A refugee from post-World War II Europe who emigrated to the US in 1949, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) became one of America's foremost champions of independent cinema and one of its most innovative filmmakers. An admired poet in his native Lithuania, Mekas began recording his life on film shortly after his arrival in New York. Through his work as the author of the Village Voice's "Movie Journal" column, editor of Film Culture magazine, and founder of Anthology Film Archives and the Film-Makers' Cooperative, Mekas played a vital role in the promotion of avant-garde and independent films. His early films, Guns of the Trees and The Brig, challenged the structure of traditional narrative filmmaking. He is best known for his "diary films," including Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketches); Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania; and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty. His films, writings, and the institutions he built have influenced generations of filmmakers, poets, artists, musicians, critics, and scholars. In Jonas Mekas: Interviews, volume editor Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker collects eighteen interviews covering almost sixty years of the filmmaker's career. Mekas discusses his remarkable life as a refugee from Nazi- and Soviet-occupied Lithuania, his role as one of the major figures in the development of the American avant-garde, and his thoughts about his own work. In conversation with scholars, journalists, and other prominent artists, Mekas speaks of his passion for artistic expression and uncompromising vision for a liberated cinema. These interviews preserve Mekas's voice so that it might speak to future generations of artists and intellectuals.

The theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players has received significant international recognition over the past ten years. The company has received three OBIEs, for House (1999), Drummer Wanted (2002) and Good Samaritans (2005). Maxwell received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2010 and has been commissioned by venues in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Ireland. Although his productions generate a plethora of reviews, there is a deficit of material providing a critical and sustained engagement with his work. The aim of The Theatre of Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players is to provide a critical survey of Maxwell's work since 1992, including his early participation in Cook County Theater Department. Touching upon the acting, production and rehearsal processes of NYC Player's work, and Maxwell's representations of space, community, race, and gender, this volume provides scholars with an important overview of a key figure in contemporary drama.

The memoirs of the pioneering Danish silent film star Asta Nielsen in English translation for the first time, with scholarly introduction and annotations. From her explosive screen debut in The Abyss (1910) through her "scandalous" fourth marriage at age 89, the Danish actress Asta Nielsen (1881-1972) was a darling of fans and the press, a global star without parallel in the silent era. So famous in Germany that she was known simply as "die Asta," during her two decades of active filmmaking Nielsen also published about her career, her impoverished childhood, her breakthrough into film, the price of fame, and her interactions with the German film industry. In 1938 Nielsen returned to Denmark, where she published her memoirs in two volumes in 1945-46, expanding on her earlier writings. This carefully crafted, colorful text offers eyewitness insights into early European film, Nielsen's star persona, and the challenges of stardom in Germany in the tumultuous period before World War II. Yet although they have appeared in multiple Danish, German, and Russian editions, the memoirs have never been published in English until now. Nielsen's work has enduring value for transnational film history, and the recent growth of interest in women's contributions to early film makes the time ripe for this translation. Julie K. Allen accompanies the text with a scholarly introduction and annotations, and a foreword by leading early film scholar Jennifer M. Bean frames the volume.

In The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenon-what defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world. The book's twelve chapters illuminate different aspects of Hitchcock's life and work: "The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up"; "The Murderer"; "The Auteur"; "The Womanizer"; "The Fat Man"; "The Dandy"; "The Family Man"; "The Voyeur"; "The Entertainer"; "The Pioneer"; "The Londoner"; "The Man of God". Each of these angles reveals something fundamental about the man he was and the mythological creature he has become, presenting not just the life Hitchcock lived, but also the various versions of himself that he projected and those projected on his behalf. White's portrayal illuminates a vital truth: Hitchcock was more than a Hollywood titan; he was the definitive modern artist and his significance reaches far beyond the confines of cinema.

Ellen Terry's correspondence was both exuberant and extensive. Her remaining letters provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the Victorian theatre, and the difficulties of life for a woman maintaining a successful public persona whilst raising two illegitimate children.

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.

This book is about men I have known, in both the Platonic and Biblical senses. Some I knew only slightly, some quite well. Some I'll love always, some I no longer like very much, and there are a few I'd like to strip naked, tie to a Maypole, smear with sweet syrup near a beehive, then stand back and watch. I'll describe a goodly number of these hot dudes--and duds--keeping the nicest man for last because--if for nothing else--I'd like to leave you, dear reader, with a good taste in your mouth, and Hubbies #3 and #4 might make you want to rush to gargle. There were times I truly wondered, Lord, will I EVER get it right? Thank God I thrive on variety. --From My First Five Husbands . . . And the Ones Who Got Away People always ask me if I'm like Blanche. And I say, 'Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern Belle from Atlanta -- and I'm not from Atlanta ' -- Rue McClanahan Who can forget Rue McClanahan as the sexy Southern vixen, Blanche Devereaux, on the Emmy-award winning series The Golden Girls? With her breezy sex appeal and sharp comedic timing, Rue infused her character with a sassy joie de vivre that captured the hearts of women everywhere. Now, the actress behind the magic reveals her life in and out of the spotlight in a laugh-out-loud funny memoir about love, marriage, men, and getting older that is every bit as colorful as the characters she plays. Raised in small-town Oklahoma in a house thirteen telephone poles past the standpipe north of town, Rue developed her two great passions--theater and men--at an early age. She arrived in New York City in 1957 with two-weeks worth of money in her pocket, hustledher way into a class with the legendary Uta Hagen, and began working her way up in the acting world against the vibrant, free-spirited backdrop of the sixties. That's when she met and married Husband #1--a handsome rogue of an aspiring actor who quickly left her with a young son. Still, she was determined to make it on the stage and screen--and in the years that followed, rose to the top of the entertainment world with a host of adventures (and husbands) along the way. From her roles on Broadway opposite Dustin Hoffman and Brad Davis, to her first television appearances on Maude and All in the Family, to the Golden Girls era and beyond, My First Five Husbands is the irresistible story of one woman's quest to find herself. Now happily married to her soul mate, Husband #6, Rue is proof that many things can and do get better with age--and that, if she keeps her wits about her, even a small-town girl can make it big. Told with Rue's saucy wit and Southern charm, My First Five husbands is a deliciously entertaining take on life and love from an irrepressible star.

With his twinkling eyes, boundless energy and unrivalled natural wit, Robin Williams was the comedian who brought laughter to a generation. Through roles in cherished films such as Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Aladdin and Hook, he became the genial face of family comedy. His child-like enthusiasm was infectious, sweeping viewers away. Allied to his lightning-quick improvisation and ability to riff lewdly off any cue thrown at him, Robin was that rare thing - a true comic genius who appealed to adults and children equally. He could also play it straight, and empathetic depth came to him naturally. A poignant performance in Good Will Hunting won him an Academy Award whilst his masterfully chilling turn in psychological thriller Insomnia shocked audiences and hinted at a darker side. What truly caught the imagination, though, was his good-heartedness. Warmth radiated from him on-screen, but he was legendary for his off-screen acts of selfless generosity. Where most Hollywood A-listers demand outrageous pampering in their contract riders, he always insisted that the production company hire a full quota of homeless people to help make his movies. But behind the laughter lay a deeply troubled man, and tragedy would follow. At midday, on 11 August 2014, Robin Williams was pronounced dead at his California home. The verdict was suicide. He had battled depression and addiction for many years and was allegedly beset by financial difficulties. Emily Herbert's sensitive and thoughtful biography celebrates his genius and warmth, but also attempts to understand what could have driven such a gentle and gifted man to so tragic an end. This is Robin Williams, the life, the laughter, and the deep sorrow of the man who made the world smile.

May all beings enjoy 'The Enlightenment.' The Enlightenment and Captain James Cook, The Lono-Cook-Kirk-Regenesis, is a thoroughly informative and a deeply personal read. It is a fictionalized biography that takes place during Britain's 'Age of Enlightenment and Discovery' and it is highly 'truth based, ' integrating the 'first written and compiled' Polynesian facts and mythology that includes the diaries and actual journals of the many men on board Cook's ships. No writer has better put together a more complete compilation of the facts integrated with mythology and told in novel form, giving the reader a bird's eye view of the action. She touches on James Cook and his co-relation with Gene Roddenberry's James T. Kirk and how it inter-relates with her own account of learned spiritual wisdom and her 'mythic writers journey.' She gives a personal account of her journey that was guided by the 'Aumakua' (Hawaiian and British ancestors alike) and Archangel Metatron, to create a feature film script about James Cook that led her on a spiritual pilgrimage where she encountered the truth behind, reincarnation, remanifestation, archetypes and extraterrestrial realities. She then made a trip to Sarnath, India and also discovered a link to Polynesia with the name 'Lono' (or Rono; the name Cook was referred to as when he arrived in Polynesia) and the 'Phurba Diety' in ancient Tibet. Reviews This is an important story that needs to be told and your writing is very good. See to it that the film gets produced. Jagdish P. Sharma, Professor, Department of History, University of Hawaii at Manoa

A FOUNDING MEMBER OF GUNS N' ROSES AND VELVET REVOLVER SHARES THE STORY OF HIS RISE TO THE PINNACLE OF FAME AND FORTUNE, HIS STRUGGLES WITH ALCOHOLISM AND DRUG ADDICTION, HIS PERSONAL CRASH AND BURN, AND HIS PHOENIX-LIKE TRANSFORMATION.
IN 1984, AT THE AGE OF TWENTY, Duff McKagan left his native Seattle--partly to pursue music but mainly to get away from a host of heroin overdoses then decimating his closest group of friends in the local punk scene. In L.A. only a few weeks and still living in his car, he answered a want ad for a bass player placed by someone who identified himself only as "Slash." Soon after, the most dangerous band in the world was born. Guns N' Roses went on to sell more than 100 million albums worldwide.
In "It's So Easy, "Duff recounts Guns' unlikely trajectory to a string of multiplatinum albums, sold-out stadium concerts, and global acclaim. But that kind of glory can take its toll, and it did--ultimately--on Duff, as well as on the band itself. As Guns began to splinter, Duff felt that he himself was done, too. But his near death as a direct result of alcoholism proved to be his watershed, the turning point that sent him on a unique path to sobriety and the unexpected choices he has made for himself since.
In a voice that is as honest as it is indelibly his own, Duff--one of rock's smartest and most articulate personalities--takes readers on a harrowing journey through the dark heart of one of the most notorious bands in rock-and-roll history and out the other side.

Dramatic Comedy / 3m, 2f / Simple Sets The play is based on the life of Saul Alinsky, who, starting out from Chicago's mean streets, became a master organizer in American cities from the '30's through the '60's. With his imaginative techniques, colorful language, and wild humor, Alinsky taught communities how to win over an indifferent "establishment" and resurrect themselves. His ideas are still a force today. We see Alinsky on the road in 1972, at the end of his career and exhausted after an off-day, weighing the worth of all his efforts. Alone in his motel room, he conjures up the trials and triumphs of past campaigns-in urban ghettos, middle-class neighborhoods, and colleges. He relives encounters with Al Capone, Mayor Daley, Marshall Field, Senator Joe McCarthy, Albert Einstein, Catholic bishops, and Vietnam vets. He revives his passion for democracy that enabled him time and again to succeed against the odds. The next day, rejuvenated, Alinsky sets out on what will be his final campaign for a "newer world." Advocating the simplest of means to effect change, he prevails on his audience to find within their everyday lives the tools to rebuild their communities and secure "something of what we are all looking for-laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create."

In 1942 Ernest Jennings Ford married nineteen-year-old Betty Jean Heminger, whom he had met at Victorville Army Air Base in California. 'River of No Return: Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Woman He Loved' is the recounting of their life together, of Ernie's spectacular success as an entertainer, of their growing spiral of self-destruction as his career flourished, and of their two sons' despair as they watched the light slowly fade from their parents' eyes and the joy vanish from their lives. For Betty it was vodka, valium, and tranquilizers. For Ernie, it was beer for breakfast, Cutty for lunch at the club, and whatever later in the day. In 'River of No Return' their son Jeffery remembers when his family's joy of being together was infectious, when the promise of every day and the thrill of being at the center of the spotlight was rapturous. It was a time when the name Ernie Ford was in the air and his fame worldwide.

By the mid-1920s, Buster Keaton had established himself as one of the geniuses of cinema with such films as Sherlock, Jr., The Navigator, and his 1927 work The General, which was the highest ranked silent on the American Film Institute's survey of the 100 greatest films. Before Keaton ventured into longer works, however, he had honed his skills as an actor, writer, and director of short films produced in the early 1920s. In Buster Keaton s Silent Shorts: 1920-1923, James L. Neibaur and Terri Niemi provide a film-by-film assessment of these brilliant two-reelers. The authors discuss the significance of each short The High Sign, One Week, Convict 13, The Scarecrow, Neighbors, The Haunted House, Hard Luck, The Goat, The Playhouse, The Boat, The Paleface, Cops, My Wife s Relations, The Blacksmith, Frozen North, Daydreams, The Electric House, The Balloonatic, and The Love Nest to the Keaton filmography, as well as each film s importance to cinema. Offering a clear and in-depth perspective on these 19 films, the authors explain what makes these shorts effective and why they re funny. Buster Keaton s Silent Shorts will enlighten both scholars and casual fans alike about the early work produced by one of cinema's most gifted comedians and filmmakers."

Ellen Terry's correspondence was both exuberant and extensive. Her remaining letters provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the Victorian theatre, and the difficulties of life for a woman maintaining a successful public persona whilst raising two illegitimate children.

One of the most beloved actors of our time shares the New York Times bestselling story of how he learned to live with an open heart. Early in his career, shortly after rising to fame as television's Dr. James Kildare, Richard Chamberlain took on the role of Hamlet on the English stage. The play contained a lesson the actor has remembered throughout his life: "To thine own self be true." But for Chamberlain these were not always easy words to live by. Even as he won the adoration of millions of fans, this handsome, charming, debonair leading man seriously questioned his own self-worth, living a life haunted by personal insecurity despite decades of immense popular success in memorable roles in Dr. Kildare, The Thorn Birds, Shogun, and other television dramas. Finally, with the help of friends and guidance from spiritual teachers, including Krishnamurti, Chamberlain began the sometimes painful but deeply rewarding process of reconciling his deepest self with his public persona. Now, in Shattered Love, he poignantly recounts his lifelong struggle to find happiness. Tracing a fascinating path through his meteoric rise to success, he chronicles his struggle to come to terms with his own imperfections, his growing desire to be honest about his sexual orientation, and his yearning to live with an open heart. And along the way he imparts the lessons he has learned about overcoming our own self-imposed obstacles to happiness: the importance of listening to our own instincts instead of listening only to others, not demanding the impossible of ourselves, and allowing ourselves to explore negative feelings in order to move forward.

The riveting story of the rivalry between the two most renowned actresses of the nineteenth century: legendary Sarah Bernhardt, whose eccentricity on and off the stage made her the original diva, and mystical Eleonora Duse, who broke all the rules to popularize the natural style of acting we celebrate today.Audiences across Europe and the Americas clamored to see the divine Sarah Bernhardt swoon--and she gave them their money's worth. The world's first superstar, she traveled with a chimpanzee named Darwin and a pet alligator that drank champagne, shamelessly supplementing her income by endorsing everything from aperitifs to beef bouillon, and spreading rumors that she slept in a coffin to better understand the macabre heroines she played. Eleonora Duse shied away from the spotlight. Born to a penniless family of itinerant troubadours, she disappeared into the characters she portrayed--channeling their spirits, she claimed. Her new, empathetic style of acting revolutionized the theater--and earned her the ire of Sarah Bernhardt in what would become the most tumultuous theatrical showdown of the nineteenth century. Bernhardt and Duse seduced each other's lovers, stole one another's favorite playwrights, and took to the world's stages to outperform their rival in her most iconic roles. A scandalous, enormously entertaining history full of high drama and low blows, Playing to the Gods is the perfect "book for all of us who binge-watched Feud" (Daniel de Vise, author of Andy & Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show).

This book is the first major study of a French silent cinema star. It focuses on Pierre Batcheff, a prominent popular cinema star in the 1920s, the French Valentino, best-known to modern audiences for his role as the protagonist of the avant-garde film classic Un chien andalou. Unlike other stars, he was linked to intellectual circles, especially the Surrealists. The book places Batcheff in the context of 1920s popular cinema, with specific reference to male stars of the period. It analyses the tensions he exemplifies between the 'popular' and the 'intellectual' during the 1920s, as cinema - the subject of intense intellectual interest across Europe - was racked between commercialism and 'art'. A number of the major films are studied in detail: Le Double amour (Epstein, 1925), Feu Mathias Pascal (L'Herbier, 1925), Education de prince (Diamant-Berger, 1927), Le Joueur d'echecs (Bernard, 1927), La Sirene des tropiques (Etievant and Nalpas, 1927), Les Deux timides (Clair, 1928), Un chien andalou (Bunuel, 1929), Monte-Cristo (Fescourt, 1929), and Baroud (Ingram, 1932). Key features: *The first major study of a French silent cinema star. *Provides an in-depth analysis of star performance. *Includes extensive appendices of documents from popular cinema magazines of the period.

Bob Hope got his start in show business when he was in his twenties, remained active past the age of 90, and lived to be 100. His longevity was remarkable, especially when one considers that he was active in vaudeville, radio, motion pictures and television. He excelled in each of these popular forms of entertainment, but his films are the most genuine testaments to his timeless comedy. His smart quips, fast pace, and breezy manner were perfect ingredients for the brand of comedy that was popular during World War II and the years immediately following the war. This book begins with a discussion of Bob Hope's early career and the short films that he starred in, and then covers each of the Hope films beginning with The Big Broadcast of 1938. The Hope films, the author says, do not have deep subtexts or clever cinematic innovations, but provide clever, uplifting entertainment that continues to inspire laughter and offer solid examples of the humor that made Americans smile during and after World War II. Cast and credit information is provided for each film.

Stanislavsky in Focus brilliantly examines the history and actual premises of Stanislavsky's 'System', separating myth from fact with forensic skill. The first edition of this now classic study showed conclusively how the 'System' was gradually transformed into the Method, popularised in the 1950s by Lee Strasberg and the Actor's Studio. It looked at the gap between the original Russian texts and what most English-speaking practitioners still imagine to be Stanislavsky's ideas. This thoroughly revised new edition also delves even deeper into: the mythical depiction of Stanislavsky as a tyrannical director and teacher yoga, the mind-body-spirit continuum and its role in the 'System' how Stanislavsky used subtexts to hide many of his ideas from Soviet censors. The text has been updated to address all of the relevant scholarship, particularly in Russia, since the first edition was published. It also features an expanded glossary on the System's terminology and its historical exercises, as well as more on the political context of Stanislavsky's work, its links with cognitive science, and the System's relation to contemporary developments in actor-training. It will be a vital part of every practitioner's and historian's library.

Robert Clary (born Robert Max Widerman in Paris in 1926) is best known for his portrayal of the spirited Corporal Louis Lebeau on the popular television series Hogan's Heroes (on the air from 1965 to 1971 and widely syndicated around the globe). But it is Clary's experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust that infuse his compelling memoir with an honest recognition of life's often horrific reality, a recognition that counters his glittering five-decade career as an actor, singer, and artist and distinguishes this book from those by other entertainers. Clary describes his childhood in Paris, the German occupation in 1940, and his deportation in 1942 at the age of sixteen to the infamous transit camp Drancy. He recounts his nightmarish, two-and-a-half-year incarceration in Nazi concentration camps like Ottmuth, Blechhammer, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald. In April 1945, the Allies liberated Clary and other inmates. But the news that his parents, two sisters, two half-sisters, and two nephews had not survived the Nazis' genocidal campaign against the Jews reduced his joy to grief. After the war, Clary made his way to the United States and, against great odds, achieved fame on Broadway and in Hollywood. From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes is Robert Clary's extraordinary account of his remarkable life both as a survivor and as an entertainer. Once read, it will not be forgotten.

Live theatre was once the main entertainment medium in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. The preeminent dramatists and actors of the day wrote and performed in numerous plays in which crime was a major plot element. This remains true today, especially with the longest-running shows such as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Sweeney Todd. While hundreds of books have been published about crime fiction in film and on television, the topic of stage mysteries has been largely unexplored. Covering productions from the 18th century to the 2013-2014 theatre season, this volume is the first history of crime plays according to subject matter. More than 20 categories are identified, including whodunits, comic mysteries, courtroom dramas, musicals, crook plays, social issues, Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie. Nearly 900 plays are described, including the reactions of critics and audiences.