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Nominated for Best New Play at the 2023 Olivier Awards I found a king in me and now I love youI found a king in you and now I love me Father figures and fashion tips. Lost loves and jollof rice. African empires and illicit sex. Good days and bad days. Six young Black men meet for group therapy, and let their hearts - and imaginations - run wild. Inspired by Ntozake Shange's essential work For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf, For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy is a profound and playful work, co-commissioned by Boundless Theatre, from multi-award-winning company Nouveau Riche and playwright Ryan Calais Cameron. For Black Boys... gained critical acclaim for the world premiere in October 2021 at New Diorama Theatre, before successfully transferring to London's Royal Court Theatre in March 2022. This edition was published to coincide with the second West End production at the Garrick Theatre in March 2024.

And I think you can tell a lot about a person by what they choose to see in you. She was a 17 year old girl; the only God she believed in was Taylor Swift. After her sister's untimely death by a Yorkshire Pudding, a funny teenage misfit begrudgingly joins a flailing scout group to help her navigate the kicks and punches of adolescence with varying degrees of success. Rosie Day's debut play Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon is a rollercoaster ride through youth. Whether you are a young person, know a young person, or simply were a young person once - it's time to rip up the rule book and reconnect with your younger self. This edition was published to coincide with the production which opened at the West End's Garrick Theatre in March 2024.

A new Student Edition of Willy Russell's enduring 1983 play, Blood Brothers, offering accessible and vivid insights into the play and the context in which it was written through a C21st lens. As well as exploring the key themes, characters and dramatic devices of the play, and how they map onto our experience today, it conveys how groundbreaking Blood Brothers was at the time in representing working-class lives on stage, as well as explicitly exposing the flaws of the British class system. The commentary by Rebecca Hillman encourages students to: * consider what it must have been like to be at the very first performance of the play in a school classroom in Liverpool; * consider the significance of key phrases in the text, such as "living on the never never" and "the debt must be paid"* make comparisons between life in 1980s Britain and today - "the shrinking pound, the global slump and the price of oil";* think about what the play celebrates - friendship, family, community, neighbourhood* create their own show based on the story of Blood Brothers to engage their own community This edition offers a much-needed analysis of the play with a lens that today's students will appreciate and be inspired by.

It starts - like many stories - with a man.A man leaving - heard that before?A man going off to find his fortune.A man going off to start a war. Telemachus was just a baby when his dad Odysseus left to fight in the Trojan War. Now he's almost grown he sets off on a quest to find him, even if his mum is not convinced. Luckily he has the muses - and some great tunes - to guide him on his heroic journey. Join Telemachus on an epic adventure through stormy seas and strange lands, filled with mystical creatures, dangerous monsters and enchanting sirens - plus two talking sheep - and discover what really makes a true hero. This fun, musical re-telling of Homer's classic story The Odyssey is adapted by Nina Segal, with the original production directed by Jennifer Tang. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at Unicorn Theatre in London, in March 2024.

In the early 1930s, during his first years of exile and 20 years before the publication of his seminal To the Actor, Michael Chekhov wrote his first book about his acting method.This important, though now largely forgotten, work was handwritten in German and in it Chekhov lays the groundwork for the canon of exercises and practices that, a century later, actors generally know as "the Michael Chekhov Technique". Although never completed, the text affords a rare fly-on-the-wall insight into the raw material of Chekhov's vision and the processes of a spirit of true artistic genius. In this manuscript, which is published here for the first time in an English translation, we find Chekhov often at far greater ease expressing the intangible elements of the artist's creative process than later in English, and he is at times prescient in exploring the challenges of maintaining our creative dignity within the relentless tide of materialism and technological progress. We also gain fascinating insights into Michael Chekhov's collaboration with the dramatist, painter and illustrator Georgette Boner at this time and on this manuscript. And the text itself is supplemented with visuals including facsimile scans of the original; a visiting card of Chekhov's from Paris; and photographs from Georgette Boner's personal archives. As the popularity of Michael Chekhov Technique continues to spread globally, the 'Paris Manuscript' offers a timely invitation for us to take a step back and rediscover Michael Chekhov as a source, rather than a template. This extensively revised and abridged text is presented with an introduction by Hugo Moss, co-founder and director of Michael Chekhov Brazil, and a series of contemporary short essays ("Reflections From the Studio"), which offer practical suggestions, building on a few key elements emerging from the manuscript and over a decade of exploring Chekhov's artistic legacy in the studio environment and in performance.

The first of its kind, this anthology documents some of the UK's most exciting contemporary queer performances, through a mix of retrospective scripts, development material, and artist interviews. Often, queer performances are intended to live one bright life: they rarely begin as a script at all, favoring instead performance-led forms, equipped to fill noisy bars, clinking cabaret venues, and fringe theatres, typically for very short runs. Because of this lack of written material, these important and vital performances are at-risk, vulnerable to be lost to the archives of memory. Writing Queer Performance: Contemporary Texts and Documents documents eight seminal queer live works, ensuring their accessibility. Featuring performance scripts, visual developmental material, and interviews with the creatives behind them, this anthology provides a panoramic insight on contemporary processes and practices. Along with a contextualizing introduction, this play collection illuminates this vibrant but vulnerable form, supporting its documentation and accessibility long after the event of live performance.

Written by a highly influential post-Stanislavskian practitioner, this book offers an accessible and contemporary interpretation of The Method, setting out techniques and exercises to train and develop actors today. Going back to the roots of Method Acting and the work of Lee Strasberg and Stanislavski, and using Barrouk's own unique practice as a lens through which to view it, The Method here is refreshed as something nuanced, contemporary, safe and practical that will benefit all actors - even those most skeptical of it. Through making a case for the relevance of Method Acting to our modern times and preserving its essence while updating its notions, the book covers the full range of the acting process, including character analysis questions, active analysis, actions, individual and group exploration, identifying actions, and developing/creating a scene in rehearsal. Practical exercises and activities are woven throughout the text, offering a modern framework in which to consider this practice. The benefits of looking at Stanislavski through both a contemporary and a different cultural lens is invaluable for students and actors alike, and they will appreciate the playful, lively and provocative approach in contrast to the sacred tone of other books on the same topic.

In the first book-length study of Annie Baker, one of the most critically acclaimed playwrights in the United States today and winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur "genius" grant, Amy Muse analyzes Baker's plays and other work. These include The Flick, John, The Antipodes, the Shirley Vermont plays, and her adaptation of Uncle Vanya. Muse illuminates their intellectual and ethical themes and issues by contextualizing them with the other works of theatre, art, theology, and psychology that Baker read while writing them. Through close discussions of Baker's work, this book immerses readers in her use of everyday language, her themes of loneliness, desire, empathy, and storytelling, and her innovations with stage time. Enriched by a foreword from Baker's former professor, playwright Mac Wellman, as well as essays by four scholars, Thomas Butler, Jeanmarie Higgins, Katherine Weiss, and Harrison Schmidt, this is a companionable guide for students of American literature and theatre studies, which deepens their knowledge and appreciation of Baker's dramatic invention. Muse argues that Baker is finely attuned to the language of the everyday: imperfect, halting, marked with unexpressed desires, banalities, and silence. Called "antitheatrical," these plays draw us back to the essence of theatre: space, time, and story, sitting with others in real time, witnessing the dramatic in the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Baker's revolution for the stage has been to slow it down and bring us all into the mystery and pleasure of attention.

Krishna Kumari: The Tragedy of India introduces readers to the first English language play in modern India.Written in 1826 by English Subba Rao, one of the first Indians to be schooled in English, Krishna Kumari depicts the true story of a princess of Udaipur who is forced to commit suicide in order to end a war started by her suitors, the rulers of the neighboring kingdoms of Jaipur and Jodhpur. Tragically, her death proves to be in vain because the mercenaries recruited by the contending rulers nevertheless proceed to plunder the region. All three kingdoms are then compelled to seek the protection of the East India Company, bringing their independence to an end.Sharp and witty, Krishna Kumari was intended to warn Indian principalities against the follies that led to the downfall of the Rajputs. Unfortunately, the play scarcely saw the light of day. Angered by Subba Rao's opposition to their power, the British forced him to withdraw from public life. This is why audiences have never heard of Krishna Kumari-until now. Building on extensive archival research, this volume brings Subba Rao's pioneering drama back to life. The introductory essay by Rahul Sagar, a leading scholar of nineteenth century India, familiarizes readers with the remarkable characters in the play and the violent era in which they lived. By shedding light on Subba Rao's extraordinary life and career, it also reveals how important principalities like Tanjore and Travancore were in battling colonialism and shaping modern India.

As I walk past the funeral parlour, I see a poster next to their two-for-one offer. It's a wanted poster with my name on it. A completely made-up true story. When the world goes mad, do we inevitably go mad too? When Shôn playfully cracks an egg on his mother's head, he has no idea real-life internet trolls will appear on his doorstep. Cracking takes on the battle between love and hate, asking what's funny and where we draw the line. Part stand-up, part theatre, Cracking is a funny, touching and thought-provoking solo performance that sews together fact and fiction into one seamless whole making us wonder what's real, what's not and what's gone wrong. This story about love and hatred celebrates how searching for connection beats disconnecting. This edition was published to coincide with the UK tour starting in February 2024.

In this epic history-cum-anthology, Megan Vaughan tells the story of the theatre blogosphere from the dawn of the carefully crafted longform post to today's digital newsletters and social media threads. Contextualising the key debates of fifteen years of theatre history, and featuring the writings of over 40 theatre bloggers, Theatre Blogging brings past and present practitioners into conversation with one another. Starting with Encore Theatre Magazine and Chris Goode in London, George Hunka and Laura Axelrod in New York, Jill Dolan at Princeton University, and Alison Croggon in Melbourne, the work of these influential early adopters is considered alongside those who followed them. Vaughan explores issues that have affected both arts journalism and the theatre industry, profiling the activist bloggers arguing for broader representation and better working conditions, highlighting the innovative dramaturgical practices that have been developed and piloted by bloggers, and offering powerful insights into the precarious systems of labour and economics in which these writers exist. She concludes by considering current threats to the theatre blogosphere, and how the form continues to evolve in response to them.

" Reading and digesting the lessons in this book can be of greater value to an aspiring dramatist than years in an MFA program. Whether you are writing for the stage, screen or audio, this book is an invaluable teacher and guide to have by your side throughout the development and revision process."Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig "This book does what no other playwriting book in my experience has done, it offers a new way of seeing and conceiving how theatre makes meaning and carries emotional impact in performance."Suzan Zeder, Professor Emerita and former Head Of Playwriting at University of Texas at Austin, USA Combining a step-by-step analysis of the technique of writing for stage and screen with how the mystery, poetry, and emotional momentum is achieved for the audience, Sherry Kramer offers an empowering, original guide for emerging and established writers. In this structured look at the way audience members progress through a work in real time, Sherry Kramer uses plain-spoken vocabulary to help you discover how to make work that will mean more to your audiences. By using examples drawn from plays, film, and streaming series, ranging from A Streetcar Named Desire to Fleabag to Pirates of the Caribbean, this study makes its concepts accessible to a wide range of artists who work in timebound art. The book also features multiple exercises, developed with MFA writers in The Iowa Playwrights Workshop and The Michener Center for Writers, where Kramer taught for the past 25 years, which provide entrance points to help you consider and create your work.

Filled with practical advice and highlighting pitfalls to avoid, Acting Professionally gives a clear understanding of how acting careers are built and sustained. Now in its 9th edition, this book has become the leading book in the field since the first edition published in 1972. It includes an extensive new section on the industry to reflect the 21st century, including signposting new resources and insights, and considering the shifting landscape and opportunities offered by TV streaming, voiceover for gaming, internet, audiobooks, motion capture and podcasts. Critically, this new edition reflects the vital changes in the industry as a result of the Black Lives Matter, Time's Up and Me Too movements, and the Covid-19 pandemic. It acknowledges and seeks to address the challenges of the industry often faced by actors when it comes to race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. It includes interviews with leading industry figures, including Broadway producer Brian Moreland, Broadway director LaTonya Richardson Jackson, casting director Erica Jenson and leading actors of colour. This 9th edition speaks to the changed landscape of audition practice and best practice in the industry, ensuring that it's a book that's useful, relevant and accessible to every actor starting out today.

Offers a comprehensive history of stage musicals from the earliest accounts of the ancient Greeks and Romans, for whom songs were common elements in staging, to Jacques Offenbach in Paris during the 1840s, to Gilbert and Sullivan in the UK, to the rise of music halls and vaudeville traditions in America, and eventually to 'Broadway's Golden Age'.

How do you decide what stories an audience should hear? How do you make your theatre stand out in a crowded and intensely competitive marketplace? How do you make your building a home for artistic risk and innovation, while ensuring the books are balanced? It is the artistic director's job to answer all these questions, and many more. Yet, despite the central role that these people play in the modern theatre industry, very little has been written about what they do or how they do it. In The Art of the Artistic Director, Christopher Haydon (former artistic director of the Gate Theatre, 'London's most relentlessly ambitious theatre' - Time Out) compiles a fascinating set of interviews that get to the heart of what it is to occupy this unique role. He speaks to twenty of the most prominent and successful artistic directors in the US and UK, including: Oskar Eustis (Public Theater, New York), Diane Paulus (AmericanRepertory Theater, Boston), Rufus Norris (National Theatre, London) and Vicky Featherstone (Royal Court Theatre, London), uncovering the essential skills and abilities that go into making an accomplished artistic director. The only book of its kind available, The Art of the Artistic Director includes a foreword by Michael Grandage, former artistic director of the Sheffield Crucible and the Donmar Warehouse in London.

"This is a terrific guide for young actors...I read it cover to cover and then went out and bought copies for all my kids because, truthfully, it puts an experienced eye on pretty much all of life's early encounters." - Donald Sutherland"When I was about to go into my callback with Sacha Baron Cohen, Nancy told me, 'Just enjoy the experience; you have nothing to lose, ' and she speaks a lot about that in this book. She takes the worry out of auditioning and helps us see the fun and positive side of the experience. Nancy is a true champion for diversity and I am so grateful she has opened the doors for Eastern European artists." - Maria BakalovaAuditioning for Film and Television is a must-have guide, written from the perspective of a casting director and offering actionable advice on audition technique, scene analysis, online casting and social media.Since the first edition was published in 2009, this practical workbook has helped countless actors learn the craft of auditioning for screen. Owing to the seismic changes within the industry following on from the #MeToo movement and, of course, the impact of social media and ever-advancing technology, how auditioning and casting are conducted has radically changed. This third edition of Auditioning for Film and Television addresses these issues and how they come into play in the audition room, offering guidance on areas such as: - How actors can most professionally conduct themselves in a casting situation, and on set, when there is sexuality inherent in a role- How both interviewers and interviewees can keep the relationship clear, professional and above board- What resources are available if issues ariseIn addition, readers continue to benefit from the author's tried-and-tested advice that will help them to succeed in this crowded and competitive industry.

This Critical Companion to the work of one of Ireland's most famous and controversial playwrights, Sean O'Casey, is the first major study of the playwright's work to consider his oeuvre and the archival material that has appeared during the last decade. Published ahead of the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland with which O'Casey's most famous plays are associated, it provides a clear and detailed study of the work in context and performance. James Moran shows that O'Casey not only remains the most performed playwright at Ireland's national theatre, but that the playwright was also one of the most controversial and divisive literary figures, whose work caused riots and who alienated many of his supporters. Since the start of the 'Troubles' in the North of Ireland, his work has been associated with Irish historical revisionism, and has become the subject of debate about Irish nationalism and revolutionary history. Moran's admirably clear study considers the writer's plays, autobiographical writings and essays, paying special attention to the Dublin trilogy, The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, and The Plough and the Stars. It considers the work produced in exile, during the war and the late plays. The Companion also features a number of interviews and essays by other leading scholars and practitioners, including Garry Hynes, Victor Merriman and Paul Murphy, which provide further critical perspectives on the work.

Starting from the idea that the main hindrance to a great acting performance is self-consciousness on the part of the performer, My Character Wouldn't do That examines the ways in which some of our traditional and contemporary approaches to acting put us into a 'mind space' that can encourage self-consciousness. Examining evidence from a range of contemporary cognitive sciences, the book approaches acting and actor training in an entirely different way. Based on the latest research into brain activity and human behaviour, the book covers areas that standard acting texts do (character, emotion, memory, imagination, making active choices) but reconceives each of these elements through the lens of that contemporary research. The book is the first to look closely at what contemporary research tells us about: - personality/character and how environment shapes us- how memory works and how actors can work with (rather than against) their memory in preparing for performance- why actors must use different kinds of brain states and imagination in the various stages of preparation, rehearsal, and performance- how actors can frame active choices in a way that refocuses the source of thought and action- why actors should distinguish the stages of preparation and the kinds of thinking / imagination that works at each stage

With an exclusive focus on text-based theatre-making, Inside the Rehearsal Room is both an instructional and conceptual examination of the rehearsal process. Drawing on professional practice and underpinned by theory, this book moves through each stage of rehearsals, considering the inter-connectivity between the actor, director, designers and the backstage team, and how the cumulative effect of the weeks in rehearsal influences the final production. The text also includes: - Auto-ethnographic and fully ethno-graphic case study approaches to different rehearsal rooms- Interviews with directors, actors, designers and actor trainers- A consideration of the ethics of the rehearsal room and material selected for production- Practical exercises on how to creatively read a text from an acting and directing perspective Informed by over 20 years of directing experience in the UK and Europe, Robert Marsden's book offers a practical guide that ultimately demystifies the rehearsal process and challenges how the rehearsal room should be run in the twenty-first century.

Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, by most accounts the leading British playwrights of our time, might seem to come from very different aesthetic, cultural and political worlds. But as Carey Perloff's fascinating new book reveals, the two have much in common. By examining these contemporaries alongside one another and in the context of the rehearsal room, we can glean new insights and connections, including the impact of their Jewish background on their work and their passion for the details of stagecraft. Readers of Pinter and Stoppard: A Director's Viewwill emerge with a set of tools for approaching their work in a performance environment and for unlocking the mysteries of the plays for audiences.Esteemed theatre director Carey Perloff draws upon her first-hand experience of working with both writers, creating case studies of particular plays in production to provide new ways of positioning the work today. 30 years after major criticism on both playwrights first emerged, this is a ripe moment for a fresh examination of the unique contribution of Pinter and Stoppard in the twenty-first century.

Drawing on major new archival discoveries and recent research, Patrick Lonergan presents an innovative account of Irish drama and theatre, spanning the past seventy years. Rather than offering a linear narrative, the volume traces key themes to illustrate the relationship between theatre and changes in society. In considering internationalization, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Celtic Tiger period, feminism, and the changing status of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Lonergan asserts the power of theatre to act as an agent of change and uncovers the contribution of individual artists, plays and productions in challenging societal norms. Irish Drama and Theatre since 1950 provides a wide-ranging account of major developments, combined with case studies of the premiere or revival of major plays, the establishment of new companies and the influence of international work and artists, including Tennessee Williams, Chekhov and Brecht. While bringing to the fore some of the untold stories and overlooked playwrights following the declaration of the Irish Republic, Lonergan weaves into his account the many Irish theatre-makers who have achieved international prominence in the period: Samuel Beckett, Siobhán McKenna and Brendan Behan in the 1950s, continuing with Brian Friel and Tom Murphy, and concluding with the playwrights who emerged in the late 1990s, including Martin McDonagh, Enda Walsh, Conor McPherson, Marie Jones and Marina Carr. The contribution of major Irish companies to world theatre is also examined, including both the Abbey and Gate theatres, as well as Druid, Field Day and Charabanc. Through its engaging analysis of seventy years of Irish theatre, this volume charts the acts of gradual but revolutionary change that are the story of Irish theatre and drama and of its social and cultural contexts.