The Secret Life of Plays

The Secret Life of Plays PDF Author: Steve Waters
Publisher: Nick Hern Books
ISBN: 9781848420007
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A guide to the hidden workings of plays and the trade secrets that govern their writing - by the acclaimed playwright Steve Waters. Drawing on a wide range of drama, both historical and modern, Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing - scenes, acts, space, time, characters, language and images - to show how a play is more than the sum of its parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism. Almost uniquely amongst accounts of playwriting, Waters' book looks at the ways in which good plays move their audiences, generating powerful emotional responses that often defy conventional analysis. The Secret Life of Plays is for playwrights at any stage of their career, and will inspire and inform drama students as well as working actors and directors. Most of all it is for anyone who has ever laughed or cried in the theatre - and wants to know why. 'Theatre is a live medium, about bodies, sweat and feeling, even if it is informed by ideas and reason. How a thing composed of words manages to carry within it the currents of energy that generate that impression of life is what I want to explore...' Steve Waters 'Steve Waters' book is like his plays: clear, elegant and stimulating throughout' David Edgar

The Secret Life of Plays

The Secret Life of Plays PDF Author: Steve Waters
Publisher: Nick Hern Books
ISBN: 9781848420007
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
A guide to the hidden workings of plays and the trade secrets that govern their writing - by the acclaimed playwright Steve Waters. Drawing on a wide range of drama, both historical and modern, Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing - scenes, acts, space, time, characters, language and images - to show how a play is more than the sum of its parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism. Almost uniquely amongst accounts of playwriting, Waters' book looks at the ways in which good plays move their audiences, generating powerful emotional responses that often defy conventional analysis. The Secret Life of Plays is for playwrights at any stage of their career, and will inspire and inform drama students as well as working actors and directors. Most of all it is for anyone who has ever laughed or cried in the theatre - and wants to know why. 'Theatre is a live medium, about bodies, sweat and feeling, even if it is informed by ideas and reason. How a thing composed of words manages to carry within it the currents of energy that generate that impression of life is what I want to explore...' Steve Waters 'Steve Waters' book is like his plays: clear, elegant and stimulating throughout' David Edgar

The Secret Life of the American Musical

The Secret Life of the American Musical PDF Author: Jack Viertel
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374711259
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
A New York Times Bestseller For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in childhood in a darkened theater, grows into something more serious for high school actors, and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical? In The Secret Life of the American Musical, Jack Viertel takes them apart, puts them back together, sings their praises, marvels at their unflagging inventiveness, and occasionally despairs over their more embarrassing shortcomings. In the process, he invites us to fall in love all over again by showing us how musicals happen, what makes them work, how they captivate audiences, and how one landmark show leads to the next—by design or by accident, by emulation or by rebellion—from Oklahoma! to Hamilton and onward. Structured like a musical, The Secret Life of the American Musical begins with an overture and concludes with a curtain call, with stops in between for “I Want” songs, “conditional” love songs, production numbers, star turns, and finales. The ultimate insider, Viertel has spent three decades on Broadway, working on dozens of shows old and new as a conceiver, producer, dramaturg, and general creative force; he has his own unique way of looking at the process and at the people who collaborate to make musicals a reality. He shows us patterns in the architecture of classic shows and charts the inevitable evolution that has taken place in musical theater as America itself has evolved socially and politically. The Secret Life of the American Musical makes you feel as though you’ve been there in the rehearsal room, in the front row of the theater, and in the working offices of theater owners and producers as they pursue their own love affair with that rare and elusive beast—the Broadway hit.

Secret Life of Humans

Secret Life of Humans PDF Author: David Byrne
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781848427211
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Inspired by Yuval Harari's international bestseller, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

The Secret Life of Aphra Behn

The Secret Life of Aphra Behn PDF Author: Janet Todd
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1448212545
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 830

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Book Description
'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn; for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds,' said Virginia Woolf. Yet that tomb, in Westminster Abbey, records one of the few uncontested facts about this Restoration playwright, poet, novelist and spy: the date of her death, 16 April 1689. For the rest secrecy and duplicity are almost the key to her life. She loved codes, making and breaking them; writing her life becomes a decoding of a passionate but playful woman. Janet Todd draws on documents she has rediscovered in the Dutch archives, and on Behn's own writings, to tell a story of court, diplomatic and sexual intrigue, and of the rise from humble origins of the first woman to earn her living as a professional writer. Aphra Behn's first notable employment was as a Royal spy in Holland; she had probably also spied in Surinam. It was not until she was in her thirties that she published the first of the 19 plays and other works which established her fame (though not riches) among her 'good, sweet, honey-candied readers'. Many of her works were openly erotic, indeed as frank as anything by her friends Wycherley and Rochester. Some also offered an inside view of court and political intrigues, and Todd reveals the historical scandals and legal cases behind some of Behn's most famous 'fictions'.

The Secret Lives of Losers

The Secret Lives of Losers PDF Author: Megan Mostyn-Brown
Publisher: Samuel French, Inc.
ISBN: 9780573651144
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Drama /2w, 3m, 1 female voiceover In high school, Neely was deemed "Most Likely to Succeed," but at 19, she's still working at the Amoco station and taking care of her meth-addicted younger brother (their mom ran out on them in search of herself). Her best-friend is a small-time drug dealer (also 19) who's taking care of the baby he had with a girl who has gone off to college abandoning them both. Into this mess strolls a new cop, who takes an interest in Neely and starts to date her. A swift-mo

The Secret Life

The Secret Life PDF Author: Harley Granville-Barker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description


The Secret Life of Squirrels

The Secret Life of Squirrels PDF Author: Nancy Rose
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0316257761
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 41

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Book Description
An irresistible photographic story featuring wild squirrels in homemade miniature domestic settings -- taking a bath, doing laundry, and barbecuing -- will surprise and amuse readers and animal lovers of all ages! Adorable squirrels as you've never seen them! You may think you know what squirrels do all day...but Mr. Peanuts is no ordinary squirrel. Instead of climbing tress, he plays the piano. ("Moonlight Sonutta" is his favorite.) Instead of scurrying through the woods, he reads books (such as A Tail of Two Cities). But everything is more fun with company, so Mr. Peanuts writes a letter to Cousin Squirrel and invites him for a visit! Featuring candid photographs of wild squirrels in handcrafted, homemade miniature settings, this irresistible book is sure to delight readers young and old!

The Secret Life of Cows

The Secret Life of Cows PDF Author: Rosamund Young
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525557334
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
"Within a day of receiving this book, I had consumed it... Absorbing, moving, and compulsively readable."—Lydia Davis In this affectionate, heart-warming chronicle, Rosamund Young distills a lifetime of organic farming wisdom, describing the surprising personalities of her cows and other animals At her famous Kite's Nest Farm in Worcestershire, England, the cows (as well as sheep, hens, and pigs) all roam free. They make their own choices about rearing, grazing, and housing. Left to be themselves, the cows exhibit temperaments and interests as diverse as our own. "Fat Hat" prefers men to women; "Chippy Minton" refuses to sleep with muddy legs and always reports to the barn for grooming before bed; "Jake" has a thing for sniffing the carbon monoxide fumes of the Land Rover exhaust pipe; and "Gemima" greets all humans with an angry shake of the head and is fiercely independent. An organic farmer for decades, Young has an unaffected and homely voice. Her prose brims with genuine devotion to the wellbeing of animals. Most of us never apprehend the various inner lives animals possess, least of all those that we might eat. But Young has spent countless hours observing how these creatures love, play games, and form life-long friendships. She imparts hard-won wisdom about the both moral and real-world benefits of organic farming. (If preserving the dignity of animals isn't a good enough reason for you, consider how badly factory farming stunts the growth of animals, producing unhealthy and tasteless food.) This gorgeously-illustrated book, which includes an original introduction by the legendary British playwright Alan Bennett, is the summation of a life's work, and a delightful and moving tribute to the deep richness of animal sentience.

The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees PDF Author: Sue Monk Kidd
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN: 0143124323
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
Now in paperback comes the intoxicating debut novel of "one motherless daughter's discovery of ... the strange and wondrous places we find love" ("The Washington Post"). Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing work is set in South Carolina in 1964.

The Secret Life of Clowns

The Secret Life of Clowns PDF Author: Jeff Raz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780997904819
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Jeff Raz has drawn on his life's work to write a pair of fictional narratives - one following a professional clown performing with Cirque du Soleil and one following a clown student who just wants a job in a circus. It captures the sweat, the sinew and the soul of clowning.