Now available as an ebook for the first time
No one knows the writer's Hollywood more intimately than William Goldman. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter and the bestselling author of Marathon Man, Tinsel, Boys and Girls Together, and other novels, Goldman now takes you into Hollywood's inner sanctums...on and behind the scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and other films...into the plush offices of Hollywood producers...into the working lives of acting greats such as Redford, Olivier, Newman, and Hoffman...and into his own professional experiences and creative thought processes in the crafting of screenplays. You get a firsthand look at why and how films get made and what elements make a good screenplay. Says columnist Liz Smith, "You'll be fascinated.

Improvisation is a highly creative and collaborative art form, encompassing the skills of storytelling, character creation and stage presence all in the moment. However, with an array of styles and techniques to choose from, it can be hard for new practitioners to negotiate the moving parts and find their own individuality. In this practical guide, Artistic Director and improv expert Jason Moran explores the basic pillars of improvisation and explains how to practically apply these in an improvised scene, game or situation. Each chapter showcases a different pillar and offers a practical checklist to make each scene interesting and robust. This helpful book unpacks and analyses real-life improvised examples from the stage, rehearsal room and classroom, illustrating to the reader what works well and what could work better, making it essential reading for actors, presenters and anyone who wants to increase their confidence in public performances.

"A Wonderful, Gentle Teacher" gives the reader a glimpse of rural life on a family farm in Northeastern Wisconsin in the early 1920's and 1930's. See life in rural Northeastern Wisconsin through the eyes of a young child, adolescent, young man, coach, experienced teacher, father and retired educator's eyes. Read about the physical setup, classroom environment, instructional techniques and responsibilities of the old "grade one through eight," one-room schools of the 1930's and 1940's. Learn what was required and expected of an upper-midwest prospective teacher as he prepared for and pursued a career as an educator in mid-20th century America.

Jason Statham has risen from street seller through championship diving and modelling to become arguably the biggest British male film star of the twenty-first century. This is the first book to offer a critical analysis of his work across a variety of media, including film, television, video games and music videos. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of Statham's career, from his distinctive screen presence to his style, branding and celebrity. Accessibly written, and featuring a contribution from Hollywood director Paul Feig, who worked with Statham on the 2015 action-comedy Spy, the collection will appeal to a wide audience of scholars, students and fans. -- .

The Evolution of Aesthetic and Expressive Dance in Boston provides a regional history of the physical education pioneers who established the groundwork for women to participate in movement and expression. Their schools and their writing offer insights into the powerful cultural changes that were reconfiguring women's perceptions of their bodies in motion. The book examines the history from the first successful school of ballroom dance run by Lorenzo Papanti to the establishment of the Braggiotti School by Berthe and Francesca Braggiotti (two wealthy Bostonian socialites who used their power and money to support dance in Boston). The Delsartean ideas about beauty and the expressive capacity of the body freed upper-class women to explore movement beyond social dance and to enjoy movement as artistic self expression. Their interest and pleasure in early "parlor forms" engaged them as sponsors and advocates of expressive dance. Although revolutionaries such as Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis also garnered support from Boston and New York's social sets, in Boston the relationship of the city's elite and its native dancers was both intimate and ongoing. The Braggiotti sisters did not use this support to embark on international tours; instead they founded a school that educated the children of their sponsors and offered performances for their own community. Although later artists, Miriam Winslow and Hans Weiner, did tour nationally and internationally, the intimate relationships they maintained with the upper echelon of Boston society required that they remain sensitive to the needs of their students and their community. Through the study of these schools, the reader is offered a unique perspective on the evolution of expressive dance as it unfolded in Boston and its environs. The Evolution of Aesthetic and Expressive Dance in Boston is an important book for those interested in dance history, women's studies, and regional histories.

Thanks to the globalization of media, stars and celebrities are increasingly important figures in the transnational circulation of not only films but also ideas about identity and personhood. Combining a diverse range of case studies with an innovative collaborative discussion between leading scholars in star studies and transnational cinema, this book analyzes stars as sites of cross-cultural contestation. The contributors examine the phenomenon of global stardom as an important locus to help individuals better understand the construction of gender, race, nationality, and the individual as well as the importance of stars within transnational film industries. In a world in which cinema and its audiences are increasingly mobile, the essays in this collection explore how the plasticity of stars may help disparate peoples manage the shifting ideologies of a transnational world.

Judy Garland was an entertainment icon whose performances on stage, screen and television had a tremendous impact across decades and media. This film-by-film study of her work follows her progression from pig-tailed child to a top motion picture star, with such timeless classics as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis, and A Star is Born. Garland's talent and versatility as an actress are explored through each of her movie roles. More than just a reference filmography, this work examines how Garland's talents were realized and understood by producers and the world. It analyzes the star's relatonships with various co-stars and directors and details how she balanced her painful insecurities with her often focused and driven approach to her work. Through the context of her work on film, Judy Garland's innate and enduring star power is readily appreciated and acknowledged.

William Forsythe's reinvigoration of classical ballet during his 20-year tenure at the Ballett Frankfurt saw him lauded as one of the greatest choreographers of the postwar era. His current work with The Forsythe Company has gone even further to challenge and investigate fundamental assumptions about choreography itself.

William Forsythe and the Practice of Choreography presents a diverse range of critical writings on his work, with illuminating analysis of his practice from an interdisciplinary perspective. The book also contains insightful working testaments from Forsythe's collaborators, as well as a contribution from the choreographer himself.

With essays covering all aspects of Forsythe's past and current work, readers are provided with an unparalleled view into the creative world of this visionary artist, as well as a comprehensive resource for students, scholars, and practitioners of ballet and contemporary dance today.

Margaret Rutherford was without a doubt one of Britain' s best-loved comic actresses. But behind the kindly, serene front Rutherford presented to the world lay a life of trauma and repeated nervous breakdown - the legacy of the legacy of family tragedy that saw her father murder her grandfather during a bout of mental illness and her depressive mother later kill herself. Andy Merriman' s acclaimed biography intrigued and shocked readers with these revelations when it was published in hardback. Now out in paperback, it is also a portrait of one of our most individual actresses. Rutherford appeared in such thoroughly English classics as Blithe Spirit, The importance of Being Earnest, Passport to Pimlico and I' m All Right, Jack! But above all she was Miss Marple, in four films - and entirely created for the screen the role of Agatha Christie' s elderly and fearless private detective that subsequent actresses like Joan Hickson and Geraldine McEwan have continued. Rutherford first played Miss Marple at the age of 70, and insisted on wearing her own clothes to feel right in the part. Above all, this was a vulnerable woman whom no-one failed to like and respect, notable again and again for quiet acts of kindness, whose life story has great appeal to everyone who appreciates both classic English comedy and simple human decency.

VOLUME TWO OF TWO. France. Germany. Italy. Russia. Poland. Czech Republic. Romania. Mexico. Japan. Iran. All over the world -- everywhere except in the U.S. -- the legendary Jean Gabin continues to be considered one of the greatest movie stars of all time. In the U.S., he's definitely considered to be a cult figure (in 2002, twin Gabin festivals were presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and at the Walter Reade Theatres in New York), but for the vast moviegoing public, and just like a lot of the greats, he's fallen off of the radar.

That's about to change, however, because in 2008, Allenwood Press presents the very first English-language (and two-volume ) book about Jean Gabin, ever. (There's not even an old, out-of-print book about Gabin in English, if you can believe that )

WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR: THE COMPLETE 95 FILMS (AND LEGEND)OF JEAN GABIN by CHARLES ZIGMAN VOLUME TWO, which has been subtitled "Comeback/Patriarch," covers Films 47 through 95, which Gabin made between 1954 and 1976. During this period of his career, instead of playing his famous tragic drifter character, he played a series of mega-cool gentleman-criminals, and world-weary (yet life-loving) patriarchs, and he even turned out some hilarious comedies during this period, which are criminally unknown in the U.S. The tone of the book is "fun," as opposed to "academic" and "pretentious," and its goal, is to introduce as many people as possible to the films of Gabin; to that end, this book is loaded with rare photographs, many of which have never appeared even in previously published French-language books about Gabin.

This is a book for Jean Gabin 'newbies' and 'completists' both: For the uninitiated, there are some biography and 'intro' chapters which place Gabin, and his famous big-screen persona into perspective. For the completists, I (the author) have 'unpacked' every single one of Jean Gabin's ninety-five theatrical feature films, even the more than fifty pictures which have never been subtitled into English before, so that readers can feel, by poring through the chapters, that they are actually seeing the films, first-hand. Excerpts from newspapers written 'back in the day, ' both in the U.S. and in Europe, show how prominent movie critics received Gabin's pictures the day they were first released, in the 1930s through the 1970s.

In short this two-volume book is for everybody. Besides being the first books about Jean Gabin in the English language, WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR is also a first, because it happens to be the very first filmography book related to Gabin in any language: Even in France, where there have been many published biographies of Jean Gabin, there has never been a book concentrating on each of the actor's ninety-five films.

Brigitte Bardot contributed an original foreword to Volume Two. (VOLUME ONE IS AVAILABLE SEPARATELY - ISBN #978-0-9799722-0-1.)

What did modern theatre in Russia look like and how did it foreground tradition building and transmission processes? The book challenges conventional historiographical approaches by weaving contemporary theories on cultural transmission into its historical narrative. It argues that processes of transmission - training spaces, acting manuals, photographic evidence, newspaper reports, international networking, informal encounters, cultural memories - contribute to the formation and consolidation of theatre traditions. Through English translations of rare Russian sources, the book expounds on: *side-lined material on Stanislavsky, including his relationship with German actor Ludwig Barnay, use of improvisation at the First Studio, and rehearsal practices for Artists and Admirers (1933); *Valentin Smyshlaev's acting manual The Technique to Process Stage Performance and the creation of hybrid practices; *proletarian theatre as an amateur-professional combination and force in the transformation of everyday life, as seen in the Proletkult's volume Art at the Workers' Clubs; *Meyerhold's Borodin Studio as an early example of Practice as Research, his European tour of 1930, and international persona as depicted in newspapers published in the West; and *Asja Lacis's work with children, which contributes to current efforts to address the gender imbalance that is often characteristic of modernism. This historical-theoretical investigation is combined with practical exercises that provide a more experiential understanding of the modern performance realities involved. In this way, the book speaks not only to theatre scholars and historians, but also to students and practitioners engaged in practical work.

In 1965, the young illustrator Edward Sorel discovered a treasure in his railroad flat on Manhattan's Upper East Side: issues of the New York Daily News and Daily Mirror from 1936 ablaze with a trial taking place in Hollywood. Mary Astor was enough of a star to make headlines when it came out that George S. Kaufman, then the most successful playwright on Broadway and a married man, had been her lover. The scandal revolved around Mary's diary which her ex-husband had found. Its contents forced her to give up custody of their daughter in order to obtain a divorce. Mary, he claimed, had not only kept a tally of all her extramarital affairs but graded them-and he had alerted the press. Mary Astor's Purple Diary narrates and illustrates the travails of the Oscar-winning actress alongside Sorel's own story of discovering an unlikely muse.

VOLUME ONE OF TWO. (VOLUME TWO AVAILABLE SEPARATELY.) France. Germany. Italy. Russia. Poland. Czech Republic. Romania. Mexico. Japan. Iran. All over the world -- everywhere except in the U.S. -- the legendary Jean Gabin continues to be considered one of the greatest movie stars of all time.

In the U.S., Gabin is definitely considered to be a cult figure (in 2002, twin Gabin festivals were presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and at the Walter Reade Theatres in New York), but for the vast moviegoing public, and just like a lot of the greats, he's fallen off of the radar.

That's about to change, however, because in 2008, Allenwood Press presents the very first English-language (and two-volume) book about Jean Gabin, ever. (There's not even an old, out-of-print book about Gabin in English, if you can believe that ) It's WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR: THE COMPLETE 95 FILMS (AND LEGEND) OF JEAN GABIN by CHARLES ZIGMAN.

VOLUME ONE, which has been subtitled "Tragic Drifter," takes us through Gabin's first forty-six films, including the internationally renowned "Grand Illusion" and "Pepe Le Moko," a period spanning the years 1930 to 1953, during which time he played movie history's most famous tragic drifter. During the 1930s and 1940s, Gabin's popularity in the U.S. nearly eclipsed that of Bogart, James Cagney, and Bette Davis. (Ever heard anybody say, "Come with me to the Casbah. We will make ze beautiful muzeek togezaire?" It was famously attributed to the character Jean Gabin portrayed in the 1937 gangster classic "Pepe Le Moko," even though he never actually uttered those words. In fact Gabin's 'Pepe' character even inspired Warner Bros. to create its legendary cartoon skunk, Pepe Le Pew, whose looks and voice were modeled on the actor.)

The tone of the book is "fun," as opposed to "academic" and "pretentious," and its goal is to introduce as many people as possible to the films of Gabin; to that end, it's loaded with rare photographs, many of which have never appeared even in previously published French-language books about Gabin. This is a book for Jean Gabin 'newbies' and 'completists' both: For the uninitiated, there are some biography and 'intro' chapters, which place Gabin, and his famous big-screen persona into perspective. For the completists, author Charles Zigman has unpacked every single one of Jean Gabin's ninety-five theatrical feature films -- even the more than fifty pictures which have never been subtitled into English before -- so that one can feel, by poring through the chapters, that one is actually 'seeing' the films, firsthand. Excerpts from newspapers written 'back in the day, ' both in the U.S. and in Europe, demonstrate how prominent movie critics received Gabin's pictures the day they were first released, in the 1930s through the 1970s.

In short this two-volume book is for everybody. Besides being the first books about Jean Gabin in the English language ever, WORLD'S COOLEST MOVIE STAR is also a first because it is the very first 'filmography book' related to Gabin, in any language: Even in France, where there have been many published biographies of Jean Gabin, there has never been a book concentrating, in great detail on each of the actor's ninety-five films. The legendary actress Michele Morgan, who appeared with Gabin in five feature films, has written the foreword to Volume One. ALSO AVAILABLE: VOLUME TWO (ISBN # 978-0-9799722-1-8).