"The Comic Offense from Vaudeville to Contemporary Comedy "examines how contemporary writer/performers are influenced by the comedic vaudevillians of the early 20th century. By tracing the history and legacy of the vaudeville era and performance acts, like the Marx Brothers and The Three Keatons, and moving through the silent and early sound films of the early 1930s, the author looks at how comic writer/performers continue to sell a brand of themselves as a form of social commentary in order to confront and dispel stereotypes of race, class, and gender. The first study to explore contemporary popular comic culture and its influence on American society from this unique perspective, Rick DesRochers analyzes stand-up and improvisational comedy writing/performing in the work of Larry David, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Dave Chappelle. He grounds these choices by examining their evolution as they developed signature characters and sketches for their respective shows "Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, The Colbert Report, " and "Chappelle"'s "Show."

Genetic Soul Brothers is an adventure into a human unknown. It is a story about a baby boy being carried by and born to four different women in four different places at the same time, and raised separately by these 'mothers'. The/se baby/s has/have the same identical genes and share a common or multi-soul. As the child/ren grow/s and has/have dreams of an identical youth playing in non-recognizable settings, he/they begin/s to realize that he/they is/are one of four IDENTICALS. He/they each grow/s up in very different environments, develop professions, marry, and have children. Eventually, after a long, difficult, and frustrating quest which includes a unique night time spirit/soul communication, they find each other. As they learn how they came to be, four identical quadruplets from four different mothers, the question arises: should they take the culprit fertility clinic to court for causing this tragedy? - they are giant freaks. Should they do nothing; or should they sue the clinic for big money and become famous, which would certainly disgrace their 'parents' and friends. If they reach a four family agreement concerning anonymity or notoriety, but before the final decision is implemented one or more dies or is killed, then what happens to their common soul, or are there partial souls? Where does/do it/they go? Is there a waiting area near heaven or hell for partial souls? Is it possible that all of these 'lives' and 'arrangements' are totally controlled by soul maestros? And if so, why and how do they do this?

Thoreau once said, "Live the life you have dreamed." The plays in this book are the dreams in the life that I have led. By that I mean that I have drawn upon a life's full experience to construct a fictional story. But these are stories that are meant to entertain, because that's the first responsibility of the theater; but also to explore the dreams and hopes and failures of real people living in our time.

A history of film preservation and restoration, telling the story from the earliest days of the cinema to the modern days of digital restorations. The cinema was invented in the Victorian era, but for the first four decades of its existence almost no effort was made to preserve the millions of feet of celluloid which rolled through the cameras and projectors of the world. As a result, thousands of movies were lost forever. In the 1930s, the first concerted attempts at film preservation were begun by pioneering individuals such as Iris Barry at New York's Museum of Modern Art; Ernest Lindgren at the British Film Institute, and the indomitable Henri Langlois at the Cinematheque francaise, a man who performed heroics in occupied France to save the world's cinematic heritage from destruction by the Nazis. The 1980s video boom encouraged the studios finally to instigate asset protection programmes and in the digital age new methods of producing, exhibiting and restoring motion pictures emerged.

Ensemble theater is one of the vibrant, meaningful American performance forms today. It's more than art- it's a social movement. Ensemble theater is one of the hottest, most engaging American performance forms today. It's more than art- it's a movement. Performing Communities is an inquiry into a genre of theater that arises from and empowers the grassroots. The book profiles established ensemble groups from inner-city Los Angeles, small-town northern California, African-American South, multicultural southern Texas, low-income central Appalachia, economically struggling South Bronx New York, and cross-continental Native America. This compendium of critical writing about the role these theaters play in building community shows how these artist groups are forged by working in and with their communities over time. Ensemble theater is discovered to be neither alternative nor marginalized, but vanguard, a natural evolution of the movement that propelled regional theater "away from the commercial restraints of New York and toward a theater expressive of the rich diversity of American culture." It is theater that is politically and emotionally charged. It can be cathartic, healing, and has a proven ability to effect social change. The book Performing Communities is a project of the Community Arts Network. It has been created from interviews, analytical essays, and play excerpts from the "Grassroots Theater Ensemble Research Project," an inquiry into American ensemble theaters that have been working in communities for 10 to 35 years. Although originating from a scholarly report, the language has been edited for a popular audience and offers an intimate glimpse into each local ensemble community. The book will appeal to followers of contemporary and popular theater, social change activists, community building specialists, and a public curious about cultural development in the United States.

How did the concept of the avant-garde come into existence? How did it impact on the performing arts? How did the avant-garde challenge the artistic establishment and avoid the pull of commercial theatre, gallery and concert-hall circuits? How did performance artists respond to new technological developments? Placing key figures and performances in their historical, social and aesthetic context, Gunter Berghaus offers an accessible introduction to post-war avant-garde performance. Written in a clear, engaging style, and supported by text boxes and illustrations throughout, this volume explains the complex ideas behind avant-garde art and evocatively brings to life the work of some of its most influential performance artists. Covering hot topics such as multi-media and body art performances, this text is essential reading for students of theatre studies and performance.

Heracles and Oedipus in Greek Classical Drama by Professor Joseph R. Laurin offers a scholarly, clear and easy approach to the understanding of two of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece and of the glory and tragedy of their stories in Greek Classical theater.
Readers and researchers can benefit greatly from the text and innumerable references presented in this book. Students as well as non-academic readers interested in Classical literature or the Theater can find it fascinating and beneficial.
After projecting a general view of the notion of the Ancient Greek Hero, the author develops the mythical stories of Heracles and Oedipus, and the dramas produced from these myths by the three Classical writers of Tragedy: Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles.
Four plays convey the dramatic story of Heracles: Alcestis, Heracles Mad, The Women of Trachis and The Children of Heracles. The story of Oedipus spans over several generations covered in six plays: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, The Seven Against Thebes, The Phoenician Women, The Suppliant Women and Antigone.
The author's vast knowledge of the sources of information, either in ancient texts or in modern literature, has made his book not only a brief retelling of the stories but a discussion of the major issues of interpretation and a thought-provoking commentary about human life, the universe and the gods.
Heracles and Oedipus in Greek Classical Drama is a valuable contribution to the understanding of two of the greatest heroes of Ancient Greece and of the masterful adaptation of their stories to the theater stage. This book, available either in paperback or hard cover, should inspire further research of thesources and discussion of issues confronting students as well as readers interested in Classical literature or the Theater.

Fayettenam Plays and London Works is a collection of six three-act plays and one one-act play with varied settings in London, England; Gallup, New Mexico; Lebanon, Missouri; Cherokee, North Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina, and the author's place of residence in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The oldest play dates back to the author's college days of yore, and the most recent play contains wet ink as it was hurriedly keyed to meet a publishing deadline. Expect lots of laughs and rising action leading to climaxes of dramatic proportions!

LAUGH, LAUGH AND LAUGH! New, Updated and Expanded - 2nd Edition As they say, 'Laughter is the best medicine'. And what better way to laugh than by reading jokes! Get this book NOW for some REAL entertainment and fun. Do you want to - - Eliminate stress - Burn calories - Heal yourself - Align your mind, body, soul and spirit - Bring joy to people around and - Most importantly, laugh your heart out! If yes, then this is the book for you. Clean jokes for everyone - high quality and hilarious - this book is a must read! So what are you waiting for? Get your own copy NOW! Also get a Bonus book inside - ABSOLUTELY FREE

The reality of being a stay at home parent. This was intended as a humorous interpretation but any other mom will agree this is how it goes. This was a typical day in my home.

Examine the cultural and political implications of male-to-female gender performance! The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Flawlessly Customary World of Female Impersonators examines the phenomena of male-to-female gender performance and the people who live it. This provocative collection of original essays explores the possibilities, limitations, ironies, and controversies surrounding men who perform as women to an audience that knows the truth but celebrates the illusion. The book's contributors call on extensive backgrounds in sociology, anthropology, theater, literatureeven military studiesand use a variety of approaches to address common themes and genres of presentation, performance, and style in a wide range of historical settings and cultures. The Drag Queen Anthology explores female impersonation in the past and present, addressing the often-contradictory cultural impulses found in the performance of femininity. The book examines the important issues of this unique form of gendering, including the cultural and sociopolitical implications of drag, the symbolic cultural ideals associated with women, the impact of the performer's social identities on his performance, and the reactions of the GLBT, straight, and feminist communities to drag. The book looks at traditional drag performance, challenges accepted perceptions about female impersonation, and exposes the notion of the effeminate drag queen as an outdated myth. The Drag Queen Anthology examines the important issues of male-to-female gender performance, including: how drag queen performance is used to attain situational status and power how drag queens challenge contemporary notions of gender what embodiment occurs when men undertake performances of femininity how drag queen performance is viewed as a theatrical presentation of self what representations of drag queens in film suggest about current gender relations why communities organize around drag queen performers how drag queen performance differs on-stage and off how male-to-female gendered performance intersects with performances of sexual identity, social class, race, age, and ethnicity The Drag Queen Anthology: The Absolutely Fabulous but Flawlessly Customary World of Female Impersonators is an indispensable resource on drag's core elements of performance and parody and how each affects contemporary notions of gender.

This key textbook provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of developments in international communication worldwide. Taking a comparative approach to the major theories of global media, Terry Flew looks at the rise of global media production networks and the emergence of 'media cities', multiculturalism, and the question of a global media culture. This engaging book raises the question of whether we are now in a 'post-global' age, and discusses whether there is a stable global communications order, or instead a stage of increased competition among digital and traditional media, and between the US and emergent powers such as China. Drawing on a wide range of perspectives, and written by a renowned author, this is an essential introduction for undergraduate and postgraduate students of media studies, communication studies and cultural studies, and anyone interested in the study of media and globalization.

I here and there o'heard a Coxcomb cry,
Ah, rot--'tis a Woman's Comedy.
Thus Aphra Behn ushers in a new era for women in the British Theatre (Sir Patient Fancy, 1678). In the hundred years that were to follow -- and exactly those years that Curtain Calls examines -- women truly took the theater world by storm.
For each woman who chose a career in the theater world of the eighteenth century, there is a unique tale of struggle, insult, success, good or bad fortune, disaster, seduction, or fame. Whether acting, writing, reviewing, or stage managing, women played a major, if frequently unacknowledged, role in the history of the theater from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth centuries. From Alpha Behn's earliest plays through the glorious celebrity of Sara Siddons, women molded the taste of the age and carved out in the theater one of the few available opportunities for independence and renown.
Not all the women who tried succeeded, of course, and even the best faced opposition as they challenged the male stronghold of playwriting and theater managing. Curtain Calls maps the new territory as these pioneering women staked it for their own; it chronicles their lives, their triumphs, and their losses.
We begin with Aphra Behn, whose first play was staged in 1670, and conclude in the early decades of the nineteenth century with Inchbald and Siddons. The one hundred and fifty years encompassed by their lives contain the careers of dozens of lesser-known women, a network, as Dr. Johnson would have it, encompassing both talent and tribulation.
Contributors include: Edward Langhans, Linda R. Payne, Pat Rogers, Maureen e. Mulvihill, Deborah Payne, Betty Rizzo, Ellen Donkin, Frances M. Kavenik, Jessica Munns, nancy Cotton, Edna L. Steevs, Doreen Saar, Jean B. Kern, Katherine M. Rogers, Constance Clark, William J. Burling, Judith Phillips Stanton, Douglas Butler, Rose Zimbardo, and the editors.

Men have been dressing as women on stage for hundreds of years, dating back to the thirteenth century when the Church forbade the appearance of female actors but condoned that of men and boys disguised as the opposite sex. Forms of travestism can be traced back to the dawn of theatre and are found in all corners of the world, notably in China and Japan.

In recent years, of course, drag has witnessed a dramatic and widespread revival. Newsday recently observed, People are talking about all those fabulous heterosexual film idols who now can't seem to wait to get tarted up in drag and do their screen bits as fishnet queens. Drawing on a cinematic tradition popularized by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot, Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie) and Robin Williams (Mrs. Doubtfire) have each delighted mainstream audiences with their portrayals of women. Even former drag queens have experience newfound fame; witness the recent popularity of the late Divine, renowned for her oddly compelling appearances in underground John Waters films.

Music, too, has been profoundly influenced by drag sensibility, from David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Rocky Horror Picture Show to Boy George and RuPaul (the self- proclaimed Supermodel of the World).

Tracing drag tradition from the Golden Age of stage transvestism during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I in England to the current quasi-drag inclinations of American grunge bands, Drag is an entertaining overview of this popular and complex medium.

This bio-bibliography provides an overview of the life and career of the noted actress Agnes Moorehead. A brief biography discusses her midwestern upbringing as well as her academic background and early struggles in establishing her career. The biography also discusses Moorehead's later career successes in addition to her professional and personal relationships. The largest portion of the book is devoted to detailed listings of her work in film, television, radio and theatre. In many cases, these listings include synopses, cast listings and credits, review excerpts, and other information. Her most celebrated appearances are described and discussed at length. These appearances include the films, Citizen Kane and Magnificent Ambersons; television programs, "The Twilight Zone," "The Wild, Wild West," and "Bewitched;" radio shows "The March of Time," "The Shadow," and "Sorry, Wrong Number;" and her one-woman stage production as well as her work in Don Juan in Hell. This work is a valuable addition to the performing arts series.

Covering Catastrophe tells what it was like for TV and radio journalists to report the most terrifying story of their lives-and our time.

More than a century ago, filmmakers made their primary focus innovative and widely promulgated visions of antiquity, creating a profound effect on the critical, popular, and scholarly reception of antiquity. In this volume, scholars from a variety of countries and varying academic disciplines have addressed film s way of using the field of Classical Reception to investigate, contemplate, and develop hypotheses about present-day culture, society, and politics, with a particular emphasis on gender and gender roles, their relationship to one another, and how filmic constructions of masculinity and femininity shape and are shaped by interacting economic, political, and ideological practices.

Nicholas Rudall, whose acclaimed translations of Ibsen and the Greek classic playwrights have brought a fresh perspective to the American theater, turns his talents to one of the Norwegian dramatist's most provocative plays. In a rebuke to the Victorian notion of community as well as to the blessings of democracy, Ibsen creates a situation in which one man must stand alone to face the forces allied against him. In a coastal town, a community-minded physician has promoted the development of public baths in order to attract tourists. When he discovers that the water supply for the baths is contaminated and attempts to publicize the failing and correct it, he and his family are all but driven out of the town he was trying to save.

Beside the Thin Red Line of the fire service and the Thin Blue Line of law enforcement lies the Thin White Line. The Thin White Line represents the unsung heroes of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) profession. These highly trained EMTs and paramedics put their lives on the line 24/7/365 to deliver emergency medical care to the sick and injured, no matter the hour of day, day of the week, or type of weather. Whether they are treating patients of a multi-vehicle car crash, the victim of a shooting, or simply someone with breathing difficulty, they are the ones we depend on to bring medicine to the streets and save lives, one call at a time. "The Good Fight: A Paramedic's Story" gives you the opportunity to ride along with medics and experience first-hand the true stories of courage and compassion that these highly skilled medical providers encounter every day. So hop in, buckle up, and hold on tight. This will be a ride you won't forget.

During the past 15 years, artists have established a remarkable record of innovation and success in institutional settings. Their work with hospital patients, prisoners, the elderly, the disabled, the mentally ill, and others has shown that the arts can have a significant positive impact on the lives of these people. This book recounts the histories of 22 institutional and community arts programs across the country pioneering this approach through activities such as creative writing and the performing and visual arts. Consisting largely of first-hand accounts, the book demonstrates how the creative processes have been used to address and solve some of society's most pressing problems. Included are case studies, research, and descriptions of the wide variety of artistic, educational, and therapeutic approaches utilized by each of the 22 programs. Also described are many of the financial and political strategies used to build and sustain support for these unlikely endeavors. This work will provide valuable insights for artists, educators, social service providers, and community leaders.