Performing Arts

Every kid has heard of Harry Houdini, the famous magician who could escape from handcuffs, jail cells, and locked trunks. But do they know that the ever-ambitious and adventurous Houdini was also a famous movie star and the first pilot to fly a plane...

The language of Hollywood resonates beyond the stage and screen because it often has inherent drama--or comedic effect. This volume contains a combination of approximately 100 expertly researched essays on words, phrases and idioms made famous by Hollywood along with the stories behind 30...

"A sumptuously illustrated book which will delight idolaters of high fashion and movie stardom." --Times Literary Supplement With 177 superb photographs, Audrey Hepburn is a sumptuous celebration of Hepburn as a beloved fashion icon and actress. Karney tells the story of Hepburn's life, from...

An Introduction to the World of Theater A friendly and practical guide to the stage, The Essentials of Theater will prepare actors and crew for their next show. Perfect for college students in theater programs, as well as community theater troupes, this book covers...

In their trademark style, author Kate Klise and illustrator M. Sarah Klise blend a story bursting with jokes, puns, and wordplay with illustrations, signs, letters, recipes, and bold graphics to introduce Three-Ring Rascals. When Sir Sidney, a kindly old circus owner, becomes too tired...

Pilar Alessandra's popular book, The Coffee Break Screenwriter, taught writers how to outline quickly, write efficiently, and rewrite creatively. It is the "go-to" book for getting one's story on the page. But now that same writer may be doing a final pass on a...

Martin Scorsese directs films that range from the subtlest studies of relationships to violent gangster movies, with characters who are driven to the extremes of their personality. This book looks at Scorsese's key techniques, showing how he uses space, framing, and a strong sense...

A fun, insightful insider's look at the nuts and bolts of writing action movies, from concept to completion, by a professional screenwriter and professor of screenwriting. Full of witty anecdotes from the front lines (and tricks of the trade from between the lines), Crash!...

There are plenty of books about the craft of screenwriting, and a handful about pitching your screenplay. However, little can be found on how to go from writing to pitching in the professional space. There is no formula, no three-step plan. Getting It Write:...

Marshall Dodge and Bob Bryan began swapping funny Down East stories when they were students at Yale in the 1950s. Their fascination and appreciation for Maine and its people triggered the production of several "Bert and I" records, from which 14 stories were selected...

Especially notable. -- Booklist, Spring Preview "Entertaining and funny My kids LOVED pressing the sound buttons on each page. We enjoyed how each character has its own sound. I enjoyed this book and my kids laughed throughout " -- The Smile Lines (parenting/education blog)...

Twenty stories from Shakespeare retold in lively prose. The author makes the complex language of Shakespeare's greatest plays accessible to young children by relating the stories that form the core of the plays. Her graceful, vivid retellings are the perfect introduction to Shakespeare's works.Author:...

"One of the cleverest, most accessibly in-depth film books released this year . . . a smart-ass novelist exploring a cheesy-cheeky '80s sci-fi flick."--Hartford Advocate Deep Focus is a series of film books with a fresh approach. Take the smartest, liveliest writers in contemporary...

Margaret Mitchell was as complex and compelling as her legendary heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, and her story is as dramatic as anything out of her own imagination-indeed, it is the basis for the legend she created. Gone With the Wind took the American reading public...

In the mid-1970s, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Andy Kaufman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Elayne Boosler, Tom Dreesen, and several hundred other shameless showoffs and incorrigible cutups from all across the country migrated en masse to Los Angeles, the new home of Johnny Carson's Tonight...

Dynamically transforming the elements of any performing artist's craft, this practical guide is a must-have for musicians, dancers, and actors. The handbook shows how artistic performance is embodied in the unification of three critical elements--motion, emotion, and love--demonstrating how it offers experiences and opportunities...

This cinefile's guidebook covers the horror genre monstrously well! Find reviews of over 1,000 of the best, weirdest, wickedest, wackiest, and most entertaining scary movies from every age of horror! Atomic bombs, mad serial killers, zealous zombies, maniacal monsters lurking around every corner, and...

The success of Fifty Professional Scenes for Student Actors prompted us to offer a new theatre book of winning audition material -- this time including monologs! The emphasis of these monologs and scenes is on believable characters, not caricatures. Designed for professional actors seeking...

Exquisite... enthralling... This short, modest and brilliant book does more than many more grandiose tomes to renew the reader's fascination with the plays, and the theatre-goer's wonder at the extraordinary and diverse sensations locked up inside the First Folio. It should be required reading...

"Caroline is a breakthrough--a story so grounded in the ordinary details of life that it almost seems to have discovered a new genre." -Richard Zoglin, Time "Acute, smart and witty: a telling snapshot focusing with sharp clarity on characters captured at a fraught turning...