A dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book in the Nick Hern Books Drama Games series, this title is for teachers and workshop leaders working with difficult or reluctant students, youth groups, young offenders, and all those who seem intent on saying 'no' to whatever is offered them. 'This book offers invaluable ways for artists, teachers, workshop leaders and activists to better use the arts to empower young people' Ken Livingstone, from his Foreword. For these groups, drama games and activities need to be robust and engaging, and the dozens that appear in this book have been devised with this in mind - and then tested by their target players. Each page features clear instructions on How to Play, notes on the Benefits of the Game, and advice on age range, number of players and timing. Following the ninety games and exercises aimed at developing core skills, the book offers scenarios for a series of improvisational challenges that test participants' abilities in mediation, communication, negotiation, assertiveness and managing emotions. Also included is a collection of games aimed at preparing teachers and workshop leaders for facilitating challenging sessions. The ultimate aim is to encourage reluctant participants to engage, collaborate and develop not just skills for drama but skills for life.

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.