Performing Arts
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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 -
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
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The Invisible Actor (Bloomsbury Revelations)
The Invisible Actor presents the captivating and unique methods of the distinguished Japanese actor and director, Yoshi Oida. While a member of Peter Brook’s theatre company in Paris, Yoshi Oida developed a masterful approach to acting that combined the oriental tradition of supreme and studied control with the Western performer’s need to characterise and expose depths of emotion. Written with Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida explains that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor’s method and becomes too conscious of the actor’s artistry, the wonder of performance dies. The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance. Throughout Lorna Marshall provides contextual commentary on Yoshi Oida’s work and methods. In a new foreword to accompany the Bloomsbury Revelations edition, Yoshi Oida revisits the questions that have informed his career as an actor and explores how his skilful approach to acting has shaped the wider contours of his life.Read more
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The Actor and the Target
A definitive guide to acting. A revised and updated edition of Declan Donnellan’s international bestseller, a fresh and radical approach to acting by a world-famous director and one of the most successful titles ever published by Nick Hern Books.“The Actor and the Target comes from the heart of his own experience. Fear, generalising and other actor’s blocks are dismembered lethally and with infectious relish” Alan Rickman
“Brilliantly direct, the ‘target’ equips the actor with keys to unlock the fears and flab of acting. Declan’s insightful voice guides us to the heart of the process; exhilirating to read and more importantly to put into practice.” Joseph Fiennes.
“Cuts open every generalisation about acting and draws out gleamingly fresh specifics.” Peter Brook
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£13.70£16.10The Actor and the Target
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The Actor And The Text
Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is world-famous for her voice teaching. The Actor and the Text is her classic book, distilled from years of working with actors of the highest calibre.Read more
£13.60£16.10The Actor And The Text
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A Game Called Malice: A Rebus Play
A delicious, and somewhat drunken, dinner party segues into a murder mystery game created by the hostess. However, the parlour game may hold clues about the dark truths hiding just under the surface of this genteel gathering…
As suspects, clues and red herrings are sifted – it seems one of the guests has an unfair advantage: John Rebus, an ex-detective who used to do this for a living.
But is he playing another game, one to which only he knows the rules, that will soon be revealed?
As the tension rises, one by one, all their secrets will come out – and there is a shocking discovery that awaits them all…
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£13.60£18.00A Game Called Malice: A Rebus Play
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More than an Actor
Well-bred, educated at Eton and the Central School for Speech and Drama in London, the youngest of four boys in an upper-class family, Peter H. was in many ways the embodiment of Englishness, from the way he took his tea to his love of Shakespeare. Encouraged by his wonderful mother, he chose a career in acting and, under the tutelage of Sir Laurence Olivier at the British National Theatre Company, became a stellar performer – a classical actor in the postwar era of gritty realism.
W. Grey Champion’s narrative, relying on contemporary accounts of people who knew Peter, tells the haunting story of the man himself – beset by misfortune and tragedy, which aggravated mental and physical disorders ending his life too soon. The author withholds Peter’s stage name early on in order to accentuate his vision of a truly superlative person, who was much more than an actor.
A compelling imaginative read that pays tribute to the memory of the venerable Jeremy Brett (Peter Jeremy William Huggins). – Linda Pritchard
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£13.30More than an Actor
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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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£13.30£38.00 -
The Invisible Actor (Bloomsbury Revelations)
The Invisible Actor presents the captivating and unique methods of the distinguished Japanese actor and director, Yoshi Oida. While a member of Peter Brook’s theatre company in Paris, Yoshi Oida developed a masterful approach to acting that combined the oriental tradition of supreme and studied control with the Western performer’s need to characterise and expose depths of emotion.Written with Lorna Marshall, Yoshi Oida explains that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor’s method and becomes too conscious of the actor’s artistry, the wonder of performance dies. The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance. Throughout Lorna Marshall provides contextual commentary on Yoshi Oida’s work and methods.
In a new foreword to accompany the Bloomsbury Revelations edition, Yoshi Oida revisits the questions that have informed his career as an actor and explores how his skilful approach to acting has shaped the wider contours of his life.
Read more
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Craig Revel Horwood’s Ballroom Dancing: A Strictly Fantastic Step-by-Step Guide to Mastering All Your Favourite Dance Moves (Teach Yourself General)
Whether you’re an absolute beginner or a Strictly Come Dancing wannabe, it’s time to get up and dance
Craig Revel Horwood’s Ballroom Dancing gives you the confidence you need to take your first steps on the dancefloor. It even includes style tips from the style guru, Len Goodman, to give you that professional look.
Discover the history, foot positions, turns, and more, to all your favourite Strictly dances:
· Waltz
· Social foxtrot
· Quickstep
· Tango
· Rumba
· Samba
· Cha cha cha
· JiveBallroom dancing is totally cool, funky, and fantastically rewarding. What better way to get fit than tangoing your tension away, and foxtrotting the fat off your thighs?
Happy dancing.
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The Methuen Drama Book of Monologues for Young Actors
Selected by Anne Harvey, an experienced actress, director, writer and adjudicator, these dramatic monologues are suitable for performance at auditions, solo acting classes, festivals and examinations. Ranging from early Elizabethan to contemporary literature, the pieces are varied in content, tone and style and are equipped with an introduction setting the context. Writers include: Alan Ayckbourn, Enid Bagnold, David Campton, William Congreve, Sarah Daniels, Charles Dickens, Athol Fugard, Lucy Gannon, Graham Greene, John Godber, David Hare, Stanley Houghton, Henrik Ibsen, Shaman Macdonald, David Mercer, Iris Murdoch, Dennis Potter, Tom Stoppard, CP Taylor, Hugh Whitemore and many more.Read more
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Health and Safety in the Live Music and Event Technical Production Industry
This book covers the real basics of health and safety in the live music and event production industry in a simple jargon free manner that can also be used as the perfect student course note accompaniment to the various safety passport schemes that now exist in our industryRead more
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The Outstanding Actor: Seven Keys to Success (Performance Books)
Drawing on Ken Rea’s 35 years’ teaching experience and research, as well as interviews with top actors and directors, The Outstanding Actor identifies seven key qualities that the most successful actors manifest, along with practical exercises that help nurture those qualities and videos to demonstrate them.Featuring contributions and insights from Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Al Pacino, Lily James, Rufus Norris and many more, The Outstanding Actor gives you techniques that you can immediately put into practice in rehearsals, classes or private preparation. It also shows you how to increase the chances of having a more successful career.
This new edition covers topical issues such as the #MeToo movement, gender balance and race issues, and how these affect working conditions and careers. There are also brand new links to video resources that bring the valuable exercises to life.
The book also includes forewords by Damian Lewis and Lily James.
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Speaking The Speech: An Actor’s Guide To Shakespeare
With a foreword by Mark Rylance.Why does Shakespeare write in the way he does? And how can actors and directors get the most out of his incomparable plays? In Speaking the Speech, Giles Block – ‘Master of the Words’ at Shakespeare’s Globe – sets out to answer these two simple questions. The result is the most authoritative, most comprehensive book yet written on speaking Shakespeare’s words.
Throughout the book, the author subjects Shakespeare’s language to rigorous examination, illuminating his extraordinary ability to bring his characters to life by a simple turn of phrase, a breath or even a pause. Block shows how we can only fully understand these characters, and the meaning of the plays, by speaking the words out loud.
Drawing on characters from across all of Shakespeare’s plays – and looking in detail at Macbeth, The Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and Much Ado About Nothing – Block covers everything the actor needs to know, including: the essential distinctions between prose, rhymed verse and unrhymed verse, and the different strategies to be used when speaking them; the difference between you and thou; Shakespeare’s use of silence; and the vital importance of paying attention to Shakespeare’s original punctuation.
Speaking the Speech is a book for actors and directors who want to improve their understanding of Shakespeare’s language in order to speak it better. It is also a fascinating read for anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation of Shakespeare’s language and the way it comes to life when spoken aloud.
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£12.00£14.20Speaking The Speech: An Actor’s Guide To Shakespeare
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National Youth Theatre Monologues: 75 Speeches for Auditions: Speeches for Young People
“The ultimate guide to auditions for young actors” Broadway WorldAn exciting and invaluable collection of audition speeches, all chosen from plays produced by the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, spanning more than sixty years as one of the world’s leading companies for young performers.
Featuring seventy-five monologues by acclaimed writers such as Zawe Ashton, Moira Buffini, Carol Ann Duffy, Brian Friel, James Fritz, James Graham, Dennis Kelly, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Gbolahan Obisesan, Evan Placey, Sarah Solemani and Jack Thorne, the book offers rich and diverse roles ranging from teens to adults.
Each audition speech also comes with invaluable supporting material compiled by NYT Associate Artist Michael Bryher to help you perform the piece to its maximum effect, including:
- A detailed description of the play that the speech is originally from
- Contextual information such as what’s just happened in the play, where the monologue takes place, to whom the character is talking, and what their motivations are
- Things to think about when rehearsing and performing the speech
The book also provides extensive advice on choosing a speech, working on it and preparing for auditions, plus tips and first-hand insights into the monologues from current NYT members and alumni who’ve performed them.
An ideal resource for actors auditioning for drama school, the NYT or elsewhere, as well as those preparing for showcases or competitions, National Youth Theatre Monologues offers a wide and diverse range of roles, themes and styles meaning you’ll be able to find the speech that’s just right for you.
- Contextual information such as what’s just happened in the play, where the monologue takes place, to whom the character is talking, and what their motivations are
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£12.00£14.20 - A detailed description of the play that the speech is originally from
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I an Actor
The new revised edition of the uncensored ‘Acto-biography’ of the most controversial thespian of his generation. The memoirs of Nicholas Craig – theatrical eminence best known for his Trueplate 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.Read more
£11.90£12.30I an Actor
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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
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Great Shakespeare Actors: Burbage to Branagh
Great Shakespeare Actors offers a series of essays on great Shakespeare actors from his time to ours, starting by asking whether Shakespeare himself was the first–the answer is No–and continuing with essays on the men and women who have given great stage performances in his plays from Elizabethan times to our own. They include both English and American performers such as David Garrick, Sarah Siddons, Charlotte Cushman, Ira Aldridge, Edwin Booth, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Edith Evans, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Janet Suzman, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, and Kenneth Branagh. Individual chapters tell the story of their subjects’ careers, but together these overlapping tales combine to offer a succinct, actor-centred history of Shakespearian theatrical performance.
Stanley Wells examines what it takes to be a great Shakespeare actor and then offers a concise sketch of each actor’s career in Shakespeare, an assessment of their specific talents and claims to greatness, and an account, drawing on contemporary reviews, biographies, anecdotes, and, for some of the more recent actors, the author’s personal memories of their most notable performances in Shakespeare roles.Read more
£11.60£16.10Great Shakespeare Actors: Burbage to Branagh
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The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes
This is the ultimate anthology of theatrical anecdotes, edited by lifelong theatre-lover Gyles Brandreth in the Oxford tradition, and covering every kind of theatrical story and experience from the age of Shakespeare and Marlowe to the age of Stoppard and Mamet, from Richard Burbage to Richard Briers, from Nell Gwynn to Daniel Day-Lewis, from Sarah Bernhardt to Judi Dench.Players, playwrights, prompters, producers―they all feature. The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes provides a comprehensive, revealing, and hugely entertaining portrait of the world of theatre across four hundred years.
Many of the anecdotes are humorous: all have something pertinent and illuminating to say about an aspect of theatrical life―whether it is the art of playwriting, the craft of covering up missed cues, the drama of the First Night, the nightmare of touring, or the secret ingredients of star quality.
Edmund Kean, Henry Irving, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Ellen Terry, Edith Evans, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren―the great ‘names’ are all here, of course, but there are tales of the unexpected, too―and the unknown. This is a book―presented in five acts, with a suitably anecdotal and personal prologue from Gyles Brandreth―where, once in a while, the understudy takes centre-stage and Gyles Brandreth treats triumph and disaster just the same, including stories from the tattiest touring companies as well as from Broadway, the West End and theatres, large and small, in Australia, India, and across Europe.
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£11.60£12.30The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes
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Steppin’ Lively – Line Dance for Beginners
This book, written to help beginners navigate the world of line dancing, contains descriptions of standard step sequences, with step sheets, choreographed by the authors, for 72 dances.Read more
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Dance Your Way To Success: Reach Your Dream as a Professional Dancer
Olivia Beckford is a successful and dynamic dancer from Manchester who has gone on to make her mark on the world’s stage. She has toured the world as a professional dancer, going to all the far-flung corners of the globe, and at the very young age of twenty-seven has now produced this very interesting and handy book. In it, she describes her journey to the top of her game and gives useful and on-point advice to any would-be professional dancer. She covers topics ranging from how to present yourself in auditions, to how to navigate the often choppy waters of the world of professional dance, how to stay on top of and ahead of your game, and how to do it with people still liking you in the end. And calling you back to give you more work! This young author is savvy about life and is a driven, motivated go-getter who shows in this book what it means to achieve success – that it’s not just money and bookings but about a deeper appreciation of life, about strict discipline, emotional intelligence, and having a versatile approach to everything you do. She knows how to use her energy to achieve all she has achieved, and that same energy and drive bounces off the pages of this fascinating book that is both a study of a person in place and time and a very motivational educational piece.Read more
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Duologues for Female Actors: Classic Scenes
I have compiled and edited this collection of Classic duologues for female actors to study, perform and enjoy. These scenes are suitable for a range of acting exams and awards as well as for auditions and festivals. I have tried and tested these scenes with numerous students over the years with great success and more importantly, they have thoroughly enjoyed working on themThe duologues in this collection are taken from a range of plays : including works from the Greeks, Restoration Drama, French Farce, Ibsen, Chekhov, Wilde, Shaw, Tennessee Williams and Jean Anouilh. Each scene has an introduction prepared suitable for exam or festival work and are also timed with exams and festival work in mind. I hope you enjoy this collection.Read more
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Laban for Actors and Dancers: Putting Laban’s Movement Theory into Practice – A Step-by-Step Guide
A handbook, complete with graded exercises, for teachers and students wanting a practical introduction to Laban’s famous system of movement.
Rudolf Laban is to movement what Stanislavski is to acting. He devised the first wholly successful system for recording human movement, a system which is increasingly influential in the training of actors and dancers.
‘Required reading for every young student of the theatre – and a lot of the older ones would reap enormous benefit from it’ Murray Melvin
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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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Scenes for Teens: 50 Original Comedy and Drama Scenes for Teenage Actors: 1 (The Young Actor Series)
Scenes for Teens is meant to help simplify the acting and auditioning process for young actors. Created by an experienced entertainer with Hollywood and Broadway credits, these fifty original comedy and drama scripts are ideal for actor training. The scenes are written for two actors, are gender-neutral, and intentionally exclude costumes, props, entrances, exits, complicated stage directions, and additional characters. In this way, Scenes for Teens is specifically designed to help young performers practice dialogue in a conversational and realistic manner. This allows them to focus on the one-on-one relationship.With an inspiring foreword by Kevin Sorbo – and a clear introduction to the art and business of professional acting by the author – Scenes for Teens is an effective teaching tool for young actors, their parents, and acting coaches.Read more
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Standout in Stillness: Mindfulness for Actors and Performers
Delve into the captivating world of mindfulness practices, tailored made for the theatre and entertainment industry, with Michael Andersen’s special report: “Standout in Stillness: Mindfulness for Actors and Performers”.
Infused with wisdom from Andersen’s vast experience, this easy-to-follow guide unravels the intertwining threads of mindfulness and extraordinary performances. The content is engaging, enlightening, and, above all, practical, making it ideal for performers across all spectrums, from the fledgling to the seasoned veteran.
- “The Art of Being Present: Mindfulness Basics” will introduce you to the profound concepts of the practice.
- In “Breathing for the Stage: Core of Acting Mindfulness”, you’ll dig deep into the magnificent impacts of purposeful breathwork.
- Chapters like “Emotional Equipoise: Achieving Balanced Sentiments Through Mindfulness” and “Rehearsing Mindfully: A Pathway to Authenticity” will provide invaluable tools in honing your acting abilities while maintaining inner stillness.
With this special report, you can harness your inner calm to ignite your acting potential. So, gear up for a transformative journey through the echoes of encore, from the comforting stillness behind the curtains to standing tall on the grandiose stage. Grab your copy now and commence a journey towards mindful performances that resonate deeply with your audience.
Remember, because in stillness, you truly standout!
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Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
The creator of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Henry VIII and Captain Bligh, Charles Laughton’s career spans 50 films and 40 stage roles. This entralling biography follows him from his parents’ hotel in Scarborough to his climactic assumption of the role of King Lear in Statford at the end of his life. Along the way we meet a galaxy of Hollywood greats – from Korda, Hitchcock and Billy WIlder to Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. We also discover a hugely talented and complex man – a legend in his own lifetime who nonetheless counted himself a failure.Read more
£11.40£12.30Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
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Memorization for Actors (Psychology for Actors Series)
Imagine if you could learn your lines in half the usual time yet feel confident they will roll off your tongue when needed.
Memorization for Actors provides you with a range of practical psychology tools and a bullet-proof memorization process that will put you miles ahead of the competition.
Read this book and discover:
• How you can become a master at learning your lines
• Simple tricks to learn more lines in less time
• Advanced tools to turbo-charge your memorization process
• Proven strategies to remember your lines in high stress situations
• When to schedule your memorization sessions for maximum effect, and more…Short enough to read in an afternoon, yet jam-packed with practical advice, Memorization for Actors will transform your acting career.
Alexa Ispas holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Edinburgh. The books in her Psychology for Actors Series provide actors with proven psychology techniques to thrive and build a successful career.
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Voice And The Actor
Voice and the Actor is the first classic work by Cicely Berry, Voice Director of the Royal Shakespear Company and world-famous voice teacher. Encapsulating her renowned method of teaching voice production, the exercises in this straightforward, no-nonsense guide will develop relaxation, breathing and muscular control – without which no actor or speaker can achieve their full potential.
Illustrated with passages used in Cicely Berry’s own teaching, Voice and the Actor is the essential first step towards speaking a text with truth and meaning. Inspiring and practical, her words will be a revelation for beginner and professional alike.
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£11.30£14.20Voice And The Actor
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The Jobbing Actor: A Coaching Programme for Actors
‘The book all actors need – a vital manual to help you stay balanced in an increasingly demanding industry’ Miranda Hart
The Jobbing Actor is an innovative six-week coaching programme designed by accredited coaches to help you achieve your acting ambitions. It’s not just another ‘how to’ guide telling you what you already know; it’s a professional self-development programme that’s high on impact and low on bullshit.
Week by week, it will guide you through a structured series of industry-focused and holistic exercises and challenges. Full of uplifting advice and practical hints and tips, it covers every aspect of building and sustaining a career – from auditions and self-taping, through dealing with rejection and other trip-ups, to networking, branding and diversifying. Also included are daily journal pages in which you’ll set your targets and goals, and track your progress.
Inspiring, empowering – and fun! – The Jobbing Actor is your own personal coach in handy paperback form. It’ll empower you to take stock of where you are personally and professionally, instigate long-term, positive change, and reclaim ownership of your career.
Anita Gilbert and Letty Butler (aka Bert & Butler) have between them over forty years’ experience in the business. Anita has worked as a professional actor, as well as a theatrical agent, and is now a full-time voice and accent coach. Letty is a jobbing actor and comedienne, with extensive credits for stage and screen. She’s also an award-winning writer and professional life coach.
‘Brilliant. A godsend to actors!’ Eleanor Tomlinson
‘No-nonsense, practical advice delivered with humour, warmth and a real desire to help actors succeed’ Peter Hunt (Head of Casting, Lime Pictures)
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The Methuen Book of Duologues for Young Actors (Audition Books) (Audition Speeches)
Selected by Anne Harvey, an experienced actress, director, writer and adjudicator, these scenes are suitable for performance at auditions, solo acting classes, festivals and examinations. Ranging from Renaissance to contemporary literature, the pieces are varied in content, tone and style and are equipped with an introduction setting the context. Writers include: Edward Bond, Ken Campbell, David Crampton, Caryl Churchill, Noel Coward, Monica Dickens, Lisa Evans, Dario Fo, John Ford, David Hare, Jonathan Harvey, Lillian Hellman, Adrian Henri, Robert Holman, Moliere, Willy Russell, Diane Samuels, G B Shaw, David Storey, Frank Wedekind and many more…Read more
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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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Monologues for Kids and Tweens: 100 Original Comedy and Drama Monologues for Young Actors (The Young Actor Series)
“The monologues are brilliant! And the best part, there’s one to fit every audition, no matter what….He’s created another excellent guide to help young actors master their craft.” – Suzanne Lyons, Producer, Snowfall FilmsDoes your child dream of being on television?
Are you determined that your child escapes the perils of early stardom?
Are you wondering how to get started?Casting Director Michael Shurtleff, author of Audition, was famously quoted as saying, “The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself.”
His student and talented character actor in his own right, Mike Kimmel, has translated that truth into a series of books that will help hone the skills of a young actor and help them understand how to handle and explore stage and film. Monologues for Kids and Tweens is a collection of 100 original comedy and drama scripts on a wide range of topics. Each piece may be performed by actors of any gender. No props or costumes are required.
As Eva C. Nusbaum says, ”These short pieces acknowledge – and rightly so – that kids live in imperfect families in an imperfect world.” They touch on:
- loss (The Comfy Red Chair,)
- consequences (Green Bananas,)
- shame (Little People,)
- duty (New Old Sneakers,)
- nostalgia (Little Magic Donut Seeds
The monologues are clean, family-friendly, and include positive messages, life lessons, and ethical questions for young people written between the lines. These are monologues they’ll remember you by. Ultimately, these monologues can help parents and teachers encourage positive attitudes and behaviors in our young performers – and their classmates and audiences as well. Appropriate for film, television, and theater training and performance.
As Jack Klugman said, “Acting is a craft, and you must learn it.” Get started with The Young Actor Series and give your young artist the best chance of becoming a professional actor and a well-balanced, empathetic human being.
Praise for Monologues for Kids and Tweens
”Mike has a real gift for writing while keeping his monologues concise and memorable.” – Will Wallace, Director, Producer, Actor and Acting Coach
”It makes for a nce addition to any young actor’s “tool box.” – Nicole Connor, Talent Agent, Central Artists Talent Agency
”Finally, a monologue book that is introspective and yet able to be expressed believably through the art of a child.” – GiGi Erneta, Actress, Radio and TV Host
”Kimmel has crafted a great selection of pieces varying in tone and subject that are perfect for the young performer….It’s so refreshing to have a compilation of monologues that support good values and personal growth for the child’s development, both as an actor and as an empathetic human being.” – Misty Marshall, Executive Director, Empowerment thru Arts, Sony recording artist and American Idol semi-finalist
Study acting as you grow with The Young Actor Series – build your acting skills now in preparation for studying with tomorrow’s Stella Adler, Uta Hagan, or Constantin Stanislavski.
- Acting Scenes for Kids and Tweens
- Monologues for Kids and Tweens
- One-Minute Monologues for Teens
- Scenes for Teens
- Monologues for Teens
These books can be used in any order by acting students in the correct age group.
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£10.90 -
Dance-The Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice (The Art of Spiritual Living)
For many people, the idea of dance is relegated to professionals. But for Cynthia Winton-Henry, dance is the movement of life. In the pages of this book, she invites all of us, regardless of experience, into the possibility of dance/movement as a spiritual practice. Offering simple movement suggestions that even the clumsy among us can try, Winton-Henry opens up a liberating form of spiritual practice that can lead to spirit-centred living in our human bodies. Drawing on her extensive background in movement and dance and her studies and understanding of spirituality, she combines her lived experience to introduce such practices as: · Dance for Soul Retrieval: Movements that can bring serenity, energy, humour, strength and healing · Seven Minutes of Heaven Therapy, or Just Vacation: Movement practices for invoking, blessing, releasing, balancing, discerning · A Few Elegant Forms: Open, loose movement structures to help us follow our own instincts to move DANCE THE SACRED ART is a simple, approachable resource for people at all levels on the movement path who want to explore how dance and movement can be an important element in their spiritual growth. The book, also, includes suggestions for Creating Dancing Community for readers who want to take their dance and movement practices to the next level.Read more
£10.80£12.30 -
Ballet and Modern Dance: 0 (World of Art)
This cornerstone of the World of Art series is a succinct, vivid and authoritative guide to the rich history of western dance in all its incarnations from 16th-century court ballet to the genre-shattering contortions of 21st-century theatrical dance. Updated for the new millennium to feature the latest styles, performers and technology, this third edition reaffirms its status as the essential introduction to the subject.Read more
£10.60£12.30Ballet and Modern Dance: 0 (World of Art)
£10.60£12.30 -
The Actor’s Guide to Playing a Character: William Esper Teaches the Meisner Technique
William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character.Esper’s first book, The Actor’s Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor’s Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper’s second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper’s training builds on Sanford Meisner’s legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.
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£10.60£14.20 -
What Actors Do: Advice to the Players in Seven Paradoxes and a Manifesto
‘Only what is open and searching is active and alive. You, the actor, must learn to find security in insecurity, certainty in uncertainty, to trust that this will lead to discovery and growth.’
In What Actors Do, revered theatre director Mike Alfreds explores the wellspring of the actor’s craft, tracing a pathway to creative freedom through the thickets of competing methodologies and confusing paradoxes that you will face throughout your training and career.
How do you give life to a character that both is and isn’t yourself? How can you be childlike and open in your work without becoming childish? How, when you know what’s coming next, can you still be spontaneous?
Frank, uncompromising and full of sharply focused insights, this book will help you strip away the inhibitions and habitual thinking that can shackle our imaginations. It will show you how to generate truthful performances by trusting your inner creativity and remaining radically open, responsive and present in every moment.
Mike Alfreds has been directing plays for more than seventy years. In the 1970s he founded Shared Experience, and has since worked for the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and also extensively abroad. He is hugely respected within the profession, and is the author of two previous books, Different Every Night and Then What Happens?
‘If I was allowed to train again to be an actor, but I was only allowed one teacher, it would have to be Mike Alfreds. To me he is a genius when it comes to acting and storytelling’ Mark Rylance
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£10.50£12.30 -
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 -
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 -
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
