Historical Wig Styling: Victorian to the Present, 2nd edition, is a guide to creating beautiful, historically accurate hairstyles for theatrical productions and events. This volume covers hairstyles from the Victorian era through the contemporary styles of today. Chapters begin with an overview of historic figures and styles that influenced the look of each period, followed by step-by-step instructions and photographs showing the finished look from every angle. The book also explores the necessary supplies and styling products needed to create the perfect coif, tips for proper wig handling, a brief history of the makeup for each historical period, and basic styling techniques useful when working with wigs or real hair. New hairstyles featured in this edition include: - Civil War era women - Late Victorian African-American men - 1910s' Full width style women - 1920s' glossy waves - 1940s' Victory rolls - 1950s' Poodle updos - 1960s' flips With over 1,000 full-color images and detailed instructions on how to create iconic hairstyles and makeup, Historical Wig Styling: Victorian to the Present, 2nd edition, is an excellent resource for professional costume designers and wig makers, as well as for students of Costume Design and Wig Making and Styling courses.

The follow-up to the 2000 Golden Pen Award-winning Structural Design for the Stage, this second edition provides the theater technician with a foundation in structural design, allowing an intuitive understanding of "why sets stand up." It introduces the basics of statics and the study of the strength of materials as they apply to typical scenery, emphasizing conservative approaches to real world examples. This is an invaluable reference for any serious theatre technician throughout their career, from the initial study of the fundamental concepts, to the day-to-day use of the techniques and reference materials. Now in hardcover, with nearly 200 new pages of content, it has been completely revised and updated to reflect the latest recommended practices of the lumber and steel industries, while also including aluminum design for the first time.

Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture illuminates the links between theatrical attire and social customs and aesthetics of China, covering both the theory and practice of stage dress. Distinguishing attributes include an introduction to the performance style, the delineation of the costume conventions, an analysis of the costumes through their historical precedents and theatrical modifications, and the use of garment shape, color, and embroidery for symbolic effect. Practical information covers dressing the performers and a costume plot, the design and creation of the make-up and hairstyles, and pattern drafts of the major garments. Photographs from live performances, as well as details of embroidery, and close-up photographs of the headdresses thoroughly portray the stunning beauty of this incomparable performance style. Presenting the brilliant colors of the elaborately embroidered silk costumes together with the intricate makeup and glittering headdresses, this volume embodies the elegance of the Beijing opera.

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.

The forty-two exercises detailed in this comprehensive guide provide both the instructor and the student a "user-friendly" workshop structure. It may be used for both beginning and advanced courses of Directing for Theatre. The basic concepts of directing are learned progressively. The approach is totally experiential--the student discovers the demands and problems of directing by actually doing it step-by-step. The student's own directing style emerges with each exercise. Creativity and confidence building are the central benefits of this excellent workshop text. It is the only text that combines theory with active student participation. Seven chapters: Creating the Directing Workshop, The Silent Seven, Justifying Movement, Ground Plan Exercises, Open Scene Exercises, Closed Scene Exercises, Supporting Parts.

The Fake Food Cookbook: Props You Can't Eat for Theatre, Film, and TV contains step by step instructions on how to create the most realistic prop food for a theatrical production. From appetizers such as oysters on a half shell and chicken wings, entrees such as lobster and honey-glazed ham, to desserts, breakfasts, and even beverages, every meal is covered in this how-to guide. Full color images of each step and finished products illustrate each recipe, along with suggestions for keeping the budget for each project low. Safety Data Sheets and links to informative videos are hosted on a companion website.

The Routledge Companion to Scenography is the largest and most comprehensive collection of original essays to survey the historical, conceptual, critical and theoretical aspects of this increasingly important aspect of theatre and performance studies. Editor and leading scholar Arnold Aronson brings together a uniquely valuable anthology of texts especially commissioned from across the discipline of theatre and performance studies. Establishing a stable terminology for a deeply contested term for the first time, this volume looks at scenography as the totality of all the visual, spatial and sensory aspects of performance. Tracing a line from Aristotle's Poetics down to Brecht and Artaud and into contemporary immersive theatre and digital media, The Routledge Companion to Scenography is a vital addition to every theatre library.

'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.

Although scholars have long considered the material conditions surrounding the production of early modern drama, until now, no book-length examination has sought to explain what was worn on the period's stages and, more importantly, how articles of apparel were understood when seen by contemporary audiences. Robert Lublin's new study considers royal proclamations, religious writings, paintings, woodcuts, plays, historical accounts, sermons, and legal documents to investigate what Shakespearean actors actually wore in production and what cultural information those costumes conveyed. Four of the chapters of Costuming the Shakespearean Stage address 'categories of seeing': visually based semiotic systems according to which costumes constructed and conveyed information on the early modern stage. The four categories include gender, social station, nationality, and religion. The fifth chapter examines one play, Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess, to show how costumes signified across the categories of seeing to establish a play's distinctive semiotics and visual aesthetic.

Lighting Dance pioneers the discussion of the ability of lighting design to foreground shadow in dance performances. Through a series of experiments integrating light, shadow, and improvised dance movement, it highlights and analyses what it advances as an innovative expression of shadow in dance as an alternative to more conventional approaches to lighting design. Different art forms, such as painting, film, and dance pieces from Loie Fuller, the Russell Maliphant Dance Company, Elevenplay, Pilobolus, and the Tao Dance Theater served to inspire and contextualise the study. From lighting to psychology, from reviews to academic books, shadows are examined as a symbolic and manipulative entity. The book also presents the dance solo Sombreiro, which was created to echo the experiments with light, shadow, and movement aligned to an interpretation of cultural shadow (Jung 1954, in Samuels, Shorter, and Plaut 1986; Casement 2006; Ramos 2004; Stein 2004; and others). The historical development of lighting within dance practices is also outlined, providing a valuable resource for lighting designers, dance practitioners, and theatre goers interested in the visuality of dance performances.

The Craft and Art of Scenic Design: Strategies, Concepts, and Resources explores how to design stage scenery from a practical and conceptual perspective. Discussion of conceptualizing the design through script analysis and research is followed by a comprehensive overview of execution: collaboration with directors and other designers, working with spaces, developing an effective design process, and the aesthetics of stage design. This book features case studies, key words, tip boxes, definitions, and chapter exercises. Additionally, it provides advice on portfolio and career development, contracts, and working with a union. This book was written for university-level Scenic Design courses.

In The Art and Practice of Costume Design, a panel of seven designers offer a new multi-sided look at the current state and practice of theatrical costume design. Beginning with an exploration of the role of a Costume Designer, the subsequent chapters analyse and explore the psychology of dress, the principles and elements of design, how to create costume renderings, and collaboration within the production. The book also takes a look at the costume shop and the role of the designer within it, and costume design careers within theatrical and fashion industries.

Theatre and Performance Design: A Reader in Scenography is an essential resource for those interested in the visual composition of performance and related scenographic practices. Theatre and performance studies, cultural theory, fine art, philosophy and the social sciences are brought together in one volume to examine the principle forces that inform understanding of theatre and performance design. The volume is organised thematically in five sections: looking, the experience of seeing space and place the designer: the scenographic bodies in space making meaning This major collection of key writings provides a much needed critical and contextual framework for the analysis of theatre and performance design. By locating this study within the broader field of scenography - the term increasingly used to describe a more integrated reading of performance - this unique anthology recognises the role played by all the elements of production in the creation of meaning. Contributors include Josef Svoboda, Richard Foreman, Roland Barthes, Oscar Schlemmer, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Richard Schechner, Jonathan Crary, Elizabeth Wilson, Henri Lefebvre, Adolph Appia and Herbert Blau.

Lighting Dance pioneers the discussion of the ability of lighting design to foreground shadow in dance performances. Through a series of experiments integrating light, shadow, and improvised dance movement, it highlights and analyses what it advances as an innovative expression of shadow in dance as an alternative to more conventional approaches to lighting design. Different art forms, such as painting, film, and dance pieces from Loie Fuller, the Russell Maliphant Dance Company, Elevenplay, Pilobolus, and the Tao Dance Theater served to inspire and contextualise the study. From lighting to psychology, from reviews to academic books, shadows are examined as a symbolic and manipulative entity. The book also presents the dance solo Sombreiro, which was created to echo the experiments with light, shadow, and movement aligned to an interpretation of cultural shadow (Jung 1954, in Samuels, Shorter, and Plaut 1986; Casement 2006; Ramos 2004; Stein 2004; and others). The historical development of lighting within dance practices is also outlined, providing a valuable resource for lighting designers, dance practitioners, and theatre goers interested in the visuality of dance performances.

As a theatrical designer, it is vital for you to be able to develop your drawing skills to create renderings that can effectively communicate your visual idea. Drawing and Rendering for Theatre starts with the fundamentals of drawing, moves to the types of media, and finishes with specific exercises in each section that will make you more proficient. By the end of this book, you will be versatile enough to be able to create renderings in all areas of theatrical design!
Drawing and Rendering will teach you:
-How to develop good drawing habits from the start
-About composition
-How to draw in one, two, and three point perspective
-About color
-Techniques for different types of media including colored pencils, pastels, watercolor, and more
-How to draw digitally
This gorgeous full-color book is loaded with color examples of both student drawings that are analyzed and critiqued for areas that need improvement, and design renderings by professional theatrical designers.
*Beautiful four color book!
*Learn the drawing and painting skills you need to express your costume, lighting, or scenery ideas
*Examples of drawings critiqued for improvement
*Samples of professional design renderings

Every great design has its beginnings in a great idea, whether your medium of choice is scenery, costume, lighting, sound, or projections. Unmasking Theatre Design shows you how to cultivate creative thinking skills through every step of theatre design - from the first play reading to the finished design presentation. This book reveals how creative designers think in order to create unique and appropriate works for individual productions, and will teach you how to comprehend the nature of the design task at hand, gather inspiration, generate potential ideas for a new design, and develop a finished look through renderings and models. The exercises presented in this book demystify the design process by providing you with specific actions that will help you get on track toward fully-formed designs. Revealing the inner workings of the design process, both theoretically and practically, Unmasking Theatre Design will jumpstart the creative processes of designers at all levels, from student to professionals, as you construct new production designs.

Women Writing and Directing in the USA: A Stage of Our Own features interviews with some of the most successful theatre artists currently working on and off Broadway and beyond. The book provides an insight on what it means and what it takes to be a successful female-identifying playwright and director in the USA, where the professional theatrical landscape is still mostly dominated by straight white men. The interviews explore a wide range of themes, including if and how the artists' female perspective influenced their art, the social and cultural significance of their work, and how theatre and women working in theatre can participate in awakening greater social awareness. Readers will learn about some of the most current and relevant American theatre artists, such as Young Jean Lee, Pam MacKinnon, Dominique Morisseau, Rachel Chavkin, and Martyna Majok. Written for students in directing and playwriting courses, Women Writing and Directing in the USA: A Stage of Our Own features inspirational and informative stories that will help young theatre artists find and pursue their artistic voices.

The Environment on Stage: Scenery or Shapeshifter? investigates a pertinent voice of theatrical performance within the production and reception of ecotheatre. Theatre ecologies, unavoidably enmeshed in the environment, describe the system of sometimes perverse feedback loops running through theatrical events, productions, performances and installations. This volume applies an ecoaware spectatorial lens to explore live theatre as a living ecosystem in a literal sense. The vibrant chemistry between production and reception, and the spiralling ideas and emotions this generates in some conditions, are unavoidably driven by flows of matter and energy, thus, by the natural environment, even when human perspectives seem to dominate. The Environment on Stage is an intentionally eclectic mix of observation, close reading and qualitative research, undertaken with the aim of exploring ecocritical ideas embedded in ecotheatre from a range of perspectives. Individual chapters identify productions, performances and installations in which the environment is palpably present on stage, as it is in natural disasters such as floods, storms, famine, conflict and climate change. These themes and others are explored in the context of site-specificity, subversive spectators, frugal modes of narrative, the shifting 'stuff' of theatre productions, and imaginative substitutions. Ecotheatre is nothing less than vibrant matter that lets the environment speak for itself

Painting for Performance removes the mystery from painting and gives beginners the terms, tools, and techniques to approach their unpainted set with confidence. Covering the mechanics of paint and its many implementations in set design, this book provides simple and effective step-by-step instructions for painting a variety of surfaces to look great on stage.

Digital Design for Custom Textiles: Patterns as Narration for Stage and Film is a beginner's guide for creating custom textile patterns for performing arts production, with an emphasis on storytelling through design using hand and digital design techniques. The book offers essential information for the beginning digital designer, such as: methods of designing patterns, appliques, and unique textures for custom textiles; custom textile examples including various styles of pattern repeats, digital embroidery, and cut and sew textiles; full-color, step-by-step instructions and practice exercises; production timelines; a textiles and patterns glossary. Digital Design for Custom Textiles will allow students and design professionals to embrace digital media to enhance their work, apply digital alternatives to find the perfect fabrics and embellishments, and create more meaningful and personalized designs for the stage.

Mixing a Musical: Broadway Theatrical Sound Techniques, Second Edition pulls the curtain back on one of the least understood careers in live theatre: the role and responsibilities of the sound technician. This comprehensive book encompasses every position from shop crew labor to assistant designer to sound board operator and everything in between. Written in a clear and easy to read style, and illustrated with real-world examples of personal experience and professional interviews, Slaton shows you how to mix live theatre shows from the basics of equipment and set ups, using sound levels to creating atmosphere, emotion and tension to ensure a first rate performance every time. This new edition gives special attention to mixing techniques and practices. And, special features of the book include interviews with some of today's most successful mixers and designers.

This newly-updated volume looks at the scope of Augusto Boal's career from his early work as a playwright and director in Sao Paulo in the 1950s, to the development of his ground-breaking manifesto in the 1970s for a 'Theatre of the Oppressed'. Offering fascinating reading for anyone interested in the role that theatre can play in stimulating social and personal change, this useful study includes: a biographical and historical overview of Boal's career as theatre practitioner and director an in-depth analysis of Boal's classic text on radical theatre an exploration of training and production techniques practical guidance to Boal's workshop methods This is an essential introduction to the work of a practitioner who has had a tremendous impact on contemporary theatre. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today's student.

Scenic automation has earned a reputation of being complicated and cantankerous, a craft best left to the elite of our industry. Not sure of the difference between a VFD, PLC, or PID? If you have dreamed of choreographing scene changes with computerized machinery, but get lost in the technical jargon the Scenic Automation Handbook will guide you along the road to elegant automation. Adopting a pragmatic approach, this book breaks down any automation system into five points, known as the Pentagon of Power. Breaking down a dauntingly complex system into bite- size pieces makes it easy to understand how components function, connect, and communicate to form a complete system. Presenting the fundamental behaviors and functions of Machinery, Feedback Sensors, Amplifiers, Controls, and Operator Interfaces, the Scenic Automation Handbook demystifies automation, reinforcing each concept with practical examples that can be used for experimentation. Automation is accessible - come along and learn how!

Concert Lighting: Tools, Techniques, Art, and Business Fourth Edition provides readers with an updated look at how to succeed in the complex world of concert lighting design and technology. The authors have reorganized the book into three comprehensive and thoroughly revised sections, covering history, equipment and technology, and design, and containing new information on LED technology, pixel mapping, projection options, media servers, automated lighting, solutions for moving lights, DMX, and Ethernet problems, and designer communication and collaboration. This book also explores the cross-media use of concert lighting techniques in film, video, theatre, and the corporate world, highlighted with advice from master designers such as Bruce Rodgers, Cosmo Wilson, and Sarah Landau. From securing precious contracts to knowing the best equipment to use to design a show, Concert Lighting covers everything a designer needs to know about working in the touring industry.

Foam Patterning and Construction Techniques: Turning 2D Designs into 3D Shapes explains how to create your theatrical prop, puppet, or costume design using the unique and tricky medium of foam. Step-by-step instructions, photographs, and explanations illustrate how to translate your design from paper to reality by creating custom "skin" patterns, followed by creation of a foam mockup. The book details how to bring your project to life with varied finishing techniques, including using fur and fabric coverings and dying and painting foam. Numerous supplies, tools, and safety procedures and protocols are also covered.