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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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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). |
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AWAKE AND SING. A PLAY IN THREE ACTS
(1935) Awake and Sing! is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935. The play is set in The Bronx in 1933; it concerns the impoverished Berger family and their conflicts as the parents scheme to manipulate their children's relationships to their own ends, while their children strive for their own dreams. |
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Saint Joan of the Stockyards
(1970) "A major Brecht play in an outstanding translation with an expert and up-to-date preface." -- Eric Bentley "... a fine translation.... Jones has handled Brecht's meters with great skill." -- Choice |
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Open Letters to the Intimate Theater
(1966) Swedish playwright, novelist, and short-story writer, who combined in his works psychology, naturalism, and later elements of new literary forms. Strindberg was married three times – several of his plays drew on the problems of his marriages and reflected his constant interest in self-analysis. A sensitive and controversial writer, who suffered from hostile reviews, Strindberg represented the 19th-century ideal of artist as a free personality, unrestrained by convention. |
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After the Fall: A Play in Two Acts
(1980) A lost character draws upon events in his past as he searches for life's meaning in Miller's powerful play. |
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Salesman in Beijing
(1984) " In 1983 Arthur Miller was invited to direct a Chinese version of his play, "Death of a Salesman." "Salesman in Beijing" is his day by day account of his experience. Most of the book focuses on the problems of communication with the Chinese actors as a result of linguistic and cultural differences. He feels that he was able to overcome these difficulties because of the dedication of the actors and the fact that the play itself deals with universal qualities that transcend local culture. He ... |
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Cats: The Book of the Musical
(1983) A richly illustrated book that re-creates the making of one of Broadway’s biggest hits, based on Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Color photographs and drawings by John Napier. |
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A Short History of Opera
(1965) When first published in 1947, A Short History of Opera immediately achieved international status as a classic in the field. Now, more than five decades later, this thoroughly revised and expanded fourth edition informs and entertains opera lovers just as its predecessors have. The fourth edition incorporates new scholarship that traces the most important developments in the evolution of musical drama. After surveying anticipations of the operatic form in the lyric theater of the Greeks, medi... |
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The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre And The Thirties
(1983) The Group Theatre was perhaps the most significant experiment in the history of American theater. Producing plays that reflected topical issues of the decade and giving a creative chance to actors, directors, and playwrights who were either fed up with or shut out of commercial theater, the ”Group” remains a permanent influence on American drama despite its brief ten-year life. It was here that method acting, native realism, and political language had their tryouts in front of audiences who... |
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A Source Book in Theatrical History: Twenty-five centuries of stage history in more than 300 basic documents and other primary material
(1959) A rich resource for students of theater and theater historians, this volume features an annotated collection of more than 300 unusually interesting and detailed articles. Passages by contemporary observers from ancient Greece to modern times include notes on acting, directing, make-up, costuming, stage props, machinery, scene design, and much more. |
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Later Plays Of Eugene O'Neill
(1967) Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (16 October 1888 – 27 November 1953) was an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society, where they... |
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Godspell: Vocal Selections
(1983) 13 vocal selections from the perennial favorite, including the songs: All Good Gifts * By My Side * Day by Day * Learn Your Lessons Well * O Bless the Lord, My Soul * Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord) * and more. |
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1776: A Musical Play
(1976) 1776 The musical was produced on Broadway in 1969, running for 1,217 performances, and was made into a film of the same name in 1972. The show was nominated for five Tony Awards and won three, including Best Musical. |
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24 Favorite One Act Plays
(1963) Two dozen classic dramas by some of the finest and most famous playwrights of the last hundred years--Anton Chekhov, Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, and A.A. Milne. |
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Guys and Dolls: Vocal Selections
(1982) 12 vocal selections from the Broadway staple, including: Adelaide's Lament * A Bushel and a Peck * Fugue for Tinhorns * Guys and Dolls * I've Never Been in Love Before * If I Were a Bell * Luck Be a Lady * Sit down You're Rockin' the Boat * and more. |
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Prometheus Bound and Other Plays: Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes, The Persian
(1961) Aeschylus (525-456 BC) brought a new grandeur and epic sweep to the drama of classical Athens, raising it to the status of high art. In "Prometheus Bound", the defiant Titan Prometheus is brutally punished by Zeus for daring to improve the state of wretchedness and servitude in which mankind is kept. "The Suppliants" tells the story of the fifty daughters of Danaus who must flee to escape enforced marriages, while "Seven Against Thebes" shows the inexorable downfall of the last members of the c... |
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The Actor's scenebook: Scenes and monologues from contemporary plays
(1984) Schulman and Mekler provide 78 new, fully playable scenes with story notes, including more monologues for men and women from today's best new plays. A diverse selection of scenes and characters to challenge the full range of readers' talents as actors. |
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No Acting Please
(1979) No Acting Please-Beyond the Method a Revolutionary Approach to Acting and Living. Foreword by Jack Nicholson |
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The Sound of Music: Vocal Selections
(1981) 11 songs: Climb Ev'ry Mountain * Do-Re-Mi * Edelweiss * I Have Confidence * The Lonely Goatherd * Maria * My Favorite Things * Sixteen Going on Seventeen * So Long, Farewell * Something Good * The Sound of Music. |
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Sense of Direction: Some Observations on the Art of Directing
(1984) By the founder of the famous American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) in San Francisco - a candid account of his working method as a director. A Sense of Direction represents a life's work in directing. William Ball engages his audience in a wide-ranging discussion of the director's process, from first read-through to opening night. An informative, insightful, and often astonishingly clear look at the the process of making theatre. |
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Designing with Light: An Introduction to Stage Lighting
(1983) This comprehensive survey of the practical and aesthetic aspects of basic stage lighting design treats its subject as an art closely integrated with that of the director, actor, and playwright, and as a craft that provides practical solutions for the manipulation of stage space. An eight-page color section provides a discussion of the practical applications of color theory as well as an analysis of the color choices for the lighting design of an actual production. Numerous illustrations of techn... |
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The Pot of Gold and Other Plays
(1965) One of the supreme comic writers of the Roman world, Plautus (c.254–184 BC), skilfully adapted classic Greek comic models to the manners and customs of his day. This collection features a varied selection of his finest plays, from the light-hearted comedy Pseudolus, in which the lovesick Calidorus and his slave try to liberate his lover from her pimp, to the more subversive The Prisoners, which raises serious questions about the role of slavery. Also included are The Brothers Menaechmus, which... |
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The Stanislavski System: The Professional Training of an Actor
(1984) This clearly written guide to the Stanislavski method has long been a favorite among students and teachers of acting. Now, in light of books and articles recently published in the Soviet Union, Sonia Moore has made revisions that include a new section on the subtext of a role. She provides detailed explanations of all the methods that actors in training have found indispensable for more than twenty years. Designed to create better actors, this guide will put individuals in touch with themselves... |
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An Unsocial Socialist
(1972) An Unsocial Socialist was published in 1887, having been written in 1883. The tale begins with a humorous description of student antics at a girl's school then changes focus to a seemingly uncouth laborer who, it soon develops, is really a wealthy gentleman in hiding from his overly affectionate wife. He needs the freedom gained by matrimonial truancy to promote the socialistic cause, to which he is an active convert. Once the subject of socialism emerges, it dominates the story, allowing only ... |
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Environmental Theater
(1973) 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. |
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Audition
(1979) Michael Shurtleff has been casting director for Broadway shows like Chicago and Becket and for films like The Graduate and Jesus Christ Superstar. His legendary course on auditioning has launched hundreds of successful careers. Now in this book he tells the all-important HOW for all aspiring actors, from the beginning student of acting to the proven talent trying out for that chance-in-a-million role! |
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Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays
(1983) This guide to playreading for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather then contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. Ball developed his method during his work as Literary Director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use to make their plays stageworthy. The text is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, expo... |
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