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.

From the authors of the successful Grand-Guignol and London's Grand Guignol - also published by UEP - this book includes translations of a further eleven plays, adding significantly to the repertoire of Grand-Guignol plays available in the English language. The emphasis in the translation and adaptation of these plays is once again to foreground the performability of the scripts within a modern context - making Performing Grand-Guignol an ideal acting guide. Hand and Wilson have acquired extremely rare acting copies of plays which have never been published and scripts that were published in the early years of the twentieth century but have not been published since - even in French. Includes plays written by, or adapted from, such notable writers as Octave Mirbeau, Gaston Leroux and St John Ervine as well as examples by Grand-Guignol stalwarts Rene Berton and Andre de Lorde. Also included is the 1920s London translation of Blind Man's Buff written by Charles Hellem and Pol d'Estoc and banned by the Lord Chamberlain. A brief history of the Parisian theatre is also included, for the benefit of readers who have not read the previous books.

In this newly revised second edition, veteran stage designers and technical directors Dennis Dorn and Mark Shanda introduce industry-standard drafting and designing practices with step-by-step discussions, illustrations, worksheets, and problems to help students develop and refine drafting and other related skills needed for entertainment set production work. By incorporating the foundational principles of both hand- and computer-drafting approaches throughout the entire book, the authors illustrate how to create clear and detailed drawings that advance the production process.
Early chapters focus on the basics of geometric constructions, orthographic techniques, soft-line sketching applications, lettering, and dimensioning. Later chapters discuss real-life applications of production drawing and ancillary skills such as time and material estimation and shop-drawing nomenclature. Two chapters detail a series of design and shop drawings required to mount a specific design project, providing a guided path through both phases of the design/construction process. Most chapters conclude with one or more worksheets or problems that provide readers with an opportunity to test their understanding of the material presented.
The authors' discussion of universal CAD principles throughout the manuscript provides a valuable foundation that can be used in any computer-based design, regardless of the software. Dorn and Shanda treat the computer as another drawing tool, like the pencil or T-square, but one that can help a knowledgeable drafter potentially increase personal productivity and accuracy when compared to traditional hand-drafting techniques.
Drafting for the Theatre, second edition assembles in one book all the principal types of drawings, techniques, and conventional wisdom necessary for the production of scenic drafting, design, and shop drawings. It is richly illustrated with numerous production examples and is fully indexed to assist students and technicians in finding important information. It is structured to support a college-level course in drafting, but will also serve as a handy reference for the working theatre professional.

The popularity of fantasy blockbusters and sci-fi television has made the call for prosthetic artists a staple requirement in the majority of film crews. Prosthetic make-up has the ability to transform actors into unique, one-of-a-kind characters who take us into the realms of impossibility, limited only by the artist's imagination. Yet it can also be used in more subtle ways to alter physical appearance and create ageing, weight gain or illness, useful for a variety of genres and entertainment mediums. This instructional book offers a fascinating insight into the world of prosthetic make-up artistry. It illustrates two- and three-dimensional make-up techniques and covers topics such as: life casting; sculpting techniques; gelatine prosthetics; airbrushing; hair punching; hand-laid hair techniques and novelty teeth design and manufacture.

An inclusive history of the professionalization of American scenic design The figure of the American theatrical scenic designer first emerged in the early twentieth century. As productions moved away from standardized, painted scenery and toward individualized scenic design, the demand for talented new designers grew. Within decades, scenic designers reinvented themselves as professional artists. They ran their own studios, proudly displayed their names on Broadway playbills, and even appeared in magazine and television profiles. American Scenic Design and Freelance Professionalism tells the history of the field through the figures, institutions, and movements that helped create and shape the profession. Taking a unique sociological approach, theatre scholar David Bisaha examines the work that designers performed outside of theatrical productions. He shows how figures such as Lee Simonson, Norman Bel Geddes, Jo Mielziner, and Donald Oenslager constructed a freelance, professional identity for scenic designers by working within their labor union (United Scenic Artists Local 829), generating self-promotional press, building university curricula, and volunteering in wartime service. However, while new institutions provided autonomy and intellectual property rights for many, women, queer, and Black designers were not always welcome to join the organizations that protected freelance designers' interests. Among others, Aline Bernstein, Emeline Roche, Perry Watkins, Peggy Clark, and James Reynolds were excluded from professional groups because of their identities. They nonetheless established themselves among the most successful designers of their time. Their stories expand the history of American scenic design by showing how professionalism won designers substantial benefits, yet also created legacies of exclusion with which American theatre is still reckoning.

From its beginnings as a small studio in the 1920s, the Disney Company has become one of the most influential organizations in the world of entertainment. Why We Love Disney examines the influence of the Walt Disney Company and the reasons for Disney's universal appeal. Starting with the early days of Walt Disney, the book examines the company's evolution, and discusses the products and services Disney has created and marketed over the years to build its brand. Chapters focus on different elements of Disney - from characters and theme parks to music and home entertainment - to offer the reader a clear overview of the organization's history, products, management, and marketing practices. An examination of the many facets of Disney clearly shows the strategic steps the company has taken over the years to build its brand and make itself one of the major forces in the entertainment industry.

A sumptuously illustrated survey of the remarkable flowering of radical, visionary and experimental design for performance in Russia in the twenty years between 1913 and 1933. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russian theatre produced an unprecedented period of creative radicalism and collaborative experimentation. Against the turbulent backdrop of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, the avant-garde movement transformed Russia's cultural landscape as visionaries from several disciplines generated a vortex of innovative performance and design. The astounding body of work produced by Kazimir Malevich, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Tatlin, Sergei Eisenstein and Liubov Popova, among others, overturned traditions in art, music, literature and theatre. This book explores the importance and influence of a seminal moment in twentieth-century culture - one that still resonates today. Published to accompany a major exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum in association with the Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum in Moscow, this book includes essays by experts from Russia, Britain and America illustrated with over 150 images from leading artists and designers, many of which are previously unpublished. Edited by John E. Bowlt, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Southern California, the result is an astonishing record of a period of creative innovation that redefined not only what was possible in theatre and the avant-garde, but in wider artistic practices too. It will be of interest both to theatregoers and art historians, as well as current and future designers seeking inspiration for their own work.

Looking for a job in the theatre and entertainment industry can be daunting, especially when you are newly entering the work market. How do you take the skills and experience acquired through study and present them to prospective employers in the arts industry? Where does your search begin and what should you consider as you plan your future career steps? What is expected in a portfolio and what should you expect in an interview? This book provides straightforward strategies and practical exercises to turn anxiety into excitement and help you develop the job search skills and materials that will empower you to go after the job you want, and get it. If you are about to graduate or just ready to make a change, this book will teach you how to plan for your career as a designer, technician, or stage manager, and put your best professional persona forward when applying for jobs. Topics include resumes, cover letters, business cards and portfolios that will get you moved to the top of the pile; what to expect at an interview and how to answer any interview question; the how and why of negotiating for your worth; long term career planning, financial implications and much more. Filled with practical advice, examples of letters, resumes, CVs and portfolios, and with guidance from industry professionals, it will equip you to plan and succeed in your job search and career development in the entertainment industry.

A unique guide to every aspect of putting on your own solo show: choosing the subject, raising the finance, booking the venue - and performing it! More and more actors - faced with ever longer periods of unemployment - are turning to the solo show as a way of keeping active, keeping visible, and keeping the wolf from the door! This book is essential reading for anyone contemplating such a move, and comprehensively covers every aspect of putting on your own one-person show. Being a veteran of the solo-show circuit, as a writer, performer and director, Gareth Armstrong is the ideal guide. He takes you step by step through each stage of the process: * Choosing the right material - or devising your own * Raising the finance * Finding the venues * Hiring a bookings manager and other personnel * Arranging publicity * Winning an audience There is a special section on that mecca for solo shows, the Edinburgh Fringe, and an extensive appendix covering funding bodies, venues, festivals and more. Throughout the book, Armstrong illustrates his points with case studies of actual solo shows by performers such as Miriam Margolyes, Linda Marlowe and Guy Masterson. 'So You Want To Do A Solo Show? is a thorough, meticulous, hands-on, "how-to-do" manual, covering everything from the germination of an idea right through to the costing of the flyers. It is, I think, the most valuable read for any performer who has ever thought "If only I could have some control over the way my career is going"' Maureen Lipman, from her Foreword

The experiences of a diverse range of progressive theater and performance makers in their own words. Curated stories from over 75 interviews and informal exchanges offer insight into the field and point out limitations due to discrimination and unequal opportunity for performance artists in the United States over the past 55 years. In this work, performers, often unknown beyond their immediate audience, articulate diverse influences. They also reflect on how artists are educated and supported, what content is deemed valuable and how it is brought to bear, as well as which audiences are welcome and whether cross-community exchange is encouraged. The book's voices bring the reader from 1965 through the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. They point to more diverse and inclusive practices and give hope for the future of the art.

The definitive guide to designing for theatre - by an award-winning designer with over 160 productions to his name. With a Foreword by Alison Chitty. A theatre designer needs to be able to draw on a wide spectrum of skills, work collaboratively with all the different members of the production team, and deliver designs that work in the testing conditions of performance. This book guides you through everything you need in order to become - and ultimately to succeed as - a theatre designer, including: The various aspects of design - set and props, costume, masks, make-up The applications of design - opera, dance, site-specific, lighting, video and more The skills you require, and the training available The journey of a design from page to stage, from your first reading of the script, through research, first sketches, storyboards, technical and costume drawings, and on to the model The people you will collaborate with - directors, producers, actors, writers and more - and how to work effectively with each of them Finally, there are sections on landing your first production and furthering your career. Also included is a production timeline to guide you through the mechanics of contracts, copyright, costings, and what you need to have ready at each stage of the process. It is illustrated throughout with designs, by the author and other leading designers. Written by an experienced practitioner and teacher, this book will be an essential guide for any aspiring or emerging theatre designer, as well as anyone seeking a greater understanding of how designers work. 'A comprehensive introduction and guide to the world of the professional theatre designer, a key book for anyone contemplating entering the profession' Alison Chitty, from her Foreword

The new edition features additional real life application photos, diagrams, examples, and case studies on color theory in makeup design, including new examples of tattoo covering and prosthetic painting using optical mixtures, airbrush, and stippling Features a brand-new chapter on color inspiration in make-up and design Includes expanded discussion on undertones, skin variations, color correction, pigments, colored gels, and more

The essays in this volume explore the borderland between ecology and the arts. Nature is here read by a number of contributors as 'cultural', by others as an 'independent domain', or even as a powerful process of exchange 'between the human and the other-than-human'. The four parts of the volume reflect these different understandings of nature and performance. Informed by psychoanalysis and cultural materialism, contributors to the first part, 'Spectacle: Landscape and Subjectivity', look at ways in which particular social and scientific experiments, theatre and film productions and photography either reinforce or contest our ideas about nature and human-human or human-animal relations and identities. The second part, 'World: Hermeneutic Language and Social Ecology', investigates political protest, social practice art, acoustic ecology, dance theatre, family therapy and ritual in terms of social philosophy. Contributors to the third part, 'Environment: Immersiveness and Interactivity', explore architecture and sculpture, site-specific and mediatised dance and paratheatre through radical theories of urban and virtual space and time, or else phenomenological philosophy. The final part, 'Void: Death, Life and the Sublime', indicates the possibilities in dance, architecture and animal behaviour of a shift to an existential ontology in which nature has 'the capacity to perform itself.

Directing plays in schools requires knowledge and talents far different than directing for community or professional theatre. In ten comprehensive chapters the author explains the "real world" of producing effective theatricals in the school environment. He details the pitfalls and the problems while providing ideas for consistently successful shows. He covers budgeting, scheduling, faculty, politics, motivating and disciplining students and many other school-life realities beyond a director or teacher's job definition. It speaks from years of experience of a talented teacher/director who has "been there and done that." Recommended. Ten chapters: Selecting the Script, Analyzing the Script, Preparing for Production, Blocking, Casting, Rehearsal, Acting and Student Actors, Recurrent Problems, Directing the Musical, Building a Theatre Program.

Theatre designers need to be proficient in an extraordinarily diverse range of skills to carry out their work. They are expected to be able to draw, both creatively and technically, to be able to use colour imaginatively, to make accurate scale models of their set designs, to design costumes, whether of a specific period, modern or entirely fantastical, to understand the relationship of their work to stage lighting, and to be able to use computer-technology in creative and imaginative ways. Topics covered include: Instruction on drawing and sketching, the use of colour and hand-drafting techniques; Advice on model-making, textures and perspective; A Guide to costume designs and costume-rendering techniques In-depth look at creative use of digital techniques; Practical methods for the effective presentation of a range of design-work. Drawing on a lifetime's experience as a professional theatre designer and teacher, Colin Winslow describes these techniques in detail with explanatory drawings and photographs, and suggests practical ways to acquire them.

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.

Scenography Expanded is a foundational text offering readers a thorough introduction to contemporary performance design, both in and beyond the theatre. It examines the potential of the visual, spatial, technological, material and environmental aspects of performance to shape performative encounters. It analyses examples of scenography as sites of imaginative exchange and transformative experience and it discusses the social, political and ethical dimensions of performance design. The international range of contributors and case studies provide clear perspectives on why scenographic design has become a central consideration for performance makers today. The extended introduction defines the characteristics of 21st-century scenography and examines the scope and potentials of this new field. Across five sections, the volume provides examples and case studies which richly illustrate the scope of contemporary scenographic practice and which analyse the various ways in which it is used in global cultural contexts. These include mainstream theatre practice, experimental theatre, installation and live art, performance in the city, large-scale events and popular entertainments, and performances by and for specific communities.

History of a theatre in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, from opening in 1898 to closure in 1955, with full detailed list of all productions, and many illustrations.

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.