The definitive guide to writing music for the stage, by the Composer-in-Residence at the Donmar Warehouse. Music has played a vital part in drama since the earliest days of theatre. For composers, writing music for the stage is an opportunity to exercise their utmost creativity and versatility: a good musical score will both support and enhance the play it serves, and can lift a prosaic moment into something quite extraordinary. In this book, Michael Bruce takes you through the entire process - from initial preparation, through composition, rehearsals and recording, and finally to performance. He covers everything a composer needs to know, including: * Getting started - spotting when and how music might be used in a play, doing research, considering form and content * Building a 'sound world' - finding and using source music, creating incidental music, choosing the best instrumentation, scoring, utilising technology, writing music to accompany song lyrics * Working on the production - understanding the composer's role in rehearsals, collaborating with key creatives, employing actor-musicians, getting the show on * Recording - knowing when to record, booking and working with musicians - and the studio engineer, running a recording session Throughout the book, the author draws on his own experience of creating music for a wide variety of plays at the Donmar Warehouse, the National Theatre, in the West End and on Broadway, including detailed case studies of his work on The Recruiting Officer, Coriolanus, Privacy, The Winslow Boy, Noises Off and Strange Interlude. The book is accompanied by online excerpts from his scores. An essential companion for all composers - amateur, student or professional - Writing Music for the Stage is also invaluable reading for other theatre professionals, including directors, playwrights, producers, actors, designers and sound designers - in fact, for anyone seeking to understand how music helps to create worlds and tell stories on stage. 'This fascinating book - like its author (with whom I've had the good fortune to work on three productions) - is bursting with practical advice, good sense and invention. A must-read for all those with an interest in how music works on stage.' Mark Gatiss 'A good score makes a world of difference to an actor. Read Michael Bruce's book and you'll understand why. He is a genius.' Judi Dench 'Michael's music is wonderful: inclusive, original, respectful and - in its rightness - sheer joy.' Josie Rourke, from her Foreword

A selection of poems by William Cowper, edited by Michael Bruce

Some people say that "gay" people are born that way; it's in their genes. Some people say it's because of an overbearing or absent father. Others blame a dominating mother, or being dressed as the opposite sex as a child. What about emotional issues like abuse, trauma, or rejection? What do you think? This book is a true story of a lonely boy, growing up. His mother died and he spent ten years in boarding school. By age sixteen, he realised he was "gay". After several one-sided relationships, he met someone and shared mutual affection. They lived together as a couple. This story could have ended: "And they both lived happily ever after." Then God showed up! Both guys became Christians the same day. Would anything change?

"Yer hewmn " Damon Ryan, wakes in the wreckage of his ship, to the sight of Nicodemus, harper, unwilling mystic, outcast, staring down at him in disbelief. The amazement is mutual. Deep in uncharted space, his ship out of power, Damon hadn't expected to survive, much less find another member of his own species. So begins the partnership that threatens the very premise on which the Land was founded. Two very different people from unimaginably different cultures, one technological and wholly egalitarian, the other medieval, hierarchical, reflexively distrustful of change. But, in the irrevocably stranded spacer, Nicodemus recognizes a man more exiled than himself. All they can salvage from the wreckage is a little gold Damon carried for currency and his infocom, a wrist computer he dismisses as a toy. Although the spacer thinks of his accident as no more than the downside of random chance, Nicodemus believes he discerns the hand of the god. Damon will masquerade as his servant, while they seek how to fit him in to a society that frowns upon a masterless man. Yet as they travel the Land and the power of the infocom becomes apparent, Nicodemus begins to wonder: is it the man the god sent, or his machine?

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger PublishingAcentsa -a centss Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for e