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Books > Arts & Architecture > Performing arts > Individual actors & performers
IN "THE SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE," music legend Clive Davis recounts
an extraordinary five-decade career in the music business, while
also telling a remarkable personal story of triumphs,
disappointments, and encounters with some of the greatest musical
artists of our time, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Simon &
Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, the Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, Whitney
Houston, Carlos Santana, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, and
Alicia Keys.
Orphaned in his teens, Davis earned a full scholarship to New York
University and another to Harvard Law School. He served as General
Counsel of Columbia Records and, in a totally unexpected stroke of
fate, became head of the company overnight. More surprisingly, he
learned he had "ears," a rare ability to spot special talent and
hit records. Those ears contributed to the success of three
companies--Columbia, Arista, and J--where Davis dis-covered and
developed more unique artists than anyone in the history of the
music industry.
What began on the grass at the Monterey Pop Festival with the
signing of Janis Joplin has evolved into a lifelong passion and
calling, spanning genres, including rock, pop, R&B, country,
jazz fusion, and hip-hop. His is the imprimatur that has helped
shape contemporary music and, over the years, our popular culture.
"The Soundtrack of My Life" is an essential book for anyone
interested in the story of popular music, the fascinating ups and
downs of the music business, the alchemy of hits, and the dramatic
life of a brilliant leader . . . and listener. It is a riveting
read from beginning to end.
Constituting the first comprehensive look at Ruth Maleczech's work,
Jessica Brater's companion is a landmark study in innovative
theatre practice, bringing together biography, critical analysis,
and original interviews to establish a portrait of this Obie-award
winning theatre artist. Tracing Maleczech's background, training,
and influences, the volume contextualizes her work and the founding
of Mabou Mines within the wider landscape of American avant-garde
theatre. It considers her performances and productions, revealing
both her interest in making ordinary women important onstage, and
her predilection for resurrecting extraordinary women from history
and finding their resonances within a contemporary theatrical
context. Brater considers Maleczech's investment in redrawing the
boundaries of what women are allowed to say, both on stage and off,
and shows how her commitment to radical artistic and production
risks has reshaped the contours of a contemporary theatrical
experience. Highlights of the volume include discussion of
productions such as Mabou Mines' Lear, Dead End Kids, Hajj, Lucia's
Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, Red Beads, and La Divina
Caricatura, as well as a close look at Maleczech's final
work-in-progress, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid.
For years, I have wanted to write a book about the relentless
determination it takes to succeed in the arts. Whether as a young
artist in New York City, as a music coordinator of a Broadway
musical, or as a musician traveling through Europe, I will share
with you excitement, acclaim, and culture. Onward and Upward is the
true account of my pursuit of a dream; a career in music. In this
around-the-world journey, I share my stories of culture, family,
laughter, friendship, wisdom, and heartache, with a generous splash
of the likes of Strauss, motorcycle chases, and Hollywood. Any
aspiring artist, would-be world traveler, or entrepreneur, will
benefit from reading this book. Learn from another's experience
about dedication, passion, and culture. Partly by means of
behind-the-scene memoirs, partly by means of journal entries, we
will walk hand in hand on this most extraordinary journey through a
life in the arts.
Is there a fundamental connection between New York's Elevator
Repair Service's 9-hour production of The Great Gatsby and a
Kathakali performance? How can we come to appreciate the slowness
of Kabuki theatre as much as the pace of the Whatsapp theatre of
post-Arab Spring Turkey? Can we go beyond our own culture's
contemporary definition of a 'good play' and think about the
theatre in a deep and pluralistic manner? Drawing on his extensive
experience working with theatre artists, students and thinkers
across the globe - up to and including an hour-long audience with
the Dalai Lama - playwright Abhishek Majumdar considers why we make
theatre and how we see it in different parts of the world. His own
work has taken him from theatre in Japan to dance companies in the
Phillippines, writers in Lebanon and Palestine, theatre groups in
Burkina Faso, war-torn areas like Kashmir and North Eastern India,
and to China and Tibet, Argentina and Mexico. Via a far-reaching
and provocative collection of essays that is informed by this
wealth of experience, Majumdar explores: - how different cultures
conceive theatre and how the norm of one place is the experiment of
another; - the ways in which theatre across the world mirrors its
socio political and philosophical climate; - how, for thousands of
years, theatre has been a tool to both disrupt and to heal; - and
how, even within the many differences, there are universals from
which we can all learn and how theatre does cross borders Of
interest to theatre makers everywhere - be they writers, actors,
directors or designers - this book offers an oversight, as well as
interrogation, into the place of theatre in the world today.
Nollywood is the general moniker for Nigeria's exciting and
thriving film industry Behind its world-wide acclaim as an
independent filming success story is an oft-ignored back story; the
pains, push and perseverance of the major film-makers in the
business. 'Nollywood till November' tells the insightful and
exciting true story of Charles Novia, from his trudging days as a
struggling film maker in the then cabal-styled Nollywood, to his
eventual triumph And success as a major force in Africa's biggest
film industry Novia's memoirs reveal a personal perspective of the
monumental struggles each of the now-famous personalities in
Nollywood must have faced on their road to fame. It is a brilliant
and inspiring tale of succeeding against the odds in an industry
that has been termed 'the third largest film industry in the world'
Danny Dyer is Britain's most popular young film star. Idolized by
Harold Pinter and with his films having taken nearly $50 million at
theUK box office, Dyer is the most bankable star in British
independent films with one in 10 of the country's population owning
one of his films on DVD. With iconic performances in such cult
classicsas "The Business," "The Football Factory," "Dead Man
Running," "Outlaw," and now "Vendetta," Dyer is oneof the most
recognizable Englishmen in the world. For the first time, and with
its subject's full cooperation, this book chronicles his film
career in depth, combining production background with critical
analysis to paint a fascinating picture of the contemporary British
film industry and its brightest star. Packed with anecdotes from
co-stars and colleagues, as well as contributions from the man
himself, "The Films of Danny Dyer" is the ultimate companion to the
work of Britain's grittiest star.
How does the moving, dancing body engage with the materials,
textures, atmospheres, and affects of the sites through which we
move and in which we live, work and play? How might embodied
movement practice explore some of these relations and bring us
closer to the complexities of sites and lived environments? This
book brings together perspectives from site dance, phenomenology,
and new materialism to explore and develop how 'site-based body
practice' can be employed to explore synergies between material
bodies and material sites. Employing practice-as-research
strategies, scores, tasks and exercises the book presents a number
of suggestions for engaging with sites through the moving body and
offers critical reflection on the potential enmeshments and
entanglements that emerge as a result. The theoretical discussions
and practical explorations presented will appeal to researchers,
movement practitioners, artists, academics and individuals
interested in exploring their lived environments through the moving
body and the entangled human-nonhuman relations that emerge as a
result.
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