| THEATRE PRACTITIONERS SELECTIONS |
| Drama
book recommendations:
This site can also assist with the following resources:
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|
 The
Secret Art of Antonin Artaud [ABRIDGED]
by Jacques Derrida, Paule Thevenin (Contributor), Mary Ann Caws (Translator) "This volume brings us face to face with one of the
great artistic singularities of the modern age. One comparison is still
possible, however: Derrida writing on Artaud is astonishing and definitive
rather as Artaud himself was when he wrote on Van Gogh."
|
 The
Theater and Its Double
by Antonin Artaud, Mary C. Richards (Translator) |
 Antonin
Artaud: Selected Writings
Antonin Artaud, author of The Theatre and It's Double and Theatre of Cruelty. This series of essays edited by another very prominent social commentator and analyst, Susan Sontag, is essential reading for anyone looking at the development of modern theatre. Antonin Artaud has affected contemporary Drama in many ways - both in terms of stage performance and the construction of modern film - it is hard to imagine a student in any modern performance style not needing to have an understanding of the work of this amazing man. |
Other significant titles:
Watchfiends
& Rack Screams :
Anthology
|
British
Playwrights, 1956-1995: A Research and Production Sourcebookby William
W. Demastes (Editor)
John Osborne's "Look Back in
Anger" took the British theatre establishment by storm in 1956 and
marked a major point of transition. Since then there has been an amazing
cavalcade of prominent and effective theatre practitioners adding their
own particular flavour and style to British and world theatre.
This book runs the gamut from John Arden to Snoo Wilson and every major surname alphabetised between.
The
Stars Who Created Kabuki : Their Lives, Loves and Legacyby Laurence
R. Kominz
A rare and wonderful book about
the people who have played a significant role in the development and maintenance
of the the Kabuki.
Through the diaries of the actors
themselves, anecdotes recorded about them, and the comments made by the
critics of the day about their performances and their lives, Laurence Kominz
builds a compelling narrative of a vibrant theatrical world, full of ambition,
camaraderie, competition, and sudden twists of fate. A final chapter gives
interviews with and insight into the careers of four leading contemporary
actors.
 True
and False : Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor 
Never one to mince words, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet lays out his advice to players in True and False with 29 curt, iconoclastic mini-essays. To put it simply, he believes that nearly everything professional actors are taught in acting programs is "hogwash"; he saves especially poisonous venom for Stanislavsky and the vaunted Method. Mamet, author of nearly two-dozen plays and an occasional actor and director himself, believes that actors should learn their lines and blocking and speak clearly--nothing else. His curmudgeonly, ferociously condescending, and revolutionary book will provoke outrage and a great deal of useful soul-searching. |
 3
Uses of the Knife : On the Nature and Purpose of Drama
by David Mamet Playwright David Mamet's three lectures at Columbia University are ostensibly about issues of dramatic structure, but as they unfold, and Mamet continually explores the relationship between dramatic structure and the lives we live, much broader concerns are revealed. Although occasionally academic, the overall tone of the lectures is consistent with Mamet's no-nonsense manner of speech. He has no time for obfuscation and little time for repetition, save when he must absolutely employ it for emphasis. He is passionate about good theater, and passionate about the truth. 3 Uses of the Knife makes an excellent companion piece to his True and False, which addressed similar philosophical matters in the form of advice on the actor's craft. |
 Threads
of Time (A Cornelia and Michael Bessie Book)
by Peter Brook When the 18-year-old, self-taught director Peter Brook brought his first play to the London stage he inaugurated a long and illustrious career. Perhaps best known for his London production of the play Marat/Sade and the nine-hour stage epic Mahabharata, Brook also directs film--Lord of the Flies is his best-known movie--and opera. In his uncommon autobiography, he assiduously avoids "personal relationships, indiscretions, indulgences, excesses, names of close friends, private angers" as well as "taboos [and] hang-ups." Instead, Brook focuses on the development of his artistic vision, his philosophical leanings and his quest for meaning in both of these areas. With Threads of Time, Brook proves that he is also a talented writer for he pulls together the strands of his experience and ideas to offer readers an evocative view of his fascinating life. |
The
Open Door : Thoughts on Acting and Theatre
Peter Brook reflects in 3 essays about how he selects plays, the processes he uses in directing and his aims. Other titles worth investigating: The Shifting Point : 1946-1987 Systems of Rehearsal : Stanislavsky, Brecht, Grotowski and Brook by Shomit Mitter |
 Brecht
on Theatre :
The Development of an Aesthetic
Bertolt Brecht discusses his views, ambitions and approaches to theatre in over 50 chapters of essays and critiques. |
 Art
and Politics in the Weimar Period:
The New Sobriety, 1917-1933 by John Willett |
 Baal
by Bertolt Brecht, Peter Tegel (Translator), John Willett (Editor) Systems of Rehearsal : |
 Brecht
and Method
by Fredric Jameson The legacy of Bertolt Brecht is much contested, whether by those who wish to forget or to vilify his politics, but his stature as the outstanding political playwright and poet of the twentieth century is unforgettably established in this major critical work. Fredric Jameson elegantly dissects the intricate connections between Brecht's drama and politics, demonstrating the way these combined to shape a unique and powerful influence on a profoundly troubled epoch. |
 Bertolt
Brecht : His Life, His Art and His Times
by Frederic Ewen Highly acclaimed when it was first published in 1967, Frederic Ewen's monumental biographical study of Bertolt Brecht has long been out of print. In response to national demand, Citadel Press is proud to reissue this complete and unabridged text. Of "Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art, His Times, the critics wrote: "The finest critical study of Brecht to date. This book is at least a worthy appreciation of a towering, poetic and dramatic genius." -Los Angeles Times "What is particularly striking about Frederic Ewen's biography is that it conveys the excitement, the turmoil and triumph of Brecht's career." -The New York Times "The great thing about Frederic Ewen's luminous biography is that it gently frees Brecht from the bear hugs of the bigots and restores him to us as a whole man, his youth contained in his age." -The Nation. |
The
Cambridge Companion to Brecht (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
by Peter Thomson (Editor), Glendyr Sacks (Editor) The Cambridge Companions are a great series of books that provide a broad, yet authoritative overview of the subjects they address. This edition is no exception, addressing the works, the context, the people and the man it covers a very wide scope and is a useful start in any investigation of this significant 20th Century theatre practitioner. Other related titles:Bertolt
Brecht : Journals 1934-1955 (also in hardcover) by
Bertolt Brecht
The
Theatre of Meyerhold and Brecht.
This book focuses on the relationship of Bertolt Brecht to the theater of Russian director Vsevold E. Meyerhold. Eaton's analysis places Brecht's dramatic theory and practice in proper historical perspective, thereby increasing our understanding of the role of the Russian avant-garde in shaping modern theater. She clearly demonstrates the extent to which Meyerhold's influence on Brecht has been underestimated and she argues that the preservation of Meyerholdian theater should be numbered among Brecht's significant contributions to modern drama. |
| Meyerhold,
Eisenstein and Biomechanics : Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia
by Alma H. Law, Mel Gordon A study of Russian theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold's stylized training method, Biomechanics, incorporating Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein's theoretical analysis of the method. Presents the basic principles of movement that Meyerhold and Eisenstein pioneered, traces the history of Biomechanics in relation to their aesthetic development, and describes basic Biomechanical exercises, drawing on newspaper accounts, letters, diaries, eyewitness accounts, and transcribed materials from public and private archives. Contains b&w photos and a glossary. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or. |
Meyerhold's
Theatre of the Grotesque; The Post-Revolutionary Productions, 1920-1932
by James M., Symons Meyerhold
at Work
|
| Meyerhold
: A Revolution in Theatre (Studies in Theatre History and Culture)
by Edward Braun |
John
Gielgud's Notes from the Gods: Playgoing in the Twenties
Reflections of a master performer on a theatrical world long gone.  At
Work with Grotowski on Physical Actions
A first hand account of working with Jerzy Grotowski. An important addition to the canon of contemporary theatre production. Towards a Poor Theatre Systems of Rehearsal : Stanislavsky, Brecht, Grotowski and Brook by Shomit Mitter |
 Great
Directors at Work : Stanislavsky, Brecht, Kazan, Brook
by David Richard Jones |
| Experimental
Theatre : From Stanislavsky to Peter Brook
by James Roose-Evans
This wide-ranging volume covers Williams's works, from his early apprenticeship years through his last play before his death in 1983. In addition to essays on the major plays, the contributors also consider selected minor plays, short stories, poems, and biographical concerns. Plus, the book features a bibliographic essay surveying major critical statements on Williams and his work.
In this first complete, critical biography of one of America's finest playwrights, Donald Spoto reveals the intimate connections between Williams' personal dramas and his remarkably autobiographical art. From his birth into a genteel Southern family, through his success, celebrity, and wealth, Tennessee Williams lived a life as gripping as his plays. The Kindness of Strangers is "a work of honest reverence."--San Francisco Chronicle. 34 photos.
The bedrock, authoritative account of the little-known early life of Tennessee Williams. "Plainly a work of distinction...It will be great service to Williams's reputation and among other things may bring more of the young to an appreciation of his achievement."--Arthur Miller. Black-and-white photographs. |
 Sanford
Meisner on Acting
by Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell (Contributor), Sydney Pollack (Introduction) The author explains the techniques that can help an aspiring actor far from the stage as well as the professional. A primer for aspiring and beginning actors, by one of the most renowned and beloved acting coaches in the U.S. Introduction by Sydney Pollack. Other books about Meisner
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| Literary Conversations
... series.
Conversations
With Tennessee Williams
Conversations
With Thornton Wilder
Veteran New York Times drama critic Mel Gussow enjoyed direct access to the great Irish dramatist, meeting with him a number of times over the course of a decade. The heart of this collection of essays are revealing remembrances of Gussow's conversations with Beckett. Also included are interviews with Jack McGowran and Billie Whitelaw, great performers of Beckett's work, and a collection of Gussow's critical writing on Beckett. Conversations with and about Beckett is a small book with remarkable depth.
|
 The
Life and Work of Harold Pinter
by Michael Billington This is the first authorized biography of Harold Pinter, Britain's foremost living playwright. Author Michael Billington has met the Herculean task of studying the vast body of Pinter's works alongside the progress of his life. He discusses groundbreaking plays like The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and Betrayal as well as the extraordinary screenplays to The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and many others. Billington, a prominent theater critic and biographer who has been following Pinter for decades, demystifies Pinter's often difficult drama with perceptive psychological and critical analyses.
Samuel Beckett has always been something of an enigma. Born and raised in Ireland, he moved to France as a young man and remained there, risking his life during the war in his work with the French Resistance. Kind, generous, and often funny in real life, his plays and novels are implacably dark, filled with despair, need, and isolation. In Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist, biographer Anthony Cronin limns a deft portrait of the great writer using Beckett's letters, early fiction, and Cronin's own acquaintance with both his subject and several of Beckett's friends in Dublin. Taken together, these sources reveal a multifaceted man. Beckett passed through many phases on his way to greatness: a French teacher at Dublin College, a member of the Paris circle that formed around James Joyce in the late 1920s, and later an active participant in the French Resistance. The years following World War II proved a fertile time in Beckett's creative life, encompassing his transition from the autobiographical to the modernist impersonal--perhaps his greatest works. Anthony Cronin admirably balances his portrayal of the man and the artist, rendering the details of Beckett's uneventful life and his rich imagination in a way that fleshes out the man even as it celebrates the genius. |
 An
Actor Prepares
by Constantin Stanislavski The first volume of Stanislavski's enduring trilogy on the art of acting defines the "System," a means of mastering the craft of acting and of stimulating the actor's individual creativeness and imagination. |
 My
Life in Art
by Constantin Stanislavski In the last several years, numerous books have been published about this great actor and director. In "My Life in Art", Constantin Stanislavski reveals his expression of his own ideas and experience in his outstanding autobiography. |
 An
Actor's Handbook :
An Alphabetical Arrangement of Concise States on Aspects of Acting by Constantin Stanislavski, Elizabeth R. Hapgood (Translator) Systems of Rehearsal :  Acting
: A Handbook of the Stanislavski Method
by Toby Cole (Compiler), Lee Strasberg (Introduction) A
Dream of Passion : The Development of the Method
Strasberg, the father of Method Acting, explains in this book his Method--for the first time in his own words. "Essential reading for actors, directors and students of theater."--Publishers Weekly. Advertising in newspapers and theater publications. Two 8-page photo inserts. Strasberg at the Actors Studio : Tape-Recorded Sessions |
 Stanislavski
on Opera
by Constantin Stanislavski, Pavel Rumantsev (Contributor), Elizabeth R. Hapgood Other significant titles:
Practiced by such actors of stature as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Julie Harris, Dustin Hoffman, and Ellen Burstyn (not to mention the late James Dean) the Method offers a practical application of the renowned Stanislavsky technique. On Method Acting demystifies the "mysteries" of Method acting -- breaking down the various steps into clear and simple terms, including chapters on:
|
 The
Rainbow of Desire :
The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy by Augusto Boal, Adrian Jackson (Translator) |
 Games
for Actors and Non-Actors
by Augusto Boal, Adrian Jackson (Translator) |
 Theatre
of the Oppressed
by Augusto Boal, Charles McBride (Translator) |
 Legislative
Theatre :
Using Performance to Make Politics by Augusto Boal, Adrian Jackson (Translator) |
 Present
Past, Past Present : A Personal Memoir
by Eugene Ionesco, Helen R. Lane (Translator), Robert Brustein (Introduction) |
 Eugene
Ionesco Revisited
by Deborah B. Gaensbauer |
| Books by Richard
Shechner
by Richard Schechner, Victor W. Turner (Designer) How is performance used in politics, medicine, religion, entertainment and individual interactions? In The Future of Ritual, Schechner explores ritualized behavior and its relationship to performance and politics, studying the interactions--sometimes easy, sometimes tense--among authors, directors, performers, and spoectators. A brilliant examination of cultural expression and communal action, The Future of Ritual asks pertinent questions about art, theatre and the changing meaning of "culture'' Environmental Theater (The Applause Acting Series) by Richard Schechner Richard Schechner's Environmental Theater provides the exercises which began as radical departures from standard actor-training etiquette and which stand now as classic means through which the performer discovers his or her true power of transformation. Environmental Theater offers a new generation of theatre artists the gospel according the Schechner, the guru whose principles and influence have survived a quarter-century of reaction and debate. Schechner's work is situated within a rich theoretical framework in the tradition of Meyerhold, Brecht, Grotowski, as well as potent non-Western performance genres. He reflects on his seminal experience as the founder of The Performance Group to consider the major issues of audience participation, performer training, directing and the formation (and dissolution) of groups. And always integrated throughout the text is a relevant compendium of practical exercises designed for performers, directors and environmentalists. Environmental Theater will be of long enduring interest. |
 By
Means of Performance : Intercultural Studies of Theatre and Ritual
by Richard Schechner, Willa Appel Contributors to this exhaustive study of performance behavior consider the relationships among training and the finished performance, ritual and aesthetics, popular entertainment and religion, sports and theater and dance. The Future of Ritual : Writings on Culture and Performance Performative Circumstances from the Avant Garde to Ramlila Drawing
a Circle in the Square : Street Performing in New York's Washington Square
Park
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| Books by Victor Turner | The
Anthropology of Performance
Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors : Symbolic Action in Human Society
|
 The
Tricks of the Trade
by Dario Fo When Dario Fo won the 1997 Nobel Prize for literature, establishments everywhere erupted in anger. Here was an anticlerical, obscene, communist clown receiving the world's top literary accolade. As this collection of his essays and lectures shows, Fo has such a unique vision that his mission as clown/playwright requires him to be all those other things. What's interesting about The Tricks of the Trade is not his politics, but the incredible amount of research he's done on 2,000 years' worth of jesters, minstrels, and political clowns, whom he believes have changed the course of history. |
 Dario
Fo
by Tony Mitchell Dario
Fo : Revolutionary Theatre
We
Won't Pay! We Won't Pay! and Other Works : The Collected Plays of Dario
Fo
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