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The Wednesday Wars
by Gary D. SchmidtIn this Newbery Honor-winning novel, Gary D. Schmidt offers an unforgettable antihero. The Wednesday Wars is a wonderfully witty and compelling story about a teenage boy’s mishaps and adventures over the course of the 1967–68 school year in Long Island, New York.<P><P> Meet Holling Hoodhood, a seventh-grader at Camillo Junior High, who must spend Wednesday afternoons with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, while the rest of the class has religious instruction. Mrs. Baker doesn’t like Holling—he’s sure of it. Why else would she make him read the plays of William Shakespeare outside class? But everyone has bigger things to worry about, like Vietnam. His father wants Holling and his sister to be on their best behavior: the success of his business depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? A bully demanding cream puffs; angry rats; and a baseball hero signing autographs the very same night Holling has to appear in a play in yellow tights! As fate sneaks up on him again and again, Holling finds Motivation—the Big M—in the most unexpected places and musters up the courage to embrace his destiny, in spite of himself.
Welfare and the Well-Being of Children
by Janet M. CurrieAn analysis of eight of the largest US welfare programmes affecting children. These programmes include Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the Food Stamp Program. Medicaid, housing assistance, supplemental feeding programmes such as WIC and School Lunch, Head Start and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Despite the fact that these programmes were designed to serve children, most discussion of welfare reforms focuses on the incentives that the welfare system creates for parents. This analysis represents an evaluation of the evidence regarding the effects of welfare programmes on the children themselves. Programmes such as Medicaid and Head Start have a larger effect on measures of child well-being than cash transfer programs such as AFDC. This suggests an economic rationale for the recent trend towards providing a larger proportion of assistance in-kind.
Welfarewell
by Cat DelaneyDramatic Comedy / Characters: 1m, 7f, Larger Cast Possibilities /Simple Set Winner of the 2009 Samuel French Canadian Playwriting Competition Esmerelda Quipp is 80, still of sound mind, but her body is beginning to "come unglued", as she puts it. Having spent her working life as an actress, age pushing her gradually out of the business, she now faces the fact that her meagre government pension is insufficient to support her, even with her minimal needs. When she is arrested for attempting to bury her dead cat in her landlord's yard, she finds that there is some sense of community, not to mention free room and board, within the prison system. She devises a plan to get herself sent back to jail; she robs a bank. But a well-meaning public defender gets the charges against her dropped. Esmerelda Quipp is undeterred! Using money she gets from returning stolen wine bottles to a recycling depot, she buys a toy gun at the local dollar store, and commits armed robbery. Knowing that she will be convicted because she will plead guilty, she assumes that she can spend the rest of her days living free, hanging out with other women, and being fed decently in a women's prison. But the system that has failed her also wants to forgive her because of her age and general health, and the public defender wants to use an insanity plea to get her off. How will Esmerelda convince the legal system she should be incarcerated, literally, for life?
Well
by Lisa KronThe acclaimed writer and performer Lisa Kron's newest work is all about her mom. It explores the dynamics of health, family and community with the story of her mother's extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself. In this solo show with other people in it, Kron asks the provocative question: Are we responsible for our own illness? But the answers she gets are much more complicated than she bargained for when the play spins dangerously out of control into riotously funny and unexpected territory.Lisa Kron has received numerous honors, including several OBIE Awards, the Cal Arts/Alpert Award, the Bessie Award and the GLAAD Media Award. Ms. Kron lives in New York City and Los Angeles.
The Well-Dressed Puppet: A Guide to Creating Puppet Costumes
by Cheralyn LambethCostumes are an integral part of any performance, adding believability, conveying setting, or establishing the tone, a fact that is no less true when your performer is a puppet! The only book of its kind, The Well-Dressed Puppet will show you how to create costumes and accessories tailored specifically for your puppet that will enhance any performance. Gone are the days of ill-fitting store-bought clothing that restrict the movement and use of your puppet. Author Cheralyn Lambeth walks you through every step of the costume-making process with detailed lists of the necessary materials, equipment, and patterns required to create a costume from scratch. She also shares multiple tips and information on how to modify off-the-rack clothing to fit any puppet. Suitable for both beginners and more advanced costumers, The Well-Dressed Puppet demonstrates basic sewing and construction techniques while still providing advanced projects for customers who have already mastered those skills.
Wendy Wasserstein: A Casebook (Casebooks on Modern Dramatists #Vol. 26)
by Claudia BarnettWendy Wasserstein: A Casebook contains in-depth discussions of the playwright's major works, including her recent play 1 An American Daughter. Wasserstein's plays and essays are explored within diverse traditions, including Jewish storytelling, women's writing, and classical comedy. Critical perspectives include feminist, Bakhtinian, and actor/director. Comparisons with other playwrights, such as Rachel Crothers, Caryl Churchill, and Anton Chekhov, provide context and understanding. An interview with the playwright and an annotated bibliography are included.
Wendy Wasserstein
by Jill DolanPlaywright Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006), author of The Heidi Chronicles, wrote topical, humorous plays addressing relationships among women and their families, taking the temperature of social moments from the 1960s onward to debate women’s rightful place in their professional and personal lives. The playwright’s popular plays continue to be produced on Broadway and in regional theaters around the country and the world. Wasserstein’s emergence as a popular dramatist in the 1970s paralleled the emergence of the second-wave feminist movement in the United States, a cultural context reflected in the themes of her plays. Yet while some of her comedies and witty dramas were wildly successful, packing theaters and winning awards, feminists of the era often felt that the plays did not go far enough. Wendy Wasserstein provides a critical introduction and a feminist reappraisal of the significant plays of one of the most famous contemporary American women playwrights. Following a biographical introduction, chapters address each of her important plays, situating Wasserstein’s work in the history of the US feminist movement and in a historical moment in which women artists continue to struggle for recognition.
„Wer wird nicht einen Klopstock loben?“: Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstocks poetische Innovationen und ihre produktive Rezeption (Abhandlungen zur Literaturwissenschaft)
by Alexander Nebrig Lutz HagestedtFriedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) war in der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts die zentrale Figur der deutschen Poesie. Er revolutionierte Theorie und Praxis des Verses, wertete die Position von Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftstellern im Literaturbetrieb auf, schrieb das wichtigste Epos des 18. Jahrhunderts und ist mit seinen Oden und Gedichten für Lyrikerinnen und Lyriker weiterhin mustergültig und stilbildend. Die 26 richtungsweisenden Beiträge der internationalen Quedlinburger Konferenz, die im 300. Jubiläumsjahr Klopstocks erscheinen, diskutieren die innovative Leistung dieser Dichterpersönlichkeit sowie die facettenreiche und vielseitige Rezeption seiner Werke.
We're Gonna Die
by Young Jean Lee"Sly, weird, and thoroughly winning . . . Bracing, funny, and, yes, consoling."--The New York Times"Young Jean Lee will give you whiplash. Her ability to stake out aesthetic territory and then abruptly abandon it makes her unpredictable; her tendency to excel at each new genre makes her terrifying. In the enormously touching cabaret-style We're Gonna Die, Lee jettisons everything that has armored this au courant young playwright against the world. . . . Lee purchases our hearts with her bravery's own coin."--Time Out New YorkInspired by her personal experiences with despair and loneliness, the Obie Award-winning playwright-provocateur and her band Future Wife create a life-affirming show that anyone can perform, about the one thing everyone has in common: we're all gonna die. Each book includes a CD of all six songs and eight monologues performed by David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Adam Horowitz, and others.Young Jean Lee has been hailed as "one of the best experimental playwrights in America" by Time Out New York. She has written and directed nine shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over twenty cities around the world. Her other plays include The Shipment, Lear, and Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven. Awards include two Obies, the Festival Prize of the Zuercher Theater Spektakel, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Doris Duke Artist Award.
West African Popular Theatre (Drama And Performance Studies)
by Karin Barber John Collins Alain Ricard" . . . a ground-breaking contribution to the field of African literature . . . " —Research in African Literatures"Anyone with the slightest interest in West African cultures, performance or theatre should immediately rush out and buy this book." —Leeds African Studies Bulletin"A seminal contribution to the fields of performance studies, cultural studies, and popular culture. " —Margaret Drewal"A fine book. The play texts are treasures." —Richard BaumanAfrican popular culture is an arena where the tensions and transformations of colonial and post-colonial society are played out, offering us a glimpse of the view from below in Africa. This book offers a comparative overview of the history, social context, and style of three major West African popular theatre genres: the concert party of Ghana, the concert party of Togo, and the traveling popular theatre of western Nigeria.
West End Women: Women and the London Stage 1918 - 1962 (Gender in Performance)
by Maggie GaleMaggie Gale's West End Women uncovers groundbreaking material about women playwrights and the staging of their performances between the years 1918 and 1962. It documents a dynamic era of social and theatrical history, analysing the transformations that occurred in the theatre and the lives of British women in relation to specific plays of the period. Focusing on the work of playwrights such as Dodie Smith, Clemence Dane, Gordon Daviot and Bridget Boland, Maggie Gale examines the cultural and political context within which they enjoyed commercial success and great notoriety.
West Side Story: The Jets, the Sharks, and the Making of a Classic (Turner Classic Movies)
by Richard BarriosA captivating, richly illustrated full account of the making of the ground-breaking movie classic West Side Story (1961).A major hit on Broadway, on film West Side Story became immortal-a movie different from anything that had come before, but this cinematic victory came at a price. In this engrossing volume, film historian Richard Barrios recounts how the drama and rivalries seen onscreen played out to equal intensity behind-the-scenes, while still achieving extraordinary artistic feats.The making and impact of West Side Story has so far been recounted only in vestiges. In the pages of this book, the backstage tale comes to life along with insight on what has made the film a favorite across six decades: its brilliant use of dance as staged by erstwhile co-director Jerome Robbins; a meaningful story, as set to Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's soundtrack; the performances of a youthful ensemble cast featuring Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and more; a film with Shakespearean roots (Romeo and Juliet) that is simultaneously timeless and current. West Side Story was a triumph that appeared to be very much of its time; over the years it has shown itself to be eternal.
Western Theatre in Global Contexts: Directing and Teaching Culturally Inclusive Drama Around the World
by Yasmine Jahanmir Jillian CampanaWestern Theatre in Global Contexts explores the junctures, tensions, and discoveries that occur when teaching Western theatrical practices or directing English-language plays in countries that do not share Western theatre histories or in which English is the non-dominant language. This edited volume examines pedagogical discoveries and teaching methods, how to produce specific plays and musicals, and how students who explore Western practices in non-Western places contribute to the art form. Offering on-the-ground perspectives of teaching and working outside of North American and Europe, the book analyzes the importance of paying attention to the local context when developing theatrical practice and education. It also explores how educators and artists who make deep connections in the local culture can facilitate ethical accessibility to Western models of performance for students, practitioners and audiences. Western Theatre in Global Contexts is an excellent resource for scholars, artists, and teachers that are working abroad or on intercultural projects in theatre, education and the arts.
The Whale / A Bright New Boise
by Samuel D. HunterAcclaimed for his gentle, complex characterizations, Hunter's big-hearted, fiercely funny plays explore the quiet desperation running through many Middle American lives: The Whale tells the story of a man's last chance at redemption and of discovering beauty in the most unexpected places, and A Bright New Boise is a philosophical investigation of faith and search for meaning in rural Idaho.
What a Night! (Into Reading, Level N #77)
by Carmel Reilly Rob ManciniNIMAC-sourced textbook <p><p> Kayla, Joe and Dad are on their way to the Grand Theatre in the city. They are so excited to see Mum perform in a musical! But then something terrible happens – the car won’t start! How will they get to the theatre now?
What a Young Wife Ought to Know
by Hannah MoscovitchJust don’t lie down and no child will come.It’s Ottawa in the 1920s, pre-legalized birth control. Sophie, a young working-class girl, falls madly in love with and marries a stable-hand named Jonny. After two difficult childbirths, doctors tell Sophie she shouldn’t have any more children, but don’t tell her how to prevent it. When Sophie inevitably becomes pregnant again, she faces a grim dilemma.In an unflinching look at love, sex, and fertility, and inspired by real stories of mothers during the Canadian birth-control movement of the early twentieth century, one of Canada’s most celebrated playwrights vividly recreates a couple’s struggles with reproduction.
What The Bellhop Saw
by Jane Milmore Billy Van ZandtFarce / 8m, 4f / Interior / A nice fellow checks into an expensive suite in New York City's finest hotel, precipitating a fantastic nightmare involving a Salman Rushdie type author, an Iranian terrorist, a shrew like woman, a conniving bellboy, an incompetent F.B.I. agent, a nubile celebrity mad maid, a dimwitted secretary and a little pig tailed girl. Gag lines are popping as events transpire at a whirlwind velocity. Topical humor blends with the traditional antics of farce: doors slamming, characters careening and confusion reigning supreme.
What Blest Genius?: The Jubilee That Made Shakespeare
by Andrew McConnell StottThe remarkable, ridiculous, rain-soaked story of Shakespeare’s Jubilee: the event that established William Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time. The remarkable, ridiculous, rain-soaked story of Shakespeare’s Jubilee: the event that established William Shakespeare as the greatest writer of all time. In September 1769, three thousand people descended on Stratford-upon-Avon to celebrate the artistic legacy of the town’s most famous son, William Shakespeare. Attendees included the rich and powerful, the fashionable and the curious, eligible ladies and fortune hunters, and a horde of journalists and profiteers. For three days, they paraded through garlanded streets, listened to songs and oratorios, and enjoyed masked balls. It was a unique cultural moment—a coronation elevating Shakespeare to the throne of genius. Except it was a disaster. The poorly planned Jubilee imposed an army of Londoners on a backwater hamlet peopled by hostile and superstitious locals, unable and unwilling to meet their demands. Even nature refused to behave. Rain fell in sheets, flooding tents and dampening fireworks, and threatening to wash the whole town away. Told from the dual perspectives of David Garrick, who masterminded the Jubilee, and James Boswell, who attended it, What Blest Genius? is rich with humor, gossip, and theatrical intrigue. Recounting the absurd and chaotic glory of those three days in September, Andrew McConnell Stott illuminates the circumstances in which William Shakespeare became a transcendent global icon.
What I Meant Was
by Craig LucasA major new collection by the author of Reckless and A Prelude to a Kiss, this collection includes his most ambitious work God's Heart, which premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre in 1997, and his newest play The Dying Gaul, which premieres this spring in New York. Also included ar 13 one-act plays written over the past five years.
What If It's Us
by Adam Silvera Becky AlbertalliLove Nick and Charlie from Heartstopper? Meet Arthur and Ben! From INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING authors Adam Silvera (They Both Die At The End) and Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda) comes a long-awaited collaboration about two very different boys who can't decide if the universe is pushing them together or pulling them apart.Soon to be a feature film, adapted by the creator of 13 Reasons Why!Meet Arthur and Ben. ARTHUR is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it&’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it. BEN thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn&’t be carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend&’s things.But when the boys have a chance meeting at the post office, they leave wondering what exactly the universe does have in store for them. What if - in a city of eight million people - they can't find each other again?What if they do ... and then can&’t nail a first date even after three do-overs?What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work and Ben doesn&’t try hard enough?What if life really isn&’t like a Broadway play?But what if it is? What if it's us?PRAISE FOR WHAT IF IT'S US:'Romantic, realistic and sweet, this perfectly captures New York, teenage love and life in that gray area when you're not quite an adult and not quite a child either.' Lauren James, author of The Loneliest Girl in the UniversePRAISE FOR ADAM SILVERA:'A phenomenal talent.' Juno Dawson, author of Clean and WonderlandPRAISE FOR BECKY ALBERTALLI:'The love child of John Green and Rainbow Rowell.' Teen Vogue
What If? Six Short Comedies
by Jay D. HanaganContents: Extra Curricular Activity / Fancy Meeting You Here / Last Laugh / She With A Capital Ess / Ships / Young Love.
What is a Playhouse?: England at Play, 1520–1620
by Callan DaviesThis book offers an accessible introduction to England’s sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century playing industry and a fresh account of the architecture, multiple uses, communities, crowds, and proprietors of playhouses. It builds on recent scholarship and new documentary and archaeological discoveries to answer the questions: what did playhouses do, what did they look like, and how did they function? The book will accordingly introduce readers to a rich and exciting spectrum of "play" and playhouses, not only in London but also around England. The detailed but wide-ranging case studies examined here go beyond staged drama to explore early modern sport, gambling, music, drinking, and animal baiting; they recover the crucial influence of female playhouse owners and managers; and they recognise rich provincial performance cultures as well as the burgeoning of London’s theatre industry. This book will have wide appeal with readers across Shakespeare, early modern performance studies, theatre history, and social history.
What Is Lighting Design?: A Genealogy of People and Ideas
by Michael ChybowskiWhat Is Lighting Design?: A Genealogy of People and Ideas explains what lighting design is by looking at the history of ideas that are a part of this craft and how those ideas developed. Lighting design began in the West with the Renaissance, and each historical period since then has modified how and why light is used in performance, the methods for producing light, and the consensus around what its purpose is. Exploring each lighting design era and the basic components of lighting design, the book discusses how the central ideas of this craft developed over the past 500 years, what today’s lighting designers are concerned with, and how lighting design contributes to performances. This book is designed as a main course text for History of Lighting Design university courses and a supplementary text for and Introduction to Lighting Design, Stagecraft, and Scenography courses. It will also be of interest to directors, choreographers, and working lighting designers who wish to explore the history and meaning of their craft.
What is Scenography?
by Pamela Howard"Pamela Howard's ground-breaking What is Scenography? was the first book to set out the bold new approaches to designing and directing for theatre which had dazzled audiences in Europe during the previous decades. It did us all a service by enriching the scope of how we understand the aesthetics of the stage. The lavish new materials (drawings, colour photos, new production analysis) included in this second edition make it even more essential for anyone interested in new developments in theatre." - David Bradby "To write, design, organize, manage, sculpt, educate, paint, research and above all, to passionately live the life of the performance is what Pamela has done throughout her whole career and, in one way or another, it is reflected here in this book: the universality of stage design, its elements and its soul." - Ramon Ivars "Gives an excellent sense of scenography and a window on a life in the theatre - which is fascinating. ...A superb book." - Professor Arnold Aronson, Columbia University, USA "Pamela Howard is the precise definition of what a scenographer of today should be: a multiple artist. Her vast experience with space, her rare and acute power of reflection, her workshops worldwide, her masterful control of drawing and painting and her ability to interconnect scenography with other artistic expressions qualify her to discuss with great authority what "space for staging" should be in the coming decades of this millennium." - Jose Carlos SerroniPamela Howard's What is Scenography? has become a classic text in contemporary theatre design and performance practice. In this second edition, the author expands on her holistic analysis of scenography as comprising space, text, research, art, performers, directors and spectators, to examine the changing nature of scenography in the twenty-first century. The book includes: case studies and anecdotes from Howard's own celebrated career illustrations of her own recent work, in full colour throughout an updated 'world view' of scenography, with definitions from the world's most famous and influential scenographers A direct and personal response to the question of how to define scenography by one of the world's leading practitioners, What is Scenography? continues to shape the work of visual theatremakers throughout the world.