How are we to understand the actor's work as a fully embodied process? 'Embodied cognition' is a branch of contemporary philosophy which attempts to frame human understanding as a fully embodied interaction with the environment. Engaging with ideas of contemporary significance from neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy, Why Do Actors Train? challenges outmoded mind/body dualistic notions that permeate common conceptions of how actors work. Theories of embodiment are drawn up to shed important light on the ways and reasons actors do what they do. Through detailed, step-by-step analyses of specific actor-training exercises, the author examines the tools that actors use to perform roles. This book provides theatre practitioners with a new lens to re-examine their craft, offering a framework to understand the art form as one that is fundamentally grounded in embodied experience.

This edited collection provides an in-depth and wide-ranging exploration of pragmatist philosopher Richard Shusterman's distinctive project of "somaesthetics," devoted not only to better understanding bodily experience but also to greater mastery of somatic perception, performance, and presentation. Against contemporary trends that focus narrowly on conceptual and computational thinking, Shusterman returns philosophy to what is most fundamental-the sentient, expressive, human body with its creations of living beauty. Twelve scholars here provide penetrating critical analyses of Shusterman on ontology, perception, language, literature, culture, politics, aesthetics, cuisine, music, and the visual arts, including films of his work in performance art.

Are you a theatre-maker looking for devising tools? A writer wanting to improve your dialogue? A director trying to create a story through improvisation? Three Plays by Squint & How They Were Made brings three of the company's plays together with the methods used to create them, in a practical, user-friendly toolkit. Three of Squint's plays - created by Lee Anderson, Adam Foster and Andrew Whyment - are published here for the first time. At the heart of each, a character is struggling to process their personal trauma under the intense glare of the public eye. Long Story Short (2014) dissects journalism in the digital age, Molly (2015) takes a reality television-style journey into the mind of a sociopath, and The Incredible True Story of the Johnstown Flood (2021) embarks on a transatlantic exploration of class, exploitation and appropriation. Developed over ten years through Squint's education programme, the exercises in this book distil the company's collaborative practice into over 25 tools for writing and devising. The Squint Toolkit covers the entire theatre-making process, from carrying out research and improvising story to writing subtext, devising from music and making cuts.

Traditional speech work has long favored an upper-class white accent as the model of intelligibility. Because of that, generations of actors have felt disconnected from their own identities and acting choices. This much-needed textbook redresses that trend and encourages actors to achieve intelligibility through rigorous language analysis and an exploration of their own accent and articulation practices. Following an acting class model, where you first analyze the script then reveal yourself through it, this work breaks down a process for analyzing language in a way that excites the imagination. Guiding the student through the labyrinth of abstract concepts and terms, readers are delivered into the practicality of exercises and explorations, giving them self-awareness that enables them to make their own speech come alive. Informed throughout by notes from the author's own extensive experience working with directors and acting teachers, this book serves as an ideal speech-training resource for the 21st -century actor, and includes specially commissioned online videos demonstrating key exercises.

This book tells the story of German-language literature on film, beginning with pioneering motion picture adaptations of Faust in 1897 and early debates focused on high art as mass culture. It explores, analyzes and contextualizes the so-called 'golden age' of silent cinema in the 1920s, the impact of sound on adaptation practices, the abuse of literary heritage by Nazi filmmakers, and traces the role of German-language literature in exile and postwar films, across ideological boundaries in divided Germany, in New German Cinema, and in remakes and movies for cinema as well as television and streaming services in the 21st century. Having provided the narrative core to thousands of films since the late 19th century, many of German cinema's most influential masterpieces were inspired by canonical texts, popular plays, and even children's literature. Not being restricted to German adaptations, however, this book also traces the role of literature originally written in German in international film productions, which sheds light on the interrelation between cinema and key historical events. It outlines how processes of adaptation are shaped by global catastrophes and the emergence of nations, by materialist conditions, liberal economies and capitalist imperatives, political agendas, the mobility of individuals, and sometimes by the desire to create reflective surfaces and, perhaps, even art. Commercial cinema's adaptation practices have foregrounded economic interest, but numerous filmmakers throughout cinema history have turned to German-language literature not simply to entertain, but as a creative contribution to the public sphere, marking adaptation practice, at least potentially, as a form of active citizenship.

Exploring the multiple aesthetic and cultural links between French and Japanese cinema, The Cinematic Influence is packed with vivid examples and case studies of films by Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Claire Denis, Naomi Kawase, Michel Gondry and many others. It illustrates the vast array of cinematic connections that mark a long history of mutual influence and reverence between filmmakers in France and Japan. The book provides new insights into the ways that national cinemas resist Hollywood to maintain and strengthen their own cultural practices and how these national cinemas perform the task of informing and enlightening other cultures about what it means to be French or Japanese. This book also deepens our understandings of film's role as a viable cultural and economic player in individual nations. Importantly, the reader will see that film operates as a form of cultural exchange between France and Japan, and more broadly, Europe and Asia. This is the first major book to investigate the crossover between these two diverse national cinemas by tracking their history of shared narrative and stylistic techniques.

The complete unexpurgated scripts of the original television series--except for, of course, the animation bits This volume includes the scripts of all 23 episodes from the first and second series of the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus shows. Well loved and much quoted pieces such as "The Lumberjack Song," The Architect Sketch," "The Spanish Inquisition," "Archaeology Today," "Dead Parrot," "Test Match," and "Hell's Grannies" are included in this volume.

Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and The Secrets of the Jedi is the ultimate in-universe guide to the world of the Jedi, transporting young readers to a galaxy far, far away through interactive features, fascinating facts, and captivating insights. With thrilling original illustrations and amazing special features including lift-the-flaps, textures, and more, Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and The Secrets of the Jedi is guaranteed to thrill the saga's legions of young fans.

The rare woman director working in second-wave exploitation, Stephanie Rothman (b. 1936) directed seven successful feature films, served as the vice president of an independent film company, and was the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America's student filmmaking prize. Despite these career accomplishments, Rothman retired into relative obscurity. In The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman: Radical Acts in Filmmaking, author Alicia Kozma uses Rothman's career as an in-depth case study, intertwining historical, archival, industrial, and filmic analysis to grapple with the past, present, and future of women's filmmaking labor in Hollywood. Understanding second wave exploitation filmmaking as a transitory space for the industrial development of contemporary Hollywood that also opened up opportunities for women practitioners, Kozma argues that understudied film production cycles provide untapped spaces for discovering women's directorial work. The professional career and filmography of Rothman exemplify this claim. Rothman also serves as an apt example for connecting the structure of film histories to the persistent strictures of rhetorical language used to mark women filmmakers and their labor. Kozma traces these imbrications across historical archives. Adopting a diverse methodological approach, The Cinema of Stephanie Rothman shines a needed spotlight on the problems and successes of the memorialization of women's directorial labor, connecting historical and contemporary patterns of gendered labor disparity in the film industry. This book is simultaneously the first in-depth scholarly consideration of Rothman, the debut of the most substantive archival materials collected on Rothman, and a feminist political intervention into the construction of film histories.

Film festivals around the world are in the business of making experiences for audiences, elites, industry, professionals, and even future cultural workers. Cinema and the Festivalization of Capitalism explains why these non-profit organizations work as they do: by attracting people who work for free, while appealing to businesses and policymakers as a cheap means to illuminate the creative city and draw attention to film art. Ann Vogel's unprecedented systematic sociological analysis thus provides firm evidence for the 'festival effect', which situates the festival as a key intermediary in cinema value chains, yet also demonstrates the impact of such event culture on cultural workers' lives. By probing the various resources and institutional pillars ensuring that the festivalization of capitalism is here to stay, Vogel urges us to think critically about publicly displayed benevolence in the context of cinema-and beyond.

This officially licensed, finely detailed light-up collectible replica of the crystal ball from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's divination class is a perfect gift for fans of the Wizarding World. * SPECIFICATIONS: Mini crystal ball set on an intricately designed elephant base; ball and base are approximately 3 inches tall * LIGHTS UP: Ball illuminates when light switch is turned on * BOOK INCLUDED: Set includes mini book of quotes and behind-the-scenes information from the Harry Potter films, featuring full-color photography throughout * PERFECT GIFT: A unique gift for fans of the wizarding world * OFFICIALLY LICENSED: Authentic collectible