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The Comedy Improv Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to University Improvisational Comedy in Theatre and Performance
by Matt Fotis Siobhan O'HaraThe Comedy Improv Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to University Improvisational Comedy in Theatre and Performance is a one-stop resource for both improv teachers and students, covering improv history, theory, maxims, exercises, games, and structures. You will learn the necessary skills and techniques needed to become a successful improviser, developing a basic understanding of the history of improvisation and its major influences, structures, and theories. This book also addresses issues associated with being a college improviser – like auditions, rehearsals, performances, and the dynamics of improv groups.
The Comedy of Errors: The 30-Minute Shakespeare
by Nick NewlinThe Comedy of Errors: The 30-Minute Shakespeare offers five raucous scenes from this extravaganza of mistaken identity.The abridgement begins with a dramatic physical enactment of the twins' separation at sea. The play continues with a series of foibles featuring Antipholus of Ephesus, Dromio of Ephesus, and their identical twin counterparts from Antipholus.Adriana and Luciana receive hysterically misguided attention from the twins. Emilia and Egeon as the long-lost parents, and the riotous conjurer Dr. Pinch round out the cast of characters in Shakespeare's most uproarious comedy.The edition includes a preface by Nick Newlin containing helpful advice on how to put on a Shakespeare performance in a high school class with novice actors, as well as an appendix with suggestions for the specific play and recommendations for further resources.
The Comedy of Errors
by William ShakespeareTwo sets of identical twins provide the basis for ongoing incidents of mistaken identity, within a lively plot of quarrels, arrests, and a grand courtroom denouement. One of Shakespeare's earliest dramatic efforts, the play abounds in his trademark conceits, puns, and other forms of fanciful wordplay, foreshadowing his later and greater comedies.
The Comedy of Errors
by William ShakespeareIdentical twins separated at birth provides the foundation for humour in one of Shakespeare's earlier plays. The young twin sons of Egeon, alongside another set of young twin boys, purchased as slaves, are lost to one another during a tempest at sea. As each searches for the other, the stage is set for a romp that revolves around mistaken identity, physical mishaps, and the comedy of errors referenced in the title.
The Comedy of Errors
by William ShakespeareBased on a pair of comic dramas from ancient Rome, The Comedy of Errors presents a spectacle of pure farce in the spirit of utmost fun and -- as the title suggests -- hilarious confusion. Two sets of identical twins provide the basis for ongoing incidents of mistaken identity, within a lively plot of quarrels, arrests, and a grand courtroom denouement. One of Shakespeare's earliest dramatic efforts, the play abounds in his trademark conceits, puns, and other forms of fanciful wordplay. It also foreshadows his later and greater comedies, offering students and scholars a valuable key to the playwright's development.
The Comedy of Errors
by William ShakespeareBook Description The shortest and probably earliest of Shakespeare's comedies, The Comedy of Errors is the story of identical twin brothers who are raised apart-and then mistaken for each other.
The Comedy of Errors: A Comedy In Five Acts (classic Reprint) (Modern Library Classics)
by William ShakespeareThis is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
The Comedy of Errors
by William ShakespeareBook Description The shortest and probably earliest of Shakespeare's comedies, The Comedy of Errors is the story of identical twin brothers who are raised apart-and then mistaken for each other.
The Comedy of Errors (First Avenue Classics ™)
by William ShakespeareThe merchant Egeon is caught crossing the border from Syracuse into the rival city of Ephesus—a crime punishable by death. But Egeon isn't a criminal; he's merely trying to find his wife and one of his twin sons, who were separated from him after a shipwreck twenty-five years ago. The Duke takes pity on Egeon after hearing his story and grants him a day to raise the money necessary to save his life. What Egeon isn't aware of is that both of his twin sons are now in Ephesus, and with two identical sons in one city, strange mix-ups are bound to happen. A tale of mistaken identities, this unabridged version of one of English playwright William Shakespeare's earliest comedic plays was first performed in 1594 and published in Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623.
The Comedy of Errors: Critical Essays
by William Shakespeare'After God, Shakespeare has created most' Alexandre DumasTwo sets of identical twins, separated at sea as babies, find themselves in the same city for the first time as adults. Soon, their friends mistake the twins for one another and bewilderment abounds. Joyful, mystical and brilliantly farcical, Shakespeare's shortest play is an early romantic comedy of confusion and ultimate reunion.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by Stanley WellsIntroduction by Randall Martin
The Comedy of Errors
by William Shakespeare A. R. Braunmuller Frances E. Dolan Stephen Orgel"I feel that I have spent half my career with one or another Pelican Shakespeare in my back pocket. Convenience, however, is the least important aspect of the new Pelican Shakespeare series. Here is an elegant and clear text for either the study or the rehearsal room, notes where you need them and the distinguished scholarship of the general editors, Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller who understand that these are plays for performance as well as great texts for contemplation." (Patrick Stewart) The distinguished Pelican Shakespeare series, which has sold more than four million copies, is now completely revised and repackaged. Each volume features: * Authoritative, reliable texts * High quality introductions and notes * New, more readable trade trim size * An essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare and essays on Shakespeare's life and the selection of texts
The Comedy of Errors: Webster's Italian Thesaurus Edition (The Pelican Shakespeare)
by William Shakespeare Frances E. Dolan Stephen Orgel A. R. BraunmullerThe acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare’s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With definitive texts and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
The Comedy of Errors
by William Shakespeare Paul Werstine Dr Barbara MowatShakespeare's Comedy of Errors is the slapstick farce of his youth. In it, the lost twin sons of the old merchant Egeon--both named Antipholus--find themselves in Ephesus, without either one even knowing of the other's existence. Meanwhile, Egeon has arrived in search of the son he thinks is still alive--and has been sentenced to death for the "crime" of being from Syracuse. To add to the confusion, the two Antipholuses have twin servants, both named Dromio. As the four men unwittingly encounter each other, the play is crammed with wildly escalating misunderstandings before the truth emerges and Egeon is pardoned. Shakespeare bases his story on Plautus's Menaechmi, a play about identical twins who accidentally meet after a lifetime apart. He borrows from another Plautus play by having Adriana, the wife of one Antipholus, entertain the other. The spirited Adriana often gives speeches evoking strong emotions--as do other characters at times. Even here, Shakespeare suggests complexities beyond the farce. The authoritative edition of The Comedy of Errors from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, is now available as an eBook. Features include: · The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference · Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation · Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play · Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play · Scene-by-scene plot summaries · A key to famous lines and phrases · An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language · Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books · An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
The Comedy of Errors (The New Cambridge Shakespeare)
by William Shakespeare T. S. DorschRos King provides a completely new Introduction to the existing text and commentary for this updated edition of The Comedy of Errors. She argues that the play cannot be regarded only as a farcical romp based on a classical model, but should be considered part of a critically misunderstood genre of tragi-comedy. Stressing the play's underlying seriousness, the Introduction pays special attention to its religious imagery.
Comet of St. Loomis
by Ed SimpsonComedy / 4m, 2f / Exterior / It's a pleasant summer evening at the Throckmorton Ridge Motor Court and owner Charlie Loomis is planning a romantic evening of comet gazing with his ex girlfriend Trudy. The comet Akashi is due to make a rare and mystical appearance in the night sky. Charlie, a decent but lonely man, finds his patience and good humor strained to the limits as his plans are continually disrupted by people seeking help. Annie, the court's teenaged maid, wants advice and reassurance as she awaits the imminent arrival of her baby. Her video game addict of an air headed husband is so freaked by the approaching birth that he has developed a disturbing inability to speak to her. Instead, he converses with the unborn child. Martin Gray, the neurotic honorary mayor, is upset because his town is teetering on the brink of insolvency. For some strange reason, he is sure that Loomis can save it. An increasingly frazzled Loomis is then confronted by a stranger from out of town. Jack Miles is everything Loomis isn't suave, handsome, successful and cynical. It develops that he went to high school with Loomis, and he proceeds to regale everyone with tales of Loomis' hapless school career as the butt of countless pranks and cruel jokes. In fact, Jack has been searching for Loomis. Jack's revelations, interrupted by the onset of Annie's labor, force Jack and Loomis to confront their shared past and uncertain future in this gently comic play about survival during hard times.
Comic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England
by Jim DavisThe popularity of the comic performers of late-Georgian and Regency England and their frequent depiction in portraits, caricatures and prints is beyond dispute, yet until now little has been written on the subject. In this unique study Jim Davis considers the representation of English low comic actors, such as Joseph Munden, John Liston, Charles Mathews and John Emery, in the visual arts of the period, the ways in which such representations became part of the visual culture of their time, and the impact of visual representation and art theory on prose descriptions of comic actors. Davis reveals how many of the actors discussed also exhibited or collected paintings and used painterly techniques to evoke the world around them. Drawing particularly on the influence of Hogarth and Wilkie, he goes on to examine portraiture as critique and what the actors themselves represented in terms of notions of national and regional identity.
The Comic Everywoman in Irish Popular Theatre: Political Melodrama, 1890-1925 (Palgrave Studies in Comedy)
by Susanne CollearyThis book is a comprehensive study of comic women in performance as Irish Political Melodrama from 1890 to 1925. It maps out the performance contexts of the period, such as Irish “poor” theatre both reflecting and complicating narratives of Irish Identity under British Rule. The study investigates the melodramatic aesthetic within these contexts and goes on to analyse a selection of the melodramas by the playwrights J.W. Whitbread and P.J. Bourke. In doing so, the analyses makes plain the comic structures and intent that work across both character and action, foregrounding comic women at the centre of the discussion. Finally, the book applies a “practice as research” dimension to the study. Working through a series of workshops, rehearsals and a final performance, Colleary investigates comic identity and female performance through a feminist revisionist lens. She ultimately argues that the formulation of the Comic Everywoman as staged “Comic” identity can connect beyond the theatre to her “Everyday” self. This book is intended for those interested in theatre histories, comic women and in popular performance.
Comic Tragedies
by Louisa May AlcottFans of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women will remember the elaborate plays which the March sisters loved to perform. This volume, published after Alcott's death, is a compilation of the real plays written by her and her sisters, which were fictionalized in Little Women.
Comic Transformations in Shakespeare
by Ruth NevoFirst published in 1980. In this study of Shakespeare's ten early comedies, from The Comedy of Errors to Twelfth Night, the concept of a dynamic of comic form is developed; the Falstaff plays are seen as a watershed, and the emergence of new comic protagonists - the resourceful, anti-romantic romantic heroine and the Fool - as the summit of the achievement. The plays are explored from three complementary perspectives - theoretical, developmental and interpretative which lead to a further understanding of the powerful relation between the plays' formal complexity and their naturalistic verisimilitude.
Comic Women, Tragic Men: A Study of Gender and Genre in Shakespeare
by Linda BamberThis book proceeds from the assumption that Shakespeare, so often perceived as the one writer who appears to have transcended the limits of gender, inevitably writes from the perspective of his own gender. From this perspective, whatever represents the Self is necessarily male; and the Other, which challenges the Self, is female. The author's approach gives us a fresh understanding of both Shakespeare's characters and the structure of the plays. The author defines genre in terms of the nature of the challenge offered by the Other to the Self. Using specific plays and characters of Shakespeare, the author shows how in tragedy the Other betrays or appears to betray the Self; in comedy the Other evades the social hierarchies dominated by versions of the male Self; in romance the Other comes and goes, leaving the Self bereft when she is gone and astounding him with happiness when she reappears. History is defined as a genre in which the masculine heroes confront no challenge from the Other but only from each other, from other versions of the Self. The book consists of a long theoretical introduction followed by chapters on comedy, history, and some individual plays: Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, Coriolanus, and The Tempest.
Coming Apart
by Fred CarmichaelRomantic Comedy / 2m, 2f / Interior / From the author of Exit the Body and Out of Sight . . . Out of Murder comes a funny, refreshing and delightful romantic comedy which opens with the Kittridges saying simultaneously, "I want a divorce!" Both are conceited and rightly so: Colin is a successful humor columnist and Frances an equally successful romance novelist. There is rivalry between them and although they are still in love, each is too stubborn to give an inch. Stage right features an area into which they wander to play other scenes and other times. Here hilarious differences emerge as each remembers a different version of their meeting and the marriage proposal and each pictures a different future. They confide in Sylvia, their mutual agent, and in Bert, a financier who hears Colin's troubles at the club. The Kittridges played matchmaker for this couple whose help only complicates matters. Frances and Colin's attempts to divide their belongings as they continue to live in the same apartment for a six month waiting period are paralleled in a book Frances is writing called 'How to Survive a Marriage'. Startling revelations bring about a warm and mirthful happy ending.
Commedia Americana
by Jules TascaComedy / 6m, 4f, doubling possible / Six lusty commedia dell'art plays bring traditional characters like Harlequin, Pantalone and Punch into modern times. The seven deadly sins come to life with loads of laughs and audience participation. "Women gasped. Men guffawed. Children squealed and pointed. It was great!"-- Valley Review. See Index under individual titles for descriptions: Love Bite, Cupidosis, False Prophets, Peeping Punch, The Marriage of Don Juan and Pantalone's Dream.
Commedia dell' Arte and the Mediterranean: Charting Journeys and Mapping 'Others' (Transculturalisms, 1400-1700)
by Erith Jaffe-BergDrawing on published collections and also manuscripts from Mantuan archives, Commedia dell' arte and the Mediterranean locates commedia dell' arte as a performance form reflective of its cultural crucible in the Mediterranean. The study provides a broad perspective on commedia dell’ arte as an expression of the various cultural, gender and language communities in Italy during the early-modern period, and explores the ways in which the art form offers a platform for reflection on power and cultural exchange. While highlighting the prevalence of Mediterranean crossings in the scenarios of commedia dell' arte, this book examines the way in which actors embodied characters from across the wider Mediterranean region. The presence of Mediterranean minority groups such as Arabs, Armenians, Jews and Turks within commedia dell' arte is marked on stage and 'backstage' where they were collaborators in the creative process. In addition, gendered performances by the first female actors participated in 'staging' the Mediterranean by using the female body as a canvas for cartographical imaginings. By focusing attention on the various communities involved in the making of theatre, a central preoccupation of the book is to question the dynamics of 'exchange' as it materialized within a spectrum inclusive of both cultural collaboration but also of taxation and coercion.
Commedia Dell'Arte: A Handbook for Troupes
by Oliver Crick John RudlinA companion to John Rudlin's best-selling Commedia dell'Arte: A Handbook for Actors, this book covers both the history and professional practice of commedia dell'arte companies from 1568 to the present day. Indispensable for both the beginner and the professional, it contains historical and contemporary company case histories, details on company organisation, and tips on practical stagecraft. Essential for students and practitioners, this book enables the reader to understand how successful commedia dell'arte companies function, and how we can learn from past and current practice to create a lively and dynamic form of theatre. Includes tips on: * writing a scenario * mask-making * building a stage * designing a backdrop * costume * music. _
Commedia Dell'arte An Actor's Handbook: An Actor's Handbook
by John RudlinThere has been an enormous revival of interest in Commedia dell'arte. And it remians a central part of many drama school courses. In Commedia dell'arte in the Twentieth Century John Rublin first examines the orgins of this vital theatrical form and charts its recent revival through the work of companies like Tag, Theatre de Complicite and the influential methods of Jacques Lecoq. The second part of the book provides a unique practical guide for would-be practitioners: demonstrating how to approach the roles of Zanni, Arlecchion, Brighella, Pantalone, Dottore, and the Lovers in terms of movement, mask-work and voice. As well as offering a range of lazzi or comic business, improvisation exercises, sample monologues, and dialogues. No other book so clearly outlines the specific culture of Commedia or provides such a practical guide to its techniques. This immensely timely and useful handbook will be an essential purchase for all actors, students, and teachers.