Across a series of twelve in-depth interviews with a diverse range of major artists, Dominic Johnson presents a new oral history of performance art. Each interview is preceded by an overview of the artist's work, and the volume itself is introduced by a thoughtful critical essay on performance art and oral history.

Founder of the Theatre of Cruelty and a strong influence on Peter Brook, Artaud dedicated his life and sanity to purging the French theatre of its enervating bourgeois tendencies. This book includes his major writings about theatre.

Antonin Artaud's theatre of cruelty is a frequently misunderstood concept. This study looks closely Artaud's work as a playwright, director, actor, designer, producer and critic. Tracing the theatre of cruelty's earliest orgins, it examines Artaud's six plays for form and meaning.

The highly regarded actor training manual by a top movement teacher.

Following on from the successful first edition, Arts Administration has now been updated to include arts policy under the new UK Ministry of Heritage, the workings of the national lottery and the role of ethnic minority, fringe and community

Attention and Focus in Dance supports dancers in honing the skills of attention, focus and self-cueing. Readers will learn about attentional challenges; discover advanced strategies for teaching, self-coaching and cueing; unlock their power reserves and release their dance potential.

Intended for students and children taking part in speech and drama competitions and exams, this book contains a range of audition speeches selected from both plays and children's books.

A follow-on from Actors' Audition Speeches" this title includes speeches from plays written and produced in the 1990s, with extracts from West End productions ("Art" and "Cressida"), and films ("Pulp Fiction"). Comments from directors, casting directors, actors and teachers are included."

This revised edition contains over 40 speeches and includes a wide selection of pieces taken from plays written or produced recently, such as Nathan the Wise, All the Ordinary Angels, The Woman Before, Oleanna, (David Mamet), Pygmalion and New Boy

Examining the development of avant garde theatre from the 1890s up to the present day, this book exposes a central paradox of modern theatre; that the motivating force of theatrical experimentation is primitivism. This is central to understanding political and aesthetic aspects of modern theatre.

At last, the definitive book about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View From the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow. In Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade, perhaps one of the most 'insubstantial' people of our age, takes us on a journey from Peckham to Paris by way of Nevada and other places we don't care about.

The Sunday Times BestsellerThis is the inside story of twelve years at the helm of Britain's greatest theatre. of opening the doors of the National Theatre to a broader audience than ever before, and changing the public's perception of what theatre is for.

Ballet Body Narratives is an ethnographic exploration of the social world of classical ballet and the embodiment of young ballet dancers as they engage in "becoming a dancer" in ballet schooling in England. This book sheds new light on the distinctiveness of ballet culture in studies of the body.

A guide to ballroom dancing. It includes all the main ballroom dances, along with versions of most dances approved for championships. There are diagrams showing every step from both the male and female perspective. This tenth edition is revised and updated.

Packed with gags and examples of comedy at its best, Be Funny or Die is a fascinating investigation into how our species has developed and mastered this essential art form.

A lavish gift edition of David Sedaris's best stories, spanning his spectacular bestselling career. Hand-picked by David himself, these are stories that will make you laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time, from "the funniest man alive" (Time Out New York).

This is a book for audiences. It is a book for anyone who watches, is watched, and all the spaces in between. Introducing the idea of performance as a shared transformative experience, this engaging book will help you make sense of the performer/audience interaction in a landscape where boundaries are collapsing.

When, in 2000, the National Theatre published its poll of the hundred best plays of the 20th century, David Hare had written five of them. In this memoir, ending as Margaret Thatcher comes to power in 1979, he describes his childhood, and his painful apprenticeship to the trade of dramatist.