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The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents
by Russ McdonaldProviding a unique combination of well-written, up-to-date background information and intriguing selections from primary documents, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare introduces students to the topics most important to the study of Shakespeare in their full historical and cultural context.
The Bedford Introduction to Drama, Eighth Edition
by Lee A. JacobusWith plays dating back to ancient Greece, Bedford Introduction to Drama teaches you to think critically about drama while learning about the history, theater design, staging, and acting style for each era of the theater.
The Beggar's Opera
by John GayThe tale of Peachum, thief-taker and informer, conspiring to send the dashing and promiscuous highwayman Macheath to the gallows, became the theatrical sensation of the eighteenth century.In THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, John Gay turned conventions of Italian opera riotously upside-down, instead using traditional popular ballads and street tunes, while also indulging in political satire at the expense of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Gay's highly original depiction of the thieves, informers, prostitutes and highwaymen thronging the slums and prisons of the corrupt London underworld proved brilliantly successful in exposing the dark side of a corrupt and jaded society.
The Beggar's Opera (Dover Thrift Editions)
by John GayThe great lords and powerful public officials of early 18th century England are represented as highwaymen and thieves in this deliciously satirical ballad opera. In addition to its burlesque of the contemporary vogue for Italian operatic styles, John Gay's 1728 masterpiece ridicules a broad spectrum of political figures and social conventions -- marriage, lawyers, trade, and even Walpole, the prime minister. Depicting crime and vice at every level of society, The Beggar's Opera offers a witty and powerful indictment of greed, hypocrisy, and corruption in all social classes. When Peachum, a receiver of stolen goods, discovers that a notorious highwayman has eloped with his daughter, the wily old villain turns informer and collects the reward money as his prospective son-in-law is hauled off to prison. Events take an increasingly absurd turn as the dashing outlaw romances the jailer's daughter and effects an escape, only to return to the shadow of the gallows for a farcical climax that parodies the sentimental tragedy of the day. The Beggar's Opera is in the satirical tradition of Swift and Pope. Its enduring relevance was recognized two centuries later by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, who used it as the basis for their landmark musical, The Threepenny Opera. This attractive, inexpensive edition of an influential comic gem will be applauded by theater lovers, students of literature and history, and other readers.
The Beginner’s Guide to Opera Stage Management: Gathering the Tools You Need to Work in Opera
by Danielle RannoThe Beginner’s Guide to Opera Stage Management is the first book to cover theatrical stage management practices specifically for opera productions, providing an invaluable step-by-step guide. Beginning with a brief history of opera and detailing its difference from musical theatre, the book covers stage management best practices through prep, rehearsals, tech, performance, and wrap up. From the moment a manager accepts a contract, right through to archiving paperwork, this essential toolkit covers each step of a stage manager’s journey. Working with a score, reading music, working with singers, conductors, and musicians, basic duties of a stage manager versus an assistant stage manager, and other tasks specific to opera are also included in this comprehensive guide. This book is full of tips and tricks, as well as the good, bad, and ugly stories from opera stage managers, sharing both their experiences and mistakes. This is the perfect how-to book for the professional or emerging stage manager looking to work in opera, or to expand their existing stage management skillset.
The Bequest: A One-act Play
by Dale WassermanComic drama / 3m, 3f / Eyebrows rise in a small town in Wisconsin when a notorious playboy dies leaving a large bequest to a local resident, the lovely and beloved wife of a local newspaper reporter. She refuses to explain why this windfall has come her way. "A polished miniature from a playwright better known for his blockbusters ... a wicked, witty look at such piquant matters as male female politics, the secret nature of women, and that little green demon known as retroactive jealousy. In the bargain, it's a sexy sort of whodunnit which will go on teasing your mind well after the curtain's down." - What's On. FEE: $45 per performance.
The Berenstain Bears' School Talent Show (I Can Read Level 1)
by Mike BerenstainThe Berenstain Bears take part in the school talent show in this exciting addition to the classic New York Times bestselling series.From the cub’s magic tricks to Trudy’s yodeling, any student can be in the show. All you need is a talent! Beginning readers will enjoy this fun tale about their favorite family of bears.The Berenstain Bears' School Talent Show is a Level One I Can Read book, which means it's perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences.
The Berry Pie Mystery
by Louise Shultz Jimmy ChauIt’s time for the Forest Festival, and everyone is baking their favorite pies to share … but someone is stealing the pies! Does someone have a greedy appetite, or is there actually a fun surprise for everyone? <p><p> • Grade: 1-3 <p> • Playbooks Reading Levels: Stages 1-4 <p> • Topic: Community
The Best Animal in the Forest: A Play (Into Reading, Level E #73)
by Phillip Simpson Jo ThapaNIMAC-sourced textbook
The Best Brothers
by Daniel MacIvorBunny Best has met her unfortunate end after a mishap at a Gay Days parade. Now her two sons, Kyle and Hamilton, have the task of arranging her funeral and caring for her most beloved companion, a troublesome Italian greyhound named Enzo. In the bustle of obituary-writing, eulogy-giving, and dog-sitting, sibling rivalry quickly reaches its peak and years of buried contentions surface.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
by Barbara RobinsonComedy / All Groups / 4m, 6f, plus 8 boys and 9 girls / In this hilarious Christmas tale, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting the Herdman kids - probably the most inventively awful kids in history. You won't believe the mayhem - and the fun - when the Herdmans collide with the Christmas story head on! This delightful comedy is adapted from the best selling book and the only story ever to run twice in McCall's Magazine. / "One of the best Christmas stories ever - and certainly one of the funniest." - Seattle Times
The Bible and Modern British Drama: From 1930 to the Present Day (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by Mary F. BrewerThe Bible and Modern British Drama: 1930 to the Present Day is the first full-length study to explore how playwrights in the modern period have adapted popular biblical stories, such as Abraham and Isaac, Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, and the life and death of Jesus, for the stage. The book offers detailed and accessible interpretations of the work of well-known dramatists such as Christopher Fry, Howard Brenton, and Steven Berkoff, alongside the work of writers whose plays have been neglected in recent criticism, such as James Bridie and Laurence Housman. The drama is analysed within the context of changes in religious belief and practice over the course of the modern period in Britain, comparing plays that approach the Bible from a traditional religious perspective with those that offer alternative viewpoints on the text, including the voices of gay, feminist, black, Jewish, and Muslim dramatists. In doing so, the author offers a broad and in-depth exploration that is grounded in current scholarship, ranging from the past to present, across boundaries of race and gender. Ideal for students, researchers, and general readers interested in understanding how the Bible has served as an important source text for British playwrights in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, The Bible and Modern British Drama shows how Bible-based drama has been influential in creating and disseminating ideas of what constitutes a "good" life, both on an individual and social level.
The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures Of Interpretation In Reformation England
by Kristen Poole Thomas FultonThe Bible was everywhere in Shakespeare's England. Through sermons, catechisms, treatises, artwork, literature and, of course, biblical reading itself, the stories and language of the Bible pervaded popular and elite culture. In recent years, scholars have demonstrated how thoroughly biblical allusions saturate Shakespearean plays. <P><P>But Shakespeare's audiences were not simply well versed in the Bible's content - they were also steeped in the practices and methods of biblical interpretation. Reformation and counter-reformation debate focused not just on the biblical text, but - crucially - on how to read the text. The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage is the first volume to integrate the study of Shakespeare's plays with the vital history of Reformation practices of biblical interpretation. Bringing together the foremost international scholars in the field of 'Shakespeare and the Bible', these essays explore Shakespeare's engagement with scriptural interpretation in the tragedies, histories, comedies, and romances.<P> The first volume to integrate the study of Shakespeare's plays with the vital history of Reformation practices of biblical interpretation.<P> Brings together some of the foremost international scholars in the field of 'Shakespeare and the Bible'.<P> Explores Shakespeare's engagement with scriptural interpretation across the tragedies, histories, comedies, and romance.
The Biblical Covenant in Shakespeare
by Mary Jo KietzmanThe theo-political idea of covenant—a sacred binding agreement—formalizes relationships and inaugurates politics in the Hebrew Bible, and it was the most significant revolutionary idea to come out of the Protestant Reformation. Central to sixteenth-century theology, covenant became the cornerstone of the seventeenth-century English Commonweath, evidenced by Parliament’s passage of the Protestation Oath in 1641 which was the “first national covenant against popery and arbitrary government,” followed by the Solemn League and Covenant in 1643. Although there are plenty of books on Shakespeare and religion and Shakespeare and the Bible, no recent critics have recognized how Shakespeare’s plays popularized and spread the covenant idea, making it available for the modern project. By seeding the plays with allusions to biblical covenant stories, Shakespeare not only lends ethical weight to secular lives but develops covenant as the core idea in a civil religion or a founding myth of the early-modern political community, writ small (family and friendship) and large (business and state). Playhouse relationships, especially those between actors and audiences, were also understood through the covenant model, which lent ethical shading to the convention of direct address. Revealing covenant as the biblical beating heart of Shakespeare’s drama, this book helps to explain how the plays provide a smooth transition into secular society based on the idea of social contract.
The Big Lebowski (Bfi Film Classics Ser.)
by J. M. Tyree Ben Walters<P>Since its release nearly ten years ago, The Big Lebowski has become a cult classic with a worldwide following, having survived the baffled reaction of many mainstream critics.<P> Its fans tend to be fanatical, congregating at 'Lebowski Conventions' in bowling alleys across American and Britain, and even dressing up as characters from the film. <P>Among the funniest films of the last twenty-five years, and one of the high-water marks of 1990s genre recycling and pastiche, The Big Lebowski also littered with playful and subversive references to film history, especially to Raymond Chandler's world of hardboiled detective classics and the world of film noir.<P> The Big Lebowskiis the rarest kind of film, a comedy whose jokes become funnier with repetition. The same goes for its multitudinous jukebox-like references to other films, many of which open up vistas for intertextual interpretation.<P> Underneath the film's breakneck pacing and foul-mouthed characters, a farcical collection of flakes, losers, and phonies, is a surprisingly humane account of what fools we mortals be. <P>It is one of the oddest buddy films ever made, with extraordinary performances by Jeff Bridges and John Goodman.<P> In this study, The Big Lebowskiis set into the context of 1990s Hollywood cinema, anatomised for its witty relationship with the classics which it satirises, and discussed in terms of its key theme: the hopeless flailing of ridiculously unmanly men in the world of discombobulated, mixed-up, or put-on identities that is Los Angeles.
The Biggest Pest on Eighth Avenue
by Laurie LawlorAn amateur horror show scares no one except its creators until a frightful actor appears on the scene.
The Birds
by AristophanesThis portrayal of a flawed utopia called Cloudcuckooland is an enchanting escape into the world of free-flying fantasy that explores the eternal dilemmas of man on earth.
The Birds
by Aristophanes Jeffrey HendersonThis is an English translation of Aristophanes’ greatest comedy the Birds and is the story of birds taking control of the government. Includes background material on the historical and cultural context of this work, suggestions for further reading, and notes. Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays to provide access to understanding Greek culture.
The Birds and Other Plays
by Aristophanes David Barrett Alan SommersteinOffering a window into the world of ordinary Athenians, Aristophanes' The Birds and Other Plays is a timeless set of comedies, combining witty satire and raucous slapstick to wonderful effect. The plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility <p><p> In The Birds, two cunning Athenians persuade the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds' in the sky, blockading the Olympian gods and installing themselves as new deities. The Knights is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, who vies with a humble sausage-seller for the approval of the people; while The Assembly-Women deals with the battle of the sexes as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of Peace, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and Wealth reflects on the economic catastrophe that hit Athens after the war. <p><p> These lively translations by David Barrett and Alan H. Sommerstein capture the full humour of the plays. The introduction examines Aristophanes' life and times, and the comedy and poetry of his works, and this edition also includes an introductory note for each play. <p><p> For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 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 Birds and Other Plays
by AristophanesThe plays in this volume all contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In THE BIRDS, two frustrated Athenians join the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds'. THE KNIGHTS is a venomous satire on Cleon, a prominent Athenian demagogue, while THE ASSEMBLY WOMEN deals with the battle of the sexes as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy conflict with Sparta is the subject of PEACE, inspired by the hope of a settlement in 421 BC, and WEALTH reflects on the economic catastrophe that hit Athens after the war.
The Birds: A Play
by AristophanesBirds rule the sky—and man—in this entertaining work by the Ancient Greek playwright known for Lysistrata and The Clouds. This award-winning comedy—first performed in Greece in 414 BC—remains a delightful read even after two millennia. As the birds of Athens express their frustration about sharing a realm with humans, they hatch a plan to build their own empire in the sky: Cloud-cuckoo-land. Soon they are exercising their power as they form a barrier between mortals and the Olympians—and declare themselves the new gods.
The Birth and Growth of Chinese Drama: The History of Chinese Drama, Volume 1
by Ronghua WangThis is a book of the history of China’s contemporary drama. It provides a panorama of the ups and downs of Chinese drama. It tells how this western art has been adapted to the Chinese context and what it has offered to the world of theatre. It illustrates who the outstanding playwrights are and what great drama they have produced. The book shows how Chinese traditional culture has been blended with this western art form. The book also demonstrates how deeply drama is involve in Chinese politics and daily life.
The Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick
by Norman S. PoserThe Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick is a vivid description of the eighteenth-century London theatre scene—a time when the theatre took on many of the features of our modern stage. A natural and psychologically based acting style replaced the declamatory style of an earlier age. The theatres were mainly supported by paying audiences, no longer by royal or noble patrons. The press determined the success or failure of a play or a performance. Actors were no longer shunned by polite society, some becoming celebrities in the modern sense. The dominant figure for thirty years was David Garrick, actor, theatre manager and playwright, who, off the stage, charmed London with his energy, playfulness, and social graces. No less important in defining eighteenth-century theatre were its audiences, who considered themselves full-scale participants in theatrical performances; if they did not care for a play, an actor, or ticket prices, they would loudly make their wishes known, sometimes starting a riot. This book recounts the lives—and occasionally the scandals—of the actors and theatre managers and weaves them into the larger story of the theatre in this exuberant age, setting the London stage and its leading personalities against the background of the important social, cultural, and economic changes that shaped eighteenth-century Britain. The Birth of Modern Theatre brings all of this together to describe a moment in history that sowed the seeds of today’s stage.
The Black Drum
by Adam PottleHailed as the world’s first Deaf musical—told entirely in American Sign Language and Signed Music—The Black Drum revolves around Joan and her journey to healing after the death of her wife, Karen. Since Karen’s passing, Joan has been unable to share her music with the world, anguish snatching her desire to perform. Joan’s grief pulls her into a bizarre, black-and-white world where her two beautiful tattoos come to life as guides and together they confront a monster called the Minister. But the only way to defeat the Minister and begin to heal is for Joan to embrace her own voice.An epic fantasy about grief and healing, The Black Drum questions the concept of music we are conditioned to believe, suggesting that music is not just something you hear, it is something you see and feel.