Shakespeare is at the heart of the British theatrical tradition, but the contribution of Ira Aldridge and the Shakespearean performers of African, African-Caribbean, south Asian and east Asian heritage who came after him is not widely known. Telling the story for the first time of how Shakespearean theatre in Britain was integrated from the 1960s to the 21st century, this is a timely and important account of that contribution. Drawing extensively on empirical evidence from the British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database and featuring interviews with nearly forty performers and directors, the book chronicles important productions that led to ground-breaking castings of Black and Asian actors in substantial Shakespearean roles including: · Zakes Mokae (Cry Freedom) as one of three black witches in William Gaskill’s 1966 production of Macbeth at the Royal Court Theatre. · Norman Beaton as Angelo in Michael Rudman’s 1981 production of Measure for Measure at the National Theatre – the first majority Black Shakespearean cast at the theatre. · Josette Simon as Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987. · Adrian Lester in the title role of Nicholas Hytner’s 2003 production of Henry V. · Iqbal Khan on his 2012 production of Much Ado About Nothing – the first production with an all south Asian cast at the Royal Shakespeare Company. · Alfred Enoch and Rakie Ayola as Edgar and Goneril in Talawa Theatre Company’s 2016 production of King Lear · Paapa Essiedu as Hamlet in Simon Godwin’s 2016 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. With first-hand accounts from key performers including Joseph Marcell, Adrian Lester, Josette Simon, Lolita Chakrabarti, Noma Dumezweni, Rakie Ayola, David Yip, Ray Fearon, Paterson Joseph, Alfred Enoch, Rudolph Walker and many more, this book is an invaluable history of Black and Asian Shakespeareans that highlights the gains these actors have made and the challenges still faced in pursuing a career in classical theatre.

This "Source Book" combines critical essays and visual notes compiled by the Canadian-born, Berlin-based sculptor, installation and sound artist, over the course of a collaboration with composer and musician George van Dam and a TV script written by Christine Lang and Christoph Dreher.

Gedo's pathbreaking exploration of the psychology of creativity incorporates first-hand material drawn from his extensive clinical work with artists, musicians, and other exceptionally creative individuals. Using this body of clinical knowledge as conceptual anchorage, he then offers illuminating reassessments of the artistic productivity of van Gogh, Picasso, Gauguin, and Caravaggio, and the literary productivity of Nietzsche, Jung, and Freud.

Hong Kong cinema began attracting international attention in the 1980s. By the early 1990s, Hong Kong had become "Hollywood East" as its film industry rose to first in the world in per capita production, was ranked second to the United States in the number of films it exported, and stood third in the world in the number of films produced per year behind the United States and India. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 600 cross-referenced entries on directors, producers, writers, actors, films, film companies, genres, and terminology. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Hong Kong cinema.

Since the earliest days of the movie industry, Hollywood has mythologized itself through stories of stardom. A female protagonist escapes the confines of rural America in search of freedom in a western dream factory; an ambitious, conceited movie idol falls from grace and discovers what it means to embody true stardom; or a fading star confronts Hollywood’s obsession with youth by embarking on a determined mission to reclaim her lost fame. In its various forms, the stardom film is crucial to understanding how Hollywood has shaped its own identity, as well as its claim on America’s collective imagination. In the first book to focus exclusively on these modern fairy tales, Karen McNally traces the history of this genre from silent cinema to contemporary film and television to show its significance to both Hollywood and broader American culture. Drawing on extensive archival research, she provides close readings of a wide range of films, from Souls for Sale (1923) to A Star is Born (1937 and 1954) and Judy (2019), moving between fictional narratives, biopics, and those that occupy a space in between. McNally considers the genre’s core set of tropes, its construction of stardom around idealized white femininity, and its reflections on the blurred boundaries between myth, image, and reality. The Stardom Film offers an original understanding of one of Hollywood’s most enduring genres and why the allure of fame continues to fascinate us.

Regardless of your profession as a teacher, doctor, writer, or business associate, every presentation is a performance. To know your material is important, but to project your enthusiasm for the subject is just as vital to engage your audience. Research supports that presenters who boast an enthusiastic flair best engage, inform, and motivate their audiences. Dr. Robert Tauber uses his expertise to train you in the most effective presentation tools, with a joyful touch. Delivering a set of performance skills proven to deliver palpable results, Projecting Enthusiasm will teach you how to integrate suspense and surprise, humor, props, voice animation, creative entrances and exits, and more into your next performance. This book won't try to rewrite your speech or bombard you with intimidating critiques. Instead, you will learn that the passion you present gives your message an essential meaning and makes your audience value it as one worth listening to. Projecting Enthusiasm harnesses the exuberant, creative, and informative elements you want to bring to your next presentation and shows you how to do it.

We make or listen to music for the powerful effect it has on our emotions, and we can't imagine our lives without music. Yet we tend to know nothing about the intricate networks that neurons create throughout our brains to make music possible. The Musical Brain explores fascinating discoveries about the brain and music, often told through the stories of musicians whose lives have been impacted by the extraordinary ability of our brains to learn and adapt. Neuroscientists have been studying musicians and the process of making music since the early 1990s and have discovered a staggering amount of information about how the brain processes music. There have been many books discussing neuroscience and music, but this is the first to relate the research in a practical way to those individuals who make or teach music. Research in mirror neurons, neuroplasticity, imagery, learning and memory, the musical abilities of babies, and the cognitive advantage of studying music can offer valuable insights into how and when we should begin the study of music, how we can practice and teach more effectively, how we can perform with greater confidence, and can help us understand why experiencing music together is so important in our lives. An accompanying website provides links to interviews, performance clips, demonstrations, photos, and essays involving the concepts or musicians discussed in the book.

A cultural phenomenon for a decade, Friends ranked in the top ten for every year of its original run, an accomplishment unmatched by any other scripted series. And more than twenty-five years since its theme song promised “I’ll be there for you,” Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross are still entertaining audiences around the world. As the characters maneuvered their ways through dating, love, and the occasional conflict, their loyalty to each remained steadfast. In Friends: A Cultural History, Jennifer Dunn explores why the show immediately took hold of viewers and how the series remained must-see TV for so long. Dunn examines the cultural landscape that allowed a show not centered on traditional sitcom norms of family and career to become such a critical and commercial success. The author also addresses how the show’s complicated depictions of gender roles and class distinctions—as well as its lack of ethnic diversity—did not detract from its popularity. In addition to exploring memorable plotlines, cherished moments, and the quirks of the principal players, this book analyzes the show’s enduring cultural relevance. Featuring a discussion of the show’s 25 best episodes, Friends: A Cultural History offers an engaging look at the series that has resonated with generations of television viewers.

Creative, unconventional, complex, and experimental - progressive rock represents the pinnacle of musicianship in the rock world, and now with this exceptional book and CD pack, you can explore and study many of the concepts and techniques behind progressive rock bass playing. Learn the methods of prog heroes like Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Tony Levin, Greg Lake, and more. Over 65 tracks for demonstration and play-along are included on the accompanying CD!

Besides the overwhelming amount of visual information that can stand in the way of a pleasant museum visit, there’s another trivial matter: meaning. Many of us aim to understand and categorize everything we see, but what do you truly think when looking at a particular artwork? The activities on these cards help you to establish a connection with an artwork yourself, despite any given information. You can do this in each museum, anywhere in the world. Follow the activities from A-Z, choose one randomly or do the ones who appeal to you most.

Kew Gardens receives more than 1.8 million visitors a year, making it one of the top 15 most visited attractions in the UK.

Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, Publishers Weekly, and NPR In this genre-defying “new kind of history” (The New Yorker), the chief film critic of Slate places comedy legend and acclaimed filmmaker Buster Keaton’s unique creative genius in the context of his time. Born the same year as the film industry in 1895, Buster Keaton began his career as the child star of a family slapstick act reputed to be the most violent in vaudeville. Beginning in his early twenties, he enjoyed a decade-long stretch as the director, star, stuntman, editor, and all-around mastermind of some of the greatest silent comedies ever made, including Sherlock Jr., The General, and The Cameraman. Even through his dark middle years as a severely depressed alcoholic finding work on the margins of show business, Keaton’s life had a way of reflecting the changes going on in the world around him. He found success in three different mediums at their creative peak: first vaudeville, then silent film, and finally the experimental early years of television. Over the course of his action-packed seventy years on earth, his life trajectory intersected with those of such influential figures as the escape artist Harry Houdini, the pioneering Black stage comedian Bert Williams, the television legend Lucille Ball, and literary innovators like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Samuel Beckett. In Camera Man, film critic Dana Stevens pulls the lens out from Keaton’s life and work to look at concurrent developments in entertainment, journalism, law, technology, the political and social status of women, and the popular understanding of addiction. With erudition and sparkling humor, Stevens hopscotches among disciplines to bring us up to the present day, when Keaton’s breathtaking (and sometimes life-threatening) stunts remain more popular than ever as they circulate on the internet in the form of viral gifs. Far more than a biography or a work of film history, Camera Man is a wide-ranging meditation on modernity that paints a complex portrait of a one-of-a-kind artist.

Though best known for its horror films, Hammer produced a wide variety of movies in many genres. The British studio was famous for its exciting stories and expert action--all on very small budgets and short shooting schedules. From The Public Life of Henry the Ninth (1935) to The Lady Vanishes (1978), this is the definitive work on Hammer's 165 films. Complete filmographic data are provided for each film, including release dates in both the United Kingdom and the United States, running time, length, distributor, complete cast and production credits, and alternate titles. These data are followed by an extensive plot synopsis, including contemporary critical commentary and behind-the-scenes information from many of the players and crew members.

Since 1953, the ars viva visual arts prize has been awarded to outstanding young artists living in Germany, whose works of art demonstrate an independent formal language and an awareness of contemporary issues. This year, the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft is distinguishing Rob Crosse (*1985), Richard Sides (*1985), and Sung Tieu (*1987) with the 2021 ars viva prize. Text in English and German.

A stunning photo album exploring the beauty of Australia riding a Ducati.

The urge for travel and adventure, for freedom and discovery has always impelled men to move on, cross oceans and continents, climb mountains and brave deserts. This is a story that celebrates power and grandeur, set on the dirt roads that cross the remote territories of Australia. Two motorcyclists recount in real time their adventures at the wheels of their Ducati Multistrada bikes. Riding along some of the world’s wildest and most beautiful dirt roads, they encounter the kangaroos, parrots, shimmering deserts and the forests of Australia. The motorcyclists – with their bikes, their faces strained by fatigue, their shining eyes and emotion-filled smiles – manage to perform magic, transforming the road into a journey.

Francesco Rosi is one of the great realist artists of post-war Italian, indeed post-war world cinema. In this book, author Gaetana Marrone explores the rich visual language in which the Neapolitan filmmaker expresses the cultural icons that constitute his style and images. Over the years, Rosi has offered us films that trace an intricate path between the real and the fictive, the factual and the imagined. His films show an extraordinarily consistent formal balance while representing historical events as social emblems that examine, shape, and reflect the national self. They rely on a labyrinthine narrative structure, in which the sense of an enigma replaces the unidirectional path leading ineluctably to a designated end and solution. Rosi's logical investigations are conducted by an omniscient eye and translated into a cinematic approach that embraces the details of material reality with the panoramic perspective of a dispassionate observer. This book offers intertextual analyses within such fields as history, politics, literature, and photography, along with production information gleaned from Rosi's personal archives and interviews. It examines Rosi's creative use of film as document, and as spectacle). It is also a study of the specific cinematic techniques that characterize Rosi's work and that visually, compositionally, express his vision of history and the elusive "truth" of past and present social and political realities.

This three-staged memory game invites you to observe masterpieces closely. Historically, a masterpiece was a work of a very high standard, produced in order to obtain membership of a guild or academy. Since the author never went to art school, her untrained eye wondered: "How should I look at art in order to fully appreciate it?" Trying to answer this question, she decided to design a system of observation based on different steps: games and activities following a set scheme that triggers the player to look at a masterpiece on a different scale. Pixel-Art Game allows you to zoom into these Dutch Masterpieces. Match the original image with its pixelated copies by zooming into Van Gogh's famous Cafe Terrace at Night. The painter's colour and use of light are emphasised through the pixels of the digitalised image, taking art into our contemporary digital language. With light packaging, perfect to take along with you, the Pixel-Art Game offers several games in one set. Each of these 3 games is a step towards understanding the artwork better, and they can be played with multiple players.

Ken Kwapis has worked for more than thirty years in Hollywood. With time has come experience, and with experience he has charted a career full of hits, from The Office to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and become one of the most reliable and sought after directors in show business. He didn't start there. He struggled just like everyone else. Using his experience and inside knowledge of the business, But What I Really Want to Do is Direct is Ken Kwapis' take on William Goldman's classic Adventures in the Screen Trade, but from the director's point of view. The book tackles common Hollywood myths through Ken's lively and highly entertaining experiences. It's a rollercoaster ride through the entertainment business fueled by battles over budgets, temperamental actors, and the passion that makes it all worthwhile. This humorous and poignant memoir is filled with positive instruction, hilarious outtakes, tutelage, and joy. It's also a celebration of movies and TV, and what it takes to succeed in show business on your own terms.

An eye-opening portrait of a vibrant film culture, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film is the most comprehensive study of the Japanese filmmaking scene yet written. Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp explore the astounding resurgence of Japanese cinema, both live action and animated, profiling 19 contemporary Japanese filmmakers, from the well-known (Kitano, Miike, Miyazaki) to the up-and-coming (Naomi Kawase, Satoshi Kon, Shinya Tsukamoto) and reviewing 97 of their recent films. With 100+ images from behind and in front of the camera, this is a book any film lover will savor. Foreword by Hideo Nakata, director of Ring. Tom Mes (in Paris) and Jasper Sharp (in Tokyo) co-edit Midnighteye.com, the premier English-language website on Japanese cinema.

An exciting, unexpected, and beautiful encounter with one collector’s deeply personal assemblage of works. Since the 1980s, Mickey Cartin has assembled a remarkable collection of objects and art—Renaissance and modernist paintings, master prints, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, and more. Exploring the theory behind collecting art and how Cartin’s approach to collecting diverges from common practices, this publication offers a unique perspective on an intimate practice. Unconcerned with hewing to specific categories, time periods, or media, Cartin’s collection—which includes the likes of Josef Albers, Sol Lewitt, and Forrest Bess—creates active combinations and disrupts homogeneity, privileging the drive of curiosity. A documentation of the celebrated exhibition Seen in the Mirror: Things from the Cartin Collection at David Zwirner, New York, in 202, this catalogue includes additional artworks from Cartin’s trove along with views of his home, conveying how he lives with these various types of work. Cartin selected each work in the exhibition and catalogue as a reflection of his deep connections with the many artists represented therein. The conversation between Cartin and David Leiber illuminates the tensions between study and instinct, reading versus experiencing, as well as the influences and figures that inform his personal, curatorial practice. With an introduction by the curator of the Cartin Collection, Steven Holmes, and a text from the art historian Luke Syson, this inspiring volume is a spirited investigation of a very different method of and approach to collecting.