2013 Reprint of 1933 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This is a book for actors by an actor, giving vivid instruction in the technique of the art. Boleslavsky's knowledge of the theatre is based on a wide experience. In the 1920s, he made his way to New York City, where, now known as "Richard Boleslavsky" (the English spelling of his name), he began to teach Stanislavski's 'system' (which, in the US, developed into "Method Acting") with fellow emigre Maria Ouspenskaya. In 1923, he founded the American Laboratory Theatre in New York. Among his students were Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Harold Clurman, who were all founding members of the Group Theatre (1931-1940), the first American acting ensemble to utilize Stanislavski's techniques.

A history of the lightweight workhorse camera that transformed postwar cinematography This volume provides a history of the most consequential 35mm motion picture camera introduced in North America in the quarter century following the Second World War: the Arriflex 35. It traces the North American history of this camera from 1945 through 1972--when the first lightweight, self-blimped 35mm cameras became available. Chronicle of a Camera emphasizes theatrical film production, documenting the Arriflex's increasingly important role in expanding the range of production choices, styles, and even content of American motion pictures in this period. The book's exploration culminates most strikingly in examples found in feature films dating from the 1960s and early 1970s, including a number of films associated with what came to be known as the "Hollywood New Wave." The author shows that the Arriflex prompted important innovation in three key areas: it greatly facilitated and encouraged location shooting; it gave cinematographers new options for intensifying visual style and content; and it stimulated low-budget and independent production. Films in which the Arriflex played an absolutely central role include Bullitt, The French Connection, and, most significantly, Easy Rider. Using an Arriflex for car-mounted shots, hand-held shots, and zoom-lens shots led to greater cinematic realism and personal expression. Norris Pope, Palo Alto, California, is program director for scholarly publishing at Stanford University Press. The author of Dickens and Charity, he has a doctorate in modern history from Oxford University. He owns--and often uses--an Arriflex 35.

2012 Reprint of 1935 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. As engaging today as when it originally appeared, this book has two parts. The first describes the colorful life of two artist-puppeteers and their travels through the famine and revolution torn land, into remote oriental provinces. The second is the practical part. It tells just how the author conceives her plays, and make and works her puppets, whether they be hand-puppets, shadow figures or the special hand and rod combination type she evolved. No other book has gone so deeply into the heart of the artist using puppets. The Efimovs invented an original design of puppets on rods, which enabled them, by way of experiment, to stage scenes from "Macbeth."

This book articulates the first theoretical context for a 'cyborg theatre', metaphorically integrating on-stage bodies with the technologized, digitized, or mediatized, to re-imagine subjectivity for a post-human age. It covers a variety of examples, to propose new theoretical tools for understanding performance in our changing world.

Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia: Hidden Archives of Performance asks the questions: What constitutes an archive? What is worthy of being archived? And who decides? Performances are ephemeral, so archival questions of selection and appraisal determine which performances will be remembered by history and which will not. The essays in this collection each explore a different facet of the ephemerality of performance, and the traces it leaves behind: from photographic stills of actors or sets; draft scripts and production notes, theatre programs and reviews; the language used to evoke the experience of watching a dance; to the memories contained within a site which has been used for a site-specific performance. Each of the contributors to Scrapbooks, Snapshots and Memorabilia employs pertinent case studies to reveal performances that are so often 'hidden' from the authoritative archival view; for example, those by women, indigenous people, amateurs and working people, and those outside metropolitan centres. In this way, they build a powerful argument for reconsidering - or at the very least, broadening - notions of what the performance archive can be.

This book articulates the first theoretical context for a 'cyborg theatre, ' metaphorically integrating on-stage bodies with the technologized, digitized, or mediatized, to re-imagine subjectivity for a post-human age. It covers a variety of examples, to propose new theoretical tools for understanding performance in our changing world.

Film -- Biography

Even twenty years after his death and nearly fifty or more years after his creative peak, Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) is still arguably the most instantly recognizable film director in name, appearance, vision, and voice. Long ago, through a combination of timing, talent, genius, energy, and publicity, he made the key transition from proper noun to adjective that confirms celebrity and true stature. It is a rare filmwatcher indeed who cannot define "Hitchcockian."

As the director of such films as "Psycho," "North by Northwest," "Spellbound," "Vertigo," "Rear Window," "To Catch a Thief," "Notorious," and "The Birds," Hitchcock has become synonymous with both stylish, sophisticated suspense and mordant black comedy. He was one of the most interviewed directors in the history of film. Among the hundreds of interviews he gave, those in this collection catch Hitchcock at key moments of transition in his long career--as he moved from silent to sound pictures, from England to America, from thrillers to complex romances, and from director to producer-director.

These conversations dramatize his shifting attitudes on a variety of cinematic matters that engaged and challenged him, including the role of stars in a movie, the importance of story, the use of sound and color, his relationship to the medium of television, and the attractions and perils of realism.

His engaging wit and intelligence are on display here, as are his sophistication, serious contemplation, and playful manipulation of the interviewer.

Sidney Gottlieb, a professor of English at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, is the editor of "Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews."

Taking the reader through the production of a play step by step, from setting up a drama group to opening night and through an entire run, this book can be read straight through or consulted as a handy reference. All aspects of starting a drama group are explored, including financing, organizing, attracting members, choosing a director, choosing plays, auditions, casting, stage management, lighting, sound, costumes, props, set design, advertising, first nights, and last nights. Additional sections deal with special concerns and interests such as producing plays in the open air, school productions, producing plays with non-English speakers, expatriate productions, plays without scripts, and producing Shakespeare and Brecht. Other helpful features include sample rehearsal schedules, sample plans for blocking scenes, and excerpts and quotes from leading drama practitioners.

"Pattern Cutting for Men's Costume" is a practical
guide featuring patterns for the most important garments worn by men
between the 16th and 19th centuries. Easy-to-follow instructions
explain how to cut patterns for 'average' and individual measurements -
with expert advice on how to adapt patterns to fit men of all shapes
and sizes.
Introductions to each section describe the major developments in
men's dress - revealing how garments evolved - and patterns for period
garments for which there are no actual examples are based on
contemporary paintings. Illustrated throughout with hundreds of
diagrams, this is a much-awaited and valuable addition to the library
of costume-makers in all fields.

Features a new system of drafting patterns for men's period costume.
Includes patterns for the most important non-fashionable garments
(worn from the 16th to the 19th centuries) plus clothes in vogue from
the middle of the 16th to the end of the 18th centuries.
Illustrated with hundreds of diagrams accompanied by step-by-step
instructions for period garments, plus a few versatile theatrical
designs.

All actors and acting teachers need "The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook, " the invaluable guide to finding just the right piece for every audition. The unique format of the book is ideal for acting teachers who want their students to understand each monologue in context. This remarkable book describes the characters, action, and mood for more than 1,000 scenes in over 300 plays. Using these guidelines, the actor can quickly pinpoint the perfect monologue, then find the text in the Samuel French or Dramatist Play Service edition of the play. Newly revised and expanded, the book includes the author's own assessment of each monologue.

The poetry and plays of William Shakespeare continue to provide inspiration for designers in all aspect of media. Shakespearean Wig Styling offers detailed historical guidance on the styles and fashions of the day, and guides yo through twelve different wig designs covering a wide range of archetypal Shakespearian characters. Each example offers different techniques to meet the needs of the design, from material, knotting and curling to the final styling choices. Covering both the Tudor and Stuart periods, there are clear instructions within each example for making wigs from start to finish and adapting from the universal full-lace foundation to create alternative foundations, including added support for complicated styles such as the fontange. In addition, the book covers what to expect when working in the theatre or as a freelance wig-maker; fitting your client, measuring and taking a shell; methods for preparing the hair under a wig; knotting facial hair, hairpieces, hairlines, napes and partings; methods for breaking or dirtying down and finally, creating bald caps and receding hairline effects. This comprehensive book is an ideal companion for the newly qualified wig-maker and all professionals looking for a detailed reference guide to hairstyles from the Shakespearean era.

Based almost entirely on the author's personal experiences, this concise handbook follows a director's journey from the casting process to opening night, revealing the hidden or unspoken aspects of play and stage production that are rarely, if ever, described in theater manuals and textbooks. Mr. Marowitz discusses topics such as rehearsals, characterization, blocking, tempo-rhythm, dramaturgy, and actor-and-audience psychology, demystifying an art form that is often dealt with only in terms of concepts and ideology rather than the mundane, nitty-gritty nuts-and-bolts requirements of just "getting the show on the road."

Peter Jackson in Perspective: The Power Behind Cinema's The Lord of the Rings brings under one cover the dozens of essays and lectures that first began appearing on the website Hollywood Jesus in December of 2001. Since then, author Greg Wright (Tolkien in Perspective: Sifting the Gold from the Glitter, VMI 2003) has analyzed and anticipated the cinematic choices of director Peter Jackson with almost prophetic critical insight. He rightly attributes the success of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King to the power of film itself, the power of Jackson's artistry and the original power of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary masterwork-and in so doing provides an educational, entertaining and respectful look at the process of bringing a much-loved novel to the screen. Like a sculptor of words and ideas, Jackson has pared away pieces of Tolkien's fanstastic epic to reveal both the essence of Tolkien and something entirely new, something uniquely his own. The essays in this volume are an invaluable guide to understanding both Jackson and Tolkien.

With hands-on advice and instruction from an experienced actor and theatre director, this pragmatic, authoritative guide to starting a theatre company imparts essential backstage know-how for would-be playhouse practitioners on everything from fundraising and finding a space to selecting plays and successfully navigating tricky legal issues. Chronicling three seasons at Chicago's award-winning Congo Square Theatre Company, this journey behind the curtain reveals the nitty-gritty details of practical issues that are often overlooked amidst the zeal of artistic pursuit, such as how to manage rent, parking, and safety issues; determine tax status and calculate budgets; and find flexible day jobs to help foster artists' creative passion. The guide also provides in-depth analysis of undertaking lofty projects -- such as managing a co-production with a large, established theatre, as Congo Square did with Tony Award -- winning Steppenwolf Theatre Company -- and addresses potential drawbacks, such as handling common weaknesses of the "artistic temperament" that can often lead to a business venture's undoing. Inspired by Congo Square's own unique inception, the valuable how-to also speaks directly to the many under-served niche audiences who decide to create their own companies, including African American, Asian American, Latino, physically challenged, and GLBT communities. Concluding with lists of Equity offices, legal advisers, and important organisations for assistance, this complete resource is sure to help ambitious theatre lovers establish and maintain their own successful companies.

The films of Fritz Lang depict an entrapping, claustrophobic world in which people are controlled by larger forces. His overriding theme is the struggle against fate and against the traits of human nature that doom us.

His life and work spanned six decades of film history-from the silent era through the golden age of German Expressionism of the 1920s and the classic studio system in Hollywood to the rise of the international co-production. In Hollywood he worked for every major studio except Disney. He made blockbusters, modest B movies, and everything in between. Among his films are classics of German cinema-including "Metropolis" and "M." In America he made some of the most notable crime movies ("Fury"), noir films ("The Big Heat"), and Westerns ("The Return of Frank James") of the studio era. Despite the different time periods, nations, and genres in which he worked, his films remain stylistically consistent.

Lang (1890-1976), a notoriously difficult interviewee, granted relatively few interviews apart from short publicity exchanges in the promotion of his films. Fully aware of his public persona, he was a canny self-promoter who carefully constructed half-truths and myths about himself.

This fascinating collection covers his conversations about his life and his works over a period of forty years. They reveal how cinema for Lang was an intensely personal art. "For me," he said, "cinema is a vice. I love it intimately. I've often written that it is the art form of our century."

This collection of interviews provides a revealing self-portrait of Martin Ritt (1914-1990), America's preeminent maker of social films and one of the most sensitive portraitists of the rural South.

Ritt's Hollywood career began in 1958 with "Edge of the City" and ended in 1990 with the release of "Stanley and Iris." In all, he directed twenty-six movies, including some of Hollywood's most enduring films--"Hud," "Hombre," "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Brotherhood," "The Molly Maguires," "The Front," and "Norma Rae."

Although he gave mostly boilerplate interviews to the press when promoting a movie, Ritt provided more revealing interviews for seminars, oral histories, and documentary filmmakers. The most significant of these, published here for the first time, create a close-up portrait of this distinguished director of plays and films.

Ritt speaks eloquently about his years with the Group Theatre and recreates the passion of the director Harold Clurman. He tells how the Group shaped his ideas about art and the communal nature of the theatrical enterprise, which he extended into his work in film. He speaks of his relationship with Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan, and he talks in detail about his experiences with the blacklist, directing and acting in TV during its Golden Age, his career as a theater director, and his experiences working with such actors as Paul Newman, Sally Field, Sophia Loren, Orson Welles, and Robert De Niro. Ritt discusses his philosophy of directing, the place of film in the history of art, his quarrels with "auteur theory," and the influence of his politics on his work.

Gabriel Miller, a professor of English at Rutgers University, is the author of "The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man" (University Press of Mississippi). Articles by him have appeared in the "Los Angeles Times," "American Book Review," and "Literature/Film Quarterly," among other publications.

A veteran Broadway producer, Philip Rose here recalls the challenges and controversy he faced in bringing to the stage such ground-breaking shows as A Raisin in the Sun, Purlie Victorious, and The Owl and the Pussycat. Rose's experiences with these and other productions abound with crises and comedy that flood the pages of this memoir.

SWORD FIGHTING; A MANUAL FOR ACTORS AND DIRECTORS is a comprehensive new work on the art of creating realistic and exciting fight sequences for theatre, film and TV. This book is the product of thirty years research and experimentation into traditional European martial arts by acclaimed fight director John Waller and his associates, and possibly the most wide-ranging and practical book on stage combat ever published.

In a Hollywood career that spanned more than thirty years, Martin Ritt (1914-1990) directed twenty-six films. Among them were some of Hollywood's most enduring works--"Hud," "Hombre," "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Molly Maguires," "The Front," and "Norma Rae."

In addition to displaying a passionate commitment to social issues, Ritt's body of work represents a sustained exploration of the American myth and American national character. This study of his films shows how his work articulates the communal, agrarian ideal and its perversion as industrialism and urbanism have denatured the landscape.

Encompassing a hundred years of American life, these films follow the common man through the chronology of social history, including the arrival of the railroads in the West, coal mining in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania, Jack Johnson's rise as the first black heavyweight champion of the boxing world, the television blacklist, spying and the Cold War, trade unions, and the war in Vietnam. The subjects he treats project a cultural framework for examining what America means as a nation and as an experience.

The sixties was the decade of Ritt's most sustained achievement. This period culminated in his masterpiece, "The Molly Maguires," perhaps the finest film ever made on the subject of American labor. In the first detailed analysis of this great realistic film "The Films of Martin Ritt: Fanfare for the Common Man" shows that its greatness lies in Ritt's complex interweaving of love and friendship, the labor struggle, the story of the immigrant dream, and the ideal of upward mobility.

The book includes analyses of all twenty-six films, including such early works as "Edge of the City" and "The Long Hot Summer," as well as such later successes as "Norma Rae," "Sounder," and "Murphy's Romance." Ritt's work in theater, notably in the Group Theatre, which he joined in 1937, and his being blacklisted from television during the 1950s, informed his directorial philosophy throughout his career. Many recognize him as America's finest director of social films.

The profession of directing is barely a century old. On Directing considers the position of the director in theater and performance today. What is a director? How do they begin work on a play or performance? What methods are used in rehearsal? Is the director an enabler, a collaborator or dictator? As we enter the new millennium, is the very concept of directing under increasing threat from changes in thinking and practice? The full diversity of today's approaches to directing are explored through a series of interviews with leading contemporary practitioners. On Directing is a landmark book about the director's craft.

This invaluable guide to theatrical production includes up-to-date definitions of all technical aspects of stagecraft, including the many advances in the past decade, particularly in the areas of trusses, rigging, and automated lights and their control. More than 200 terms, along with 25 new drawings, have been added, many existing definitions have been expanded and drawings revised to include new technological developments, and World Wide Web addresses have been added to the List of Manufacturers and Distributors and to the Bibliography. At the same time, older terminology and definitions have been retained so the book will remain useful for those unable to participate in the high-tech revolution.

For more than thirty years this manual has been the essential handbook for both the beginner and the advanced backstage technician. At a time when theatre, both professional and amateur, is growing and flourishing all over the United States, "Theatre Backstage from A to Z" provides more practical information, on a wider range of subjects, than can be found in any other book in the field.

"Arranged alphabetically with more than 300 drawings, diagrams, charts, and photographs, "Theatre Backstage from A to Z" is a quick source of information on construction, design, lighting, painting, properties, sound, and stage managing." "--Newsletter of the International Theatre Institute of the United States"

Sample Contents

--Automated light control

--Bo-bar

--Bounce it

--Chase control

--Daisy chaining

--Donkey

--Flats

--Multiplexing

--Paint and paint colors

--Projectors and projection screens

--Rigging systems

--Shin buster

--Sound equipment

--Stage crew

--Stages

--Uncle Buddy

A complete guide to Reader's Theatre--what it is and how to stage it--including four award-winning scripts by Charles LaBorde, Jo Davidsmeyer, Caroline E. Wood, and Robert Hawkins. (Performing Arts)

For decades roughly 80 percent of commercial Broadway productions have failed to recoup their original investments. In light of this shocking and harsh reality, how does the show go on? Tim Donahue and Jim Patterson answer this question and many others in this updated edition of their popular, straightforward guide to understanding professional theater finances and the economic realities of theater production. This revised edition of Stage Money not only includes the latest financial information and illuminating examples of key concepts; it has been enhanced with a discussion of the stagehands' union plus a new chapter on marketing for the theater. These new elements combined with the essentials of the first edition create an expansive overview of the contemporary theater business. Stage Money is designed for theater enthusiasts and professionals interested in understanding the inner workings of this industry today and its challenges for the future. Ken Davenport, two-time Tony Award winner, Broadway and Off Broadway theater producer, blogger, writer, and owner of Davenport Theatrical Enterprises writer, offers a foreword.