Theatre Books

Archie Binns (with coauthor Olive Kooken) has given Mrs. Fiske a memorial which provides the reader of the 21st century with insights into the period of American theater (1865-1932) which allowed it to acquire the realism of Ibsen and Saxe Meinigen and a capacity for subtle comedy. Mrs. Fiske effectively pushed the stilted Victorian styles from the American Stage. In the process she also battled the Theatrical Syndicate allowing some competition to preserve artistic freedom. Her work for animals was as much admired by Mark Twain as her acting was by H.L. Mencken and dozens of critics... led by Alexander Woollcott. Since the publication of Binns biography the Fiske Collection has been acquired by the Library of Congress, it resides in the Manuscript Division and is available to researchers.

The LOC Fiske collection and Binns's work provides much of the foundation for the current "Mrs. Fiske: Against the Wind" a one-woman show which premiered at the Smithsonian in 1995 and continues to tour.

Nearly impossible to find, this is an excellent, well-researched and well-written biography of Mrs. Fiske, a now-forgotten actress who introduced Americans to the works of Ibsen at the beginning of the 20th century, later became a delicate comic actress, an animal right's activist, and died broke. Fascinating tale of a difficult, intelligent woman.

What an exceptional book this is! I haven't been able to put it down. Without a doubt it's the best exposition of musical theatre creation that I've ever read - and I've read many! Not only does it tell you about the amazing lives of the two Frenchmen who wrote Les Misérables but, with a series of exclusive personal interviews, it details exactly how they did it. Not just Les Mis but all their shows, and there's long interviews too with all their co-writers, directors and producers. Vermette's skill in presentation is magnified many times by her ability to pull nuggets of wisdom out of such talented and diverse people, such as Trevor Nunn, Cameron Mackintosh and Herbert Kretzmer as well of course as Boublil and Schönberg themselves. It's a tour de force of form and substance and a fascinating read.
I discovered this book through the brilliant website which is colourful, informative and gives news and updates to the book[...]

This book is a wonderfully insightful book to some of my favorite musicals! I really enjoyed the background information as to how some of the musicals came to be, the processes that were followed...everything! I highly recommend this book!

Great book and interesting to see what Sylvia's view of the whole Anderson Empire was as it was all happening. Her contribution to all the great shows from "Twizzle" to "Space:1999" was considerable and she is often forgotten while eclipsed by the shadow of her ex-husband, Gerry Anderson. The book is large and contains many rare photos of the people who made Thunderbirds go as well as all the other Supermarionation programs most of us grew up with.

The highlight of this book is the great (and plentiful) behind-the-scenes photos, mostly in b/w that tell the story of the Andersons' company and the production of their timeless shows.

There is not a whole lot of technical detail regarding the production that hasn't already been revealed by earlier books and websites. What this book does cover in some depth, however, is the extended afterlife and public attention that shows like Thunderbirds have attained - testament to the great care lavished on the original productions.

The only serious criticism of this book is the occasional lapse in proof-reading. Ed White on Gemini made the first spacewalk during the Thunderbirds production timeframe, it was Armstrong on Apollo that was the first moonwalker, long after Thunderbirds was completed. The model that Sylvia is standing next to on page 32 is Thunderbird 3, not TB1.

Buy it for the pictures and the unique perspective of someone who is very proud of her accomplishments in family entertainment, and rightly so. The techniques and innovation pioneered by the Andersons and their talented crew have been emulated, but seldom matched in the thirty-some years since their heyday.

Stanislavski's "My Life in Art" was written in haste during the Moscow Art Theatre's 1922-24 European and American tours and translated into a language he neither spoke nor understood by a mysterious individual (J.J. Robbins) with less than satisfactory credentials for the job. For nearly a century this has been the version available in English and for the most part anywhere in the world outside of Russia. But upon returning to Moscow Stanislavski continued to write and revise the book which was later published in Russia and considered by Stanislavski to be both definitive and the version he was satisfied with.

Thus, Jean Bendetti's new translation of the Russian version is a welcome and valuable gift, not only to actors and the theatre but to art and artistic endeavor in general. Much is the same as the original Engligh version in terms of content, but much is also new and different, never before available in English. Of particular interest are the appendices recounting Stanislavski's more personal memories of Chekhov and the later European and American tours.

An important aspect lost in the previous translation was Stanislavski's personal, conversational tone, which is how the book itself was written; i.e. Stanislavski spoke and what he said was scribed. Thus, a whole new feeling comes of this translation that is extremely valuable, if not priceless. It is nearly impossible not to feel that you know Stanislavski very personally after reading the book. Particularly in the last section (the appendix of the European-American tour) you feel as if he has spoken to you personally about the entire experience. As such the voice and personality of this great master speaks and can be discovered once more in a way that has previously not been possible. This alone is more than worth the price of the book.

Indeed this will be a valuable and cherished volume for years to come, if not an entirely new rejuvenation of what was in its time a classic, historically influential and historically significant work.

Before writing his opus manual on acting technique, Stanislavski wrote an autobiography he hoped would detail his life and philosophy - but his publisher insisted on many cuts and changes to its length, resulting in a diminutive version Stanislavski hated - and completely revised for a 1926 Soviet edition. For the first time translator Jean Benedetti brings English readers this complete Soviet edition, pairing it with new photos and illustrations and creating a keepsake edition for any college-level collection serious about acquiring drama classics.

Bali flits in and out of the Western imagination: Conradian tropic kingdoms, National Geographic star attraction, Mead-Covarrubias-Belo-Geertz himself, tourist paradise (ever-fading). What is Bali all about besides emerald rice terraces, bare breasted beauties, cheap surfing holidays, and tremendously elaborate ceremonies featuring gamelan orchestras and graceful dancers ? Bali is indeed a mystery. If you approach NEGARA with the desire to learn more about this marvelous Indonesian island, you may go away disappointed. There are no Balinese voices in the book; modern Bali is hardly discussed.

NEGARA is an important book, but for those who specialize in the study of Southeast Asian kingdoms, for those who would like to question the standard Western method of studying political power, and for those interested in 19th century Balinese history as interpreted by America's foremost anthropologist, who is rather more known for creative (I'm with him) interpretations than for intensive field work. Geertz' work is going to last a very long time---something that can hardly be said about most anthropological writing. The reason is that he constantly sees things in a different way and can express his vision very clearly. His other books on Indonesia, for example "The Religion of Java", "Islam Observed", "Pedlars and Princes" and "Agricultural Involution" have all been classics for years. His article on the Balinese cockfight is one of the most seminal anthropological pieces ever written.

The Balinese state did not specialize in tyranny, conquest or effective administration. Its emphasis was on "spectacle, toward ceremony, toward the public dramatization of the ruling obsessions of Balinese culture: social inequality and status pride. It was a theatre state..." All the elaborate productions created were "not means to political ends: they wre the ends themselves, they were what the state was for......Power served pomp, not pomp power." (p.13) Geertz spends most of the 136 page book proving this point. [There are also 120 pages of notes.] There are detailed discussions of descent groups, client relationships, three major varieties of village organization aimed at administration, irrigation, and worship, and the connection between court and village. Then follows the scrutiny of ritual, ceremony, and symbols in Geertz' inimitable style. The point must be taken: Balinese society was one of unending rivalry for prestige among very-established levels of hierarchy which were, nonetheless, extremely fluid. The endless reiteration in symbolic, ceremonial terms of a fixed set of relations made up the Balinese theater state.

NEGARA, not a new book, is by now established as a classic text in Anthropology courses, in Religious Studies, Political Science, and Southeast Asian Studies in universities around the world. It portrays a political system that did not conform to the usual Western idea of what political power is all about. Geertz writes that he wanted to write a poetics of power, not a mechanics. He was successful. Readers may wonder if the ability to command and use resources like land, water, timber, or the sea, if the ability to control labor, even if indirectly, if the ability to control power, even if sporadic, do not underlie theater productions in a more definite way. But I think they will have to admit that NEGARA is a powerful politico-historical description that, for once, does not try to twist and mold the data to fit a traditional Western description of a political system. Symbolic action is not at all limited to Indonesian islands. Somebody may yet write a description of the USA as a "Theater State" albeit a very different one from old Bali. NEGARA contains many challenges. It is a great book.

Geertz, a social anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, is a prolific scholar on Balinese and Indonesian political and state organization. "Negara" is a Sanskrit word which originally meant "town"; in Bahasa Indonesia it now signifies nation or realm--the seat of political authority. Its opposite is "desa," the village, place, region, or governed area. Between these two contrasting poles-negara and desa-the classical polity developed. In his search for the "negara," the traditional state of pre-colonial Bali, he casts a wide analytical net over the cultural streams that flowed unchecked in to the archipelago for over 3,000 years from India, China, the Middle East, and Europe. Foreign contact/intervention left a permanent stamp on the island chain in the form of a Hindu civilization on Bali, Chinatowns in Jakarta, and a multiplicity of social structures, economic forms and kinship organizations. Geertz traces the sociological and historical interplay of state formation and dissolution and power and status distribution in 14th to 19th century Bali-an island symbolically caught in a parallel tug of nature between the tranquil Java sea to the north and the treacherous Indian Ocean to the south. Heavy on political theory, this book is more suitable for academicians, history buffs, and college students than for the general reader or the package holiday tourist. Substantiated by critical reviews of the scholarly literature, 130 pages of explanatory footnotes, and a lengthy bibliography, Negara puts forth a persuasive final model of the Balinese state as a distinctive political order. To understand Bali's past, is to understand Bali's present and future.

This is a good book. Buy it, specially if you're tired of the mumbo jumbo that is being taught under the name of Stanislavski by the so-called "Stanislavski experts."

Stanislavski in Rehearsal has been the most influential work that I have come across in regards to developing my craft. The book spells out the Method of Physical actions, which was what KS was working on when he passed away. This work also disgards/de-empasis some teaching in his earlier work, like emotion memory. This is a must read for all actors, escpecially one's who are interested in the work of Stanislavski.

Chuck Lawliss' book - The New York Theatre Sourcebook is an excellant book to have in any serious theatre professionals' or theatre fans' reference library. The book gives a concise and informative history of each theater that has or will exist in New York City, whether it is on Broadway, Off Broadway or Off-Off Broadway. The book also has excellant seating plans for each of the theaters listed in the book. The author gives rare insight into the workings of New York theaters and the theater professionals who build or work in them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the theatre. The book is a real treasure.

Chuck Lawliss' book - The New York Theatre Sourcebook is an excellant book to have in any serious theatre professionals' or theatre fans' reference library. The book gives a concise and informative history of each theater that has or will exist in New York City, whether it is on Broadway, Off Broadway or Off-Off Broadway. The book also has excellant seating plans for each of the theaters listed in the book. The author gives rare insight into the workings of New York theaters and the theater professionals who build or work in them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the theatre. The book is a real treasure.

Nearly eight years after its publication, and almost five since the (relatively) highly observed centenary of Noël Coward's birth, I'm amazed to see that I'm apparently the first person to review this biography on Amazon.com. When I first read it several years ago, I was struck by Hoare's thoroughness, his dispassion, and his wide-ranging research. While this book may not be flawless, it's certainly good enough, I believe, to be the current standard biography of the man.

Despite Coward's reputation as the quintessence of high-class sophistication and airy panache, Hoare shows how the man was shaped by his distinctly unglamorous childhood. His days as a hard-working child actor are thoroughly explored, as are his relationships with colleagues, lovers, competitors, and friends. While not prurient, Hoare clearly loves a good story, and doesn't mind dealing dish (as they say) on his subject when he has one to tell.

Though not really a devotee of theater generally, I am a fan of Coward's. Having read a few titles about the man, I don't hesitate to say this is the best of the lot. Whether you're a student of the man or a casual acquaintance who wants to know more about one of the outstanding talents of the last century, Philip Hoare's biography is a resource to read, enjoy, and keep close to hand.

Philip Hoare has compiled the most complete of all the Coward biographies and I think I have read them all save Cole Lesley's. Hoare points out dramatically what a complicated personality Coward was and how his sexual orientation impacted his talent and his fame.
I worked with Coward late in his life (1960/61) and knew only his celebrity. His autobiographies and most of the other bios dealt only on that level. It took Hoare and the passage of time to reveal the more complicated and private side of his amazing life.
I will always cherish my brief encounter with the Master.

Ernest Fenollosa and Ezra Pound's The Noh Theatre Of Japan provides the complete texts of 15 classic plays and republishes Noh Or Accomplishment: A Study Of The Classical Stage Of Japan from 1917. Pound drew upon Japanese and Chinese poetic techniques to provide free verse in the poetry he created, inspiring Fenollosa's widow to send her husband's unpublished papers to him. The result is a blend of the two in discussing Noh theatre and Pound's complete translations of 15 Noh plays.

Ernest Fenollosa and Ezra Pound's The Noh Theatre Of Japan provides the complete texts of 15 classic plays and republishes Noh Or Accomplishment: A Study Of The Classical Stage Of Japan from 1917. Pound drew upon Japanese and Chinese poetic techniques to provide free verse in the poetry he created, inspiring Fenollosa's widow to send her husband's unpublished papers to him. The result is a blend of the two in discussing Noh theatre and Pound's complete translations of 15 Noh plays.

Terrific work (again!) from this major British playwright showing a disasterous family weekend where a would be Casanova sets his sights on his sister in law and the whole family ultimately become involved. Although written and set in the mid 1970s it remains just as funny (if not more so) now. All of the characters are classics and there are a feast of one liners. It really needs a stage production to be done justice though.

In the late 1970s PBS presented a hilarious trilogy of plays called "The Norman Conquests." I've been trying ever since to find them again. And here they are! This volume contains the scripts for all three of these amazing plays. Their premise: Norman is a real charmer who seduces (not necessarily sexually) everybody he meets. Each of the three plays takes place on a different stage. It's the same story and the same six characters, but seen from what happens only in each room in each play. It's an amazing accomplishment for a writer. This book carries an introduction by Ayckbourn that explains how he did it. And he says the plays are meant to be seen in any order. But I prefer the order given here: "Table Manners" (in the dining room), "Living Together" (the sitting room) and "Round and Round the Garden." If you haven't experienced it, the videos are available now (finally!), as well. The production (the same I saw on PBS) stars Tom Conti as an unforgettable Norman.