Delightful activity book for older children (and adults, too) shows how to create 34 fascinating shadows on a wall simply by positioning hands and fingers. Learn how to make a bird take flight, a duck quack, Toby the dog wag his tail, a rabbit munch his meal, and more.

A practical, accessible and inspiring guide to using puppetry in theatre - the perfect entry point for anyone looking to use puppets in their productions, to explore what puppets can do, or to develop their puppetry skills. Written by an experienced theatre and puppetry director, Puppetry: How to Do It focuses on the performer and the craft of bringing any puppet to life. No puppet-making is required to use this book: starting just with simple objects, it lays out the skills required to unlock a puppet's limitless potential for expression and connection with an audience. Inside you'll discover fifty practical, easy-to-follow exercises - for use in a group or on your own - to develop elements of the craft, build confidence and help you improve your puppetry through play and improvisation. Also included are sections on different types of puppet, thinking about how the puppeteer is presented on stage and how to direct and devise puppet performances Ideal for actors and performers, for directors and designers, and for teachers and students of all ages and levels of experience, this book will demystify the art of puppetry, and help you become more confident and creative with all kinds of puppets and objects on stage. 'Based on the workshops he developed for training performers for War Horse, Mervyn has written this book to share his craft... the exercises are clear and easily reproducible for many different types of participants... a wonderful gift to the field of puppetry. I hope that it will be used widely to introduce adventurous spirits to this dynamic art form.' Cheryl Henson, President of the Jim Henson Foundation, from her Foreword.

Featuring a wide array of iconic rock posters, period photographs, music memorabilia and light shows, "out-of-this-world" clothing, and avant-garde films, this catalogue celebrates San Francisco's rebellious and colorful counterculture that blossomed in the years surrounding the 1967 Summer of Love. This book explores, through essays and a succession of thematic plates, the visual and material cultures of a generation searching for personal fulfillment and social change. Presenting key cultural artifacts of the time, Summer of Love introduces and explores the events and experiences that today define this dynamic era. With essays by Victoria Binder, Dennis McNally, and Joel Selvin. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco: April 8-August 20, 2017

Dudley Riggs didn't have to run away from home to join the circus. Home was the circus. Son of the acclaimed aerial flyers Riggs and Riggs, he made his circus debut as a polar prince parading in a wagon pulled by a polar bear. At the age of five, he graduated to a risque vaudeville act during the circus off- season; at eight, he outgrew his cutes (and his child stardom) and joined his high-flying parents on the trapeze. Eventually he had to learn to "fly funny" because he grew too tall to fly straight. In one way or another, Riggs has been flying ever since. The rest, as they say, is history. And what a story it is. In Flying Funny, Riggs shares many highs and lows while describing circus life and the evolution of America's popular entertainment during the twentieth century. From his early life in circus and vaudeville to his creation of the Brave New Workshop, we see how his show business experience and instincts helped him create in Minneapolis what became the "next wave" in American entertainment-improvisation. As a young man, Riggs lost everything in a tornado, got an education on the fly, and sailed with the All American circus to post-war Japan. On a slow boat home and restless about his future, he developed the idea of Word Jazz-creating a script on stage as it is being performed-and shortly after he opened the Instant Theater in New York. Later, he moved to Minneapolis where he founded the Brave New Workshop, launching the careers of comic greats such as Penn and Teller, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Louie Anderson, Peter Tolan, Pat Proft, Nancy Steen, Liz Winstead, Al Franken and many others. Today, the Brave New Workshop thrives as the longest running improvisational theater in America. From flying funny on the trapeze to theater without a net, Dudley Riggs's story is filled with hearty laughs and eyebrow-raising insights. With a wry sense of humor and infectious warmth, he shares the exhilaration of flying whether through the air or on the stage.

The mysterious art of magic has been a source of wonderment since before the time of Christ. Shape shifting between the supernatural practices of 'real' magic and demonstrations of dazzling illusion, magic has been used to conjure the evil eye, burn villages to the ground, slice women in half, and save men from being crushed to death by five tonnes of cement. Robert Ralley's history takes us deep into this magical underworld to reveal the astounding stories of some of the world's greatest magicians. From the astrology of the three wise men to Harry Houdini's escapology, and David Blain's endurance tests, Ralley illustrates the changing perceptions of magic and the dangerous balance between illusion, fraud, and devilry that still exists today.

For a time, the Isle of Wight Festivals transformed a sleepy English island into the rock'n'roll capital of the world. From promoting a one-nighter in 1968, to raise funds for a local swimming pool, the young Foulk brothers were able to out-perform Woodstock, by signing the world-exclusive appearance of rock's poet laureate, Bob Dylan. The de facto leader of the counterculture had been hidden away in the artist-town of Woodstock, rarely seen after a motor cycle accident three years earlier. He turned his back on the eponymous festival, put there to persuade him to come out and play, but Dylan left for Europe on the day their event began. For the Foulk brothers - lacking experience, resources and time - the coup and ensuing public response was almost overwhelming, but with audacious bravado and steely determination they delivered the most awaited event of the era. Devotees from hippies to celebrities flocked to the Island from mainland Britain, Europe, the Americas and as far away as Australia. As well as changing the lives of Ray and his brothers the phenomenon played its part in a highly transformative period for Bob Dylan, in which the Isle of Wight remained his one and only full concert appearance in seven-and-a-half years.

The ultimate book of magic for kids from a world-famous magician, complete with photographs for easy to follow instructions. From one of the world's premier practitioners of classic magic, with years of experience instructing younger readers in the magical arts, comes this new revision of his complete guide to learning and performing fantastic feats of prestidigitation. Acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as "the text that young magicians swear by," it's full of step-by-step instructions. More than 2,000 illustrations provide the know-how behind 300 techniques, from basic card tricks to advanced levitation, along with advice on planning and staging a professional-quality magic show.

Please note this is a 'Palgrave to Order' title (PTO). Stock of this book requires shipment from an overseas supplier. It will be delivered to you within 12 weeks. This study analyses the history of puppet, mask, and performing object theatre in the United States over the past 150 years to understand how a peculiarly American mixture of global cultures, commercial theatre, modern-art idealism, and mechanical innovation reinvented the ancient art of puppetry.

Each summer a small and glamorous part of the 1930s comes back to life, recreating magic from an era long past. Evoking a tradition common in the English countryside before the arrival of radio, cinema and television, since 2000 Giffords Circus has delighted fans from far and wide with good old-fashioned entertainment, complete with acrobats, jugglers, horses, magic, puppeteers, dancers and comedy. Lavishly illustrated with a wealth of stunning colour photographs, Giffords Circus goes behind the scenes at the not-so-big top, to show how the magic and mystery are created.

In a dusty corner at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Norway lie the remains of Julia Pastrana, half hidden in a black plastic sack, all but forgotten. Yet in the middle of the nineteenth century, this 'ape woman' was renowned, visited by scientists of international repute, and drawing the populace of three continents to the freakshows in which she starred. Just 4ft 6in tall, she was covered in hair, with a protruding jaw; but she also spoke several languages, married, had a child, made money. This is the compelling and strange story of how a woman born in the backwoods of Mexico came to be one of the most infamous women in Europe and America and how, nearly 150 years after she first set foot upon the stage, Julia is still being shown to others. The exhibition goes on.

Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-71) is often called the father of modern conjuring. His name was later adopted by magician and escape artist Harry Houdini, whose highly sceptical expose of Victorian spiritualism is also published in this series. The best-known magician of his time, Robert-Houdin toured France, England and Germany, performed for Queen Victoria, and was sent to French Algeria by Napoleon III to demonstrate the perceived superiority of French magic to the local shamans. This book, originally published in 1868, is devoted primarily to coin and card tricks, but Robert-Houdin also describes many other magical tricks and includes a history of conjuring. In 1877 the book appeared in this English translation by Louis Hoffmann (1839-1919). Hoffmann (real name Angelo John Lewis, a barrister) had published his own guide to magic in 1876, and both books caused controversy for revealing the secrets of stage magicians in such unprecedented detail.

One of the most distinctive features of Chinese culture is the great variety of unique festivals that has evolved over the course of China's long history. Chinese festivals are deeply rooted in popular tradition and despite China's many changes they remain firmly established as part of the country's vibrant culture. Chinese Festivals introduces a representative selection of these celebrated traditions with full color illustrations, providing a flavor of the diversity and development of traditional Chinese culture.

This stunningly illustrated book introduces for the first time the beauty of theatre puppets from all major Asian traditions, taking the reader on an inspiring journey through hundreds of years of craftsmanship and creativity in nearly 350 glorious photographs. Asian Theatre Puppets will have immense appeal both to audiences with an interest in the Asian arts, as well as to the general reader, as it opens up a whole realm of artistic expression that has hitherto been largely unknown in the West.

The team behind Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN), bring you Conjuring with Computation: A Manual of Magic and Computing for Beginners. Develop your skills to be a magician while also learning the basics of computer science by exploring its links to magic. Each chapter explains how to do a simple magic trick, step-by-step, then uses the trick to introduce linked fundamental ideas in computer science in a fun way.By reading the book you will learn to do self-working tricks, be able to hold magic shows, create you own versions of tricks and with creativity even invent your own. We cover:The book includes profiles of computer scientists, and magicians with links to technology, through history.Master conjuring and thinking computationally.

The global rise of festival culture and experience has taken over that which used to merely be events. The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals provides an up-to-date, contextualized account of the worldwide reach and impact of the 'festivalization' of culture. It introduces new methodologies for the study of the global network of theatre production using digital humanities, raises questions about how alternative origin stories might impact the study of festivals, investigates the festivalized production of space in the world's 'Festival Cities', and re-examines the social role and cultural work of twenty-first-century theatre, performance, and multi-arts festivals. With chapters on festivals in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Arab world, the francophone world, Europe, North America, and Latin America it analyses festivals as sites of intercultural negotiation and exchange.

Your pets can rival movie stars with these easy tricks from the trainer behind the Harry Potter movies, Julie Tottman. Whether your cat is clever, cheeky, kooky or cuddly, this perfect gift for cat lovers everywhere reveals easy tricks to make them the envy of their friends. Trick-training is a simple and fun way to bond with your cat whilst keeping him or her stimulated and active, and there is no one better placed to show you how to do it than Julie. Over the last twenty years, Julie has been the animal trainer behind a whole host of major Hollywood blockbusters - from the Harry Potter franchise to Lassie, The Dark Knight, 102 Dalmations and, most recently, Game of Thrones. By breaking each trick down into easy step-by-step instructions, Julie shows you how to teach your pet a wide range of easy and fun tricks, catering for all shapes, sizes - and attention spans! Alongside lots of helpful tips and advice, you'll also find fun black and white illustrations and space to jot down when your pet has successfully performed each trick, meaning they'll be rivalling movie stars in no time.