Play Readings

Play Readings: A Complete Guide for Theatre Practitioners demystifies the standards and protocols of a play reading, demonstrating how to create effective and evocative readings for those new to or inexperienced with the genre. It examines all of the essential considerations involved in readings, including the use of the venue, pre-reading preparations, playwright/director communication, editing/adapting stage directions, casting, using the limited rehearsal time effectively, simple "staging" suggestions, working with actors, handling complex stage directions, talkbacks, and limiting the use of props, costumes, and music. A variety of readings are covered, including readings of musicals, operas, and period plays, for comprehensive coverage of this increasingly prevalent production form.

Multi award-winning playwnght Patricia Cornelius has created a dynamic new Australian play - Savages - which takes a tough look at masculinity ana misogyny amongst a pack of ordinary young men. Premiering at fortyfivedownstairs. Savages is a cautionary tale about a group of men who don't really know themselves or what they can become. Four friends embark on the holiday of a life time - but their excitement is soured by anger, bitterness and the disappointment of their own lives ... as the pack forms, the dark side of mateship takes over. With Savages. Patricia Cornelius frankly confronts the realities and nuances of contemporary life witfi engaging characters and poetic text.

“To succeed in the theatre, students must have strong skills in analyzing plays.” So states the authors’ rationale for this concise text that offers a step-by-step approach to recognizing how plays work. Pritner and Walters guide the reader through four levels of reading a play. This approach progresses from a purely subjective and personal response, through objective information gathering, and on to more complex levels of interpretation. Each chapter of Introduction to Play Analysis introduces a concept that is then explored by studying its application to The Glass Menagerie, chosen for its simultaneous accessibility and complexity. Other examples rely on works by Sophocles, Molière, August Wilson, and Shakespeare. End-of-chapter questions can be applied to any play being analyzed.

Every great design has its beginnings in a great idea, whether your medium of choice is scenery, costume, lighting, sound, or projections. Unmasking Theatre Design shows you how to cultivate creative thinking skills through every step of theatre design - from the first play reading to the finished design presentation. This book reveals how creative designers think in order to create unique and appropriate works for individual productions, and will teach you how to comprehend the nature of the design task at hand, gather inspiration, generate potential ideas for a new design, and develop a finished look through renderings and models. The exercises presented in this book demystify the design process by providing you with specific actions that will help you get on track toward fully-formed designs. Revealing the inner workings of the design process, both theoretically and practically, Unmasking Theatre Design will jumpstart the creative processes of designers at all levels, from student to professionals, as you construct new production designs.

The easy way to craft, polish, and get your play on stage Getting a play written and produced is a daunting process. From crystallizing story ideas, formatting the script, understanding the roles of the director stagecraft people, to marketing and financing your project, and incorporating professional insights on writing, there are plenty of ins and outs that every aspiring playwright needs to know. But where can you turn for guidance? Playwriting For Dummies helps any writer at any stage of the process hone their craft and create the most dramatic and effective pieces. Guides you through every process of playwriting?from soliloquies, church skits, and one act plays to big Broadway musicals Advice on moving your script to the public stage Guidance on navigating loopholes If you're an aspiring playwright looking to begin the process, or have already penned a masterpiece and need trusted advice to bring it into the spotlight, Playwriting For Dummies has you covered.

Now in an updated third edition, this best-selling textbook introduces primary teachers to the key issues in how to teach reading. The authors celebrate reading as an important, exhilarating part of the curriculum with the potential to transform lives, whilst also giving a balanced handling of contentious issues. Strongly rooted in classroom practice, the book provides comprehensive coverage of differing reading practices and resources. Key features include: managing specialized reading difficulties, such as dyslexia EAL and gender issues in reading use of ICT within reading a detailed inspection of the phonics debate. This book is essential reading for both trainee teachers and qualified teachers interested in continuing their professional development.

“It’s Magic Time!” That colorful promise began each performance at the Caffe Cino, the storied Greenwich Village coffeehouse that fostered the gay and alternative theatre movements of the 1960s and launched the careers of such stage mainstays as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Robert Heide, Harry Koutoukas, Robert Patrick, Robert Dahdah, Helen Hanft, Al Pacino, and Bernadette Peters. As Off-Off-Broadway productions enjoy a deserved resurgence, theatre historian and actor Wendell C. Stone reopens the Cino’s doors in this vibrant look at the earliest days of OOB. Rife with insider interviews and rich with evocative photographs, Caffe Cino: The Birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway provides the first detailed account of Joe Cino’s iconic café theatre and its influence on American theatre. A hub of artistic innovation and haven for bohemians, beats, hippies, and gays, the café gave a much-sought outlet to voices otherwise shunned by mainstream entertainment. The Cino’s square stage measured only eight feet, but the dynamic ideas that emerged there spawned the numerous alternative theatre spaces that owe their origins to the risky enterprise on Cornelia Street.