Laughter is the most effective technique for teenage survival. These monologs, dialogs and short skits allow teenage performers a chance to laugh at the system, their teachers, their parents and most importantly, themselves! These are scripts for laughter and pathos. They create an awareness of the perils of drinking and driving, teenage parties, smoking, alcoholic parents and much more. Sixty superb, short scripts! For speech contests, acting exercises, auditions, variety shows and classroom use. Some of the titles include: MONOLOGS: Vacation from Hell, Daydreaming, Kiss Off That First Kiss, DIALOGS: Girls Come in All Shapes, Designated Driver, Tassels and Tears. SKITS: How to Dump a Dip, Beauty Sleep, Party Time.

Black Acting Methods seeks to offer alternatives to the Euro-American performance styles that many actors find themselves working with. A wealth of contributions from directors, scholars and actor trainers address afrocentric processes and aesthetics, and interviews with key figures in Black American theatre illuminate their methods. This ground-breaking collection is an essential resource for teachers, students, actors and directors seeking to reclaim, reaffirm or even redefine the role and contributions of Black culture in theatre arts.

Michael Pennington's solo show about Shakespeare, "Sweet William," has been acclaimed throughout Europe and in the US as a unique blend of showmanship and scholarship. In this book, he deepens his exploration of Shakespeare's life and work - and the connection between the two - that lies at its heart.
It is illuminated throughout by the unrivalled insights into the plays that Pennington has gained from the twenty thousand hours he has spent working on them as a leading actor, an artistic director and a director - and as the author of three previous books on individual Shakespeare plays. With practical analysis, wonderfully detailed and entertaining interpretations of characters and scenes, and vivid reflections on Shakespeare's theatre and ours, the result is a masterclass of the most enjoyable kind for theatregoers, professionals, students and anyone interested in Shakespeare.
"A brilliant and intimate insider's guide to Shakespeare from one of our greatest classical actors." - Gregory Doran
"Michael Pennington is a great Shakespearian actor who writes with the authority of an academic. His book analyses the plays, the characters and the playwright's life. It will intrigue, entertain and challenge students, actors and their audiences." - Ian McKellen
"Rich and informative, and something that will be mined for many years to come by anyone interested in Shakespeare and in British theatre." - Professor James Shapiro
"Shakespeare comes wonderfully to life in Michael's beautifully written book." - Rupert Everett
"Irresistibly readable." - Peter Brook
"I can't remember when I learned so much from a single volume as I have from Michael Pennington's engaging, absorbing, congenial, informative new book Sweet William. ... Sometimes he's anecdotal, often lyrical, always thoughtful and occasionally laugh-aloud funny. Pennington's book is a must-read for anyone interested in Shakespeare from almost any angle - actor, drama student, teacher, director, technician, literature student or audience member." - "The Stage"
"The most important and best set of original Shakespeare essays that I have read in over thirty years... Pennington is blessed with an ideal combination of talents and experiences... a wonderful book." - "Speaking English"
Michael Pennington has played leading roles in Shakespeare's plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the English Shakespeare Company (of which he was co-founder and joint Artistic Director), the Peter Hall Company and the BBC. He has also directed several of the plays, and is the author of three books on individual Shakespeare plays ("Hamlet," "Twelfth Night" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream"). He has toured his solo shows, "Sweet William" and "Anton Chekhov," throughout the world.

An inspiring and interactive workbook to help you develop skills for longform improvisation, by one of the UK's top improv performers and teachers. Structured as a twelve-week course, this book provides techniques, advice and exercises that can be done on your own or in groups - with activities to complete as you go - for learning faster and becoming (more) amazing at improvisation. It draws on the author's own experience of performing and teaching improv around the world, with added gems of wisdom from key experts. Starting with the basics of improvisation, it moves on to explore areas of the craft such as rehearsals, character, editing, form and style; plus career advice including how to cope with bad gigs, jealousy, fear of missing out and your Inner Critic. The Improviser's Way is ideal for improvisers at any level - from those new to improv entirely, through those familiar with shortform who are looking to extend their reach, to experienced longform performers and teachers looking to refresh their approach and embrace new ideas. It is also invaluable to anyone looking to discover more about this popular, thrillingly creative and empowering form of performance. By the end, you won't just be a better improviser - you'll be a better person!

Playing Shakespeare's Lovers examines Shakespeare's romantic characters from multiple perspectives. Contributing actors, directors, educators and scholars bring diverse and wide-ranging insights into the motives, context, history and challenges of performing Shakespeare's "infinite variety" of lovers. The volume begins with an introductory essay, followed by brief essays and interviews, on various characters within the world of Shakespeare's lovers.

Beginning with exercises designed to break long-held habits and allow an emotional rather than intellectual relationship to Elizabethan language, Kristin Linklater analyses Shakespeare's strategies for creating character, story and meaning through figures of speech, iambic pentameter, rhyme and the alternation of verse and prose.

'The Feldenkrais Method is unique... I haven't found any other movement study that opens up such a rich and continuing area of enquiry' John Wright, from his Foreword Spontaneity, sensitivity, simplicity and flexibility in any situation are just some of the qualities that the Feldenkrais Method has inspired in performers around the world. It uses movement to enable you to feel, adapt and respond in new ways - not just in limited, habitual patterns - thereby increasing your physical, emotional and mental potential. Written by an experienced actor, theatre-maker and Feldenkrais practitioner, Feldenkrais for Actors leads you through a range of topics where using the Method can help, such as: Presence and Posture The Role of Tension Emotion, Character and Creativity Voice and Breath Injury and Anxiety Also included are dozens of exercises and lessons so that you can experience how the Method will help you in practice. Feldenkrais for Actors is the result of thirty years of study and experience of the Method, and the benefits it can bring. It is invaluable for actors at any stage of their career, as well as for singers, dancers, musicians, martial artists, athletes and more.

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.

Staging Sex lays out a comprehensive, practical solution for staging intimacy, nudity, and sexual violence. This book takes theatre practitioners step-by-step through the best practices, tools, and techniques for crafting effective theatrical intimacy. After an overview of the challenges directors face when staging theatrical intimacy, Staging Sex offers practical solutions and exercises, provides a system for establishing and discussing boundaries, and suggests efficient and effective language for staging intimacy and sexual violence. It also addresses production and classroom specific concerns and provides guidance for creating a culture of consent in any company or department. Written for directors, choreographers, movement coaches, stage managers, production managers, professional actors, and students of acting courses, Staging Sex is an essential tool for theatre practitioners who encounter theatrical intimacy or instructional touch, whether in rehearsal or in the classroom.

"Seventy-five percent of what we do at rehearsal does not enter the performance." - Constantin Stanislavski
Susan Letzler Cole's firsthand account of the rehearsal sessions of acclaimed directors and actors offers a view of what is often hidden from the public eye: what actors and directors do when they prepare a dramatic text for performance.
Directors in Rehearsal is based on hundreds of hours observing and recording the directorial work process. The author has closely observed prominent directors working with texts ranging from Shakespeare and Chekhov to the Wooster Group's recent experiments. The result of her extensive research is a rare behind-the scenes look at 10 theatre directors rehearsing actual productions - Broadway and off-Broadway, political and experimental, text-centered and company created.

'Absolutely delicious . . . Janelle Brown is a surgeon of the complex relationships between women. I gobbled this up' Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here 'You won't be able to put this novel down and you won't want to' Laura Dave, no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me 'One of those books you'll devour' Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant 'Janelle Brown has done it again. She has created a deliciously twisty page-turner you won't be able to put down' Angie Kim, Edgar Award-winning author of Miracle Creek 'You be me, and I'll be you' I whispered. As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn't even tell them apart. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role. But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach. Meanwhile, Sam has never recovered from her failed Hollywood career, or from her addiction to the pills and booze that have propped her up for the last fifteen years. Sam hasn't spoken to her sister since her destructive behavior finally drove a wedge between them. So when her father calls out of the blue, Sam is shocked to learn that Elli's life has been in turmoil: her husband moved out, and Elli just adopted a two-year-old girl. Now she's stopped answering her phone and checked in to a mysterious spa in Ojai. Is her sister just decompressing, or is she in trouble? Could she have possibly joined a cult? As Sam works to connect the dots left by Elli's baffling disappearance, she realizes that the bond between her and her sister is more complicated than she ever knew.

This book is situated at the intersection of queer/gender studies and theories of acting pedagogy and performance. It explores the social and cultural matrix in which matters of gender are negotiated, including that of post-secondary theatre and drama education. It identifies the predicament of gender dissident actors who must contend with the widespread enforcement of realist paradigms within the academy, and proposes a re-imagining of the way drama/theatre/performance are practised in order to serve more fairly and effectively the needs of queer actors in training. This is located within a larger project of critique in reference to the art form as a whole. The book stimulates discussion among practitioners and scholars on matters concerning various kinds of diversity: of gender expression, of approaches to the teaching of acting, and to the way the art form may be imagined and executed in the early years of the 21st Century, in particular in the face of the climate crisis. But it is also an aid to practitioners who are seeking new theoretical and practical approaches to dealing with gender diversity in acting pedagogy.

"Outstanding ... a technical manual (for actors and directors), an historical document of importance, and a volume that is a delight to read." Ian Watson, Rutgers "An extremely valuable personal account of Roberta Carreri's process as an actor." Alison Hodge, Artistic Director, The Quick and the Dead "An excellent book with a unique voice." Ben Spatz, University of Huddersfield Roberta Carreri is one of acclaimed theatre company Odin Teatret's longest-serving actors, and the last to be trained by Eugenio Barba himself. In this book, she relives the milestones of her professional journey, including: her first experiences of street theatre the discovery of Asian performance traditions pedagogical activities and character creation encounters with artists and spectators the inception of her solo performances, Judith and Salt Interwoven with rich photographic documentation and a wealth of biographical information, this inspiring handbook reveals the professional secrets of an Odin Teatret actor as well as the story of a life of work, research, and passion.

Many theatre practitioners think of physical theatre as one thing and text-based theatre as another. In this book, Dymphna Callery, author of Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre, shows how exercises and rehearsal techniques associated with physical and devised theatre can be applied to scripted plays. Working 'through the body' enables performers to discover what really makes a play work. Drawing on key practitioners, including Jacques Lecoq, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook and Simon McBurney, The Active Text offers a complete approach to working with a scripted play, leading the reader through a process of active exploration and experimentation that includes: Uncovering a play's internal dynamics Using improvisation and theatre games Exploiting the languages of the body Getting inside the words that are spoken (as well as those that aren't!) Discovering image structures Understanding the impact on the audience Throughout the book, the author draws on a core selection of well-known texts (from Sophocles and Shakespeare to Brecht, Arthur Miller, Steven Berkoff and Sarah Kane), showing how an active approach to text can challenge assumptions about even the most familiar of plays. Packed with theatre games, improvisation exercises and rehearsal techniques, The Active Text is an inspirational guide for performers, directors, students and teachers. It will revitalise work in the rehearsal room, workshop or classroom - anywhere that dramatic text needs to be brought to life.

The Actor's Survival Kit is required reading in Canadian theatre schools and is a constant resource for its many readers across the country. This fifth edition gives actors fresh research from today's experience, new lists of Canada-wide contacts, and input from success stories. It speaks to a new generation of artists, giving them an up-to-date guide to the business of acting. The book addresses a range of new issues: performer websites, video self-production, and sending rmand networking on the Internet. It also takes a fresh look at old ones: agents, self-promotion, and work opportunities for women and minorities. The authors learn by constantly talking to emerging artists about the problems they face in the business in Canada. Often those conversations begin with, "You wrote the book!" The authors are still receiving thanks from grateful artists who have been guided by this irreplaceable book over the years.

Arden Performance Editions are ideal for anyone engaging with a Shakespeare play in performance. With clear facing-page notes giving definitions of words, easily accessible information about key textual variants, lineation, metrical ambiguities and pronunciation, each edition has been developed to open the play's possibilities and meanings to actors and students. Each edition offers: -Facing-page notes -Short, clear definitions of words -Easily accessible information about key textual variants -Notes on pronunciation of difficult names and unfamiliar words -An easy-to-read layout -Space to write notes -A short introduction to the play

This work has inspired the work of countless actors, directors, and writers in theatre, television and film. Spolin's improvisational techniques have changed the very nature and practice of modern theatre. This third edition updates the more than 200 now-classic exercises and adds 30 new ones. It adds 30 traditional theatre games that are frequently used as warm-ups. It includes Spolin's explanations of key concepts crucial to her programme, and collects "The Sayings of Viola Spolin" and adds a glossary of phrases for teachers and directors, with Spolin's definitions of their meaning and value. Most significantly, though, this edition makes available "The Lone Actor". In this section, Spolin offers games for individuals to play when they are alone. It is an important piece that should expand Spolin's teachings and influence to an entirely new audience.

Since its original publication, 'Acting as a Business' has earned a reputation as an indispensable tool for working and aspiring actors. Avoiding the usual advice about persistence and luck, Brian O'Neil provides clear-cut guidelines that will give actors a solid knowledge of the business behind their art. It's packed with practical information - on everything from what to say in a cover letter to where to stand when performing in an agent's office.

For the first time, the world-renowned Arden Shakespeare is producing Performance Editions, aimed specifically for use in the rehearsal room. Published in association with the Shakespeare Institute, the text features easily accessible facing page notes - including short definitions of words, key textual variants, and guidance on metre and pronunciation; a larger font size for easier reading; space for writing notes and reduced punctuation aimed at the actor rather than the reader. With editorial expertise from the worlds of theatre and academia, the series has been developed in association with actors and drama students. The Series Editors are distinguished scholars Professor Michael Dobson and Dr Abigail Rokison and leading Shakespearean actor, Simon Russell Beale.

In this seminal work on a new art of speech, Rudolf and Marie Steiner demonstrate how the Word can truly be brought to life. From the authors' perspective, the audible sound of speech is only the end result of a much greater process that begins inwardly. In contrast to the belief that speaking is entirely a matter of correct placement in the mouth, Rudolf Steiner advises speakers to concentrate on what takes place before the mechanical production of sound is made in the physical organism. Relevant to actors, teachers, therapists and anybody seeking to reinvigorate the art of the Word, this book will be an invaluable friend and guide to improving clarity and restoring beauty to communication.

Whether you're applying for drama school, taking an exam, or auditioning for a professional role, it's likely you'll be required to perform one or more monologues, including a piece from a contemporary play. It's vital to come up with something fresh that's suited both to you - in order to allow you to express who you are as a performer - and to the specific purposes of the audition. In this book, you'll find forty fantastic speeches featuring male roles, all written and premiered since the year 2014, by some of today's most exciting dramatic voices from the UK and USA. Playwrights include Annie Baker, Andrew Bovell, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, Mark Gatiss, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anna Jordan, Arinze Kene, Rona Munro and Evan Placey. The plays featured were premiered at leading venues including the National, the Royal Court, the Bush and Hampstead in London, prestigious theatres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester, and by renowned companies including Frantic Assembly and Paines Plough. Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James introduces each speech with a user-friendly, bullet-point list of essential things you need to know about the character, and then five inspiring ideas to help you perform the monologue. This book also features a step-by-step guide to the process of selecting and preparing your speech, and approaching the audition itself. 'Easy-to-use... The guidance is perhaps the most thorough I have seen in a monologue book' Teaching Drama on Trilby James's first volume of Contemporary Monologues Please note that some of the speeches in this volume contain strong language and themes which some readers may find inappropriate.