The gender-specific monologs in this new text are highly original works not found in other published versions. All are from very recently produced plays from both well-known and emerging new writers. The selections are for women actors fifteen to thirty years of age, suitable for competitive auditions, acting exercises, forensics, class or studio work. "Beginning with an introduction to performance and audition etiquette, the text's characterizations are divided into ages: The Age of Innocence, Coming of Age, The Age of Rebellion, The Glided Age "and New Age Voices. These monolog characterizations address the major trends and conflicts of today through revealing glimpses of society. A valuable resource for any auditioning female actor or theatre student.

Integrative Performance serves a crucial need of 21st-century performers by providing a transdisciplinary approach to training. Its radical new take on performance practice is designed for a climate that increasingly requires fully rounded artists. The book critiques and interrogates key current practices and offers a proven alternative to the idea that rigorous and effective training must separate the disciplines into discrete categories of acting, singing, and dance. Experience Bryon's Integrative Performance Practice is a way of working that will profoundly shift how performers engage with their training, conditioning and performance disciplines. It synthesizes the various elements of performance work in order to empower the performer as they practice across disciplines within any genre, style or aesthetic. Theory and practice are balanced throughout, using: Regular box-outs, introducing the work's theoretical underpinnings through quotes, case studies and critical interjections. A full program of exercises ranging from training of specific muscle groups, through working with text, to more subtle structures for integrative awareness and presence. This book is the result of over twenty years of practice and research working with interdisciplinary artists across the world to produce a training that fully prepares performers for the demands of contemporary performance and all its somatic, emotive and vocal possibilities.

This pack contains a book of games and lists and a CD-ROM. Generating ideas from your own improve group is always best, but when you need a source for memory jogs and new inspirations to keep things lively, use this book. It includes more than seventy games and lists along with a CD-ROM so that you may print these lists directly onto labels or pages for student use. Everything is in alphabetical order for quick reference. It's all here - the five Ws and the big H (how). Three appendixes include information about the dramatic uses for games, national theatre standards and other gimmicks and tools.

Columbo is 50 years old. A global smash in the 1970s, it is now a cult TV favourite. What is the reason for this enduring popularity? In this fascinating exploration of a television classic, David Martin-Jones argues that Columbo reveals how our current globalised world of 24/7 capital, invasive surveillance and online labour emerged in the late 20th century. Exploring everything from the influences on Peter Falk's iconic acting style to the show's depiction of Los Angeles, he illuminates how our attention is channelled, via technologies like television and computers, to influence how we perform, learn, police and locate ourselves in today's world. Columbo emerged alongside shows like Kojak and The Rockford Files, but re-viewing the series today reveals how contemporary television hits from Elementary to The Purge continue to shape how and why we pay attention 24/7.

Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics in Practice is the first book that compiles practical approaches of the best practices from a range of practitioners on the subject of working with Stanislavski's "objectives," "obstacles," and "tactics." The book offers instructors and directors a variety of tools from leading acting teachers, who bring their own individual perspectives to the challenge of working with Stanislavski's principles for today's actors, in one volume. Each essay addresses its own theoretical and practical approach and offers concrete instructions for implementing new explorations both in the classroom and in the rehearsal studio. An excellent resource for acting and directing instructors at the university level, directing and theatre pedagogy students, high school/secondary theatre teachers, and community theatre leaders, Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics in Practice serves as a resource for lesson planning and exploration, and provides an encyclopedia of the best practices in the field today.

Play Readings: A Complete Guide for Theatre Practitioners demystifies the standards and protocols of a play reading, demonstrating how to create effective and evocative readings for those new to or inexperienced with the genre. It examines all of the essential considerations involved in readings, including the use of the venue, pre-reading preparations, playwright/director communication, editing/adapting stage directions, casting, using the limited rehearsal time effectively, simple "staging" suggestions, working with actors, handling complex stage directions, talkbacks, and limiting the use of props, costumes, and music. A variety of readings are covered, including readings of musicals, operas, and period plays, for comprehensive coverage of this increasingly prevalent production form.

A Monologue is an Outrageous Situation! How to Survive the 60-Second Audition explains how to successfully tackle the "cattle call" acting audition with a sixty-second monologue. Through Q&As, tips, director's notes, and a glossary full of outrageous actions meant to inspire the actor into truly connecting with the piece, this book shows actors where and how to find a monologue, edit it, and give the best audition possible.

Stanislavski: The Basics is an engaging introduction to the life, thought and impact of Konstantin Stanislavski. Regarded by many as a great innovator of twentieth century theatre, this book examines Stanislavski's: * life and the context of his writings * major works in English translation * ideas in practical contexts * impact on modern theatre With further reading throughout, a glossary of terms and a comprehensive chronology, this text makes the ideas and theories of Stanislavski available to an undergraduate audience.

A practical guide to training as an actor, helping you get the most out of drama school - and survive in the world beyond. Are you thinking of applying to drama school? Do you have a place already and want to get the most out of your training? Are you seeking to make the best possible start in the world beyond drama school? Becoming an Actor takes you, step by step, technique by technique, through everything you can expect to encounter at drama school, and in your first year as a professional actor. Stuffed with exercises and full of practical advice, it is the ideal handbook to accompany your training. Thomasina Unsworth teaches at Rose Bruford College, one of the UK's leading drama schools. Here she shows what acting classes at an accredited drama school are actually like, and offers guidance and support through what is a critical time in any actor's career. With many different exercises to help actors explore the techniques they need to master, Becoming an Actor is also an invaluable resource for those teaching acting, and for those seeking to refresh their training.

Looking for fresh, original scenes for your fast-paced acting or directing class? Tired of the same old material everyone recognizes? Want the flexibility to play any character in any scene?

"

Book of Sides: Original, Short Scenes for Actors and Directors "offers scenes that are considerably shorter than those in similar books but still feature the structure of typical scenes with arcs, clear playable objectives, and stakes for both actors. Here you will find scenes that are:

• One-page in length and specially designed for new, high-intensity exercises that help students develop quickly
• Printed in an easily readable, film-script format that provides plenty of room for annotations
• Completely original, allowing you to produce and distribute reinterpretations without worrying about copyright restrictions
• Universally castable, with roles that can be assigned to actors regardless of gender, appearance, skill level, or race
• Simple and conducive to performing in the classroom without props, costumes, or sets
• Perfect for audition workshops and crowded directing or acting classes where everyone wants an opportunity to perform
• Written in accessible, contemporary language that keeps student actors engaged

Don t miss out In "Book of Sides, "Dave Kost brings two decades of teaching experience to the table to deliver the ideal set of scenes for busy classroom settings, auditions, and general training. "

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men aims to provide new and exciting audition and showcase material for actors of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, the collection is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway. Categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actors in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists including Lemn Sissay, Katori Hall, Rajiv Joseph, Philip Ridley and Naomi Wallace. Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men is the go-to resource for contemporary monologues and speeches for auditions. Ideal for aspiring and professional actors, it allows performers to enhance their particular strengths and prepare for roles featuring characters of specific ethnic backgrounds.

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills If you're auditioning for a musical - or needing to choose a song to perform for an exam, showcase or drama-school application - it's vital you find a song that shows off your voice and reveals your full potential as both a singer and an actor. In this invaluable book, you'll find comprehensive introductions to fifty of the best songs from musical theatre, for soprano, mezzosoprano and alto voices, and in a variety of periods, styles, genres and tempos. Each song comes with detailed textual, vocal and musical analysis, and a practical performance guide to ensure you perform it to maximum effect in your own unique way. Drawing on his experience as a performer, musical director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Paul Harvard gives his top tips for performing each song, note by note, moment by moment. He also recommends soundtrack recordings to inspire you, and tells you where to find the correct sheet music for your chosen song (please note: the book does not contain the sheet music itself). The selection includes songs from acclaimed contemporary musicals such as In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Songs for a New World by Jason Robert Brown, as well as Next to Normal, Miss Saigon, The Color Purple, Sister Act and Ragtime - alongside much-loved classics like The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Anything Goes, and five of Sondheim's masterpieces. Also included is an extensive introduction to the process of choosing your song, preparing your performance and approaching the audition itself, along with many vocal and acting exercises to improve your technique and boost your confidence. 'For anyone wishing to do justice to a musical-theatre role, and definitely for those wishing to work in this genre, this guide is a must' Teaching Drama Magazine on Paul Harvard's bestselling book Acting Through Song

The Physical Actor is a comprehensive book of exercises for actors. It is carefully designed for the development of a strong and flexible physical body able to move with ease through space and interact instinctively on-stage.

Annie Loui draws on her training with Etienne Decroux, Carolyn Carlson, and Jerzy Grotowski to bring Contact Improvisation into the theatrical sphere. She explains how it can be used to develop alert and embodied listening skills in the actor, and how to apply it to working with texts on stage.

This book will guide the reader through a full course of movement skills, including:

• Partnering skills
• Spatial awareness for groups and individuals
• Fine motor control through mime
• Heightened co-ordination and sustained motion

New for this edition are additional partnering exercises, in-depth applications of contact improvisation to monologues and scenes, and a chapter on devising physical theatre performances.

As one of the most well-known names in theatre history, Konstantin Stanislavsky's teachings on actor training have endured throughout the decades, influencing scholars and practitioners even in the present day. This second edition of Konstantin Stanislavsky combines: an overview of Stanislavsky's life and work, including recent discoveries an assessment of his widely read text, An Actor Prepares (1936) with comparisons to Benedetti's 2008 translation, An Actor's Work detailed commentary of the key 1898 production of The Seagull an indispensable set of practical exercises for actors, teachers and directors. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial ex- ploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today's student.

This book coincides with an increase in the programming of live art elements in many galleries and museums. Traditional art history has, however, been wary of live art's interdisciplinarity and its tendency to encourage increased formal and conceptual risk taking. Time-based performances have challenged the conventions of documentation and the viewer's access to the art experience. This book questions the canon of art history by exploring participation, liveness, interactivity, digital and process-based performative practices and performance for the camera, as presented in gallery spaces. The essays present both academic research as well as case studies of curatorial projects that have pushed the boundaries of the art historical practice. The authors come from a wide range of backgrounds, ranging from curators and art producers to academics and practising artists. They ask what it means to present, curate and create interdisciplinary performative work for gallery spaces and offer cutting-edge research that explores the intricate relationship between art history, live and performing arts, and museum and gallery space.

Active Analysis combines two of Maria Knebel's most important books, On Active Analysis of the Play and the Role and The Word in the Actor's Creative Work, in a single edition conceived and edited by one of Knebel's most famous students, the renowned theatre and film director, Anatoli Vassiliev. This is the first English translation of an important and authoritative fragment of the great Stanislavski jigsaw. A landmark publication. This book is an indispensable resource for professional directors, student directors, actors and researchers interested in Stanislavski, directing, rehearsal methods and theatre studies more generally.

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills Each Good Audition Guide contains a range of fresh monologues, all prefaced with a summary of the vital information you need to place the piece in context and to perform it to maximum effect in your own unique way. Each volume also carries a user-friendly introduction on the whole process of auditioning. Classical Monologues for Men contains 50 monologues drawn from classical plays throughout the ages and ranging across all of Western Theatre: * Classical Greek and Roman * Elizabethan and Jacobean * French and Spanish Golden Age * Restoration and Eighteenth Century * Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Also available: Classical Monologues for Women

Acting Exercises for Non-Traditional Staging: Michael Chekhov Reimagined offers a new set of exercises for coaching actors when working on productions that are non-traditionally staged in arenas, thrusts, or alleys. All of the exercises are adapted from Michael Chekhov's acting technique, but are reimagined in new and creative ways that offer innovative twists for the practitioner familiar with Chekhov, and easy accessibility for the practitioner new to Chekhov. Exploring the methodology through a modern day lens, these exercises are energizing additions to the classroom and essential tools for more a vibrant rehearsal and performance.

The vital building blocks of movement training - a key sourcebook for actors, directors, students and teachers. In precise detail, Darley sets out the exercises and techniques she developed with her own drama-school students. She deals with the vital building blocks of movement training: awareness, relaxation, tension-particularly Lecoq's Seven States-and suspension, before progressing to areas in which she was a pioneer: animal work, contact work, visual spacing, and the relationship between voice and movement. 'Christian was much more than a teacher, she was an indomitable and extraordinary spirit' Anna Maxwell Martin

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills Each Good Audition Guide contains a range of fresh monologues, all prefaced with a summary of the vital information you need to place the piece in context and to perform it to maximum effect in your own unique way. Each volume also carries a user-friendly introduction on the whole process of auditioning. Shakespeare Monologues for Men contains 50 monologues drawn from across the Shakespeare canon. Each speech is prefaced with an easy-to-use guide to Who is speaking, Where, When and To Whom, What has just happened in the play and What are the character's objectives. In fact, everything the actor needs to know before embarking on the audition! Shakespeare Monologues for Men is edited by director, teacher and academic Luke Dixon. 'Sound practical advice for anyone attending an audition' Teaching Drama Magazine on the Good Audition Guides

'Adrian Noble vigorously highlights the extraordinary rhythmic, linguistic patterns Shakespeare gives the speaker. Any actor will find this book invaluable. For any student of Shakespeare it should be essential.' (From the Foreword by Ralph Fiennes)

'How can I bring the text alive, make it vivid, how do I make people hear it for the first time? How can I enter into that world and not feel a stranger. How can I not feel clumsy and inept? ... How can I speak it without sounding artificial or "actory"? In other words, how can I make it real ...?'

Adrian Noble has worked on Shakespeare with everyone from oscar-nominated actors to groups of schoolchildren. Here he draws on several decades of top-level directing experience to shed new light on how to bring some of theatre s seminal texts to life.

He shows you how to approach the perennial issues of performing Shakespeare, including:

• wordplay using colour and playing plain, wit and comedy, making language muscular
• building a character different strategies, using the text, Stanislavski and Shakespeare
• shape and structure headlining a speech, playing soliloquys, determining a speech s purpose and letting the verse empower you
• dialogue building tension, sharing responsibility and passing the ball .

This guided tour of Shakespeare s complex but unfailingly rewarding work stunningly combines instruction and inspiration.

A comprehensive study of Nicole Kidman's work through the lens of ten of her most iconic roles Nicole Kidman (b.1967), internationally renowned and one of the most celebrated actors of her generation, has starred in a host of award- winning movies. She came to worldwide recognition for her roles in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Eyes Wide Shut (1995), and has since been the recipient of numerous Golden Globe awards. Her performance as Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002) received an Oscar for Best Actress. The Anatomy of an Actor series takes ten roles by a single actor, each studied in a dedicated chapter, and identifies the key elements that made the performances exceptional - carefully examining the actor's craft for both a professional audience and movie fans alike. Arguably the biggest star of his generation, Leonardo DiCaprio (b. 1974) is also one of its finest actors. Since first gaining attention in What's Eating Gilbert Grape at only 19 years old, he has consistently been in the public eye: notably in record-breaking Titanic in 1997, and most recently as the lead in Wolf of Wall Street, nominated for five Oscars.

In How to Stop Acting, Harold Guskin reveals the insights and techniques that have worked wonders for the dozens of stage and screen actors he has coached, beginners and stars alike. Instead of yet another "method," Guskind offers a strategy based on a radically simple and refreshing idea: that the actor's work is not to "create a character" but rather to be continually, personally responsive to the text, wherever his impulse takes him, from first read-through to final performance. Drawing examples from his clients' work and his own, Guskin presents acting as a constantly evolving exploration rather than as a progression toward a fixed goal. He offers sound and original advice on auditioning, developing a role and keeping it fresh, adapting to the demands of film and television, playing difficult emotional scenes, tackling the Shakespearean and other great roles, and more.

"Acting and Living in Discovery, A Workbook for the Actor" lays out essential fundamentals of the actor's process. Based on the author's experiences at the legendary HB Studio in New York City, "Acting and Living in Discovery" provides practical guidance for developing, honing, or revitalizing the actor's craft for the actor. A teacher can use the workbook to support a studio class, a special workshop, part of a university acting course, or private coaching. The chapters delve into basic facets of the acting process that lead the actor into discovering the corporal world of a script. Exercises at the end of each chapter invite the actor to discover the treasure trove of his unique self, and spell out the work an actor can do to wear the shoes of any character. The actor is at once the instrument and the player. The workbook can be read straight through or used as a reference for addressing a particular problem or topic.

"This wonderful, eclectic book offers both theoretical and practical insights to actors, directors, and students, while providing fascinating insights to anyone who seeks a greater understanding of the process of creating theater.-Barbara MacKenzie-Wood, head of acting/music theater, Carnegie Mellon University In this updated rich resource for actors, renowned movement teachers and directors reveal the physical skills needed for the stage and the screen. Readers will gain remarkable insights into the physical skills and techniques used in a wide variety of performance styles through ready-to-use exercises and approaches. Included in this new edition are chapters covering: Stage combat Yoga for actors Martial arts Body-mind centering Authentic movement Bartenieff fundamentals Grotowski-based movement Those who want to pursue serious training will be able to consult the appendix for listings of the best teachers and schools in the country. This inspiring collection is a must-read for all actors, directors, and teachers of theater looking for stimulation and new approaches. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.