Here you'll find a growing list of resources on performance in theatre and musical theatre. For help with research, look at the Theatre Research Guide.
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Respect for Acting "This fascinating and detailed book about acting is Miss Hagen's credo, the accumulated wisdom of her years spent in intimate communion with her art. It is at once the voicing of her exacting standards for herself and those she [taught], and an explanation of the means to the end." --Publishers Weekly "Hagen adds to the large corpus of titles on acting with vivid dicta drawn from experience, skill, and a sense of personal and professional worth. Her principal asset in this treatment is her truly significant imagination. Her 'object exercises' display a wealth of detail with which to stimulate the student preparing a scene for presentation." --Library Journal "Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting . . . is a relatively small book. But within it, Miss Hagen tells the young actor about as much as can be conveyed in print of his craft." --Los Angeles Times "There are almost no American actors uninfluenced by Uta Hagen." --Fritz Weaver "This is a textbook for aspiring actors, but working thespians can profit much by it. Anyone with just a casual interest in the theater should also enjoy its behind-the-scenes flavor." --King Features Syndicate
Call Number: EBSCOhost Academic eBook Collection (North America)
ISBN: 1978810024
Publication Date: 2020-06-12
2020 George Freedley Memorial Award Special Jury Prize from the Theatre Library Association 2021 PROSE Awards Finalist, Music & the Performing Arts In 1936 Orson Welles directed a celebrated all-black production of Macbeth that was hailed as a breakthrough for African Americans in the theater. For over a century, black performers had fought for the right to perform on the American stage, going all the way back to an 1820s Shakespearean troupe that performed Richard III, Othello, and Macbeth, without relying on white patronage. "Macbeth" in Harlem tells the story of these actors and their fellow black theatrical artists, from the early nineteenth century to the dawn of the civil rights era. For the first time we see how African American performers fought to carve out a space for authentic black voices onstage, at a time when blockbuster plays like Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Octoroon trafficked in cheap stereotypes. Though the Harlem Renaissance brought an influx of talented black writers and directors to the forefront of the American stage, they still struggled to gain recognition from an indifferent critical press. Above all, "Macbeth" in Harlem is a testament to black artistry thriving in the face of adversity. It chronicles how even as the endemic racism in American society and its theatrical establishment forced black performers to abase themselves for white audiences' amusement, African Americans overcame those obstacles to enrich the nation's theater in countless ways.
"Style is a journey from tourist to native. It is living in the world of the play, not just visiting it." - from Chapter One Anyone who has ever struggled with capes, fans, swords, doublets and crinolines should make Style for Actors 2nd Edition their constant companion. Robert Barton has completely updated his award winning handbook for the 21st century with contemporary references and up-to-date illustrations. This is the definitive guide to roles in historical drama. The past is a foreign country, and this outstanding book is concerned with exploring it from the actor's point of view. Specific guides range from Greek, Elizabethan, Restoration and Georgian theatre to more contemporary stylings, including Futurism, Surrealism and Postmodernism. Barton takes great care to present the actor with the roles and genres that will most commonly confront them. His analysis moves from entire genres to specific scenes and characters. A huge resource of nearly 150 practical exercises helps a newfound understanding of style to make the leap from page to performance.
How does an actor bring a script to life? The actor must know how to read a script, break it down, and mine all of its clues in order to make the most effective choices. The Anatomy of a Choice: An Actor's Guide to Text Analysis offers the actor a concrete method for approaching a script. This guide details a simple process to discover and define a character's scene and super-objective, obstacle, beats, and tactics. It includes practical information on how to build a character, how best to use rehearsal time, and what to do when nothing is working.
Michael Shurtleff has been casting director for Broadway shows like Chicago and Becket and for films like The Graduate and Jesus Christ Superstar. His legendary course on auditioning has launched hundreds of successful careers. Now in this book he tells the all-important HOW for all aspiring actors, from the beginning student of acting to the proven talent trying out for that chance-in-a-million role!
Based at Shepherd University, in West Virginia, the Contemporary American Theater Festival is nationally and internationally recognized as a home for playwrights and the development and production of new plays. The Festival makes it a priority to celebrate and produce playwrights with strong, distinct voices, with a core value to tell diverse stories.This anthology of work provides plays that speak to one of the most compelling virtues of artists everywhere - freedom of speech. A necessary volume of women playwrights' work, ranging from a two-time Obie Award-winning author to emerging writers just beginning their careers, it represents a group of women who vary in age, race and sexual orientation and offers an invitation to artistic leaders, scholars and students to embrace gritty, thought-provoking new dramatic work.Edited by The Festival's Producing Directors Peggy McKowen and Ed Herendeen, this anthology features an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage. Each of the five powerful plays is followed by an informative and discursive playwright interview conducted by Sharon J. Anderson that contextualizes and develops the works within the wider context of the annual festival.The plays include: Gidion's Knot by Johnna Adams The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess Memoirs of a Forgotten Man by D.W GregoryDead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson 20th Century Blues by Susan Miller
August Wilson is a major American playwright whose work has been consistently acclaimed as among the finest of the American theater. His first play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best new play of 1984-85. His second play, Fences, won numerous awards for best play of the year, 1987, including the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Joe Turner's Come and Gone, his third play, was also voted best play of 1987-88 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. In 1990, Wilson was awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson.
Contemporary Plays by Women of Coloris a ground-breaking anthology of eighteen new and recent works by African American, Asian American, Latina American and Native American playwrights. This compelling collection includes works by award-winning and well-known playwrights such as Anna Deavere Smith, Cherrie Moraga, Pearl Cleage, Marga Gomez and Spiderwoman, as well as many exciting newcomers. Contemporary Plays by Women of Coloris the first anthology to display such an abundance of talent from such a wide range of today's women playwrights. The plays tackle a variety of topics - from the playful to the painful - and represent numerous different approaches to playmaking. The volume also includes: * an invaluable appendix of published plays by women of color * biographical notes on each writer * the production history of each play Contemporary Plays by Women of Coloris a unique resource for practitioners, students and lovers of theatre, and an inspiring addition to any bookshelf.
This is a collection of the most important genres of Japanese performance--noh, kyogen, kabuki, and bamrili puppet theater--in one comprehensive, authoritative volume. Organized by genre, each section features a rich selection of representative plays and explorations into each theatrical style and is prefaced by an illustrative essay covering a wide range of subjects, from stage direction to musical accompaniment. With classic and new translations of more than thirty plays and scenes--along with Brazell's detailed, historically rich supplementary material and copious illustrations--no better anthology exists for students of this most fascinating and diverse dramatic tradition.
Features translations of twelve popular Arabic plays, introducing readers to the vibrant theater scene of the Arab world. The plays from Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia reflect a variety of trends and styles and provide insights into contemporary social, cultural, and political currents.
Here for the first time is the whole history of the musical, on Broadway and off. Stempel combines original research--including a wealthy of primary sources and archival holdings--with deft and insightful analysis, and explores the rich strands of musical theater by genre and type, looking at not only how musicals work but also how they serve as barometers of social concerns and bearers of cultural values. Beginning with the scandalous Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Stempel traces the growth of musicals from minstrel shows and burlesques, through the golden age of Show Boat and Oklahoma!, to such groundbreaking works as Company and Rent. Stempel examines musicals in their cultural and historical context and includes detailed portraits of all the influential figures--the creators, directors, and performers--who made it all possible.
Musical Theatre Song is a handbook for musical theatre performers, providing them with the wide-ranging skill set they need for success in today's competitive musical theatre environment. Breaking down the process into knowing how to select your song material based upon your individuality and how to prepare and perform it in a manner that best highlights your attributes, Stephen Purdy provides a succinct and personalized trajectory toward presentation, taking the reader through a series of challenges that is designed to evoke original, personal and vibrant song performances. Written by renowned Broadway and West End vocal and audition coach Stephen Purdy, Musical Theatre Song is a must-have guide for all performers who are looking to succeed in the musical theatre industry.
Acting in Musical Theatre remains the only complete course in approaching a role in a musical. It covers fundamental skills for novice actors, practical insights for professionals, and even tips to help veteran musical performers refine their craft. Updates in this expanded and revised second edition include: A brand new companion website for students and teachers, including Powerpoint lecture slides, sample syllabi, and checklists for projects and exercises. Learning outcomes for each chapter to guide teachers and students through the book's core ideas and lessons New style overviews for pop and jukebox musicals Extensive updated professional insights from field testing with students, young professionals, and industry showcases Full-colour production images, bringing each chapter to life Acting in Musical Theatre's chapters divide into easy-to-reference units, each containing group and solo exercises, making it the definitive textbook for students and practitioners alike.
Call Number: Open Access Books (DOAB, free resource, activated by CARLI)
ISBN: 9780472133314
Publication Date: 2023-05-22
This book offers a series of essays that show the integrated role that musical structure (including harmony, melody, rhythm, meter, form, and musical association) plays in making sense of what transpires onstage in musicals. Written by a group of music analysts who care deeply about musical theater, this collection provides new understanding of how musicals are put together, how composers and lyricists structure words and music to complement one another, and how music helps us understand the human relationships and historical and social contexts. Using a wide range of musical examples, representing the history of musical theater from the 1920s to the present day, the book explores how music interacts with dramatic elements within individual shows and other pieces within and outside of the genre. These essays invite readers to consider issues that are fundamental both to our understanding of musical theater and to the multiple ways we engage with music.
(Applause Books). "I am your accompanist. You do not know me. I am the guy who sits behind the upright in the unflattering fluorescent light of the dance studio, a bottle of water on the floor, a half-eaten Power Bar on the bench, and your audition in my hands." Award-winning New York theatre composer and pianist Andrew Gerle pulls no punches in this irreverent, fly-on-the-wall guide to everything you've never been taught about auditioning for musical theatre. From the unique perspective of the pianist's bench, he demystifies the audition process, from how to put together your book and speak to an accompanist to the healthiest and savviest ways to approach the audition marketplace and your career. By better understanding the dynamics of professional auditions, you will learn to present yourself in the strongest, most castable way while remaining true to your own special voice the one that, in the end, will get you the job.
(Vocal Collection). The world's most trusted source for great theatre literature for singing actors. The book features authentic editions of each song in the original keys. The songs have been carefully chosen for each voice type and are culled from a wide selection of classic and contemporary shows. -- Available in a variety of voice parts.
(Vocal Collection). A wonderfully diverse collection of comedy songs, character songs, Vaudeville numbers, dramatic songs, and ballads for the actor who sings. A perfect resource for finding an audition piece or specialty number. Two editions, one for women and one for men, with a completely different selection of over 50 songs in each. Women's edition includes: The Ladies Who Lunch * Cla-wence (Don't Tweat Me So Wough) * Shy * and many more. Men's edition includes: Buddy's Blues (from Follies ) * Doing the Reactionary * How to Handle a Woman * I'm Calm * Reviewing the Situation * and many more.
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; PN2053.M67 2022
ISBN: 9781559369978
Publication Date: 2022-06-28
Essential advice for theatre directors, focusing on five fundamentals for staging a play - Story, Intention, Character, Space and Theme. Experienced US theatre directors Robert Moss and Wendy Dann help stage directors learn how to build their own practice and begin to master the daunting task of staging a story. 'With a no-nonsense and blessedly candid approach, Bob Moss and Wendy Dann have written not only an indispensable practicum for the young director, but also a delightful refresher course for the working director. The authors encourage and challenge us to engage our theatrical imaginations for a lifetime of storytelling on a multitude of stages' Michael Mayer, Tony Award-Winning Director
Based on interviews with over forty award-winning artists, How to Rehearse a Play offers multiple solutions to the challenges that directors face from first rehearsal to opening night. The book provides a wealth of information on how to run a rehearsal room, suggesting different paths and encouraging directors to shape their own process. It is divided into four sections: lessons from the past: a brief survey of influential directors, including Stanislavski's acting methods and Anne Bogart's theories on movement; a survey of current practices: practical advice on launching a process, analyzing scripts, crafting staging, detailing scene work, collaborating in technical rehearsals and previews, and opening the play to the public; rehearsing without a script: suggestions, advice, and exercises for devising plays through collaborative company creation; rehearsal workbook: prompts and exercises to help directors discover their own process. How to Rehearse a Play is the perfect guide for any artist leading their first rehearsal, heading to graduate school for intense study, or just looking for ways to refresh and reinvigorate their artistry.
In Acts of Resistance in Late-Modernist Theatre, Richard Murphet presents a close analysis of the theatre practice of two ground-breaking artists - Richard Foreman and Jenny Kemp - active over the late twentieth and the early twenty-first century. In addition, he tracks the development of a form of 'epileptic' writing over the course of his own career as writer/director. Murphet argues that these three auteurs have developed subversive alternatives to the previously dominant forms of dramatic realism in order to re-think the relationship between theatre and reality. They write and direct their own work, and their artistic experimentation is manifest in the tension created between their content and their form. Murphet investigates how the works are made, rather than focusing upon an interpretation of their meaning. Through an examination of these artists, we gain a deeper understanding of a late modernist paradigm shift in theatre practice.
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; PN2053.S78 2016
ISBN: 9780415747295
Publication Date: 2015-12-15
In the world of theatre, the technical director is responsible for overseeing the safe and efficient realization and implementation of scenery for the stage. The Technical Director's Toolkit is the first book to address every nut and bolt of this multifaceted job. This book guides readers though the step-by-step processes of technical direction and the responsibilities of the TD in the mounting of a theatrical production. Leadership, management, relationship building, personal responsibility, and problem solving are addressed, demonstrating not only how to become a more efficient and effective TD, but also how to be a collaborative member of a production team that artists will seek to work with again and again. The book also addresses scene shop design, facility repair and maintenance, and finishes with a brief overview of other areas of technical theatre that help round out the far reaching skill set of a successful TD. This book is perfect for university courses in Stagecraft and Technical Direction and for the aspiring Technical Director.
This Introduction is an exciting journey through the different styles of theatre that twentieth-century and contemporary directors have created. It discusses artistic and political values, rehearsal methods and the diverging relationships with actors, designers, other collaborators and audiences, and treatment of dramatic material. Offering a compelling analysis of theatrical practice, Christopher Innes and Maria Shevtsova explore the different rehearsal and staging principles and methods of such earlier groundbreaking figures as Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Brecht, revising standard perspectives on their work. The authors analyse, as well, a diverse range of innovative contemporary directors, including Ariane Mnouchkine, Elizabeth LeCompte, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, Thomas Ostermeier and Oskaras Korsunovas, among many others. While tracing the different roots of directorial practices across time and space, and discussing their artistic, cultural and political significance, the authors provide key examples of the major directorial approaches and reveal comprehensive patterns in the craft of directing and the influence and collaborative relationships of directors.
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; PN2053.M55 2009
ISBN: 9780415404389
Publication Date: 2008-08-12
The Director's Craft is a unique and completely indispensable step-by-step guide to directing for the stage. Written by one of the most adventurous and respected directors working today, this book will be an essential item in every student and practitioner's kitbag. It provides detailed assistance with each aspect of the varied challenges facing all theatre directors, and does so with startling clarity. It will inspire everyone, from the beginner just starting out to the experienced practitioner looking to reinvigorate their practice. Katie Mitchell shares and explains the key practical tools she uses to approach her work with both actors, production teams, and the text itself. She addresses topics such as: the ideas that underpin a play's text preparing improvizations Twelve Golden Rules for working with actors managing the transition from rehearsal room to theatre analyzing your work after a run has ended. Each chapter concludes with a summary of its critical points, making this an ideal reference work for both directors and actors at any stage of their development.
Covers off-off Broadway theater in all five boroughs of New York City, and occasionally Off-Broadway and Broadway theater. OffOffOnline.com serves as a platform to review, recognize, support and promote new and emerging theater.
IBDB was created by the Research Department of The Broadway League, the national trade association for Broadway. IBDB provides a comprehensive database of shows produced on Broadway, including all "title page" information about each production. IBDB also offers historical information about theatres and various statistics and fun facts related to Broadway.
Publishers of American Theatre Magazine, and hosts of the ArtSearch Job Finder Resource.
A great source for theatre grants, jobs, publications, communications and networking.
This is the Web page of the University/Resident Theatre Association. Audition, internship and interview information is available for regional companies.
the online guide to modern playwrights and theatre plays which have been written, adapted or translated, into English since the production of Look Back in Anger in 1956. doollee.com contains information on 56,653 Playwrights and 193,348 of their Plays.
Doollee.com was started by Julian Oddy as a way of cataloguing his wife's vast play collection and has grown from there. It started as a hobby and became the collection it is now. The collection stopped in 2021.
This award-winning digital library has been created as a response to the need for a high-quality online research tool for drama and literature students, professors, and teachers. It is the only resource to combine exclusively available playtext content and scholarly publications with filmed live performances, film adaptations, and audio plays.
The New Play Exchange ® (NPX) is the world's largest digital library of scripts by living writers. The NPX, a National New Play Network program, is flipping the script on the ways in which new work is shared and discovered. National New Play Network (NNPN) is an alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays.