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Broadway Bookshelf

Biographies, show books, musical scores, history, and must-read theatre books.
Biographies Show Books Autobiography For Actors Musical Scores Reference Books History

Being and Doing: A Workbook for Actors (1990)

A fun and exciting workbook for actors to use in establishing a daily work schedule. Designed to help the actor integrate the two parts of the process, THE INSTRUMENT AND THE CRAFT. Which gives spontaneity, dimension, and authenticity to his performance. The numerous daily exercises deal with every aspect of acting including the actor's relationship to the business. Blank pages provide the actor with space to document his or her own involvement and progress. Being a workbook, every page is fill...
Being and Doing: A Workbook for Actors Cover
El Burlador De Sevilla (1990)

El burlador de Sevilla is a play by Tirso de Molina, first published in Spain around 1630, though it may have been performed as early as 1616. Set in the 14th century, the play is the earliest fully-developed dramatisation of the Don Juan legend.
El Burlador De Sevilla Cover
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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One Act Plays for Acting Students: An Anthology of Short One-Act Plays for One, Two or Three Actors (1987)

23 short length plays for a cast of one, two, or three. 5 minutes acting time for each character. Performance times vary from 8-15 minutes.
One Act Plays for Acting Students: An Anthology of Short One-Act Plays for One, Two o Cover
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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Master Teachers of Theatre: Observations on Teaching Theatre by Nine American Masters (1988)

Claribel Baird reviews the interpretation of classical texts for theatrical performance. Howard Bay interrupted his stage design career of more than 150 Broadway productions to help students. Bernard Beckerman asks if there are approaches to the teaching of dramatic literature that particularly suit drama-as-theatre. Robert Benedetti offers suggestions on the teaching of acting. Oscar Brockett treats the problems of the theatre teacher and the processes of learning. Agnes Haaga shows that the ...
Master Teachers of Theatre: Observations on Teaching Theatre by Nine American Masters Cover
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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It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business [ (1990)

"In this ebullient, often rancorous autobiography, the stage, film and TV actor describes vividly the hassles that cost him the plum role in The Graduate and numerous other setbacks before he starred in The Heartbreak Kid . Instructive and entertaining, his story includes tidbits on Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Roman Po lanski, Ellen Burstyn, Simon & Garfunkel, and many other luminaries, none more intriguing than the un sinkable Grodin," said PW. Photos.
It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business [ Cover
The Studio (1985)

In 1967, John Gregory Dunne asked for unlimited access to the inner workings of Twentieth Century Fox. Miraculously, he got it. For one year Dunne went everywhere there was to go and talked to everyone worth talking to within the studio. He tracked every step of the creation of pictures like "Dr. Dolittle," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Boston Strangler." The result is a work of reportage that, thirty years later, may still be our most minutely observed and therefore most uproariously funny po...
The Studio Cover
Luis Valdez Early Works: Actos, Bernabe and Pensamiento Serpentino (1990)

This collection is actually three books in one: 1) a collection of one-act plays by the famous farmwork theatre, El Teatro Campesino and its director, Luis Valdez, 2) one of the first fully realized, full-length plays by Valdez alone, and 3) an original narrative poem by Luis Valdez.
Luis Valdez Early Works: Actos, Bernabe and Pensamiento Serpentino Cover
AS I AM (1988)

By age 21 the self-confident, determined, Southern-bred actress had starred in a Broadway hit, won a Tony, was "the toast of New York" and was featured on a Life coveronly the first of many triumphs in a celebrity life. In this account written "to reclaim the past that was stolen," Neal writes candidly about her numerous love affairs, both transient and profound, such as a liaison with Gary Cooper and her 25-year marriage to writer Roald Dahl. More arresting are the tragedies that beset her, in...
AS I AM Cover
Don Giovanni (1985)

Standard Italian libretto, with complete English translation. Convenient and thoroughly portable—an ideal companion for reading along with a recording or the performance itself. Introduction. List of Characters. Plot Summary.
Don Giovanni Cover
The Technique of Acting (1990)

Adler, among the most acclaimed actresses and teachers of acting, has written a dynamic book that is sure to become a classic. After the forward by former pupil Marlon Brando, Adler explains her technique, which is based on the methods of Stanislavskishe was a student of the famous Russian. The 12 chapters cover goals, body and speech control, imagination, action, and character; the book also includes a very useful listing of scenes from well-known plays. Adler made her stage debut in 1906 at th...
The Technique of Acting Cover
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.
A Source Book in Theatrical History: Twenty-five centuries of stage history in more t Cover
Scenes for Young Actors (1990)

A One-Of-A-Kind Acting Aid With Young Talent In Mind In drama classes and at auditions, young actors have continually had to resort to performing roles written for much older men and women -- roles that are often difficult for them to identify with or to fully understand. But this innovative scenebook gives younger performers the opportunity to portray characters their own age. From the classics to the finest in contemporary drama -- from Shakespeare, Shaw, and Chekov to Miller, Will...
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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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The Harold Arlen Songbook (P/V/G Composer Collection) (1985)

A "must-own" collection of 76 songs of Harold Arlen. Includes his major works and some previously unpublished titles. Highlights include: Come Rain or Come Shine * Get Happy * Let's Fall in Love * The Man That Got Away * Over the Rainbow * Stormy Weather * and more!
The Harold Arlen Songbook (P/V/G Composer Collection) Cover
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.
1776: A Musical Play Cover
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.
24 Favorite One Act Plays Cover
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 Cover
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.
Guys and Dolls: Vocal Selections Cover
Jesus Christ Superstar: A Rock Opera (Vocal Selections) (1985)

Highly acclaimed show by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Songs include: HEAVEN ON THEIR MINDS . EVERYTHING'S ALRIGHT . HOSANNA . PILATE'S DREAM . I DON'T KNOW HOW TO LOVE HIM . THE LAST SUPPER ;. I ONLY WANT TO SAY (GETHSEMANE) . KING HEROD'S SONG . SUPERSTAR
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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...
Prometheus Bound and Other Plays: Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against The Cover
The Definitive Broadway Collection (1988)

This is simply the best and most comprehensive collection of Broadway music ever collected! 142 of the greatest show tunes compiled into one volume - this is one book that every Broadway lover must have! Songs include: Don't Cry for Me Argentina * Edelweiss * Hello, Dolly! * I Could Have Danced All Night * I Dreamed a Dream * I Know Him So Well * Lullabye of Broadway * Mack the Knife * People * Send in the Clowns * Somewhere * Summertime * Sunrise, Sunset * Tomorrow * What Kind of Fool Am I? * ...
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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.
The Actor's scenebook: Scenes and monologues from contemporary plays Cover
On Method Acting (1989)

Practiced by such actors of stature as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, and Ellen Burstyn (not to mention the late James Dean) the Method offers a practical application of the renowned Stanislavsky technique. On Method Acting demystifies the "mysteries" of Method acting -- breaking down the various steps into clear and simple terms, including chapters on: Sense Memory -- the most vital component of Method acting Improvisation -- without it, the most integral p...
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Creating Unforgettable Characters (1990)

In this book, Linda Seger shows how to create strong, multidimensional characters in fiction, covering everything from research to character block. Interviews with today's top writers complete this essential volume.
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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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Free to Act: An Integrated Approach to Acting (1990)

Free to Act presents a holistic approach to actor training that integrates physical and psychological technique. Its integrated approach emphasizes the idea that the body informs the mind and that emotion is rooted in physical action. Providing a carefully developed system of training, Free to Act guides the student-actor through the complex process by which an actor is formed.
Free to Act: An Integrated Approach to Acting Cover
The Best Broadway Songs Ever (1985)

We've made this book even better with the addition of songs from some of Broadway's latest blockbusters such as Miss Saigon, The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Les Miserables, and more - over 70 songs in all! Highlights include: All I Ask of You * As Long As He Needs Me * Bess, You Is My Woman * Bewitched * Camelot * Climb Ev'ry Mountain * Comedy Tonight * Don't Cry for Me Argentina * Everything's Coming Up Roses * Getting to Know You * I Could Have Danced All Night * I Dreamed a Dream *...
The Best Broadway Songs Ever Cover
Building A Character (1989)

This is the second volume of Stanislaviski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting. The "System" which he describes is a means both of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination. It has become the central force determining almost every performance we see on stage or screen, and still remains today the only comprehensive theory of acting we possess. In Building a Character Stanislavski discusses with mastery and insight the actor's physic...
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The Actor's Book of Contemporary Stage Monologues (1987)

This is the only book that offers a comprehensive collection of contemporary stage monologues for a complete range of roles. An invaluable tool for actors looking for new audition material or for anyone interested in theater.
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J.B: A Play in Verse (1989)

Based on the story of Job, this drama in verse tells the story of a twentieth-century American banker and millionaire whom God commands be stripped of his family and wealth, but who refuses to turn his back on God. J.B. won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1959 and the Tony Award for best play. More important, the play sparked a national conversation about the nature of God.
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The Beggar's Opera (1987)

Written in 1728, John Gay’s opera caricatures society, marriage and Italian operatic style in this comic satire which is considered revolutionary because it took on poverty and corruption as its subject as told by the thieves, prostitutes and villains of the slums and prisons of 18th century London. The lyrics were set to famous songs the day making it hugely popular with audiences and a radical departure from traditional opera. Bertolt Brech and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera is based on...
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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 Cover
Les Miserables: Vocal / Piano Selections (1987)

This terrific songbook features 14 vocal selections from the beloved Broadway musical: At the End of the Day * Bring Him Home * Castle on a Cloud * Do You Hear the People Sing? * Drink with Me (To Days Gone By) * Empty Chairs at Empty Tables * A Heart Full of Love * I Dreamed a Dream * In My Life * A Little Fall of Rain * Master of the House * On My Own * Stars * Who Am I?. Also includes beautiful full-color photos from the production.
Les Miserables: Vocal / Piano Selections Cover
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...
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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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Scene Design and Stage Lighting (1985)

Stressing recent innovations in stage lighting, the authors reveal the techniques and skills involved in designing sets for theatrical productions.
Scene Design and Stage Lighting Cover
The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook (1989)

Demonstrates how to work with molds, castings, and vacuum forming equipment, stresses safety precautions, and discusses materials from paper-mache to breakaway glass.
The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook Cover
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...
Designing with Light: An Introduction to Stage Lighting Cover
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...
The Pot of Gold and Other Plays  Cover
Stage Makeup (1990)

Key Benefit: A classic in the field, this book helps makeup artists and actors learn the proper technique when applying stage makeup. Key Topics: This easy, step-by-step guide is comprised of 20 comprehensive chapters covering all aspects of stage makeup application. Topics include: basic techniques as well as new methods and materials for all types of stage makeup; updated information on hairstyles and fashions. Revered as the stage makeup bible, this book includes listings of makeup colors fro...
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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 ...
An Unsocial Socialist  Cover
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre (1987)

Impro ought to be required reading not only for theatre people generally but also for teachers, educators, and students of all kinds and persuasions. Readers of this book are not going to agree with everything in it; but if they are not challenged by it, if they do not ultimately succumb to its wisdom and whimsicality, they are in a very sad state indeed . . . .Johnstone seeks to liberate the imagination, to cultivate in the adult the creative power of the child . . . .Deserves to be widely read...
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Sanford Meisner on Acting (1987)

Meisner, a member of the Theater Guild and the Group Theater, has devoted most of 50 years to teaching acting and is one of the great unsung resources in American theater. This book is not an acting text, but a journal of a 15-month course taken by 16 adult actors. We follow them as they progress from early exercises through preparation to detailed scene work. Meisner emphasizes emotional truth and acting as the reality of doing. His students find the course difficult, but most improve markedly....
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1988)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The action of Stoppard's play takes place mainly "in the wings" of Shakespeare's, with brief appearances of major characters from Hamlet who enact fragments of the original's scenes. Between these episodes the two ...
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Cover

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