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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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Theatre World 1994-1995, Vol. 51 (1/1/2000)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a...
Theatre World 1994-1995, Vol. 51 Cover
Theatre World 1993-1994, Vol. 50 (1/1/2000)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a...
Theatre World 1993-1994, Vol. 50 Cover
The Social Significance of Modern Drama (1/1/2000)

Out of print virtually since its completion in 1914, Emma Goldman's pioneer work Social Significance in Modern Drama bridges modern drama and political philosophy, pointing out the road that remains to be travelled toward a theatre of social empowerment. Activist, feminist, philosopher and anarchist, Emma Goldman was a passionate thinker about all things modern when the 20th century was still raw and new. The emergence of her treatise on the theatre after years of obscurity is certain to arouse ...
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A Chekhov Concert Duets & Arias Conceived & Composed by Sharon Gans & Jordan Charney (12/31/1969)

"A tapestry of plays, stories, and letters artistically woven together to form a beautiful new work worthy of Chekhov's own heart and hand. The American artists Sharon Gans and Jordan Charney have reconceived Chekhov in their duets and arias with sensitivity and passion of the finest dramatic caliber. The true wonder and character of Chekhov shines through...enlightening!" - Moscow Contemporary Theater
A Chekhov Concert	Duets & Arias Conceived & Composed by Sharon Gans & Jordan Charney Cover
Alarums & Excursions: Our Theatres in the 90s (12/31/1969)

Charles Marowitz casts a critical eye upon the highpoints of the last theatrical decade, in preparation for a new millennium. In a series of reviews, think-pieces, essays and commentaries culled from publications as varied as The London Times and Theatre Week magazine, Marowitz examines the work of such major playwrights as Mamet, Stoppard, Shepard, Neil Simon, Beckett, Gurney, Pinter, Kushner, Baitz, Shanley, Williams and McNalley. Marowitz dramatically captures the anger, anxiety, spectacle, a...
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Mad About Theatre (12/31/1969)

Mad About Theatre is a systematic analysis of the major issues confronting our theatre today: The Decline of Broadway; The Generally Poor Quality of American Stage Acting; The Pretentiousness of our Avant-Garde; The Narrowness of our Playwriting; Broadway In Search of a Musical Fix; Subsidized British Theatre in the Age of Thatcher and Beyond; The Inflated Directing of the Classics; The Growing Vitality of our Regional Theatres (in Playwriting as well as Acting and Directing); The Innovative Use...
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The Best American Short Plays 1995-1996 (12/31/1969)

The latest edition of this useful series offers 12 one-acts reflecting the wide range of contemporary American theater. For those who prefer their theater comic, there is David Ives' humorous meditation on identity, Degas, C'est Moi, and Susan Cinoman's slice-of-life look at shopping rituals, Fitting Rooms. Those who think drama should be made of sterner stuff should sample Cassandra Medley's moving Dearborn Heights, about discrimination in the North, and Jonathan Levy's Old Blues, a touching p...
The Best American Short Plays 1995-1996 Cover
Spring's Awakening (12/31/1969)

Spring's Awakening is a tragi-comedy of teenage sex. Its fourteen-year-old heroine, Wendla, is killed by abortion pills. The young Moritz, terrorized by the world around him, and especially by his teachers, shoots himself. The ending seems likely to be the suicide of Moritz's friend, Melchior, but in a confrontation with a mysterious stranger (the famous Masked Man) he finally manages to shed his illusions and face the consequences.
Spring's Awakening Cover
Slings And Arrows: Theater In My Life (12/31/1969)

"He's a marvelous storyteller: gossipy, candid without being cruel, and very funny. This vivid, entertaining book is also one of the most penetrating works to be written about the theater." - Publishers Weekly
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Script into Performance: A Structuralist Approach (12/31/1969)

An analysis of script interpretation for the theater. The text includes theories on performance as well as examples from the works of Shelley, Ibsen and Pinter.In his new preface, Hornby laments the modernization of classic plays which he believes subverts the original text. - From Library Journal
Script into Performance: A Structuralist Approach Cover
The Best American Short Plays 1994-1995 (12/31/1969)

Christopher Durang ¥ Craig Fols ¥ J.E. Franklin ¥ David Mamet ¥ Steve Martin ¥ Elaine May ¥ Max Mitchell ¥ Rich Orloff ¥ Jacquelyn Reingold ¥ Ronald Ribman ¥ Murray Schisgal ¥ Jules Tasca ¥ Thornton Wilder ¥ Doug Wright.
The Best American Short Plays 1994-1995 Cover
The Day the Bronx Died (12/31/1969)

This engrossing drama by Michael Henry Brown had its world premiere in 1992. This book features the complete script of the story of two childhood friends, one black, the other white, and their struggle to live in a racist world.
The Day the Bronx Died Cover
Ghost in the Machine (12/31/1969)

The playscript to Ghost in the Machine by David Gilman begins with a common situation - that of a missing fifty dollar bill - and spins it into intriguing questions of probability, chance and the complexities of musical composition: illusion and reality.
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The National Black Drama Anthology: Eleven Plays from America's Leading African-American Theaters (12/31/1969)

"Though New York remains the de facto capital of American theater, much of the most daring and interesting work today is done by regional theaters. This is doubly true of plays by African American authors, who, despite a few notable exceptions (August Wilson, George C. Wolfe), suffer under a commercial apartheid that keeps black plays off Broadway. Of necessity, African American theater artists have to create their own venues from the ground up. This wide-ranging anthology edited by the founder ...
The National Black Drama Anthology: Eleven Plays from America's Leading African-Ameri Cover
A Theater Workbook (12/31/1969)

"This wonderful, wonderful book, beautifully edited and staged (and I do mean that word) is four achievements in one: a record of a life's work presented brilliantly; a theatre workbook of practical value to every theatre design course in the country; an example to be followed of personal integrity, professionalism, and respect for the text; a model in publishing of how to link the written word and visual image creatively on the page." - The Royal Arts Society Journal. Includes 525 photographs, ...
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Style : Acting in High Comedy (12/31/1969)

This book isn't a critical examination of high comedy. Rather, it's a collection of suggestions for the middlemen: the actors who have to catch the comic spark from the playwright and pass it on to the audience. The effort involved must be imperceptible: one has to acquire the cleverness, the articulacy, the febrility of the characters - and then make the whole laborious exercise seem like swimming through silk...The characters in high comedies don't find verbal sophistication difficult or unfam...
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The End of Acting: A Radical View (12/31/1969)

From Richard Hornby's preface: This book is written for those who act, those who teach acting, and those who are interested in seeing it. It is both a theoretical work and a call for action. This book is an unashamed attack on the American acting establishment ... The concepts derive from my graduate seminars in acting theory and history in the School of Theatre at Florida State University ... Much of the feistiness of those classes carries over into this book ... If my arguments serve only to s...
The End of Acting: A Radical View Cover
The Actor's Eye: Seeing and Being Seen (12/31/1969)

With this landmark compilation of classes and exercises, anyone can afford to be coached by the man whose students are propelled from his legendary classes at Northwestern University to Broadway and Hollywood. "Acting is as simple as brick-laying and as great as Leonardo da Vinci's art," writes Downs. The Downs approach coaches the actor to make the essential connections between his character and the forces that govern him so that "craft is inevitable and art is made possible."
The Actor's Eye: Seeing and Being Seen Cover
I Am a Man: A New Play (12/31/1969)

"...a play about power, leadership, and the rough-and tumble process of social change. In its multifaceted search for the meaning behind the headline-grabbing events in Memphis, and in its depiction of the roots of black-vs.-black power struggles, it offers both food for thought and an emotional punch." - Hedy Weiss Chicago Sun Times
I Am a Man: A New Play Cover
Theatre World 1992-1993, Vol. 49 (12/31/1969)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a...
Theatre World 1992-1993, Vol. 49 Cover
Accidentally on Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity (12/31/1969)

The author is the son of Lee Strasberg (a major force in the history of the Actors Studio), brother of Susan (the actress) and a would-be theater guru in his own right. His book is a combination autobiography ("My parents were too busy with their own dreams of success... for me") and a how-to guide to creative acting, his answer to his father's famous "Method," which, he says, only taught actors to think like actors. Lee Strasberg is presented as a selfish martinet who came alive only at the Stu...
Accidentally on Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting and the Nine Natural Laws of Cre Cover
The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky: The Stage Plays (12/31/1969)

A collection of five stage plays from this brilliant writer: Middle of the Night, The Tenth Man, Gideon, The Passion of Josef D., and The Latent Heterosexual. Includes an introduction by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
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My Life with Noël Coward (12/31/1969)

Payn, who performed as an actor and singer in several Coward plays, lived with the playwright as part of his extended family for 30 years and now administers his estate. Written with Barry Day, an advertising executive, this effusively affectionate memoir of Coward (1899-1973), best known for his sophisticated comedies (Blithe Spirit, Private Lives), is a giddily gossipy account of the luminary's long theatrical career and glittering social life. Renowned actors-Beatrice Lillie, Gertrude Lawrenc...
My Life with Noël Coward Cover
The Best Burlesque Sketches (12/31/1969)

Here is the first-ever collection of classic comic sketches from the bawdy, rowdy world of our slum music halls! Habitues of Burlesque (and sons of habitues) will revel in the boisterous stock scenes and blackouts of this uniquely American form of popular entertainment. Features a foreword by Dick Martin.
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The Best Short Plays of 1988-1989 (12/31/1969)

Lose yourself in a universe of forces familiar and frightening in the 21 plays presented in this exclusive volume. The playwrights included here succeed in pushing back the boundaries of conventional dramatic expression. Among them, Lanford Wilson dissects a survivor's anguish after his lover's death in A Poster of the Cosmos and Deborah Pryor spins an eerie tale of spellbinding romance in The Love Talker. Richard Greenberg plots a battle of wills between a young writer and his elusive muse, whi...
The Best Short Plays of 1988-1989 Cover
Julius Caesar (12/31/1969)

These popular editions allow the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Each note, each gloss, each commentary reflects the stage life of the play with constant reference to the challenge of the text in performance. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will be empowered to rehearse and direct their own productions of ...
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The Tempest (12/31/1969)

The Applause edition of Shakespeare's The Tempest allows the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Readers and students are faced with real theatrical choices in each speech as the editors point out the challenges and opportunities to the actor and director at each juncture. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will ...
The Tempest Cover
King Lear (12/31/1969)

These popular editions allow the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Each note, each gloss, each commentary reflects the stage life of the play with constant reference to the challenge of the text in performance. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will be empowered to rehearse and direct their own productions of ...
King Lear	 Cover
Environmental Theater (12/31/1969)

Here are the exercises which began as radical departures from standard actor training etiquette and which stand now as classic means through which the performer discovers his or her true power of transformation. Available for the first time in fifteen years, this new expanded edition offers a new generation of theater artists the gospel according to Richard Schechner, the guru whose principles and influence have influenced a quarter century of theater.
Environmental Theater Cover
Mastergate and Power Failure: 2 Political Satires for the Stage (12/31/1969)

The complete scripts to two of Larry Gelbart's most popular and powerful political satires. Review of Mastergate: "If George Orwell were a gag writer, he could have written Mastergate. Larry Gelbart's scathingly funny takeoff on the Iran-Contra hearings is a spiky cactus flower in the desert of American political theatre." - Jack Kroll, Newsweek. Review of Power Failure: "There is in his broad etching all the ethical outrage of an Arthur Miller kvetching. And, oh, so much more fun!" - Carolyn Cl...
Mastergate and Power Failure: 2 Political Satires for the Stage Cover
The First Lulu (12/31/1969)

"The complete script to Frank Wedekind's symphony - or rather a cacophony - of deotic sexual rhetorics. Eric Bentley's achievement here as translator is a beautifully playable and juicy English; his larger gift is the opening to us of what must be ranked as among the supreme masterpieces of nineteenth-century theater." - Donald Lyons, The New Criterion
The First Lulu Cover
David Merrick - The Abominable Showman (12/31/1969)

The chief theater critic for the New York Daily News has written a frank portrait of Broadway's most famous producer, a man as renowned for his outrageous behavior and sharp business practices as for the string of hits that began in 1954 with Fanny , continued through the '60s and '70s with Gypsy , Hello, Dolly! and prestigious British imports like Marat/Sade and climaxed in 1980 with the lavish stage version of 42nd Street , which ran for nine years. As documented in his source notes, Kissel ha...
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The New Radical Theater Notebook (12/31/1969)

This book traces three tumultuous decades of avant-garde theatre in the U.S. It begins with the Living Theatre, and explores diverse ensembles such as The Open Theatre, The Performance Group, and Bread and Puppet Theatre. It also looks at the women's theatre movement, and examines the work of Robert Wilson, Meredith Monk, Richard Foreman and more. There are sections devoted to ritual concepts, theatre in the streets, radical participation of the spectator, workshops in prisons, spectacles such a...
The New Radical Theater Notebook Cover
A Flea in Her Rear (or Ants in Her Pants) and Other Vintage French Farces (12/31/1969)

Ten French farces as translated by Norman R. Shapiro, including the title play by Feydeau and: The Poor Beggar and the Fairy Godmother (Allais) * Boubouroche, or She Dupes to Conquer (Courteline) * It's All Relative (Labiche) * Mardis Gras (Meilhac and Halevy) * and more.
A Flea in Her Rear (or Ants in Her Pants) and Other Vintage French Farces Cover
Telling Moments: Fifteen Gay Monologues (12/31/1969)

Seventeen men are caught in the limelight of defining moments that range from poignant to crazily funny. Among this vivid cast are a priest sliding towards heresy, a self-styled aristocrat, a hustler looking for security, an enraged abandoned lover, and an overwrought porno director.
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Creating a Character: A Physical Approach to Acting (12/31/1969)

For over 20 years, Moni Yakim has taught his unique blend of physical training and emotional exploration to a generation of American actors that include Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, and Kevin Kline. Now, for the first time, his acting process is available to every actor and theater professional.
Creating a Character: A Physical Approach to Acting Cover
Complete Works of William Shakespeare (12/31/1969)

This complete and unabridged edition contains every word that Shakespeare wrote — all 37 tragedies, comedies, and histories, plus the sonnets. You'll find such classics as The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew. This Library of Literary Classics edition is bound in padded leather with luxurious gold-stamping on the front and spine, satin ribbon marker and gilded edges. Other titles in this series include: Charlotte & Emily Bronte: The Complete Novels; Edgar Allan Poe: ...
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The Craftsmen of Dionysus: An Approach to Acting (12/31/1969)

This book, by Jerome Rockwood and endorsed by actors such as Bruce Willis and Burgess Meredith, has been praised as the best acting textbook on the market today. It covers auditioning, blocking, relaxing, improvisation, standard stage speech, dialects and accents, movement in period plays, and much more.
The Craftsmen of Dionysus: An Approach to Acting Cover
Women on the Verge: Seven Avant Garde Plays (12/31/1969)

This anthology gathers together recent work by the finest and most controversial contemporary American women dramatists. Collectively, this magnificent seven seeks to break the mold of the well-wrought psychological play and its rigid emphasis on realisticsocio-political drama. Includes: Occupational Hazard (Rosalyn Drexler) ¥ Us (Karen Malpede) ¥ What of the Night? (Maria Irene Forne) ¥ Birth and After Birth (Tina Howe) ¥ and more.
Women on the Verge: Seven Avant Garde Plays Cover
Theatre World 1991-1992, Vol. 48 (12/31/1969)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a...
Theatre World 1991-1992, Vol. 48 Cover
The Actor and the Text (12/31/1969)

These words of Cicely Berry, the voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, speak to anyone who needs to speak his or her piece - in any arena, at sales meetings or religious revivals. Berry's book will insure that the speaker and the text gets heard - accurately and with true emotional range. Never again will one be accused of simply "reading a prepared statement." Berry's exercises to develop relaxation, breathing and muscular control will literally help everyone breathe easier when conf...
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On the Open Road: New York Shakespeare Edition (12/31/1969)

Set in a landscape stripped bare by civil war, two "independents" forge an alliance of convenience in order to buy their way into the land of the free, the one safe haven in an otherwise lawless landscape. Hiding from marauding armies, they travel the country, gathering great art treasures from crumbling museums. But with the border to freedom in sight, they're captured by forces from the new coalition government. They can still buy their freedom - if they agree to do one little job for the new ...
On the Open Road: New York Shakespeare Edition Cover
The Collected Works of Harold Clurman (12/31/1969)

For six decades, Harold Clurman illuminated our artistic, social, and political awareness in thousands of reviews, essays, and lectures. His work appeared indefatigably in The Nation, The New Republic, The London Observer, The New York Times, Harper's, Esquire, New York Magazine, and more. The Collected Works of Harold Clurman captures over six hundred of Clurman's encounters with the most significant events in American theatre - as well as his regular passionate embraces of dance, music, art an...
The Collected Works of Harold Clurman Cover
Theatre World 1990-1991, Vol. 47 (12/31/1969)

Theatre World, the statistical and pictorial record of the Broadway and off-Broadway season, touring companies, and professional regional companies throughout the United States, has become a classic in its field. The book is complete with cast listings, replacement producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and much, much more. There are special sections with biographical data, obituary information, listings of annual Shakespeare festivals and major drama a...
Theatre World 1990-1991, Vol. 47 Cover
The Best American Short Plays 1991-1992 (12/31/1969)

Scripts for 13 short plays, including: Patricia BosworthÕs "Making Contact," Terrence McNallyÕs "Prelude and Liebestod," Arthur MillerÕs "The Last Yankee," Joyce Carol OatesÕ "Tone Clusters," Shel SilversteinÕs "The Devil and Billy Markham," Migdalia CruzÕ "Dreams of Home," Frank D. GilroyÕs "A Way with Words," A.R. GurneyÕs "The Open Meeting," Arthur KopitÕs "Success," Randy NoojinÕs "You CanÕt Trust the Male," Suzan-Lori ParkÕs "Snails," Murray SchisgalÕs "Extensions," and Jean-Cl...
The Best American Short Plays 1991-1992 Cover
The Life of the Drama (12/31/1969)

"Eric Bentley's radical new look at the grammar of theatre...is a work of exceptional virtue...CENTRAL, INDISPENSABLE...The book justifies its title by being precisely about the ways in which life manifests itself in the theatre...THIS IS A BOOK TO BE READ AGAIN AND AGAIN." - Frank Kermode, The New York Review of Books
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One-Act Comedies of Moliere: Seven Plays (12/31/1969)

These are the best of Moli?ere's masterful one-acts, blending broad farce and pointed wit to express his never-ending delight in human foibles. But Moli?re is more than just the "master of the laugh", for behind the comic gestures of these matchless rogues, tight-fisted masters, possessive lovers and elegant ladies lurk fears, insecurities and their consequences.
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Theater Yearbook 1990-1991: The Complete Broadway and Off-Broadway Sourcebook (12/31/1969)

The Applause Best Plays Yearbook was started by Burns Mantle in 1919 and has appeared every year since then, becoming the standard reference book for American Theater. This volume features synposes and excerpts for the ten best plays of the 1990-1991 season, including: The American Plan ¥ Falsettoland ¥ The Good Times Are Killing Me ¥ Lost in Younkers ¥ Miss Saigon ¥ Our CountryÕs Good ¥ Shadowlands ¥ Six Degrees of Separation ¥ The Substance of Fire ¥ The Sum of Us ¥ and a special ci...
Theater Yearbook 1990-1991: The Complete Broadway and Off-Broadway Sourcebook Cover
13 by Shanley (12/31/1969)

Thirteen plays by the Oscar-winning author of Moonstruck. Includes: "The Big Funk," "Savage in Limbo," "Danny and The Deep Blue Sea," "Welcome to the Moon," "The Red Coat," "Down and Out," "Let Us Go Out Into the Starry Night," "Out West," "A Lonely Impulse of Delight," "Women of Manhattan," "The Dreamer Examines His Pillow," "Italian-American Reconciliation," and "Beggars in the House of Plenty." Also includes an introduction by the author.
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Recycling Shakespeare (12/31/1969)

In the same way that Shakespeare himself continued to meditate and transform his own ideas and the shape they took, Marowitz gives us license to continue that meditation in productions extrapolated from ShakespeareÕs work. Shakespeare becomes the greatest of all catalysts who stimulates a constant re-formulation of the fundamental questions of philosophy, history and meaning. Marowitz introduces us to Shakespeare as an active contemporary collaborator who strives with us to yield a vibrant cont...
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