The Big Book of Moliere Monologues
Hilarious Performance Pieces from Our Greatest Comic Playwright
adapted by Timothy Mooney
Preface by William Luce, Illustrations by David C. Jensen |
 
|
|
$19.95 per book
A collection of over 160 of Moliere's funniest monologues in new rhymed iambic pentameter versions by actor/author Timothy Mooney (author of Acting at the Speed of Life and Moliere than Thou), drawn from new versions of seventeen of Moliere's plays, including Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, Don Juan, The School for Wives and The Imaginary Invalid.
The book works as introduction to the life and work of Moliere, as well as providing a rare resource of new comic classical monologues for the actor preparing to audition. The text gives thorough introduction to each of the seventeen plays, with introductory plot capsules, as well as contextual information for each individual piece, making each monologue and each play easily graspable to the actor that needs to know why he or she is speaking these particular words, and to the scholar eager to find out why these plays caused such a sensation surrounding the man often dubbed as the "French Shakespeare."
The book includes a distilled version of Mooney's acting text, with essential guides toward the performance of classical verse monologues, and provides stopwatch-timings of each piece, as a guide for actors who are working under specific time limits. The volume features a preface by William Luce (author of "The Belle of Amherst," and "Barrymore"), and illustrations by David C. Jensen.
|  |
|
 |
| "A masterwork...I've never seen a better compilation." |
| --William Luce, Author, The Belle of Amherst and Barrymore |
|
|
|
|
$17.00 per book
Young people and improvisational theater should be a natural combination -- so why do we so rarely find this combo in today's classrooms? According to Elizabeth Swados -- playwright, director, composer, poet, author of children's books and of an acclaimed family memoir -- improvisational theater is the perfect creative outlet for junior-high and high-school students...if only they can be given the tools and the guidance to make the most of this natural yet rigorous art form.
Drawing on her own experience teaching inner-city children in the groundbreaking musical Runaways and in teaching the techniques of improv theater in schools around the country, as well as on her own background in experimental theater, Swados provides a step-by-step guide to bringing out the natural creativity and enthusiasm key to young people creating -- and enjoying -- improvisational theater. Covering the basics -- from freeing the imagination to learning about how to work with an ensemble, from how to master different forms of movement and sound to how to create different kinds of characters -- this is "the" book for teachers and students eager to learn how to express fully the creative talent that all children are born with.
|  |
|
|
| "Liz Swados has changed the lives of countless young people, and has changed the way all of us in the field think about making theater. Liz makes theater that matters; her fierce optimism that the world can be changed, by kids and by art, infuses this book as it does all her work. We are lucky to have her among us." |
| --Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater |
|
|
|
|
$19.95 per book
Drama teachers everywhere enjoyed Ms. Johnson's first toolkit for the theatre arts so much that she wrote another one! While the first book focuses on everything about a complete stage production, this one covers every aspect of classroom theatre arts. Students will learn group activities, improvisation, technical theatre, choral reading, mime, stage fighting and more. The book includes a step-by-step 10-day assignment using monologues for character development and a unit that teaches students how to write their own show. Examples are provided with illustrations, photos, and proven ideas. Reproducible forms, tests, and handouts are also provided together with a list of additional resources. Both beginners and seasoned drama directors will find this book to be an invaluable aid. As with the original book, it will banish your stress and guarantee your success.
|  |
|
|
|
$19.95 per book
Completely updated to reflect state-of-the-art standards in today's fast-changing theater technology, Technical Theater for Nontechnical People helps actors, dancers, playwrights, and directors to understand every aspect of a traditional and digitally supported backstage environment-from scenery, lighting, and sound to props, costumes, and stage management. All sides of production are clearly explained in jargon-free prose, and unfamiliar terms are highlighted and defined in an appended glossary. In addition to discussions on the more traditional elements of technical theater, this book gives equal weight to the new technologies that have become mainstream, including software (DMX, MIDI, and SMPTI) for show control systems, software to build audio cues, and PC-based audio play-back systems.
|  |
|
|
| "The most down-to-earth, straight-forward survey of technical theater practice I have ever read." |
| --John R. Lucas, managing director of theater, Brown University |
|
|
|
|
$16.00 per book
This book, written in collaboration with Dennis Longwell, follows an acting class of eight men and eight women for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Throughout these pages Meisner is a delight--always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges. With an introduction by Sydney Pollack, director of Out of Africa and Tootsie, who worked with Meisner for five years.
|  |
|
|
| "This book should be read by anyone who wants to act or even appreciate what acting involves. Like Meisner's way of teaching, it is the straight goods." |
| --Arthur Miller |
|
|
|
|
$15.00 per book
Among the many "how-to" playwriting books that have appeared over the years, there have been few that attempt to analyze the mysteries of play construction. Lajos Egri's classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay.
Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives -- why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise -- a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior -- and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior.
Using Egri's ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing.
|  |
|
|
|
$19.95 per book
Directing plays in schools requires knowledge and talents far different than directing for community or professional theatre. In ten comprehensive chapters the author explains the "real world" of producing effective theatricals in the school environment. He details the pitfalls and the problems while providing ideas for consistently successful shows. He covers budgeting, scheduling, faculty, politics, motivating and disciplining students and many other school-life realities beyond a director or teacher's job definition. It speaks from years of experience of a talented teacher/director who has "been there and done that."
|  |
|
|
|
$17.00 per book
During the ten years that Stuart Spencer has taught playwriting, he has struggled to find an effective playwriting handbook for his courses. Although most of the currently popular handbooks have good ideas in them, they all suffer from the same problems: they're poorly organized; are composed mostly of quirky, idiosyncratic advice on how specific playwrights have gone about writing their own work; and are full of abstract theorizing on the nature of art. As a result, they fail to offer any concrete information on how to construct a well-written play or any useful guidelines and exercises. Moreover, few of these books are actually written by working playwrights. Out of frustration, Spencer wrote his own book. The result, The Playwright's Guidebook, is a clear, concise, and engaging handbook. Spencer addresses the important principles of structure, includes insightful writing exercises that build upon one another, explores the creative process, and troubleshoots recurrent problems that playwrights actually face.
|  |
|
|
| "If you want to be a playwright, here's your bible." |
| --David Lindsay-Abaire |
|
|
|
|
$16.95 per book
Do you know a teen that's been bitten by the acting bug? Here's just the book they need! Acting for Young Actors, aimed at teens and tweens, lets kids hone their skills and develop their craft. It begins with the five W's: WHO am I? WHAT do I want? WHY do I want it? WHERE am I? WHEN does this event take place? Sounds basic - but many young child actors are told simply to "get up there and act." This book explores each of these questions, using helpful exercises to allow young actors to work through problems of character identity and motivation. With comprehensive chapters on auditioning, rehearsal, and improvisation, plus a primer on how young actors can break into film, theater, and television, Acting for Young Actors is every kid's ticket to the big time.
|  |
|
|
|
$35.00 per book
This up-to-date, full-color makeup manual is designed to lie open on the makeup table as a guide for student, amateur, or professional performers.
Laura Thudium is an associate professor of theater at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; teaches stage makeup; and also works extensively as a costume designer.
|  |
|
|
|
$24.95 per book
In The Moving Body, translated into English for the first time, Lecoq shares his unique philosophy of performance, improvisation, masks, movement, and gesture. Neutral mask, character masks and counter-masks, bouffons, acrobatics, commedia, clowns: all the famous Lecoq techniques are included here. The Moving Body is the written legacy of a great theatrical imagination.
|  |
|
|
|
$19.95 per book
Legendary actress and teacher Uta Hagen knew that an actor's finest work was often achieved for love rather than for money. She lived this philosophy alongside her husband, Herbert Berghof, at HB Studio, their acting school in New York. It was there that they created a workplace and spiritual home for actors such as Robert DeNiro, Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, and Bette Midler.
Respect for Acting is Hagen's blueprint for the actor, her design for "enlightened stage acting." This classic book has helped generations of actors hone their craft, and its advice is as useful now as it was when it was first published. Hagen draws on her own struggle with the techniques of acting as well as her decades of teaching experience to break down the areas in which actors can work and search for realities in themselves that serve the character and the play. This approach helps actors to be specific in their actions in order to communicate an artistic statement. Hagen's instructions and examples also guide the aspiring actor through practical problems such as "How do I talk to the audience?" and "How do I stay fresh in a long run?"
Uta Hagen's influence endures in many of today's most compelling stage and screen performances. Informative and inspiring, Respect for Acting will bring her timeless techniques to actors and audiences for years to come.
|  |
|
|
| "Hagen adds to the large corpus of titles on acting with vivid dicta drawn from experience, skill, and a sense of personal and professional worth. Her principal asset in this treatment is her truly significant imagination. Her 'object exercises' display a wealth of detail with which to stimulate the student preparing a scene for presentation." |
| --Library Journal |
|
|
|
|
$17.00 per book
The casting director for Chicago, Pippin, Becket, Gypsy, The Graduate, the Sound of Music and Jesus Christ Superstar tells you how you can find your dream! Absolutely everything an actor needs to know to get the part is here: What to do that moment before, how to use humor; create mystery; how to develop a distinct style; and how to evaluate the place, the relationships and the competition. In fact, Audition is a necessary guide to dealing with all the "auditions" we face in life. This is the bible on the subject.
|  |
|
|
| "The subject matter is surprisingly universal (everybody has to audition for something sometime) and the inside tales are terrific... What Stanislavsky was to acting, Michael Shurtleff is to auditioning." |
| --New York Post |
|
|
|
|
$26.95 per book
The first volume of Stanislavski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting defines the "System," a means of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination.
|  |
|
|
| "[O]ne of the most inspired and inspiring manifestos of our art that I know." |
| --Richard Monette, Stratford artistic director |
|
|
|
