Performing Arts

Brimming with advice and techniques, this essential reference for book- and songwriters clearly explains the fundamentals of the three crafts of a musical--book, music, and lyrics. Using copious examples from classic shows, Frankel has created the quintessential musical writers' how-to. Among the topics: definitions...

Provocative, moving, powerful, explicit, strong, unapologetic. These are a few words that have been used to describe the groundbreaking Brooklyn-based dance troupe Urban Bush Women. Their unique aesthetic borrows from classical and contemporary dance techniques and theater characterization exercises, incorporates breath and vocalization, and...

Dramaturgy in Motion innovatively examines the work of the dramaturg in contemporary dance and movement performance. Katherine Profeta, a working dramaturg for more than fifteen years, shifts the focus from asking "Who is the dramaturg?" to "What does the dramaturg think about?" Profeta explores...

While Africans and their descendants have lived in Mexico for centuries, many Afro-Mexicans do not consider themselves to be either black or African. For almost a century, Mexico has promoted an ideal of its citizens as having a combination of indigenous and European ancestry....

As World War II wound down in 1945 and the cold war heated up, the skilled trades that made up the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) began a tumultuous strike at the major Hollywood studios. This turmoil escalated further when the studios retaliated by...

George Gershwin lived with purpose and gusto, but with melancholy as well, for he was unable to make a place for himself--no family of his own and no real home in music. He and his siblings received little love from their mother and no...

Born out of the cultural flamboyance and anxiety of the 1980s, They Live (1988) is a hallmark of John Carpenter's singular canon, combining the aesthetics of multiple genres and leveling an attack against the politics of Reaganism and the Cold War. The decision to...

Flickering Empire tells the fascinating yet little-known story of how Chicago served as the unlikely capital of American film production in the years before the rise of Hollywood (1907-1913). As entertaining as it is informative, Flickering Empire straddles the worlds of academic and popular...

What is "New Hollywood"? The "art" cinema of the Hollywood "Renaissance" or the corporate controlled blockbuster? The introverted world of Travis Bickle or the action heroics of Indiana Jones, Buzz Lightyear, and Maximus the Gladiator? Innovative departures from the "classical" Hollywood style or superficial...

Film is the pre-eminent mass medium of the modern age. It is a valuable source of evidence for the study of both the past and the contemporary world, and is a social practice that has affected the lives of millions. How can historians engage...

Author: Beatrice K. OttoPublisher: University of Chicago PressPublished: 08/01/2007Pages: 444Binding Type: PaperbackWeight: 1.30lbsSize: 8.93h x 6.41w x 0.99dISBN: 9780226640921About the AuthorBeatrice K. Ottolives and works in Geneva.

For nearly half a century, Roger Ebert's wide knowledge, keen judgment, prodigious energy, and sharp sense of humor made him America's most renowned and beloved film critic. From Ebert's Pulitzer Prize to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, from his astonishing output...

Now brought completely up to date, the new edition of this classic work on documentary films and filmmaking surveys the history of the genre from 1895 to the present day. With the myriad social upheavals over the past decade, documentaries have enjoyed an international...

One of the most important ballet choreographers of all time, Marius Petipa (1818 - 1910) created works that are now mainstays of the ballet repertoire. Every day, in cities around the world, performances of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty draw large audiences to...

It's Tiny Cooper's turn in the spotlight in this companion novel to New York Times bestseller Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Jazz hands at the ready Tiny Cooper ("the world's largest person who is also really, really gay") stole readers' hearts when he was introduced...

Two devastating short novels adapted for the stage by Steinbeck himselfA Penguin Classic This Penguin Classics edition celebrates Steinbeck's dramatic adaptations of his most powerful short novels, Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down, featuring a foreword by award-winning actor James Earl...

Throughout the making of the eight Harry Potter movies, designers and craftspeople were tasked with creating fabulous chocolate-fantasy feasts, flying brooms, enchanted maps, and much more, in addition to numerous magical items necessary in a wizard's everyday life--for example, newspapers with moving photos, vicious...

International bestseller In her groundbreaking debut essay collection, actress Lily Collins--Golden Globe-nominated star of Rules Don't Apply, Mortal Instruments, and To the Bone--is opening a poignant, honest conversation about the things young women struggle with: body image, self-confidence, relationships, family, dating, and so much...

Now a Netflix TV show Featuring a diverse cast of characters, plenty of gossip, lies, and scandal, Shiny Broken Pieces continues with the soapy drama readers loved in Tiny Pretty Things.June, Bette, and Gigi are competing one final time for a spot at the...

From the straight-shooting breakout star of Bravo's Tabatha Takes Over and author of It's Not Really About the Hair, Tabatha Coffey shares the secrets of her success in Own It On television, Coffey is known for using tough love to overhaul failing businesses and...