Applause Books – serie

Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. The great voice finally ended in the early Nineties, but her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.

For decades, Screen World has been the film professional's, as well as the film buff's, favorite and indispensable annual screen resource, full of all the necessary statistics and facts. Now Screen World editor Barry Monush has compiled another comprehensive work for every film lover's library.In the first of two volumes, this book chronicles the careers of every significant film actor, from the earliest silent screen stars – Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks – to the mid-1960s, when the old studio and star systems came crashing down.Each listing includes: a brief biography, photos from the famed Screen World archives, with many rare shots; vital statistics; a comprehensive filmography; and an informed, entertaining assessment of each actor's contributions – good or bad!In addition to every major player, Monush includes the legions of unjustly neglected troupers of yesteryear. The result is a rarity: an invaluable reference tool that's as much fun to read as a scandal sheet. It pulsates with all the scandal, glamour, oddity and glory that was the lifeblood of its subjects.Contains over 1 000 photos!

The complete scripts to six Sam Shepard plays: The Unseen Hand • Forensic and the Navigators • The Holy Ghostly • Back Bog Beast Bait • Shaved Splits • 4-H Club.

BEFORE BRECHT: FOUR GERMAN PLAYS CLOTH

Mastery of craft depends on repetition: the more opportunities student actors have to be guided through analyzing scripts, the more likely they are to develop a reliable process for making choices when the time comes to work independently. That's why Acting on the Script contains eight short plays, which can be used independently or as parts of one full-length play, giving aspiring actors the practice they need to tell the story of the play and of their characters clearly, believably, and compellingly. With each new scene, readers are given the opportunity to think through the analysis and synthesis process independently, then they are guided clearly through that process.The first section reintroduces the basic elements of acting craft. The book then lays out how these elements relate to a script in general and then more specifically – by using a short play to illustrate the basic principles. The second section focuses on specific analysis and synthesis problems using original scenes especially composed to help students develop their analysis and choice-making skills and to address individual acting issues. The plays, already tested in classes and two productions (one professional and one college), are filled with the kinds of acting problems that beginning actors often have trouble with and need to learn to solve. In addition, specific problems that actors might have with certain types of material are addressed as well.

“As Greek tragedy ” says a Spanish writer, “was composed from the crumbs that fell from Homer's table, so the Spanish drama owed its earliest forms to La Celestina (1499).”Fernando de Rojas' tragi-comedy – which has also been called “a novel in dialogue” – runs to about three hundred pages in the James Mabbe translation, here adapted to the stage by Eric Bentley in a five-act, 93-page version.The central and pervasive situation is a simple one: a dirty old woman is helping a courtly young gentleman to seduce a girl. The wonder of the thing lies in the art with which Fernando do Rojas derives, from such commonplace materials, a towering tragedy – or rather, tragi-comedy.

The complete play scripts to: The Misanthrope by Moliere, English version by Richard Wilbur; Phaedra by Racine, English version by Robert Lowell; The Cid by Corneille, English version by James Schevill; and Figaro's Marriage by Beaumarchais, English version by Jacques Barzun.

An anthology of four classic Italian plays edited by Eric Bentley. Also includes directorial and technical notes. Includes the title work by Goldoni as well as The King Stag (Gozzi), The Mandrake (Machiavelli), Ruzzante Returns from the Wars (Beolco).

From the origins of the Negro spiritual and the birth of the Harlem Renaissance to the emergence of a national black theatre movement, The Theatre of Black Americans offers a penetrating look at a black art form that has exploded into an American cultural institution. Among the essays: James Hatch – Some African Influences on the Afro-American Theatre; Shelby Steele – Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre; Sister M. Francesca Thompson OSF – The Lafayette Players; Ronald Ross – The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre.

Introductions, the motion picture treatments, credits and screenplays for these two movies by James Ivory.

The script to the 1966 film by Alain Resnais profiling the effect of the Spanish Civil War on the lives of a group of anti-Franco exiles living in France, and still actively working for the overthrow of the dictatorship. Called an incomparable thriller by some critics, it is also a beautiful love story and a moving document of our time. This volume presents the complete scenario by Jorge Semprun and 114 frame-enlargements from the film itself, carefully keyed to the text.

Harpagon, the most desperate, scheming miser in literature, starves his servants, declines to pay them, cheats his own children if he can save (or make) a few coins, and when his hoard of gold disappears, insanely accuses himself of being the thief. Dandin, in this rousing classic, not previously available in English for sixty years, is a man in a plight that everybody but him will find entertaining.

In one of Molière's most popular plays, Scapin, that monarch of con men, puts his store of ingenuity to work, getting two lovesick young men married to the girls they pine for and, along the way, taking revenge on their grasping old fathers. Closed down after its first, highly successful run because of opposition from powerful enemies of the playwright, Don Juan was performed in a bowdlerized version for almost two hundred years, until actors, directors and critics restored the original text, recognizing it as the most ambitious and mightiest of Molière's prose plays. Bermel's translations of the scripts as presented here have received rave reviews.

Startling discontinuities and surprises erupt throughout these avant-garde landscapes by Poland's outstanding modern dramatist where duchesses and policemen, gangsters and surrealist painters, psychiatrists and locomotive engineers wander in and out, kill one another, and carry on philosophical conversations at the same time.

The rich tapestry of medieval belief, morality, and manners, shines through this comprehensive anthology of the twenty-four major plays that bridge the dramatic worlds of medieval and Tudor England. Here are the plays that paved the way to the Renaissance and Shakespeare. In John Gassner's extensively annotated collection, the plays regain their timeless appeal and display their truly international character and influence.Medieval and Tudor Drama remains the indispensable chronicle of a dramatic heritage – the classical plays of Hrotsvitha, folk and ritual drama, the passion play, the great mortality play Everyman, the Interlude, Tudor comedies Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton's Needle, and the most famous of Tudor tragedies, Gorboduc. Mr. Gassner's introductions and notes tell a tale of excellence and evolution too easily forgotten. The texts have been modernized for today's readers and those composed in Latin have been translated into English.

Rich anthologies of dramatic art and critical insight – varied, stimulating, broad in its view and deep in its perceptions...exciting variety of translations...enlightening essays from some of the most stiumlating minds of the century.– Leonard C. Pronko, author, Theatre East and West, Chair, Dept. of Theatre, Pomona CollegeIncludes: Aristophanes: Lysistrata, translated by Donald Sutherland; The Birds, translated by Walter Kerr; Menander: The Grouch, translated by Sheila D'Atri; Plautus: The Menaechmi, translated by Palmer Bovie; The Haunted House, translated by Palmer Bovie; Terence: The Self-Tormentor, translated by Palmer Bovie.

Now in paperback, the complete story of the actor's career, including his secret gay life.Raymond Burr (1917-1993) was an enigma. A film noir regular known for his villainous roles in movies like Rear Window, he eventually became one of the most popular stars in television history as the lead actor on two top-rated dramas, Perry Mason and Ironside, which between them ran virtually uninterrupted for 20 years.But Raymond Burr was leading a secret gay life at a time in Hollywood when exposure would have been career suicide. To protect his secret, Burr fabricated a tragic past for himself as a grieving husband and father. He claimed to have been twice widowed – he said his first wife had died in a plane crash, and his second marriage had ended with his wife's early death from cancer. And there was also a dead son – 10-year-old Michael, who lost his battle with leukemia. Neither of the wives nor Michael ever existed. But that didn't stop these lies from being perpetuated again and again, even in Burr's New York Times obituary.Hiding in Plain Sight examines the totality of Raymond Burr's career and his personal life, including his 35 years with partner Robert Benevides. The author interviewed over 30 people who knew or worked with Burr, including Angela Lansbury, Barbara Hale, Robert Wagner, Gale Storm, and more.

Actress, playwright, screenwriter, and iconic sex symbol Mae West (1893-1980) created a scandal and a sensation on Broadway with her play Sex in 1926. Convicted of obscenity, she was sentenced to ten days in prison. She went to jail a convict but emerged a star. Later, in Hollywood, she was the number one box-office attraction during the 1930s and saved Paramount Studios from bankruptcy. Her films included some notorious one-liners – which she wrote herself – that have become part of Hollywood lore. But behind the clever quips was Mae's deep desire, decades before the word “feminism” was in the news, to see women treated equally with men. She saw through the double standard of the time that permitted men to do things that women would be ruined for doing. Her cause was sexual equality, and she was shrewd enough to know that it was perhaps the ultimate battleground.In She Always Knew How, Charlotte Chandler draws on a series of extensive interviews that she conducted with Mae West just months before the star's death. Chandler also spoke with actors and directors who knew and worked with Mae, the man with whom she lived for the last twenty-seven years of her life, and her close assistant. Their insights enrich this fascinating book.

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 present. With over 700 shows mentioned, and over 1200 questions, The Broadway Musical Quiz Book is detailed and thorough: the answer section doesn't merely list the answers, it provides further information on the quizzes' subjects (and often on wrong answers, too!). The Broadway Musical Quiz Book is more than just a compendium of trivia; it's a anecdotal history of musical theatre, with something for everyone who loves The Great White Way!

“I am your accompanist. You do not know me. I am the guy who sits behind the upright in the unflattering fluorescent light of the dance studio, a bottle of water on the floor, a half-eaten Power Bar on the bench, and your audition in my hands.”Award-winning New York theatre composer and pianist Andrew Gerle pulls no punches in this irreverent, fly-on-the-wall guide to everything you've never been taught about auditioning for musical theatre. From the unique perspective of the pianist's bench, he demystifies the audition process, from how to put together your book and speak to an accompanist to the healthiest and savviest ways to approach the audition marketplace and your career. By better understanding the dynamics of professional auditions, you will learn to present yourself in the strongest, most castable way while remaining true to your own special voice – the one that, in the end, will get you the job.

Five great forces – Checkhov, Hauptmann, Ibsen, Strindberg and Zola – dramatists whose work define, embrace and transcend the trends and genres of the modern stage, meet here in this extraordinary exhibition of their sustained and sustaining power in today''s theatre. Includes Zola''s Therese Raquin; Strindberg''s Miss Julie; Ibsen''s An Enemy of the People; Hauptmann''s The Weavers; and Chekhov''s The Seagull.

Rich anthologies of dramatic art and critical insight – varied, stimulating, broad in its view and deep in its perceptions...exciting variety of translations...enlightening essays from some of the most stiumlating minds of the century.– Leonard C. Pronko, author, Theatre East and West, Chair, Dept. of Theatre, Pomona CollegeIncludes: Aristophanes: Lysistrata, translated by Donald Sutherland; The Birds, translated by Walter Kerr; Menander: The Grouch, translated by Sheila D''Atri; Plautus: The Menaechmi, translated by Palmer Bovie; The Haunted House, translated by Palmer Bovie; Terence: The Self-Tormentor, translated by Palmer Bovie.

Despite the abundant variety of Chekhov translations available in bookstores and libraries, American directors and actors have sought out these versions by Jean-Claude van Itallie to make them the most often performed renditions on the American stage today. This edition includes “The Seagull ” “Uncle Vanya ” “Three Sisters ” and “The Cherry Orchard.”

A series of 13 written workshops covering: conflict and character: the dominant image: Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller • Overheard voices: Ibsen and Shakespeare • The solo performance piece: listening for stories • Terror and vulnerability: Ionesco • The point of absurdity: creating without possessing: Pinter and Beckett • and much more.

Mark Rylance, the Artistic Director of Shakespeare''s Globe says: As an actor and director I use and recommend the Applause First Folio Editions. They are extremely actor-friendly and share the greatest thing to happen for Shakespearean actors at the end of this century, an annotated, unedited original text, spelling mistakes and all.

This collection of 75 solo speeches and performance pieces for actors has been selected from the finest material being written today for theatre in America and England. Solo! presents dramatic monologues on the cutting edge. All selections include acting notes along with the quick and easy guide to the art of auditioning.

Warning: The plays of Political Stages do not make for a quiet evening of theatre. These are the plays which got audiences out of their seats, and sometimes out into the streets. Their words and ideas rumbled ominously down the marble hallways of legislatures and challenged, even threatened, and often changed, the thinking of millions. These are the plays which either lit or reflected the fires of those political controversies which blazed across the American Twentieth Century. Individually, each is a molotov cocktail tossed onto the stage, each a political movement encapsulated in dramatic form. Combined, they constitute both a conflagration and a record of American political and theatrical ideology. Never before, however, have they been collected in one explosive volume. In Political Stages, they have at last been preserved, ever ready to serve at the barricades of subsequent eras. Includes works by Tennessee Williams, Emily Mann, Clifford Odets, Langston Hughes, and others.

Potent and empowering voice exercises by the master teachers who devised them! One of the constants that any actor, director or theatre teacher needs is a strong vocal warmup. This valuable, first-of-its-kind resource contains 75 exercises for both solo and group work, contributed by some of the best professionals in the world. There is a brief description of the history and purpose of each exercise followed by the exercise itself. The Voice & Speech Workout comes with a training audio tracks that will be especially helpful to the student or theatre professional working alone. Here master teachers run through each exercise in real time (leaving enough time for response). Among the contributors are such important voice teachers as: Frankie Armstrong, Mary Corrigan, Marian Hampton and Dorothy Runk Mennen. The exercises are divided into nine different areas: Getting to Know Your Voice; Stretching, Centering, Releasing, Aligning; Breathing and Supporting; Making Sound (Resonance and Articulation); Exploring Pitch; Projecting and Calling; Integrating Voice, Breath and Text; Integrating Voice and Movement; Exploring Character Voices and Dialects.Editor Janet Rodgers is past president of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and an associate professor of theatre at Virginia Commonwealth University.The audio is accessed online using the unique code inside each book and can be streamed or downloaded. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right.

Television history was made on April 30, 1997, when comedian Ellen DeGeneres and her sitcom alter-ego Ellen Morgan, “came out” to her close friends and 36 million viewers. This groundbreaking episode represented a significant milestone in Amerian television. For the first time, a TV series centered around a lesbian character who was portrayed by an openly gay actor. The millions of viewers who tuned in that historic night were witnesses to a new era in television. THE PRIME TIME CLOSET offers an entertaining and in-depth glimpse into homosexuality on television from the 1950s through today. Divided into four sections, each devoted to a major television genre, this unique book explores how gay men and lesbians have been depicted in over three hundred television episodes and made-for-TV films. These include medical series, police/detective shows, situation comedies and TV dramas. THE PRIME TIME CLOSET also reveals how television''s treatement of homosexuality has reflected and reinforced society''s ignorance about and fear of gay men and lesbians. At the same time, it celebrates programs like Ellen and Will & Grace that have broken new ground in their sensitive and enlightened approach to homosexuality and gay-related themes. This book is witty and insightful, accessible and illuminating, a look into what has become an integral part of American media culture.