Theatre: technical and background skills Books

A Theory of Dramaturgy is the first text of its kind to define concepts and combine arguments into a coherent dramaturgical theory supported by an operative systems theory. This is a wide-ranging theory with historical and contemporary perspectives on...

At once strange and familiar, bearer of a narrative and initiator of a relationship, the theatrical object has a status of its own within performance, constantly encouraging actors to reassess the quality of their relationship with their immediate...

This leading authority in small theatre stagecraft shows and tells how professional-quality lighting can be achieved within the limitations of school auditoriums, community theatres, and churches.  Part I of this stagecraft book contains a short...

This Companion interrogates the relationship between theatre and youth from a global perspective, taking in performances and theatre made by, for, and about young people. This is a landmark text for students, scholars and practitioners whose work and...

Guerilla Theatre is a nuts-and-bolts approach to the kind of interactive environmental theatre found only at Faires, and is a superb handbook for both the beginner and advanced street/improvisational actor.Written by J. Paul Moore, a forty-year...

Free-standing scenery creates its own theatre - compact, economical, and flexible. It marches right into any stage space, classroom, recreation hall, or outdoor theatre space. This stagecraft book, with over 175 drawings, tells how to construct...

Alimentary Performances traces the origins and implications of food as a mimetic medium, used to imitate, represent, and assume a role in both theatrical and broader performance situations. This is an essential study for anyone interested in the...

This book offers theory and methodology for developing a unique and inclusive stage management style, preparing stage managers to develop an adaptive approach for the vast and varied scope of the production process, forge their own path, and respond to...

Contemporary Dance Lighting: The Poetry and the Nitty-Gritty dynamically guides students toward aesthetically, creatively, and skillfully becoming lighting designers for dance in the 21st century.The book is organized in three parts, covering everything...

For every theater director who has years of experience and a hefty budget to work with, there’s another individual out there who has only a love of theater and a commitment to children as a starting place.  Whether it be an elementary school...

'Every day, thousands of women enter acting classes where most of them will receive some variation on the Stanislavsky-based training that has now been taught in the U.S. for nearly ninety years. Yet relatively little feminist consideration has been...

From Komisarjevsky in the 1920s, to Cheek by Jowl's Russian 'sister company' almost a century later, Russian actor training has had a unique influence on modern British theatre. Russians in Britain, edited by Jonathan Pitches, is the first work of its...

What Is Lighting Design?: A Genealogy of People and Ideas explains what lighting design is by looking at the history of ideas that are a part of this craft and how those ideas developed.

The Lighting Supervisor's Toolkit guides readers through the Lighting Supervisor's production process with an emphasis on the importance of the collaborative nature of the role.Lifting the veil on a process regularly learned on the job, this book offers...

Twelve per cent of UK theatregoers have a disability. This compares with 18% of the UK's adult population. Directors can help build audiences as diverse as the population at large by making their art accessible to all. Live performances are...

Mysticism in the Theater introduces theater makers to the power and possibility of using historical mystical ideas to influence all aspects of a production. Historical mysticism represents ideas developed by recognized spiritual thinkers in all religions...

Theatre and Performance in Digital Culture examines the recent history of advanced technologies, including new media, virtual environments, weapons systems and medical innovation, and considers how theatre, performance and culture at large have evolved...

In the world of writing, talent plays a crucial role in shaping the success of an aspiring writer. It is often said that talent is a natural gift, an innate ability to express oneself effectively through the written word. However, talent alone is not...

2016 Reprint of 1961 Edition.  Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software.  In what is now considered a classic study, noted Shakespearean Marvin Rosenberg sets out to discover how the complex,...

This early work is a fascinating read for entertainment enthusiasts. Thoroughly recommended for the bookshelf of the amateur or professional ventriloquist it contains a wealth of information that is still useful and practical today. Contents Include: So...

Dramaturgy of Migration: Staging Multilingual Encounters in Contemporary Theatre examines the function of dramaturgy and the role of the dramaturg in making a theatre performance situated at the crossroads of multiple theatre forms and performative...

Taking into account the ephemeral nature of performance, this book develops innovative approaches to the reconstruction of historical staging practices through the lens of Spanish classical theatre. Laura L. Vidler emphasizes the need to take into account

Many theatres and theatre companies host post-show discussions, or talkbacks, as part of their season. Often these are done for established plays with the goal of audience cultivation; others are done as part of the new development process. While...

Kinaesthesia and Visual Self-reflection in Contemporary Dance features interviews with UK-based professional-level contemporary, ballet, hip hop, and breaking dancers and cross-disciplinary explication of kinaesthesia and visual self-reflection...

This book explores some of the less frequently questioned ideas which underpin comics creation and criticism. "Mise en scène" is a term which refers to the way in which visual elements work together to create meaning in comics. It is a term that comics...

Pillars of Society: Ibsen, Shaw, Brecht is a collection of essays on the plays Pillars of Society (1877), Ghosts (1881), A Dolls House (1879), and Hedda Gabler (1890), by Henrik Ibsen; The Philanderer (1893), Candida (1894), The Doctor's Dilemma (1906),...

In the 1930s two protest groups gained the public eye by role playing. They brought their social grievances to attention in their communities by staging mock performances. In this fascinating study of two strikes, Kirk W. Fuoss reports how the novel...

This cutting-edge Palgrave Pivot title explores how narrating the past through theatre both conflicts and creates an interesting relationship with drama's "continuing present" that arcs towards an unpredictable future. Examining three influential...

What stands out when we blend in? Performing Ground is the first book to explore camouflage as a performance practice, arguing that the act of blending into one's environment is central to the ways we negotiate our identities in and through space. Laura...

What does Immersive Theatre 'do'?By contrasting two specific performances on the same theme - one an 'immersive' experience and the other a more conventional theatrical production - Nandita Dinesh explores the ways in which theatrical form impacts upon...

Drafting Fundamentals for the Entertainment Classroom: A Process-Based Introduction to Hand Drafting, Vectorworks, and SketchUp guides students through a syllabus-formatted semester of integrated drafting concepts and skills.

Now that directors such as Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola are celebrated along-side movie stars, it is hard to imagine that little more than a century ago the director was a nameless, faceless entity-an overseer of workflow in...

HANDYDAMMI IL CELLULARE CHE VOGLIO PARLARE.Il telefono è l'attore principale della commedia comica. Un cronista ascolta curioso gli accadimenti che avvengono in autobus, in aeroporto, in treno, anch'essi mezzi di "comunicazione." E poi ...

Theatre and Performance Design: a reader in scenography gives a critical and contextual framework for analysing theatre and performance design. This book is vital for those interested in visual compositions of performance and scenographic practices.

The Production of King Oedipus is a masterful behind-the-scenes account of the production of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex at the Festival Theatre Stratford, Ontario, in 1954. Written by the theatre's Artistic Director, Tyrone Guthrie, and the theatre's...

Through the years I have had the joy of reading and watching Tim's plays. I am amazed at his insight into the scriptures as he brings them alive with laughter and tears from the congregation. Our youth and adults have enjoyed acting in them. Though I...

Star of the West End's 'Rat Pack' and cabaret stalwart, Gary Williams, shares the secrets of his success in Cabaret Secrets - a practical guide with everything you need to create your own show, travel the world and get paid to do what you love.Written...

A reference for high school theatre teachers covering both curricular and extracurricular problems - everything from how to craft a syllabus for a theatre class to what to say to parents about a student's participation in a school play.

Paul Kirby and Adriana Kelder have spent their lives in the theatre. In the late sixties, the couple who would later be called the Bonnie and Clyde of Canadian theater, helped run an alternative newspaper in Montreal. Charges of obscenity and sedition...

Ibsen's plays rank among those most frequently performed world-wide, rivaled only by Brecht, Chekhov, Shakespeare, and the Greek tragedies. By the time Ibsen died in 1906, his plays had already conquered the theaters of the Western world. Inviting...

Now in its third edition, this book is a comprehensive, practical guide for aspiring and working professionals in live event production, covering every aspect of power distribution from the fundamentals, like basic circuits, to 3-phase power, grounding...

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. 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...

In this extensively revised and updated edition of her classic work, Look Back in Gender, Michelene Wandor confirms the symbiotic relationship between drama and gender in a provocative look at key, representative British plays from the last fifty years...

Script for the beautiful and poetic Barclays New Stages award winning play about being away from home and gravity and space travel. This volume also contains scripts for So Bring Me Down a 'real time' radio drama series and documents relating to...

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and...