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Beginning: Serving It Up; Summer Begins (Modern Plays)
by David EldridgeYou didn't fancy it then?Fancy what?Getting in the taxi.No.Every story starts somewhere.It's the early hours of the morning and Danny's the last straggler at Laura's party. The flat's in a mess. And so are they. One more drink?David Eldridge (Market Boy, The Knot of the Heart, In Basildon) returns to the National Theatre with a sharp and astute two-hander that takes an intimate look at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. This tender and funny play received its world premiere at the National's Dorfman Theatre in October 2017.
Beginning (Modern Classics)
by David Eldridge“A wry, funny and touching meditation on loneliness, that private shame of the singleton in the era of the dating app and of fraudulent boasting on social media … written with a real depth of insight, humour, compassion and a keen sense of the ridiculous...” IndependentIt's the early hours of the morning in the aftermath of Laura's housewarming party. Danny, 42, divorced and living with his mother, is the last remaining guest. The flat is in a mess and so are they. One more drink?This sharp and astute two-hander takes an intimate look in real-time at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. Both comedic and tender, it asks questions about mutual loneliness and human connections. Beginning premiered at the National Theatre, London in October 2017. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Sarah Grochala.
Beginning: Serving It Up; Summer Begins (Modern Classics)
by David Eldridge“A wry, funny and touching meditation on loneliness, that private shame of the singleton in the era of the dating app and of fraudulent boasting on social media … written with a real depth of insight, humour, compassion and a keen sense of the ridiculous...” IndependentIt's the early hours of the morning in the aftermath of Laura's housewarming party. Danny, 42, divorced and living with his mother, is the last remaining guest. The flat is in a mess and so are they. One more drink?This sharp and astute two-hander takes an intimate look in real-time at the first fragile moments of risking your heart and taking a chance. Both comedic and tender, it asks questions about mutual loneliness and human connections. Beginning premiered at the National Theatre, London in October 2017. This new Modern Classics edition features an introduction by Sarah Grochala.
Beginning Drama 11–14
by Jonothan NeelandsThis guide explores the roles, skills and knowledge needed to become an effective drama teacher. It combines practical advice on planning, teaching and assessing with the best teaching practices. It also offers lesson plans for years 7-9 students to use intheir teaching.
Beginning Drama 11–14
by Jonothan NeelandsThis guide explores the roles, skills and knowledge needed to become an effective drama teacher. It combines practical advice on planning, teaching and assessing with the best teaching practices. It also offers lesson plans for years 7-9 students to use intheir teaching.
Behan Complete Plays
by Brendan BehanThis volume contains everything Brendan Behan wrote in dramatic form in EnglishContains the three famous full-length plays: The Quare Fellow, set in an Irish prison ("In Brendan Behan's tremendous new play language is out on a spree, ribald, dauntless and spoiling for a fight ... with superb dramatic tact, the tragedy is concealed beneath layer after layer of rough comedy" Observer); The Hostage, set in a Dublin lodging-house of doubtful repute where a young English soldier is being kept prisoner, "shouts, sings, thunders and stamps with life...a masterpiece" (The Times); and Richard's Cork Leg, set in a graveyard, "a joyous celebration of life" (Guardian). The volume also contains three one-act plays, originally written for radio and all intensely autobiographical, Moving Out, A Garden Party and The Big House.
Behan Complete Plays
by Brendan BehanThis volume contains everything Brendan Behan wrote in dramatic form in EnglishContains the three famous full-length plays: The Quare Fellow, set in an Irish prison ("In Brendan Behan's tremendous new play language is out on a spree, ribald, dauntless and spoiling for a fight ... with superb dramatic tact, the tragedy is concealed beneath layer after layer of rough comedy" Observer); The Hostage, set in a Dublin lodging-house of doubtful repute where a young English soldier is being kept prisoner, "shouts, sings, thunders and stamps with life...a masterpiece" (The Times); and Richard's Cork Leg, set in a graveyard, "a joyous celebration of life" (Guardian). The volume also contains three one-act plays, originally written for radio and all intensely autobiographical, Moving Out, A Garden Party and The Big House.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: A Play
by David HareIt's not just that rich people don't know what they've got. They don't even know what they throw away. India is beginning to prosper. But beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport is an obstacle, amakeshift slum. It's home to foul mouthed Zehrunisa and her garbage sorting son Abdul, entrepreneurs both. Sunil, twelve, picks plastic. Manju, schoolteacher, hopes to be the settlement's first woman to gain a degree. Asha, go-to woman, exploits every scam to become a first-class person. And Fatima, One Leg, is about to make an accusation that will destroy herself and shatter the neighbourhood. Katherine Boo spent three years under the flight-path, recording the lives of Annawadi's diverse inhabitants. Now from Boo's book, which won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2012, David Hare has fashioned an epic play for the stage which details the ingenious and sometimes violent ways in which the poor and disadvantaged negotiate with corruption to seek a handhold on capitalism's lowest rungs.David Hare's stage adaptation of Behind the Beautiful Forevers premiered at the National Theatre, London, in November 2014.
Behind the Curtain: Making Music in Mumbai's Film Studios
by Gregory D. BoothBeginning in the 1930s, men and a handful of women came from India's many communities-Marathi, Parsi, Goan, North Indian, and many others--to Mumbai to work in an industry that constituted in the words of some, "the original fusion music." They worked as composers, arrangers, assistants, and studio performers in one of the most distinctive popular music and popular film cultures on the planet. Today, the songs played by Mumbai's studio musicians are known throughout India and the Indian diaspora under the popular name "Bollywood," but the musicians themselves remain, in their own words, "behind the curtain"--the anonymous and unseen performers of one of the world's most celebrated popular music genres. Now, Gregory D. Booth offers a compelling account of the Bollywood film music industry from the perspective of the musicians who both experienced and shaped its history. In a rare insider's look at the process of musical production from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s, before the advent of digital recording technologies, Booth explains who these unknown musicians were and how they came to join the film music industry. On the basis of a fascinating set of first-hand accounts from the musicians themselves, he reveals how the day-to-day circumstances of technology and finance shaped both the songs and the careers of their creator and performers. Booth also unfolds the technological, cultural, and industrial developments that led to the enormous studio orchestras of the 1960s-90s as well as the factors which ultimately led to their demise in contemporary India. Featuring an extensive companion website with video interviews with the musicians themselves, Behind the Curtain is a powerful, ground-level view of this globally important music industry.
Behn Five Plays (World Classics)
by Aphra Behn Maureen DuffyAphra Behn was among the wittiest and most prolific playwrights of her dayThe Widow Ranter is a tragi-comedy, The False Count concerns the marriage of a young woman to a much older man whilst The Lucky Chance ran into instant criticism for immorality. The Rover is her most famous comedy and Abdelazar is her only tragedy."Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common...All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn." (Virginia Woolf on Aphra Behn)
Behn Five Plays: The Town-fop, The False Count, The Lucky Chance, The Forc'd Marriage, And The Emperor Of The Moon (World Classics)
by Aphra Behn Maureen DuffyAphra Behn was among the wittiest and most prolific playwrights of her dayThe Widow Ranter is a tragi-comedy, The False Count concerns the marriage of a young woman to a much older man whilst The Lucky Chance ran into instant criticism for immorality. The Rover is her most famous comedy and Abdelazar is her only tragedy."Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common...All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn." (Virginia Woolf on Aphra Behn)
Behsharam (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Gurpreet Kaur BhattiTwo daughters, two mothers, one father, a cardboard cut-out and a foul-mouthed granny – a household at war with itself, and a family which will do anything to protect its’ secrets. Behsharam (Shameless) follows second generation sisters, Jaspal and Sati, through the fantasies, dysfunctions and obsessions of their extraordinary extended family.Set in Birmingham, this is a bold, disturbing and at times hilarious exploration of the British Asian experience.
Behud (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Gurpreet Kaur BhattiBehud (Beyond Belief) is the latest play by controversial playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. In December 2004, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s play Behzti rocked the world of theatre when it was cancelled after protests in Birmingham. The closure of the play sparked a vehement debate about offence and freedom of speech, as well as death threats for the playwright forcing her to go into hiding.In Behud, a playwright attempts to make sense of the past by visiting the darkest corners of her imaginations. Set amidst the theatre establishment, politicians and protesters,Behud is an imaginative response, inspired by the events surrounding Behzti, and the compelling story of an artist struggling to be heard.‘…Bhatti writes poetically…’ – Michael Coveney, The Independent ‘Besides being remarkably even-handed in its approach to the various arguments swirling around the divisive play in question, what’s finally striking about the show is its humour, pricking pomposity on all sides.’ – Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph
Behzti (Oberon Modern Plays Ser.)
by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti‘You think it is pleasant watching a fat virgin become infertile? I want to be seen and noticed and invited by people. I want anything... that is not this.’Past her prime, Min joyfully spends her life caring for her sick, foul-mouthed mother, Balbir. Today, for the first time in years, they´re off out. Mother and daughter head to the local Sikh Temple, but when Balbir encounters old friends, a past trauma rears its ugly head. Min and Balbir´s illusions are about to be shattered as they become immersed in a world of desperate aspiration and dangerous deals.In a community where public honour is paramount, is there any room for the truth? Behzti was scheduled to open at The Door (Birmingham Rep) in December 2004 but was cancelled due to protests by some members of the local Sikh community.
Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture
by Alexandra B BondsBeijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture illuminates the links between theatrical attire and social customs and aesthetics of China, covering both the theory and practice of stage dress. Distinguishing attributes include an introduction to the performance style, the delineation of the costume conventions, an analysis of the costumes through their historical precedents and theatrical modifications, and the use of garment shape, color, and embroidery for symbolic effect. Practical information covers dressing the performers and a costume plot, the design and creation of the make-up and hairstyles, and pattern drafts of the major garments. Photographs from live performances, as well as details of embroidery, and close-up photographs of the headdresses thoroughly portray the stunning beauty of this incomparable performance style. Presenting the brilliant colors of the elaborately embroidered silk costumes together with the intricate makeup and glittering headdresses, this volume embodies the elegance of the Beijing opera.
Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture
by Alexandra B BondsBeijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture illuminates the links between theatrical attire and social customs and aesthetics of China, covering both the theory and practice of stage dress. Distinguishing attributes include an introduction to the performance style, the delineation of the costume conventions, an analysis of the costumes through their historical precedents and theatrical modifications, and the use of garment shape, color, and embroidery for symbolic effect. Practical information covers dressing the performers and a costume plot, the design and creation of the make-up and hairstyles, and pattern drafts of the major garments. Photographs from live performances, as well as details of embroidery, and close-up photographs of the headdresses thoroughly portray the stunning beauty of this incomparable performance style. Presenting the brilliant colors of the elaborately embroidered silk costumes together with the intricate makeup and glittering headdresses, this volume embodies the elegance of the Beijing opera.
Being a Director: A Life in Theatre
by Di TrevisDi Trevis is a world-renowned director, whose work with Britain’s National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and directing productions worldwide, has deeply informed her knowledge of the director’s craft. In Being a Director, she draws on a wealth of first-hand experience to present an immersive, engaging and vital insight into the role of a director. The book elegantly blends the personal and the pedagogical, illustrating how the parameters of Time, Space and Motion are essential when creating a successful production. Throughout, the author explores and recycles her own formative life experiences in order to demonstrate that who you are is as integral to being a director as what you do.
Being a Director: A Life in Theatre
by Di TrevisDi Trevis is a world-renowned director, whose work with Britain’s National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and directing productions worldwide, has deeply informed her knowledge of the director’s craft. In Being a Director, she draws on a wealth of first-hand experience to present an immersive, engaging and vital insight into the role of a director. The book elegantly blends the personal and the pedagogical, illustrating how the parameters of Time, Space and Motion are essential when creating a successful production. Throughout, the author explores and recycles her own formative life experiences in order to demonstrate that who you are is as integral to being a director as what you do.
Being And Having In Shakespeare
by Katharine Eisaman MausWhat is the relation between who a person is, and what he or she has? A number of Shakespeare's plays engage with this question, elaborating a 'poetics of property' centering on questions of authority and entitlement, of inheritance and prodigality, and of the different opportunities afforded by access to land and to chattel property. Being and Having in Shakespeare considers these presentations of ownership and authority. Richard II and the Henry IV plays construe sovereignty as a form of property right, largely construing imperium, or the authority over persons in a polity, as a form of dominium, the authority of the propertyholder. Nonetheless, what property means changes considerably from Richard's reign to Henry's, as the imagined world of the plays is reconfigured to include an urban economy of chattel consumables. The Merchant of Venice, written between Richard II and Henry IV, part 1, reimagines, in comic terms, some of the same issues broached in the history plays. It focuses in particular on the problem of the daughter's inheritance and on the different property obligations among kin, friends, business associates, and spouses. In the figure of the 'vagabond king', theoretically entitled but actually dispossessed, Henry VI, part 2 and King Lear both coordinate problems of entitlement with conundrums about distributive justice, raising fundamental questions about property relations and social organization.
Belarus Free Theatre: New Plays From Eastern Europe (Oberon Modern Playwrights)
by Belarus Free TheatreIncluding: The Women and the Sniper By Tatiana Kitsenko / Diprosopus, A Story in Two Faces By Lyudmila Zaytseva / Onyx By Maxim Dosko / Herman, Franz and Gregor By Julia Tupikina / The Time Wardrobe or the New Adventures of D’Artagnan By Yuri Harin / Same Thing By Olga Prusak The International Contest of Contemporary Drama (ICCD ) is a biannual playwriting competition run by Belarus Free Theatre since its foundation in 2005. It is open to submissions in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian and has produced playwrights such as Anna Yablonskaya, Aleksey Shcherbak, and Pavel Pryazhko – whose plays have been produced at the Royal Court Theatre – and Vyatcheslav Durnenekov who has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2016, 543 plays were submitted from 14 countries including Belarus, UK, Russia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Estonia, and Georgia. The winning plays in this collection are in six categories: Best Play, Best Play on a Social or Political Topic, Best Short Play or Experimental Writing for Theatre, Best Adaptation, Best Play for Children and The Tom Stoppard Award for Best Debut. This publication is dedicated to promoting the works of the winning playwrights, and is published to coincide with prizegiving ceremonies taking place in London, Minsk, Kiev and Moscow.
Belarus Free Theatre: The VII International Contest of Contemporary Drama
by Belarus Free Theatre Oleg Mikhailov Maxim Dosko Marina Krapivina Oleg KaninThe International Contest of Contemporary Drama (ICCD) was set up by Belarus Free Theatre to encourage new writing and to promote Belarusian cultural identity on an international stage with the participation of artists around Europe. Belarusian playwrights, banned within their own country but recognised for their work outside, have the opportunity to show their work in Belarus. It also includes the work of foreign playwrights in an international cultural context, and in which Belarus would have its place for the first time. The ICCD has produced playwrights such as Anna Yablonskaya, Aleksey Shcherbak, and Pavel Pryazhko – whose plays have been produced at the Royal Court Theatre – and brothers Mikhail and Vyatcheslav Durnenekov who have written for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The contest, one of the top three of its kind in central Europe, has enjoyed success since its conception in 2005, garnering critical acclaim, but was discontinued in 2010 due to a lack of funds. 2014 is the first year it has been held in a free country. In previous years it was held underground in Belarus, hidden from the authorities. BFT have now reinstated this contest, and increased the diversity of participants in order to include Belarusians who remain isolated because of the state policy on internet censorship and media control. This publication is dedicated to promoting the works of the winning playwrights, and is published to coincide with an award ceremony at the Young Vic Theatre in London. In 2014, BFT received 523 submissions from 12 participating countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, USA, Germany, UK, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Estonia. The winning plays in this collection are in 3 main categories: Best Full-Length Play; Best Experimental Writing for Theatre/Short Play; Best Adaptation of a Classic Text; plus a special award, The Tom Stoppard Award for Best Debut. The ICCD, and Belarus Free Theatre: New Plays from Central Europe, reconnects the Belarusian people with their independent artistic voice and their cultural identity within a European context. This dual language edition (Russian and English) will be distributed free of charge within Belarus.
Believe It or Not (Oberon Classics Ser.)
by Ranjit Bolt Eugène ScribeIn Scribe's Le Puff (1848) - translated here as Believe It or Not - an honourable cavalry officer returns to Paris after five years abroad to find his countrymen happily addicted to exaggeration, dissimulation and downright lying. Can he find happiness and keep his integrity in a world where nothing is what it seems? The enduring qualities of Scribe's work - the complex yet elegant plotting, the quirky characters, the sharply-written dialogue - are all very much in evidence, as with bouyant cynicism he skewers the worlds of letters, finance and politics.
The Believers
by Bryony LaveryName one certainty . . . one sure thing . . . one thing you truly believe . . .Two families are flung together on a night of cataclysmic weather. Bruised, tired and seduced by the flow of alcohol, they wrestle with their differences until, suddenly, the unthinkable happens. Something unbelievable. As their versions of what happened begin to fall apart and their perspectives become clouded by suspicion, they turn on each other in a desperate fight to understand the truth.Frantic Assembly and Bryony Lavery follow the success of their previous collaborations (Stockholm and Beautiful Burnout) with this thrilling and highly visceral exploration of love and loss.Bryony Lavery's The Believers premiered at The Drum Theatre in February 2014, before touring the UK in a co-production between Frantic Assembly and Theatre Royal Plymouth, in association with Curve Theatre, Leicester.
The Believers are But Brothers (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Javaad AlipoorWe live in a time where old orders are collapsing: from the postcolonial nation states of the Middle East, to the EU and the American election. Through it all, tech savvy and extremist groups rip up political certainties.Amidst this, a generation of young men find themselves burning with resentment, without the money, power and sex they think they deserve. This crisis of masculinity leads them into an online world of fantasy, violence and reality.The Believers Are But Brothers envelops its audience in this digital realm, weaving us into the webs of resentment, violence and power networks that are eating away at the structures of the twentieth century. This bold one-man show explores the smoke and mirrors world of online extremism, anonymity and hate speech.
Bella Heesom: Two Plays (Oberon Modern Plays)
by Bella HeesomMy World Has Exploded A Little Bit, Bella Heesom's debut play, is part true story, part farcical performance lecture. An autobiographical piece exploring how we deal with grief, it mixes tender intimacy with philosophical debate and clownish silliness. It received acclaim from audience, industry and critics at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016, went on an ACE supported national tour, and was Highly Commended by the awards committee at VAULT Festival 2017. Rejoicing At Her Wondrous Vulva The Young Woman Applauded Herself is a piece celebrating female sexuality and exploring the impact of the internalised male gaze on a woman’s relationship with her own pleasure.