- Table View
- List View
An Empty Room: Imagining Butoh and the Social Body in Crisis
by Michael SakamotoAn Empty Room is a transformative journey through butoh, an avant-garde form of performance art that originated in Japan in the late 1950's and is now a global phenomenon. This is the first book about butoh authored by a scholar-practitioner who combines personal experience with ethnographic and historical accounts alongside over twenty photos. Author Michael Sakamoto traverses butoh dance history from its roots in post-World War II Japan to its diaspora in the West in the 1970s and 1980s. An Empty Room delves into the archive of butoh dance, gathering testimony from multiple generations of artists active in Japan, the US, and Europe. The book also creatively highlights seminal visual and written texts, especially Hosoe Eikoh's photo essay, "Kamaitachi," and Hijikata Tatsumi's early essays. Sakamoto ultimately fashions an original view of what butoh has been, is and, more importantly, can be through the lens of literary criticism, photo studies, folklore, political theory, and his experience performing, photographing, teaching, and lecturing in 15 countries worldwide.
An Encyclopedia of Strategy for Fortniters: An Unofficial Guide for Battle Royale (Encyclopedia for Fortniters #1)
by Jason R. RichThe Ultimate Unofficial Encyclopedia for Fortniters is a full-color, easy-to-read, unofficial reference tool that explains—from “A” to “Z”—everything players need to know in order to consistently win matches and successfully control their characters. <P><P>The Ultimate Unofficial Encyclopedia for Fortniters provides a comprehensive overview of the game—making it easier for first-time players to quickly get acclimated with the game—while, at the same time, it introduces more experienced players to countless advanced tips and strategies that will allow them to quickly improve their skills and survival rates. The tips and strategies included are related to safe exploration, creative building, offensive and defensive fighting techniques, and cunning survival skills. <P><P>Each of the more than one hundred topics covered within The Ultimate Unofficial Encyclopedia for Fortniters includes a detailed description, full-color screenshots, and appropriate tips and strategies that apply to the current and future versions of the game. This book is a must-read guide and information-packed resource for every Fortnite: Battle Royale player.
An Encyclopedia of Women's Wrestling: 100 Profiles of the Strongest in the Sport
by LaToya FergusonA comprehensive and fascinating illustrated look at women&’s professional wrestling, including 100 profiles of superstars from around the world. Women&’s pro wrestling has existed in the USA since the 1930s, and this colorful encyclopedia references the fashion, fun, and drama of the sport through the years and around the world. Focusing on 100 competitors—from current faves Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair, to Germany's Jazzy Gabert, Japan&’s Io Shirai, and Canada's LuFisto, to legends like The Fabulous Moolah, Sable, Ivory, and Lita—it includes relevant stats and each one&’s compelling story. Written by noted authority LaToya Ferguson, this engaging history is great for anyone interested in powerful women, fantastic costumes, and pro wrestling itself.
An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930
by Denise LoweExamine women&’s contributions to film-in front of the camera and behind it! An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 is an A-to-Z reference guide (illustrated with over 150 hard-to-find photographs!) that dispels the myth that men dominated the film industry during its formative years. Denise Lowe, author of Women and American Television: An Encyclopedia, presents a rich collection that profiles many of the women who were crucial to the development of cinema as an industry-and as an art form. Whether working behind the scenes as producers or publicists, behind the cameras as writers, directors, or editors, or in front of the lens as flappers, vamps, or serial queens, hundreds of women made profound and lasting contributions to the evolution of the motion picture production. An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 gives you immediate access to the histories of many of the women who pioneered the early days of cinema-on screen and off. The book chronicles the well-known figures of the era, such as Alice Guy, Mary Pickford, and Francis Marion but gives equal billing to those who worked in anonymity as the industry moved from the silent era into the age of sound. Their individual stories of professional success and failure, artistic struggle and strife, and personal triumph and tragedy fill in the plot points missing from the complete saga of Hollywood&’s beginnings. Pioneers of the motion picture business found in An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films include: Dorothy Arnzer, the first woman to join the Directors Guild of America and the only female director to make a successful transition from silent films to sound Jane Murfin, playwright and screenwriter who became supervisor of motion pictures at RKO Studios Gene Gauntier, the actress and scenarist whose adaptation of Ben Hur for the Kalem Film Company led to a landmark copyright infringement case Theda Bara, whose on-screen popularity virtually built Fox Studios before typecasting and overexposure destroyed her career Madame Sul-Te-Wan, née Nellie Conley, the first African-American actor or actress to sign a film contract and be a featured performer Dorothy Davenport, who parlayed the publicity surrounding her actor-husband&’s drug-related death into a career as a producer of social reform melodramas Lois Weber, a street-corner evangelist who became one of the best-known and highest-paid directors in Hollywood Lina Basquette, the "Screen Tragedy Girl" who married and divorced studio mogul Sam Warner, led The Hollywood Aristocrats Orchestra, claimed to have been a spy for the American Office of Strategic Services during World War II, and became a renowned dog expert in her later years and many more! An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Women in Early American Films: 1895-1930 also includes comprehensive appendices of the WAMPAS Baby Stars, the silent stars remembered in the Graumann Chinese Theater Forecourt of the Stars and those immortalized on the Hollywood Walk of Stars. The book is invaluable as a resource for researchers, librarians, academics working in film, popular culture, and women&’s history, and to anyone interested either professionally or casually in the early days of Hollywood and the motion picture industry.
An Epistemology of Criminological Cinema (Routledge Studies in Crime, Culture and Media)
by Rafe McGregor David GrčkiStanding at the intersection of criminology and philosophy, this book demonstrates the ways in which mythic movies and television series can provide an understanding of actual crimes and social harms.Taking three social problems as its subjects – capitalist political economy, structural injustice, and racism – the book explores the ways in which David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–2019), and Jordan Peele’s Us (2019) offer solutions by reconceiving justice in terms of personal and collective transformation, utopian thinking, and the relationship between racism and elitism, respectively. In doing so, the authors set out a theory of understanding the world based on cinematic and televisual works of art and conclude with a template that establishes a methodology for future use.An Epistemology of Criminological Cinema is authoritative and accessible, ideal reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students, criminologists, philosophers, and film, television, and literary critics with an interest in social justice and social harm.
An Ethico-Phenomenology of Digital Art Practices
by Giuseppe TorreDigital art practitioners work under the constant threat of a medium – the digital – that objectifies the self and depersonalises artistic identities. If digital technology is a pharmakon in that it can be either cure or poison, with regard to digital art practices the digital may have in fact worked as a placebo that has allowed us to push back the date in which the crisis between digital and art will be given serious thought. This book is hence concerned with an analysis of such a relationship and proposes their rethinking in terms of an ethico-phenomenological practice informed by an in-depth understanding of the digital medium. Giuseppe Torre engages with underground cultures such as Free and Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) and its ties with art discourse. The discussion is informed by various philosophical discourses and media theories, with a focus on how such ideas connect back to the existing literature in performance studies. Replete with examples of artwork and practices, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre and performance studies, art and technology.
An Evening at the Garden of Allah: A Gay Cabaret in Seattle (Between Men--Between Women)
by Don Paulson Roger SimpsonOn a cold December night in 1946, a new club opened up on Seattle's seedy First Avenue. Located in the basement of a once-grand Victorian hotel, the Garden of Allah was one of America's first gay-owned cabarets. Patrons filed down a white marble staircase and passed through a peephole to gain entrance into an exotic, bacchanalian world of variety, vaudeville, and burlesque, hosted by a cast of beautiful female impersonators. The Garden of Allah was a haven of spontaneity, outrageousness, and affirmation for its gay and lesbian clientele in the repressive, often violently antigay environment of postwar America, and a place where straight patrons were welcome to join the circus of entertainment. While gay bars and clubs in other cities were frequently raided, the Garden flourished because of Seattle's infamous yet effective system of police "protection" which, fueled by payoffs, kept the club free of serious harassment for nearly a decade. Through interviews with former patrons and performers, DON PAULSON and ROGER SIMPSON capture the joyful evenings where those on stage proclaimed to the gathered audiences, "Come out and be yourselves." Here are the lives of the female impersonators, the Prima Donnas and the Dames, singing ballads to the accompanying roar of the Garden's old theater pipe organ. Dressed regally or garishly as their stage personas demanded, their bravado helped others to affirm and take pride in their lesbian and gay identities. These precursors of today's drag queens blast many deeply rooted assumptions about gender as they detail the excitements, tragedies, and complexities of their day-to-day lives. Here too are the stories of lesbian and gay audience members who found a home at the Garden, the soldiers and sailors who patronized the club, the fashionable locals slumming on notorious First Avenue, and the tourists who came to be photographed in the Garden's atmosphere of debauchery and abandon. In particular, three female impersonators are profiled: Francis Blair; Hotcha Hinton; and Jackie Starr.
An Eye for Hitchcock: Revised Edition
by Murray PomeranceFilm scholar Murray Pomerance presents a series of fascinating and groundbreaking meditations on six films directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, a master of the cinema. Two of the films, North by Northwest and Vertigo, are extraordinarily famous and have been seen––and misunderstood––countless times. Two others, Marnie and Torn Curtain, have been mostly disregarded by viewers and critics or considered to be colossal mistakes, while the remaining two, Spellbound and I Confess, have received almost no critical attention at all. Here in a twentieth-anniversary edition, with a new preface, An Eye for Hitchcock—the first volume of the Hitchcock Quartet (which includes A Dream of Hitchcock, A Voyage with Hitchcock, and A Silence from Hitchcock)—examines these movies under a bold new light. Pomerance takes us deep into the structure of Hitchcock's vision and his screen architecture, revealing key elements that have never been written about before. Pomerance also clearly reveals the link between Hitchcock's work and a wide range of thinkers and artists in other fields, thereby offering viewers of Hitchcock's films the rare opportunity to see them afresh and with new excitement.
An Illini Place: Building the University of Illinois Campus
by Incoronata Inserra John Franch Lex TateWhy does the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign look as it does today? Drawing on a wealth of research and featuring more than one hundred color photographs, An Illini Place provides an engrossing and beautiful answer to that question. Lex Tate and John Franch trace the story of the university's evolution through its buildings. Oral histories, official reports, dedication programs, and developmental plans both practical and quixotic inform the story. The authors also provide special chapters on campus icons and on the buildings, arenas and other spaces made possible by donors and friends of the university. Adding to the experience is a web companion that includes profiles of the planners, architects, and presidents instrumental in the campus's growth, plus an illustrated inventory of current and former campus plans and buildings.
An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance: Volume One - From the Romans to the Enlightenment
by Robert LeachAn Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance chronicles the history and development of theatre from the Roman era to the present day. As the most public of arts, theatre constantly interacts with changing social, political and intellectual movements and ideas, and Robert Leach’s masterful work restores to the foreground of this evolution the contributions of women, gay people and ethnic minorities, as well as the theatres of the English regions, and of Wales and Scotland. Highly illustrated chapters trace the development of theatre through major plays from each period; evaluations of playwrights; contemporary dramatic theory; acting and acting companies; dance and music; the theatre buildings themselves; and the audience, while also highlighting enduring features of British theatre, from comic gags to the use of props. This first volume spans from the earliest forms of performance to the popular theatres of high society and the Enlightenment, tracing a movement from the outdoor and fringe to the heart of the social world. The Illustrated History acts as an accessible, flexible basis for students of the theatre, and for pure fans of British theatre history there could be no better starting point.
An Imaginary Cinema: Sergei Eisenstein and the Unrealized Film
by Dustin CondrenAn Imaginary Cinema is the first systematic study of Sergei Eisenstein's unrealized films as well as a deeply informed historical and theoretical inquiry into the role and meaning of the unmade in his oeuvre. Eisenstein directed some of the twentieth century's most important films, from the early classic of montage, Battleship Potemkin, to his late masterpiece, Ivan the Terrible. Alongside these, however, the Soviet filmmaker also toiled over a compelling array of unrealized projects, from ideas that never grew beyond complex, passionate notebook scrawls and sketches to productions that were mounted and shot to some degree of completion without ever being finished. Working from the archival remnants of several of the director's most fascinating unrealized projects—from his bold vision to film Marx's Das Kapital to his time in Hollywood struggling to adapt Dreiser's An American Tragedy—Dustin Condren's book reveals new aspects of Eisenstein's genius, showing the filmmaker in a constant state of process, open to working toward impossible and sometimes utopian ends, and committed to the pursuit of creative and theoretical discovery. Condren's analysis of these unrealized projects in An Imaginary Cinema reveals Eisenstein at crucial moments of his personal and artistic biography, and it also tells the wider story of a canonical artist negotiating the political labyrinths of Stalinist Russia, the economic pitfalls of Hollywood, and the technological shifts of early cinema.
An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West
by Konstantin KisinFor all of the West's failings - terrible food, cold weather, and questionable politicians with funny hair to name a few - it has its upsides. Konstantin would know. Growing up in the Soviet Union, he experienced first-hand the horrors of a socialist paradise gone wrong, having lived in extreme poverty with little access to even the most basic of necessities. It wasn't until he moved to the UK that Kisin found himself thriving in an open and tolerant society, receiving countless opportunities he would never have had otherwise.Funny, provocative and unswervingly perceptive, An Immigrant's Love letter to the West interrogates the developing sense of self-loathing the Western sphere has adopted and offers an alternative perspective. Exploring race politics, free speech, immigration and more, Kisin argues that wrongdoing and guilt need not pervade how we feel about the West - and Britain - today, and that despite all its ups and downs, it remains one of the best places to live in the world.After all, if an immigrant can't publicly profess their appreciation for this country, who can?
An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West
by Konstantin KisinFor all of the West's failings - terrible food, cold weather, and questionable politicians with funny hair to name a few - it has its upsides. Konstantin would know. Growing up in the Soviet Union, he experienced first-hand the horrors of a socialist paradise gone wrong, having lived in extreme poverty with little access to even the most basic of necessities. It wasn't until he moved to the UK that Kisin found himself thriving in an open and tolerant society, receiving countless opportunities he would never have had otherwise.Funny, provocative and unswervingly perceptive, An Immigrant's Love letter to the West interrogates the developing sense of self-loathing the Western sphere has adopted and offers an alternative perspective. Exploring race politics, free speech, immigration and more, Kisin argues that wrongdoing and guilt need not pervade how we feel about the West - and Britain - today, and that despite all its ups and downs, it remains one of the best places to live in the world.After all, if an immigrant can't publicly profess their appreciation for this country, who can?
An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West (Karen Pirie #4)
by Konstantin KisinTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'A lively and spirited book' DOUGLAS MURRAY'A paean to the freedom and dignity that many in the West take for granted' PETER BOGHOSSIAN'A cool, steady but urgent message that we should value and protect what we have' SPIKED'Kisin's book [has] a powerful moral quality that makes it worth reading' SUNDAY TIMESFor all of the West's failings - terrible food, cold weather, and questionable politicians with funny hair to name a few - it has its upsides. Konstantin would know. Growing up in the Soviet Union, he experienced first-hand the horrors of a socialist paradise gone wrong, having lived in extreme poverty with little access to even the most basic of necessities. It wasn't until he moved to the UK that Kisin found himself thriving in an open and tolerant society, receiving countless opportunities he would never have had otherwise.Funny, provocative and unswervingly perceptive, An Immigrant's Love letter to the West interrogates the developing sense of self-loathing the Western sphere has adopted and offers an alternative perspective. Exploring race politics, free speech, immigration and more, Kisin argues that wrongdoing and guilt need not pervade how we feel about the West - and Britain - today, and that despite all its ups and downs, it remains one of the best places to live in the world.After all, if an immigrant can't publicly profess their appreciation for this country, who can?
An Improbable Journey
by Charles G. LubarAn insider&’s view on blockbuster deal-making and part cultural tour de force, An Improbable Journey is a one-of-a-kind, deeply textured account of how some of the greatest artists of all time pushed to realize their greatest ambitions—with the help of Charles Lubar.The year was 1971. Thirty-year-old Charles Lubar, a Washington, D.C.–born Harvard Law School graduate with a two-and-a-half-year deep dive in the Chief Counsel&’s Office of the Internal Revenue Service recently behind him, was floundering in Nairobi, Kenya where he had come to seek the kind of high-stakes adventures one could never find at a major law firm in the U.S. But with his entrepreneurial hopes quashed in Nairobi by an environment that hardly wrapped its arms around outsiders, Indians being expelled from Kenya, and Idi Amin—the ruthless despot—on the brink of taking over in neighboring Uganda and soon to wreak havoc throughout the region, Lubar decided to pick up his stakes. With a sense of timing that would come to his aid again and again throughout his life, the young lawyer opted to make his next home in the UK. Little did he know that he would soon be swimming hard and fast in 1970s London during a cultural surge of film, television, music, and the stage. &“Hired off the street&” by two American lawyers in London—the brassy entertainment lawyer Irwin Margulies and the corporate transactional lawyer Barry Sterling—Lubar could never have predicted that his work would soon put him front and center at some of the biggest moments with some of the biggest names in showbiz. From the James Bond franchise to Linda Lovelace and &“Deep Throat&”; from Jim Henson and The Muppets to Michael Jackson and the Beatles; from behind the Iron Curtain to the islands of the Netherlands Antilles, Lubar&’s rare knowledge of the tax codes spanning Europe and the U.S. made him an indispensable figure to creatives trying to make their financial lives work on both sides of the Atlantic. His list of clients goes on and on: Bill Graham, John Cleese, Santana, Diana Ross, Frank Oz, Chuck Traynor, Marilyn Chambers, Barbara Bach, Jane Seymour, Shakira, and Enrique Iglesias. Many turned to Lubar in real need of his assistance at the very prime (and sometimes, nadir) of their careers. Lubar&’s bona fides would even land him a spot on the US-UK Fulbright Commission, as President of the Yale Club of London, and a Managing Partner in London of one of the major international law firms. An Improbable Journey shows a risk-taker with his finger living right on the cultural pulse of a moment.
An International Study of Film Museums
by Rinella CereAn International Study of Film Museums examines how cinema has been transformed and strengthened through museological and archival activities since its origins and asks what paradoxes may be involved, if any, in putting cinema into a museum. Cere explores the ideas that were first proposed during the first half of the twentieth century around the need to establish national museums of cinema and how these have been adapted in the subsequent development of the five case studies presented here: four in Europe and one in the USA. The book traces the history of the five museums' foundation, exhibitions, collections, and festivals organised under their aegis and it asks how they resolve the tensions between cinema as an aesthetic artefact – now officially recognised as part of humanity's cultural heritage – and cinema as an entertainment and leisure activity. It also gives an account of recent developments around unifying collections, exhibition activities and archives in one national film centre that offers the general public a space totally devoted to film and cinematographic culture. An International Study of Film Museums provides a unique comparative study of museums of cinema in varying national contexts. The book will be of interest to academics and students around the world who are engaged in the study of museums, archives, heritage, film, history and visual culture.
An Introduction to Electronic Art Through the Teaching of Jacques Lacan: Strangest Thing
by David Bard-SchwarzElectronic art offers endless opportunities for reflection and interpretation. Works can be interactive or entirely autonomous and the viewer's perception and reaction to them may be challenged by constantly transforming images. Whether the transformations are a product of the appearances or actions of a viewer in an installation space, or a product of a self-contained computer program, is a source of constant fascination. Some viewers may feel strange or unnerved by a work, while others may feel welcoming, humorous, and playful emotions. The art may also provoke a critical response to social, aesthetic, and political aspects of early twenty-first-century life. This book approaches electronic art through the teachings of Jacques Lacan, whose return to Freud has exerted a powerful and wide-ranging influence on psychoanalysis and critical theory in the twentieth century. David Bard-Schwarz draws on his experience with Lacanian psychoanalysis, music, and interactive and traditional arts in order to address aspects of the works the viewer may find difficult to understand. Dividing his approach over four thematic chapters—Bodies, Voices, Eyes, and Signifiers—Bard-Schwarz explores the links between works of new media and psychoanalysis (how we process what we see, hear, touch, imagine, and remember). This is a fascinating book for new media artists and critics, museum curators, psychologists, students in the fine arts, and those who are interested in digital technology and contemporary culture.
An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre
by Elaine AstonAt last an accessible and intelligent introduction to the energising and challenging relationship between feminism and theatre. In this clear and enlightening book, Aston discusses wide-ranging theoretical topics and provides case studies including: * Feminism and theatre history * `M/Othering the self': French feminist theory and theatre * Black women: shaping feminist theatre * Performing gender: a materialist practice * Colonial landscapes Feminist thought is changing the way theatre is taught and practised. An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre is compulsory reading for anyone who requires a precise, insightful and up-to-date guide to this dynamic field of study.
An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film
by Michael Ryan Melissa LenosAn Introduction to Film Analysis combines an introduction to filmmaking technique with rigorous and comprehensive training in film interpretation. Composed in an accessible style yet conversant with the latest, most advanced critical theories and methods, this innovative textbook can be reliably used on both the undergraduate and the graduate level. The book begins with chapters that familiarize students with the basic components of film technique. It connects technique to meaning and demonstrates, through numerous examples, how particular uses of film technique generate different meanings. Students will learn how films are made and how values are promoted, ideas communicated, and rhetorical arguments advanced through film technique. The second part of the book covers a range of interpretive methods, theories, and concerns. In each section, the author offers a sample reading of a film, followed by an "interpretive exercise" with suggestions for students to use in performing their own film interpretation. Carefully structured, beautifully written, and illustrated throughout, An Introduction to Film Analysis provides a thorough grounding in the subject for students around the world.
An Introduction to Film Genres (First Edition)
by Sarah Kozloff Stephen Prince David Desser Lester Friedman Martha NochimsonA brisk, accessible, and informative introduction to film genres. An Introduction to Film Genres, written by leading film scholars specifically for undergraduates who are new to the study of film, provides an introduction that helps students see thirteen film genres in a new light---to help them identify the themes, iconography, and distinctive stylistic traits of each genre. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only
An Introduction to Film and TV Production: From Concept to Market
by Karen Russell Tameka Winston Joseph Richie Airielle J. TaylorThis streamlined, step-by-step guide provides students and newcomers in the field of media with an overview of the complete production process, from conceiving of an idea to marketing the final product. Readers will learn what it takes to create a concept, develop it, and then market and sell it. Chapters discuss pitching, producing, marketing visionary concepts, financing, and distributing content. Focused on traditional and non-traditional platforms including social media, websites, and online advertising, this book explores currently evolving media platforms, ideas, and practices and provides examples of how to navigate these unique creative processes. Interviews with business executives offer insider tips and tricks to creating a marketable project. In this book, you will learn how to: Distinguish between a "great idea" and a "marketable idea." Condense your concept into an effective "elevator pitch." Build a basic business plan. Create a marketing strategy, be it traditional, digital, or both. Establish a personal brand and portfolio that will grab the right attention. This book will be of great help to the student, independent filmmaker, and content creator looking to understand the process of getting their work produced, distributed, and marketed.
An Introduction to Music and Art in the Western World (10th edition)
by Milo Wold Edmund Cykler Gary Martin James MillerAn undergraduate introduction to the music, painting, sculpture, and architecture of the Western world, featuring chapter objectives and summaries, pronunciation guides, and chronologies. Covers various periods from the ancient Greeks through the arts today, and includes material on the arts and society and the organization of the elements of art and music. This 10th edition contains increased recognition of women and minority artists, and boxes on selected individual works. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
An Introduction to Theatre Design
by Stephen Di BenedettoThis introduction to theatre design explains the theories, strategies, and tools of practical design work for the undergraduate student. Through its numerous illustrated case studies and analysis of key terms, students will build an understanding of the design process and be able to: identify the fundamentals of theatre design and scenography recognize the role of individual design areas such as scenery, costume, lighting and sound develop both conceptual and analytical thinking Communicate their own understanding of complex design work trace the traditions of stage design, from Sebastiano Serlio to Julie Taymor. Demonstrating the dynamics of good design through the work of influential designers, Stephen Di Benedetto also looks in depth at script analysis, stylistic considerations and the importance of collaboration to the designer's craft. This is an essential guide for students and teachers of theatre design. Readers will form not only a strong ability to explain and understand the process of design, but also the basic skills required to conceive and realise designs of their own.
An Introduction to: A Comprehensive Text-Past, Present, and Future
by Marsh CassadyThis semester-long, introductory theatre textbook is highly readable and created specifically to instill a strong interest in theatre.
An Invention without a Future
by James NaremoreIn 1895, Louis Lumière supposedly said that cinema is "an invention without a future." James Naremore uses this legendary remark as a starting point for a meditation on the so-called death of cinema in the digital age, and as a way of introducing a wide-ranging series of his essays on movies past and present. These essays include discussions of authorship, adaptation, and acting; commentaries on Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Vincente Minnelli, John Huston, and Stanley Kubrick; and reviews of more recent work by non-Hollywood directors Pedro Costa, Abbas Kiarostami, Raúl Ruiz, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Important themes recur: the relations between modernity, modernism, and postmodernism; the changing mediascape and death of older technologies; and the need for robust critical writing in an era when print journalism is waning and the humanities are devalued. The book concludes with essays on four major American film critics: James Agee, Manny Farber, Andrew Sarris, and Jonathan Rosenbaum.