2013 Reprint of 1927 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Evreinov argued that the role of theatre was to ape and mimic nature. In his estimation, theatre is everything around us. He pointed out that nature is full of theatrical conventions: desert flowers mimicking the stones; mouse feigning death in order to escape a cat's claws; complicated dances of birds, etc. He viewed theatre as a universal symbol of existence. Evreinov promoted an underlying aesthetic: "To make a theatre of life is the duty of every artist. ... the stage must not borrow so much from life as life borrows from the stage." The director sought to reinvigorate the theatre (and through it life itself) through the rediscovery of the origin of theatre in play. He was influenced by the philosophies of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Bergson, and, like Meyerhold, the aesthetics of symbolism and the commedia dell'arte (particularly in its use of mask and spontaneity). Evreinov developed his theatrical theories in An Introduction to Monodrama (1909), The Theatre as Such (1912), The Theatre for Oneself, and Pro Scena Sua (1915).

2012 Reprint of 1935 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. As engaging today as when it originally appeared, this book has two parts. The first describes the colorful life of two artist-puppeteers and their travels through the famine and revolution torn land, into remote oriental provinces. The second is the practical part. It tells just how the author conceives her plays, and make and works her puppets, whether they be hand-puppets, shadow figures or the special hand and rod combination type she evolved. No other book has gone so deeply into the heart of the artist using puppets. The Efimovs invented an original design of puppets on rods, which enabled them, by way of experiment, to stage scenes from "Macbeth."

This book articulates the first theoretical context for a 'cyborg theatre', metaphorically integrating on-stage bodies with the technologized, digitized, or mediatized, to re-imagine subjectivity for a post-human age. It covers a variety of examples, to propose new theoretical tools for understanding performance in our changing world.

"Pattern Cutting for Men's Costume" is a practical
guide featuring patterns for the most important garments worn by men
between the 16th and 19th centuries. Easy-to-follow instructions
explain how to cut patterns for 'average' and individual measurements -
with expert advice on how to adapt patterns to fit men of all shapes
and sizes.
Introductions to each section describe the major developments in
men's dress - revealing how garments evolved - and patterns for period
garments for which there are no actual examples are based on
contemporary paintings. Illustrated throughout with hundreds of
diagrams, this is a much-awaited and valuable addition to the library
of costume-makers in all fields.

Features a new system of drafting patterns for men's period costume.
Includes patterns for the most important non-fashionable garments
(worn from the 16th to the 19th centuries) plus clothes in vogue from
the middle of the 16th to the end of the 18th centuries.
Illustrated with hundreds of diagrams accompanied by step-by-step
instructions for period garments, plus a few versatile theatrical
designs.

All actors and acting teachers need "The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook, " the invaluable guide to finding just the right piece for every audition. The unique format of the book is ideal for acting teachers who want their students to understand each monologue in context. This remarkable book describes the characters, action, and mood for more than 1,000 scenes in over 300 plays. Using these guidelines, the actor can quickly pinpoint the perfect monologue, then find the text in the Samuel French or Dramatist Play Service edition of the play. Newly revised and expanded, the book includes the author's own assessment of each monologue.

Like Dorothy waking up over the rainbow in the Land of Oz, Hollywood discovered a vivid new world of color in the 1930s. The introduction of three-color Technicolor technology in 1932 gave filmmakers a powerful tool with which to guide viewers' attention, punctuate turning points, and express emotional subtext. Although many producers and filmmakers initially resisted the use of color, Technicolor designers, led by the legendary Natalie Kalmus, developed an aesthetic that complemented the classical Hollywood filmmaking style while still offering innovative novelty. By the end of the 1930s, color in film was thoroughly harnessed to narrative, and it became elegantly expressive without threatening the coherence of the film's imaginary world.

Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow is the first scholarly history of Technicolor aesthetics and technology, as well as a thoroughgoing analysis of how color works in film. Scott Higgins draws on extensive primary research and close analysis of well-known movies, including Becky Sharp, A Star Is Born, Adventures of Robin Hood, and Gone with the Wind, to show how the Technicolor films of the 1930s forged enduring conventions for handling color in popular cinema. He argues that filmmakers and designers rapidly worked through a series of stylistic modes based on the demonstration, restraint, and integration of color--and shows how the color conventions developed in the 1930s have continued to influence filmmaking to the present day. Higgins also formulates a new vocabulary and a method of analysis for capturing the often-elusive functions and effects of color that, in turn, open new avenues for the study of film form and lay a foundation for new workon color in cinema.

Throughout the Americas, performances deriving from medieval European rituals, ceremonies, and festivities made up a crucial part of the cultural cargo shipped from Europe to the overseas settlements. In 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert sailed from Plymouth, England, to Newfoundland, bringing with him "morris dancers, hobby horses, and Maylike Conceits" for the "allurement of the savages" and the "solace of our people." His voyage closely resembled that of twelve Franciscan friars who in 1524 had arrived in what is now Mexico armed with a repertoire of miracle plays, religious processions, and other performances. These two events, although far from unique, helped shape initial encounters between Europeans and indigenous peoples; they also marked the first stages of the process that would lead by no means smoothly to a distinctively American culture.Ritual Imports is a groundbreaking cultural history of European performance traditions in the New World, from the sixteenth century to the present. Claire Sponsler examines the role of survivals and adaptations of medieval drama in shaping American culture from colonization through nation building and on to today's multicultural society. The book's subjects include New Mexican matachines dances and Spanish conquest drama, Albany's Pinkster festival and Afro-Dutch religious celebrations, Philadelphia's mummers and the Anglo-Saxon revival, a Brooklyn Italian American saint's play, American and German passion plays, and academic reconstructions of medieval drama. Drawing on theories of cultural appropriation, Ritual Imports makes an important contribution to medieval and American studies as well as to cultural studies and the history of theater."

The work of Augusto Boal has had a tremendous impact on contemporary theatre. This volume looks at the scope of Boal's career - from his early work as a playwright and director in Sao Paulo in the 1950s, to the development of his groundbreaking manifesto in the 1970s for a 'Theatre of the Oppressed'. Augusto Boal will be fascinating reading for anyone interested in the role that theatre can play in stimulating social and personal change. This useful study combines:

• a biographical and historical overview of Boal's career as theatre practitioner and director
• in-depth analysis of Boal's classic text on radical theatre, The Theatre of the Oppressed
• exploration of training and production techniques
• practical guidance to Boal's workshop methods.

Peter Jackson in Perspective: The Power Behind Cinema's The Lord of the Rings brings under one cover the dozens of essays and lectures that first began appearing on the website Hollywood Jesus in December of 2001. Since then, author Greg Wright (Tolkien in Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter, VMI 2003) has analyzed and anticipated the cinematic choices of director Peter Jackson with almost prophetic critical insight. He rightly attributes the success of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King to the power of film itself, the power of Jackson's artistry and the original power of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary masterwork-and in so doing provides an educational, entertaining and respectful look at the process of bringing a much-loved novel to the screen. Like a sculptor of words and ideas, Jackson has pared away pieces of Tolkien's fanstastic epic to reveal both the essence of Tolkien and something entirely new, something uniquely his own. The essays in this volume are an invaluable guide to understanding both Jackson and Tolkien.

An examination of the role of sound in twentieth-century arts. This interdisciplinary history and theory of sound in the arts reads the twentieth century by listening to it-to the emphatic and exceptional sounds of modernism and those on the cusp of postmodernism, recorded sound, noise, silence, the fluid sounds of immersion and dripping, and the meat voices of viruses, screams, and bestial cries. Focusing on Europe in the first half of the century and the United States in the postwar years, Douglas Kahn explores aural activities in literature, music, visual arts, theater, and film. Placing aurality at the center of the history of the arts, he revisits key artistic questions, listening to the sounds that drown out the politics and poetics that generated them. Artists discussed include Antonin Artaud, George Brecht, William Burroughs, John Cage, Sergei Eisenstein, Fluxus, Allan Kaprow, Michael McClure, Yoko Ono, Jackson Pollock, Luigi Russolo, and Dziga Vertov.

A veteran Broadway producer, Philip Rose here recalls the challenges and controversy he faced in bringing to the stage such ground-breaking shows as A Raisin in the Sun, Purlie Victorious, and The Owl and the Pussycat. Rose's experiences with these and other productions abound with crises and comedy that flood the pages of this memoir.

In a Hollywood career that spanned more than thirty years, Martin Ritt (1914-1990) directed twenty-six films. Among them were some of Hollywood's most enduring works--"Hud," "Hombre," "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Molly Maguires," "The Front," and "Norma Rae."

In addition to displaying a passionate commitment to social issues, Ritt's body of work represents a sustained exploration of the American myth and American national character. This study of his films shows how his work articulates the communal, agrarian ideal and its perversion as industrialism and urbanism have denatured the landscape.

Encompassing a hundred years of American life, these films follow the common man through the chronology of social history, including the arrival of the railroads in the West, coal mining in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania, Jack Johnson's rise as the first black heavyweight champion of the boxing world, the television blacklist, spying and the Cold War, trade unions, and the war in Vietnam. The subjects he treats project a cultural framework for examining what America means as a nation and as an experience.

The sixties was the decade of Ritt's most sustained achievement. This period culminated in his masterpiece, "The Molly Maguires," perhaps the finest film ever made on the subject of American labor. In the first detailed analysis of this great realistic film "The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man" shows that its greatness lies in Ritt's complex interweaving of love and friendship, the labor struggle, the story of the immigrant dream, and the ideal of upward mobility.

The book includes analyses of all twenty-six films, including such early works as "Edge of the City" and "The Long Hot Summer," as well as such later successes as "Norma Rae," "Sounder," and "Murphy's Romance." Ritt's work in theater, notably in the Group Theatre, which he joined in 1937, and his being blacklisted from television during the 1950s, informed his directorial philosophy throughout his career. Many recognize him as America's finest director of social films.

A Hollywood Insider Takes You Inside Hollywood! Richard Bare knows the film industry. He has worked with Spielburg and Lucas, discovered James Garner, and has been nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscars. Now this award-winning Hollywood veteran shares his experiences, advice, and techniques in this completely updated edition of the classic film-directing guide. In this invaluable book you'll find:

• A solid nuts-and-bolts handbook for the beginning director.
• A candid look at the technical aspects of how directors work on a set.
• Valuable guidance on moviemaking for the low-budget director.
• Discussions of the careers and working methods of such leading directors as George Lucas, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and Mimi Leder.
• Practical knowledge on shooting, staging, camera style, rehearsing, and editing.
• Examples and advice on how to get a job directing with a studio or production company.

The profession of directing is barely a century old. On Directing considers the position of the director in theater and performance today. What is a director? How do they begin work on a play or performance? What methods are used in rehearsal? Is the director an enabler, a collaborator or dictator? As we enter the new millennium, is the very concept of directing under increasing threat from changes in thinking and practice? The full diversity of today's approaches to directing are explored through a series of interviews with leading contemporary practitioners. On Directing is a landmark book about the director's craft.

Location shooting has always been a vital counterpart to soundstage production, and at times, the primary form of Hollywood filmmaking. But until now, the industrial and artistic development of this production practice has been scattered across the margins of larger American film histories. Hollywood on Location is the first comprehensive history of location shooting in the American film industry, showing how this mode of filmmaking changed Hollywood business practices, production strategies, and visual style from the silent era to the present. The contributors explore how location filmmaking supplemented and later, supplanted production on the studio lots. Drawing on archival research and in-depth case studies, the seven contributors show how location shooting expanded the geography of American film production, from city streets and rural landscapes to far-flung territories overseas, invoking a new set of creative, financial, technical, and logistical challenges. Whereas studio filmmaking sought to recreate nature, location shooting sought to master it, finding new production values and production economies that reshaped Hollywood's modus operandi.

A complete guide to Reader's Theatre--what it is and how to stage it--including four award-winning scripts by Charles LaBorde, Jo Davidsmeyer, Caroline E. Wood, and Robert Hawkins. (Performing Arts)

A groundbreaking philosophy of design for the stage. Standby proposes a practical philosophy of contemporary theatrical design that addresses all design disciplines, all theatrical collaborators, and all forms of theatre, from the traditional to the avant-garde. In a field that is too often dismissed as purely technical, Joshua Langman celebrates design as a transformative force with the power to elevate a performance and enable it to resonate beyond the bounds of its physical production. Beginning with the proposition that design contributes essential layers of meaning to an experience, Standby argues for a unique approach centered on the creation of revelatory theatrical moments. In a mission to illuminate the soul of the craft, Langman investigates the purposes of design, details the elements of a production concept, uncovers the mechanics of creating meaning, explores the relationship of theatrical design to fine art and art history, and offers practical guidance on designing productions. He also considers what has changed as designers have embraced digital technology and suggests fifteen concrete methods for preserving the magic of live theatre in a digital age. Blending scholarship and storytelling, personal experience and contrarian wisdom, Standby challenges theatre-makers to harness the rich dramatic potential of theatrical design.

Draping Period Costumes provides you with the skill set you need to break away from two-dimensional patterns to drape three dimensional costumes. The basics of draping are explained in precise detail, followed by step-by-step draping projects from multiple historical periods. Packed with photographs that illustrate every seam, pleat, and tuck, you'll never be lost with this comprehensive guide. -Includes information on measurements, necessary tools, and basic rules of draping -Covers costumes for both men and women - Discusses appropriate period under garments and fabric choices Let expert draper Sharon Sobel teach you all you need to know to perfectly drape any period costume!

How do theatre lighting designers decide what is 'the right light' for each moment of a production? What informs their choices? Why does the audience respond more strongly when the lighting feels 'right'? By interviewing nineteen prominent lighting designers and weaving their insights through his own narrative, Nick Moran aims to answer such questions. This book considers practice across different types of theatre, including opera, dance, musicals and drama. Rather than being a technical manual, it allows lighting designers to contribute contrasting and complementary ideas about how to approach lighting design. Moran argues that the best stage lighting is made with emotion, passion and soul, by creative artists willing to take risks. Includes interviews with: Neil Austin - Lucy Carter - Jon Clark - Natasha Chivers - Paule Constable - James Farncombe - Rick Fisher - Mark Henderson - David Howe - Michael Hulls - Mark Jonathan - Peter Mumford - Ben Ormerod - Bruno Poet - Paul Pyant - Nick Richings - Johanna Town - Hugh Vanstone - Katharine Williams

The Most Widely Used Manual For Aspiring And Veteran Stage Managers - Now Revised and Expanded

The next best thing to shadowing a Broadway stage manager, this detailed, behind-the-scenes book as been brought completely up to date. First published in 1991, it is widely used and has been lauded as the most comprehensive, educational book on stage management available. From preproduction planning and first rehersals to opening night and final strike, all the essentials of the profession are presented here in a friendly, engaging style.
Blending how-to information with anecdotes from his own career, author Thomas A. Kelly explains the entire theatrical process, including:
- Organizing all rehearsals and performances
- Maintaining the working script, cue sheets, and daily records
- Supervising the technical aspects of the show
- Running shows outdoors and at other non-theatrical venues
- Dealing with performers and crew members on all levels
This new edition reflects all the latest developments and innovations in the industry and adds a totally new chapter on opera stage management, complete with an in-depth breakdown of the challenges this style of production presents. The text is supported by sample documents, diagrams, and charts that straddle time-honored approaches with what can be generated by today's computer software. All the latest stage machinery is discussed, along with tips on finding employment. This guide remians the first choice for anyone who works in any branch of the profession, whether amateur, educational, or professional.

Every period in history has its classic hairstyles: the bob cut for Twenties elegance, the flip hairstyle for the Fifties and the long, centre-parted mane of the Seventies. If you need to create a period hairstyle for a film, stage production or fashion shoot, this book is a most trusted companion. Its coverage is broad: from ancient priestesses and Egyption queens, via Elizabethan courtiers, to the classic styles of all decades in the twentieth century. With clear instructions and close-up photography showing how to create more than a hundred vintage styles this is a welcome resource for the dressing room. 'There is a real wealth of information here - and it couldn't be clearer to read.' Reviewsgate.com

The history of jewellery manufacturer Corbella Milano, one of the most renowned excellences of Made in Italy. The Corbella company, 'the first Italian manufacturer of jewellery and weapons for the theatre', was founded in the heart of Milan in 1865. Through reproductions of weapons, jewels and accessories, it soon became one of the first official suppliers of the Teatro alla Scala, as well as signing contracts with prestigious institutions including La Fenice di Venezia, the Costanzi in Rome and the Colon of Buenos Aires. The industrious Milan after the Unification of Italy, of the National and International Expositions, of the years between the two world wars and of the economic boom has seen the owners of Corbella always acting as protagonists, first in the theatrical sector, with specific supplies to the great lyrical interpreters, from Margherita Carosio to Renata Tebaldi, then in the field of the great Italian producers of costume jewellery, up to the production changes due to the globalisation of the 21st century. Text in English and Italian.

Brian De Palma (b. 1940) isn't your average Hollywood director.

For years he reigned as the "master of the macabre," the man who massacred the class of '76 in "Carrie" and stalked Angie Dickinson in "Dressed to Kill." By the mid-1980s De Palma found himself assaulting his audience and critics, daring them to watch a chainsaw enter a man's skull in "Scarface" and a power drill disembowel a defenseless woman in "Body Double."

What drove De Palma to such extremes? In the late 1960s, he wanted to be the next Jean-Luc Godard and revolutionize American cinema. Instead, he found himself ostracized when Warner Bros. removed him from "Get to Know Your Rabbit," his first Hollywood feature. De Palma sought the refuge of Alfred Hitchcock until the late 1970s ("Sisters," "Obsession"), when his surreal approach to horror became a genre unto itself ("Carrie," "The Fury," "Dressed to Kill"). Ironically, just as De Palma achieved the success that his fellow Movie Brats George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg had enjoyed since the mid-1970s, he could not hide his resentment toward Hollywood. After battling with the MPAA in the 1980s, he gradually became part of the mainstream with the success of "The Untouchables" and "Mission: Impossible," although he never suppressed his desire to make audiences aware of his camera-eye and his dark, penetrating worldview.

"Brian De Palma: Interviews" follows De Palma's fortunes as he makes the difficult transition from underground filmmaker to celebrity auteur. In profiles and q&a interviews, he emerges as a fascinating figure of excess and ambivalence. De Palma is not afraid to share his opinions about censorship, violence, feminism, American culture, and the fate of cinema in the twenty-first century.