Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley (Screen Classics)
by Jeffrey SpivakCharacterized by grandiose song-and-dance numbers featuring ornate geometric patterns and mimicked in many modern films, Busby Berkeley's unique artistry is as recognizable and striking as ever. From his years on Broadway to the director's chair, Berkeley is notorious for his inventiveness and signature style. Through sensational films like 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933), and Dames (1934), Berkeley sought to distract audiences from the troubles of the Great Depression. Although his bold technique is familiar to millions of moviegoers, Berkeley's life remains a mystery.Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley is a telling portrait of the filmmaker who revolutionized the musical and changed the world of choreography. Berkeley pioneered many conventions still in use today, including the famous "parade of faces" technique, which lends an identity to each anonymous performer in a close-up. Carefully arranging dancers in complex and beautiful formations, Berkeley captured perspectives never seen before.Jeffrey Spivak's meticulous research magnifies the career and personal life of this beloved filmmaker. Employing personal letters, interviews, studio memoranda, and Berkeley's private memoirs, Spivak unveils the colorful life of one of cinema's greatest artists.
By Any Other Name
by Erin Cotter&“A high-stakes, high-drama mystery…led by a plucky, determined hero I would have followed anywhere…[A] romantic, delightful romp!&” —Mackenzi Lee, New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman&’s Guide to Vice and Virtue A down-on-his-luck actor and an English lord reluctantly team up to solve the murder of Christopher Marlowe in this Shakespearean-era &“quippy, heart-wrenching debut…ideal for fans of Mackenzi Lee and F.T. Lukens&” (Kirkus Reviews).London, 1593. Sixteen-year-old Will Hughes is busy working on Shakespeare&’s stage, stuffing his corsets with straw and pretending to be someone else. Offstage, he&’s playing a part, too. The son of traitors, Will is desperate to keep his identity secret—or risk being killed in the bloody queen&’s imperial schemes. All he wants is to lay low until he earns enough coin to return to his family. But when his mentor, the famous playwright Christopher Marlowe, is murdered under mysterious circumstances, Will&’s plans are hopelessly dashed. What&’s worse, Marlowe was a spy for the queen, tasked with stalking a killer rumored to be part of an elusive order of assassins, and his secrets and untimely death have put Will under a harsh spotlight. Then, when Will unwittingly foils an attempt on the queen&’s life, she names him her next spymaster. Now, to avoid uncomfortable questions, prison, or an even more terrible fate, Will reluctantly starts his new career, which—yes—will secure him the resources to help his family…but at what cost? Adding insult to injury is the young Lord James Bloomsbury, Will&’s new comrade in arms, whose entitled demeanor and unfairly handsome looks get under Will&’s skin immediately. Together, the two hunt the cunning assassin, defend the queen&’s life, and pray to keep their own...all while an unexpected connection blossoms between them.
By Myself and Then Some
by Lauren BacallThe epitome of grace, independence, and wit, Lauren Bacall continues to project an audacious spirit and pursue on-screen excellence. The product of an extraordinary mother and a loving extended family, she produced, with Humphrey Bogart, some of the most electric and memorable scenes in movie history. After tragically losing Bogart, she returned to New York and a brilliant career in the theatre. A two-time Tony winner, she married and later divorced her second love, Jason Robards, and never lost sight of the strength that made her a star.Now, thirty years after the publication of her original National Book Award–winning memoir, Bacall has added new material to her inspiring history. In her own frank and beautiful words, one of our most enduring actresses reveals the remarkable true story of a lifetime so rich with incident and achievement that Hollywood itself would be unable to adequately reproduce it.
By the Name of Kensington
by Jean Lenox ToddieComic drama / 2 m., 2 f. / Simple set. / From the author of A Little Something for the Ducks, White Room of My Remembering and Looking for a Better Berry Bush, among others, comes the story of a well bred cricket from London who is dismayed to find himself playing doppelganger to a woman in Appalachia. In this humorous and touching tale of the relationship between an arrogant black cricket with a Bond Street address and a poorly educated young woman who aspires to better herself, this award winning playwright has created two uniquely lovable characters.
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark
by Lynn Nottage"Nottage is one of our finest playwrights, a smart, empathetic, and daring storyteller who tells a story an audience won't expect." Time Out New York"Lynn Nottage's work explores depths of humanness, the overlapping complexities of race, gender, culture and history and the startling simplicity of desire with a clear tenderness, with humor, with compassion." Paula Vogel, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrightIn her first new play since the critically acclaimed Ruined, Lynn Nottage examines the legacy of African Americans in Hollywood in a dramatic stylistic departure from her previous work. Fluidly incorporating film and video elements into her writing for the first time, Nottage's comedy tells the story of Vera Stark, an African American maid and budding actress who has a tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold onto her career. Stirring audiences out of complacency by tackling racial stereotyping in the entertainment industry, Nottage highlights the paradox of black actors in 1930s Hollywood while jumping back and forward in time and location in this uniquely theatrical narrative. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark premiered in New York in 2011 and will receive productions at Los Angeles's Geffen Playhouse in fall 2012 and Chicago's Goodman Theatre and The Lyric Stage Company of Boston in spring 2013.Lynn Nottage's plays include the Pulitzer Prize winning Ruined; Intimate ApparelFabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine; Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por'Knockers; and POOF!
Bye For Now: A Wishers Story
by Kathleen ChurchyardThe candles dripped onto the icing as Robin deliberated. What could she possibly wish? She wanted to wake up the next day and learn all her problems were gone. But since her problems weren’t going to disappear, she didn’t want to be Robin anymore. “I wish I was somebody else,” Robin wished. And in that moment, she meant it. She blew out the candles. After the worst eleventh birthday ever, Robin wakes up the next morning in the body of Fiona, an eleven-year-old girl from London with an amazing life. Fiona is gorgeous, with glamorous parents, and she’s the star of a major theatrical production. Why would Fiona have wished herself out of her own body? Slowly, Robin discovers a whole network of girls like her-girls who have gotten their wish and are living somebody else’s life. But what happens when Robin finally decides she wants to go home? Does anybody in the Wishers network know how to make this happen? In this exciting first novel, Kathleen Churchyard asks: What if you wished for someone else’s life-and it came true?
Byron & Shakespeare - Wils Kni
by Wilson KnightIn this volume, G. Wilson Knight deals with the "superabundance of analogies between Byron and Shakespeare" through analysis and literarty criticism of poetry, sonnets and essays.
Cabaret nel ghetto di Varsavia: Melody Palace, teatro canzoni ed umorismo per sopravvivere all'inferno
by Lazaro DroznesDescrizione del libro: Cabaret nel ghetto di Varsavia. Melody Palace Teatro, canzoni e umorismo per sopravvivere all'inferno Durante la Seconda guerra mondiale il popolo ebraico sviluppò un'intensa attività culturale nei campi di concentramento, nei campi di sterminio e nei ghetti. Teatro, musica, cabaret, opera sono stati gli assi della resistenza spirituale che ne hanno permesso sopravvivenza. Questo libro è dedicato all'umorismo ed al cabaret ebraico, la forma teatrale che riunisce testi, canto e ballo in un unico spettacolo. L'umorismo ebraico è un modo per elaborare il dolore e la sofferenza. In quell’istante magico in cui appare il lampo di una battuta, la fame scompare, scompaiono le mense popolari, il lavoro forzato, il tifo, i morti sui marciapiedi, il mercato nero, le tessere annonarie, le deportazioni verso Est e le infinite sofferenze vissute per un solo motivo: essere ebrei. Attraverso l'umorismo, il popolo ebraico è stato in grado di preservare la propria dignità e sentire di essere ancora esseri umani nonostante tutti i tentativi nazisti di distruggere in loro tutte le tracce di umanità. L'umorismo ha potuto trasformare il pessimismo in ottimismo. La rassegnazione in speranza. Il presente in futuro. Attraverso l'umorismo il popolo ebraico ha compiuto il suo supremo lavoro di sabotaggio: la sopravvivenza. Ha impedito che le proprie debolezze fossero più forti dei punti di forza. L'umorismo è l'arma segreta del popolo ebraico. I nazisti non hanno capito perché i nazisti non hanno avuto senso dell'umorismo. Perché il tedesco è uguale all'yiddish, ma senza senso dell'umorismo. L'umorismo prima, durante e dopo la Seconda guerra mondiale è stato uno spazio di libertà all'inferno, in cui era possibile essere ottimisti e lasciare il pessimismo per tempi migliori. Le persone che non ridono sono morte prima di morire. Il popolo ebraico ha potuto rider
The Cabin
by David MametIn these mordant, elegant, and often disquieting essays, the internationally acclaimed dramatist creates a sort of autobiography by strobe light, one that is both mysterious and starkly revealing.The pieces in The Cabin are about places and things: the suburbs of Chicago, where as a boy David Mamet helplessly watched his stepfather terrorize his sister; New York City, where as a young man he had to eat his way through a mountain of fried matzoh to earn a night of sexual bliss. They are about guns, campaign buttons, and a cabin in the Vermont woods that stinks of wood smoke and kerosene -- and about their associations of pleasure, menace, and regret.The resulting volume may be compared to the plays that have made Mamet famous: it is finely crafted and deftly timed, and its precise language carries an enormous weight of feeling.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Cabin Fever (Schenkar)
by Joan SchenkarBlack comedy / 2m, 1f / Unit Set / This comedy of menace features three malevolent New England oldsters on a country porch reciting horrifying and hysterically funny stories about local customs. "Cabin Fever" has been produced around the globe.
Caddie Woodlawn
by Tom Shelton Susan C. Hunter Carol Ryrie BrinkMusical / 8m, 7f, plus 18 children / Carol Ryrie Brink's Newberry Award-winning novel Caddie Woodlawn is brought to exuberant life as a musical. Caddie (the iconic, high-spirited Wisconsin pioneer girl beloved by generations of readers) leads her willing siblings in a series of thrilling adventures, not always with the approval of her traditional Bostonian mother. Her father, however, encourages her antics, that she might thrive amidst the new, tougher ways of the West. In a dramatic climax, Caddie single-handedly diffuses a potentially deadly clash between the terrified settlers and the local Dakota tribe through a daring and dangerous act. But her action only deepens her conflict with her mother. Ultimately, Caddie learns invaluable lessons about reconciling the head-strong child she's been, and the responsible adult she is soon to be. Through it all, the sacredness of tradition - passed from one generation to the next - is powerfully dramatized. As one wise friend tells Caddie: "Families - they're our link to forever, lass."