Largely overlooked today, actress Bebe Daniels had one of the most diverse and lengthy careers in show business. From her beginnings as a child on the vaudeville circuit to her resurgence as a radio and television star in postwar Britain, Daniels' story has not been told since the years immediately following her death in 1971. Best remembered for her work in silent films, Daniels was a child actress in the earliest days of the West Coast film industry before becoming Harold Lloyd's first leading lady. Later she was one of Cecil B. DeMille's vamps before reaching the pinnacle of success with Paramount in the 1920s. With the advent of talkies, she was able to reinvent herself, enjoying a resurgence in the 1930s until her eventual retirement to England. Daniels' life was filled with high-profile romances and the glitz and glamour of early Hollywood but her story is one of endless determination and steadfast principles.

In his time theatre actor and manager Jack Langrishe (1825-1895) could claim to be as well known in the American frontier West as General Grant was in the East. He gained his fame providing welcome entertainment to prospectors and miners pursing gold and silver bonanzas in Colorado, Montana, South Dakota and Idaho. He led a life as thrilling as any drama he presented. He participated in the tumultuous life of mining camps as he followed the expanding American frontier from the old Northwest Territory to early Denver, Deadwood and Idaho's Coeur D'Alene. He survived the Chicago Fire of 1872 and crossed the same Indian territory at the time when Custer made his last stand. While best known as a gifted comic actor and producer of fine dramas, Langrishe also edited western newspapers, won election as an Idaho state senator and served as a justice of the peace. Here for the first time is the complete tale of Jack Langrishe, a major figure in the epic of the American frontier, how he gained and lost fortunes, left audiences weak with laughter and became recognized as the father of theatre in Colorado and Montana.

Hoffman (1967-2014) was an American film, television and stage actor, film producer, and film and stage director, best known for his memorable supporting roles in independent films. Considered one of the best actors of his generation, he died of a drug overdose at age 46 after years of sobriety. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his titular role in Capote (2005), and Best Supporting nominations for Doubt (2008) and The Master (2012). This biography covers his life and career and provides an appendix listing his film, television and stage appearances.

Insecure, Awkward, and #Winning: Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Works of Issa Rae is the first project dedicated exclusively to Issa Rae and her works. Her work offers a fertile space where contemporary issues intersect, encouraging audiences to discuss meaning and impact within their own lives, society, and cultural identities. The text offers analysis informed by Critical Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality research. The book features a collection of provocative contributions from scholars from multiple disciplines-including literary, history, and communication. The project offers varying perspectives on Rae, insecure, her memoir, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, and the relevance of her work to American culture. Throughout the book are dispersed brief reflections from veteran scholars, content creators, and industry professionals on the significance of Rae and her work. These pieces speak to the impact of Rae's cultural productions. The book contains five thematic sections that include a total of twelve chapters. Those chapters address a range of topics including Black sexuality, humor, gentrification, race in the workplace, white allies, and blackness in digital spaces. Our goal is to reach audiences both popular and scholarly. We hope this project sparks the interest of fans and those new to Rae's work. Among others, this book could be used in the following courses: Representation in the Media; Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (in the Media); Research Seminar in Black Studies; Womanism, Black Feminist/Queer Theories; The African American Storytellers.

Insecure, Awkward, and #Winning: Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Works of Issa Rae is the first project dedicated exclusively to Issa Rae and her works. Her work offers a fertile space where contemporary issues intersect, encouraging audiences to discuss meaning and impact within their own lives, society, and cultural identities. The text offers analysis informed by Critical Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality research. The book features a collection of provocative contributions from scholars from multiple disciplines-including literary, history, and communication. The project offers varying perspectives on Rae, insecure, her memoir, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, and the relevance of her work to American culture. Throughout the book are dispersed brief reflections from veteran scholars, content creators, and industry professionals on the significance of Rae and her work. These pieces speak to the impact of Rae's cultural productions. The book contains five thematic sections that include a total of twelve chapters. Those chapters address a range of topics including Black sexuality, humor, gentrification, race in the workplace, white allies, and blackness in digital spaces. Our goal is to reach audiences both popular and scholarly. We hope this project sparks the interest of fans and those new to Rae's work. Among others, this book could be used in the following courses: Representation in the Media; Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies (in the Media); Research Seminar in Black Studies; Womanism, Black Feminist/Queer Theories; The African American Storytellers.

Lucille Ball's comic genius made them famous, but many of the unforgettable plot lines for "I Love Lucy" came from the life of their writer, Madelyn Pugh Davis. In "Laughing with Lucy, " Davis and her long-time writing partner, Bob Carroll Jr., recount her rise in television and her many years working on the set and behind the scenes with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Lighthearted and witty, this book offers a trip back in time to the tumultuous early days of television.

'Well now, prove it, Sheila. As John would say, "Put your money where your mouth is." Be a depressed widow boring the arse off everyone, or get on with life. Your choice.' In The Two of Us Sheila relived her life with John Thaw - years packed with love and family, delight and despair. And then she looked ahead. What next? Gardening, grannying and grumbling, while they all had their pleasures, weren't going to fill the aching void that John had left. 'Live adventurously', a Quaker advice, was hovering around her brain. Putting her and John's much loved house in France on the market she embarked on a series of journeys. She tried holidaying alone, contending with invisibility and budget flights. She tried travelling in a group, but the questions she wanted to ask were never the ones the guide wanted to answer. She tried relaxing - harder than you might think. Finally, heading out of her comfort zone, she found her travels, and the things she discovered, led her back to her past; to consider her generation - the last to experience the Second World War - and the kind of person it made her. Just Me is a book about moving on, but it is also about looking back, and looking anew. Sheila, whether facing down burglars and Easyjet staff or making friends with waiters and taxi drivers, whether unearthing secrets in Budapest, getting arrested in Thailand, exulting in the art of Venice or searching for a decent cup of coffee in Dorset, is never less than stimulating company. Honest - because if you can't say what you think at seventy-three, when can you? - insightful and wonderfully down to earth, she is a woman seizing the future with wit, gusto and curiosity, on her own.

You may be a student, or just starting out in the theatre profession, or an actor contemplating a switch to directing, or anyone dreaming of a life in the theatre. Know this: by developing and sharpening your skills on a Shakespeare text, you will be preparing yourself for your next production whatever or wherever that might be. Practical, inspirational and steeped in the wisdom and expertise of one of the great Shakespearean directors of our age, How to Direct Shakespeare guides you through each step of a production, from conception to final presentation to an audience. It includes close analysis of the text and provides strategies for focusing on the main action and structure; it considers dramatic energy and the world of the play, and illuminates these with examples drawn from a variety of Shakespeare's plays. It will assist you with creating your vision for the production as you collaborate with the design team, cast the play and work with actors in rehearsal. And it walks you through the encounter with the audience as you open your production. Drawing on examples from his work as artistic director of The Royal Shakespeare Company and subsequent directing work that has taken him all over the world, Noble shows how every production is shaped by a vision of the world - the interplay of the writer's vision and the director's interpretation of it. How to Direct Shakespeare will inspire and equip you as you develop your vision for your next production.

On 8 March 2008 the Italian performance artist Pippa Bacca set out to hitchhike from Milan to Jerusalem in a wedding dress, documented with a video camera. On 31 March her body was found in woods on the outskirts of Istanbul. In telling the young woman's story, which overwhelms her and inexorably draws her in, Leger recounts the different stages of her research and the writing of the book. She strikes upon something fundamental within Bacca's performance: the desire to remedy the unfathomable nature of violence and war. Ultimately, she must face up to the failure of the young woman's endeavour. As she surveys the terrain of performance art and continues her examination of portrayals of the female condition, as in her earlier books, Leger explores the existential mystery and harsh truths expressed in Bacca's work, and that of other performance artists. The White Dress closes what is now regarded as a trilogy that begins with Exposition and is followed by Suite for Barbara Loden.

Eugenio Barba is one of Europe's leading theatre directors, at the forefront of experimental and group theatre for more than twenty years. Ian Watson provides the most comprehensive and systematic study of Barba's work, including his training methods, dramaturgy, productions and theories, as well as his work at the International School of Theatre Anthropology.

With his trademark porkpie hat, floppy shoes, and deadpan facial expression, Buster Keaton (1895-1966) is one of the most iconic stars of Hollywood's silent and early sound eras. His elaborate sets, careful camerawork, and risky pratfalls have been mimicked by film comedians for generations. His short films, including "One Week" and "Cops," and his feature-length comedies, such as "Sherlock Jr.," "Go West," and "The General," routinely appear on critics' lists of the greatest films of all time.

"Buster Keaton: Interviews" collects interviews from the beginning of his career in the 1920s to the year before his death. The pieces here provide a critical perspective on his acting and cinematic techniques. Although the collection begins in the 1920s, at the height of Keaton's career, they also give insight on his work in Hollywood and television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Including pieces by Studs Terkel and Rex Reed, as well as a French interview that has never before appeared in English, the book is a valuable resource on one of cinema's early geniuses.

Kevin W. Sweeney is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tampa.

The Decroux Sourcebook is the first point of reference for any student of the 'hidden master' of twentieth century theatre. This book collates a wealth of key material on Etienne Decroux, including: an English translation of Patrice Pezin's 'Imaginary Interview', in which Decroux discusses mime's place in the theatre. previously unpublished articles by Decroux from France's Bibiotheque Nationale. essays from Decroux's fellow innovators Eugenio Barba and Edward Gordon Craig, explaining the synthesis of theory and practice in his work. Etienne Decroux's pioneering work in physical theatre is here richly illustrated not only by a library of source material, but also with a gallery of images following his life, work and influences. The Decroux Sourcebook is an ideal companion to Thomas Leabhart's Etienne Decroux in the Routledge Performance Practitioners series, offering key primary and secondary resources to those conducting research at all levels.

Late in Claude Rains's distinguished career, a reverent film journalist wrote that Rains "was as much a cinematic institution as the medium itself." Given his childhood speech impediments and his origins in a destitute London neighborhood, the ascent of Claude Rains (1889--1967) to the stage and screen is remarkable. Rains's difficulties in his formative years provided reserves of gravitas and sensitivity, from which he drew inspiration for acclaimed performances in The Invisible Man (1933), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Casablanca (1942), Notorious (1946), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and other classic films. In Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, noted Hollywood historian David J. Skal draws on more than thirty hours of newly released Rains interviews to create the first full-length biography of the actor who was nominated multiple times for an Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. Skal's portrait of the gifted actor also benefits from the insights of Jessica Rains, who provides firsthand accounts of the enigmatic man behind her father's refined screen presence and genteel public persona. As Skal shows, numerous contradictions informed the life and career of Claude Rains. He possessed an air of nobility and became an emblem of sophistication, but he never shed the insecurities that traced back to his upbringing in an abusive and poverty-stricken family. Though deeply self-conscious about his short stature, Rains drew notorious ardor from female fans and was married six times. His public displays of dry wit and good humor masked inner demons that drove Rains to alcoholism and its devastating consequences. Skal's layered depiction of Claude Rains reveals a complex, almost inscrutable man whose nuanced characterizations were, in no small way, based on the more shadowy parts of his psyche. With unprecedented access to episodes from Rains's private life, Skal tells the full story of the consummate character actor of his generation. Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, gives voice to the struggles and innermost concerns that influenced Rains's performances and helped him become a universally respected Hollywood legend.

Vividly bringing to light the tradition of physical comedy in the French cabaret, cafe-concert, and early French film comedy, this book answers the perplexing question, "Why do the French love Jerry Lewis?" The extraordinary emphasis on nervous pathology in the Parisian cafe-concert, where the genres of the Epileptic Singer and the Idiot Comic took center stage, and where popular comic monologues and songs included "Man with a Tic" and "I'm Neurasthenic," points to a fascinating intersection between medicine and popular culture. The French tradition of comic performance style between 1870 and 1910 nearly exactly duplicates the movements, gestures, tics, grimaces, and speech anomalies found in nineteenth-century hysteria; the characteristics of hysteria became a new aesthetics.
Early French film comedy carried on this tradition of frenetic gesture and gait, as most film performers came from these entertainments and from the circus. Even before Chaplin's films triumphed in France, film comics were instantly recognizable from their pathological gait, just as Jacques Tati would be a half-century later. Comedy, a genre that dominated French cinema until World War I, has often been linked to a mass public for film; the author elucidates this link by proposing a broadly generalized cultural-medical phenomenon as the explanation for the dominance of the comic genre. Comic performance style drew from a group of nervous disorders characterized by the psychological automatism emanating from the "lower faculties" nervous reflex, motor impulses, sensation, and instinct.
Building on her previous work on hysteria, the cabaret, and pathologies of movement in the films of Georges Melies, and drawing on over 400 French films made between 1896 and 1915, the author contributes to a new theory of spectatorship at work in the cabaret, in shows of magnetizers, and in early French film comedy. Jerry Lewis touches a nerve in French cultural memory because, more than any other film comic, he incarnates this tradition of performance style.

On 29 September 1981, Peter Turner received a phone call that would change his life. His former lover, Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame, had collapsed in a Lancaster hotel and was refusing medical attention. He had no choice but to take her into his chaotic and often eccentric family's home in Liverpool. Liverpool born and bred, Turner had first set eyes on Grahame when he was a young actor, living in London. Best known for her portrayal of irresistible femme fatales in films such as The Big Heat, Oklahoma and The Bad and the Beautiful, for which she won an Oscar, Grahame electrified audiences with her steely expressions and heavy lidded eyes and the heroines she bought to life were often dark and dangerous. Turner and Grahame became firm friends and remained so ever after their love affair had ended. And it was to him she turned in her final hour of need. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is an affectionate, moving and wryly humorous memoir of friendship, love and stardom.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Edwyna ""Salt"" Evelyn and Jewel ""Pepper"" Welch learned to tap dance on street corners in New York and Philadelphia. By the 1940s, they were black show business headliners, playing Harlem's Apollo Theater with the likes of Count Basie, Fats Waller and Earl ""Fatha"" Hines. Their exuberant men's-style tap performed in men's attire earned the respect of their male peers and the acclaim of audiences, though they were paid less than black male dancers. Based on extensive interviews with Salt and Pepper, this book chronicles for the first time the lives and careers of two overlooked performers who succeeded despite the racism, sexism and homophobia of the Big Band era.

Hollywood superstar; Oscar-winning director; greatest stage actor of the twentieth century. His era abounded in greats - Gielgud, Richardson, Guinness, Burton, O'Toole - but none could challenge Laurence Olivier's range and power. By the 1940s he had achieved international stardom. His affair with Vivien Leigh led to a marriage as glamorous and as tragic as any in Hollywood history. He was as accomplished a director as he was a leading man: his three Shakespearian adaptations are among the most memorable ever filmed. Off-stage, Olivier was the most extravagant of characters: generous, yet almost insanely jealous of those few contemporaries whom he deemed to be his rivals; charming but with a ferocious temper. With access to more than fifty hours of candid, unpublished interviews, Philip Ziegler ensures that Olivier's true character - at its most undisguised - shines through as never before.

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) was one of most charismatic and protean figures to emerge from the American independent film movement of the 1960s and '70s, an incredibly compelling screen presence who helped give cult classics like Easy Rider and Blue Velvet their off-kilter appeal. But his artistic interests went far beyond acting, and this collection of essays is the first major work to take in Hopper as a creative artist in all his fields of endeavour, from acting and directing to photography, sculpture, and expressionist painting. Stephen Naish doesn't skimp on covering Hopper's best-known work, but he breaks new ground in putting it in context with his other creative enterprises, showing how one medium informs another, and how they offer a portrait of an artist who was restless, even flawed at times, but always aiming to live up to his motto: create or die. Follow the podcasts by Steve Naish here

In this essay collection, established experts and new researchers, reassess the performances and cultural significance of Ellen Terry, her daughter Edith Craig (1869-1947) and her son Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), as well as Bram Stoker, Lewis Carroll and some less familiar figures.

Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies is a paradox; a famous actress whose career spanned most of the twentieth century she is now largely forgotten. Drawing on material held in Ffrangcon-Davies's personal archive, Grime argues that the representation of the actress, on and off the stage, can be read in terms of its constructions of normative female behaviours.

This biography tells the story of Alice May, a touring prima donna in the nineteenth century who travelled from England to Australia, New Zealand, India and the US, taking part in pioneering performances of the popular light operas of the day. Along the way she took part in many premieres, including the first production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer and the first authorised American production of The Mikado . This colourful life story will appeal to theatre historians, fans of the melodrama, burlesque, and the musical stage.

For more than 30 years, Gavin MacLeod has served as the global ambassador for Princess Cruises. Speaking to thousands of travelers each year, and signing hundreds of autographs at every port, he stands poised to celebrate his amazing journey with a look back at the golden era of American television. The consummate storyteller, Gavin shares his fondest memories of meeting and working with countless stars, such as Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Gregory Peck, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman, Ella Fitzgerald, Ronald Reagan, Milton Berle, and Fred Astaire. From his humble theatrical beginnings in upstate New York, to Radio City Music Hall and on to Hollywood, Gavin MacLeod was on the fast track to success. However, a few hard life lessons-like dealing with a divorce-taught Gavin that the key to happiness was only through a deep faith in God, and he feels his work for Christ is more important than any award. Three years later his remarriage proved that a great struggle can culminate in a happy ending.

The essential guide to a Hollywood icon. Audrey Hepburn was one of the most admired and emulated women of the twentieth century, an Oscar-winning actress, a model and humanitarian. Described by Vogue as 'the acme of classic beauty', named the 'most beautiful woman of the 20th century' and 'the most stylish Brit of all time' Hepburn's influence as a style icon continues long after death. But Hepburn also had huge sadness in her life: two failed marriages, a broken engagement, and the crushing disappointment that occupied her triumph in My Fair Lady. Chronicling Hepburn's life, from her nearly dying in Hitler's occupied Europe, to her conquering, in just one year, the New York stage and the Hollywood screen, this fascinating tribute illustrates and illuminates all things Audrey Hepburn. While trapped in the Netherlands at the end of WW2, Audrey and her family received critical food and medical relief from UNICEF - an act of charity she never forgot, as later in life, Hepburn devoted much of her time to UNICEF, becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. From her early years as an ingenue to her status as an icon of elegance, in her Oscar-winning performance for Roman Holiday and the career high of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Hepburn's star quality resonates across the globe - even so long after her death. Few stars before or since are as beloved as Audrey Hepburn and The Little Book of Audrey Hepburn details why. 'My appearance is accessible to everyone. With hair tied in a bun, big sunglasses and black dress, every woman can look like me.' Audrey Hepburn 'For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.' Audrey Hepburn 'Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it's at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.' Audrey Hepburn

Rose Hobart enjoyed an extensive theatrical career in the 1920s, became a Hollywood leading lady in 1930, and had a second film career as a character player in the late 1930s and 1940s. Born into a family of musicians, she recalls childhood summers in Woodstock, NY, the beginnings of her theatrical career in Chautauqua, and an early and misunderstood friendship with the great Broadway star Eva Le Gallienne, which led to her appearing opposite Noel Coward in The Vortex and starring in the original stage production of Death Takes a Holiday. In 1930, she made her Hollywood screen debut in Frand Borzage's production of Liliom. Rouben Mamoulian selected her to co-star opposite Fredric March in his legendary 1932 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Unhappy in Los Angeles, Miss Hobart returned to New York, but after various misadventures, came back to the screen as a character actress in such films as Tower of London (1939) with Basil Rathbone and Susan and God(1940) with Joan Crawford. During World War II, she toured with the USO in the Aleutians, a difficult but also amusing period. The autobiography is peppered with famous names from Broadway to Hollywood, but it is also a highly personal work, in which Miss Hobart unabashedly discusses her three marriages and her failures. She ends her story with the grim reality of being blacklisted. Rose Hobart is perhaps the only Hollywood star to be immortalized in a modern work of art, an avant-garde short by filmmaker and artist Joseph Cornell, named in her honor and based on footage from the 1931 film East of Borneo. Readers of her autobiography will be as mesmerized by Rose Hobart as was Joseph Cornell more than fifty years ago.