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360° Circus: Meaning. Practice. Culture (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Franziska TrappThis collection aims to map a diversity of approaches to the artform by creating a 360° view on the circus. The three sections of the book, Aesthetics, Practice, Culture, approach aesthetic developments, issues of artistic practice, and the circus’ role within society. This book consists of a collection of articles from renowned circus researchers, junior researchers, and artists. It also provides the core statements and discussions of the conference UpSideDown—Circus and Space in a graphic recording format. Hence, it allows a clear entry into the field of circus research and emphasizes the diversity of approaches that are well balanced between theoretical and artistic point of views. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of circus studies, emerging disciples of circus and performance.
365 Days / 365 Plays
by Suzan-Lori Parks"Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most important dramatists America has produced."-Tony Kushner "The plan was that no matter what I did, how busy I was, what other commitments I had, I would write a play a day, every single day for a year. It would be about being present and being committed to the artistic process every single day, regardless of the 'weather.' It became a daily meditation, a daily prayer celebrating the rich and strange process of a writing life."-Suzan-Lori Parks On November 13, 2002, the incomparable Suzan-Lori Parks got an idea to write a play every day for a year. She began that very day, finishing one year later. The result is an extraordinary testament to artistic commitment. This collection of 365 impeccably crafted pieces, each with its own distinctive characters and dramatic power, is a complete work by an artist responding to her world, each and every day. Parks is one of the American theater's most wily and innovative writers, and her "stark but poetic language and fiercely idiosyncratic images transform her work into something haunting and marvelous" (TIME).
39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance
by Matthew Goulish'A series of accidents has brought you this book. You may think of it not as a book, but as a library, an elevator, an amateur performance in a nearby theatre. Open it to the table of contents. Turn to the page that sounds the most interesting to you. Read a sentence or two. Repeat the process. Read this book as a creative act, and feel encouraged.' 39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance is a collection of miniature stories, parables, musings and thinkpieces on the nature of reading, writing, art, collaboration, performance, life, death, the universe and everything. It is a unique and moving document for our times, full of curiosity and wonder, thoughtfulness and pain. Matthew Goulish, founder member of performance group Goat Island, meditates on these and other diverse themes, proving, along the way, that the boundaries between poetry and criticism, and between creativity and theory, are a lot less fixed than they may seem. The book is revelatory, solemn yet at times hilarious, and genuinely written to inspire - or perhaps provoke - creativity and thought.
3D Printing Basics for Entertainment Design
by Anne E. McMillsAffordable 3D printers are rapidly becoming everyday additions to the desktops and worktables of entertainment design practitioners – whether working in theatre, theme parks, television and film, museum design, window displays, animatronics, or… you name it! We are beginning to ask important questions about these emerging practices: · How can we use 3D fabrication to make the design and production process more efficient? · How can it be used to create useful and creative items? · Can it save us from digging endlessly through thrift store shelves or from yet another late-night build? · And when budgets are tight, will it save us money? This quick start guide will help you navigate the alphabet soup that is 3D printing and begin to answer these questions for yourself. It outlines the basics of the technology, and its many uses in entertainment design. With straightforward and easy-to-follow information, you will learn ways to acquire printable 3D models, basic methods of creating your own, and tips along the way to produce successful prints. Over 70 professionals contributed images, guidance, and never-before-seen case studies filled with insider secrets to this book, including tutorials by designer and pioneer, Owen M. Collins.
4 Beekman
by Ron ClarkComedyCharacters: 6 male, 3 female (w/ doubling) . Interior set . . Deanne and Robert, a May-December couple, have just returned from their honeymoon, and Deanne is shocked to find that Robert has unwittingly bought the very same apartment that she used to live in with her ex-husband, Skip. Not only that, but Skip has also bought the apartment right next door to theirs. It becomes apparent in time that Deanne and Skip are still in love, and getting the couple back together is facilitated by Robert falling for Deanne's mother, Louella. All ends right in this swift-moving romantic comedy from master comic writer Ron Clark.
400 Kilometres
by Drew Hayden TaylorThis is the third play in the author's hilarious and heart-wrenching identity-politics trilogy. <p><p>Janice Wirth, a thirty-something urban professional, having discovered her roots as the Ojibway orphan Grace Wabung in Someday, and having visited her birth family on the Otter Lake Reserve in Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, is pregnant, and must now come to grips with the question of her “true identity.” Her adoptive parents have just retired, and are about to sell their house to embark on a quest for their own identity by “returning” to England. <p><p>Meanwhile, the Native father of her child-to-be is attempting to convince Janice/Grace that their new generation’s future lies with their “own people” at Otter Lake. Which path for the future is Janice/Grace to choose, for herself, her families and her child, having spent a lifetime caught between the questions of “what I am” and “who I am”?
4000 Miles and After the Revolution
by Amy Herzog"After the Revolution is a smart, funny and provocative play. . . . Herzog deftly avoids simple-minded polemics in favor of richly detailed people who are as ready to examine their relationships as they are their consciences."--Variety "A funny, moving new play . . . 4,000 Miles is a quiet meditation on mortality. But it's hardly a downer: Ms. Herzog's altogether wonderful drama also illuminates how companionship can make life meaningful, moment by moment, in death's discomforting shadow."--The New York Times Known for delicately detailed character studies that subtly balance humor and insight, Amy Herzog is swiftly emerging as a striking new voice in the American theater. After the Revolution, an astute and ironic drama about how society appropriates history for its own psychological needs, was heralded by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best New Plays of 2010. Herzog's other critical hit, 4,000 Miles, is a quiet rumination on mortality in which twenty-one-year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty ninety-one-year-old grandmother Vera in her New York apartment. Amy Herzog received the 2011 Whiting Writers' Award and the 2008 Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights. Her plays have been produced or developed at the Yale School of Drama, Ensemble Studio Theater, Arena Stage, Lincoln Center, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Stage and Film, Provincetown Playhouse, and ACT in San Francisco. Her newest play, Belleville, premiered at Yale Rep in fall 2011.
5 Easy Pieces
by Jason Milligan5 one act plays by accomplished playwright Jason Milligan. . Contents:. Rituals One Way Street Paul's Ghost The Fire-Breathing Lady and the Sugarplum Fairy Key Lime Pie
6 Essential Questions
by Priscila Uppal6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as they choreograph the ultimate dance of mother and daughter, both of whom must confront their dreams before they can ever attempt to confront each other. Imaginations run wild in this strangely beautiful and funny story loosely based on Uppal’s critically acclaimed memoir, Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother, a finalist for both the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
7 Stories
by Morris PanychIn this fast-paced, sophisticated and hilarious play, a man contemplating suicide on a seventh-storey building ledge confronts the stories of the people who live inside the building. These "seven stories" lead to a charming and surprising ending.Cast of 2 women and 3 men.
72 Miles To Go...
by Hilary Bettis72 miles. It's the distance between Tucson Arizona and Nogales Mexico - and the distance between deported immigrant Anita and her American-born husband and children. 72 Miles to Go... follows one family over a decade as they come of age fall in love ght in wars and ght for each other - against the backdrop of deportation DACA and changing immigration laws.
887
by Robert LepageFrom internationally acclaimed playwright and author Robert Lepage comes 887 — an autobiographical story originally toured as a solo show. Framed by Lepage’s attempt to memorize Michèle Lalonde’s poem “Speak White,” 887 is an exploration of memory, culture, and community in Quebec.As the 40th anniversary of La Nuit de la poésie in Montreal approaches, playwright Robert Lepage is invited to recite Michèle Lalonde’s seminal poem “Speak White” from memory on the special night. After agonizing hours spent attempting to memorize the piece, Lepage finds himself unable to recall a single line. In a last effort he decides to employ a mnemonic device dating back to ancient Greece called the Memory Palace — a technique of imagination and association. Lepage’s Memory Palace is 887 Murray Avenue, the apartment block where he grew up. Winding his way around the rooms of the building and the lives of the tenants therein, Lepage guides the reader through a world of recollections of 1960s Quebec, the decade that shaped the province’s cultural and political consciousness.A mesmerizing and multifaceted glimpse into the realm of memory, 887 is a tour of culture and community in 1960s Quebec through one masterful artist’s remarkable, boundary-defying perspective.
A Bad Day At Gopher's Breath
by Al Ver SchureFarceCharacters: 14 male, 4 female (including 1 male narrator guitarist and 1 male or female piano player), plus extras. Area or platform staging. . After many failures due to ineptitude, the notorious Rawlins gang rides into Gopher's Breath to rob the bank. While Rawhide Rawlins dreams of a farm for his ma, Sheriff Crutchwaffle representing all that's rotten in town also has his designs on the loot. He needs money to escape the clutches of Fat Jack Caldwell, the most feared man in the West. The outlaws and the sheriff force each other to alter their plans and the banker's niece enters the plot. Stricken by love, a Rawhide tries desperately to go straight, but his gang carries on and Crutchwaffle manipulates them to his own evil ends. Predictably, love deals Crutchwaffle a bad draw in the end and Bambi and Rawhide ride happily into the sunset. Riddled with all the traditional cliches of the classic western, Gopher's Breath becomes the setting for hilarious happenings.
A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories
by Leonard CohenNATIONAL BESTSELLERAn unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen.Before the celebrated late-career world tours, before the Grammy awards, before the chart-topping albums, before &“Hallelujah&” and &“So Long, Marianne&” and &“Famous Blue Raincoat,&” the young Leonard Cohen wrote poetry and fiction and yearned for literary stardom. In A Ballet of Lepers, readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen&’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning.Written between 1956 in Montreal, just as Cohen was publishing his first poetry collection, and 1961, when he&’d settled on Greece&’s Hydra island, the pieces in this collection offer startling insight into Cohen&’s imagination and creative process, and explore themes that would permeate his later work, from shame and unworthiness to sexual desire to longing, whether for love, family, freedom, or transcendence.The titular novel, A Ballet of Lepers—one he later remarked was &“probably a better novel&” than his celebrated book The Favourite Game—is a haunting examination of these elements, while the fifteen stories, as well as the playscript, probe the inner demons of his characters, many of whom could function as stand-ins for the author himself.Meditative, surprising, playful, and provocative, A Ballet of Lepers is vivid in its detail, unsparing in its gaze, and reveals the great artist and visceral genius like never before.
A Beckett Canon
by Ruby CohnSamuel Beckett is unique in literature. Born and educated in Ireland, he lived most of his life in Paris. His literary output was rendered in either English or French, and he often translated one to the other, but there is disagreement about the contents of his bilingual corpus. A Beckett Canon by renowned theater scholar Ruby Cohn offers an invaluable guide to the entire corpus, commenting on Beckett's work in its original language. Beginning in 1929 with Beckett's earliest work, the book examines the variety of genres in which he worked: poems, short stories, novels, plays, radio pieces, teleplays, reviews, and criticism. Cohn grapples with the difficulties in Beckett's work, including the opaque erudition of the early English verse and fiction, and the searching depths and syntactical ellipsis of the late works. Specialist and nonspecialist readers will find A Beckett Canon valuable for its remarkable inclusiveness. Cohn has examined the holdings of all of the major Beckett depositories, and is thus able to highlight neglected manuscripts and correct occasional errors in their listings. Intended as a resource to accompany the reading of Beckett's writing--in English or French, published or unpublished, in part or as a whole--the book offers context, information, and interpretation of the work of one of the last century's most important writers.
A Beginner's Guide to Special Makeup Effects, Volume 2: Revenge of the Prosthetics
by Christopher PayneA Beginner’s Guide to Special Makeup Effects, Volume 2 builds on the foundations covered in A Beginner's Guide to Special Makeup Effects: Monsters, Maniacs and More, introducing more professional-level materials and techniques and preparing readers for the next steps in their career.This book is divided into two sections: Paint and Buildups and Prosthetics. The first section shows a variety of characters created using two-dimensional painting techniques and materials that can be built up right on the skin, while the second section teaches how to apply a variety of store-bought prosthetics. Foam latex, silicone and prosthetic transfers are all covered. Each character is introduced with a full-page photograph of the finished makeup and illustrated with full-color, step-by-step photographs. The makeup tutorials in this book are designed to build on the lessons learned in the previous chapters, allowing readers to gradually expand on their skill set. The book also includes instruction on airbrushing, applying fake tattoos, making bald caps, PAX paint, wig application and a variety of other materials and skills. Five appendices cover topics including building a makeup kit, photographing your work and getting jobs as a makeup artist.This is practical, easy-to-follow makeup book is suited for students of stage makeup courses, as well as for the theatre technician working and training on their own.
A Beginner's Guide to Special Makeup Effects: Monsters, Maniacs and More
by Christopher PayneA Beginner's Guide to Special Makeup Effects: Monsters, Maniacs and More is an introduction to special effects makeup using cost-effective tools and materials that can be found in local stores. The book is divided into three sections – Simple Makeup, Advanced Materials and Techniques and Advanced Makeup – and features tutorials to create characters such as a pirate, vampire, ghost, robot, burn victim, witch, zombie and goblin. Each character is introduced with a full-page photograph of the finished makeup and illustrated with full-color, step-by-step photographs. The book also includes instructions on how to make fake teeth, apply bald caps, create gory wounds and injuries and make simple prosthetics. Each makeup tutorial is designed to progressively build on the techniques outlined in the preceding tutorial, guiding readers from the basics of foundation, highlight and shadow to creating advanced creature makeups. This is a beginner makeup book suited for students of Stage Makeup courses, as well as for the theatre technician working and training on their own.
A Bench in the Sun
by Ron ClarkHarold and Burt, longtime friends, live in a retirement home and spend their days on a bench in the garden bickering. A once famous actress has just moved in, giving them something new to argue over. When they learn that the home is about to be sold and they will have to find a new residence, the three join forces to prevent this upsetting development. "Very wise, very moving, but most of all, very funny."-Mel Brooks. . "A sunny comedy...it charms throughout."-Stamford Advocate. . FEE: $75 per performance.
A Bit of Me: From Basildon to Broadway, and back
by Denise Van OutenDenise Van Outen, original 90s 'ladette', West End star and primetime TV favourite, reveals for the first time the true story of grit and graft beneath the famous Essex sparkle.In this refreshingly candid memoir, Denise speaks openly and sensitively about her rollercoaster career, her struggles in a past high-profile relationship and the betrayal she suffered at the hands of those once closest to her, with the hope that in doing so, she can help empower others to avoid and overcome any similar difficulties they may face.Denise shot to fame on The Big Breakfast in her early twenties. After a decade grafting through theatre jobs and children's TV shows, she was finally living the dream. However her life soon turned into a nightmare off-screen and behind the headlines as her heart was broken in a very public relationship, whilst her every move was printed in the tabloids thanks to her phone being tapped. After receiving a panning by the critics for her late night TV show aimed at the post-pub crowd, she then auditioned for and accepted an offer to play Roxie Hart in Chicago, which turned out to be a life-changing experience. The role took her to Broadway, where she caught the eye of one Andrew Lloyd Webber, eventually landing a judging role on Any Dream Will Do, which saw her rise back to primetime and the career that she loves, where she has stayed and flourished. Now, in her first memoir, Denise tells her story with disarming candour, unafraid to reveal vulnerabilities beneath the cheerful exterior. Tackling difficult subjects of corrosive self-doubt, betrayal, invasions of privacy and professional struggles, interjected with the familiar humour that we all know and love, A Bit of Me is personal, at times raw, often mischievous and always compelling. Denise has lived the life, learned the lessons, and Basildon to Broadway and back is a hell of a journey.
A Blot in the 'Scutcheon
by Robert BrowningExcerpt from book: A BLOT IN THE 'SCUTCHEON. ACT I. Scene I. The interior of a lodge in Lord Tresham's park. <P> Many Retainers crowded at the window, supposed to command a view of the entrance to his mansion. Gerard, tht Warrener, his back to a table on which are flagons, etc. 1 Retainer. Ay, do push, friends, and hen you 'll push down me ? What for? Does any hear a runner's foot Or a steed's trample or a coach-wheel's cry? Is the Earl come or his least poursuivant? But there's no breeding in a man of you Save Gerard yonder: here 's a half-place yet, Old Gerard Gerard. Save your courtesies, my friend. Here is my place. 2 Retainer. Now, Gerard, out with it What makes you sullen, this of all the days I' the year? To-day that young, rich, bountiful, 10 Handsome Earl Mertoun, whom alone they match With our Lord Tresham through the country-side, Is coming here in utmost bravery To ask our master's sister's hand ? Gerard. What then ? 2 Retainer. What then ? Why, you, she speaks to, if she meets Your worship, smiles on as you hold apartThe boughs to let her through her forest walks, You, always favorite for your no-deserts, You 've heard these three days how Earl Mertoun sues To lay his heart and house and broad lands too = At Lady Mildred's feet; and while we squeeze Ourselves into a mousehole lest we miss One congee of the least page in his train, You sit o' one side?' there's the Earl, ' say I? 'What then, ' say you 3 Retainer. I 'll wager he has let Both swans he tamed for Lady Mildred swim Over the falls and gain the river Gerard. Ralph, Is not to-morrow jr1y inspecting-day For you and for your hawks ? 4 Retainer. Let Gerard be He 's coarse-grained, like his carved black cross-bow stock, Ha look now, while we squabble .
A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics
by Jan Cohen-Cruz Mady SchutzmanThis carefully constructed and thorough collection of theoretical engagements with Augusto Boal’s work is the first to look ’beyond Boal’ and critically assesses the Theatre of the Opressed (TO) movement in context. A Boal Companion looks at the cultural practices which inform TO and explore them within a larger frame of cultural politics and performance theory. The contributors put TO into dialogue with complexity theory – Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, race theory, feminist performance art, Deleuze and Guattari, and liberation psychology – to name just a few, and in doing so, the kinship between Boal’s project and multiple fields of social psychology, ethics, biology, comedy, trauma studies and political science is made visible. The ideas generated throughout A Boal Companion will: expand readers' understanding of TO as a complex, interdisciplinary, multivocal body of philosophical discourses provide a variety of lenses through which to practice and critique TO make explicit the relationship between TO and other bodies of work. This collection is ideal for TO practitioners and scholars who want to expand their knowledge, but it also provides unfamiliar readers and new students to the discipline with an excellent study resource.
A Brief Guide To OZ: 75 Years Going Over The Rainbow (Brief Histories)
by Paul SimpsonWhat if Dorothy Gale wasn't the only person who went to see the Wizard of Oz? MGM's landmark 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, did not mark the beginning of adventures in Oz. Both before and since, dozens of tales have been told of the Marvellous Land of Oz, and its inhabitants such as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger and Jack Pumpkinhead. In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Paul Simpson looks back at the Famous Forty - the original novels by L. Frank Baum and his successors which entranced generations of children with their wonderful world of munchkins, princesses and wicked witches. He examines the many ways in which the stories have been retold in movies - from the silent era to Disney's recent blockbuster Oz the Great and Powerful - and on television, featuring everyone from Tom & Jerry to trades union leaders. On stage, Oz has come to life in the many revivals of The Wizard of Oz musical and the worldwide reign of Elphaba in the smash hit Wicked. Celebrate the 75th anniversary of the world's best-loved film and the whole magical world of Oz with its vampires, muppets, dragons, living statues and so much more.
A Brief Guide to The Sound of Music: 50 Years of the Legendary Musical and the Family who Inspired It (Brief Histories Ser.)
by Paul SimpsonEveryone has heard the songs from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The stage show was a roaring success in New York and London, and the much-loved feature film, directed by Hollywood veteran Robert Wise, continues to be a staple of television schedules 50 years after its release in 1965. In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Paul Simpson explores the incredible story of the Von Trapp family and their escape from the Third Reich in all its incarnations, from real-life adventure, to book, to stage, to award-winning film to cultural phenomenon. He discusses the stage show, the many differences that were incorporated into the fictionalisation of the tale, and how that story was brought to the screen. He also looks at the numerous other ways in which the Von Trapp?s story has been told, including the two West German movies from the 1950s and the extensive forty-part Japanese anime series from the 1990s, to explain why the story of the Von Trapp family has appealed to so many generations.Praise for A Brief Guide to Stephen King:'The best book about King and his work I have ever read' Books Monthly
A Brief Guide to The Sound of Music: 50 Years of the Legendary Musical and the Family who Inspired It (Brief Histories)
by Paul SimpsonEveryone has heard the songs from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The stage show was a roaring success in New York and London, and the much-loved feature film, directed by Hollywood veteran Robert Wise, continues to be a staple of television schedules 50 years after its release in 1965. In this fascinating and wide-ranging book, Paul Simpson explores the incredible story of the Von Trapp family and their escape from the Third Reich in all its incarnations, from real-life adventure, to book, to stage, to award-winning film to cultural phenomenon. He discusses the stage show, the many differences that were incorporated into the fictionalisation of the tale, and how that story was brought to the screen. He also looks at the numerous other ways in which the Von Trapp’s story has been told, including the two West German movies from the 1950s and the extensive forty-part Japanese anime series from the 1990s, to explain why the story of the Von Trapp family has appealed to so many generations.Praise for A Brief Guide to Stephen King:'The best book about King and his work I have ever read' Books Monthly
A Brief Guide to William Shakespeare (Brief Histories)
by Peter AckroydAn accessible and entertaining journey through the life, times, and work of the Bard - Enigma. Master of language. The greatest comedian in history? The most famous writer in the world. But isn't he a little bit boring? This is an essential guide for anyone who has previously avoided the Bard, and is the perfect introduction for first time students or seasoned theatre lovers. The book contains a full commentary of all the plays by bestselling and reknowned writer Peter Ackroyd as well as full descriptions of the cast and the drama; not forgetting the best speeches, and the wit and wisdom from across the works. There is also an opportunity to explore the poems and a complete set of sonnets, as well as an investigation of who the dark lady might have been.Contains:The complete sonnets; the greatest speeches; the best lines.Perfect for students struggling through their first play or for theatre lovers anywhere.Entertaining, accessible, Shakespeare without the boring bits.