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Celebrating its 66th year, Theatre World is the most comprehensive record of the theatrical season on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and in regional theatre. Each of the 1,000-plus entries includes photos, a complete cast listing, producers, directors, authors, composers, opening and closing dates, song titles, and plot synopses. Theatre World also features the year's obituaries, a listing of all nominees and winners of the major theatrical awards, the longest-running shows on and Off-Broadway, and a complete index. The 2009-2010 season, found big-screen stars continuing their trend of taking to the stage, with Jude Law in Hamlet and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music lighting up Broadway, while Cate Blanchett wowed all at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still with Laura Linney and David Mamet's Race with James Spader led the season of new Broadway plays, while David Greenspan's one-man The Myopia and Horton Foote's magnum opus The Orphans' Home Cycle debuted to raves Off-Broadway. Fela! based on the life of African-American composer Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a musical sensation and Dreamgirls had another noteworthyrevival at the Apollo Theatre that went on to a successful national tour. Regionally, Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape, starring Brian Dennehy at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and American Idiot, the Green Day musical, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre were regional hits. ... Read more

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Theatregoers' favorite history of Broadway is back in an updated and expanded 2010 edition including more than 500 color production photos, vintage archival photos, and Playbill covers from all forty currently operating Broadway theatres. Thirty-eight of the original chapters have been expanded to cover all the shows that have opened in the ten years since the popular 2000 edition, with two new chapters added to include Broadway theatres recently refurbished and returned to life. This unique chronicle is the first work to present a detailed theatre-by-theatre roundup of players and productions that have enchanted audiences at Broadway's great playhouses from 1900 to 2010. The work is an expanded treatment of "At This Theatre," the popular feature in Playbill's Broadway theatre programs. "At This Theatre" offers playgoers instant nostalgia by listing notable hits (and some famed fiascos) that have played through the years in the theatre that they are attending. The book also pays tribute to the distinguished impresarios who built and managed these houses, and the brilliant architects and interior designers who created them. The original 1984 edition was created by Playbill senior editor Louis Botto. Botto worked with editor Robert Viagas on the 2000 update. With the third edition, Botto has passed the author torch to Viagas, who founded Playbill.com and the acclaimed Playbill Broadway Yearbook series, and who has written the updates in Botto's style. ... Read more

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The Association of British Theatre Technicians produced its first guide to the design and planning of theatres in 1972. Revised in 1986, it became the standard reference work for anyone involved in building, refurbishing, or creating a performance space. Theatre Buildings – a design guide is its successor.

Written and illustrated by a highly experienced team of international theatre designers and practitioners, it retains the practical approach of the original while extending the scope to take account of the development of new technologies, new forms of presentation, changing expectations, and the economic and social pressures which require every part of the theatre to be as productive as possible.

The book takes the reader through the whole process of planning and designing a theatre. It looks in detail at each area of the building: front of house, auditorium, backstage, and administrative offices. It gives specific guidance on sightlines, acoustics, stage engineering, lighting, sound and video, auditorium and stage formats. Aspects such as catering, conference and education use are also covered.

The information is supplemented by twenty-eight case studies, selected to provide examples which range in size, style and format and to cover new buildings, renovations, conversions, temporary and found space. The studies include Den Norsk, Oslo; The Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis; The Liceu, Barcelona; Les Bouffes du Nord, Paris; The RSC’s Courtyard Theatre in Stratford on Avon; and the MTC Theatre in Melbourne. All have plans and sections drawn to 1:500 scale.

The book contains around 100 high quality full colour images as well as over 60 specially drawn charts and diagrams explaining formats, relationships and technical details.

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent technical resource
The book is divided into two sections: the first addresses each of a number of technical design issues:
- Preliminary planning
- Broad Principles
- Front of house
- Auditorium design
- The stage and stage machinery
- Lighting, sound and video
- Backstage provision
- Additional spaces
- Restoration, conversion and improvement of existing buildings

Each is covered with a combination of diagrams, lists, technical illustrations and photographs explaining the main points.

The second section is a series of 28 reference projects from around the world, including some very recent work like Norman Foster's Winspear Opera House, and Snohetta's opera house in Oslo. Each is documented with text, a short summary, photographs, and a plan and section through the stage and auditorium.

It's less detailed than Izenour's books, but very much more up-to-date, and a great starting resource for anyone involved in designing or modifying a theater. ... Read more

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Act locally

Teach Yourself Theater covers all aspects of community theater, from acting to lighting to managing. It includes important advice on coping with opening-night nerves, health and safety issues, funding, taxes, and more.

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Great Reference Book for Theatre
This book is a great reference to many of the contemporary playwrights and artist which have shaped the art of theatre known today. August Wilson, Susan-Lori Parks, Naomi Wallace, Paula Vogel and David Henry Hwang are some of the few artist mentioned in this collection of articles and interviews.

If you are a student or dramaturg that needs to find references from a particular playwright/artist, this is a great book to hold on to.

It is rich in understanding the theatrical arts and well organized format.

If you read this, you will be the smartest person at the party! ... Read more

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Musicals are undoubtedly one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the theatre today.They are also one of the most complex, since they often rely for their effect upon a combination of music, drama, dance, and spectacle.This book is an easy-to-read, step-by-step guide to the whole process of putting on a musical, placing a firm emphasis on good organization and careful planning.In Staging a Musical, Matthew White describes all the elements involved in putting on a musical production, including: how to choose the right show, budgets and schedules, auditions, rehearsals, and performances.There are also sections on set design, costumes, sound, lighting, and publicity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fantastic help in preparing our group for the big night.
I picked up a copy of this book whilst in London, on the recommendation of a friend.I had mentioned that I was involved in the staging of "The Boyfriend", and was a first time musical organiser. Matthew and Stella hit all the key points, and give a heads up for sticky issues.I recommendit highly to all those keen producers out there. ... Read more

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This lively introduction to theatre offers equal measures of appreciation of theatrical arts and descriptions of the collaborative theatrical crafts. The author's enthusiasm for and knowledge of the current theatre, highlighted by contemporary production shots from around the world, put the students in the front row. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Awesome
The product was in almost perfect condition... And he got it to me super quick!!! Even with the holiday weekend!

Readiblity is Phenomenal
This book was required for my Humanities course and it's so simple to read. Don't get me wrong though, I still highlight and it makes it even better. But in comparison to other text books, (namely my anthropology book), I can get through this book a lot easier without falling asleep. My only problem is that not enough emphasis is put on definitons in the text (they're italicized but not bolded or repeated on the side). Other than that, 5 stars

Get what you pay for
The seller described the book as having "water damage." Well that's what most of it was as it came in with water wrinkles over the cover and most of the book. However it was still usable and readable. The only problem I had with this experience was that the estimated time was 22 days, which didn't end up being true but was a worry as I needed the book within a week. I asked the seller if this was true and the seller responded that it might be. I've never had a problem with USPS with funky arrival dates so it was quite frustrating having to wait to see if the book would indeed arrive in 22 days.

Overall the experience was a little stressful but the book arrived in exactly the way the seller described it: wrinkly, wet but still manageable.

Not worth the games and not worth the price
This is a good textbook for Introduction to Theatre college students.I used this book a million years ago when I took this class in college.I have been using it for my college students today.It is competent and thorough.However, it is too advanced for an introductory text.It uses far too much 'lingo' that the average person does not understand.It's as if Professor Cohen has forgotten what it is like to be a REAL beginniner in theatre.Not knowing the most basic terms more experienced people take for granted.
All that aside, the publisher is playing games with this title.The publisher releases a "new" edition of this text every few years, ostensibly "updating" it and with "exciting" new pictures.Then rearranging chapters for a more "coherent narrative." (my quotes, not theirs).
This is a gimmick to force students to buy the newest edition and to keep the revenue stream strong for their shareholders.Shocking and disgraceful.I will be changing textbooks next semester.I recommend you do the same.Find a publisher that respects students and teachers first.

Great Textbook
This was a great textbook and easy to read and follow. What I liked most about this text is the current playwrights, and screenplays that were discussed in this book. To read about it and then be able to see some of these screenplays was amazing. ... Read more

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This collection represents a complete range of Western drama since the beginning of recorded dramatic history. This anthology and the anthology above offer a choice to those instructors who prefer complete works to excerpts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A companion to "Twelve Plays for Theatre" also by Robert Cohen
Please note that translated plays (Sophocles, Moliere, Chekov, etc) may be different from other current translations, but are still good.

The plays included are as follows:

1. Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos
2. The Plaie Called Corpus Christi, Part 1: The Beginnings
3. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
4. Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), The Bourgeois Gentleman
5. August Strindberg, Miss Julie
6. Anton Chekhov, The Three Sisters
7. Samuel Beckett, Happy Days
8. Sam Shepard, Fool for Love ... Read more

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The most complete annual record of American theatre. Celebrating its 62 year, Theatre World remains the authoritative and pictorial record of the season on Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway, and for regional companies. Volume 62 features the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Jersey Boys, which also earned a Theatre World Award and Tony Award for its star, John Lloyd Young, while British imports Richard Griffiths and The History Boys gave lessons on how to earn rave reviews as well. Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon returned to her theatre roots to score a Tony in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole. Other highlights of the season include the Off Broadway smash hit Grey Gardens, which would eventually land on Broadway. Regionally, the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre's The Drowsy Chaperone would also eventually transfer to Broadway. As always, Theatre World's outstanding features include: * An expanded section of professional regional productions from across the U.S. * An expanded listing of all the major theatrical awards * The longest running shows on and Off Broadway * Biographical data, obituaries, and a comprehensive index ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Year of the Best & Worst of Broadway.
Willis's recap of the bway,, off bway & off off bway is right on the money.Ater living almost all of my life inNY, I'm sorryi didn't take advantage of all the shows available off bway. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent book and fascinating subject
Wonderful theatre book.A real insider's understanding of a famous subject.Unusual insight into a creative theatre legend.

An Excellent view of a supreme artist
The spirit of Eleonora Duse fills this excellent little book. Eva Le Gallienne, a master in her own right, clearly loves Duse, and she unapologetically deifies her.Weaving together histories, analyses, personal recollections, quotes, reviews, and theological musings, Le Gallienne creates a vivid image of the woman, and made me mourn that I could not see her myself.She even addresses that, responding to a young actor with the same complaint (with pity).But I did feel, after reading the book, that I had connected with Duse in some small way; In this, Le Gallienne is an actor on the page, guiding her audience to the character without forcing it upon them.

The message I got was that Duse was a person first.Other actors are full of life when on the stage, and switch off once the curtain falls.For Duse, theatre was an extension of her life.Her craft (so strong that she seemed to have none) and her spirit filled the stage, but no more than it filled her life.

I recommend this book to all actors- this book was written with us in mind- but also to all artists.It is one-sided, yes, but it is not meant to be an objective account.It shows some of Duse's flaws, but tone is always one of love. ... Read more

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Suzuki Tadashi is Japan's best known director--internationally acclaimed for his postmodern adaptations of classics by Nanboku, Euripides, Shakespeare and Chekhov since the 1970s (including The Trojan Women, King Lear and Three Sisters) and, equally, for his powerful actor training system. This series' first comprehensive study of an Asian theater director traces Suzuki's rise from Little Theater director to international festival celebrity. It links his unique Surrealist dramaturgy with his intercultural training system, and provides in-depth descriptions of his most acclaimed productions. ... Read more

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Contemporary academic discourse is filled with the word "perform". Nestled among a variety of prefixes and suffixes (re-, post-, -ance, -ivity?), the term functions as a vehicle for a host of inquiries. This development is intriguing and complex for students, artists, and scholars of performance and theater. By examining the history of theater studies and related institutions and comparing the very different disciplinary interpretations and developments that led to this engagement, this study offers ways of placing performance theory and performance studies in context. ... Read more

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Published in France in 1987, this is the book in which Lecoq first set out his philosophy of human movement, and the way it takes expressive form in a wide range of different performance traditions. He traces the history of pantomime, sets out his definition of the components of the art of mime, and discusses the explosion of physical theatre in the second half of the twentieth century. Interviews with major theatre practitioners Ariane Mnouchkine and Jean-Louis Barrault by Jean Perret, together with chapters by Perret on Étienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau, fill out the historical material written by Lecoq, and a final section by Alain Gautré celebrates the many physical theatre practitioners working in the 1980s.

Customer Reviews (1)

Great for College Theatre Teachers
Highly interesting and informative.Concepts are too advanced for most high school actors, dancers, etc.But I like it and will differentiate the lessons taught so my students can get it. ... Read more

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An indispensable reference tool for all theatre scholars and students, this book surveys theatre in more than 30 countries from India to Thailand, from Uzbekistan to New Zealand and from Australia to China, and is lavishly illustrated throughout. ... Read more

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During the 1930s the Work Progress Administration funded the Federal Theater Project to sustain unemployed theatrical workers in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major urban centers, employing over 12,000 people and presenting countless productions. Some of the most popular and memorable of these works, such as the "voodoo" Macbeth and the "swing" Mikado, were produced in the so-called Negro Units, whose story is narrated in this book. Particular focus is given to problems of representation in a community and in an era trying to define what was African American, what was Negro, what was American, what was peculiar, and what was universal in the arts. ... Read more

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Originally published in 1968, Jerzy Grotowski's groundbreaking book is now availible once again. As a record of Grotowski's theatrical experiments, this book is an invaluable resource to stduent and theater practioners alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Wonderful Book
Every actor and theatre professional in the world should read this book at least three times. It is fantastic, mindblowing and (at least to me) life changing.

Required Reading
For any theatre professional, student or enthusiast.Highly recommend watching "My Dinner With Andre" as well.It's a film by Wallace Shawn.

Beauty in Poverty and Performance
Comprehending this book is no small feat.Sure, you start with the premise that competing with the technical spectacle of movies and TV is a fruitless pursuit.That's not difficult.Neither is the idea of embracing poverty in theatre and making the human being the only center of performance.That's dead easy.Spare costumes, little or no makeup, no sound effects, as few light effects as possible.Who can argue with that?

But this doesn't mean everybody can embrace Grotowski's vision of Poor Theatre.His is one that involves stripping away all preconceived notions of theatre from the early Modern period on.This will never fly in commercial theatre, dependent as it is on technology, nor will it satisfy many recent playwrights, who depend on technical do-funnies to make their shows work.

Grotowski also takes a funny view of plays, playwrights, and theoreticians who don't agree with him.Among other things, he considers playwrights as hired talent and plays as essentially malleable.He also suggests that the only way the writings of Artaud are useful in theatre is if they are taken elementally rather than globally - a position sure not to sit well with many avant-garde directors.

Because this book isn't a straight-ahead statement of principles, ideas, and practices, it yields its secrets only with difficulty.Parts of it aren't even written by Grotowski, but are interviews by other authors, or even observations that don't include quotes from the man himself.It was basically compiled to provide an overview of the ideas and products of the Polish Laboratory Theatre up to that time, and it encourages experiment and development by the reader.

This isn't to say that it isn't actually useful.There are exercises for actors; there are statements of theory for directors; there are even sketches, diagrams, and photos for designers.However, expect to wrestle with this book if you're going to unlock its secrets.Once you elect to start down this path, you have a long row to hoe

It is a crime this book is out of print.
"Towards A Poor Theatre" by Jerzy Grotowski is probably the most important book written on acting since Stainslavsky's three famous character books. There is so little known about Grotowski and many people have tried to fake his work and people need to read the man's original words. Grotowski's vision of theatre has had the greatest effect on me more than any other person in theatre. He saw acting as a Holy experience where both the actor and spectator were transformed after the performance. Grotowski expanded from where Stainslavsky left off and drew his ideas everywhere from modern art to religious rituals to primitive theatre. Any one interested in theatre must read this book somehow and be changed forever like I have.

A Classic
There is no better book that I have read on the theory and practice of theatre. As Peter Brook says in the preface, "Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no-one else in the world, to my knowledge, no-one since Stanislavsky, has investigated the nature of acting, its phenomenon, its meaning, the nature and science of its mental-physical-emotional processes as deeply and completely as Grotowski."

Grotowski argues effectively that the split of the stage and the screen necessitates that the stage redefine its focus. The screen with its higher budget and countless retakes will always beat the stage in richness. So, Grotowski posits "If it [the stage] cannot be richer than the cinema, then let it be poor." The rest of the book illustrates what such a poor theatre means in practice. Brilliant. ... Read more

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While theatregoers are generally familiar with the names of such pioneers as George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern, the names of their black counterparts - Will Marion Cook, George Walker and Bob Cole, among others - are virtually unknown today. Allen Woll aims to remedy that neglect in this book, offering a thoroughly researched account of the evolution of black musical theatre from the turn of the century to the present day. In his discussion of the careers of Ethel Walters, Eubie Blake and Lena Horne, to name just a few of the luminaries considered here and in his outlines and analyses of "A Trip to Coontown", "Shuffle Along", "Porgy and Bess", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "The Wiz", "Dreamgirls" and dozens of other shows, Woll brings the works vividly to life. "Black Musical Theatre" should become an essential reference and guide for anyone interested in theatre and African American history. ... Read more