By Fiona Whelpton

ISBN: 9781847471253
Published: 2007
Pages: 184
Key Themes: conversion syndrome disorder, anxiety, abuse, activism, christianity

""After reading The Cycle Path I came away with a better understanding of the issues sufferers face and of the opportunities."" - Sir Nigel Crisp, Former NHS Chief Executive

""Delightful and full of expression and pathos."" - Sheila Johnson, Christian Herald

Description

The remarkable story of a woman who suffers from and overcomes Conversion Syndrome Disorder (CSD), a rare, crippling and extremely frightening condition which causes physical paralysis bought on by anxiety. This real life story describes how Fiona experienced domestic abuse, family problems and how she managed somehow to overcome all this not knowing for years what her illness was. She is now a successful journalist and activist. The Cycle Path is an admirable story of hope and empowerment and is essential reading for all health workers and sufferers of similar conditions - particularly as CSD is so unknown and widely misunderstood.

About the Author

Fiona Whelpton was born in London on in 1957 and now lives in Nottingham. As a youngster Fiona wanted to become a professional musician, but she couldn't because it caused her too much stress - something that her condition dictates she must avoid. Instead she became interested in writing and read English Literature and Media at Nottingham Trent University. She is an accomplished poet having had an anthology of sketch work and poetry called 'Patchwork Windows' published with the 'Lost Artists' group. In 2004 Fiona received the Snowden award which will allow her to pursue her dream of being a top journalist, she is currently working on several projects including a film version of 'The Cycle Path'.

The official tie-in to Broadway's hit musical Waitress, featuring the recipes for 3 dozen of the show's most evocative and delicious pies. In the cult classic movie-turned-Broadway production, the eternally optimistic protagonist of Waitress expresses her hopes, dreams, fears, and frustrations through the whimsically named pies she bakes each morning. Sugar, Butter, Flour celebrates this art of baking from the heart, with foolproof and flavorful pies for seduction, pies for mending a broken heart, pies for celebrating new beginnings and pies for all the little milestones that come afterwards. Taking its inspiration from the iconic mile-high pies of the diner case, Sugar, Butter, Flour offers an array of showstopping pies, each with a twist that puts it over the top; from rum-spiked cookie crusts to hidden layers of passion fruit preserves, these are familiar favorites with hidden depths. The ideal gift for anyone who has ever eaten her feelings or baked away the blues, Sugar, Butter, Flour proves there's a perfect pie for every occasion - and that everything looks better with pie.

You can learn from "Notes Compared With Charles" why you'll want to pursue sitting in an opera house for four evenings to experience the Wagner Ring of four operas.If you already know the value of experiencing the Ring operas, you can buy "Notes Compared With Charles" for someone who will be a first-timer.There is no other live performance like Wagner's Ring cycle: no stage play, no other opera, no rock concert, no IMAX film, no tour through a theme park, no home entertainment center sensory flood.The Wagner Ring is a profoundly complex work on its face and can become even more interesting depending on who is interpreting what Wagner wrote. As long as individuals approach the Ring with their own senses, it can remain a mighty portrait of passionate characters, available for identification, empathy and awe, regardless of the production.Buy this companion book to go with the Ring stories that you'll find inside the opera program describing the saga in full.

This book is concerned with a hundred years of musical drama in England. It charts the development of the genre from the theatre works of Henry Purcell (and his contemporaries) to the dramatic oratorios of George Frideric Handel (and his). En route it investigates the objections to all-sung drama in English that were articulated in the decades around 1700, various proposed solutions, the importation of Italian opera, and the creation of the dramatic oratorio - English drama, all-sung but not staged. Most of the constituent essays take an in-depth look at a particular aspect of the process, while others draw attention to dramatic qualities in non-dramatic works that also were performed in the theatre. The journey from Purcell to Handel illustrates the vigour and vitality of English theatrical and musical traditions, and Handel's dramatic oratorios and other settings of English words answer questions posed before he was born.

Think about it. Think what you could achieve without women in your life. If all the time you spent on them, you spent on yourself. Think how much money you could save. Think how much aggravation you could avoid. Journeying over from the West Indies to England, Ferdy, Lennie, Dennis and Bernie are all eager to make successes of themselves and take full advantage of what they think The Big Life has to offer. So they pledge to abstain from women for three years. But Mary, Kathy, Zuleika and Sybil have other ideas. They know that man cannot live by bread alone! Will the men stick with their idea of The Big Life, or will Cupid have the final say? The Big Life is a brand new musical, a wonderfully upbeat story of unrequited love and a great comedy all rolled into one.

As one of the most beloved and beguiling genres of entertainment, the film musical wears its style ostentatiously. The genre allows for hyperbolic expression, extravagant sonic and visual dA (c)cor, and extremely stylized forms of movement and performance. By staging a glittering spectacle, by releasing a current of lush sentiment, by unveiling a world of elegance and romance, the film musical woos us with patterns, textures, finesse and sensory display. In this book, author Lloyd Whitesell asks what, exactly, makes film musicals so glamorous. As he argues, glamour projects an aura of ethereality or sophistication by way of suave deportment, sensuous textures, elevated styles, and aesthetically refined effects. Glamour, in other words, is what unites "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat and the title song from Beauty and the Beast, each a sonic evocation of luxury, sparkle, grace, and finesse. Whitesell redirects our attention from visual cues like sequins and evening gloves to explore how glamour resides in the sonic. Discussing dozens of musical numbers, analyzing ingenious orchestration, and appraising the distinctive styles of favorite musical stars, Whitesell illuminates fundamental traits of the genre, its aesthetic strategies, and cultural ambitions.

For Ethan Mordden, the closing night of the hit musical, "42nd St." sounded the death knell of the art form of the Broadway musical. After that, big orchestras, real voices, recognizable books and intelligent lyrics went out the window in favor of cats, helicopters, yodeling Frenchmen, and the roof of the Paris Opera. Mordden takes us through the aftermath of the days of the great Broadway musical. From the long-running "Cats" to "Miss Saigon," "Phantom," and "Les Miserables," to gems like "The Producers," he is unsparing in his look at the remains of the day. Not content to scold the shows' creators, Mordden takes on the critics, too, splaying their bodies across the Great White Way like Sweeney Todd giving a close shave. Once more, it's "curtain going up," but Mordden is not applauding.

In the 1960s, the Broadway musical underwent a revolution. What was once a form of entertainment characterized by sentimental standards, such as Camelot and Hello, Dolly! became one of brilliant and bittersweet masterpieces, such as Cabaret and Fiddler on the Roof. In Open a New Window, Mordden continues his history of the Broadway musical with the decade that bridged the gap between the fanciful shows of the fifties, such as Call Me, Madam, and the sophisticated fare of the seventies, including A Little Night Music and Follies. Here in brilliant detail are the decade and the people that transformed the Broadway musical--from the writer who knows it best.

Ever After is more than a detailed show-by-show history of the last quarter century in American musical theater. It explains how the storied Broadway tradition in many cases went so very wrong. Singer takes the reader behind the scenes for an unparalleled look at A Chorus Line's final bow, the creation of Rent, the real people behind Disney's uber-musicals, and even an afternoon with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ever After also celebrates the promise of the next generation of young musical theater artists, especially Adam Guettel, Michael John LaChiusa, Ricky Ian Gordon and Jason Robert Brown, addressing not only their work to date, but their future projects. There is no other book currently available that covers this period and subject. Through his work for The New York Times, Singer has interviewed virtually everyone of significance. They are all here, very much speaking for themselves. Ever After is both anecdotal and analytical, featuring personality profiles of important creative figures, from Jule Styne to Stephen Sondheim to Jonathan Larson, while critically evaluating all of the many musicals produced during the past 25 years. Sure to generate debate, this is a book written not only for the musical theater aficionado, but for anyone who has seen a Broadway musical or has just enjoyed the movie version of Chicago and is curious to know more.

The greatest partnership in the history of the musical, captured in print, wonderfully illustrated. For this new edition, the book has been completely rewritten and substantially expanded to include material on Rodgers' early career with Lorenz Hart as well as his later work, and also features recollections from such theatrical titans as Sheldon Harnick, Martin Charnin, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents. Also, a completely new appendix reveals the details of the continuing worldwide phenomenon of Rodgers and Hammerstein's work up to and including the 2002 centennial year for Rodgers.

(Applause Libretto Library). "Full of brilliance It's a blockbuster and a mold-breaker. A one-of-a-kind Broadway musical. I loved it " Clive Barnes, The New York Post "A delightful salute to the human spirit " David Hinckley, The Daily News " Monty works on every level and is the kind of audience-pleaser that Broadway desperately needs." Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

Rarely is a book about the theatre as entertaining and informative as Stephen Citron's new guidebook to the creation of the musical. Filled with anecdotes, practical advice, and sparkling comments from the biggest Broadway insiders, The Musical from the Inside Out examines this major theatrical form from the creator's point of view. Mr. Citron takes the reader through basic training and onto finding and securing material, writing the libretto, adding the songs, auditioning the players, workshopping, rehearsals, previews, and the excitement of opening night. He reveals the secrets of success as well as some of the common pitfalls of failure. "There's never been a book like this," wrote a columnist from London's West End. Mr. Citron's bounty of information comes from his own vast experience; from interviews with well-known directors, producers, lyricists, composers, librettists, stage managers, and scenic artists; and from such luminaries as Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Hal Prince, Jerome Robbins, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, and Fred Ebb. The Musical From the Inside Out is an adventure for musical fans and required reading for professionals or amateurs involved in creating a musical.

Today, most remember ""California Girl"" Lillian Frances Smith (1871-1930) as Annie Oakley's chief competitor in the small world of the Wild West shows' female shooters. But the two women were quite different: Oakley's conservative ""prairie beauty"" persona clashed with Smith's tendency to wear flashy clothes and keep company with the cowboys and American Indians she performed with. This lively first biography chronicles the Wild West showbiz life that Smith led and explores the talents that made her a star. Drawing on family records, press accounts, interviews, and numerous other sources, historian Julia Bricklin peels away the myths that enshroud Smith's fifty-year career. Known as ""The California Huntress"" before she was ten years old, Smith was a professional sharpshooter by the time she reached her teens, shooting targets from the back of a galloping horse in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West. Not only did Cody offer $10,000 to anyone who could beat her, but he gave her top billing, setting the stage for her rivalry with Annie Oakley. Being the best female sharpshooter in the United States was not enough, however, to differentiate Lillian Smith from Oakley and a growing number of ladylike cowgirls. So Smith reinvented herself as ""Princess Wenona,"" a Sioux with a violent and romantic past. Performing with Cody and other showmen such as Pawnee Bill and the Miller brothers, Smith led a tumultuous private life, eventually taking up the shield of a forged Indian persona. The morals of the time encouraged public criticism of Smith's lack of Victorian femininity, and the press's tendency to play up her rivalry with Oakley eventually overshadowed Smith's own legacy. In the end, as author Julia Bricklin shows, Smith cared more about living her life on her own terms than about her public image. Unlike her competitors who shot to make a living, Lillian Smith lived to shoot.

As the first decade of the twenty-first century has made brutally clear, the very definitions of war and the enemy have changed almost beyond recognition. Threats to security are now as likely to come from armed propagandists, popular militias, or mercenary organizations as they are from conventional armies backed by nation-states. In this timely book, national security expert Max G. Manwaring explores a little-understood actor on the stage of irregular warfare - the gang.Since the end of the Cold War, some one hundred insurgencies or irregular wars have erupted throughout the world. Gangs have figured prominently in more than half of those conflicts, yet these and other nonstate actors have received little focused attention from scholars or analysts. This book fills that void. Employing a case study approach, and believing that shadows from the past often portend the future, Manwaring begins with a careful consideration of the writings of V. I. Lenin. He then scrutinizes the Piqueteros in Argentina, gangs in Colombia, private armies in Mexico, Hugo Chavez's use of popular militias in Venezuela, and the looming threat of Al Qaeda in Western Europe. As conventional warfare is increasingly eclipsed by these irregular and ""uncomfortable"" wars, Manwaring boldly diagnoses the problem and recommends solutions that policymakers should heed.

An accessible and engaging second workbook on musical theatre, presenting students with the next steps for extending their skills in acting, dancing and singing. Filled with imaginative practical and theoretical exercises, this workbook reveals the anatomy of musical theatre and offers inspiration, challenges and companionship along the path to successful performance. In so doing, it enables students to structure their time and hone their abilities, so that they can achieve their full potential in what is seen as an exciting but intimidating field. Through this interactive approach, students are challenged to take responsibility for their own learning and development, by closely examining the acting, singing and choreographic demands of musical theatre. This is an ideal text for undergraduate students on musical theatre degree programmes, and general theatre and performance programmes where optional modules on Musical Theatre are offered. In addition, this resource is well suited to students taking accredited and non-accredited Diploma courses in musical theatre.

They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play. Their songs and dance numbers served to advance the drama and reveal character, a sharp break from the past and the template on which all future musicals would be built. Though different in personality and often emotionally distant from each other, Rodgers and Hammerstein presented an unbroken front to the world and forged much more than a songwriting team; their partnership was also one of the most profitable and powerful entertainment businesses of their era. They were cultural powerhouses whose work came to define postwar America on stage, screen, television, and radio. But they also had their failures and flops, and more than once they feared they had lost their touch. Todd S. Purdum's portrait of these two men, their creative process, and their groundbreaking innovations will captivate lovers of musical theater, lovers of the classic American songbook, and lovers in general. He shows that what Rodgers and Hammerstein wrought was truly something wonderful.

"Welfare State International are brilliant at making an audience of strangers into a community" (Guardian)

Since its foundation by John Fox in 1968, Welfare State International has developed a unique form of celebratory theatre that reaches popular audiences through remarkable combinations of archetypal and contemporary imagery. This handbook is a guide to the basic techniques of the company's work - the making of processions; large scale puppets and sculptures; fixed structures; fire and ice technology; shadow puppets; processional theatre and dance music - set in a context that explains the thinking behind the work, and describes some past Welfare State International events. This is first and foremost a practical book rather than an academic treatise.

A new look at artist Oscar Hammerstein II as a pivotal and underestimated force in the creation of modern American culture You know his work-Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Carousel, The King and I. But you don't really know Oscar Hammerstein II, the man who, more than anyone else, invented the American musical. Among the most commercially successful artists of his time, he was a fighter for social justice who constantly prodded his audiences to be better than they were. Diving deep into Hammerstein's life, examining his papers and his lyrics, critic Laurie Winer shows how he orchestrated a collective reimagining of America, urging it forward with a subtly progressive vision of the relationship between country and city, rich and poor, America and the rest of the world. His rejection of bitterness, his openness to strangers, and his optimistic humor shaped not only the musical but the American dream itself. His vision can continue to be a touchstone to this day.

Bob Fosse (1927-1987) is recognized as one of the most significant figures in post-World War II American musical theater. With his first Broadway musical, The Pajama Game in 1954, the "Fosse style" was already fully developed, with its trademark hunched shoulders, turned-in stance, and stuttering, staccato jazz movements. Fosse moved decisively into the role of director with Redhead in 1959 and was a key figure in the rise of the director-choreographer in the Broadway musical. He also became the only star director of musicals of his era-a group that included Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Michael Kidd, and Harold Prince-to equal his Broadway success in films. Following his unprecedented triple crown of show business awards in 1973 (an Oscar for Cabaret, Emmy for Liza with a Z, and Tony for Pippin), Fosse assumed complete control of virtually every element of his projects. But when at last he had achieved complete autonomy, his final efforts, the film Star 80 and the musical Big Deal, written and directed by Fosse, were rejected by audiences and critics. A fascinating look at the evolution of Fosse as choreographer and director, Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical considers Fosse's career in the context of changes in the Broadway musical theater over four decades. It traces his early dance years and the importance of mentors George Abbott and Jerome Robbins on his work. It examines how each of the important women in his adult life-all dancers-impacted his career and influenced his dance aesthetic. Finally, the book investigates how his evolution as both artist and individual mirrored the social and political climate of his era and allowed him to comfortably ride a wave of cultural changes.

Show and Tell: The New Book of Broadway Anecdotes is a lively, funny and sometimes touching look at the adventures of some of Broadway's most colorful practitioners. From authors, directors, actors, producers and designers to the myriad other folk involved keeping the fabulous invalid alive, Far from a dry repetition of names, facts, and figures, Show and Tell offers up a history of Broadway shows and its practitioners from a skewed prospective in all their idiosyncratic glory.