(Limelight). From Booklist: Actor-director-producer Leonard has a real gift for storytelling that he displays to the fullest in a breezy, readable memoir of his life in show business. Starting out as an actor in 1930s New York in such forgotten hit plays as Hotel Alimony, Fly Away Home, and Kiss the Boys Goodbye, Leonard had the foresight and financial need to leap first to radio and movies, then to television, in which he created or produced such rerun perennials as Make Room for Daddy, The Andy Griffith Show, and the controversial (for its time) I Spy . Along the way, Leonard met lots and lots of fascinating people--John Garfield, Jack Benny, Danny Thomas, Carl Reiner, and Bill Cosby, to mention a few of the dozens about whom Leonard has a funny story or three to tell. Some of these stories are well known, such as those of the closeness of the writers, actors, and staff of The Dick Van Dyke Show; others are not, such as those of Leonard's various, sometimes dangerous, adventures around the world while filming I Spy . Jack Helbig

Outlining different perspectives, this classic and field-defining text introduces 'dramaturgy' as a critical concept and a practical process in an accessible and engaging style. The revised edition includes a new introduction and afterword which provides insight into contemporary developments and future directions of scholarship.

This inspirational guide for advanced acting students brings together multiple ways of creating excellence in performance. David Krasner provides tried and tested exercises, a history of actor training and explores the complex relationships between acting theories and teachers. Drawing on examples from personal experience as an actor, director and teacher, An Actor's Craft begins with the building blocks of mind, body and voice, moving through emotional triggers and improvisation, to a final section bringing these techniques together in approaching a role. Each chapter contains accompanying exercises that the actor should practice daily. Combining theory and practice, this thought-provoking and challenging study of acting techniques and theories is for actors who have grasped the basics and now want to develop their knowledge and training further.

The Routledge Companion to Performance Practitioners collects the outstanding biographical and production overviews of key theatre practitioners first featured in the popular Routledge Performance Practitioners series of guidebooks. Each of the chapters is written by an expert on a particular figure, from Stanislavsky and Brecht to Laban and Decroux, and places their work in its social and historical context. Summaries and analyses of their key productions indicate each practitioner's theoretical approaches to performance and the performer were manifested in practice. With all 22 practitioners from the original series represented, this is the definitive first step for students, scholars and practitioners hoping to acquaint themselves with the leading names in performance, or deepen their knowledge of these seminal figures.

In a career that spanned more then four decades and four countries, Michel Saint-Denis-actor, director, teacher, and theorist-was a major force in twentieth-century theatre. Baldwin chronicles his life and career, which was characterized by frequent beginnings, triumphs, and disasters. Although the times, the artistic currents, and the places changed, Saint-Denis's ambition remained consistent: to create a permanent company dedicated to theatrical experiment coupled with school. While this aspiration was never fully realized, the result of his "failure" was to have a more lasting effect on the theatre. Always on the move, he implanted his theatre practice internationally through the creation of innovative drama schools and his own teaching. In this long-overdue assessment, Saint-Denis's contribution to the stage is brought to light in vivid detail. Making the case that the Saint-Denis's innovations, ideas, and vision are present in current theatrical practice, Baldwin resurrects this important figure and examines a life and career that had almost been forgotten. Thirty-five years after his death, the author contends his influence can still be seen in the drama schools he created-the London Theatre Studio, the Old Vic School, the Ecole Superieure d'Art Dramatique, the National Theatre School of Canada, the Juilliard Drama Division-and in the spirit behind much that was accomplished at England's National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Royal Court. This consideration casts new light on this important figure and reveals the extent of his role in the shaping of modern theatre and dramatic arts.

When Harry Carey, Sr., died in 1947, director John Ford cast Carey's twenty-six-year-old son, Harry, Jr., in the role of The Abilene Kid in 3 Godfathers. Ford and the elder Carey had filmed an earlier version of the story, and Ford dedicated the Technicolor remake to his memory. Company of Heroes is the story of the making of that film, as well as the eight subsequent Ford classics. In it, Harry Carey, Jr., casts a remarkably observant eye on the process of filming Westerns by one of the true masters of the form. From She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Wagonmaster to The Searchers and Cheyenne Autumn, he shows the care, tedium, challenge, and exhilaration of movie-making at its highest level. Carey's portrayal of John Ford at work is the most intimate ever written. He also gives us insightful and original portraits of the men and women who were part of Ford's vision of America: John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, and Ben Johnson. Funny, insightful, and brutally honest, Company of Heroes is a rip-roaring good read that presents the remarkable life story of Harry Carey, Jr., and his many fine performances.

George Frederick Cooke was a member of that select company of legendary actors -- Garrick, Kemble, Henderson, Kean -- who dominated the English stage during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the first important actor to cross the Atlantic and to play the theatres of the new United States. Don B. Wilmeth's extensive research in Cooke's journal and in many other contemporary sources provides us with a new appreciation of the actor's importance.

This step-by-step guide to learning and practising an American accent is for anyone who wants to use a General American accent with confidence in auditions and performance. Inside, you'll find an easy-to-follow breakdown of the fundamentals required for the accent - including the shape and position of the mouth; vowels and consonants; rhythm; stressing; pitch; pace and more - as well as structured drills and exercises to build on and consolidate what you've learned, using extracts from contemporary American plays. The book is supplemented by dozens of online audio clips of General American voices, recorded by native speakers, so you can listen to the target sounds and repeat for practice. Also included are tips on fully integrating the accent into your performance, as well as a series of vocal warm-ups. Rebecca Gausnell is a voice and dialect coach, who has worked internationally in theatre, film and television. Born and raised in the United States, she studied acting in Chicago, before completing an MFA in Voice Studies in London. The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors and theatremakers, each tackling a key topic in a clear and comprehensive way. Written by industry professionals with extensive hands-on experience of their subject, they provide you with maximum information in minimum time.

How do audiences look at actors in costume onstage? How does costume shape theatrical identity and form bodies? What do audiences wear to the theatre? This lively and cutting-edge book explores these questions, and engages with the various theoretical approaches to the study of actors in performance. Aoife Monks focuses in particular on the uncanny ways in which costume and the actor's body are indistinguishable in the audience's experience of a performance. From the role of costume in Modernist theatre to the actor's position in the fashion system, from nudity to stage ghosts, this wide-ranging exploration of costume, and its histories, argues for the centrality of costume to the spectator's experience at the theatre. Drawing on examples from paintings, photographs, live performances, novels, reviews, blogs and plays, Monks presents a vibrant analysis of the very peculiar work that actors and costumes do on the stage.

In "Come Closer," community activists, scholars, and theatre artists describe their Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) work and how they are transforming TO for new purposes, new audiences, and new settings. Each chapter features a first-person narrative on how the authors' work both honors and transforms the vision of Augusto Boal, whose imaginative response to human oppression offers the world an aesthetic intervention that has the power to move both the oppressors and the oppressed to the possibility of transformative dialogue. Contributors to this important volume center their ideas and their descriptions of their practice within theoretical frameworks, particularly Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. "Come Closer" will be useful to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as administrators and professors interested in the topic of democratic education.

"A fascinating one-volume reference source that identifies and describes the key characters (and their performers) from some of the more memorable films between 1915 and 1983." Reference Books Bulletin

"All students of the Great Man's'career will have to rely on this work. . . . Perhaps Gehring's greatest contributio here is his discussion of 23 sketches that Fields copyrighted that are now in the Library of Congress." Choice

"This catalog could assist directors, actresses, producers, and feminists who want to monitor how women are portrayed in the theater. For almost any drama or women's collection." Reference Books Bulletin

Using new interview material with actors, directors and writers, this book explores the challenges of performance in documentary theatre. Through a series of high profile case studies, Cantrell uses acting theory to examine the actors' complex processes, and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of stage performance.

Starring Tom Cruise examines how Tom Cruise's star image moves across genres and forms as a type of commercial product that offers viewers certain pleasures and expectations. Cruise reads as an action hero and romantic lead yet finds himself in homoerotic and homosocial relationships that unsettle and undermine these heterosexual scripts. In this volume, editor Sean Redmond shows how important star studies is not just to understanding the ideological, commercial, and cultural significance of one star but to seeing how masculinity, ethnicity, sexuality, and commodity relations function in contemporary society. The volume is divided into three parts. Part 1 explores the ways that Cruise's star image and performances are built on a desiring gaze, nearly always complicated by perverse narrative arcs and liminal character relationships. This section also explores the complex and contradictory ways he embodies masculinity and heterosexuality. Part 2 places Cruise within the codes and conventions of genre filmmaking and the way they intersect with the star vehicle. Cruise becomes monomythical, heroic, authentic, and romantic, and at the same time, he struggles to hold these formulas and ideologies together. Part 3 views Cruise as both an ageless totemic figure of masculinity who does his own stunts, as well as an aging star-his body both the conduit for eternally youthful masculinity and a signifier of that which must ultimately fail. These readings are connected to wider discursive issues concerning his private and public life, including the familial/patriarchal roles he takes on.Scholars writing for this collection approach the Cruise star image through various vectors and frames, which are revelatory in nature. As such, they not only demonstrate the very best traditions of close ""star"" textual analysis but also move the approach to the star forward. Students, scholars, and readers of film, media, and celebrity studies will enjoy this deep dive into a complex Hollywood figure.

Nephew of Anton Chekhov and a disciple of Konstantin Stanislavskii, Russian emigre actor Michael Chekhov (1891-1955) created one of the most challenging and inspiring acting theories of the 20th century. This book is a reinterpretation of Chekhov's theory both in the context of the cultural and political milieu of his time and in the light of theatre semiotics: from Prague Structuralism to French Poststructuralism and contemporary performance theory. This work presents Chekhov's understanding of the actor's stage product- stage mask - as a psychological, psychophysical and cultural construct engaged with the mysteries of the actor/character or, what Mikhail Bakhtin describes as the author/hero, dialectical relationships. It offers new horizons in interdisciplinary and intercultural visions on theatre acting described by Chekhov as a most liberating and cathartic process.

Comedy has undergone a seismic shift over the past quarter century: from star powered stand-up comics to an ensemble-fueled style marked by support, trust, and collaborative creativity. This shift is mainly due to the long form improvisational theatre structure known as the Harold. The form's philosophies serve as the bedrock for the majority of the most significant comedic performers, writers, and directors of the past quarter-century who are transforming the way peformers and audiences make, view, and interpret comedy. This book examines the development of the Harold and the ways in which it has helped transform American comedy, examining the tensions and evolutions that led to the Harold's creation at ImprovOlympic (now iO) and following it through its use in contemporary comedic filmmaking.

Shakespeare's plays were written some four hundred years ago, and while his characters are enduring, they are also alien. In grappling with the text of his plays, the modern actor must bring Shakespeare's Renaissance characters to life for a modern audience. And while it is difficult enough for twentieth-century spectators to make sense of the plays, it is also hard for modern actors to understand the Elizabethan world that created the personalities so vividly sketched in Shakespeare's texts. This reference is a convenient and practical guide for actors faced with the task of playing Shakespeare's characters.

The volume begins with an overview of Elizabethan theatrical conventions, including the training of actors. It then looks at the dramatic tradition of personification, which Shakespeare's world inherited from the medieval stage. Later chapters give special attention to how language reveals character and to the social and cultural contexts of the Renaissance. Throughout, the emphasis is on how to translate Shakespeare's text into action on the stage. While the volume contains much useful information, that information is presented to meet the special needs of theater professionals.