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Broadway Bookshelf — Reference Books — Page 8

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.

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Reference Books Books

Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook

(1995)

A diverse selection of original texts on theatre by its most creative practitioners - actors, writers, directors and designers. Contributors include Jarry, Ionescu, Shaw, Brecht, Strindberg, Stanislawski, Lorca, Brook, Soyinka, Boal, Barba.

Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook

Costume and Makeup

(1994)

One part of a five-part series designed to help the amateur and student to develop their theatre skills. The author looks at drama as it is now and offers imaginative approaches to classical and less conventional theatre - mime, spectacle, musicals, outdoor shows and productions in unusual settings.. He stresses the importance of teamwork and planning and shows how with a creative use of resources outstanding results can be achieved.

Costume and Makeup

Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer

(2005)

This the second English language edition of the classic text, A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology subtly juxtaposes the visual demonstrations of the performers craft, from a wealth of Oriental and Occidental sources. Whereas most Western research is concerned with naturalism and psychological realism in acting, the Dictionary focuses on the performer's arduous and eclectic craft. More than just a dictionary, however, this is a handbook for theatre practitioners and a guide for students and sc...

 Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology: The Secret Art of the Performer

From Option to Opening : a guide to Producing Plays Off Broadway - Revised and Updated

(2005)

For the potential, as well as the professional, producer and for writers, actors, directors, and investors, this book is for anyone wanting or needing to understand the process of producing Off Broadway plays from start to finish. Written in crisp, clear, nonlegal language that the layman can easily understand, every page reflects the experience and expertise of Farber, a well-known and highly respected theatrical attorney. The book contains detailed information on how to: option a property, rai...

From Option to Opening : a guide to Producing Plays Off Broadway - Revised and Update

Costumes and Chemistry: A Comprehensive Guide to Materials and Applications

(2001)

Based on 14 years of research and experiment with plastics and various non-traditional materials, this book supplies information to designers and interpreters on specialized techniques for use in costumes for theatre, film and TV. Also included are charts detailing the effects of dry cleaning and laundering on adhesives, coatings, colourings and metallisers, allowing the designer to make appropriate choices for specific needs and longevity. This reference delivers many exciting new choices to d...

Costumes and Chemistry: A Comprehensive Guide to Materials and Applications

Dramatists Sourcebook 25th Edition

(2008)

The Dramatist Sourcebook contains more than 900 opportunities for playwrights, translators, composers, lyricists and librettists, including script-submission procedures for hundreds of professional theatres, more than 100 prizes and scores of publishers, fellowships, residencies, developmental programs, agents, service organizations, state arts agencies and reference publications. This fully revised 24th edition is thoroughly indexed and contains an invaluable calendar of submission guidelines, ...

Dramatists Sourcebook 25th Edition

Stage Management Forms and Formats: A Collection of over 100 Forms Ready to Use

(1991)

Designed to provide a head-start on the task of organizing and recording production information, "State Management Forms & Formats" contains 112 full-size, blank forms which can be used in the book or removed and added to a separate production log. Cast and scene breakdowns, expense sheets, rehearsal and performance reports, sign-in sheets, and property plots are just a few of the forms included. (Performing Arts)

Stage Management Forms and Formats: A Collection of over 100 Forms Ready to Use

Stage Management

(2009)

Revered as the authoritative resource for stage management, this book offers readers a practical manual on how to stage manage in all theater environments. Rich with practical resources — checklists, diagrams, examples, forms and step-by-step directions — Stage Management eschews excessive discussion of philosophy and gets right to the essential materials and processes of putting on a production. In addition to sharing his own expertise, Stern has gathered practical advice from working ...

Stage Management

Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy

(2010)

Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy offers useful and entertaining answers to the confounding questions: “What, exactly, is dramaturgy, and what does a dramaturg do?” According to Michael Mark Chemers, dramaturgs are the scientists of the theater world—their primary responsibility is to query the creative possibilities in every step of the production process, from play selection to costume design, and then research the various options and find ways to transform that knowl...

Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy

Play Directing in the School: A Drama Director's Survival Guide

(1997)

Directing plays in schools requires knowledge and talents far different than directing for community or professional theatre. In ten comprehensive chapters the author explains the "real world" of producing effective theatricals in the school environment. He details the pitfalls and the problems while providing ideas for consistently successful shows. He covers budgeting, scheduling, faculty politics, motivating and disciplining students and many other school-life realities beyond a director or t...

Play Directing in the School: A Drama Director's Survival Guide

Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics

(1998)

Boal is a Brazilian activist who has devoted his career to effecting social change through theater. This book is an account of his most recent efforts, especially during his term as a legislator. Growing out of his Theatre of the Oppressed, an international theater movement giving artistic and social voice to the otherwise voiceless, Legislative Theatre is an interactive dramaturgy. Working locally, Boal gets citizens to articulate their concerns by developing plays that are then presented loca...

Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics

Performance: A Critical Introduction

(2003)

Performance: A Critical Introduction was the first textbook to provide an overview of the modern concept of performance and its development in various related fields. This comprehensively revised, illustrated edition discusses recent performance work and takes into consideration changes that have taken place in the study of performance since the book's original publication in 1996. Marvin Carlson guides the reader through the contested definition of performance as a theatrical activity and the ...

Performance: A Critical Introduction

A More Perfect Ten: Writing and Producing the Ten-Minute Play

(2008)

A More Perfect Ten is a revision of Gary Garrison's pioneering book on writing and producing the 10-minute play, and it is now the most authoritative book on this emerging play form. The 10-minute play has become a regular feature of theatre companies and festivals from coast to coast, and Garrison has distilled the advice of many of those people who had been instrumental in promoting the ten minute play for the last few years. Replete with advice and tips on creating the successful 10-minute p...

A More Perfect Ten: Writing and Producing the Ten-Minute Play

Producing Theatre : A Comprehensive and Legal Business Guide

(2006)

Whether you are a theatrical entrepreneur, an investor, an attorney, or a student, and whether the production is on Broadway, off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, instock or repertory, the revised edition of this standard theatrical reference work tells you everything you need to know about raising money, obtaining rights, and bringing a play to the stage. Written by one of the country's leading theatrical attorneys, this easy-to-use guide includes all new budgets and has been brought up-to-date to ...

Producing Theatre : A Comprehensive and Legal Business Guide

Sound and Music for the Theatre, Third Edition: The Art & Technique of Design

(2009)

For every phase of theatrical production, Sound and Music for the Theatre traces the entire process of sound design from initial concept through closing night. The book discusses the early evolution of a sound design that supports the play, from researching sources for music and effects to negotiating a contract. It shows how to organize the construction of the sound design elements, how the designer functions in a rehearsal, and how to set up and train an operator to run sound equipment for a ...

Sound and Music for the Theatre, Third Edition: The Art & Technique of Design

Structuring Drama Work: A Handbook of Available Forms in Theatre and Drama

(1990)

A practical handbook for drama teachers and youth theatre workers. It offers a whole range of theatrical "conventions" to help initiate, focus and develop dramatic activity - whether in a workshop situation, or as part of an active exploration of texts, or within a full-scale performance.

Structuring Drama Work: A Handbook of Available Forms in Theatre and Drama

The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre

(2008)

The Director’s Craft is a unique and completely indispensable step-by-step guide to directing for the stage. Written by one of the most adventurous and respected directors working today, this book will be an essential item in every student and practitioner’s kitbag. It provides detailed assistance with each aspect of the varied challenges facing all theatre directors, and does so with startling clarity. It will inspire everyone, from the beginner just starting out to the experienced prac...

The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre

Dramatists Guild Resource Directory 2011

(2010)

The Dramatists Guild of America was established over 80 years ago, and is the only professional association which advances the interests of playwrights, composers and lyricists writing for the living stage. The Guild has over 6,000 members nationwide, from beginning writers to the most prominent authors represented on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theaters.

Dramatists Guild Resource Directory 2011

The Perfect Stage Crew: The Compleat Technical Guide for High School, College, and Community Theater

(2003)

Here is an indispensable, nuts-and-bolts guide to putting on a stunning, low-budget show in less than 40 days! The Perfect Stage Crew explains the pitfalls to avoid and provides solutions to the most common as well as most complex stage performance problems. Readers without Broadway-size budgets and resources will learn the low-cost, low-tech approaches to painting scenery, building sets, hanging lights, setting cues, and operating sound. They'll also find crucial guidance for generating public...

The Perfect Stage Crew: The Compleat Technical Guide for High School, College, and Co

The Commercial Theater Institute Guide to Producing Plays and Musicals

(2007)

Now in its 25th year, the Commercial Theater Institute sponsors an annual intensive program in New York for individuals interested in producing or investing in the theatre that attracts people from all over the world. The top working theatre professionals offer hard, factual information to those interested in producing for Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, anywhere in North America, as well as in the United Kingdom. The Commercial Theater Institute Guide to Producing Plays and Musicals ...

The Commercial Theater Institute Guide to Producing Plays and Musicals

Designing with Light

(2007)

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 tech...

Designing with Light

Drafting for the Theatre

(1992)

This process-oriented text—supplemented by 280 illustrations—is structured to provide students with a proper and practical approach to the development of drafting and related skills for the theatre. Dennis Dorn and Mark Shanda emphasize the standard drafting and designing practices of the theatre industry through a series of projects and exercises that help the student in the development of research skills. The early sessions focus on the basics of lettering, tool introduction, geometric...

Drafting for the Theatre

Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre & Film

(2010)

Top off that costume with the perfect accoutrement with this first real guide to creating and styling costume wigs. No longer will you need to comb through old references on hairstyles of different time periods, Wig Making and Styling contains everything you need to be a cut above, offering snippets on styling tools, hair types, wig making and measuring, coloring, cutting, and even creating beards and toupees. Other great features include: -Versatile techniques to create all different histori...

Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre & Film

The Stagecraft Handbook

(1996)

This manual covers every aspect of scenery c onstruction, with information on shop organisation, tools, s afety, scaled drawings and materials as well as construction techniques. A wealth of illustrations help show how to make quick, inexpensive scenery. '

The Stagecraft Handbook

Towards a Poor Theatre

(1991)

"One of the century's most impressive theatrical manifestos" - Irving Wardle Jerzy Grotowski created the Theatre Laboratory in Opole, South-West Poland, in 1959. His work since then, with a small permanent company, became one of the most potent sources of information for modern actors and directors. This is a record of the ideas that motivated the work of the Theatre Laboratory, and of the company's methods and discoveries.In his Preface Peter Brook writes: "Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no ...

Towards a Poor Theatre

Broadway: The American Musical

(2004)

Those critics and theatergoers who have for some time lamented the death of the Broadway musical can take heart: thanks to this glorious paean, the hills are once again alive with the sound of music—and much more. Though this nostalgia-laden tome is designed as a companion book to a forthcoming PBS series, it stands on its own as a particularly striking and comprehensive take on a uniquely American art form. The copious illustrations alone are worth "the price of admission," as history unfold...

Broadway: The American Musical

Theatre in Your Life

(2008)

THEATRE IN YOUR LIFE makes theatre appreciation personal, meaningful, and memorable by exploring the many ways theatre plays an important role in everyday life. From movies, concerts, and videogames, to weddings, graduations, and job interviews, aspects of production and performance strongly influence popular culture and shape many of our daily experiences. THEATRE IN YOUR LIFE vividly illuminates these connections while providing a thorough introduction to the history, elements, and global dive...

Theatre in Your Life

Theatre Management

(2007)

A comprehensive text and indispensable reference for all arts managers. David M. Conte's vast expansion of the Langley classic delivers a broad, comprehensive view of theatre and performing arts management based on the premise that all the performing arts share the same core issues. Mr. Conte addresses the needs and concerns confronting 21st Century managers.

Theatre Management

Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style

(2009)

Play Directing describes the various roles a director plays, from selection and analysis of the play to working with actors and designers to bring it to life. The authors emphasize that the role of the director is that of an artist-leader working in collaboration with actors and designers who look to the director for partnership in achieving their fullest, most creative expressions. The text emphasizes that directing is not a finite and specific “system” of production, but rather it is a m...

Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style

Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel (

(2003)

Available for the First Time in Paperback!From Aristotle's Poetics to Vaclav Havel, the debate about the nature and function of theatre has been marked by controversy. Daniel Gerould's landmark work, Theatre/Theory/Theatre, collects history's most influential Eastern and Western dramatic theorists - poets, playwrights, directors and philosophers - whose ideas about theatre continue to shape its future. In complete texts and choice excerpts spanning centuries, we see an ongoing dialogue and excha...

Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka

The Enjoyment of Theatre

(2010)

Enjoyment of Theatre's balanced coverage of performance and history provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to theatre. This text covers the full span of theatre's 2,500-year history, establishes the aesthetic underpinnings of theatre art, as well as performance/production topics such as playwriting, acting, directing, and the theatre industry. The authors make theatre come alive by showing you how theatre is relevant to your everyday life. You are told at the bFeginning of each cha...

The Enjoyment of Theatre

Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season

(2010)

When Evita opened on Broadway during the 1979-1980 season, it was (as one of its songs said) "High Flying Adored." But in the 1970-71 season, the producers of Lolita, My Love saw their show (as one of its songs said) "Going, Gone, Gone" after its torturous Philadelphia and Boston tryouts. It didn't even try to brave Broadway, although the bookwriter-lyricist of My Fair Lady had written it. It happens every season. Broadway has one, two, or a few hit musicals, but many, many more flops. Here's a ...

Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season

Thinking Like a Director: A Practical Handbook

(2001)

Bloom draws on nearly twenty years of directing and teaching experience to convey the full experience of directing for the stage, as well as the mindset that all successful directors possess. More than a mere set of guidelines, Thinking Like a Director details a technique that covers every facet of theatrical production, from first reading through final rehearsals. The key to directorial thinking, Bloom asserts, is a dual perspective--an ability to focus on both the internal lives of the play’...

Thinking Like a Director: A Practical Handbook

Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond

(2006)

Encouraging both teacher and student imagination and expression, the seventh edition of this classic text helps future teachers integrate drama into elementary school classrooms and introduces students to a variety of genres and strategies, including mime, play structure, improvisation, and using drama the special education curriculum. Unlike other texts, McCaslin focuses on drama as an art form as well as a teaching tool. The seventh edition features broader coverage of middle school, high scho...

Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond

Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present

(1988)

Performance is in some sense a combination of theater, dance, mime, concept art, music, and-today-even video; it can be simply defined as live art by artists. Goldberg discusses its origins in tribal rituals and passion plays and its twentieth-century revival by the Futurists. Surrealists, Dadaists, and Bauhaus artists.

Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present

The Back Stage Guide to Stage Management

(2009)

The Most Widely Used Manual For Aspiring And Veteran Stage Managers - Now Revised and Expanded The next best thing to shadowing a Broadway stage manager, this detailed, behind-the-scenes book as been brought completely up to date. First published in 1991, it is widely used and has been lauded as the most comprehensive, educational book on stage management available. From preproduction planning and first rehersals to opening night and final strike, all the essentials of the profession are pres...

The Back Stage Guide to Stage Management

The Stage Management Handbook

(1992)

Offers advice, for both professional and amateur stage managers, on putting on a show, discussing its three phases, and includes information on the organizational structure of theaters and how to manage human behavior.

The Stage Management Handbook

Self-Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business

(2008)

No other book for actors focuses so succinctly on the business of self-management. Whether an actor has an agent and manager on his or her team or is going it alone, "Self-Management for Actors" will provide a roadmap for surviving and thriving in the entertainment industry.

Self-Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business

A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting

(2009)

Construct and Implement Your Own Lighting Designs with the most trusted guide to stage lighting! An entertaining and educational read, author Steven Louis Shelley draws from his 35+ years of diverse experience to bring you the step-by-step technical tools for getting the job done along with real-life examples of projects from start to finish. Learn why some techniques are successful while others fail with 'Shelley's Notes' and 'Shelley's Soapbox,' all with a humor that guides you through com...

A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting

Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetics

(2008)

In the world of film and theatre, character transformation takes a lot of work, skill, and creativity. Dedicated solely to SFX, this book will show you tips and techniques from a seasoned SFX makeup artist with years of film, TV, and theatrical experience. Not only will this book take you through the many genres that need a special effects makeup artist, like horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, but it will also tell you about the tools you will need, how to maintain your toolkit, how to take care of th...

Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen: Making and Applying Prosthetics

Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher's Handbook

(1986)

Based on the best-selling book by Viola Spolin, this new CD-ROM of Theater Games for the Classroom offers the most comprehensive theater instruction for all types of students, from small children to young adults. It includes over 130 theater games and exercises, instructional strategies, video examples, a lesson planning section, alignment to other curricular areas, and alignment to California Theatre Arts standards. First developed by Spolin, the originator of modern improvisational theater tec...

Theater Games for the Classroom: A Teacher's Handbook

Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic

(1997)

This volume offers a major selection of Bertolt Brecht's groundbreaking critical writing. Here, arranged in chronological order, are essays from 1918 to 1956, in which Brecht explores his definition of the Epic Theatre and his theory of alienation-effects in directing, acting, and writing, and discusses, among other works, The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny, Mother Courage, Puntila, and Galileo. Also included is "A Short Organum for the Theatre," Brecht's most complete exposition of his revolutiona...

Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic

The Broadway Musical Quiz Book

(2010)

The Broadway Musical Quiz Book includes nearly 80 quizzes on every aspect of the Broadway musical, including sections devoted to the careers of major Broadway stars, songwriters, directors, and producers, ranging from Ethel Merman to Stephen Sondheim. It also features thematic quizzes - such as musicals set in France, adaptations from literature, food and drink, British shows, references to sports, biographical shows, and jukebox musicals - and quizzes covering each decade from 1900 to the prese...

The Broadway Musical Quiz Book

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