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20 Seasons: Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century
by Amy S. Osatinski20 Seasons: Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century catalogues, categorizes, and analyzes the 269 musicals that opened on Broadway from the 2000-2001 season through the 2019-2020 season. This book is the first to comprehensively examine the musicals that premiered on Broadway during this important historical period, which was bookended by the 9/11 terrorist attacks on one end and the Coronavirus pandemic on the other. It begins by exploring the historical context for the first 20 years of the 21st century and how this impacted American culture and theatre. Rather than chronologically, the musicals are then organized into categories based on their source material and whether they were original musicals or revivals, painting a detailed picture of the Broadway musical in first 20 years of the 21st century. Jukebox musicals, screen-to-stage musicals, revivals, and other original musicals are all covered, and each chapter ends with reading guides and discussion prompts. The book not only discusses what was produced, but by whom, uncovering the stark lack of representation for women and artists of color on Broadway musical creative and design teams. Additionally, the last chapter discusses the COVID-19 pandemic, the Broadway shutdown, and what happened to the Broadway musical during the shutdown, including the response to the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020. 20 Seasons: Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century will appeal to fans and scholars of musical theatre, as well as students of Musical Theatre, Musical Theatre History, American Studies, and Pop Culture Studies.
21 Black Futures: The Anthology
by Obsidian TheatreWhat is the future of Blackness? Obsidian Theatre presents twenty-one versions of it.In 2021, Obsidian Theatre engaged twenty-one writers to create twenty-one new stories about imagined Black futures. Twenty-one to celebrate Obsidian’s twenty-first anniversary in 2021. Each playwright was tasked with scripting a ten-minute monodrama in response to the question “What is the future of Blackness?” To counter the intense early-pandemic isolation and the trauma of witnessing heightened violence toward Black bodies, Obsidian’s goal was to give as many opportunities to as many diverse Black artists as possible and to bring new voices together from both theatre and film. It was a grand experiment to create a rich tapestry of possibilities and to uplift Black artists in the process.A radical offering in unprecedented times, newly appointed Obsidian artistic director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu’s curatorial aim was joyful, aspirational, and empowering: come together in this moment and create something communal, unapologetically Black, and with the Black gaze at its centre—art as the architecture for creating those futures. Includes plays by Amanda Parris, Cheryl Foggo, Shauntay Grant, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Lawrence Hill, Djanet Sears, and many others.
225 Plays
by The New York Neo-Futurists Joey RizzoloThis book brings together over 200 short (very short) plays from the New York production of the acclaimed cult theater hit "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.""Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind," created by Greg Allen, debuted in Chicago in December, 1988, and has been playing to sold out houses ever since. The show presents 30 plays in 60 minutes, 50 weeks a year, to a devoted following. The ensemble of writer-performers generates between two and 12 new plays each week, as dictated by a roll of the dice, creating a constantly changing menu of plays. In 2004, a New York ensemble was formed and the show has been running there since, playing to houses of younger, culturally adventurous audiences as well as seasoned theater-goers. The 225 plays in this volume, culled from more than 1,300 the New York company has generated since 2004, reflect the diversity of 35 current and past ensemble members and the multiplicity of viewpoints and voices they bring to the stage. The material runs the gamut of style, tone, and topic: musical, confession, agit-prop, poetic gesture, physical comedy, puppet theater, audience interrogation, folk song, sex joke, and many more.
24 Favorite One Act Plays
by Bennett Cerf Van H. CartmellTwo dozen classic dramas by some of the finest and most famous playwrights of the last hundred years--Anton Chekhov, Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller, and A.A. Milne.
27 Rue de Fleurus (My Life with Gertrude)
by Ted Sod5f / Musical/ Unit Set Unlike most of the stage works about Gertrude and Alice, 27 Rue de Fleurus is told from Alice's point of view. Gertrude grows tired of Alice's lack of panache for telling her perspective of their story and attempts to hijack the play as only the author of such lines as "sugar is not a vegetable" can. But Alice has secrets to share with the audience that silence the famously verbose Gertrude. This celebrated couple confronts each other about love, marriage, jealousy, genius and a few other delicious topics while Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mabel Dodge, Sylvia Beach and even Jean Harlow drop by for a visit. "27 Rue de Fleurus gets its sweetness from a genuine love of its subject, the "marriage" of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. The music is well handled by John Bell; and the all-female cast sings excellently." - Village Voice "What we have here is a love story, fraught with jealousy and passion like others, but most of all, it celebrates the incredible bond between two women who decided to share their lives, even during a time when it was relatively unheard of. That alone makes 27 Rue de Fleurus worth an evening of your time." - GO Magazine "Ms. Rosenblat, who, seated, resembles portraits of Stein, plays Gertrude as a commanding bully. And Ms. Stern's Alice is a bright, attractive creature. ("Everyone is entitled to a bit of fantasy," she says.) They're strong, plausible performances." - NY Times "Credit Ted Sod and Lisa Koch, writers of 27 Rue de Fleurus, with the provocative notion of fashioning a revisionist musical from Alice B. Toklas' corrective version of her life with literary giant Gertrude Stein. Name-dropping opening number "Salon (Let's Talk)" sets the smart tone for the musical's mise en scene -- the Parisian apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus wh
27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays
by Tennessee WilliamsThe thirteen one-act plays collected in this volume include some of Tennessee Williams's finest and most powerful work. They are full of the perception of life as it is, and the passion for life as it ought to be, which have made The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire classics of the American theater. Only one of these plays (The Purification) is written in verse, but in all of them the approach to character is by way of poetic revelation. Whether Williams is writing of derelict roomers in a New Orleans boarding house (The Lady of Larkspur Lotion) or the memories of a venerable traveling salesman (The Last of My Solid Gold Watches) or of delinquent children (This Property is Condemned), his insight into human nature is that of the poet. He can compress the basic meaning of life--its pathos or its tragedy, its bravery or the quality of its love--into one small scene or a few moments of dialogue. Mr. Williams's views on the role of the little theater in American culture are contained in a stimulating essay, "Something wild...," which serves as an introduction to this collection.
3 by Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet and Richard III (Dover Thrift Editions Ser.)
by William ShakespeareComedy, tragedy, and history -- this anthology presents a trio of Shakespeare's most frequently studied and performed works. Each represents one of the playwright's primary genres, and together they run the gamut of the Elizabethan theater experience, from lighthearted romance to star-crossed passion to ruthless ambition: A Midsummer Night's Dream, a celebration of the imaginative powers of love, replete with mischievous fairies, mistaken identities, and magical transformationsRomeo and Juliet, a gripping drama in which young love is thwarted by a bitter feud and a tragic twist of fateRichard III, a portrait of a cunning and ambitious villain who seduces, betrays, and murders his way to the throneAll plays are complete and unabridged and feature informative footnotes.
30 Great Myths about Shakespeare
by Emma Smith Laurie MaguireThink you know Shakespeare? Think again . . . Was a real skull used in the first performance of Hamlet? Were Shakespeare's plays Elizabethan blockbusters? How much do we really know about the playwright's life? And what of his notorious relationship with his wife? Exploring and exploding 30 popular myths about the great playwright, this illuminating new book evaluates all the evidence to show how historical material--or its absence--can be interpreted and misinterpreted, and what this reveals about our own personal investment in the stories we tell.
The 30-Minute Shakespeare Anthology: 18 Student Scenes with Monologues
by Nick Newlin William ShakespeareDrawing on his eighteen years of experience as a teaching artist for Folger Shakespeare Library, Nick Newlin offers eighteen scenes to get young actors on their feet performing Shakespeare with confidence, understanding, and fun!Each scene averages five minutes in length, containing two to six characters, and features a monologue that young performers can use in performance, audition, or competition. Every scene has been "road tested" by one of Newlin's student groups at the Folger's annual Secondary School Shakespeare Festival, and includes dynamic stage directions and incisive performance notes to help teachers and students bring Shakespeare's plays to life.The 30-Minute Shakespeare Anthology includes one scene and monologue from eighteen of Shakespeare's greatest plays, including Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and The Taming of the Shrew.Additionally, the anthology contains a scene and monologue from Henry IV Part I, King Lear, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Love's Labor's Lost.Also featured is an essay by editor Nick Newlin on how to produce a Shakespeare play with novice actors, and notes about the original production of this abridgment at the Folger Shakespeare Library's annual Student Shakespeare Festival. Each scene and monologue has accompanying notes and performance suggestions.
30 Modern Monologues
by Roger KarshnerSelected speeches for actors and actresses from the author's successful works - comedy, drama, absurdist - provide a gold mine of contemporary material for amateurs and professionals to use in auditions, workshops, and special readings.
30 Modern Scenes
by Roger KarshnerContemporary scenes for man/man, woman/woman, and man/woman pairs are written in a language that lives, making them ideal for workshops, auditions, and special readings.
360° Circus: Meaning. Practice. Culture (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Franziska TrappThis collection aims to map a diversity of approaches to the artform by creating a 360° view on the circus. The three sections of the book, Aesthetics, Practice, Culture, approach aesthetic developments, issues of artistic practice, and the circus’ role within society. This book consists of a collection of articles from renowned circus researchers, junior researchers, and artists. It also provides the core statements and discussions of the conference UpSideDown—Circus and Space in a graphic recording format. Hence, it allows a clear entry into the field of circus research and emphasizes the diversity of approaches that are well balanced between theoretical and artistic point of views. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of circus studies, emerging disciples of circus and performance.
365 Days / 365 Plays
by Suzan-Lori Parks"Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most important dramatists America has produced."-Tony Kushner "The plan was that no matter what I did, how busy I was, what other commitments I had, I would write a play a day, every single day for a year. It would be about being present and being committed to the artistic process every single day, regardless of the 'weather.' It became a daily meditation, a daily prayer celebrating the rich and strange process of a writing life."-Suzan-Lori Parks On November 13, 2002, the incomparable Suzan-Lori Parks got an idea to write a play every day for a year. She began that very day, finishing one year later. The result is an extraordinary testament to artistic commitment. This collection of 365 impeccably crafted pieces, each with its own distinctive characters and dramatic power, is a complete work by an artist responding to her world, each and every day. Parks is one of the American theater's most wily and innovative writers, and her "stark but poetic language and fiercely idiosyncratic images transform her work into something haunting and marvelous" (TIME).
39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance
by Matthew Goulish'A series of accidents has brought you this book. You may think of it not as a book, but as a library, an elevator, an amateur performance in a nearby theatre. Open it to the table of contents. Turn to the page that sounds the most interesting to you. Read a sentence or two. Repeat the process. Read this book as a creative act, and feel encouraged.' 39 Microlectures: In Proximity of Performance is a collection of miniature stories, parables, musings and thinkpieces on the nature of reading, writing, art, collaboration, performance, life, death, the universe and everything. It is a unique and moving document for our times, full of curiosity and wonder, thoughtfulness and pain. Matthew Goulish, founder member of performance group Goat Island, meditates on these and other diverse themes, proving, along the way, that the boundaries between poetry and criticism, and between creativity and theory, are a lot less fixed than they may seem. The book is revelatory, solemn yet at times hilarious, and genuinely written to inspire - or perhaps provoke - creativity and thought.
The 39 Steps
by John Buchan Patrick BarlowFrom the Movie by Alfred Hitchcock, Licensed by ITV Global Entertainment Limited and an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon Characters: 3m, 1f Comedy WINNER! 2 Tony® and Drama Desk Awards, 2008 WINNER! BEST NEW COMEDY Laurence Olivier Award, 2007 The 39 Steps, is Broadway's longest running comedy, playing its 500th performance on Broadway, May 19th, 2009! Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This 2-time Tony® and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of 4), an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance! In The 39 Steps, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called "The 39 Steps" is hot on the man's trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death-defying finale! A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft, The 39 Steps amounts to an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure! "A wonderful triumph of theatre!" -BBC Radio 4 "It's really not so much about a spoof of Hitchcock, which it is, of course; it's really an homage to the theater. Not the contemporary theater, where mermaids traverse the stage on wheels and gargantuan mechanical sets get bigger applause than the actors, but the nostalgic version that survives on greasepaint and hammy actors. It's a valentine to that kind of creativity and imagination, of doing so much with so little..." -The New York Times "THEATER AT ITS FINEST... Absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock's film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands." -Ben Brantley, The New York Times "The most entertaining show on Broadway!" -Liz Smith, The New York Post "INGENIOUS! A DIZZY DELIGHT!" -Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News "RIOTOUS & MARVELOUS!" -Clive Barnes, The New York Post "Whirlwind funny business!" -Michael Sommers, The Star-Ledger "a giddy display of theatrical invention!" -David Rooney, Variety "comedy of the highest order!" -Roma Torre, NY1 "About the cleverest show on Broadway in a long time!" -David Richardson, WOR Radio "Rollicking Fun! Hugely Entertaining!" -Sunday Times "Clever, very funny, imaginative and brilliantly acted!" -The Guardian "Dizzyingly entertaining show!" -Daily Telegraph
3D Printing Basics for Entertainment Design
by Anne E. McMillsAffordable 3D printers are rapidly becoming everyday additions to the desktops and worktables of entertainment design practitioners – whether working in theatre, theme parks, television and film, museum design, window displays, animatronics, or… you name it! We are beginning to ask important questions about these emerging practices: · How can we use 3D fabrication to make the design and production process more efficient? · How can it be used to create useful and creative items? · Can it save us from digging endlessly through thrift store shelves or from yet another late-night build? · And when budgets are tight, will it save us money? This quick start guide will help you navigate the alphabet soup that is 3D printing and begin to answer these questions for yourself. It outlines the basics of the technology, and its many uses in entertainment design. With straightforward and easy-to-follow information, you will learn ways to acquire printable 3D models, basic methods of creating your own, and tips along the way to produce successful prints. Over 70 professionals contributed images, guidance, and never-before-seen case studies filled with insider secrets to this book, including tutorials by designer and pioneer, Owen M. Collins.
4 Beekman
by Ron ClarkComedyCharacters: 6 male, 3 female (w/ doubling) . Interior set . . Deanne and Robert, a May-December couple, have just returned from their honeymoon, and Deanne is shocked to find that Robert has unwittingly bought the very same apartment that she used to live in with her ex-husband, Skip. Not only that, but Skip has also bought the apartment right next door to theirs. It becomes apparent in time that Deanne and Skip are still in love, and getting the couple back together is facilitated by Robert falling for Deanne's mother, Louella. All ends right in this swift-moving romantic comedy from master comic writer Ron Clark.
400 Kilometres
by Drew Hayden TaylorThis is the third play in the author's hilarious and heart-wrenching identity-politics trilogy. <p><p>Janice Wirth, a thirty-something urban professional, having discovered her roots as the Ojibway orphan Grace Wabung in Someday, and having visited her birth family on the Otter Lake Reserve in Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, is pregnant, and must now come to grips with the question of her “true identity.” Her adoptive parents have just retired, and are about to sell their house to embark on a quest for their own identity by “returning” to England. <p><p>Meanwhile, the Native father of her child-to-be is attempting to convince Janice/Grace that their new generation’s future lies with their “own people” at Otter Lake. Which path for the future is Janice/Grace to choose, for herself, her families and her child, having spent a lifetime caught between the questions of “what I am” and “who I am”?
4000 Miles and After the Revolution
by Amy Herzog"After the Revolution is a smart, funny and provocative play. . . . Herzog deftly avoids simple-minded polemics in favor of richly detailed people who are as ready to examine their relationships as they are their consciences."--Variety "A funny, moving new play . . . 4,000 Miles is a quiet meditation on mortality. But it's hardly a downer: Ms. Herzog's altogether wonderful drama also illuminates how companionship can make life meaningful, moment by moment, in death's discomforting shadow."--The New York Times Known for delicately detailed character studies that subtly balance humor and insight, Amy Herzog is swiftly emerging as a striking new voice in the American theater. After the Revolution, an astute and ironic drama about how society appropriates history for its own psychological needs, was heralded by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best New Plays of 2010. Herzog's other critical hit, 4,000 Miles, is a quiet rumination on mortality in which twenty-one-year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty ninety-one-year-old grandmother Vera in her New York apartment. Amy Herzog received the 2011 Whiting Writers' Award and the 2008 Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights. Her plays have been produced or developed at the Yale School of Drama, Ensemble Studio Theater, Arena Stage, Lincoln Center, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Stage and Film, Provincetown Playhouse, and ACT in San Francisco. Her newest play, Belleville, premiered at Yale Rep in fall 2011.
5 Easy Pieces
by Jason Milligan5 one act plays by accomplished playwright Jason Milligan. . Contents:. Rituals One Way Street Paul's Ghost The Fire-Breathing Lady and the Sugarplum Fairy Key Lime Pie
El 6º continente: Precedido de Ex enfermo de los hospitales de París
by Daniel Pennac¿Cómo diablos puede convertirse una familia obsesionada con la limpieza en la fuente de polución más horrenda de la historia de la humanidad? Esta es la incógnita que se resuelve en El 6º continente, la obra teatral creada a partir de las innumerables improvisaciones de un grupo de actores bajo las órdenes de la directora francesa Lilo Baur. Estrenada en el teatro parisino Bouffes du Nord, este drama familiar-planetario es a su vez una ópera bufa que, ante el inevitable desastre ecológico que vaticinan sus páginas, no deja otra salida al espectador (y al lector) que la risa. Precede a esta pieza teatral el monólogo Ex paciente de los hospitales de París, en el que un médico residente de un hospital público de París relata una larga y accidentada noche de guardia, una noche en la que encontró la fe, la perdió, la reencontró y la extravió de nuevo. Con su habitual y aguda ironía, y echando mano del lenguaje escénico, Daniel Pennac nos enfrenta con la realidad de una sociedad posmoderna llena de excesos, inconsciente y egoísta, cuyos integrantes desestabilizan un sistema sanitario precario y un equilibro medioambiental ya prácticamente inexistente. Reseñas:«Divertida, conmovedora, lúcida y bromista.»Le quotidien du médecin «Divertidísimo.»Marie France «El estilo ligero y audaz de Pennac nos ofrece una pléyade de situaciones cómicas y toda una legión de personajes estrafalarios. Es divertida, uno se ríe, pero la melancolía y el cinismo, siempre presentes en Pennac, no pierden su lugar, y provocan de manera imperceptible que el lector ahonde en sus reflexiones y emociones más sombrías.»Le souffleur
6 Essential Questions
by Priscila Uppal6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as they choreograph the ultimate dance of mother and daughter, both of whom must confront their dreams before they can ever attempt to confront each other. Imaginations run wild in this strangely beautiful and funny story loosely based on Uppal’s critically acclaimed memoir, Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother, a finalist for both the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.
7 Stories
by Morris PanychIn this fast-paced, sophisticated and hilarious play, a man contemplating suicide on a seventh-storey building ledge confronts the stories of the people who live inside the building. These "seven stories" lead to a charming and surprising ending.Cast of 2 women and 3 men.
887
by Robert LepageFrom internationally acclaimed playwright and author Robert Lepage comes 887 — an autobiographical story originally toured as a solo show. Framed by Lepage’s attempt to memorize Michèle Lalonde’s poem “Speak White,” 887 is an exploration of memory, culture, and community in Quebec.As the 40th anniversary of La Nuit de la poésie in Montreal approaches, playwright Robert Lepage is invited to recite Michèle Lalonde’s seminal poem “Speak White” from memory on the special night. After agonizing hours spent attempting to memorize the piece, Lepage finds himself unable to recall a single line. In a last effort he decides to employ a mnemonic device dating back to ancient Greece called the Memory Palace — a technique of imagination and association. Lepage’s Memory Palace is 887 Murray Avenue, the apartment block where he grew up. Winding his way around the rooms of the building and the lives of the tenants therein, Lepage guides the reader through a world of recollections of 1960s Quebec, the decade that shaped the province’s cultural and political consciousness.A mesmerizing and multifaceted glimpse into the realm of memory, 887 is a tour of culture and community in 1960s Quebec through one masterful artist’s remarkable, boundary-defying perspective.
A los pies del David
by Rossella ScatamburloSomos el fruto de nuestras relaciones. Nuestro yo es la suma de experiencias, contacto con los demás, lecturas, recuerdos. Cuando nos miramos al espejo, vemos un reflejo efímero de nosotros mismos, ligado a un hic et nunc irrepetible, mientras que, un instante después, no nos parecemos a nosotros mismos porque todo con lo que estamos en contacto nos transforma y nosotros transformamos aquello con lo que nos relacionamos. Así pues, también los objetos que tocamos ya no son los mismos tras haber dejado nuestras huellas como marcas estratificadas e indelebles. En esto pensaba Beatrice Verdi al concluir su proyecto de fin de carrera y después de profundizar en el síndrome de Stendhal. Su investigación la había puesto en contacto con el fascinante Carlo Regis, pero también con el diabólico Stefano Corona, auxiliar de sala de la Galería de la Academia de Florencia, que la había elegido como musa de inspiración para crear su obra maestra y que había urdido un plan terrible a sus espaldas…