Performing Arts
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The Elemental Actor: How to Release Your Hidden Powers
We are all a complex mixture of the elemental energies identified by many different cultures throughout history: Earth, Air, Fire, Water – and a fifth element called Quintessence or Spirit. As an actor, you need to be able to access each of them, so that you can draw on whichever element you need to bring your role fully into life.
In The Elemental Actor, Mel Churcher explores these deep, primal drives, and gives you practical tools to harness them to make your work more powerful and alive. Her unique approach combines elements of actor training, voice work and movement to increase your range and help you bring depth, specificity and intensity to your performance.
The book includes over one hundred games and exercises to help you explore each of the elements, incorporate this work into your practice, and apply it to the world of your role. There are also tips for preparing for auditions and dealing with performance anxiety, as well as advice on how to stay healthy in body, voice and mind.
Offering an everlasting palette that will enrich any performance, whether on stage or screen, The Elemental Actor will help you release the wellspring of your imagination, and put elemental power into your work.
Mel Churcher is an international acting, dialogue and voice coach who has worked with companies including the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, Young Vic, Royal Court Theatre and Graeae Theatre Company. She is one of the top acting and dialogue coaches in TV and movies, and has worked with some of the biggest stars of stage and screen.Read more
£14.20 -
Voice-Over Voice Actor: The Extended Edition
Interested in Pursuing a Career in VO? Curious what goes on behind the scenes in a business where people talk funny for money? This updated edition of the award-winning first book offers a fun and comprehensive look at what it takes, what goes on, and what it’s like behind the mic from two (still) working pros who started from scratch. In this book you will discover: • The ins and outs of auditioning • Vocal warm-ups and exercises • Tips for reading copy to maximum effect • Hints to help you stand out • Advice for setting up your own home studio • Keys to marketing yourself: demo > agent > job • What to expect when you book the job • A bonus workbook to hone your skills • Performance capture, podcasting, & more!Read more
£17.50 -
Food Hygiene Book: Food Hygiene Record Book | Contains Food/Fridge Temperature Log Book Record; Kitchen Cleaning Checklist & Food Waste Log (Perfect … Restaurants,…
When running a commercial kitchen, the important keys of success are serving delicious food, great customer service & making money of course, but these are completely worthless without setting simple & strict food hygiene rules.This kitchen log book serves as an excellent guide and aids in the creation of statistical reports to monitor hygiene and cleaning activity. It also allows in maintaining the record and kept at one place in an organized manner. It helps to reduce the potential spread of harmful bacteria, maintain health and safety standards, and produce food inspection reports.
This “All in One” record book includes:
- Kitchen Deep Cleaning Checklist Record Log Book.
- Warm Unit or Fridge/ Freezer Temperature Log Book with Food Inventory Tracker.
- Food Waste Tracker.
Book Features:
- Large size :8.5 x 11 in (21.6 x 28cm) A4.
- 108 total pages to write in with prompts
- Matte cover
- Paper Color: White
- Perfect for recording and tracking …
Table Of Content :
- Page 3-36: Temperature Log Book with Inventory Count
- Page 37-70: Kitchen Cleaning Checklist & Schedule
- Page 71-100: Food Waste Log Book
- Page 101-108: Space For Notes
This Food Hygiene Logbook is perfect for hotels, restaurants, homes, offices, commercial kitchens, catering, schools, cafes, or any place where food is prepared on the premises.
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£4.70 -
Tricks Of The Mind
Derren Brown’s television and stage performances have entranced and dumbfounded millions. His baffling illusions and stunning set pieces – such as The Seance, Russian Roulette and The Heist – have set new standards of what’s possible, as well as causing more than their fair share of controversy. Now, for the first time, he reveals the secrets behind his craft, what makes him tick and just why he grew that beard.
Tricks of the Mind takes you on a journey into the structure and pyschology of magic. Derren teaches you how to read clues in people’s behaviour and spot liars. He discusses the whys and wherefores of hypnosis and shows how to do it. And he investigates the power of suggestion and how you can massively improve your memory. He also takes a long hard look at the paranormal industry and why some of us feel the need to believe in it in the first place. Alternately hilarious, controversial and challenging, Tricks of the Mind is essential reading for Derren’s legions of fans, and pretty bloody irresistible even if you don’t like him that much…
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£9.50Tricks Of The Mind
£9.50 -
British Cinema and the Cold War: The State, Propaganda and Consensus (Cinema and Society)
Cinema was one of the Cold War’s most powerful instruments of propaganda. Movies blended with literary, theatrical, musical and broadcast representations of the conflict to produce a richly textured Cold War culture. Now in paperback, this timely book fills a significant gap in the international story by uncovering British cinema’s contribution to Cold War propaganda and to the development of a popular consensus on Cold War issues. Tony Shaw focuses on an age in which the ‘first Cold War’ dictated international (and to some extent domestic) politics. This era also marked the last phase of cinema’s dominance as a mass entertainment form in Britain. Shaw explores the relationship between film-makers, censors and Whitehall, within the context of the film industry’s economic imperatives and the British government’s anti-Soviet and anti-Communist propaganda strategies. Drawing upon rich documentation, he demonstrates the degree of control exerted by the state over film output. Shaw analyses key films of the period, including High Treason, which put a British McCarthyism on celluloid; the fascinatingly ambiguous science fiction thriller The Quatermass Experiment; the dystopic The Damned, made by one of Hollywood’s blacklisted directors, Joseph Losey; and the CIA-funded, animated version of George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”. The result is a deeply probing study of how Cold War issues were refracted through British films, compared with their imported American and East European counterparts, and how the British public received this ‘war propaganda’.Read more
£17.10 -
An Atlas of Es Devlin
An Atlas of Es Devlin, the first monograph on artist Es Devlin’s genre-defying practice, is an experiential publication encompassing art, activism, theatre, poetry, music, dance, opera and sculpture.Publisher’s note: Our first print run of The Atlas of Es Devlin has sold through in record time and we are currently reprinting. Further copies will become available in December with more stock then due in early 2024.
Devlin’s protean work is rooted in a life-long practice of reading and drawing. From sketches in the margins of texts, be they poetry, drama, song lyrics, opera libretti, climate reports or endangered species lists, emerge the technically advanced, collectively imagined universes for which she is globally renowned. Fragile miniature paintings, paper cuts and small mechanical cardboard models form the seeds of some of the most iconic, large-scale, multi-disciplinary cultural manifestations in recent times, from public sculptures and installations at Tate Modern, Serpentine, V&A, Barbican, Imperial War Museum and the Lincoln Center, to kinetic stage designs at the Royal Opera House, the Royal Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and the National Theatre, as well as Olympic Ceremonies, Super-Bowl half-time shows, and monumental illuminated stage sculptures for Beyonce, The Weeknd, U2, Rosalìa, Dr Dre and Kendrick Lamar.
Devlin’s work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Over the past decade her art practice has engaged with biodiversity, linguistic diversity and collective AI-generated poetry. She views the audience as a temporary society and encourages profound cognitive shifts by inviting public participation in communal choral works.
Published in association with a retrospective exhibition opening at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York in November 2023, An Atlas of Es Devlin is a unique, sculptural volume of over 900 pages, including foldouts, cut-outs, and a range of paper types, mirror and translucencies, with over 700 colour images documenting over 120 projects spanning over 30 years, and a 50,000 word text featuring the artist’s personal commentaries on each art work as well as interviews with her collaborators including Hans Ulrich Obrist, Bono, Benedict Cumberbatch, Pharrell Williams, Carlo Rovelli, Brian Eno, Sam Mendes, Alice Rawsthorn and Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye. Each book is boxed and includes a die-cut print from an edition of 5000.
‘Es is like superstring theory, at least eleven dimensions.’
Hans Ulrich Obrist‘Es knows how to bend the mind around corners of our experience.’
Benedict Cumberbatch‘Es takes our inchoate aspirations and sculpts them into a stage.’
Bono‘I wish we’d had Es as a psychologist on some of our projects.’
Brian Eno‘Es’s mind is both forensic and associative. She is able to x-ray a play and then she starts to dream.’
Lyndsey Turner‘Es is a turning point for anyone she interacts with.’
Pharrell Williams‘Es creates moments in which we suddenly become aware of life and existing, and time.’
Carlo Rovelli‘With Es, there’s no “No”. She creates a whole universe.’
Abel ‘The Weeknd’ TesfayeRead more
£62.80£80.80An Atlas of Es Devlin
£62.80£80.80 -
The Dance Cure: The surprising secret to being smarter, stronger, happier
“Peter has brilliantly put into words what I have felt my whole dancing life: that the power of dance can liberate and change all our lives.” Darcey BussellHumans are born to dance. And in today’s sedentary world, we would all benefit from doing more of it. Science shows that just ten minutes of dancing provides a thorough work out for the body and brain, raising the heartbeat to cause a release of feel-good endorphins, connecting us to our emotions and reducing our stress levels. Dancing quite simply makes us feel more alive.Dr Peter Lovatt, a former professional dancer turned dance psychologist, has spent the past two decades studying why we dance and what it does for us, and is on a personal mission to make dancing as natural an activity in our daily lives as walking or drinking coffee.Filled with fascinating case studies from his research as well as great stories from dance history, The Dance Cure will inspire even those who think they “can’t dance” to turn the music on, get up on the floor and dance themselves happy.Read more
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The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer (Performance Books)
Beginning with what every first-year acting student faces in class and ending with what leading professional actors must achieve every night on the three stages of the Royal National Theatre, Patsy Rodenburg’s celebrated work as one of the world’s foremost voice and acting coaches is fully revealed in this thoughtful and inspirational book about the process of acting. Through a seven-step process, she takes the actor through an intensive voice and speech workshop tackling the vexing problems faced in rehearsal and on stage: breathing and relaxation; vocal range and power, communication with other actors and the audience; integrating movement, singing and speaking; deciphering and animating a text; adjusting voice to different size stages and auditoria; working in mediums beyond the stage; sustaining a performance through an entire evening and a long run and identifying and overcoming the countless potential problems that face every performer who works in front of an audience.”The Actor Speaks is a stimulating read and an invaluable reference for all actors …a landmark book” (The Stage)Read more
£15.40 -
The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit (new edition): Revised Edition
A revised and updated edition of Bella Merlin’s essential guide to Stanislavsky.The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit collects together for the first time the terms and ideas developed by Stanislavsky throughout his career.
It is organised into three sections: Actor-Training, Rehearsal Processes and Performance Practices. Key terms are explained and defined as they naturally occur in this process. They are illustrated with examples from both his own work and that of other practitioners.
Each stage of the process is explored with sequences of practical exercises designed to help today’s actors and students become thoroughly familiar with the tools in Stanislavsky’s toolkit.
‘Bella Merlin magically converts her extensive knowledge into real-world practice and on-the-floor technique. This new edition is a necessary and lively resource for any theatre practitioner.’ David Chambers, Professor of Directing, Yale School of Drama
‘One of the essential books about acting for both professionals and students… brings new clarity to unlocking what Stanislavsky means for actors today.’ Michael Earley, Principal, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
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£11.40£12.30 -
The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor
“I call this book The Intent to Live because great actors don’t seem to be acting, they seem to be actually living.”
-Larry Moss, from the IntroductionWhen Oscar-winning actors Helen Hunt and Hilary Swank accepted their Academy Awards, each credited Larry Moss’s guidance as key to their career-making performances. There is a two-year waiting list for his advanced acting classes. But now everyone-professionals and amateurs alike-can discover Moss’s passionate, in-depth teaching.
Inviting you to join him in the classroom and onstage, Moss shares the techniques he has developed over thirty years to help actors set their emotions, imagination, and behavior on fire, showing how the hard work of preparation pays off in performances that are spontaneous, fresh, and authentic.
From the foundations of script analysis to the nuances of physicalization and sensory work, here are the case studies, exercises, and insights that enable you to connect personally with a script, develop your character from the inside out, overcome fear and inhibition, and master the technical skills required for success in the theater, television, and movies.
Far more than a handbook, The Intent to Live is the personal credo of a master teacher. Moss’s respect for actors and love of the actor’s craft enliven every page, together with examples from a wealth of plays and films, both current and classic, and vivid appreciations of great performances. Whether you act for a living or simply want a deeper understanding of acting greatness, The Intent to Live will move, instruct, and inspire you.
From the Hardcover edition.
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£16.40 -
So You Want to be an Actor? (Nick Hern Books) (So You Want To Be…? career guides)
A handbook for aspiring actors, written by two of the best-known actors in the country. This informative and entertaining book offers practical advice and do’s and don’ts to anyone thinking of taking up acting. Both authors are passionate about actor training, know the profession inside out and, as they say in their intro, have more than a hundred years’ experience between them!Writing alternate paragraphs throughout the book – and frequently contradicting each other! – they cover the whole gamut from * Applying to drama school * Auditioning * Training * Working in unpaid productions * Doing ‘bits’ on telly etc etc and on up to * Getting an agent and * Enduring a West End run – should you be so lucky.
This handy but pleasantly unstuffy manual is essential reading – or an essential gift! – for any aspiring actor.
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£9.20£10.40 -
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: The Journey: Behind the Scenes of the Award-Winning Stage Production
The official behind-the-scenes book of the record-breaking, award-winning play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is one of the most celebrated stage productions of the past decade. Opening in London’s West End in 2016, on Broadway in 2018, in Melbourne in 2019 — and with more productions worldwide still to come (including San Francisco later this year) — the play has smashed records, collected countless rave reviews and awards, and captivated audiences night after night. Now readers are invited behind the scenes to experience the show’s journey to the stage — from the earliest phases of development with producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, to the crafting of the eighth Harry Potter story with J.K. Rowling, director John Tiffany, and playwright Jack Thorne, to the gathering of an extraordinary team of artists and actors together to bring this new part of Harry Potter’s story to life.With stunning photography, insightful interviews, and never-before-seen sketches, notes, candid backstage photos, and more, this full-color deluxe edition offers readers unparalleled access to this unique production, and is a beautiful gift for Harry Potter fans and theater lovers alike.
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£27.70£30.30 -
Official Strictly Come Dancing Annual 2024
Dust off your dancing shoes, Strictly is back!
Featuring exclusive interviews with the celebs, judges, presenters and pro dancers, fun quizzes to test your ballroom knowledge and behind-the-scenes features to give you a glimpse into the glitz and glamour, this is your perfect partner for all things Strictly.
Experience a day in the life of a Strictly dance expert with choreographer Jason Gilkison, get the lowdown on the record-breaking feats performed by the Strictly pro dancers over the years, and find out how Strictly has been going green behind the scenes. This fun and glamour-packed annual is not to be missed by Strictly fans!
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£8.20£14.20Official Strictly Come Dancing Annual 2024
£8.20£14.20 -
Is There Life Outside the Box: An Actor Despairs
His fans have spoken, but despite their requests, Peter Davison has gone ahead and written his autobiography anyway. It wasn’t the book they tried to stop – it was more like the book they didn’t want him to start.
Despite displaying unspectacular scientific aptitude at school – he even managed to fail CSE woodwork, eliciting a lament from his astonished teacher (‘All you have to do is recognise wood!’) – Peter has secured his place in science fiction history, becoming the fifth Doctor Who, although he nearly turned down the role. The Time Lord connection continued with the marriage of his daughter Georgia to Dr Who number ten, David Tennant.
The artist formerly known as Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett has also starred in a number of television series including Love for Lydia, A Very Peculiar Practice, At Home with the Braithwaites and The Last Detective and became a national treasure for having his arm up a cow in his role as Tristan Farnon in All Creatures Great and Small. He was also in a Michael Winner movie…
He made his first tentative steps on stage in true am-dram style, but the Byfleet Players’ loss was the West End’s gain, after appearing in Legally Blonde, Chicago, Spamalot and the record-breaking Gypsy, where he rubbed shoulders backstage with Dames Meryl Streep, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench – all asking for directions to Imelda Staunton’s dressing room. One thing is for sure: of all the British screen and stage actors of the last fifty years, Peter Davison is certainly one of them and, within these pages, intrepid readers will at last have the dubious honour of sharing in his life and times – as he despairs over whether there truly ever can be life outside the box.
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£9.50£10.40Is There Life Outside the Box: An Actor Despairs
£9.50£10.40 -
QUINLAN’S FILM CHARACTER ACTORS
This is a guide to over 1100 character actors and actresses. The people covered include John le Mesurier, Irene Handl, Dora Bryan and Sam Kydd from the British studios; and Elisha Cook, Iris Adrian, Hattie McDaniel and Irving Bacon from Hollywood. There is a portrait to accompany every entry. After a short account of each actor’s career and characteristics, all their known film credits are given, including many fleeting appearances never previously recorded, plus shorts and TV movies. David Quinlan is also the author of “The Illustrated Directory of Film Stars”, “The Illustrated Directory of Film Directors” and “British Sound Films 1928-1959”.Read more
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Book The Fucking Job!: A Guide for Actors
As the follow-up to his best-selling At Left Brain Turn Right and Alphabet Soup for Grown-Ups, Book The F*cking Job is fast becoming the how-to manual for working actors all over the world. To Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop, we created a variety colorful covers for the re-issue of Book The Fucking Job! Pick the color that fits your mood!For over 20 years, top Acting Coach Anthony Meindl has been demonstrating his unique approach to modern acting training to thousands of actors worldwide. The demands for today’s actors have changed and with it have emerged many new breakthroughs in understanding creativity.From science to the power of the moment; from consciousness and mindfulness meditation to the art of the “f*ck it,” Mr. Meindl describes how you can let go of your control of how you think a scene should be and instead let something much more powerful and creative happen for you. Discover the exciting possibilities that await you in your creative journey when you learn the science of surrender.Find answers to your questions about technique, the business, and life in Book The F*cking Job! A new guide for the next generation of artists.Read more
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Talking Theatre: Interviews with Theatre People
The Sunday Times Theatre Book of the year. Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Miller, Alan Ayckbourn, John Gielgud, Tom Stoppard and many more talk about the stories behind some of the most important and successful theatre productions and performances of recent times. Shortly after he left the directorship of the National Theatre, Richard Eyre embarked on a series of interviews with people who had played a significant part in making and influencing the theatre of the second half of the twentieth century. Forty of these interviews – threaded through with Eyre’s own commentary – are published in this new paperback edition. Talking Theatre is a fascinating and revealing insight into the world and mindset of the artists and creative talent who have shaped – and continue to shape – modern theatre.Read more
£10.40 -
Jojo: Finally Home – My Inspirational Memoir – THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (2023)
*THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!*
Champion dancer and Strictly Come Dancing professional Johannes Radebe has captured our hearts with his mesmerising talent, bringing joy to millions of fans and wowing the most critical of judges. He is loved not only for his dancing, but for his beautiful, infectious spirit and energy.
Jojo: Finally Home is his never-before-told story, where he shares the experiences and challenges he’s faced – from growing up in Zamdela, a township in South Africa, as a young boy with a passion for dance (and playing with Barbies), to becoming the star he is today. Dance transformed Jojo’s future, giving him a tool to express himself – but as you will learn, this was not always easy.
Captivating and moving, these are Jojo’s tales of euphoric highs and all-time lows, of making history, of grief, love, family and opportunity. It is a celebration of him finally feeling at home in his own skin. These are the personal moments that have shaped him into the man he is today – someone who lives life to the full and believes that no mountain is insurmountable.
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£10.50£19.00 -
Technical Drawing for Stage Design
Technical Drawing for Stage Design explains the importance of drawing in the design process, revealing how the initial two-dimensional drawing is a crucial building block in creating the scale model that in turn will develop into the stage set – that will transport the audience into another world.Read more
£14.10 -
Tchaikovsky: The Man Revealed
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the most successful composers that Russia has ever produced, but his path to success was not an easy one.A shy, emotional child, intended for the civil service by his father, Tchaikovsky came late to composing as a career, and despite his success he was a troubled character. Doubting himself at every turn, he was keenly wounded by criticism, while the death of his mother haunted him all his life, and his incessant attempts to suppress his homosexuality took a huge toll.
From his disastrous marriage to his extraordinary relationship with his female patron, his many amorous liaisons and his devotion to friends and family, Suchet shows us how the complexity of Tchaikovsky’s emotional life plays out in his music. A man who was by turns quick to laugh and to despair, his mercurial temperament found its outlet in some of the most emotionally intense music ever written.
Tchaikovsky: ¬The Man Revealed examines the complex and contradictory character of this great artist, long hidden behind sanitised depictions by his brother and the Russian authorities, and how he came to take his rightful place among the world’s greatest composers.
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£19.30£23.80Tchaikovsky: The Man Revealed
£19.30£23.80 -
Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World, 3D illusions: Volume 1
Family and friends will enjoy hours of entertainment while viewing the amazing 3D illustrations found in this #1 New York Times bestseller.Embedded within each image of Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World is an enchanting 3D object or scene that materializes before the viewer’s eyes. Simple viewing instructions and a solution key are included.
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£9.50 -
Jojo: Finally Home – My Inspirational Memoir – THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (2023)
*THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!*
Champion dancer and Strictly Come Dancing professional Johannes Radebe has captured our hearts with his mesmerising talent, bringing joy to millions of fans and wowing the most critical of judges. He is loved not only for his dancing, but for his beautiful, infectious spirit and energy.
Jojo: Finally Home is his never-before-told story, where he shares the experiences and challenges he’s faced – from growing up in Zamdela, a township in South Africa, as a young boy with a passion for dance (and playing with Barbies), to becoming the star he is today. Dance transformed Jojo’s future, giving him a tool to express himself – but as you will learn, this was not always easy.
Captivating and moving, these are Jojo’s tales of euphoric highs and all-time lows, of making history, of grief, love, family and opportunity. It is a celebration of him finally feeling at home in his own skin. These are the personal moments that have shaped him into the man he is today – someone who lives life to the full and believes that no mountain is insurmountable.
Read more
£11.00£20.00 -
Drama Games for Actors – Exploring Self, Character and Text
‘A mass of invaluable ideas for all ages and all types of actors, amateur or professional. It’s hard to imagine anyone involved in theatre who wouldn’t find it useful.’ Richard Eyre, from his ForewordFrom the bestselling Drama Games series, this dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book offers dozens of games to serve as a rich source of ideas and inspiration for all actors – and those teaching or directing them.
This must-have companion is divided into three sections, each focusing on a different aspect of the actor’s process:
Self provides methods to deepen relaxation, sharpen focus, boost energy, expand imagination and enable a company of actors to work collaboratively
Character suggests strategies to aid the process of transformation, encouraging actors to explore characteristics that are distinct from their own
And Text offers exercises to unlock the words, allowing free and imaginative work within the structure of a script, without losing specificity
The games range from solo explorations which can be performed alone, to ideas for pairs and group work – making them suitable for a wide variety of scenarios and requirements. Overall, the book will serve as an essential foundation for every actor’s creativity, helping improve preparation, rehearsal and performance.
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£10.30£12.30 -
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER
This Christmas let Dame Judi Dench take you behind the scenes as she shares her life with, and love of Shakespeare.
‘A MAGICAL LOVE LETTER TO SHAKESPEARE’ Sir Kenneth Branagh
‘Companionable and compelling – it genuinely feels like you’re sitting at her kitchen table with her. If you love Judi Dench or Shakespeare (and most of us do), look no further’ Guardian
‘It swirls and dances with brilliance and mischief’ Daily Mail
‘Gloriously entertaining’ ObserverTaking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig…
Cavorting naked through the countryside painted green…
Acting opposite a child with a pumpkin on his head…
These are just a few of the things Dame Judi Dench has done in the name of Shakespeare.
For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra.
Here she reveals her behind the scenes secrets; inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans, all brightened by her mischievous sense of humour and striking honesty.
Witty, provocative and inspiring, this is ultimately Judi’s love letter to Shakespeare, or rather, The Man Who Pays The Rent.‘An utterly delightful book… Shakespeare from a great actor’s perspective – that repeatedly strikes to the heart of the matter with a sharp instinctive intelligence that puts fancy-pants literary critics to shame’ Telegraph
‘A wonderful ode to the bard’ I
‘The book is pure enchantment. It swirls and dances with brilliance and mischief, so forget traditional Shakespearean criticism and analysis. Sack the Eng. Lit. professors. As never before, this book brings the subject to wild, authentic life.’ Daily Mail‘Riveting, revealing and witty’ Gazette and Herald
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£15.00£25.00Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent
£15.00£25.00 -
Knight Errant: Memoirs of a Vagabond Actor
Robert Stephens is one of the best-loved and most unpredictable of great actors. He has endured good times and bad times, surviving four marriages, countless love affairs, years of hard living and drinking, illness and professional setbacks, and more recently a life-saving kidney and liver transplant operation. In his memoirs we learn how he fell in love with Maggie Smith, was nearly seduced by Marlene Dietrich and rubbed shoulders with, among others, Olivier, Nowl Coward, John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave.Read more
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Christopher Walken A to Z: The Man – The Movies – The Legend
Is Christopher Walken from Mars? He must be. How else can you explain his incredible range of talents and experiences? He has worked as a lion tamer, he has danced in music videos for Madonna, Duran Duran, and Fatboy Slim, and he has appeared in 100+ films for some of Hollywood’s hottest directors, including Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg, and Tim Burton. He is the most popular guest host in the history of “Saturday Night Live”. He is the only actor to play a Bond villain and a Batman villain. He was handed his high school diploma by Gypsy Rose Lee. He was on a houseboat with Natalie Wood on the night she mysteriously drowned. He has appeared in some of the worst films of all time – everything from “Kangaroo Jack” to “Mousehunt to Gigli” – and yet his popularity never wanes.No wonder Christopher Walken has attracted an enormous cult following. Now his fans can learn about the wide world of Walken in Christopher Walken A to Z, the first-ever biography of the most fascinating man in show business, arranged in a fun, breezy A-to-Z format. With entries on everything from Actors Studio (the famous theatre workshop where Walken worked as a janitor) to zombie movies (one of his favourite movie genres), “Christopher Walken A to Z” is a trippy salute to the world’s most endearing and enduring celebrity.Read more
£11.70£14.20 -
Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life
The camera loved Marilyn, and she loved it right back. In this luxurious volume, get to know the enigmatic star through iconic and rare photos, intimate stories, and removable memorabilia.Everyone knows the classic photographs of Marilyn Monroe: in the dress she wore to John F. Kennedy’s birthday, or leaning out of a balcony over the streets of New York City, or famously standing over the subway grates while shooting The Seven Year Itch. Behind the glamour, we’ve also heard the sad stories: her mother’s institutionalization, her three failed marriages, her own struggles with mental health, her surprising death that still leaves us with questions.
Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life delves into the life of the star—before, during, and after she became a “Blonde Bombshell.” Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (the Baker came later), she had a troubled childhood that culminated in her self-described “inferiority complex.” But all the while, she dreamed of something more.
Read the stories behind her first marriage (and why she kept it secret when she started modeling), her early roles with the studios (and the one exec who thought she didn’t have “it”), and her life as a budding actress that include humble anecdotes (at one point, she was so poor that she and a roommate shared one pair of high heels—and whoever had a date that night got to wear them).
Along with the stories are fabulous rare photographs and reproductions of frameable memorabilia, such as:
- Birth and marriage certificates
- Handwritten letters
- Certificate of conversion to Judaism before her marriage to Arthur Miller
- Screen Actors Guild membership card
- Picture of Marilyn sketched by Jane Russell
- Watercolor Marilyn painted for JFK
- Childhood photos
- Shots and ads from her earliest modeling days
- Wedding photos
- Images of those who knew her, including Groucho Marx, Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and so many more
- Marilyn’s favorite image of herself, taken in 1956
Further chapters cover Marilyn’s marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, her time in England and New York, and her rise as one of Hollywood’s most sought after starlets. Through it all—the self doubts, the illnesses, the isolation—we see Marilyn triumph with the help of friends and confidantes and her own tenacious will of knowing what she wanted.
We see time and again the depths of Marilyn’s heart and her capacity to care for others. “I want to love and be loved more than anything else in the world,” she once said, and with Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life, you can’t help but oblige.
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£17.90£20.90Marilyn Monroe: A Photographic Life
£17.90£20.90 -
Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown
In a career that spanned over seven decades, Roger Moore was at the very heart of the show-business scene.
We all knew him as an actor who starred in films that made him famous the world over, but he was also a tremendous prankster, joker and raconteur – in fact, he was well known as one of the nicest guys in the business, and someone who was always up for some fun.
In this fabulous collection of true stories from his stellar career, Roger lifts the lid on the movie business, from Hollywood to Pinewood. It features outrageous tales from his own life and career as well as those told to him by a host of stars and filmmakers, including Tony Curtis, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, David Niven, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, John Mills, Peter Sellers, Michael Winner, Cubby Broccoli and many more.
Wonderfully entertaining, laugh-out-loud funny and told with his characteristic wit and good humour, Last Man Standing is vintage Moore at his very best.
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£8.60£9.50Last Man Standing: Tales from Tinseltown
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The Ballroom Blitz: The escapist and romantic new novel from the nation’s favourite entertainer
The stunning new Buckingham novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Anton Du Beke.
September 1940. As the skies split apart and bombs rain down on London, it’s all the staff at the famed Buckingham Hotel can do to keep their guests in the luxury they’re accustomed to, and evoke the magic of the Grand ballroom for them each night.
Home on leave and still reeling from the tragic events at Dunkirk, the dashing Raymond de Guise struggles to define his role in this new world, and to do his duty both to his country, and his beloved wife Nancy- who needs him now more than ever.
With profiteers skulking the London streets, and devious rivals plotting the Buckingham’s downfall, the hotel staff must all hold onto what matters most- and decide where their loyalties truly lie.
As the bombing intensifies and Christmas fast approaches, somehow the show must go on…
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£6.80£8.50 -
The Oxford Dictionary of Dance
Over the last twenty years the boundaries of dance have been radically redrawn. There has been an explosion of new activity within traditional forms like ballet, a stream of new dance languages invented by fresh generations of choreographers, and there is a growing appreciation in the West of dance forms from the rest of the world. Fans today are likely to attend performances in classical ballet, Spanish flamenco, Indian Bharata Natyam, Japanese Butoh, jazz, modern and post-modern dance. In classical ballet they may see companies as varied as the New York City Ballet, Bolshoi, or Paris Opera. In modern dance they may see work that stems from the Graham or the Cunningham schools of movement; while in post-modern dance they may be watching choreographers who mix influences as varied as folk dance, T’ai Chi, Balanchine, and Mary Wigman, or who may be practitioners of Eurocrash, minimalism, contact improvisation or release. This new dictionary by two leading and authoritative writers on dance will provide the information necessary for dance fans to navigate the diverse modern dance scene. With an emphasis on performance the dance we see in theatres today – readers will find both fact and analysis on a wide range of subjects from dancers and choreographers to dance styles and technical terms.Read more
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John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star (Biography and Autobiography)
John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the finest classical actor of the twentieth century. This entertaining but critical biography charts the ups and downs of Gielgud’s long and glittering career, from his young ground-breaking Hamlet to his later success in plays by Pinter, Storey, Bond and Bennett, and his recognition as a major movie star following his role in Arthur. It also reassesses his complex relationship with his great rival Laurence Olivier and throws fresh light on his personal relationships and the turbulent episodes of his private life that threatened to shatter his career.For this biography Jonathan Croall’s exhaustive research has included over a hundred new interviews with key people from his life and career, including Peter Brook, Kenneth Branagh, Alec Guinness, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins, and it draws on several hundred letters to and from Gielgud that have never been published, including correspondences with Noël Coward, Somerset Maugham, Siegfried Sassoon, Edith Evans and Edward Gordon Craig. What emerges is an intimate, complex and often startling portrait of this great actor and much-loved man.
Gielgud’s interpretations of Shakespeare’s great roles made Shakespeare’s plays a commercial success on London’s West End for the first time. He was also hugely influential as a director and an actor-manager and worked extensively in film and television later in life. Since Jonathan Croall’s first biography of Gielgud was published in 2000 a considerable amount of new material has come to light and the result is a much more rounded, candid and richly textured portrait of this celebrated stage and screen actor.
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I, an Actor by Nicholas Craig: Another Great Actor Explores Himself
At last the memoirs of Nicholas Craig – theatrical eminence best known for his Truepate in The Cuckolde of Leicester and more popularly as Gob in Oh No! It’s the Neighbours! – are re-released for a grateful audience, updated with a wealth of new and controversial material. Startlingly truthful, unflinchingly illustrated, I, An Actor is a piton up the slope of creativity for theatre fans and aspiring actors alike, revealing everything that most theatrical autobiographies cravenly avoid. Should you sport a moustache in your publicity photo? How can you fix a prolapsed labial or a bad case of ‘blow-out’? What should you never call Alec Guinness during rehearsals? Is it true Brian Blessed only weighs 9 1/2 stone? And what should you do when Hollywood comes calling? This book blows the lid off the secrets of the profession, leaving no reputation safe.Read more
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Confessions of an Actor: The Autobiography
Laurence Olivier was a true legend. No classical actor had ever been such a dazzling star. No star had been such a magnificent actor. In this marvellous autobiography Laurence Olivier tells his own story: his brilliant career as actor, director, film-maker and producer; his role as husband to three women including Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright; and his many friendships – with Sir Ralph Richardson, Noel Coward and Sir Winston Churchill, to name just a few. CONFESSIONS OF AN ACTOR is more than just a memoir. It is a deeply felt testament by one of the most astonishingly gifted artists of all time.Read more
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My Autobiography (Penguin Modern Classics)
A silent comedy star whose legendary slapstick routines are recognisable to this day, Charles ‘Charlie’ Chaplin’s My Autobiography is an incomparably vivid account of the life of one of the greatest filmmakers and comedians, with an introduction by David Robinson
As a child, Charlie Chaplin was awed and inspired by the sight of glamorous vaudeville stars passing his home, and from then on he never lost his ambition to become an actor. Chaplin’s film career as the Little Tramp adored by the whole world is the stuff of legend, but this frank autobiography shows another side. Born into a theatrical family, Chaplin’s father died of drink while his mother, unable to bear the poverty, suffered from bouts of insanity. From a childhood of grinding poverty in the south London slums, Chaplin found an escape in his early debut on the music hall stage, followed by his lucky break in America, the founding of United Artists with D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, the struggle to maintain artistic control over his work, the string of failed marriages, and his eventual exile from Hollywood after personal scandals and persecution for his left-wing politics during the McCarthy Era.
Sir Charles ‘Charlie’ Chaplin (1895-1976) was born in Walworth, London. Best known for his work in silent film, his most famous role was The Little Tramp, a universally recognisable and iconic character who appeared in films such as The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925) and City Lights (1931). His other films include Modern Times (1936), a commentary on the Great Depression, and The Great Dictator (1940), a satirical attack on Hitler and the Nazis.
If you enjoyed My Autobiography, you might like Andy Warhol’s The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
‘Tells so much about this curious, difficult man … a wonderfully vivid imagination’
The New York Times‘The only genius to come out of the movie industry’
George Bernard ShawRead more
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The Power of the Actor: The Chubbuck Technique — The 12-Step Acting Technique That Will Take You from Script to a Living, Breathing, Dynamic Character
In The Power of the Actor, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, premier acting teacher and coach Ivana Chubbuck reveals her cutting-edge technique, which has launched some of the most successful acting careers in Hollywood.The first book from the instructor who has taught Charlize Theron, Brad Pitt, Elisabeth Shue, Djimon Hounsou, and Halle Berry, The Power of the Actor guides you to dynamic and effective results. For many of today’s major talents, the Chubbuck Technique is the leading edge of acting for the twenty-first century. Ivana Chubbuck has developed a curriculum that takes the theories of the acting masters, such as Stanislavski, Meisner, and Hagen, to the next step by utilizing inner pain and emotions, not as an end in itself, but rather as a way to drive and win a goal.
In addition to the powerful twelve-step process, the book takes well-known scripts, both classic and contemporary, and demonstrates how to precisely apply Chubbuck’s script-analysis process. The Power of the Actor is filled with fascinating and inspiring behind-the-scenes accounts of how noted actors have mastered their craft and have accomplished success in such a difficult and competitive field.
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Harry Potter Crochet Wizardry: The official Harry Potter crochet pattern book
Immerse yourself in the Wizarding World with Harry Potter Crochet Wizardry, the deluxe guide to all things crochet from the iconic films.
Featuring over 20 official patterns for toys, keepsakes, and costume replicas inspired by the Harry Potter films, with projects ranging from beginner to more experienced.
Projects include:
Accio Amigurumi – The Sorting Hat; Fawkes; Professor McGonagall’s Animagus; Mandrake; Hedwig; Dobby; Harry’s stag Patronus
Conjuring Costumes – The Hogwarts Scarves; Ron’s Three Broomsticks cardigan; Hermione’s Godric’s Hollow Hat & Mitts; Luna’s Cardigan; Hermione’s Rooms of Requirement Jumper
Fantastic Fashion – Hogwarts Poncho; Bertie Botts’ Every Flavour Socks; The Dumbledore Hat; The Unbreakable Vow Jumper
Curios & Keepsakes – The Burrow Blanket; Hogwarts Letter Crossbody Bag; Lovegood Dirigible Plum Pillow; Hogwarts Crest Blanket; Potions Class Baskets; Golden Snitch Baby Blanket; Quidditch BannerA true fan must-have, this book also includes fun facts, original costume sketches, film stills and other behind-the-scenes treasures.
Harry Potter Knitting Magic:
‘The perfect guide for weaving some magic’ – Prima
‘A dream for members of the fandom’ – Mollie Makes
‘Knitting has never been so magical!’ – Let’s Knit!Lee Sartori’s book ‘Harry Potter Crochet Wizardry’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 30-08-2021.
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£14.20£19.00 -
A Dancer’s Dream
This gorgeously designed retelling of The Nutcracker will make the perfect Christmas present for ballet fans everywhere!In snow white covered St. Petersburg, young dancer Stana’s dreams have finally come true – she has been chosen to play the lead role in Tchaikovsky’s new ballet, The Nutcracker. But with all eyes looking at her, can Stana overcome her nerves and dance like she’s never danced before?
From the author of the bestselling The Sinclair Mysteries, Katherine Woodfine, and Waterstone’s Book Prize winner, Lizzy Stewart, this sumptuous and magical retelling of The Nutcracker will transport you on a journey fay beyond the page.Praise for Katherine Woodfine’s The Sinclair’s Mysteries series:
‘A wonderful book, with a glorious heroine and a true spirit of adventure’ Katherine Rundell, award-winning author of Rooftoppers
‘Dastardliness on a big scale is uncovered in this well-plotted, evocative novel’ The Sunday Times
‘It’s a dashing plot, an atmospheric setting and an extensive and imaginative cast. Katherine Woodfine handles it all with aplomb’ The GuardianPraise for Lizzy Stewart’s There’s a Tiger in the Garden (Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017, Illustrated Books Category):
‘A journey of discovery’ The Guardian
‘A stunning testament to the power of imagination’ MetroRead more
£7.30£8.50A Dancer’s Dream
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Fly High Crew: The Green Glow (2021’s most exciting kids’ book from the Diversity dance superstars!)
An action-packed, laugh-out-loud, high-energy story for boys and girls featuring adults taken over by aliens and a brave group of kids who must work together as a team to stop them!
From TV personalities and Diversity street dance superstars, brothers Ashley and Jordan Banjo.
Brothers Trey and Jax spend after-school hours rehearsing with their street dance collective the Fly High Crew, until the evening they see a green beam of light flash out of the sky and are thrown into an out-of-this-world adventure!
Aliens have landed and are mind-controlling all the teachers and adults: can the Fly High Crew work together as a team and save the day?
- Written in collaboration with Alexandra Sheppard
- Full of fantastic art by Dionna Gary Bunn
- For fans of Tom Fletcher and Alesha Dixon.
PRAISE FOR THE FLY HIGH CREW
“exciting and fun filled” – Sevenoaks Bookshop, young reader review
“…full of action, aliens and a tight-knit crew who would do anything for each other. The twists and turns of the alien invasion keeps the reader guessing, putting them fully in the shoes of the adventurous crew experiencing such extraordinary events occurring in their school and homes.” – Matthew age 11, The Reading Zone
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Dances and Dreams on Diamond Street
The debut novel from Strictly’s very own Craig Revel Horwood, this book will make you laugh, make you cry, and everything in between.
‘Heartwarming, funny and FAB-U-LOUS!’ Woman magazine
_________________________‘A story that sparkles on the page – I absolutely loved it.’ Milly Johnson
_________________________Set against the colourful boho backdrop of London’s Camden in the 1990s, Dances and Dreams on Diamond Street, tells the story of an unlikely family of friends who each rent a room in a ramshackle six-bedroom, four-storey townhouse. Like any family, the residents of Diamond Street sometimes fight and often act up but when the chips are down, they’re there for each other in an instant – usually brandishing a cheap bottle of booze and the offer of an impromptu kitchen disco.
Presided over by the wise-cracking but warm-hearted patriarch of the family, Danny Hall, a professional dancer turned choreographer, the novel follows a year in the life of the inhabitants of Diamond Street, rough diamonds one and all, as they try to achieve their dreams – with unexpected, heart-warming and sometimes hilarious results.
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£6.10£7.60Dances and Dreams on Diamond Street
£6.10£7.60
