Performing Arts

An 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.

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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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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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Finding the right action is an essential part of the process of preparation for the actor. Using this thesaurus of active verbs, the actor can refine the action-word until s/he hits exactly the right one to help make the action come alive. The method of ‘actioning’ is widely used in rehearsal rooms, but has never before been set down in a systematic and comprehensive way.

NHB also publishes ,Actioning – and How to Do It, the first in-depth exploration of Actioning for student actors, those who train them, and professionals working in the industry, whether they’re brand new to the technique or have been practising it for years.

‘If you want to act, or act better, Actions will take you a long way on the journey to excellence’ Terry Johnson

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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’ Tesfaye

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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’ Observer

Taking 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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