The first book by a major American director to explore the process that takes a play from script to performance! Mason offers a practical glimpse into his mind and methods.

The Artist's Way meets What Color is Your Parachute? in an innovative approach to reinventing yourself at any stage of life. Leonardo da Vinci, Monet, Picasso, and Berthe Morisot are some of the most creative thinkers in history. What do these artists have in common with you? More than you think, if you're looking to tackle a major life transition. The skills these artists used to produce their masterpieces are the same abilities required to make successful shifts-whether it's finding a new career or a new purpose or calling in life. In Becoming a Life Change Artist, Fred Mandell and Kathleen Jordan share the groundbreaking approach made popular in their workshops across the country. There are seven key strengths that the most creative minds of history shared, and that anyone rethinking their future can cultivate to change their life effectively: *Preparing the brain to undertake creative work *Seeing the world and one's life from new perspectives *Using context to understand the facets of one's life *Embracing uncertainty *Taking risks *Collaborating *Applying discipline * As Mandell and Jordan illuminate, at its heart, making a major life change is a fluid process. But, armed with these seven key skills, anyone can overcome the bumps and obstacles effectively. With targeted exercises throughout, this is a book for all ages and stages-from those looking to transition to a new career to people embarking on retirement. Becoming a Life Change Artist sparks the luminous creativity that lies within each of us.

Flexible and concise, Stage Directing details the seven steps that make up the directing process: selecting a work, analyzing and researching the playscript, conceiving the production, casting, beginning rehearsals, polishing rehearsals, and giving and receiving criticism. Each step is highlighted with valuable directing tips, as well as examples from modern and contemporary playscripts and productions. Exercises, objectives, and key terms put directing precepts to a practical test, revealing what is significant about each phase of the process. Over eighty charts, graphs, and photographs unite to exemplify the text. With a fresh voice and an engaging writing style, Patterson provides insightful questions, suggestions, and illustrations that define and invoke contemplation about the role of the director. Three original short plays provide the opportunity for hands-on analysis and the application of practical concepts. In a final essay, Patterson highlights the function and growing artistry of the director in the modern and postmodern theatre by concisely examining the history of the director.

What will your 100-year life look like? A new edition of the international bestseller, featuring a new preface 'Brilliant, timely, original, well written and utterly terrifying' Niall Ferguson Does the thought of working for 60 or 70 years fill you with dread? Or can you see the potential for a more stimulating future as a result of having so much extra time? Many of us have been raised on the traditional notion of a three-stage approach to our working lives: education, followed by work and then retirement. But this well-established pathway is already beginning to collapse – life expectancy is rising, final-salary pensions are vanishing, and increasing numbers of people are juggling multiple careers. Whether you are 18, 45 or 60, you will need to do things very differently from previous generations and learn to structure your life in completely new ways. The 100-Year Life is here to help. Drawing on the unique pairing of their experience in psychology and economics, Lynda Gratton and Andrew J. Scott offer a broad-ranging analysis as well as a raft of solutions, showing how to rethink your finances, your education, your career and your relationships and create a fulfilling 100-year life. · How can you fashion a career and life path that defines you and your values and creates a shifting balance between work and leisure? · What are the most effective ways of boosting your physical and mental health over a longer and more dynamic lifespan? · How can you make the most of your intangible assets – such as family and friends – as you build a productive, longer life? · In a multiple-stage life how can you learn to make the transitions that will be so crucial and experiment with new ways of living, working and learning? Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award and featuring a new preface, The 100-Year Life is a wake-up call that describes what to expect and considers the choices and options that you will face. It is also fundamentally a call to action for individuals, politicians, firms and governments and offers the clearest demonstration that a 100-year life can be a wonderful and inspiring one.

An Armenian national raised in Russia, Rouben Mamoulian (1897--1987) studied in the influential Stanislavski studio, renowned as the source of the "method" acting technique. Shortly after immigrating to New York in 1926, he created a sensation with an all-black production of Porgy (1927). He then went on to direct the debut Broadway productions of three of the most popular shows in the history of American musical theater: Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), and Carousel (1945). Mamoulian began working in film just as the sound revolution was dramatically changing the technical capabilities of the medium, and he quickly established himself as an innovator. Not only did many of his unusual camera techniques become standard, but he also invented a device that eliminated the background noises created by cameras and dollies. Seen as a rebel earlier in his career, Mamoulian gradually gained respect in Hollywood, and the Directors Guild of America awarded him the prestigious D. W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983. In this meticulously researched biography, David Luhrssen paints the influential director as a socially conscious artist who sought to successfully combine art and commercial entertainment. Luhrssen not only reveals the fascinating personal story of an important yet neglected figure, but he also offers a tantalizing glimpse into the extraordinarily vibrant American film and theater industries during the twenties, thirties, and forties.

In this fantasy adventure, Fletcher and Scoop are Apprentice Adventurers from the ancient establishment of Blotting's Academy on Fullstop Island. This is the place where all story characters are trained. The trouble is, they can't remember how they got there. It's the first day of term, but the two apprentices soon realise something is wrong. Things are going missing, including their own memories, and Scoop has the unsettling feeling that something is creeping in the shadows. As the children search for answers, they become entangled with the life of the Storyteller, the islands creator and king. They journey to his wedding banquet and find themselves uncovering a hidden past. What is their connection to this mysterious man? And is there more to him than meets the eye? ,

The Arab Awakening and other nonviolent insurrections have often failed to produce lasting democratic change. A believer in empowerment, Lakey proposes a stage-by-stage developmental framework to get better, more transformational results. Still incorporating the nonviolent coercive force that has brought down dictators, Lakey uses historical “best practices” from movements to show how people can grow a revolution that roots itself even while it confronts. The five stages begin with consciousness change, lifting an intersectional vision that inspires and provides the basis for a critical mass to join the movement as it pushes through each developmental stage. Lakey shows how to reconcile pre-figurative alternative institutions with confrontive direct action teams, making the most of inherent synergistic potentials. With actual stories from confrontation with violent authorities he describes what works best for unifying and building the movement to the point where it can carry out the mass noncooperation that opens a power vacuum. Earlier democratic organizing structures—growing as the strategy unfolds—can then fill the vacuum. This stage prevents a relapse into the old oppression and defends the new society against counterrevolutionary forces. Although focused on how each society can realize its own revolution, this book acknowledges the context of global power and proposes a vision for transformed world institutions that are on the side of peace and justice. The principles in the book have particular application in the climate crisis humanity now faces, which is why the book describes a living revolution.

This accessible and engaging text covering sketch, sitcom and comedy drama, alongside improvisation and stand-up, brings together a panoply of tools and techniques for creating short and long-form comedy narratives for live performance, TV and online. Referencing a broad range of comedy from both sides of the Atlantic, spanning several decades and including material on contemporary internet sketches, it offers all kinds of useful advice on creating comic narratives for stage and screen: using life experience as raw material; constructing comedy worlds; creating comic characters, their relationships and interactions; structuring sketches, scenes and routines; and developing and plotting stories. The book's interviewees, from the UK and the USA, feature stand-ups, sketch comics, improvisers and TV comedy producers, and include Steve Kaplan, Hollywood comedy guru and author of The Hidden Tools of Comedy, Will Hines teacher and improviser from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Lucy Lumsden TV producer and former Controller of Comedy Commissioning for BBC. Written by “the ideal person to nurture new talent” (The Guardian), Creating Comedy Narratives for Stage & Screen includes material you won't find anywhere else and is a stimulating resource for comedy students and their teachers, with a range and a depth that will be appreciated by even the most eclectic and multi-hyphenated writers and performers.

Most performing artists don’t do what they do for the money. And that’s a good thing, because jobs are scarce and talent alone no longer assures success. But since you’ve spent years mastering your craft--be it as a musician, a dancer, an actor, or some other type of artist--wouldn’t you love to figure out how to get paid for it?Inspired by the celebrated Juilliard course, The World's Your Stage explains the business side of the performing arts. Performers wishing to hone their entrepreneur skills and launch their own careers will learn how to:• Understand the numbers• Find their niche--and fill it• Market and promote themselves and their venture• Network productively• Fundraise both online and off• Utilize the Opportunity Framework to help balance artistic and financial growth• And moreComplete with insights from leading figures in the arts as well as lessons from thriving artist-entrepreneurs, The World’s Your Stage will help you keep your dream alive while keeping a clear eye on the unavoidable and essential business side of it all.

A practical book on the Alexander Technique for actors and acting/movement teachers.