Do you want to join a local theatre group? Are you interested in staging a show? Perhaps you're a budding amateur lighting technician or a soon-to-be committee member of your local group. Wherever your interest lies, there is something in this essential guide for you. It covers a wide range of key issues, from tips on coping with first night nerves, to a full guide to health and safety, funding, and even taxation issues. Illustrated with handy guides to lighting and staging, and containing such essential resources as useful contacts, sources of local funding, and even a 'theatrical jargon buster', it is written with the endorsement of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association and will be a welcome guide for all those interested in the vibrant local theatre scene.

Theatrical Design: An Introduction is a guide for designers, creatives, and artists to create a design idea for a project and then audio/visually interpret and communicate that idea. Emphasizing story analysis, creation, and interpretation specifically for designers and artists, the narrative describes a method to release meaning and design inspiration from story. After interpretation, the artistic elements and principles of design - the skills necessary to create the design - are laid out in clear terms. Concepts are illustrated with examples from theatre, film, art, architecture, and fashion that explore professional and historic use of conceptualization and metaphor. Theatrical Design: An Introduction imparts the tools all designers, in all pursuits, need to innovate off the page. A textbook suitable for Art, Architecture, Exhibitions, Interior Spaces, Culinary Presentation, Design, Film, and Theatre university courses, general readers and hobbyists will also find the methodology can be applied to any creative pursuits.

Enter the fascinating world of conversion costuming! Make your own theatrical costumes for less than a day's rental price and make them your way without any conventional sewing using patterns. Included in this book are more than 110 ingenious costume designs with photos and diagrams. Great costumes for standard theatrical characters like: Princess, Prince, Clown, Devil, Witch, Medieval Lady, Elves, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Pinocchio and many more. Also, costumes for the leading characters in popular shows: Camelot, Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, King and I, Pirates of Penzance and more. These conversion ideas will save you time, money and deadline disasters and give you precisely the costume you want. Section headings: Materials, Theatrical Costumes, Christmas Costumes, Storybook Costumes, Quick and Easy Costumes, Appendix.

Digital Theatre is a rich and varied art form evolving between performing bodies gathered together in shared space and the ever-expanding flexible reach of the digital technology that shapes our world. This book explores live theatre performances which incorporate video projection, animation, motion capture and triggering, telematics and multisite performance, robotics, VR, and AR. Through examples from practitioners like George Coates, the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, Troika Ranch, David Saltz, Mark Reaney, The Builder's Association, and ArtGrid, a picture emerges of how and why digital technology can be used to effectively create theatre productions matching the storytelling and expressive needs of today's artists and audiences. It also examines how theatre roles such as director, actor, playwright, costumes, and set are altered, and how ideas of body, place, and community are expanded.

Costume Design: The Basics provides an overview of the fundamental principles of theatrical costume design, from pre-production through opening night. Beginning with a discussion of what is costume design, why do people wear clothes, and what is the role of the costume designer, this book makes accessible the art and practice of costume design. Peppered with interviews with working costume designers, it provides an understanding of what it means to be a costume designer and offers a strong foundation for additional study. Readers will learn: How to use clues from the script to decipher a character's wardrobe Methods used to sketch ideas using traditional or digital media How to discuss a concept with a team of directors, producers, and designers Strategies to use when collaborating with a professional costume shop How to maintain a healthy work/life balance Courses of action when working under a limited money and labor budget. Costume Design: The Basics is an ideal starting point for aspiring designers looking for ways to achieve the best costumes on stage and realize their vision into a visual story told through clothing.

Living the Lighting Life provides practical tools and advice for a successful career in entertainment lighting. This easy-to-navigate guide offers real-world examples and documentation from the author and key industry experts, giving readers a comprehensive overview of the lighting life. The book provides insight on: Different job opportunities in the entertainment lighting industry; Business procedures, contracts, time sheets, and invoices; Tips on self-promotion, networking, and continual learning; The lighting lifestyle, healthy living, and work-related travel; Maintaining and developing creativity to provide innovative lighting and solutions. With insightful interviews from industry veterans, Living the Lighting Life is a key navigational resource for anyone considering a career in entertainment lighting or just starting out.

Scenic Construction for the Stage is a comprehensive guide to the practical processes involved in constructing scenery for the theatre. Offering key insight into the role of the scenic carpenter, Mark Tweed details the progression from interpreting design, model boxes and drawings, to material selection, fabrication and finishing. Additional topics include advice for developing accuracy, finish and consistency; tool selection and sharpening; CDM, Health and Safety; practical workshop mathematics and geometry, and how to fit ironmongery. With an in-depth but accessible approach, this practical book offers advice on how to start out and improve as a scenic carpenter, building a solid repertoire of reliable techniques and working practices to achieve professional results. Includes a foreword by Sir Kenneth Branagh.

This book is ideal for anyone keen to understand how contemporary plays and playwrights work, particularly those wanting to write for the stage themselves. Drawing heavily on contemporary practice, it considers moments from a range of plays, with a focus on those from the National Theatre's repertoire. The book embraces a range of different dramaturgical structures and styles popular today; plays by a diverse selection of writers; and the current openness of dramatic form. A book of tools, rather than rules, this guide provides suggestions and provocations, exercises and tricks, examples and discussions. An ideal text for playwrights to hone their craft.

In Staging a Musical, Matthew White describes all the elements involved in putting on a musical production, including: how to choose the right show, budgets and schedules, auditions, rehearsals, and performances.

Theatre Masks Out Side In examines masks from different angles and perspectives, combining the history, design, construction, and use of masks into one beautifully illustrated resource. Each chapter includes key information about an element of mask study: history and uses, theatre traditions, practical principles for directing, performing exercises, design considerations, mask making techniques, and considering makeup as mask. Artist interviews, theatre company profiles, and hundreds of images provide insight into the variety of mask styles and performance applications. Project suggestions, discussion questions, useful worksheets, creative prompts, and resources for sourcing masks are included to inspire further exploration. Theatre Masks Out Side In is designed with the beginning theatre maker in mind, as well as prop makers, costume designers and technicians, and actors learning to use masks in performance.

In the tradition of the medieval cycle plays performed for education, enrichment, and entertainment, A New Corpus Christi: Plays for Churches presents 25 short plays and skits with one or two scripts for each of 21 events in the church year. The scripts range from celebratory pieces to problem plays to liturgical dramas to plays that call for no worship setting accouterments. The scripts will also provide discussion starters for Sunday school classes or small groups. And some of the plays might be grouped together as programs on particular topics such as poverty and homelessness or death and dying. This book also provides a resource for university and seminary courses in liturgics and worship.

An essential text on filmmaking that every student, scholar, and teacher of films should own. In it, some of the motion picture industry's most important directors including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Howard Hawks, Louis Malle, Federico Fellini, Blake Edwards, Francois Truffaut, and Rene Clair answer questions on the decisions that all directors must make before filming a movie, questions that help the reader understand the concept of filmmaking. They cover all aspects of filmmaking including script choices, planning, casting, actor choices, editing, rehearsing, and music scoring. Garnett also elicited vital information on the directors' source of inspiration, how they started their career, their philosophy of filmmaking, and their objectives for making their films."

Award-winning Lighting Designer Marcus Doshi investigating lighting design from a philosophical and aesthetic perspective, how it grew from the movements of the broader art worlds of the late 19th through the 21st centuries, and where it stands now, citing influences as diverse as Jennifer Tipton, Dieter Rams, and Dave Hickey. Written by a practitioner for practitioners and advanced level lighting students. Features color images to illustrate discussed concepts.

An introductory guide for students learning professional make-up, hairdressing and wardrobe skills and `front of camera' professionals needing an understanding of the techniques. Written by an experienced professional, this manual offers a step-by step approach for the complete beginner with diagrams to show procedures for a variety of make-up effects, from corrective and character make-up, to period dramas, special effects and prosthetics. It describes the skills required of the job, introduces special make-up products and how to apply them for different effect and sets the context for the make-up artist's role, by considering technical requirements such as lighting, camerawork and chroma-key backgrounds.

For many people, even within the theatre industry, prop making is something of a 'dark art', practised by gifted individuals who manage to produce intricate works battling against short deadlines. However, the skills of prop making are relevant to many industries and contexts, whether for art projects, carnival floats, live action role-play (LARP), model railways or film and television. The options and applications are endless, but the traditional skills remain the same. The Prop Maker's Workshop Manual is a definitive guide to the materials and practices used within the professional performing arts industries, covering both traditional techniques and modern practices. Supported by original hand-drawn illustrations and over 300 colour photographs, topics covered include: paper mache and card construction; flexible canes and withies; timber and steel frameworks; sculpting, moulding and casting processes; texture and paint techniques; GRP and epoxy resins; thermoformable plastics, including Plastazote and Wonderflex and finally, an introduction to life casting.

An easy to follow, quick reference introductory guide for beginning professionals and students in filmmaking and postproduction. It explains all film laboratory procedures in the context of the wide range of technology that is used by filmmakers, explaining what happens and why at every stage. A technical understanding of film processing and printing, telecine and laboratory and digital processes will help you get the best results for your film. The book is particularly useful for those who have come to film making from other media - video or digital. The book is based on the author's own experience as a lab technician and technical film consultant and provides answers to many frequently asked questions. The different pathways for film production and postproduction are demonstrated as well as the function of the lab at each stage of the process. The complete range of services is offered, with particular emphasis on the often confusing requirements for super 16 and the blow up to 35mm, the intricacies of negative cutting to match a non-linear edit and the process of grading and regrading for the answer print. This new edition includes: * An update on all digital formats of image and sound * Revision sections on Super 16, Super 35 * Additional information on syncing rushes at telecine and to digital images * The latest telecine machines * A new, clear and simple glossary

A rare behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsal sessions of acclaimed directors and actors. Cole 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.

This guide to the fundamentals of stage lighting includes a series of projects to allow experimentation, discussion and analysis. The necessary equipment is described in relation to its purpose, along with checklists and hints for practical use. The practical handling of light, with observation of the relationship of cause to effect, is central to the study of stage lighting. Rehearsal pressures usually restrict the time available for experimenting with lighting for a performance, but laboratory-style projects can be used to enable specific lighting problems to be solved. The core of this book is a series of 'discovery' projects using minimal resources, to explore the use of light in the theatre, with particular emphasis on the interaction of conflicting visual aims. The projects cover all the major scenarios likely to be encountered by lighting students and have been tried and tested by the author, who has taught lighting students all over the world for over 30 years. The book has been updated to include more on safety and the latest technology including: - fixed instruments using the new lower wattage high efficiency lamps in combination with dichronic reflectors - an increase in the availability, reliability, range and usage of 'moving light' technology based on remotely controlled instruments. New lighting projects have also been added. If you are studying the art and craft of stage lighting this book is an excellent working manual that will provide you with the technical knowledge and skill to cope with a range of lighting situations.

What is the role of a Director? Tyrannical dictator or creative persuader? Why does the audience matter when interpreting a play? How do you get the best out of actors and what do they expect from you? Directing for the Stage addresses the key questions surrounding this venerable and yet often invisible craft, offering practical guidance on the crucial moments of creating a stage production, including budgeting, auditions, rehearsals, opening night and beyond. From knotty discussions on Shakespeare, to when to call a coffee break, all aspects of the Director's art are examined, including the history and development of the stage Director; how to commission and original play or obtain rights for an existing work; how to timetable the production process - from concept to last night and an hour-by-hour guide to rehearsals and all major approaches.

Readers of Mike Uva's GRIP BOOK who are interested in more detailed information on the work of the grip department will welcome his new rigging manual, clearly detailing all the ways to mount cameras and lights both on a set as well as on location. The book covers the latest truss systems, rigging equipment and portable stages, as well as lifts, boom arms and camera mounts for every type of moving vehicle. The book is not limited to equipment specifications, however; Uva offers tips and tricks throughout in order to make the process of setting up and shooting safer and more efficient. Grips often need to invent makeshift solutions in a short time, and Uva shares many such devices developed over his years in the film and TV industry. This book will help grips and key grips move on to the bigger feature projects and commercials that require this equipment. It will also be useful for directors of photography and producers in pre-planning the required equipment for specific shots.

Scenic effects involving rotating turntables, tracking stage wagons, and the vertical movement of curtains and painted drops have become common in both Broadway and Regional theatre productions. The machines that drive these effects range from small pneumatic cylinders pushing loads of a few pounds an inch or two, to 40 horsepower winches running multi-ton scenery at speeds 6 feet per second or more. Usually this machinery is designed by theatre technicians specifically for a particular show's effect. Compared to general industry, this design process is short, often only a few days long, it is done by one person, design teams are rare, and it is done in the absence of reference material specifically addressing the issues involved. The main goal of this book is to remedy this last situation. Mechanical Design for the Stage will be a reference for you that will: * provide the basic engineering formulas needed to predict the forces, torques, speeds, and power required by a given move * give a technician a design process to follow which will direct their work from general concepts to specific detail as a design evolves, and * show many examples of traditional stage machinery designs. The book's emphasis will be on following standard engineering design and construction practices, and developing machines that are functional, efficient to build, easily maintained, and safe to use.

The new edition features additional real life application photos, diagrams, examples, and case studies on color theory in makeup design, including new examples of tattoo covering and prosthetic painting using optical mixtures, airbrush, and stippling Features a brand-new chapter on color inspiration in make-up and design Includes expanded discussion on undertones, skin variations, color correction, pigments, colored gels, and more

Scenography is a comprehensive guide to the practical study and process of designing for performance. Rooted in theatre, scenography concerns artists who work through creative elements such as spaces, artefacts, garments, lighting and sound to mobilize new sensory experiences. As a result, scenography has gained broader interest and relevance across a wide range of fields, particularly where there is a desire to innovate with the perception of the live body. To this end, the book offers practical strategies to support the creative process from conception to completion; detailed advice on key actions such as drawing and modelling; tactical insights offered by professional practitioners from various disciplines and a case study on scenographic research. The book will be of great interest to artists looking to engage in or refresh their approach to performance design, and those wanting to integrate and adapt scenography within their existing practice.

For nearly a century, members of three generations of the Bibiena family were the most highly sought theater designers in Europe. Their elaborate stage designs were used for operas, festivals, and courtly performances across Europe: from their native Italy to cites as far afi eld as Vienna, Prague, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Lisbon. Beyond these performances, the distinctive Bibiena style survives through their remarkable drawings. Architecture, Theater, and Fantasy marks the promised gift to the Morgan Library& Museum of a group of Bibiena drawings from the collection of Jules Fisher, the Tony Award-winning lighting designer, and commemorates an exhibition of these works, the first in the United States in over thirty years to celebrate these talented draftsmen. These drawings demonstrate the range of the Bibienas' output, from energetic sketches to highly finished watercolors. With representations of imagined palace interiors and lavish illusionistic architecture, this group of drawings highlights the visual splendor of the Baroque stage. The catalogue opens with Diane Kelder's introductory essay about the Bibiena family. Laurel Peterson then discusses the Bibienas as draftsmen, underscoring the drawings from the Fisher collection. Arnold Aronson, in turn, explores the family's contribution to the theater, setting them within a history of European stage design and explaining the significance of the dynamic angled perspective of their scena per angolo sets. John Marciari's essay considers the Fisher gift among the many Bibiena drawings already at the Morgan, mainly from the Oenslager collection, and looks at the collecting of Bibiena drawings more generally. Finally, Diane Kelder's checklist off ers information regarding the attribution and provenance of the works in the exhibition.

The cultural discourse of theatrical performance defines the theatre sign interaction as an active semiosis. This, in turn, specifies the main objective of the study - the formulation of the basic parameters of this architectonics as a fundament of theatralite. Since the time of Antiquity the theatre has always been discussing general aesthetic, philosophical, ethical and social issues in the context of a visual image of the specific objects of an intellectual discourse. The book takes a close look at this process of signification, formation of meanings, presentation and interpretation on stage: a theatre performance is a product of an intense sign environment and a major symbol of theatricality.