The Alexander Technique is a long-established, accessible and highly effective way of learning to change and retrain postural and behavioural habits that cause unnecessary tension, stress and illness. Developed over a century ago by F.M. Alexander (who taught the technique to George Bernard Shaw, Henry Irving, Aldous Huxley and many others), the Alexander Technique is a form of conscious awareness and mindfulness avant la lettre. It has always been used principally by actors--though it has wide applications in other professions and in daily life. Kate Kelly has a lifetime's experience as an actor and Alexander teacher. In Before the Curtain Opens, she invites performers of all sorts to examine the everyday habits of standing, sitting, breathing, speaking and reacting that spill over, unseen, into their professional lives. Using her own experience, miniature case studies, humour and unfailingly gentle kindness, she shines a spotlight on our deepest-rooted habits. On every page she offers advice, tips, techniques and guidance to help actors and performers retrain themselves in everything they do in daily life--before the curtain opens.

The first half of this book presents the fundamentals of Stephen Mitchell's Action/ReAction technique for actors that is unique, innovative and effective in developing a 'seasoned' actor in a very short time. The second half of the book describes Stephen's history in Hollywood encountering some of the greats in the film business, including Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen, and producing independent and innovative movies and TV shows that led to his creation of Action/ReAction.

An Artist's Nightmare depicts the story of a professional theatre artist's return to his roots after a quarter century of a successful career in the big city. With his family in tow and a big dream to help rejuvenate a lackluster old automobile town, he forgot one thing: small town mentality. From the moment he opens his performing arts center in this provincial capital city, the theatre artist is dumbstruck by the mean-spirited rejection he receives at every turn. Local academic theatre persons ridicule his resume of real world experience, local directors dismiss his offers to collaborate, and the local media ignore his shows and exclude his work from local theatre awards while hypocritically treating his work with an odd discrimination that never gets explained. Fortunately he's good. And he survives the slim odds to succeed by finding students and families that believe in his work. An Artist's Nightmare is a thirty minute play-let that explores broad questions about the arts and community through the eyes of two local small town women; it is designed to provoke thought and ask larger universal questions regarding how the arts are played out in a provincial setting especially when mixing with the real world experience of an artist who has been to the heights of professional international experience.

Ireland 1986. A teenage girl begins a series of conversations with a statue of the Virgin Mary in a grotto. Inspired by a true story, Mary and Me is a compellingly original imagining of a young woman's search for understanding and meaning at a milestone in her life, and a rich and funny evocation of the Ireland of the 1980's.