"This book is entirely unique, very well written, dramatic, and, at the same time, philosophical. It is likely to appeal to a very large audience, including anybody interested in the visual arts, in film, in theater, in philosophical problems of transformation, and in the unconscious generally." -- Melvin R. Lansky, M.D., UCLA Medical School and Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute

Wearing a mask-- putting on another face-- embodies a fundamental human fantasy of inhabiting other bodies and experiencing other lives. In this extensively illustrated book, Thomas Morawetz explores how the creation of transformational makeup for theatre, movies, and television fulfills this fantasy of self-transformation and satisfies the human desire to become "the other."

Morawetz begins by discussing the cultural role of fantasies of transformation and what these fantasies reveal about questions of personal identity. He next turns to professional makeup artists and describes their background, training, careers, and especially the techniques they use to create their art. Then, with numerous before-during-and-after photos of transformational makeups from popular and little-known shows and movies, ads, and artist's demos and portfolios, he reveals the art and imagination that go into six kinds of mask-making-- representing demons, depicting aliens, inventing disguises, transforming actors into different (older, heavier, disfigured) versions of themselves, and creating historical or mythological characters.

Gaining a view behind the scenes into the jobs and personalities of people who work in the theatre is a privilege afforded to few. This book grants that privilege to all its readers. Twenty-one highly respected backstage professionals are interviewed, from artistic director to wig maker, working in all kinds of theatres in Britain and the United States. Their stories inform and entertain as they describe what they do and how they got to do it. Their anecdotes and observations intrigue and amuse as they reminisce about working with people such as Alan Bennett, Judi Dench, Placido Domingo, Ian McKellen and Andrew Lloyd Webber, to name just a few. Whether you enjoy watching theatrical performances and want to know more about them, or you would like to work in the theatre, Backstage Stories is the book for you.>

"Really does enable anyone from first year student to the established lighting designer to learn more and improve" Focus, the Journal of the Association of Lighting Designers New technologies have made lighting more prominent in live performances of all kinds, not just stage theatre, and in many courses lighting has been subsumed into 'performance lighting'. Performance Lighting Design is a practical guide to the art and technique of lighting for the stage, concerts, and live events. The book will also cover the use of projected images in performance including projected scenery on the West End stage, in fringe shows, and on the stadium "rock" stage, as well as the use of images from live camera and from other sources as "performers". The book will serve students of lighting design and will also be accessible to anyone with an awareness of technical theatre. Practical knowledge is combined with aesthetic and theoretical considerations. The book will also address the difficult area of getting inspiration and evolving design ideas through a broad range of performance genre. The author will discuss the pros and cons of several computer based techniques, and incorporate 25 years of his own professional experience in the UK and Europe.

THE BEAUTY OF THE BEASTS is a chronicle of many years Ralph Helfer spent as a Hollywood animal behaviorist, and is full of behind-the-scenes accounts of the many television programs and films in which Helfer's animals appeared, including Charlie's Angels and The Ten Commandments, and the stars he and his animals worked with such as Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood, and Marilyn Monroe. But this is more than a story of the famous, both four and two-legged -- it's also about the important roles animals play in our lives, and how much less human we would be without them.

For more than thirty years, the Wing has produced the "Working in the Theatre" seminars, a series that features the greatest names in theatre. It is now available in book form for the first time, compact, and at an affordable paperback price.Spanning the range of these seminars, with a concentration on the most recent shows and current stars, the information, anecdotes, gossip (yes!), heartaches and triumphs are all here.We learn: what a career in the theatre is really about, from inspiration to a Tony or Pulitzer Prize; how actors prepare; what actors have found to be the best techniques; how writers get their work staged; and, how playwrights and cast interact with the director.

"Broadway, the Golden Years", is a wonderfully readable group portrait of the great Broadway choreographer-directors: Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Tonny Tune, Graciela Daniele, and Susan Stroman. The hits generated by two generations of choreographer-directors define the Broadway stage: "Oklahoma!", On the Town"; "West Side Story"; "Hello, Dolly!"; "Fiddler on the Roof"; "A Chorus Line; Dancin'"; "Dream Girls"; "The Producers"; and many more.

The aim of this book is to demystify the technology of stage lighting, and it does so by uniting its text with quotations from literature, thus setting a common ground for the perception and understanding of light, in our daily lives as well as on stage.

Where does a young filmmaker begin? With the right short-film concept and this book
The right short can be a filmmaker's "business card" in Hollywood. Here's the authoritative handbook by one of Hollywood's most connected insiders that offers a step-by-step guide through the entire creative process of shooting a short film, as well as expert advice from established filmmakers, and a final game plan for promoting and selling the film once it's in the can. Topics covered include:
Concept
Budget
Finding equipment
Assembling a crew
Casting
Arranging for location
Locating festivals and ancillary markets
Working with the unions
Film vs. digital video
Plus: A list of film schools
Oscar-winning shorts and nominees
A selection of short-film festivals
Actual short-film budgets
Sample scripts and shooting schedules
A helpful short-film glossary

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."

For Creative Filmmaking from the Inside Out, three professors at the renowned University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television interviewed fifteen outstanding filmmakers, then distilled their insights into the "Five I's" of creativity. Learn how to:

• Uncover your unique creative voice (Introspection)

• Work from real-life observations and experience (Inquiry)

• Draw on your nonconscious wells of creativity (Intuition)

• Strengthen your creative collaborations (Interaction)

• Communicate at the deepest level with your audience (Impact)

This comprehensive approach provides practical exercises that will enrich and transform your work, whether you are looking for a story idea, lighting a set, editing a scene or selecting a music cue.

The participating filmmakers, who have collectively won or been nominated for 39 Oscars and 27 Emmys, are:

Anthony Minghella, writer-director (The English Patient); Kimberly Peirce, writer-director (Boys Don't Cry); John Lasseter, writer-director-producer (Toy Story); John Wells, writer-producer (ER); Hanif Kureishi, writer (My Beautiful Laundrette); Pamela Douglas, writer (Between Mother and Daughter); Renee Tajima-Peña, director-producer (My America...or, Honk If You Love Buddha); Ismail Merchant, producer (The Remains of the Day); Jeannine Oppewall, production designer (L.A. Confidential); Conrad L. Hall, cinematographer (American Beauty); Kathy Baker, actor (Picket Fences); Walter Murch, sound designer-editor (Apocalypse Now); Lisa Fruchtman, editor (The Right Stuff); Kate Amend, editor (Into the Arms of Strangers); and James Newton Howard, composer (The Sixth Sense).

In detailing the relationship of three women filmmakers' lives and films to the changing institutions of the post-World War II era, Lauren Rabinovitz has created the first feminist social history of the North American avant-garde cinema. At a time when there were few women directors in commercial films, the postwar avant-garde movement offered an opportunity. Rabinovitz argues that avant-garde cinema, open to women because of its marginal status in the art world, included women as filmmakers, organizers, and critics. Focusing on Maya Deren, Shirley Clarke, and Joyce Wieland, Rabinovitz illustrates how women used bold physical images to enhance their work and how each provided entry to her subversive art while remaining culturally acceptable. She combines archival materials with her own interviews to show how the women's labor and films, even their identities as women filmmakers, were produced, disseminated, and understood. With a new preface and an updated bibliography, Points of Resistance simultaneously demonstrates the avant-garde's importance as an organizational network for women filmmakers and the processes by which women remained marginal figures within that network. patriarchal, resistant film making practice. Rabinovitz convinces us that, in the case of Deren, Clarke, and Wieland, this practice has been articulated strongly since the 1940s - Donald Crafton, author of Emile Cohl, Caricature and Film.

Now in its second edition, Designing for the Theatre has established itself as the authoritative introduction to the processes of design for the theatre. Covering the contribution which can be made by costume, sets, props and lighting to a stage production, the author explains the purpose and process involved in their design. Included in this second edition are new photographs and drawings illustrating some of the most exciting and diverse current trends in stage design.

Collaboration is the most important facet of any theatrical company. From the performers on stage to the choreographers, designers and technicians working behind the scenes, this book considers all departments working on a production and instructs them on how to unify their individual skills towards a shared goal. From Vaudeville to classical opera, this book establishes the skills that each specialist brings to the production process before demonstrating how each individual contribution can be utilized in tandem with all other creative teams. With particular focus on enhancing interdepartmental communication, Collaborating Backstage examines all the challenges that may befall artistic companies and projects made up of many different parts. This book explains how to understand technical jargon within teams that speak a variety of languages and come from different cultural backgrounds; how to recognise and follow the 'unwritten rules' of theatre; and how best to achieve the ultimate creative potential of a team working completely in sync. Underpinned by incisive theories on performance, communication and creativity, Collaborating Backstage is full of helpful illustrations and innovative methods to achieve effective working relationships in the theatre.

"All of us in the arts field are hungry to improve our skills in arts management. The grim tenor of the times makes this witty and fun guide even more valuable to us all!" Ben Cameron, Former Executive Director, Theater Communications Group "Dr. Jim Volz knows how to organize, how to manage, how to motivate, how to assign priorities. In short, he knows how to get the job done." Abe J. Bassett, Former Dean, Indiana University/Purdue University Jim Volz is one of America's leading theatre consultants with over three decades of work with theatre, dance, music, museum and arts center management. Now, Jim Volz brings his expertise to anyone who works in arts management, from novices to middle managers to executive directors. How to Run a Theater is a unique, dynamic, and savvy guide to building an arts institution that works. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience, here is practical advice on a variety of management skills: Financial Management; Personnel Management; Fundraising Development; Board of Trustees Communications; and Marketing & Audience Development. This new edition is thoroughly updated and revised and now includes a Board of Trustee Contract, new budget exercise with ticket income formulae and the use of social networking for marketing and fundraising.

Succinct and jargon free, ""Stage Rigging Handbook"" remains the only book in any language that covers the design, operation, and maintenance of stage-rigging equipment. It is written in an at-a-glance out-line form, yet contains in-depth information available nowhere else. This fully indexed third edition includes three new parts: the first, an explanation of inspection procedures for rigging systems; the second, a discussion of training in the operation of rigging systems; and the third, essential information about the operation of fire curtains. The remaining six parts, as well as the glossary and bibliography, have been updated. This edition also contains a new preface, many new illustrations, and expanded information on Nicopress terminations. Glerum explains that four main principles make up the core of this book: know the rigging system; keep it in safe working order; know how to use it; and keep your concentration. Glerum applies these principles to all of the major types of stage rigging systems, including block and tackle, hemp, counterweight, and motorized. He describes each type of rigging, then thoroughly reviews the operating procedures and methods of inspecting existing systems.

Character Sketch outlines a theory of costume rendering that explores how a designer conceptualizes and creates a character on the page. Beginning with how to develop a sense of character through active, gestural poses, this book explores and explains the process of drawing and painting from rough sketch to finished rendering. Helen Q. Huang , an award-winning costume designer for more than 25 years, breaks down her process, from understanding body proportions and active poses to applying research and color concepts to renderings. Her step-by-step watercolor painting techniques cover mixing skin tones, blending colors, and applying paint in different methods for a variety of fabric textures and patterns. Showcasing how to capture a character on the page, Character Sketch is a must-read for any costume designer looking to communicate their artistic vision.

Ensemble devising can be a daunting prospect for many actors: it requires a level of imagination, commitment and risk-taking not always seen in conventional theatre. In this handy volume, Davis Robinson uses his wealth of knowledge and expertise, garnered over thirty years of devising, to teach you the ins and outs of ensemble theatre making. A Practical Guide to Ensemble Devising leads you through the process of collaborative theatre, from warm-ups and generating ideas to editing and polishing a performance. It features a comprehensive series of exercises throughout, which will allow you to build the foundational skills required for a range of productive ensemble work. By discussing the work of a number of internationally acclaimed practitioners, Robinson encourages you to develop your own unique style of performance. Lively and accessible, this book is invaluable for anyone interested in developing their devising skills.

Acting is widely acknowledged to be the central art of the theatre and has a long and vibrant history. With over one thousand entries, this is the first encyclopedia of stage actors and acting around the world. More than one hundred renowned international contributors provide biographical, historical and technical information about actors both familiar and obscure whose work has been crucial in the development of acting methods and traditions from classical theatre to the present day. Entries on key directors, theorists and teachers, and on the elements and genres of acting provide insights into the history of acting as an art and its current practice. Including a chronological list of actors that spans the past two thousand years and many diverse countries and cultures, this Encyclopedia offers a fascinating and unique overview of acting onstage that will be of interest to anyone who attends or practises theatre.

Learn how to create historically accurate costumes for Elizabethan period productions with Elizabethan Costume Design and Construction! Extensive coverage of a variety of costumes for both men and women of all social classes will allow you to be prepared for any costuming need, and step-by-step instructions will ensure you have the know-how to design and construct your garments. Get inspired by stunning, hand-drawn renderings of costumes used in real life productions like Mary Stuart as you're led through the design process. Detailed instructions will allow you to bring your designs to life and create a meticulously constructed costume.

Chris Baugh explores how developments and changes in technology have been reflected in scenography throughout history. Taking into account the latest research, his new edition examines moving light technologies, the internet as a platform of performance, urban scenography and how scenography has developed as a collaborative practice.

A Theater Criticism/Arts Journalism Primer: Refereeing the Muses examines the skill set associated with being a critic and arts journalist. It explores the history, evolution, and future of the profession in the United States, and carefully and purposefully dissects the preparation, observation, and writing process associated with generating thoughtful and interesting arts criticism. Using theatrical productions as the best and most vivid example of a storytelling enterprise that employs creativity, imagination, collaboration, aesthetics, and artisanship to effectively engage an audience, this book is intended to generate the critical thinking and critical writing skills necessary to effectively engage in all forms of arts journalism. It is designed to be used as a college-level textbook on theater criticism and arts journalism courses, for those looking to become more thoughtful, critical consumers, for casual critics thinking about starting a blog or working for their university newspaper, and for working critics hoping to improve their craft. The text is written in an accessible style and includes quotes from renowned critics and arts practitioners throughout as well as frequent sidebars that offer timely, insightful, and entertaining examples of the points being made in the text.

As an actor, screenwriter, director, short story writer, and, most significantly, a playwright, Sam Shepard has long been an important figure on the American cultural landscape. A Body Across the Map focuses on the character conflict central to Shepard's most significant plays; that between fathers and sons. Beginning with The Rock Garden and concluding with A Lie of the Mind, this analysis shows how Shepard's worldview has evolved over a 20-year span. A long-standing pessimist who saw Oedipal revenge as a necessity, and genetic determination as inescapable, Shepard ultimately disavows these dark worldviews in favor of one where gentleness, spiritual generosity, cooperation, and the acceptance of long-denied truths prevail over rage, self-interest, and biological predestination.