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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
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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... 		Polaroid Stories Cover
A Game at Chess (12/31/1969)

Thomas Middleton's notorious play, A Game at Chess, provoked a scandal when it was first performed in 1624. Through a masterly use of the metaphor of chessplay, this satire of men in high places was immediately recognized. The play was performed nine times to large theater audiences before the Privy Council closed the Globe theatre. Numerous contemporary reports and official documents relating to the scandal (printed in the appendix, some for the first time ever), provide a rich content for thi... 		A Game at Chess Cover
Summer & Smoke (12/31/1969)

The play is a simple love story of a somewhat puritanical Southern girl and an unpuritanical young doctor. Each is basically attracted to the other but because of their divergent attitudes toward life, each over the course of years is driven away from the other. Not until toward the end does the doctor realize that the girl's high idealism is basically right, and while she is still in love with him, it turns out that neither time nor circumstances will allow the two ultimately to come together. ... 		Summer & Smoke Cover
Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 4: Sweet Bird of Youth / Period of Adjustment / The Night of the Iguana (12/31/1969)

The Theatre of Tennessee Williams brings together in matching format the plays of one of America's most persistently influential and innovative dramatists. Arranged in chronological order, this ongoing series includes the original cast listings and production notes for all full-length plays. 		Theatre of Tennessee Williams, Vol. 4: Sweet Bird of Youth / Period of Adjustment / T Cover
Not About Nightingales (12/31/1969)

Written in 1938 when Williams was 27, still living at home and a good six years away from Broadway, Not about Nightingales is as much writing exercise as fully realized drama. It lacks the originality and depth of The Glass Menagerie, written only a few years later, and his later masterworks. Nevertheless, it is of considerable interest, not least because it was inspired by a real occurrence in which several unruly prisoners were cooked alive as punishment. And after all, it is Williams' first f... 		Not About Nightingales Cover
The Spectator: Talk About Movies and Plays With Those Who Made Them (12/31/1969)

A collection of interviews with screen and stage actors, directors, playwrights and critics, Terkel's latest richly entertaining oral history is a departure from his bestselling interview books on weightier themes (Working; Hard Times; Race). Here, Terkel offers interviewsAmany of them reading almost like monologues, Terkel says so littleAfirst heard on the Chicago radio program he has hosted for the past 45 years. Many of the exchanges feel dated, and there is an awful lot of chitchat. Neverth... 		The Spectator: Talk About Movies and Plays With Those Who Made Them Cover
Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays (12/31/1969)

Ever wonder what it would have been like if wild and crazy Steve Martin had written an episode of "The Twilight Zone"? Well, wonder no more. The zany actor/comedian made playwright rookie of the year with this, the script of his first comedy, set in a bar in 1904 Paris. Two of the regulars, twentysomethings Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein, argue about the art of physics and the physics of art as they try to impress and bed a pretty girl. And then the space/time/culture continuum ruptures, and... 		Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays Cover
Harold Prince and the American Musical Theater (12/31/1969)

This book follows the career of the producer/director of such shows as "Pyjama Game", "Damn Yankees", "Fiddler of the Roof" and "West Side Story" and who has collaborated in many productions of Stephen Sondheim's works. 		Harold Prince and the American Musical Theater Cover
Plays and Stories: Arthur Schnitzler (12/31/1969)

Arthur Schnitzler, Viennese playwright, novelist, short story writer, and physician, was a sophisticated writer much in vogue in his time. He chose themes of an erotic, romantic, or social nature, expressed with clarity, irony, and subtle wit. Reigen, a series of ten dialogues linking people of various social classes through their physical desire for one another, has been filmed many times as La Ronde. As a Jew, Schnitzler was sensitive to the problems of anti-Semitism, which he explored in the... 		Plays and Stories: Arthur Schnitzler Cover
Babbitt (12/31/1969)

First published in 1922, Babbitt is an authentic modern American classic, a biting satire of middle-American values that retains much of its poignancy today. George F. Babbitt, Lewis's outwardly successful but inwardly unhappy real estate salesman, still seems real. His story makes engrossing reading and is ideal for audio listening. With Babbitt himself at the center of every scene, it is impossible for listeners plagued by frequent interruptions to lose track of the story line. Narrator Wolfr... 		Babbitt Cover
Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (12/31/1969)

Schulman, a lesbian activist and 1997 winner of the Stonewall Award, joined ACT UP in 1987. Shortly thereafter, she completed her fourth novel, People in Trouble (NAL Dutton, 1991), which featured a group of East Village artists struggling with homelessness and AIDS and was based on her personal experiences. After attending a performance of Rent in February 1996 and writing a review of it, Schulman realized that the storyline of this mega-hit was, in fact, taken directly from her novel. Stagestr... 		Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America Cover
The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Krapp's Last Tape v. 1 (12/31/1969)

Samuel Beckett directed "Krapp's Last Tape" on four separate occasions, and this volume offers a facsimile of his 1969 Schiller-Theater notebook. The notebook contains what is probably some of the most explicit analysis by Beckett of his own work ever revealed. The revised text incorporates many of the changes Beckett made in the 1969 Schiller production, as well as subsequent changes in later productions. Professor Knowlson worked closely with Beckett over these revisions - and deviations from... 		The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Krapp's Last Tape v. 1 Cover
The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot v. 3 (12/31/1969)

Following "Endgame" and "Krapp's Last Tape", this book looks at Beckett's notebook for "Waiting for Godot". The volume is in part a facsimile of the notebook kept by Beckett for Berlin's Schiller-Theater production in 1975. It contains a full set of directional notes and discloses, section-by-section, a total system that works by repitition and analogy, musical rhythm and echo, establishing subtle patterns of sound, movement and gestures. 		The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot v. 3 Cover
Shorter Plays, Volume 4: The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett (12/31/1969)

Shorter Plays follows Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Krapp's Last Tape in this highly praised series of Beckett's notebooks, which show for the first time the extensive revisions made by Beckett during revivals of his plays. From the mid-1960s, Samuel Beckett himself directed all his major plays in Berlin, Paris or London. For most of these productions he meticulously prepared notebooks for his personal use. The Theatrical Notebooks of Beckett that are reproduced in facsimile here offer a rem... 		Shorter Plays, Volume 4: The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett Cover
States of Shock (12/31/1969)

The evening begins with a bang. The deceptive calm of a family restaurant, filled with two disgruntled customers and an inept waitress, is disrupted by offstage sounds of war and destruction. The real disruption begins with the entrance of the Colonel, a middle-aged brute of a man wearing the medals and uniform of a commander, who wheels on Stubbs, a mute paraplegic veteran who served with the Colonel's son. According to the Colonel, they have come "to toast the death of my son and have a nice d... 		States of Shock Cover
Chicago And Other Plays (12/31/1969)

Includes: Chicago, Icarus's Mother, Red Cross, Fourteen Hundred Thousand, Melodrama Play. 		Chicago And Other Plays Cover
Fortune, My Foe and Eros at Breakfast (12/31/1969)

Robertson Davies has been called the most important Canadian playwright of the postwar period. These two plays from the 1940s prove that great writing and important themes never go out of style. 		Fortune, My Foe and Eros at Breakfast Cover
Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre (12/31/1969)

Last year, Davies's widow, Brenda, and their daughter, Jennifer Surridge, worked to compile The Merry Heart, a collection of Davies's speeches and writings on reading, writing and books. Davies had consented to the plans for that book in the last months of his life. This, however, seems to be purely a production of his estate and is, truth to tell, uneven. There are some wonderful pieces: His speech on "The Noble Greeks" wanders convincingly from Greek religion and culture to Jim Jones and Davi... 		Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre Cover
On Racine (12/31/1969)

On Racine is a brilliant, personal view of theatre in which Barthes discusses all the major tragedies of Racine as well as the range of critical views of his work. 		On Racine Cover
Persecución (12/31/1969)

Cinco piezas de teatro se unen aqui bajo un mismo tema: la persecucion. Cruel, experimental, desenfadado, ironico y poetico, este libro ademas de ser una obra de arte, es tambien una vision profunda de la eterna dualidad que parece caracterizar al ser humano: su condicion tanto sublime como terrible que lo hace victima o victimario perseguido o perseguidor. Pero la obra ademas de ser una satira del actual regimen cubano, trasciende el mismo a traves de una liberacion que, como en el principio d... 		Persecución Cover
Theaetetus (12/31/1969)

Set immediately prior to the trial and execution of Socrates in 399 BC, Theaetetus shows the great philosopher considering the nature of knowledge itself, in a debate with the geometrician Theodorus and his young follower Theaetetus. Their dialogue covers many questions, such as: is knowledge purely subjective, composed of the ever-changing flow of impressions we receive from the outside world? Is it better thought of as true belief'? Or is it, as many modern philosophers argue, justified true b... 		Theaetetus Cover
Winning Monologs for Young Actors: 65 Honest-To-Life Characterizations to Delight Young Actors and Audiences of All Ages (12/31/1969)

A collection of sixty-five monologues providing young performers with a variety of audition pieces reflecting situations both serious and comic. 		Winning Monologs for Young Actors: 65 Honest-To-Life Characterizations to Delight You Cover
Backstage Forms (12/31/1969)

Over 100 examples of backstage paperwork ready for photocopying--forms like hanging schedules, costume fitting sheets, lighting circuit schedules, prop preset lists, sound cues, to name only a few. 		Backstage Forms Cover
Autobiography: Consisting of Present Indicative, Future Indefinite and The Uncompleted Past Conditional (12/31/1969)

This reissue contains all three instalments of Coward's biography. "Present Indicative", published in 1937, deals with Noel's childhood and early life up to "Cavalcade" in 1931; "Future Indefinite", published in 1954, deals with the War years; also included is the opening to a planned third volume. 		Autobiography: Consisting of Present Indicative, Future Indefinite and The Uncomplete Cover
The Overcoat (12/31/1969)

The Overcoat which is generally acknowledged as the finest of Gogol's memorable Saint Petersburg stories, is a tale of the absurd and misplaced obsessions. 		The Overcoat Cover
Diary of a Madman and Other Stories (12/31/1969)

Illuminates the Russian writer's thoughts on madness, bureaucracy, and illusion in these five tales. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 		Diary of a Madman and Other Stories Cover
La Mandragola (12/31/1969)

A superior treatment of Machiavelli's minor masterpiece! Flaumenhaft's beautifully crafted, literal translation aims to capture the original intent of the playwright. Machiavelli himself distinguished carefully between translations and revisions; thus, Flaumenhaft finds a faithful translation essential to conveying Machiavelli's thought and to allowing direct access to the work. The Prologue explores the relationship between Machiavelli's stage comedies--part of the Comedia Erudita of the Italia... 		La Mandragola Cover
Broadway Bound (12/31/1969)

Based on the original play by Neil Simon, the story traces the attempts of Eugene and Stan Jerome's attempts to break into show business as comedy writers in the 1950s. 		Broadway Bound Cover
Neil Simon Monologues: Speeches from the Works of America's Foremost Playwright (12/31/1969)

This is the first authorized collection of monologues from Mr. Simon's plays and the most significant contribution to the drama genre in the past twenty-five years. As a scene-study book it is invaluable to actors at all levels. This definitive publication contains speeches for men and women from "Come Blow Your Horn" through "Jake's Women." Each play is comprehensively synopsized, and an in-depth exposition establishing setting and intent precedes each speech. With an introduction by Jack Lemm... 		Neil Simon Monologues: Speeches from the Works of America's Foremost Playwright Cover
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (12/31/1969)

In three short months, Oscar Wilde, the most celebrated playwright and wit of Victorian England, was toppled from the apex of British society into humiliation and ruin. Drawing from trial documents, newspaper accounts, and writings of the key players, Moises Kaufman ignites an incendiary mix of sex and censorship, with a cast of characters ranging from George Bernard Shaw to Queen Victoria herself. 		Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde Cover
Teaching Drama to Young Children (12/31/1969)

Teaching Drama to Young Children has been written for teachers of children aged five to eight who would like to teach drama, but are not sure how to begin. 		Teaching Drama to Young Children Cover
Readers Theatre: What It is and How to Stage It (12/31/1969)

A complete guide to Reader's Theatre--what it is and how to stage it--including four award-winning scripts by Charles LaBorde, Jo Davidsmeyer, Caroline E. Wood, and Robert Hawkins. (Performing Arts) 		Readers Theatre: What It is and How to Stage It Cover
Così è (se vi pare) (12/31/1969)

osì è (se vi pare) (English: Right you are (if you think so)) is an Italian drama by Luigi Pirandello. It premiered 18 June 1917 in Milan. 		Così è (se vi pare) Cover
Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore (12/31/1969)

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Italian: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello. The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!"). Subsequently the play enjoyed a much better reception. This improved reception was helped in 1925 when, with the third edition of the play, Pirandello provided a foreword clarifying... 		Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore Cover
The Bedford Introduction to Drama (12/31/1969)

With an abundance of plays, commentaries, and useful editorial features, the best-selling Bedford Introduction to Drama is the most comprehensive introductory drama resource available, giving students a diverse overview of dramatic literature and instructors a text with enough breadth and flexibility to complement a variety of approaches. 		The Bedford Introduction to Drama Cover
Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts (12/31/1969)

Black Magic Langston Hughes's last book, presents the vast, sweeping story of African-American entertainers--the artists and the musicians, the singers and the dancers, the obscure and the illustrious--from the tragic beginnings in slavery to he triumphant artistic achievements of the late 1960s. Long considered the most comprehensive history of African-Americans in the performing arts, this milestone in black history features hundreds of rare and beautiful illustrations. Covering both the obst... 		Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the African-American in the Performing Arts Cover
Lanford Wilson: Collected Works, Vol. 3: The Talley Trilogy (12/31/1969)

The fourth volume of Smith and Kraus' publication of the complete works of playwright Lanford Wilson. The plays in this volume include Fifth of July, Talley's Folly (the winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize) and Talley and Son. This collection will include introductory notes by the playwright, original cast and production information. From the New York Times: One of the rewards of the plays in the unfolding Talley Cycle is our knowledge of the interrelated, reflected worlds. When a character opens... 		Lanford Wilson: Collected Works, Vol. 3: The Talley Trilogy Cover
Scriptwork: A Director's Approach to New Play Development (12/31/1969)

Despite the popular myth that plays arrive at the theater fully formed and ready for production, the truth is that for centuries, most scripts have been developed through a collaborative process in rehearsal and in concert with other theater artists. David Kahn and Donna Breed provide the first codified approach to this time-honored method of play development, with a flexible methodology that takes into account differing environments and various stages of formation. Directors can use this un... 		Scriptwork: A Director's Approach to New Play Development Cover
Learning Through Drama: Report of the Schools Council Drama, Teaching Project (12/31/1969)

A guide to teaching drama. It stresses the place of drama in the school curriculum and makes detailed recommendations both on the organization and on the content of drama teaching. 		Learning Through Drama: Report of the Schools Council Drama, Teaching Project Cover
Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance (12/31/1969)

Katharine Eisaman Maus explores Renaissance writers' uneasy preoccupation with the inwardness and invisibility of truth. The perceived discrepancy between a person's outward appearance and inward disposition, she argues, deeply influenced the ways English Renaissance dramatists and poets conceived of the theater, imagined dramatic characters, and reflected upon their own creativity. 		Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance Cover
The Encyclopedia of Acting Techniques: Illustrated Instruction, Examples and Advice for Improving Acting Techniques and Stage Presence--From Tragedy to Comedy, Epic to Farce (12/31/1969)

From drama to farce, this photo-packed book offers a complete how-to reference to the craft of acting. Actors will find exercises for strengthening their focus and concentration, refining stage movements, improving voice, and understanding characters. 390 color illustrations. 		The Encyclopedia of Acting Techniques: Illustrated Instruction, Examples and Advice f Cover
The Theater Posters of James Mcmullan (12/31/1969)

On buses, billboards, and train platforms, in newspapers and magazines, a poster's swift promise in glorious color or powerful dark tones offers a vivid impression of what awaits a theatergoer, and provides the lasting mental image of a play long after its closing night. No one creates such images with more invention, honesty, and beauty--sometimes disturbingly, but always memorably--than James McMullan. The Theater Posters of James McMullan is an illuminating collection of thirty-six posters f... 		The Theater Posters of James Mcmullan Cover
Black Theatre and Performance: A Pan-African Bibliography (12/31/1969)

"This important work contains just short of 4,000 citations to monographs, chapters in monographs, journal articles, dissertations, audio tapes, video tapes, and reviews. Drawn American and Western European as well as African imprints. The main body of the work is divided into three sections: `Cultural History and the Arts,' `African Theatre,' and `Black Theatre and Performance in the Diaspora.' . . . Because of its arrangement, it is an easy bibliography to browse. Four separate indexes (artist... 		Black Theatre and Performance: A Pan-African Bibliography Cover
Action Art: A Bibliography of Artists' Performance from Futurism to Fluxus and Beyond (12/31/1969)

This comprehensive international bibliography is the first to attempt documentation of this diverse field, covering the history of "Artist's Performance." It focuses on its early twentieth-century antecedents in such movements as Futurism, Dada, Russian Constructivism, and the Bauhaus as well as its peak period in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with such developments as Gutai, Fluxus, Viennese Actionism, Situationism, and Guerrilla Art Action. Major emphasis is also given to sources on 115 individu... 		Action Art: A Bibliography of Artists' Performance from Futurism to Fluxus and Beyond Cover
Polly: an opera (12/31/1969)

Trapes. There it is now! Whoever heard a man of fortune in England talk of the necessaries of life? If the necessaries of life would have satisfy'd such a poor body as me, to be sure I had never come to mend my fortune to the Plantations. Whether we can afford it or no, we must have superfluities. We never stint our Expence to our own fortunes, but are miserable, if we do not live up to the profuseness of our neighbours. 		Polly: an opera Cover
All For Love: A Tragedy (12/31/1969)

Although John Dryden the poet is best known for his alexandrine epics, John Dryden the playwright is most honored for this blank verse tragedy. The summit of Dryden's dramatic art, All For Love (1677) is a spectacle of passion as felt, feared, and disputed in the suspicious years following the English Civil War. 		All For Love: A Tragedy Cover
Politics and the Arts (12/31/1969)

This excellent translation makes available a classic work central to one of the most interesting controversies of the eighteenth century: the quarrel between Rousseau and Voltaire. Besides containing some of the most sensitive literary criticism ever written (especially of Molière), the book is an excellent introduction to the principles of classical political thought. It demonstrates the paradoxes of Rousseau's though and clearly displays the temperament that led him to repudiate the hopes of ... 		Politics and the Arts Cover
The Blacks: A Clown Show (12/31/1969)

'One evening,' wrote Jean Genet in a prefatory note to The Blacks, 'an actor asked me to write a play for an all-black cast. But what exactly is a black? First of all, what's his colour?' - which is, perhaps, as good an introduction as any to this immensely interesting and exciting play. Translated by Bernard Frechtman, The Blacks is another striking example of the intensity, the depth and the complete originality that was Genet's view of life 		The Blacks: A Clown Show Cover
The Difficulty Of Being (12/31/1969)

Writer, filmmaker, visual artist, and celebrated leader of the French avant-garde, Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) once announced, "One must know how to go too far." The astounding scope of his work stands as a testament to that revolutionary spirit. Throughout his life he boldly experimented in almost every medium and achieved enduring success in them all: novels like Les Enfants Terribles; films such as The Blood of a Poet, Beauty and the Beast, and Orphee; as well as plays, ballets, drawings, poem... 		The Difficulty Of Being Cover
The Heiress (12/31/1969)

This series of contemporary plays includes structured GCSE assignments for use by individuals or groups. These include questions which involve close reading, writing and discussion. This play is based on the novel "Washington Square" by Henry James. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 		The Heiress Cover

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