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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation (11/29/2005)

The World of Theatre is the first introduction to theatre book to truly focus on diversity and globalism, integrating coverage of multicultural, international and experimental theatre throughout. Theatre is presented as a global and multicultural form that reflects both traditional and evolving world views. While the American commercial theatre and European forms are central to the text, alternative theatres are placed side by side for comparison and contrast in each chapter, thus avoiding the s...
The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation  Cover
New York Then/New York Now (2/21/2005)

New York Then/New York Now—a collection of essays, memoirs, interviews, commentary, and plays—contemplates New York City’s history and future as a center for groundbreaking theatrical forms and ideas. Featuring the work of theater artists, producers, and critics, this special issue of Theater is concerned with the ideas and practicalities of making theater in and for New York within specific historical, political, and economic contexts. The first section, “New York Then,” reflects on ...
New York Then/New York Now Cover
The Complete Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan (1/1/2005)

Lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan will be in heaven with the publication of these two books, which nicely complement each other. Stedman (English, Roosevelt Univ., Chicago) offers an outstanding study of this playwright and his often overlooked works, with much of its value deriving from its study of Gilbert without Sullivan. The author is a recognized expert on Gilbert as well as the Victorian time period, and she shows him to be a complex and interesting man who often found himself at odds with ...
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The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet (1/1/2004)

This collection of specially written essays offers both student and theatregoer a guide to one of the most celebrated American dramatists working today. Readers will find the general and accessible descriptions and analyses provide the perfect introduction to Mamet's work. The volume covers the full range of Mamet's writing, including now classic plays such as American Buffalo and Glengarry Glen Ross, and his more recent work, Boston Marriage, among others, as well as his films, such as The Ver...
The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet  Cover
The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama (6/25/2003)

Known through three editions as the boldest and most distinguished introduction to drama, William Worthen's pace-setting text continues to provide exciting plays usefully situated within their historical and cultural contexts.
The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama Cover
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 ...
The Social Significance of Modern Drama Cover
Polaroid Stories (1/1/1999)

Naomi Iizuka’s 1997 play, Polaroid Stories, consciously uses stories, characters and themes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to tell the stories of street kids living on the edge in a desolate, urban landscape. Because these characters are named after Orpheus and Eurydice, and Echo and Narcissus, or based on stories of Dionysus, and Ariadne and Theseus, and because scenes are entitled “The Story of Semele” or “Theseus in the Labyrinth,” Iizuka creates a world that has two dimensions: the g...
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The Zoo Story and the Sandbox (1959)

The Zoo Story is American playwright Edward Albee's first play; written in 1958 and completed in just three weeks. It was originally titled Peter and Jerry. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity and dehumanization in a commercial world. Initially the play was rejected by New York producers. Albee first had it staged in Europe, premiering in West Berlin at the Schiller Theater Werkstatt on September 28, 1959. In its first Ameri...
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Off-Off-Broadway Explosion: How Provocative Playwrights of the 1960's Ignited a New American Theater (2003)

The off-off-Broadway movement of the 1960s remains one of the most dynamic periods in the history of American theater. Filled with one-on-one interviews and entertaining anecdotes, Off-Off-Broadway Explosion explores the backstage stories and captivating history of the unusual venues and legendary personalities of the era. Readers will discover intimate accounts of the innovative Beat Generation playwrights who transformed the New York stage, such as Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Am...
Off-Off-Broadway Explosion: How Provocative Playwrights of the 1960's Ignited a New A Cover
Triptych (2005)

Edna O'Brien's Triptych is a provocative play about love and obsession. This taut 85 minute play strips back the deepest layers of three women who are simply called Mistress, Wife and Daughter. They all reveal their shared passion for one absent man.
Triptych Cover
Plays, Movies, and Critics (1994)

This exceptional collection explores the mutual concerns of dramatic theater, film, and those who comment on them. Plays, Movies, and Critics opens with an original play by Don DeLillo. In the form of an interview, DeLillo's short play works as a kind of paradigm of the theatrical or cinematic event and serves as a keynote for the volume. DeLillo's interview play is accompanied in this collection by interviews with theater director Roberta Levitow, Martin Scorsese, and film/theater critic Stan...
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Mysterious Actions: New American Drama (2000)

With this special issue, South Atlantic Quarterly presents five never-before-published plays by some of the brightest stars in contemporary American theater. Mysterious Actions presents works that go beyond realism and will challenge audiences’ expectations,moving them toward a revolutionary theatrical experience. The plays by Neal Bell, Nilo Cruz, Erin Cressida Wilson, Marlane Meyer, and Don DeLillo employ techniques and situations that are original and unexpected. Each is followed by a schol...
Mysterious Actions: New American Drama Cover
Valparaiso: A Play (2000)

A man sets out on an ordinary business trip to Valparaiso, Indiana. It turns out to be a mock-heroic journey toward identity and transcendence. This is Don DeLillo's second play, and it is funny, sharp, and deep-reaching. Its characters tend to have needs and desires shaped by the forces of broadcast technology. This is the way we talk to each other today. This is the way we tell each other things, in public, before listening millions, that we don't dare to say privately. Nothing is all...
Valparaiso: A Play Cover
Capeman: A Musical (1998)

The Capeman is a musical play written by Paul Simon and Derek Walcott based on the life of Salvador Agrón. The play opened at the Marquis Theatre in 1998 to poor reviews and had an initial run of only 68 performances.[1] A blend of doo-wop, gospel, and latin music, it received Tony award nominations for Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations and Best Scenic Design. Renoly Santiago also received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical. Ednita Nazario won the Th...
Capeman: A Musical Cover
Shoppers: Two Plays by Denis Johnson (2002)

"Perfection is not the basis of what I'm talking about," says a member of the Cassandra family, which forms the center of Denis Johnson's plays, Hellhound on My Trail and Shoppers Carried by Escalators Into the Flames. The character could be speaking for his creator, because human imperfection is one of Denis Johnson's specialties -- in his critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and nonfiction, and, now, in two brilliant new plays. These two works present a dramatized field guide to some ...
Shoppers: Two Plays by Denis Johnson Cover
Theatre for Children: A Guide to Writing, Adapting, Directing, and Acting (1999)

David Wood has been called by The London Times "the national children's dramatist." Presenting theatre for children as a seperate art form, Mr. Wood analyzes the skills involved in entertaining and involving audiences of children everywhere.
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Peter Brook: A Theatrical Casebook (1988)

Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE (born 21 March 1925) is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.
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Collaborative Theatre: Le Theatre du Soleil (1999)

Over the past thirty years Theatre du Soleil has become one of the most celebrated theater companies in Europe, and Ariadne Mnouchkine one of its best-known directors.Collaborative Theatre is the first in-depth source book on the performance troupe, renowned as widely for its cutting edge theatrical production as its collectivist practices and ideals. Here critical and historical essays by theater critics from around the world are combined with essays by and interviews with members of Theatre d...
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The Cabin: Reminiscence and Diversions (1993)

This pleasurable amalgam of travelogue and reminiscence explores Mamet's early years in Chicago and New York and his current life as a successful playwright.
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Some Freaks (1991)

A new collection of prose writings from the author of "Writing in Restaurants". Mamet discusses his parallel experience in cinema as screenwriter ("The Untouchables") and writer-director ("House of Games"). There are also pieces on being a Jew, politics, acting and Disneyland.
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Writing in Restaurants (1987)

The title of Mamet's first collection of essays and speeches certainly doesn't suggest the themes of commitment and excellence. Nevertheless, if a collection of 28 essays on a variety of topics can be said to have an overarching theme or themes, then surely commitment and excellence sound clearly. These essays, apparently written over a considerable span of years, treat topics ranging from radio drama through middle-class fashion trends to the Academy Awards and the use of amplification in theat...
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Performing Chekhov (2001)

Performing Chekhov is a unique and remarkably comprehensive guide to Chekhov's plays in performance. Drawing on extensive interviews with actors, directors and designers, it offers in-depth case studies of a number of significant and often controversial productions of Chekhov's plays. It focuses on the work of key directors in Russia, America and England and reflects a number of significant and on-going debates, not only about Chekhov's work, but about the very nture of acting and performance. ...
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Stanislavski for Beginners (1999)

This guide traces both the subject's life and his "system" - a series of deep acting exercises that focus on relaxation, concentration, and emotional memory. Along the way the authors show how Stanislavski's influence continues today.
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The Tricks of the Trade (1991)

When Dario Fo won the 1997 Nobel Prize for literature, establishments everywhere erupted in anger. Here was an anticlerical, obscene, communist clown receiving the world's top literary accolade. As this collection of his essays and lectures shows, Fo has such a unique vision that his mission as clown/playwright requires him to be all those other things. What's interesting about The Tricks of the Trade is not his politics, but the incredible amount of research he's done on 2,000 years' worth of ...
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Gerald: A Portrait (2004)

Daphne du Maurier's celebrated biography of her father, Gerald du Maurier, last of the great actor-managers. Sir Gerald du Maurier was the preeminent actor-manager of his day, knighted in 1922 for his services to the theater. Published within six months of her father's death, Daphne du Maurier's frank portrait was considered shocking by many of his admirers—but it was a huge success, winning her critical acclaim and launching her career. Here, du Maurier captures the spirit and charm of the c...
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Stanislavski On Opera (1998)

Best known for his fundamental work on acting, Stanislavski was deeply drawn to the challenges of opera. His brilliant chapters here on Russian classics--Boris Gudonov and The Queen of Spades among them--as well as La Boheme will amaze and delight lovers of opera.
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Stanislavski's Legacy: A Collection of Comments on a Variety of Aspects of an Actor's Art and Life (1999)

Out of the large body of materials -- articles, speeches, notes and memoirs -- left behind by Stanislavski at the time of his death in 1938, Elizabeth Hapgood, his friend and translator, chose items which concentrate on the essence of his work. The result is a volume which supplements the other books he wrote, and re-emphasizes, sometimes in condensed and particulary vivid form, his views about acting, the theatre and life.
Stanislavski's Legacy: A Collection of Comments on a Variety of Aspects of an Actor's Cover
An Actor's Handbook: An Alphabetical Arrangement of Concise Statements on Aspects of Acting (2004)

This is the classic lexicon of Stanislavski's most important concepts, all in the master's own words. Upon its publication in 1963, An Actor's Handbook quickly established itself as an essential guide for actors and directors. Culling key passages from Stanislavski's vast output, this book covers more than one hundred and fifty key concepts, among them "Improvisation," "External Technique," "Magic If," "Imaginary Objects," "Discipline," "What Is My System?" and "Stage Fright."
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My Life in Art (1987)

Written with the same warmth, liveliness and ability to re-create reality that made Stanislavski a great actor, his autobiography tells of his childhood in the world of Moscow's wealthy merchants, his successes and failures as an amateur actor, how he studied human beings, and developed what has come to be known as the "Stanislavski Method," how his group of dedicated amateurs became "perhaps the greatest acting group the world has ever known (Washington Post)," The Moscow Art Theatre.
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Creating A Role (1989)

This volume completes, with An Actor Prepares and Building a Character, the trilogy in which Stanislavski set down his life's accomplishment. Creating a Role describes the elaborate preparation that precedes actual performance. Stanislavski here relates the techniques he describes in his preceding books to analyzing specific plays and their roles.
Creating A Role Cover
Glued to the Box: Television Criticism from the (1984)

Collection of the Australian-born writer's TV criticism published in the London 'Observer' during the period 1979-82. It is a paperback edition of a volume first published by Jonathan Cape in 1983. His earlier volumes of TV criticism are 'Visions Before Midnight' (1977 & 1981) and 'The Crystal Bucket' (1983). They were published in a single volume with a new introduction and index as 'Clive James on Television' (1991).
Glued to the Box: Television Criticism from the  Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 15 (Part 3) (1988)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a vital international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. It shows that theatre history has a contemporary relevance, that theatre studies need a methodology and that theatre criticism needs a language. The journal publishes news, analysis and debate within the field of theatre studies.
New Theatre Quarterly 15 (Part 3) Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 14 (Part 2) (1988)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a vital international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. It shows that theatre history has a contemporary relevance, that theatre studies need a methodology and that theatre criticism needs a language. The journal publishes news, analysis and debate within the field of theatre studies.
New Theatre Quarterly 14 (Part 2)  Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 13 (Part 1) (1988)

New Theatre Quarterly 13 (Part 1) Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 11 (Part 3) (1987)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a vital international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. It shows that theatre history has a contemporary relevance, that theatre studies need a methodology and that theatre criticism needs a language. The journal publishes news, analysis and debate within the field of theatre studies.
New Theatre Quarterly 11 (Part 3) Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 10: Volume 3, Part 2 (1987)

One of a series discussing topics of interest in theatre studies from theoretical, methodological, philosophical and historical perspectives. The books are aimed at drama and theatre teachers, advanced students in schools and colleges, arts authorities, actors, playwrights, critics and directors.
New Theatre Quarterly 10: Volume 3, Part 2 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 12 (Part 4) (1987)

One of a series discussing topics of interest in theatre studies from theoretical, methodological, philosophical and historical perspectives. The books are aimed at drama and theatre teachers, advanced students in schools and colleges, arts authorities, actors, playwrights, critics and directors. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
New Theatre Quarterly 12 (Part 4) Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 80: Volume 20, Part 4 (2005)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a lively international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. Articles in volume 80 include: Peter Barnes: the Playwright who Laughed at Death; A Tear in the Fabric: the James Bulger Murder and New Theatre Writing in the 'Nineties; Jacques Copeau, Etienne Decroux, and the 'Flower of Noh'; Their Exits and Their Entrances: Getting a Handle on Doors; Lev Dod...
New Theatre Quarterly 80: Volume 20, Part 4 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 79: Volume 20, Part 3 (2005)

New Theatre Quarterly provides an international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. Volume 79 includes: Karl Valentin's Illogical Subversion: Stand-up Comedy and Alienation Effect; The Shamen and the Epic Theatre: the Nature of Han in the Korean Theatre; Dialogism and the Theatre Event: Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw's Medea, 2001; The Irony of Passionate Chaos: Modernity and Perfor...
New Theatre Quarterly 79: Volume 20, Part 3 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 78: Volume 20, Part 2 (2005)

New Theatre Quarterly provides an international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. Volume 78 includes: Beauty and the Market: Actress Postcards and their Senders in Early Twentieth-Century Australia; Ancestral and Authorial Voices in Lloyd Newson and DV8's 'Strange Fish'; Stanislavsky's Second Thoughts on 'The Seagull'; Augusto Boal and the Woman in Lima: a Poetic Encounter; Tumbli...
New Theatre Quarterly 78: Volume 20, Part 2 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 59: Volume 15, Part 3 (1999)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a vital international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. It shows that theatre history has a contemporary relevance, that theatre studies need a methodology and that theatre criticism needs a language. The journal publishes news, analysis and debate within the field of theatre studies.
New Theatre Quarterly 59: Volume 15, Part 3 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 56: Volume 14, Part 4 (1999)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a lively international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to critical questioning.
New Theatre Quarterly 56: Volume 14, Part 4 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 42: Volume 11, Part 2 (1995)

New Theatre Quarterly provides a valuable international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning. It shows that theatre history has a contemporary relevance.
New Theatre Quarterly 42: Volume 11, Part 2 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 40: Volume 10, Part 4 (1994)

New Theatre Quarterly provides an international forum where theatrical scholarship and practice can meet, and where prevailing dramatic assumptions can be subjected to vigorous critical questioning.
New Theatre Quarterly 40: Volume 10, Part 4 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 36: Volume 9, Part 4 (1993)

Providing an international forum for the discussion of topics of current interest in theatre studies, this edition of New Theatre Quarterly presents articles including the Gershwins in Britain; a discussion by Kott and Marowitz on 'Measure for Measure'; and Gramsci on Ibsen and Pirandello.
New Theatre Quarterly 36: Volume 9, Part 4 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 34: Volume 9, Part 2 (1993)

This is edition number 34 of the New Theatre Quarterly, which provides a lively international forum for discussion of topics of current interest in theatre studies, whether from the perspective of theory, methodology, philosophy or history.
New Theatre Quarterly 34: Volume 9, Part 2 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 32: Volume 8, Part 4 (1993)

Part 32 of the New Theatre Quarterly, which provides a lively international forum for discussion of topics of current interest in theatre studies. This edition includes articles on and theatre versus reality, the economics of apathy, feminist theatre in Britain and more.
New Theatre Quarterly 32: Volume 8, Part 4 Cover
New Theatre Quarterly 28: Volume 7, Part 4 (1992)

One of a series which discusses topics of interest in theatre studies from various perspectives. Part 28 includes discussions of 'Mother Courage' at the Citizens, 1990, by Margaret Eddershaw, and Wole Soyinka's 'Death and the King's Horseman', at the Royal Exchange, 1990, by Martin Banham.
New Theatre Quarterly 28: Volume 7, Part 4  Cover

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