This collection of interviews provides a revealing self-portrait of Martin Ritt (1914-1990), America's preeminent maker of social films and one of the most sensitive portraitists of the rural South.

Ritt's Hollywood career began in 1958 with "Edge of the City" and ended in 1990 with the release of "Stanley and Iris." In all, he directed twenty-six movies, including some of Hollywood's most enduring films--"Hud," "Hombre," "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Brotherhood," "The Molly Maguires," "The Front," and "Norma Rae."

Although he gave mostly boilerplate interviews to the press when promoting a movie, Ritt provided more revealing interviews for seminars, oral histories, and documentary filmmakers. The most significant of these, published here for the first time, create a close-up portrait of this distinguished director of plays and films.

Ritt speaks eloquently about his years with the Group Theatre and recreates the passion of the director Harold Clurman. He tells how the Group shaped his ideas about art and the communal nature of the theatrical enterprise, which he extended into his work in film. He speaks of his relationship with Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan, and he talks in detail about his experiences with the blacklist, directing and acting in TV during its Golden Age, his career as a theater director, and his experiences working with such actors as Paul Newman, Sally Field, Sophia Loren, Orson Welles, and Robert De Niro. Ritt discusses his philosophy of directing, the place of film in the history of art, his quarrels with "auteur theory," and the influence of his politics on his work.

Gabriel Miller, a professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author of "The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man" (University Press of Mississippi). Articles by him have appeared in the "Los Angeles Times," "American Book Review," and "Literature/Film Quarterly," among other publications.

Nacido en Teheran en 1940, Abbas Kiarostami, iniciado profesionalmente como disenador grafico, paso inmediatamente a realizar filmes publicitarios, forjandose una solida reputacion en este campo que acabaria abandonando por la prevalencia de las presiones comerciales sobre cualquier otra consideracion. Su ingreso en el Centro para el Desarrollo Intelectual de Ninos y Adolescentes hace que, de una manera un tanto fortuita, "se ponga" a dirigir su primera pelicula, Pan y Callejuela, un corto de no mas de 10 minutos. Pero no es hasta 1977 cuando debuta en el cine comercial, en un momento de gran efervescencia creadora, severa crisis industrial y fuertes tensiones politicas que desembocarian en 1979 con la Revolucion Islamica. Este libro reconstruye y estudia la obra cinematografica de Abbas Kiarostami, no de una manera aseptica o neutra, sino que ofrece una interpretacion de la misma y una imagen coherente del cineasta y de su filmografia.

The Stage Lighting Handbook is well established as the classic practical lighting guide. The book explains the process of designing lighting for all forms of stage production and describes the equipment used. This new edition includes up-to-date information on new equipment and discusses its impact on working methods.

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.

This invaluable guide to theatrical production includes up-to-date definitions of all technical aspects of stagecraft, including the many advances in the past decade, particularly in the areas of trusses, rigging, and automated lights and their control. More than 200 terms, along with 25 new drawings, have been added, many existing definitions have been expanded and drawings revised to include new technological developments, and World Wide Web addresses have been added to the List of Manufacturers and Distributors and to the Bibliography. At the same time, older terminology and definitions have been retained so the book will remain useful for those unable to participate in the high-tech revolution.

For more than thirty years this manual has been the essential handbook for both the beginner and the advanced backstage technician. At a time when theatre, both professional and amateur, is growing and flourishing all over the United States, "Theatre Backstage from A to Z" provides more practical information, on a wider range of subjects, than can be found in any other book in the field.

"Arranged alphabetically with more than 300 drawings, diagrams, charts, and photographs, "Theatre Backstage from A to Z" is a quick source of information on construction, design, lighting, painting, properties, sound, and stage managing." "--Newsletter of the International Theatre Institute of the United States"

Sample Contents

--Automated light control

--Bo-bar

--Bounce it

--Chase control

--Daisy chaining

--Donkey

--Flats

--Multiplexing

--Paint and paint colors

--Projectors and projection screens

--Rigging systems

--Shin buster

--Sound equipment

--Stage crew

--Stages

--Uncle Buddy

Now in its second edition, Designing for the Theatre has established itself as the authoritative introduction to the processes of design for the theatre. Covering the contribution which can be made by costume, sets, props and lighting to a stage production, the author explains the purpose and process involved in their design. Included in this second edition are new photographs and drawings illustrating some of the most exciting and diverse current trends in stage design.

Too often directors and stage designers approach the architectural layout of theatres as obstructive to the creative process. Condee's book teaches theater professionals to work creatively within even the most restrictive theatrical space and transform it into an asset rather than an obstacle. Condee has interviewed hundreds of prominent American and British directors, designers, and actors, and provides photographs and groundplans of major American theatres. Each chapter tackles a different set of problems, offering thoughtful solutions to common obstacles. Theatrical Space is not only a useful textbook for students of theatre, but also a valuable resource for all directors and designers, both young and experienced. Paperback edition available April 2002. Cloth version previously published in 1995.

This practical, accessible and far-reaching guide to making site-specific theatre and performance emphasises the diversity of approaches to the practice, and explores key principles of space and site. Phil Smith draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary and international performance examples, and uses an innovative variety of exercises, to show students and aspiring performance-makers how to find a site and generate a performance beyond the theatre building.

"This book is entirely unique, very well written, dramatic, and, at the same time, philosophical. It is likely to appeal to a very large audience, including anybody interested in the visual arts, in film, in theater, in philosophical problems of transformation, and in the unconscious generally." -- Melvin R. Lansky, M.D., UCLA Medical School and Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute

Wearing a mask-- putting on another face-- embodies a fundamental human fantasy of inhabiting other bodies and experiencing other lives. In this extensively illustrated book, Thomas Morawetz explores how the creation of transformational makeup for theatre, movies, and television fulfills this fantasy of self-transformation and satisfies the human desire to become "the other."

Morawetz begins by discussing the cultural role of fantasies of transformation and what these fantasies reveal about questions of personal identity. He next turns to professional makeup artists and describes their background, training, careers, and especially the techniques they use to create their art. Then, with numerous before-during-and-after photos of transformational makeups from popular and little-known shows and movies, ads, and artist's demos and portfolios, he reveals the art and imagination that go into six kinds of mask-making-- representing demons, depicting aliens, inventing disguises, transforming actors into different (older, heavier, disfigured) versions of themselves, and creating historical or mythological characters.

Character Sketch outlines a theory of costume rendering that explores how a designer conceptualizes and creates a character on the page. Beginning with how to develop a sense of character through active, gestural poses, this book explores and explains the process of drawing and painting from rough sketch to finished rendering. Helen Q. Huang , an award-winning costume designer for more than 25 years, breaks down her process, from understanding body proportions and active poses to applying research and color concepts to renderings. Her step-by-step watercolor painting techniques cover mixing skin tones, blending colors, and applying paint in different methods for a variety of fabric textures and patterns. Showcasing how to capture a character on the page, Character Sketch is a must-read for any costume designer looking to communicate their artistic vision.

Learn how to create historically accurate costumes for Elizabethan period productions with Elizabethan Costume Design and Construction! Extensive coverage of a variety of costumes for both men and women of all social classes will allow you to be prepared for any costuming need, and step-by-step instructions will ensure you have the know-how to design and construct your garments. Get inspired by stunning, hand-drawn renderings of costumes used in real life productions like Mary Stuart as you're led through the design process. Detailed instructions will allow you to bring your designs to life and create a meticulously constructed costume.

Special effects have become an increasingly important part of both film and theatre production. With storylines becoming more sensational and technology more sophisticated, the market for high-quality special effects is huge. In this book Janus Vinther provides step-by-step guidelines for achieving a wide variety of grotesque and outlandish effects, including bullet holes, body fluids and burns. In addition there is a chapter on specialised character make-up, ranging from Dracula to the Terminator. With detailed explanation of techniques and materials and illustrated throughout, this book contains everything you need to know to look your worst.

As an actor, screenwriter, director, short story writer, and, most significantly, a playwright, Sam Shepard has long been an important figure on the American cultural landscape. A Body Across the Map focuses on the character conflict central to Shepard's most significant plays; that between fathers and sons. Beginning with The Rock Garden and concluding with A Lie of the Mind, this analysis shows how Shepard's worldview has evolved over a 20-year span. A long-standing pessimist who saw Oedipal revenge as a necessity, and genetic determination as inescapable, Shepard ultimately disavows these dark worldviews in favor of one where gentleness, spiritual generosity, cooperation, and the acceptance of long-denied truths prevail over rage, self-interest, and biological predestination.

For more than 30 years, the Wing has produced the Working in the Theatre seminars, a series that features the greatest names in theatre. This is presented in book form, for the first time, compact, and at an affordable-paperback price. Spanning the range of these seminars, with a concentration on the most recent shows and current stars, the information, anecdotes, gossip (yes!), heartaches, and triumphs are all here. We learn: What a career in the theatre is really about, from inspiration to a Tony or Pulitzer Prize; How actors prepare? What actors have found to be the best techniques? How writers get their work staged? How playwrights and cast interact with the director?

Text in English and German. Hans Dieter Schaal worked on opera with Ruth Berghaus for ten years, he also created unforgettable stage architecture for the operas of Heinz Werner Henze. Almost all the important European opera houses, for example those in Berlin, Brussels, Stuttgart, Paris, Vienna and Zurich, served as vehicles for his extraordinarily expressive artistic powers, which he used to captivate the public.