From the winner of the 2022 National Poetry Prize, Stuart Payne’s second collection showcases the
growth of a bright, refined voice in South African poetry. His metrical, often rhyming style blends
traditional poetic forms with modern rhythms, echoing patterns found in popular music.
“Stuart Payne is a wordsmith of great skill. There is not a phrase nor a rhythm out of place.
His subject range extends from the heavenly bodies to his eponymous cucumbers.” – Geoff Haresnape
“This is a carefully crafted, and generous collection, sensitive to the intricacies of
everyday life and mindful of its transitory, often illusive, generally wondrous nature.” – Patricia Schonstein

This officially-licensed kit includes a mini replica of the Ghost Trap from the 1984 classic film, Ghostbusters! * SPECIFICATIONS: 4" mini ghost trap with doors that open and close with the press of a button * LIGHT AND SOUND FEATURES: Light and sound is activated when doors are opened and deactivated when shut * Outer housing emits 1 yellow LED + 1 flashing red LED in standby mode * Inside emits 1 orange LED + 2 flashing blue LEDs, enhanced with light deflector to produce a unique effect * BOOK INCLUDED: Mini book contains 12 full-color stickers, along with 3 smaller decal stickers for use with the Ghost Trap * PERFECT GIFT: A unique gift for fans of the Ghostbusters films * OFFICIALLY LICENSED: Authentic collectible ™ & © 2021 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

'Tender and rigorous, this book invites readers to linger with difficult pasts and consider how best to grasp their hauntings, demands and manifestations in the present. This is a book about mourning as well as holding, a simultaneous act of exhumation and a laying to rest.' anna six, author of Madness, Art, and Society: Beyond Illness ‘This is an extraordinary book, in which queer theatre and performance become sites of celebration and resistance, as well as holding the potential for performers and audiences to work through painfully felt yet difficult to articulate experiences towards feelings of hope. Replete with rigorous, generous and creative readings, it is also a meditation on Walsh’s own emotional engagement with queer theatre and performance, and how our cultural attachments can sustain, enliven and contain us.’ Noreen Giffney, psychoanalytic psychotherapist and author of The Culture-Breast in Psychoanalysis Why do contemporary queer theatre and performance appear to be possessed by the past? What aesthetic practices and dramaturgical devices reveal the occupation of the present by painful history? How might the experience of theatre and performance relieve the present of its most arduous burdens? Following recent legislation and cultural initiatives across many Western countries hailed as confirming the darkest days for LGBTQ+ people were over, this book turns our attention to artists fixed on history’s enduring harm. Guiding us through an eclectic range of examples including theatre, performance, installation and digital practices, Fintan Walsh explores how this work reckons with complex cultural and personal histories. Among the issues confronted are the incarceration of Oscar Wilde, the Holocaust, racial and sexual objectification, the AIDS crisis and Covid-19, alongside more local and individual experiences of violence, trauma and grief. Walsh traces how the queer past is summoned and interrogated via what he elaborates as the aesthetics and dramaturgies of possession, which lend form to the still-stinging aches and generative potential of injury, injustice and loss. These strategies expose how the past continues to haunt and disturb the present, while calling on those of us who feel its force to respond to history’s unresolved hurt.

This significant contribution to the study of the live and recorded broadcasting of stage plays focuses on National Theatre Live a decade after its launch in 2009. Assessing livecasting through the concepts of spectacle, materiality and engagement, it examines the role played by audiences in livecasting. Illustrated by in-depth analyses of recent NT Live shows, including A Midsummer Night‘s Dream (2019), Antony and Cleopatra (2018) and Small Island (2019), the book is complemented by insights from practitioners involved in the making of the livecasts. Finally, livecasting is contextualized within recently emerged forms of Covidian (virtual) theatre during the pandemic in order to offer some thoughts on the future of the genre of theatrical performance. Combining lively analyses of recent theatre performances with auto-ethnographic accounts, Heidi Lucja Liedke turns to 20th-century thinkers such as Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht in order to understand livecasting’s place in a continuum of developments taking place on the borders of media, film and performance for the past 100 years. As well as embedding livecasting in its historical context of 19th-century electrophone technology, Liedke assesses its position in contemporary discourses on the meaning of theatre for spectators in the pre- and post-pandemic moment, and points towards the form’s future.

American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is the first scholarly book dedicated to the disaster cycle that dominated American cinema and television in the 1970s. Through examining films such as Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and The Swarm (1978), alongside their historical contexts and American contemporaneous trends, the disaster cycle is treated as a time-bound phenomenon. This book further contextualises the cycle by drawing on the longer cultural history of modernist reactions to modern anxieties, including the widespread dependence on technology and corporate power. Each chapter considers cinematic precursors, such as the ‘ark movie’, and contemporaneous trends, such as New Hollywood, vigilante and blaxploitation films, as well as the immediate American context: the end of the civil rights and countercultural era, the Watergate crisis, and the defeat in Vietnam.As Scott Freer argues, the disaster movie is a modern, demotic form of tragedy that satisfies a taste for the macabre. It is also an aesthetic means for processing painful truths, and many of the dramatized themes anticipate present-day monstrosities of modernity.

Named a Best Nonfiction Book of 2022 by Esquire A sociological study of reality TV that explores its rise as a culture-dominating medium--and what the genre reveals about our attitudes toward race, gender, class, and sexuality. What do we see when we watch reality television? In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us, the sociologist and TV lover Danielle J. Lindemann takes a long, hard look in the "funhouse mirror" of this genre, from countless rose ceremonies on The Bachelor to the White House and more (so much more!). Beginning with the first episodes of The Real World, reality TV has not only remade our entertainment and cultural landscape--it also uniquely refracts our everyday experiences and social topography. By taking reality TV seriously, we can better understand key institutions (such as families, schools, and prisons) and broad social categories (such as gender, race, class, and sexuality). These shows have the ability to unveil the major circuits of power that organize our lives and the extent to which our own realities are, in fact, socially constructed. Whether we're watching conniving Survivor contestants or three-year-old beauty queens, these "guilty pleasures" underscore how conservative our society remains, and how steadfastly we cling to our notions about what counts as legitimate or "real." At once an entertaining chronicle of reality TV obsession and a pioneering work of sociology, True Story reflects our society back to us: what we see in the looking glass may not always be pretty, but we can't stop watching.

Collaborative plays with diverse ensembles across the country address pressing issues of our times The plays in Volume 2 come from Roadside’s intercultural and issue-specific theater work, including long-term collaborations with the African American Junebug Productions in New Orleans and the Puerto Rican Pregones Theater in the South Bronx, as well as with residents on both sides of the walls of recently-built prisons. Roadside has spent 45 years searching for what art in a democracy might look like. The anthology raises questions such as, What are common principles and common barriers to achieving democracy across disciplines, and how can the disciplines unite in common democratic cause?

Actress and playwright Vanessa Rosenthal has been searching for her identity her whole life. Is she Jewish or not? English or not? This character, or that, on and off stage? As she explores these conflicting positions, her frank and funny findings form the basis of this fascinating memoir, bringing her to no fixed conclusion. Vanessa’s story covers her early life and family – and how her mother’s conversion to Judaism sowed the seed of being on the outside looking in. It takes the reader through her years of marriage and family, and the comic trials and successes of life as an actor, mother, wife and ‘establishment’ partner as well as her travels in Europe and Israel. Along the way she examines many taboos on Jewishness, including the deeply sensitive subject of how Judaism deals with conversion. The questions persist despite a happy and creative life, bursting at the seams but this multifaceted and moving memoir moves her closer to one answer: as an apparently insufficiently Jewish Jew, what or who should she be? This memoir will appeal to readers who enjoyed Lynn Barber’s An Education and Laura Cumming’s On Chapel Sands.

This volume examines the influence that Pompeii and, to a lesser extent, Herculaneum had on the visual and performing arts in Spain and countries across South America. Covering topics from architecture, painting and decorative arts to theatre, dance and photography, the reader will gain insight into the reception of classical antiquity through the analysis of the close cultural ties between both sides of the Atlantic, in the past and the present. Each contribution has been written by a specialist researcher participating in the project, ‘The Reception and Influence of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Spain and Ibero-America’, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PGC2018-093509-B-I00 Ministry of Science and Innovation/AEI/ERDF/EU). Pompeii in the Visual and Performing Arts begins by examining the influence of Pompeiian architecture in Spain in paintings that depict scenes inspired by Roman scenes and also buildings modelled on those of Pompeii. Next, the influence of Pompeii crosses the Atlantic to Mexico with a study of the archaeological site’s influence on the visual and performing arts. An exploration of the elitist use of the ancient past in architecture is seen in Chilean architecture, which leads onto an investigation of the new art styles that emerged in the 19th century. Later chapters look into the influence of the ancient frescoes and the use of modern plaster casts of statues. The final chapters are devoted to comics and photography, which also make a study of the places in Latin America nicknamed ‘Pompeii’ in the 20th and 21st centuries.

What can philosophy teach us about cinema? Can cinema transform how we understand philosophy? How should we describe the competing approaches to philosophizing on film? New Philosophies of Film answers these questions by offering a lucid introduction to the exciting developments and contentious debates within the philosophy of film. Mapping out the conceptual terrain, it examines both analytic and continental approaches to cinema and puts forward a pluralist film philosophy, grounded in practical examples from film, documentaries and television series. Now thoroughly updated to showcase the most recent developments in the field, this 2nd edition features: · New chapters on phenomenology, cinematic ethics, philosophical documentary film and television as philosophy, incorporating feminist, socio-political, ethical and ecological approaches to cinema · Contemporary case studies including Carol, Roma, Melancholia, two Derrida documentaries, and the Netflix series Black Mirror · Expanded coverage of Gilles Deleuze and Stanley Cavell, two of the most influential philosophers of film · An updated bibliography, filmography and reading lists, with links to online resources to support further study Demonstrating how the film-philosophy encounter can open up new paths for thinking, New Philosophies of Film is an essential resource for putting interdisciplinary inquiry into practice.

The secrets of the Star Wars galaxy have been recorded in a series of handbooks and guides created and kept hidden by the Jedi Order, the Sith, the Bounty Hunters Guild, and the Empire itself. This set collects all four richly illustrated, in-world books in a custom slipcased library The Jedi Path From lightsaber combat to mastery of the Force, this manual as handed down from Master to Padawan presents the secrets of the Jedi Order. The knowledge and training contained within its pages have shaped such Jedi as Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin and Luke Skywalker. The Book of Sith Fragments of five presumed-vanished texts by legendary Sith Lords have been tracked down and collected. Together with Darth Sidious's own manifesto, these documents provide a glimpse into the philosophy and the means of unleashing the power of the dark side. Discover the secrets and tactics of Boba Fett and other bounty hunters living on the margins of galactic law this volume collecting The Bounty Hunters Guild Handbook and a recruiting booklet from the secretive Mandalorian splinter group Death Watch, all annotated by Fett and the book's previous owners. Imperial Handbook Intercepted by the Rebel Alliance, this top-secret manual for Imperial commanders contains mission reports, military tactics, and other classified documents created by high-ranking officers. Analyzed by Rebel commanders, it holds the keys to understanding the Empire's power no matter which side of the Rebellion you are on.

This guide outlines time saving tools to hone your writing, so you can attract Hollywood agents and producers. You will discover how to create (and stick to) a timeline and deadline, whether writing your screenplay is a full- or part-time job. Writing and pitching a screenplay is nothing like writing a novel, and this book presents screenplay-specific information vital for any aspiring film writer. This book discusses how to write great openings and endings -- the vital elements of a successful screenplay (and eventually movie) -- and how to create characters that grow and evolve as the plot thickens. One of the hardest parts of writing a screenplay is developing a solid dialogue, and this book takes you through, step-by-step, how to fine-tune your characters dialogue so it is not only believable but also well-written. Once your script is polished and perfect, you will need to pitch it to the public, and this book shows you how. You will grasp how to write a compelling query letter that is specifically geared to what agents are looking for, so your chances of getting represented are increased. Veteran screenwriters, television and film producers, agents, and directors have been interviewed for this book, and their experiences are showcased here, giving you their insider secrets on how to best write and sell your script. This book also contains an extensive resource section of production companies that are eager to receive and package your script, including the genre they are looking for, so you know exactly who to contact. If you are eager to jump into Hollywood as the next big thing in screenwriting, this guide will help you to get there.

Ghosts haunt the stages of world theatre, appearing in classical Greek drama through to the plays of 21st-century dramatists. Tracing the phenomenon across time and in different cultures, the chapters collected here examine their representation, dramatic function, and what they may tell us about the belief systems of their original audiences and the conditions of theatrical production. As illusions of illusions, they foreground many dramatic themes common to a wide variety of periods and cultures. Arranged chronologically, this collection examines how ghosts represent political change in Athenian culture in three plays by Aeschylus; their function in traditional Japanese drama; the staging of the supernatural in the dramatic liturgy of the early Middle Ages; ghosts within the dramatic works of Middleton, George Peele, and Christopher Marlowe, and the technologies employed in the 18th and 19th centuries to represent the supernatural on stage. Coverage of the dramatic representation of ghosts in the 20th and 21st centuries includes studies of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle, plays by Sam Shepard, David Mamet, and Sarah Ruhl, Paddy Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, and the spectral imprint of Shakespeare’s ghosts in the Irish drama of Marina Carr, Martin McDonagh, William Butler Yeats, and Samuel Beckett. The volume closes by examining three contemporary American indigenous plays by Anishinaabe author, Alanis King.

Over the past several years, the Thai popular culture landscape has radically transformed due to the emergence of “Boys Love� (BL) soap operas which celebrate the love between handsome young men. Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture is the first book length study of this increasingly significant transnational pop culture phenomenon. Drawing upon six years of ethnographic research, the book reveals BL’s impacts on depictions of same-sex desire in Thai media culture and the resultant mainstreaming of queer romance through new forms of celebrity and participatory fandom. The author explores how the rise of BL has transformed contemporary Thai consumer culture, leading to heterosexual female fans of male celebrities who perform homoeroticism becoming the main audience to whom Thai pop culture is geared. Through the case study of BL, this book thus also investigates how Thai media is responding to broader regional trends across Asia where the economic potentials of female and queer fans are becoming increasingly important. Baudinette ultimately argues that the center of queer cultural production in Asia has shifted from Japan to Thailand, investigating both the growing international fandom of Thailand’s BL series as well as the influence of international investment into the development of these media. The book particularly focuses on specific case studies of the fandom for Thai BL celebrity couples in Thailand, China, the Philippines, and Japan to explore how BL series have transformed each of these national contexts’ queer consumer cultures.

In this volume, Lee Brewer Jones examines Paula Vogel as both a playwright and renowned teacher, analyzing texts and early reviews of Vogel’s major plays—including Indecent, Desdemona, How I Learned to Drive, and The Baltimore Waltz—before turning attention to her influence upon other major American playwrights, including Sarah Ruhl, Lynn Nottage, and Quiara Alegría Hudes. Chapters explore Vogel’s plays in chronological order, consider her early influences and offer detailed accounts of her work in performance. Enriched by an interview with Lynn Nottage and essays from scholars Ana Fernández-Caparrós and Amy Muse, this is a vibrant exploration of Paula Vogel as a major American playwright. By the time Paula Vogel made her Broadway debut with her 2017 Rebecca Taichman collaboration Indecent, she was already an accomplished playwright, with a Pulitzer Prize for How I Learned to Drive (1998) and two Obie Awards. She had also enjoyed a brilliant career as a professor at Brown and Yale with students such as Sarah Ruhl, a MacArthur “Genius� Grant winner, Pulitzer Prize winners Nilo Cruz, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and the only woman to win two Pulitzers for Drama, Lynn Nottage. Vogel’s theatre draws upon Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky and uses devices such as “defamiliarization� and “negative empathy� to challenge conventional definitions of protagonists and antagonists.

‘What’s so wonderful about Bramesco’s book, outside of a visually splendid layout that embraces the first word of that title with detailed color breakdowns of each palette, is how much it enhances the critical language of the average viewer.’ – Brian Tallerico, Editor of RogerEbert.com Taking you from the earliest feature films to today, Colours of Film introduces 50 iconic movies and explains the pivotal role that colour played in their success. The use of colour is an essential part of film. It has the power to evoke powerful emotions, provide subtle psychological symbolism and act as a narrative device. Wes Anderson’s pastels and muted tones are aesthetically pleasing, but his careful use of colour also acts as a shorthand for interpreting emotion. And let’s not forget Schindler’s List (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg), in which a bold flash of red against an otherwise black-and-white film is used as a powerful symbol of life, survival and death. In Colours of Film, film critic Charles Bramesco introduces an element of cinema that is often overlooked, yet has been used in extraordinary ways. Using infographic colour palettes, and stills from the movies, this is a lively and fresh approach to film for cinema-goers and colour lovers alike. He also explores in fascinating detail how the development of technologies have shaped the course of modern cinema, from how the feud between Kodak and Fujifilm shaped the colour palettes of the 20th Century's greatest filmakers, to how the advent of computer technology is creating a digital wonderland for modern directors in which anything is possible. ​Filled with sparkling insights and fascinating accounts from the history of cinema, Colours of Film is an indispensable guide to one of the most important visual elements in the medium of film.