Doug Stanhope is one of the most critically acclaimed and stridently unrepentant comedians of his generation. What will surprise some is that he owes so much of his dark and sometimes uncomfortably honest sense of humor to his mother, Bonnie. It was the cartoons in her Hustler magazine issues that molded the beginnings of his comedic journey, long before he was old enough to know what to do with the actual pornography. It was Bonnie who recited Monty Python sketches with him, introduced him to Richard Pryor, and rescued him from a psychologist when he brought that brand of humor to school. And it was Bonnie who took him along to all of her AA meetings, where Doug undoubtedly found inspiration for his own storytelling. Digging Up Mother follows Doug's absurd, chaotic, and often obscene life as it intersects with that of his best friend, biggest fan, and love of his life--his mother. And it all starts with her death--one of the most memorable and amazing farewells you will ever read.

Alan Rickman remains one of the most beloved actors of all time across almost every genre, from his breakout role as Die Hard's villainous Hans Gruber to his heart-wrenching run as Professor Severus Snape, and beyond. His air of dignity, his sonorous voice and the knowing wit he brought to each role continue to captivate new audiences today.

But Rickman's artistry wasn't confined to just his performances. Rickman's writing details the extraordinary and the ordinary in a way that is anecdotal, indiscreet, witty, gossipy and utterly candid. He takes us behind the scenes on films and plays ranging from Sense & Sensibility, the Harry Potter series, Private Lives, My Name is Rachel Corrie and many more.

The diaries run from 1993 to his death in 2016 and offer insight into both a public and private life. Here is Rickman the consummate professional actor, but also the friend, the traveller, the fan, the director, the enthusiast: in short, the real Alan Rickman. Here is a life fully lived, all detailed in intimate and characteristically plain-spoken prose. Reading the diaries is like listening to Rickman chatting to a close friend.

Madly, Deeply also includes a foreword by Emma Thompson and a selection of Rickman's early diaries, dating from 1974 to 1982, when his acting life first began.

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.

Intimacy with Strangers offers a dazzlingly original, thought-provoking approach to celebrity interviewing. Ciaran Carty draws upon a career involving many of the world's leading writers, artists, actors and directors as they explore intimate concerns, ranging from love and rejection to the smallest physical sensations of pleasure and pain, and to the great issues of politics and war, God and atheism - the big and small of the human condition. Interweaving recent cultural and social history, Carty exposes unexpected affinities shared by his eclectic cast of subjects. Through chains of happenstance and six-degrees-of-separation, Intimacy with Strangers mirrors the cinematic cuts, fades and dissolves of its author's sensibility as film critic and writer. By creating this magical memoir, Ciaran Carty offers an idiosyncratic portrait of a kaleidoscopic Ireland in a global setting.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrowis Sophia Loren's definitive autobiography, revealing her personal journey from the hardship of her childhood in Naples to her life as a screen legend, sharing stories of work, love, and family. Each chapter begins with a letter, a document, a photograph, or object that prompts her reminiscences. In her own words, these memoirs originated as, "Unpublished memories, curious anecdotes, tiny secrets told, all of which spring from a box found by chance, a precious treasure trove filled with emotions, experiences, adventures." In her incredible life story, Loren vividly recounts her difficult childhood in Naples during World War II, remembers her parents and their tempestuous relationship, and reveals the pain of growing up in her grandparents' house with her single, unmarried mother and younger sister. She tells how she got her start by winning a beauty pageant ('La regina del mare') and how her ambition drove her success in cinema before revealing the influence of the producer Carlo Ponti, who cast her in her early roles and later became her husband. Loren takes us behind the scenes of the movies, her early stardom and move to Hollywood revealing intimate and never before shared stories of her famed costars: Brando, Newman, Burton, Peck, Heston, and many more.

Hollywood Comedians, The Film Reader brings together key writings on one of the most consistently popular genres of Hollywood cinema. Despite the cult reputations enjoyed by star performers such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers and Woody Allen, comedians and the contexts within which they worked have not always received their due in scholarly discussions of cinema culture. Hollywood Comedians, The Film Reader seeks to fill this gap, combining distinguished work on comedian comedy produced since the early 1980s together with more recent material that explores the genre's contemporary revival.
This reader provides a comprehensive guide to a range of comedians, contexts and issues: from the silent films of Chaplin and Keaton to the early sound comedy of Mae West and the Marx Brothers, and from the gender dynamics of Hope and Crosby, Lucille Ball and Jerry Lewis to contemporary comedians such as Jim Carrey and Chris Rock. In addition to exploring issues of genre, narrative, stardom and performance, the reader also traces how comedian films manage representations of otherness that are defined through ethnicity, race, class, gender and the body.
Articles are grouped in thematic sections, each exploring a central issue to the study of comedian comedy, and featuring an editor's introduction outlining the context of issues and debates. Sections include:
*Genre, narrative and performance
*Approaches to silent comedy
*Sound comedy, the vaudeville aesthetic and ethnicity
*Comedian comedy and gender
*Post-classical comedian comedy

The long-awaited memoir by movie and theatre legend, Brian Cox. A Guardian, Times, Sunday Times and Independent Book of the Year *Featuring a foreword by the executive producer of Succession, Frank Rich, an executive producer of HBO's Succession, a former chief drama critic of The New York Times, and the author of the memoir Ghost Light.* 'One of the best showbiz memoirs ever written... it's as funny as it is furious... Brian Cox has done everything and with this book he leaves everyone else standing' - Mail on Sunday 'Absolute heaven' - Sunday Times 'A hugely readable memoir from a giant of stage and screen' - Mark Kermode 'A life well lived and a story well told. From first page to last Brian Cox the great actor is Brian Cox the great storyteller, and nobody is spared his sharp eye and his caustic wit, himself and some big Hollywood names included' - Alastair Campbell 'Laced with his characteristic generosity, self-deprecation and cut-the-crap wisdom' - Harriet Walter 'Mesmerizing' - Peter Biskind 'Blisteringly brilliant' - Bryony Gordon 'Funny and irreverent' - The Times From Titus Andronicus with the RSC to media magnate Logan Roy in HBO's Succession, Brian Cox has made his name as an actor of unparalleled distinction and versatility. We know him on screen, but few know of his extraordinary life story. Growing up in Dundee, Scotland, Cox lost his father when he was just eight years old and was brought up by his three elder sisters in the aftermath of his mother's nervous breakdowns and ultimate hospitalization. After joining the Dundee Repertory Theatre at the age of fifteen, you could say the rest is history - but that is to overlook the enormous graft that has gone into the making of the legend we know today. This is a rags-to-riches life story like no other - a seminal autobiography that both captures Cox's distinctive voice and his very soul. Rich in emotion and meaning, with plenty of laughs along the way, it will be a classic in the vein of The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven and What's It All About by Michael Caine.

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.

Warning from publisher to reader:

At HarperCollins, we are committed to customer satisfaction. Before proceeding with your purchase, please take the following questionnaire to determine your likelihood of enjoying this book:

1. Which of the following do you appreciate? (a) Women with somewhat horse-ish facial features.
(b) Women who, while not super Jew-y, are more identifiably Jewish than, say, Natalie Portman.
(c) Frequent discussion of unwanted body hair.

2. Are you offended by the following behavior? (a) Instructing one's grandmother to place baked goods in her rectal cavity.
(b) Stripping naked in public--eleven times in a row.
(c) Stabbing one's boss in the head with a writing implement.

3. The best way to treat an emotionally fragile young girl is: (a) Murder the main course of her Thanksgiving dinner before her very eyes.
(b) Tell her that her older sister is prettier than she, and then immediately die.
(c) Prevent her suicide by recommending she stay away from open windows.

If you read the above questions without getting nauseous or forming a hate Web site, you are ready to buy this book Please proceed to the cashier.

Best known for powerful 1950s melodramas like All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, The Tarnished Angels, and Imitation of Life, Douglas Sirk (1897-1987) brought to all his work a distinctive style that led to his reputation as one of twentieth-century film's great directors. Sirk worked in Europe during the 1930s, mainly for Germany's UFA studios, and then in America in the 1940s and '50s. The Films of Douglas Sirk: Exquisite Ironies and Magnificent Obsessions provides an overview of his entire career, including Sirk's work on musicals, comedies, thrillers, war movies, and westerns. One of the great ironists of the cinema, Sirk believed rules were there to be broken. Whether defying the decrees of Nazi authorities trying to turn film into propaganda or arguing with studios that insisted characters' problems should always be solved and that endings should always restore order, what Sirk called "emergency exits" for audiences, Sirk always fought for his vision. Offering fresh insights into all of the director's films and situating them in the culture of their times, critic Tom Ryan also incorporates extensive interview material drawn from a variety of sources, including his own conversations with the director. Furthermore, his enlightening study undertakes a detailed reconsideration of the generally overlooked novels and plays that served as sources for Sirk's films, as well as providing a critical survey of previous Sirk commentary, from the time of the director's "rediscovery" in the late 1960s up to the present day.

"I love everything about this hilarious book except the font size." -Jon Stewart Although his career as a bestselling author and on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart was founded on fake news and invented facts, in 2016 that routine didn't seem as funny to John Hodgman anymore. Everyone is doing it now. Disarmed of falsehood, he was left only with the awful truth: John Hodgman is an older white male monster with bad facial hair, wandering like a privileged Sasquatch through three wildernesses: the hills of Western Massachusetts where he spent much of his youth; the painful beaches of Maine that want to kill him (and some day will); and the metaphoric haunted forest of middle age that connects them. Vacationland collects these real life wanderings, and through them you learn of the horror of freshwater clams, the evolutionary purpose of the mustache, and which animals to keep as pets and which to kill with traps and poison. There is also some advice on how to react when the people of coastal Maine try to sacrifice you to their strange god. Though wildly, Hodgmaniacally funny as usual, it is also a poignant and sincere account of one human facing his forties, those years when men in particular must stop pretending to be the children of bright potential they were and settle into the failing bodies of the wiser, weird dads that they are.

From Shaun Micallef, beloved host of ABC TV's news satire Mad as Hell, comes Tripping Over Myself - an insightful and funny memoir about comedy and life that takes us through uncharted waters to unexpected places. Comedy has been Shaun's escape, his guiding light, his refuge, his passport, his lifebuoy, his drug, his mask, his means, his end, his lingua franca, his Self. But it's not everything. From his early years as a gangly, bespectacled nerd in suburban Adelaide to the giddy heights of national TV stardom, Shaun regales us with his experiences and his continuous reinvention through humour with... well, humour. He writes with candour about his successes and failures, loves and losses, along with tales of wine, women, song, and eccentric dancing. Behind the persona of one of Australia's best-loved comedians lurks, as you will discover, an idiot. Despite Shaun's best efforts, Tripping Over Myself is sprinkled with thoughtful insights and observations and shows us how to persist in the face of adversity or even good fortune. You will laugh, you will dog-ear pages, you will wonder, you will Google 'Jerry Lewis', you may book a trip to India, and you will come away from this book reflecting on your own life in new and remarkable ways.

""I didn't decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Being as thin as possible was a way to make the job of being an actress easier . . ." "

Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work--first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying.

In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. She recounts the elaborate rituals around eating that came to dominate hours of every day, from keeping her daily calorie intake below 300 to eating precisely measured amounts of food out of specific bowls and only with certain utensils. When this wasn't enough, she resorted to purging and compulsive physical exercise, driving her body and spirit to the breaking point.

Even as she rose to fame as a cast member of the hit television shows "Ally McBeal "and "Arrested Development, "Portia alternately starved herself and binged, all the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, a sense of isolation that was only magnified by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner. With the storytelling skills of a great novelist and the eye for detail of a poet, Portia makes transparent as never before the behaviors and emotions of someone living with an eating disorder.

From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to a life of health and honesty, falling in love with and eventually marrying Ellen DeGeneres, and emerging as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and women's health issues.

In this remarkable and beautifully written work, Portia shines a bright light on a dark subject. A crucial book for all those who might sometimes feel at war with themselves or their bodies, "Unbearable Lightness "is a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.

The Spark will help create a legacy dance students will never forget! The Spark: The Legacy that Changed the Dance World is about the journey of creative artists and dancers-turned-teachers who are now struggling with the complexities of teaching. Choosing a ballet program that juggles all styles, techniques, and methodologies and that all levels of students will progressively love is a daunting task. In this book, dance teachers will discover what the greatest masters have always known: the true essence of dancing. Quite simply, they will learn how to teach pure, fluid movement with an age-appropriate curriculum proven for the past 60 years to effectively transcend any limiting beliefs about the basis for all dance. If you're looking for an empowered learning community with the perfect balance of discipline, integrity, and a curriculum that forms lifetime bonds with students, teachers, and parents, you've come to the right place. Celebrate your "sparkdom"!

Arden Performance Editions are ideal for anyone engaging with a Shakespeare play in performance. With clear facing-page notes giving definitions of words, easily accessible information about key textual variants, lineation, metrical ambiguities and pronunciation, each edition has been developed to open the play's possibilities and meanings to actors and students. Each edition offers: -Facing-page notes -Short, clear definitions of words -Easily accessible information about key textual variants -Notes on pronunciation of difficult names and unfamiliar words -An easy-to-read layout -Space to write notes -A short introduction to the play

After several years of small roles and experimental screenwriting during his early career, Jack Nicholson got his big break in 1969 with Easy Rider. The next year, his first lead role, in Five Easy Pieces, made him a star. In the decades since, the twelve-time Academy Award nominee has won Best Actor twice (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and As Good as It Gets) and become one of the most popular and respected actors of the past half century. Drawing on years of research and dozens of interviews with his associates, this critical study of Nicholson's oeuvre examines each of his film roles, as well as his screenwriting and directorial efforts. Personal insight is provided by Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, James Hong, Millie Perkins, Michael Margotta, Shirley Knight, Veronica Cartwright, Barry Dennen, Salli Sachse, Noah Wyle, Monkees Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, Adam West, several Apollo astronauts, Hells Angel Sonny Barger and many more.

Julie Andrews is, quite simply, a phenomenon. She has probably brought more joy to more people than any other star of her generation' - Richard Attenborough. Julie Andrews is the last of the great Hollywood musical stars - her extraordinary career spans more than forty years. Her first film, Mary Poppins, was Disney's most successful film, and in 1965 The Sound of Music rescued Twentieth Century Fox from bankruptcy. Three years later, Star! almost put the studio back under, and the leading lady of both films fell as spectacularly as she had risen.But Julie Andrews is nothing if not a survivor; and despite many setbacks - including the tragedy of losing her singing voice in 1997 after a botched operation - she's still a performer, recently starring in Shrek and The Princess Diaries. Richard Stirling's deeply researched biography - based on many years of contact with Julie - is a frank but affectionate portrait of an enduring icon of stage and screen.

Esteemed scholar and theater aficionado Marvin Carlson has seen an unsurpassed number of theatrical productions in his long and distinguished career. Ten Thousand Nights is a lively chronicle of a half-century of theatre-going, in which Carlson recalls one memorable production for each year from 1960 to 2010. These are not conventional reviews, but essays using each theater experience to provide an insight into the theater and theatre-going at a particular time. The range of performances covered is broad, from edgy experimental fare to mainstream musicals, most of them based in New York but with stops at major theater events in Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Milan, and elsewhere. The engagingly written pieces convey a vivid sense not only of each production but also of the particular venue, neighborhood, and cultural context, covering nearly all significant movements, theater artists, and groups of the late twentieth century.

In his first full-length autobiography, comedy legend and national treasure Billy Connolly reveals the truth behind his windswept and interesting life.

Born in a tenement flat in Glasgow in 1942, orphaned by the age of 4, and a survivor of appalling abuse at the hands of his own family, Billy's life is a remarkable story of success against all the odds.

Billy found his escape first as an apprentice welder in the shipyards of the River Clyde. Later he became a folk musician - a 'rambling man' - with a genuine talent for playing the banjo. But it was his ability to spin stories, tell jokes and hold an audience in the palm of his hand that truly set him apart.

As a young comedian Billy broke all the rules. He was fearless and outspoken - willing to call out hypocrisy wherever he saw it. But his stand-up was full of warmth, humility and silliness too. His startling, hairy 'glam-rock' stage appearance - wearing leotards, scissor suits and banana boots - only added to his appeal.

It was an appearance on Michael Parkinson's chat show in 1975 - and one outrageous story in particular - that catapulted Billy from cult hero to national star. TV shows, documentaries, international fame and award-winning Hollywood movies followed. Billy's pitch-perfect stand-up comedy kept coming too - for over 50 years, in fact - until a double diagnosis of cancer and Parkinson's Disease brought his remarkable live performances to an end. Since then he has continued making TV shows, creating extraordinary drawings... and writing.

Windswept and Interesting is Billy's story in his own words. It is joyfully funny - stuffed full of hard-earned wisdom as well as countless digressions on fishing, farting and the joys of dancing naked. It is an unforgettable, life-affirming story of a true comedy legend.

Joanne Woodward is an American film, television and stage actress, television producer and director, stage director, and film director. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in The Three Faces of Eve and was nominated for Rachel, Rachel, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams and Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. She also won the Best Actress Emmy Award for See How She Runs and Do You Remember Love. This book is the first to be solely devoted to Woodward's life and career, which were often overshadowed by the successes of her late husband, Paul Newman.

Beginning with The Jazz Singer (1927) and 42nd Street (1933), legendary Hollywood film producer Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) revolutionized the movie musical, cementing its place in American popular culture. Zanuck, who got his start writing stories and scripts in the silent film era, worked his way to becoming a top production executive at Warner Bros. in the later 1920s and early 1930s. Leaving that studio in 1933, he and industry executive Joseph Schenck formed Twentieth Century Pictures, an independent Hollywood motion picture production company. In 1935, Zanuck merged his Twentieth Century Pictures with the ailing Fox Film Corporation, resulting in the combined Twentieth Century-Fox, which instantly became a new major Hollywood film entity. The Golden Age Musicals of Darryl F. Zanuck: The Gentleman Preferred Blondes is the first book devoted to the musicals that Zanuck produced at these three studios. The volume spotlights how he placed his personal imprint on the genre and how-especially at Twentieth Century-Fox-he nurtured and showcased several blonde female stars who headlined the studio's musicals-including Shirley Temple, Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Vivian Blaine, June Haver, Marilyn Monroe, and Sheree North. Building upon Bernard F. Dick's previous work in That Was Entertainment: The Golden Age of the MGM Musical, this volume illustrates the richness of the American movie musical, tracing how these song-and-dance films fit within the career of Darryl F. Zanuck and within the timeline of Hollywood history.