Theatre Books

Lisa Kron tells of her childhood and expresses her feeling in a way that will also touch your heart. She brought back many bitter-sweet memories for me and I am very excited about her work.

I have been studying the Noh drama in printed English translations, and find the translations in this volume to be quite good. The selection is tasteful, and the format is very accessible. It is surprising to me that there is still so little in the way of Noh performances in the US, and I live in a large metropolitan area where there is a considerable Japanese-American community. Thus, I have to content myself with English translations in books. Some more recent Noh translations also contain elaborate stage directions, something lacking in the Keene volume. Thus, the Keene collection is of value primarily for the literary interest of the plays. Nonetheless I highly recommend it.

Matthew Goulish invites the reader to share in his extraordinary life experience in 39 Microlectures. A melding of personal commentary, from dreams as a child, to his own struggle through cancer, Matthew's writing sparkles with insight and understanding. He succeeds in winding the reader's thoughts through narrow passageways- a trip through his own collection and love for architecture, film, theatre and literature. He shares with us his interpretation on the works of Italo Calvino, Eugene Ionesco, John Cage, Rem Koolhaas and countless others. A wealth of knowledge secured in a concise book, bringing the essence of so many important artistic figures together in one edition. Through the inspired writing of Matthew Goulish, interest is sparked and easily developed upon, using the source notes provided within the book. An invaluable reference to a library acquired over a lifetime. I highly recommend 39 Microlectures to any reader searching for an intellectual snowfall.

This volume is a moving and challenging compilation of drawings executed (irony intended) between 1946 to 1948 in elementary school exercise books. The selection of drawings was done by Artaud for a publication planned by Loeb Gallery in Paris, and the poet wrote a text (his last) to accompany it. Artaud died before the project could be brought to fruition. The design of this book is wonderful: the cover accurately reproduces the blue of the student notebooks of the time along with its cloyingly sentimental drawing of fields and haystacks, and on the verso tables for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We also see the smudges, tears, stains that will be mirrored on the yellowing, blue-gridded pages within. What strikes us is the utter poverty of the poet forced to use such humble media for his writings and designs. We witness his meat machine--even then secretly sapped and undermined by cancer--as the vision trembles through the muted explosions of chemical-induced electricity to cause the muscles to expand and contract with varying degrees of delicacy. We see the piercing of the page--stabbed 11--perhaps 12 times--in ecstacy, frustration, or as part of a private "gris-gris" ritual--by the poet, who includes nails, thorns, and other emblems of ritualistic transfixions in his cruel drawings. The drawings themselves give us glimpses of the poet's [...], of his thyroid, of lung-like sacks collapsed upon a scream; of bodies dissected and exploded and simplified to maps of layered graphite, and of electrical armature-like processes connected by sinister, exfoliating wires. There is also a heroic landscape of words written, smeared, struck through, that encase the drawings.

Now I know
the objective plastic power
of the breath

says Antonin Artaud, and in our contemplation--our encounter--with this wonderful volume--we know it too.

Author and Professor Paul Meier has put together a practical and effective system for learning authentic accents and dialects quickly. When I started searching for works on the subject, I soon discovered that other books and audio aids available either were too technical or taught stereotypes or parodies of accents. Meier's system teaches you quickly by using not only the latest IPA tools but also signature sounds, i.e. the key phonetic features of the accent or dialect. He also provides information on rhythm, stress, intonation, and other important features. It would be impossible to do this without audio support, so the latest edition of the book (346 pages long) comes with twelve CD's covering all the dialects, and the high quality of the recordings ensures that the listener can clearly hear the fine distinctions, recorded by Meier himself.
The authenticity of the accents and dialects is assured by the fact that the system is based on Meier's own International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA), a database of recordings of native speakers. Factors of age, gender, and geographical location are included for each speaker so that misunderstandings due to generalizations or stereotyping are eliminated.
Another major factor for me in choosing Meier's system was the dialects covered. As an accomplished actor himself with many British and American credits, Meier has selected what he feels are the dialects most often needed in the business: nine UK dialects (including standard British, Irish, and Scottish); six USA (including New York, Boston, and the South); Austrailian, Indian, French, German, Afrikanns, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and even Yiddish.
The days of big, sloppy Vaudevillian dialects are gone. Today's audiences are sophisticated, and authenticity is the key to winning them over and avoiding unnecessary offense. Meier's system is sure to please.

I learned alot from reding this book! It was an excellent information soure. I give the encouragement to buy this book today!

This book provides the reader/actor with a combination that unlocks the Bard's English. It focuses on how the Elizabethan schoolboy was trained in the subject of "loudspeaking," and thus, how theatrical speech was understood in Renaissance England. By revealing the underlying rhetorical structure to Shakespeare's schoolboy training, it leads the actor down the corridors of figures of speech, the powers of persuasion, and the passion and rhythm inherant in the language. It draws clear connections between Shakepeare's lines and rhetoric primers of the 1560's. ACTING SHAKEPEARE provides chapters on specific forms of figures of speech, tropes and figures of sentence, speaking the "score" of the poetry, and bringing it into the body. The book is a clever tool to help the American actor pass from the unknown to the familiar simply, easily and logically. It is not the only such tool, but it is perhaps one of the very best. I have found it especially useful for actors just beginning their work on verse plays. Because it teaches skills learned by Elizabethan primary-school-aged youth, I have felt comfortable using it for actors as young as 7th grade, and no less effectively with experienced adult actors. The process has been remarkably rewarding and successful.

At first, you could be not attracted by this book to give you an explanation of Stella Adler's Techniques of Acting. Because Joanna Rotte "seems" to be an external person from Adler's Techniques. You would be wrong. It' s not the case. Joanna Rotte has been in touch with Stella Adler for 3 years as a student, then as an actress. Therefore, she has a great understanding of Adler's Techniques. But, the most important, she has been able to organize this knowledge in a book which is CLEAR, complete, precise. If you' re interested by Adler' s Techniques of Acting, get it.

Edited by Robert Emmet Long, Acting: Working In The Theatre is a compilation of the insights of more than one hundred create theatre performers, from Ian McKellen and Tony Randall to John Lithgow, Elizabeth Franz, Lynn Redgrave and many more. The paragraph-long tips, insights, and observations are grouped according to subject matter - from auditioning to working in an ensemble to theatre and cinema vs. television - and cross-referenced by means of an index. A superb source of inspiration for anyone pursuing amateur or professional theatre. A sample quote from noted theatrical performer and Star Trek star Patrick Stewart: "Someone once defined to me craft - or technique as I've always thought of it - as being what you use when you don't feel it anymore."

This product looked practically brand new and was shipped very quickly! I am learning a lot from this book as it provides a basic knowledge of acting in a clear and concise manner that makes it an easy read. Also, the exercises in the chapters have been very helpful.