Going to see a 'Shakespeare' and want a quick run-down on the plot before you start? Teaching the 'Henry's' and need a handy guide to all the histories for the students? The Faber Pocket Guide To Shakespeare's Plays gives all this and more: an introduction to Shakespeare and his times; a note on the sources; cast lists, synopses; main character descriptions and an essay on each play. It is a concise, readable and essential guide to all 36 plays.

A hands-on, step-by-step guide to directing plays - by one of Britain's leading theatre directors. Stephen Unwin has worked with hundreds of different actors in a multiplicity of different venues. He is the ideal author of a 'how to' guide to directing. As Unwin himself says: 'Directing plays is difficult. The aim of this book is to lay out what skills are needed, and to give some sense of how you might develop them. The emphasis is on the professional theatre, but the book is useful for directors in other contexts - amateur dramatics, university drama, school plays and so on. Directing is directing, wherever you do it.' Starting at the very beginning, Unwin takes us step by step through: * Choosing the play * Casting * Design * Rehearsal - Establishing Facts, Improvisation, Language, Character, Blocking, Using Specialists and so on * Running the Play * Putting it on the Stage * Opening Night

A practical, hands-on guide - for actors, directors, teachers and students - to Brecht's theory and practice of theatre, with a full set of exercises to help put theory into practice. The Complete Brecht Toolkit examines, one by one, Brecht's many, sometimes contradictory ideas about theatre - and how he put them into practice. Here are explanations of all the famous key terms, such as Alienation Effect, Epic Theatre and Gestus, as well as many others which go to make up what we think of as 'Brechtian theatre'. The book also explores the practical application of these theories in Acting, Language, Music, Design and Direction. Also included are fifty exercises contributed by Julian Jones, to help student actors investigate Brecht's ideas for themselves, becoming thoroughly familiar with the tools in the Brecht toolkit.

"I used to be scared of them. They seemed so different. They don't scare me anymore. They're just children, aren't they? Just children." January 1941. A terrible crime is taking place in a clinic for disabled children. The perpetrators argue that it will help struggling parents and lift the financial burden on the mighty German state. One brave voice is raised in objection. But will the doctor listen?

The Nick Hern Books Page to Stage series - highly accessible guides to the world's best-known plays, written by established theatre professionals to show how the plays come to life on the stage. Director Stephen Unwin takes you scene by scene through the action of Ibsen's play A Doll's House, analysing moment by moment what is actually said and done, and how the staging of these moments affects our understanding of them. Also included in this volume: a concise introduction to Ibsen and the historical background of the play; a discussion of the characters and setting; and an exploration of the possibilities for staging, lighting, costumes, props and furniture, and the sound and music. Ideal for anyone studying, teaching or performing A Doll's House, as well as anyone interested in how the play works on stage.

Are you searching for an overview of the most significant plays? Are you looking for a snapshot analysis? Do you want to know the social and theatrical context? A Pocket Guide to 20th Century Drama gives all this and much, much more. It provides a short introduction to a dramatic century; puts each play into historical and theatrical context; gives the storyline and an analysis of each play, and provides details of major productions around the world. And, finally, there's a chronology of one thousand twentieth-century plays.

Was Shakespeare a snob? Poor Naked Wretches challenges the idea that our greatest writer despised working people, and shows that he portrayed them with as much insight, compassion and purpose as the rich and powerful. Moreover, they play an important role in his dramatic method. Stephen Unwin reads Shakespeare anew, exploring the astonishing variety of working people in his plays, as well as the vast range of cultural sources from which they were drawn. Unwin argues that the robust realism of these characters, their independence of mind and their engagement in the great issues of the day, makes them much more than mere ‘comic relief’. Compassionate, cogent and wry, Poor Naked Wretches grants these often-overlooked figures the dignity and respect they deserve.

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price Arthur Schnitzler's famous 'daisy-chain' play of sexual coupling, set in Vienna in the 1890s. La Ronde is a play of ten scenes, each depicting a couple in a sexual liaison. There are ten characters altogether, each appearing in two adjacent scenes, forming an endless chain of sexual links across all the layers of Viennese society. This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, features a translation by Stephen Unwin and Peter Zombory-Moldovan.

Oswald returns home from Paris to honour his dead father. As his mother begins to feel the presence of ghosts from the past around her, Oswald discovers that there is more to his mystery illness than he first thought. Only by uncovering the truth can they both be set free...

"Romeo and Juliet" sets the jewel of young romantic love in the mud of a bustling, realistically drawn society. Then, with tragic inevitability, it shows its destruction. This is a new edition prepared by English Touring Theatre's Artistic Director Stephen Unwin and actor Michael Cronin, which radically simplifies both punctuation and stage direction, allowing directors, actors and readers to approach this most familiar of plays with a fresh and open mind.

When Aubrey Tanqueray marries for the second time, he knows that his new wife, Paula, is a 'woman with a past'. But he has no idea how that past will catch up with himin the end. More probing than Oscar Wilde, more accessible than Ibsen, Pinero's The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893) is one of the masterpieces of the Victorian theatre: sexy, dramatic, funny and very moving.

The Well Read Play, deepens our appreciation and enjoyment of drama. Clear and practical guidance helps the reader to understand the workings of a play, spot clues that the playwright has planted, imagine how it can be staged, and decide whether it will stand the test of time. Absorbing and informative, whether for purposes of study, staging or simply leisure, it is the ideal guide for students, directors, teachers and anyone who loves the theatre.

A guide to all of Brecht's key plays that sets them in their historical, dramaturgical and political contexts. Stephen Unwin provides a clear and readable guide to Brecht's plays that will prove invaluable to the student, teacher and theatre practitioner. Grouping and analysing plays chronologically according to their context, Unwin also considers Brecht's theory and looks at his impact and the legacy that he left. The Guide covers: UNK] Three Early Plays and Expressionism UNK] Two Music Theatre Pieces and Kurt Weill UNK] Marxism and the Theatre UNK] Opposition Plays UNK] Five Great Plays UNK] A Late Masterpiece UNK] Theory and Practice UNK] Brecht's Legacy UNK] A perfect companion to the plays of Brecht for the student and theatre practitioner UNK] Clear structure and readable style UNK] Written by the Artistic Director of English Touring Theatre and the author of a range of theatre studies books