Other performing arts Books

Book SynopsisInvites us to step back into an era when the hourglass figure was in vogue and striptease was a true art form. This title reveals the personal journeys of yesteryear's icons of female sexuality and power, restoring their legacy to an age that has all but forgotten them - despite resurgence of the art of burlesque.Trade Review"This coffee table treasure serves as ... a fitting paean to this once-forgotten generation of women." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Liz Goldwyn illustrates an era in classic American entertainment with hundreds of archival photographs, costume sketches and newspaper clips." -- Time "Pretty Things is now the most comprehensive study on the era of burlesque." -- V Magazine "In Liz Goldwyn's Pretty Things, stripteasers bump and grind into the often dark reality of modern burlesque queens." -- Vanity Fair "The art of burlesque is lovingly documented through long-lost photographs as well as designer sketches and interviews." -- W magazine "[Pretty Things] celebrates the performers once dismissed as second-class citizens." -- Tatler

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Book SynopsisThe British comedian of Nigerian heritage and co-executive producer and writer of the CBS hit series Bob Hearts Abishola chronicles her odyssey to get to America and break into Hollywood in this lively and humorous memoir. According to family superstition, Gina Yashere was born to fulfill the dreams of her grandmother Patience. The powerful first wife of a wealthy businessman, Patience was poisoned by her jealous sister-wives and marked with a spot on her neck. From birth, Gina carried a similar birthmark—a sign that she was her grandmother’s chosen heir, and would fulfill Patience’s dreams. Gina would learn to speak perfect English, live unfettered by men or children, work a man’s job, and travel the world with a free spirit.Is she the reincarnation of her grandmother? Maybe. Gina isn’t ruling anything out. In Cack-Handed, she recalls her intergenerational journey to success foretold by her

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Book SynopsisBarry Cryer (Author) In 1958 Barry Cryer had a Number 1 hit record in Finland with the song 'Purple People Eater' by Sheb Wooley. Over his 50-year career he has written for, among many, Morecambe and Wise, Bruce Forsyth, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd, Bob Hope and Richard Pryor. He is a comedy legend.Graeme Garden (Author) Graeme Garden is one third of the Goodies. He is a comedy legend.Tim Brooke-Taylor (Author) Tim was born in Buxton, Derbyshire, and studied at various schools in Buxton and Winchester before beginning an Economics and Law degree course at Cambridge University. In 1963, he became President of Footlights, the revue club in which he wrote and performed with Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Jonathan Lynn and others. He toured extensively with the revue, Cambridge Circus, before moving into television.Jack Dee (Author) Writer, stand-up comedian and actor, JacTrade ReviewThe funniest comedy quiz show of them all -- Sue Arnold * Observer *The most genuinely and infallibly cheering programme on radio. -- Nigel Andrew * Daily Mail *The national theatre of fun. -- Gillian Reynolds * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisBridget Christie is a stand-up comedian, idiot and feminist. On the 30th of April 2012, a man farted in the Women's Studies Section of a bookshop and it changed her life forever. A Book For Her details Christie's twelve years of anonymous toil in the bowels of stand-up comedy and the sudden epiphany that made her, unbelievably, one of the most critically acclaimed British stand-up comedians this decade, drawing together the threads that link a smelly smell in the women's studies section to the global feminist struggle. Find out how nice Peter Stringfellow's fish tastes, how yoghurt advertising perpetuates rape myths, and how Emily Bronte used a special ladies' pen to write Wuthering Heights.If you're interested in comedy and feminism, then this is definitely the book for you. If you hate both then I'd probably give it a miss. Christie is adept at turning on a sixpence between being comical, or serious, or both at once, and at pricking her own earnTrade ReviewA cool, clear glass of sane in a world of unbearable woo-hoo. * Caitlin Moran *A great feminist stand up, who gets us feminists to laugh at ourselves, as well as at the dinosaurs. * Mary Beard *Fabulous feminist polemical memoir from one of the funniest most astringent women working the upper tier of the British comedy circuit. Scrap that, she's just one of the best in entertainment. * Grazia *Part memoir, part laughter-filled rant ... Christie is a lively narrator and provides a sharp balance of hilarity and ideology. A Book For Her is both a searingly accurate portrayal of 21-century womanhood and a proper hoot. * Independent *Charm, passion and gallons of wit. Funny books seldom come so committed, nor committed books much funnier. * Sunday Telegraph *Bloody excellent. * Sarah Millican *Vulnerable, courageous and very funny * Stylist *Rewriting the feminist agenda ... a must read. * Red Magazine *A voice so idiosyncratic that it transfers uncannily well from stage to page ... it’s courageous, but more than that: it is very funny. * Guardian *Comics will find much sage advice in its pages; others simply a commonsense perspective on the world. It's a book for everyone then, not just 'for her'. * i *Must-read for any young women, or man, interested in comedy and feminism. * Hello! *A charming, eloquent, passionate and knowingly ridiculous voice, in print as she is on stage, and that's how you win people over. This is what a feminist sounds like. * Chortle *Funny, furious and staunchly feminist ... [a] brilliantly belligerent book. * S Magazine *Stand-up Bridget Christie’s autobiographical call-to-arms for gender equality is as hilarious as it is committed * Telegraph Online *Very, very funny. * Radio Times *An excellent and unputdownable book…Christie combines narrative and stream-of-consciousness brilliantly * Observer *The funny woman's memoir ... hysterical. * Vogue UK *It is a fine book, somewhere between feminist treatise, autobiography and nerdy stand-up how-to guide. Most importantly for me, it was very funny, despite also being deadly serious. This of course is Christie’s strength that sets her above her peers ... she uses the Trojan horse technique of concealing a powerful army of vital messages inside a giant horse-shaped laugh ... and she does it better than anyone. * Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke *We always need more feminist memoirs, when they’re funny and insightful and clever and honest. Bridget Christie’s A Book for Her is all of those things. * Stylist *[Christie] made me laugh loudly on the tube like a loud, shameless, lipstick-covered walrus…funny and passionate and inspiring, all at the same time. * Huffington Post *I think Bridget Christie has a kind of genius. It's an incredibly funny and weirdly moving memoir about a person finding her voice. I was dazzled by it. * Jon Ronson *[Christie's] humility sucks you in and makes you laugh. She is funny in all the right places. * Irish Times *It reads very much like a stand-up routine, from the running gags and callbacks. Whatever the seriousness of the subject she’s discussing, however passionately she’s laying into her pet hates, Christie never forgets also to make herself an object of mirth, and does so with charm and brio to spare. * Telegraph (Best Books for Christmas) *I’m halfway through the excellent A Book for Her. This book is like she’s sitting next to me in all her feministy, hilarious, smart glory. * Sarah Millican, Good Housekeeping *‘It’s great: she has really embraced the form and constantly goes on long digressions just for the audiobook listeners. * The Sunday Telegraph *It’s rare I purchase a hardback (they hurt when they drop on my face when I fall asleep reading!), but I was so desperate to read Bridget Christie’s A Book For Her, I braved it. I was well rewarded. Part memoir, part rant, Christie brilliantly and hilariously points out the utter absurdity and nonsensical cruelty of sexism, it left me smiling but furious. * WH Smith blog *

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Book SynopsisNo, Groucho is not my real name, I''m just breaking it in for a friend.'' Presenting the greatest and most hilarious examples of Groucho, one of the most influential and well-loved figures in the long and glittering history of comedy. From early scripts to complete screenplays, from magazine funnies to fascinating personal correspondence, via books, greedy banks, even greedier lawyers and the coming of television, Kanfer''s collection captures the essence of Groucho''s inimitable comic genius. ''I never forget a face, but in your case I''ll make an exception...

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Book SynopsisNotes for Violists offers key historical and analytical information about thirty-five of the best-known pieces written for viola. Its engaging prose, detailed analytical charts, and rich contextual and theoretical insights make it an indispensable guide for professional, amateur, and student violists.Trade ReviewA wonderful new resource, this book is available in a variety of formats, contains interesting historical and analytical information on 35 major viola repertoire works, from Telemann to Penderecki. Composer biographies, analysis of works and setting the works in their historical and social context make this a fascinating read ... This book is highly praised by my esteemed USA viola colleagues, and I recommended this book unreservedly. * Helen Tuckey, AUSTA National Journal Reviews *David Bynog's new book is irresistible...All violists owe a debt of gratitude to David Bynog for this masterful book, which will serve as an inexhaustible resource for decades to come. * Andrew H. Weaver, The Catholic University of America, Journal of the American Viola Society *The persuasive capsules will be invaluable to program-note writers and casual music lovers, while the scope of the music provides an insight into the world of the viola. * Laurence Vittes, Strings *David Bynog's deep love and equally deep knowledge of the viola and its repertory's 'greatest hits' shine through in every chapter of this book. It is a must-have for every viola student and teacher, providing an invaluable 'jumping off point' for the preparation of an informed performance of each of these masterpieces. What a gift it is to the viola community to have this wonderful research and analysis all in one place! * Carol Rodland, Violist, Professor of Viola and Chamber Music, The Juilliard School *A fascinating book highlighting important select works for viola. I found it a captivating treasure-trove of unexpected insights into every composer's life, each composition, and its place now in history. A must for all who love the viola! * James F. Dunham, Professor of Viola and Chamber Music, Rice University, Shepherd School of Music *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, BWV 1051 Chapter 2. Béla Bartók: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Sz. 120 (BB 128) Chapter 3. Hector Berlioz: Harold in Italy, op. 16 Chapter 4. Ernest Bloch: Suite hébraïque Chapter 5. York Bowen: Sonata No. 1 in C Minor for Viola and Piano, op. 18 Chapter 6. Johannes Brahms: Sonata for Clarinet (or Viola) and Piano in E flat Major, op. 120, no. 2 Chapter 7. Benjamin Britten: Lachrymae, op. 48 Chapter 8. Max Bruch: Romanze for Viola and Orchestra, op. 85 Chapter 9. Henri Casadesus: Concerto in B Minor for Viola and Orchestra (attributed to G. F. Handel) Chapter 10. Rebecca Clarke: Sonata for Viola and Piano Chapter 11. George Enescu: Concertstück for Viola and Piano Chapter 12. Cecil Forsyth: Concerto in G Minor for Viola and Orchestra Chapter 13. Lilian Fuchs: Sonata Pastorale for Unaccompanied Viola Chapter 14. Aleksandr Glazunov: Élegié for Viola and Piano, op. 44 Chapter 15. Paul Hindemith: Sonata for Viola and Piano, op. 11, no. 4 Chapter 16. Paul Hindemith: Der Schwanendreher: Concerto after Old Folksongs for Viola and Small Orchestra Chapter 17. Franz Anton Hoffmeister: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in D Major Chapter 18. Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Sonata for Piano and Viola, op. 5, no. 3 Chapter 19. Bohuslav Martinü: Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, H. 337 Chapter 20. Felix Mendelssohn: Sonata in C Minor for Viola and Piano Chapter 21. Darius Milhaud: Quatre Visages for Viola and Piano, op. 238 Chapter 22. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sinfonia concertante for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra, K. 364 (320d) Chapter 23. Krzysztof Penderecki: Cadenza for Viola Solo Chapter 24. Quincy Porter: Suite for Viola Alone Chapter 25. Max Reger: Three Suites for Solo Viola, op. 131d: No. 1 in G Minor Chapter 26. Robert Schumann: Märchenbilder for Viola and Piano, op. 113 Chapter 27. Dmitry Shostakovich: Sonata for Viola and Piano, op. 147 Chapter 28. Carl Stamitz: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra in D Major Chapter 29. Igor Stravinsky: Élégie for Viola or Violin Unaccompanied Chapter 30. Toru Takemitsu: A Bird came down the Walk, for viola and piano Chapter 31. Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto in G Major for Viola, Strings, and Basso continuo, TWV 51:G9 Chapter 32. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra Chapter 33. Henry Vieuxtemps: Élegié for Viola and Piano, op. 30 Chapter 34. William Walton: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra Chapter 35. Carl Maria von Weber: Andante e Rondo ungarese for Viola and Orchestra, J. 79 Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisNotes for Oboists: A Guide to the Repertoire is an essential resource for professional, amateur, and student oboists that collects the important historical and analytical information for thirty-five of the best-known pieces composed for the instrument. These works span the eighteenth through the twenty-first century and include sonatas, concertos, chamber music, and works for solo oboe by a wide range of composers. Chapters will cover compositions such as Alessandro Marcello''s Concerto in D Minor, Robert Schumann''s Three Romances Op. 94, Francis Poulenc''s Sonata for Oboe and Piano, Isang Yun''s Piri for Oboe Solo, Reena Esmail''s Jhula Jhule for Oboe and Piano, and thirty other treasures of the oboe repertoire.Writing in engaging and accessible prose supported by fact-filled analytical charts, Nora A. Lewis offers rich biographical information on individual composers, historical context for compositions (such as the circumstances for its development), as well as clear structural analyses to help oboists gain a deeper understanding of well-known repertoire. In offering both historical/biographical as well as musicological insight, Notes for Oboists connects performance studies with scholarship, allowing readers to build a more complete picture of the music and encourage them to approach other compositions in a similarly analytical manner.

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Book SynopsisIn How to Market the Arts: A Practical Approach for the 21st Century, expert authors Anthony Rhine and Jay Pension provide a new and practical paradigm to explain how nonprofit arts marketing can and should work.Trade ReviewThis is a much-needed resource and exploration of what it takes to promote the nonprofit arts sector at this time of change and transformation. Rhine and Pension have created a new approach, not only to how we sell our work, but how we can view the process of making and selling more holistically, as two halves of the same necessary whole. * Melia Bensussen, Artistic Director, Hartford Stage & Professor, Emerson College *This book proposes a compelling new approach that transforms conventional marketing paradigms into a more flexible and appropriate framework for nonprofit arts organizations. By redefining notions of marketing and "engagement," the authors help us see that the art we create and present is not an end in itself, but rather a powerful vehicle to serve our community and transform the world. Artists and arts administrators alike should take notice. * Jeffrey Nytch, author of The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music *Through a practical lens, Rhine and Pension provide the reader with a clear understanding on marketing and engagement. The text covers a complete range of topics fundamental to the four Ps of marketing to the four Es of engagement. This invaluable resource is not only effective for performing arts administrators, but also business and management students, liberal arts students, and anyone enrolled in a leadership program. Their theoretical approach emphasizes a review of nonprofit arts, as well as useful steps an organization might take to increase its visibility and appeal. * James A. Filippelli, Associate Professor of Fine and Performing Arts, Dominican University, located in Rockland County, New York *Education, experience, engagement, environment, and ease of access complete the model for success. This book clearly develops a new approach to marketing the arts and, as a result, will prove beneficial for all. * James Filipelli, Dominican University New York *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Part 1: Marketing Versus Engagement Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: A Shift from Traditional Marketing Chapter 2: Engagement Part 2: Education Chapter 3:Contrasting Frameworks: Promotion and Education Chapter 4: Promotion and the Arts Chapter 5: Education and the Arts Part 3: Experience Chapter 6: Contrasting Frameworks: Product and Experience Chapter 7: Product and the Arts Chapter 8: Experience and the Arts Part 4: Environment Chapter 9: Contrasting Frameworks: Place and Environment Chapter 10: Place and the Arts Chapter 11: Environment and the Arts Part 5: Ease of Access Chapter 12: Contrasting Frameworks: Price and Ease of Access Chapter 13: Price and the Arts Chapter 14: Ease of Access and the Arts Conclusion: Piecing Everything Together

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Book SynopsisFeaturing updates, expansions, and a new chapter on phonetic symbols and unique sounds in Italian, German, and French, this third edition of the widely adopted A Handbook of Diction for Singers is a complete guide to achieving professional levels of diction in the three major languages of the classical vocal repertory.Trade ReviewIt's hard to believe, but Mr. Adams has actually improved this comprehensive text for its third edition. Anything and everything one needs to understand and execute beautiful, authoritative diction can be found in this book....and in three languages! Get it! * Martin Katz, G. Koldofsky Distinguished University Professor, Earl V. Moore Collegiate Professor in Music, Artur Schnabel Collegiate Professor in Piano, University of Michigan *David Adams presents vast knowledge in a very clear and organized fashion. There are multiple fine points that spice up the teaching throughout. The handbook is a very practical book filled with details illustrated by numerous musical examples. This book is a must for all singers, coaches, conductors, and language majors. * Pierre Vallet, The Metropolitan Opera, The Juilliard School *A valuable introduction to vocal diction, this book offers a clear, no-nonsense guide that will be extremely useful to singers, teachers and coaches. * Brian Zeger, Artistic Director, Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School *Wow! No need to bother with other reference works for these three languages-it's all here and then some! I'm so impressed with Mr. Adams' thoroughness, clarity, and his ability to keep what could be a dry subject interesting, entertaining and stimulating. Any singer, voice teacher or collaborative pianist needs this on a very handy shelf. * Martin Katz, Pianist, Coach, and Conductor *A Handbook of Diction for Singers will make an invaluable addition to any singer's library. The clarity and simplicity of Mr. Adams' approach to lyric diction is wonderful to read, and his years of teaching and the depth of his understanding only underscore his clear and clean explanation of the many aspects of this discipline. Bravo, David! * Warren Jones, Pianist *David Adams' contribution to the singer's bookshelf is invaluable. He not only provides a clear, pragmatic guide to diction for singers and pianists but approaches the topic with a fine ear for music and a deep understanding of the challenges singers face in uniting music and text. * Brian Zeger, collaborative pianist and Director of Vocal Arts, Juilliard School *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Chapter 1 An Introduction to Individual Sounds Chapter 2 Italian Diction Chapter 3 German Diction Chapter 4 French Diction Bibliography Index of Sounds by Spelling General Index

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Book SynopsisHollywood''s conversion to sound in the 1920s created an early peak in the film musical following the immense success of The Jazz Singer. The opportunity to synchronize moving pictures with a soundtrack suited the musical in particular, since the heightened experience of song and dance drew attention to the novelty of the technological development. Until the near-collapse of the genre in the 1960s, the film musical enjoyed around thirty years of development, as landmarks such as The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, Singin'' in the Rain, and Gigi showed the exciting possibilities of putting musicals on the silver screen. The first of three volumes, The Politics of the Musical Theatre Screen Adaptation: An Oxford Handbook traces how the genre of the stage-to-screen musical has evolved, starting with early screen adaptations such as the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie Roberta and working through to Into the Woods (2014). Many chapters examine specific screen adaptations in depth, while others deal with broad issues such as realism or the politics of the adaptation in works such as Li''l Abner and Finian''s Rainbow. Together, the chapters incite lively debates about the process of adapting Broadway for the big screen and provide models for future studies.Volume I: The Politics of the Musical Theatre Screen AdaptationVolume II: Race, Sexuality, and Gender and the Musical Screen AdaptationVolume III: Stars, Studios, and the Musical Theatre Screen AdaptationTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. 'And I'll Sing Once More': A Historical Overview of the Broadway Musical on the Silver Screen 2. Refashioning Roberta: From Novel to Stage to Screen 3. Getting Real: Stage Musical versus Filmic Realism in Film Adaptations from Camelot to Cabaret 4. The Party's Over: On the Town, Bells Are Ringing, and the Problem of Adapting Postwar New York 5. Into the Woods from Stage to Screen 6. Li'l Abner from Comic Strip to Hollywood 7. Fidelity versus Freedom in Milos Forman's Film Version of Hair 8. 'An Elegant Legacy?': The Aborted Cartoon Adaptation of Finian's Rainbow 9. Little Shop of Horrors: Breaking the Rules All the Way to the Big (Enormous, Twelve-inch) Screen 10. The Fascinating Moment of Godspell: Its Cinematic Adaptation in the Shadow of Jesus Christ Superstar and Leonard Bernstein's Mass

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Book SynopsisThis book is an invitation for all who aspire to the highest level of ensemble artistry and wish to work more productively and joyfully within a musical ensemble. The concepts and techniques included help artists find their own unique vocabulary and tools to refine their music making process and learn how as a team to direct their group endeavors. The book offers a systematic approach to individual preparation for rehearsal, score study, planning and implementing a constructive and effective rehearsal, and the interpretive process. The authors address tension and conflict within groups, including strategies for working well together and creating an empathetic and healthy environment for rehearsals and performances. Approaches are highlighted for researching and discovery regarding the context, character and meaning of musical works and as well as cultivating vital collaboration with living composers. The final chapters include proven practical techniques, organized by their intended purpose for everyday use in rehearsals and teaching. Based on more than 35 years of rehearsing, performing, and teaching by the Cavani Quartet, and inspired by the authors'' mentors, teachers and students, these essential techniques are designed to give each ensemble member an equal voice in the interpretive process while solving technical issues. Topics include cueing and breathing, rhythmic alignment and ensemble, intonation, sound production, projecting expression, strategic listening, and balance. The final chapter includes a capstone technique called LBAD (Live, Breathe, and Die) that heightens the connection between ensemble members through nonverbal communication. Video demonstrations of selected techniques are included on the companion website.

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Book SynopsisGrowing Songwriting is a groundbreaking book on the pedagogy of songwriting that starts with the essential question: How do I begin to write songs myself and with my students? In this book, Randles suggests that we start with cover songs, then explore the middle ground of remixes and sampling, and finally, jump into the world of lyric writing and the musical world of original songs. A growing metaphor also features throughout: lesson seeds are presented along with water in the form of stories of how people have written songs in the past and sunlight in the shape of ideas for continuation and inspiration. It is all about growing! In this book, you will be inspired by stories of how riffs were created, how lines were penned, and how songwriters capture their ideas in journals. Original music making is part inspiration and mostly hard work. This book gives you a window into the world of craft that surrounds the working lives of professional songwriters and pulls you into that world in small manageable steps. In looking to the metaphor of nature for pedagogical answers--answers that may very well usher in the most profound curricular growth period in the history of music education--Growing Songwriting aims to sow the seeds of songwriting in your life so that it can also flourish in the lives of your students.

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Book SynopsisDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, creative communities were faced with unprecedented challenges and forced to embark upon a re-evaluation of traditional approaches to artistic collaboration. In the wake of these discussions and experiments, New Directions in Musical Collaborative Creativity asks how new technology can be used to enhance creativity and how this creativity increases our knowledge in relation to musical interactions in group contexts. Focusing on a case study of a leading musical improvisation group--the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, and their online music sessions established during the COVID-19 lockdowns of March 2020--the book''s five authors probe the transformative impact of online and hybrid improvisation and explore the crucial role of interactive (visual and sound) technology in the emergence of new identities and hybrid working practices.Virtual improvising, though a relatively new type of creative activity, has significant implications for how researchers can better understand improvisation generally as well as musical interactions in non-virtual environments. The book''s topics range from an overview of digital music frameworks to an investigation of how improvisations begin and end, the unique context of the online sessions, the integration of audio and visual stimuli to produce audio-visual compositions, and new types of creative activities. The authors explore how improvisation--and online improvising in particular--can engender a fresh sense of community while presenting innovative opportunities for experimentation, communication, community involvement, educational enrichment, the cultivation of new virtuosities, and the promotion of health and well-being. Furthermore, they delve into the ramifications of these insights for education and health, emphasising the importance of new technologies and their potential to produce significant creative breakthroughs.Ultimately, the book points us toward novel manifestations of technologically-mediated and community-centred creative engagement, delineating avenues for future advancement and scholarly investigation. Bringing together a multidisciplinary and cross-generational author team with a wealth of complementary academic and artistic experience, this book responds to the significant growth in interest in improvisation as a musical and artistic practice and situates this research within the study of collaborative creativity in the contemporary hybrid context. A companion website features a series of films that document sessions of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, showing the innovative collaborative artistic practices as they emerged.

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Book SynopsisIn this valuable resource guide for both beginners and professionals, veteran songwriter, producer, arranger, vocalist, music director, and educator Larry D. Batiste shares practical advice and tips from his decades of experience in ways that are bound to help all readers improve their songwriting skills. Through this book, readers will learn the craft of professional songwriting, including the ins-and-outs of song structure, lyric and melody writing, and the essential elements of a hit song. From the start, Batiste incorporates exercises to help songwriters strike upon ideas for song titles, concepts, and stories that will appeal to their audience. He also discusses critical business aspects of songwriting, such as copyrighting, publishing, royalties, networking, and digital media. In addition to the fundamentals, the reader will learn how to build their songwriting career, generate income, build an online community and fanbase, release music independently, expertly place their songs,

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Book SynopsisA staple of American popular culture during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the freak show seemed to vanish after World War II. However, as this book reveals, images of the freak show, with its combination of the grotesque, horrific and amusing, stubbornly reappeared in literature and the arts.

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Book SynopsisSince its founding in 1964 Tanzania has used music, dance and other cultural productions as ways of imagining and legitimizing the new nation. Focusing on the politics surrounding Swahili performance, Kelly Askew demonstrates the crucial role of popular culture in Tanzania's history.

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Book SynopsisProvides a comprehensive look at the satiric humor that flourished in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. This book reminds us that the postwar era saw varieties of comic expression that were more challenging and nonconformist than we commonly remember.Trade Review"Stephen Kercher's evocative survey of postwar political satire is almost encyclopedic in its range and impeccable for its clear writing and sound scholarship. Many still think of the 1950s as an era of monolithic conformity, yet this irresistible vein of black humor, from Sid Caesar to Lenny Bruce, offered a tremendous outlet for wildly inventive parody and social criticism. This book should delight those who remember the period and enlarge the understanding of those who don't." - Morris Dickstein"

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Book SynopsisDuring the 1920s and '30s, Franz Taibosh - whose stage name was Clicko - performed in front of millions as one of the stars of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. This title presents the story of Taibosh's journey from boyhood on a small farm in South Africa to top billing as one of the travelling World's Fair Freaks.Trade Review"An astonishing story that illuminates the history of a talented person who represented a fragile culture to the world. It entertains and astonishes us - but it also enriches our knowledge of a hardy and resourceful person and a fascinating slice of southern African history." - Alexander McCall Smith, from his Foreword"

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Book SynopsisDuring the 1920s and '30s, Franz Taibosh - whose stage name was Clicko - performed in front of millions as one of the stars of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. This title presents the story of Taibosh's journey from boyhood on a small farm in South Africa to top billing as one of the travelling World's Fair Freaks.Trade Review"An astonishing story that illuminates the history of a talented person who represented a fragile culture to the world. It entertains and astonishes us - but it also enriches our knowledge of a hardy and resourceful person and a fascinating slice of southern African history." - Alexander McCall Smith, from his Foreword"

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Book SynopsisProviding a backstaatge pass into the lives of the 801 cabaret girls, this work is based on many interviews with more than a dozen drag queens. One of America's most overlooked subcultures is given a witty and poignant portrait in this work.

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Book SynopsisThis work investigates the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual of honouring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge and performance.

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Book SynopsisThis work investigates the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual of honouring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge and performance.

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive guide for athletes and an effective teaching aid for coaches. More than three and a half million young athletes, female and male, participate in all-star cheerleading in North America. The Cheerleading Book is the go-to resource for anyone interested in participating in or coaching the sport of cheerleading.

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Book SynopsisThis book investigates the expanding parameters for site-specific performance to account for the form's increasing popularity in the twenty-first century. Leading practitioners and theorists interrogate issues of performance and site to broaden our understanding of the role that place plays in performance and the ways that performance influences itTrade Review'This excellent anthology provides a wide-ranging collection of essays on critical issues of place-based theatre. It includes articles that treat historical and contemporary themes from the perspectives of both theorists and practitioners in a variety of institutional contexts. As the best anthologies do, it both bolsters and challenges the discipline.' - Professor Laurie Beth Clark, University of Wisconsin Madison, USA 'This is a welcome addition to the developing literature on site-specific theatre and performance, whose chief virtue lies in providing a range of original essays testifying to the diversity and disparateness of contemporary site-based work.' - Steve Bottoms, New Theatre Quarterly 'Performing Site-Specific Theatre is an insightful collection of essays that presents an interesting examination of site-specific theory and practice. It is a welcome addition to a field still largely located in performance studies and art, here exploring its intersection with theatre... [The book] will be a useful book for researchers and teachers of site-specific performance, including its theories and practices.' - Kris Darby, Contemporary Theatre ReviewTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors The 'Place' and Practice of Site-Specific Theatre and Performance; J.Tompkins PART I: SITE-SPECIFICITY AND ECONOMICS Rethinking Site-Specificity: Monopoly, Urban Space, and the Cultural Economics of Site-specific Performance; M.McKinnie PART II: SITE-SPECIFICITY AND THE NARRATIVES OF HISTORY Rehearsing Across Space and Place: Rethinking A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle; S.Bennett & J.Sanders Embodied Presence and Dislocated Spaces: Playing the Audience in Ten Thousand Several Doors in a Promenade, Site-specific Performance of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi ; J.Collins Haunted House: Staging The Persians with the British Army; M.Pearson Toiling, Tolling and Telling: Performing Dissensus; K.Irwin PART III: SITE SPECIFITIY AND THE SLIPPAGE OF PLACE Beyond Site-specificity: Environmental Heterocosms on the Street; S.Haedicke Repetition and Performativity: Site-specific Performance and Film as Living Monument; A.Birch Contemporary Ekkeklemas in Site-specific Performance; L.Ferris 'Places, like property prices, go up and down': Site-specificity, Regeneration and The Margate Exodus; L.Owen PART IV: SITE-SPECIFICITY AND THEATRICAL INTIMACY Ambulatory Audiences and Animate Sites: Staging the Spectator in Site-specific Performance; K.Zaiontz Immersive Negotiations: Binaural Perspectives on Site-specific Sound; B.Barton & R.Windeyer My Sites Set on You: Site-specificity and Subjectivity in 'Intimate Theatre'; H.Iball PART V: SITE SPECIFICITY AND POLITICS Siting the People: Power, Protest and Public Space; S.Nield Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisAlberto Mira offers a new account of how pop music revolutionized the Hollywood musical. He shows that while the Hollywood system ceased producing large-scale traditional musicals, different pop strains—disco, rock ’n’ roll, doo-wop, glam, and hip-hop—renewed the genre, giving it a new life.Trade ReviewAlberto Mira’s timely volume superbly fills a gap in writing on the musical, focusing with originality, flair and thorough scholarship on a significant variant of the genre. He demonstrates how the Pop musical has taken the genre into new directions, for instance making it even more socially aware, revising its folk discourse, and exploring questions of sexual identity. In his analysis of the star qualities of Ann-Margret, the changing impact of Elvis Presley, re-appraisal of films like Bye Bye Birdie and The Rocky Horror Picture Show or, more generally, the way Pop musicals draw on and diversify the traditions of the classical musical, Mira ensures that this exciting volume will be essential reading for devotees as well as for scholars of the film musical, and the aesthetics, cultural and socio-political contexts of popular cinema. -- Peter William Evans, Queen Mary University of LondonWhile much has been written on the change in the musical's cinematic language in the postclassical period, the “pop musical” itself has not been sufficiently identified, theorized, or historicized. In The Pop Musical, Alberto Mira addresses this gap, insisting that the genre’s unique relationship with pop music plays a determining role in how these films make meaning. -- Desirée Garcia, author of The Movie MusicalTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Hollywood Musical Is Dead. Long Live the Hollywood Musical!1. Hollywood and the Rise of Pop Music: The Age of Elvis2. Embracing Pop: Integrating the Pop Musical3. Looking Back: The Pop Musical and the PastConclusion: Qualified JoysNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Kill the Documentary, the award-winning director Jill Godmilow issues an urgent call for a new kind of nonfiction filmmaking. In place of the conventional documentary, she advocates for a “postrealist” cinema.Trade ReviewKill the Documentary is a brilliant, angry book. An honest book. A brave book. Guggenheim Fellow and award-winning filmmaker Jill Godmilow has written a stirring call to arms. -- Cynthia Close * Documentary Magazine *Creatively curious pages -- Ezra Winton * Cineaste *Jill Godmilow marshals a pantheon of hard-hitting, tough-minded films that refuse to be herded into the realist corral. Godmilow’s letter, or manifesto, like most manifestos, draws a line in the sand. Which side are you on becomes the question. Stay put and miss the point, or step on through to the other side and restore for yourself some of the nuance and subtlety that is foreign to the spirit of a manifesto. -- Bill Nichols, from the ForewordThis provocative and engaging book by acclaimed filmmaker Jill Godmilow raises important questions for anyone concerned about the future of political documentary. She maps out an original approach to “postrealist” documentary that champions moral engagement, social activism, aesthetic daring, historical grounding, and intersectional participation for bold twenty-first-century filmmaking. -- Deirdre Boyle, author of Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy PanhIn her captivating and original Kill the Documentary, filmmaker and critic Jill Godmilow offers a plea—in the form of a letter, which is a manifesto, and forty propositions, and a tool kit—for making postrealist nonfiction, for making film useful and fruitful. In her scathing critique of “great” documentaries, and her offering up of her own counter-canon, she insists that filmmakers and viewers can begin again by refusing the pedigree, pornography, and cultural imperialism of the real, and by supporting postrealist strategies: interventionist and interactive, performative and formal. Honestly, I don’t agree with all she says, or every one of the 144 films she honors, and that’s her urgent book’s point and purpose: I can and should make my own. -- Alexandra Juhasz, Brooklyn College, CUNYKill the Documentary is a provocative manifesto for rethinking the documentary. Godmilow provides a shield against the tear-soaked sentimentality and nostalgia of the Ken Burns style of packaging history. A new tool in the film teacher's kit, this book is useful beyond discussions of documentary. The passion of her prose is infectious—a welcome relief for student reading assignments. -- DeeDee Halleck, professor emerita, University of California, San DiegoThis book will be a gold mine for any instructors putting together an “Introduction to Documentary Filmmaking” syllabus or for cinematic autodidacts hungry to experiment with alternative modes of nonfictional filmmaking. -- Jaimie Baron * Film Quarterly *Herein lies the specificity and refreshing nonconformity of [this] book: it pushes the reader not only to see through the ideological premises of conventional formats, but also to delve into the multiple configurations that generate subversive experiences . . . [Godmilow's] persistent faith in the importance of developing critical awareness and in the agency of art to intervene into reality despite the omnipresent ‘capitalist realism’ in the global neoliberal society radiates a compelling force. -- Stefanie Baumann * Radical Philosophy *Table of ContentsManifestly Radical: A Foreword, by Bill NicholsAcknowledgmentsI Call This Book a LetterIntroduction—a Letter to Filmmakers1. Abandon the Conventional Documentary—Reject Realism as the Only Authentic Nonfiction Form2. Take Action—Make Useful Postrealist Films3. Forty Postrealist Strategies to Learn from and Borrow4. The ToolkitNotes BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Kill the Documentary, the award-winning director Jill Godmilow issues an urgent call for a new kind of nonfiction filmmaking. In place of the conventional documentary, she advocates for a postrealist cinema.Trade ReviewKill the Documentary is a brilliant, angry book. An honest book. A brave book. Guggenheim Fellow and award-winning filmmaker Jill Godmilow has written a stirring call to arms. -- Cynthia Close * Documentary Magazine *Creatively curious pages -- Ezra Winton * Cineaste *Jill Godmilow marshals a pantheon of hard-hitting, tough-minded films that refuse to be herded into the realist corral. Godmilow’s letter, or manifesto, like most manifestos, draws a line in the sand. Which side are you on becomes the question. Stay put and miss the point, or step on through to the other side and restore for yourself some of the nuance and subtlety that is foreign to the spirit of a manifesto. -- Bill Nichols, from the ForewordThis provocative and engaging book by acclaimed filmmaker Jill Godmilow raises important questions for anyone concerned about the future of political documentary. She maps out an original approach to “postrealist” documentary that champions moral engagement, social activism, aesthetic daring, historical grounding, and intersectional participation for bold twenty-first-century filmmaking. -- Deirdre Boyle, author of Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy PanhIn her captivating and original Kill the Documentary, filmmaker and critic Jill Godmilow offers a plea—in the form of a letter, which is a manifesto, and forty propositions, and a tool kit—for making postrealist nonfiction, for making film useful and fruitful. In her scathing critique of “great” documentaries, and her offering up of her own counter-canon, she insists that filmmakers and viewers can begin again by refusing the pedigree, pornography, and cultural imperialism of the real, and by supporting postrealist strategies: interventionist and interactive, performative and formal. Honestly, I don’t agree with all she says, or every one of the 144 films she honors, and that’s her urgent book’s point and purpose: I can and should make my own. -- Alexandra Juhasz, Brooklyn College, CUNYKill the Documentary is a provocative manifesto for rethinking the documentary. Godmilow provides a shield against the tear-soaked sentimentality and nostalgia of the Ken Burns style of packaging history. A new tool in the film teacher's kit, this book is useful beyond discussions of documentary. The passion of her prose is infectious—a welcome relief for student reading assignments. -- DeeDee Halleck, professor emerita, University of California, San DiegoThis book will be a gold mine for any instructors putting together an “Introduction to Documentary Filmmaking” syllabus or for cinematic autodidacts hungry to experiment with alternative modes of nonfictional filmmaking. -- Jaimie Baron * Film Quarterly *Herein lies the specificity and refreshing nonconformity of [this] book: it pushes the reader not only to see through the ideological premises of conventional formats, but also to delve into the multiple configurations that generate subversive experiences . . . [Godmilow's] persistent faith in the importance of developing critical awareness and in the agency of art to intervene into reality despite the omnipresent ‘capitalist realism’ in the global neoliberal society radiates a compelling force. -- Stefanie Baumann * Radical Philosophy *Table of ContentsManifestly Radical: A Foreword, by Bill NicholsAcknowledgmentsI Call This Book a LetterIntroduction—a Letter to Filmmakers1. Abandon the Conventional Documentary—Reject Realism as the Only Authentic Nonfiction Form2. Take Action—Make Useful Postrealist Films3. Forty Postrealist Strategies to Learn from and Borrow4. The ToolkitNotes BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisRadio for the Millions examines Hindi-Urdu radio during the height of its popularity from the 1930s to the 1980s, showing how it created transnational communities of listeners. Isabel Huacuja Alonso argues that despite British, Indian, and Pakistani politicians’ efforts to usurp the medium for state purposes, radio largely escaped their grasp.Trade ReviewRadio for the Millions is a fantastic work of radio history and South Asian historiography. It is meticulously researched, making use of an extensive range of archival collections across India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, as well as oral-historical interviews with radio broadcasters. Focusing on radio as a medium and following radio waves across the national borders of South Asia, this book is an excellent contribution to the project of decolonizing sound studies and the project of denationalizing South Asian history. -- Amanda Weidman, author of Brought to Life by the Voice: Playback Singing and Cultural Politics in South IndiaThis pathbreaking study shows how an attentiveness to the political and cultural potency of radio sounds reframes our understandings of histories in South Asia. Huacuja Alonso illuminates the relationship between aurality and orality, inviting us to lend an ear to voices and sounds on the radio waves that transcend and complicate borders, states, identities, and cultures in South Asia. -- Kama Maclean, University of HeidelbergThis ambitious and wide-ranging book takes seriously radio as a medium and music as a central form of sensorial engagement that defied borders and communal affiliations. Spanning India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka from the colonial to the postcolonial periods, it explains how a subcontinental popular culture endured in spite of multiple partitions. -- Durba Ghosh, Cornell UniversityRadio for the Millions challenges neat historiographies often developed from and/or by state archives. Huacuja Alonso reminds us that the “oral” and “aural” are indeed messy and complicated yet necessary registers for understanding national, political turmoils. Hindi-Urdu broadcast radio has long been a site of both (state) nation-building and (community) place-making by listeners. Radio for the Millions is an exemplary study of why listening is such an integral component of history. -- Dolores Inés Casillas, author of Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-Language Radio and Public AdvocacyIsabel Alonso provides a captivating history of radio that sits at the intersection of sound studies, cultural history, and the politics of nationalism in modern South Asia. In this virtuosic tale, we read about the policymakers, artists, singers, political figures, and poets who inhabited a broader transnational space in South Asia. . . This book will benefit an expansive community of readers, including academic communities in the disciplines of history and ethnomusicology and specifically readers interested in the cultural history of sound and music -- Pouya Nekouei * Not Even Past *Skillfully and imaginatively highlights the place of [radio] in the broader historiographies of nation-building, language, and the public sphere. -- Faiz Ullah * The Book Review (India) *An original and truly fascinating work. * H-Soz-Kult *A fascinating story of the history of radio in South Asia. -- Mehru Jaffer * The Citizen *The book makes an important contribution, especially in unearthing and resurrecting liminal voices, which make up what I would call a kind of archaeology of Southasian media. * Himal Southasian *Table of ContentsList of FiguresNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Tuning In to a Radio HistoryPart I: Radio News And World War II1. News on the AIR2. Netaji’s “Quisling Radio”Part II: Music And Postindependence Radio3. The “Sound Standards” of a New India4. Radio Ceylon, King of the AirwavesPart III: Dramatic Radio and the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War5. Radio Pakistan’s Seventeen Days of Drama6. The AIR Urdu Service’s Letters of LongingConclusion: Call to Me. Where Are You?AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book explains how and why our brains think in stories. Angus Fletcher, an expert in neuroscientific approaches to narrative, identifies this capacity as “storythinking.”Trade ReviewFletcher’s done it again. His polymathic erudition and word-wizardry elegance pull off the equivalent of a Copernican revolution in our understanding of storytelling—in all its resplendent iterations. With Storythinking he invites us on an extraordinary odyssey that enriches understanding of our deep, instinctive impulse to create stories as makers and transformers of our world. Storythinking is nothing less than a cosmological paradigm shift that puts story making and thinking at the center of all that we do. -- Frederick Luis Aldama, award-winning author and Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, UT AustinAngus Fletcher explains why effective narrative prioritizes the unique, shifts viewpoints, and encourages conflict. Not for their own sake. It makes a writer create and clarify more thoughtful ideas and leads readers to intuit and retain the message. Both revelatory and pragmatic, and so gracefully explained. -- Shane Greenstein, author of How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a New NetworkStorythinking is absolutely excellent: a much-needed reminder of and expansion on the transformative power of story, story as an enriched form of learning and as a valid epistemology. The book is a lovely, readable addition to academic and public life. I am eager to see the use of story resurrected! -- Lisa Miller, Ph.D., Professor & Founder, Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Teachers College, Columbia UniversityStory is a basic mental operation. Most of our experience, knowledge, and thinking is formed and organized by story: prediction, evaluation, planning, explanation, agents and actors, processes, goals. Story is an indispensable element of creativity. Human beings project from story to story and blend stories to create new concepts, new proposals, new science. How can we push the cognitive science of story forward? Fletcher, in this captivating and inspiring new book, leads the way. -- Mark Turner, author of The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and LanguageThe quickest way to elicit a scoff from 'serious thinkers' is to mention 'story'. But as someone who has built a career as a science communicator, who consistently straddles the line between art and science, and whose work is grounded in neuroscience, I know intuitively that storytelling is fundamental to how we think. Finally, Angus Fletcher brings his deep understanding of narrative together with his keen scientific mind to explain why we think in stories, why embracing story structure is the way forward, and how stories provide an architecture to thought as powerful and important as logic. Read this book. -- Indre Viskontas, Cognitive Neuroscientist, University of San Francisco[Storythinking] is a most unusual book, plumbing the depths of history to find where philosophy went off the rails, examining neurobiology for insight into creativity, and festooned with stories about great characters all the way through. I can honestly report I’ve never read anything like it. And that’s a good thing. * The Straight Dope *Table of Contents1. Story2. Story and Thinking3. The Origin of Story4. Why Our Schools Teach Logic, Not Story5. The Limits of Logic—or Why We Still Need Storythinking6. The Brain Machinery of Storythinking7. Improving Storythinking8. Storythinking for Personal Growth9. Storythinking for Social Growth10. Story’s Answer to the Meaning of LifeCoda: Conversations with a StorythinkerNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisDiscover the dazzling new historical novel from the author of That Green Eyed Girl and 73 Dove StreetPerfect for fans of City of Girls, Cabaret and Sunday Times bestseller, The Whalebone Theatre. ''Sexy, electrically stylish, and beautiful - a gorgeous story about sisterhood, and a glamorous, evocative passport to a period we all long to get lost in'' Daisy Buchanan, award-winning author of Insatiable''Julie''s best novel yet'' Georgina Moore, bestselling author of The Garnett GirlsWould you choose your sister or the love of your life? BERLIN, 1926After the death of their parents, sisters Leni and Annette only have each other.Desperate to support her younger sister, Leni finds work at a notorious cabaret: the Babylon Circus, a place where reality and fantasy merge. It's an overwhelming new world, and Leni is happiest hiding in the shadows. That is, until she meets the cabaret's resident pianist, Paul, beginning a tentative love affair that will play out over the next forty years and will change the course of their lives forever. In a city whose divisions will define a century, can a love born within the feverish walls of the Babylon Circus ever survive? And can the bond between Leni and Annette tugged in opposite directions of their own also endure?Praise for Circus of Mirrors: ''A tale of two sisters and a city, all three of them so vividly drawn, I felt I knew them. Superbly atmospheric, with convincingly flawed characters that just leap off the page'' Frances Quinn, author of The Bonesetter Woman ''An all-singing, all-dancing, moving and masterful book about two complex sisters living in incredibly complex times. Brilliant.'' Anna Mazzola, author of The Clockwork Girl ''Bold, brave and absorbing'' Elizabeth Buchan, author of Bonjour, Sophie ''With hints of Atonement, this is an epic novel' Louise Fein, author of Daughter of the Reich Praise for Julie Owen Moylan ''Touching, entertaining and hopeful'' Sunday Times ''Dazzling'' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING ''I was gripped from the first page'' SARA COX ''Psychologically astute and emotionally absorbing,'' DAILY MAIL ''A wonderfully evocative, immersive novel that brings 50s London to life, from the smog and the nightlife to attitudes towards women'' SUNDAY EXPRESS ''Emotional, immersive and utterly absorbing'' JENNIFER SAINT

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Book SynopsisBlack vaudevillians and entertainers joked that T.O.B.A. stood for tough on black artists. But the Theater Owner's Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) played a foundational role in the African American entertainment industry and provided a training ground for icons like Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Sammy Davis Jr., the Nicholas Brothers, Count Basie, and Butterbeans and Susie. Michelle R. Scott's institutional history details T.O.B.A.'s origins and practices while telling the little-known stories of the managers, producers, performers, and audience members involved in the circuit. Looking at the organization over its eleven-year existence (19201931), Scott places T.O.B.A. against the backdrop of what entrepreneurship and business development meant in black America at the time. Scott also highlights how intellectuals debated the social, economic, and political significance of black entertainment from the early 1900s through T.O.B.A.'s decline during the Great Depression. ClearTrade Review"Clarifies the important role African American entrepreneurs played in promoting entertainment by and for Black people during a transitional period in American show business history. . . .T.O.B.A. Time is an excellent addition to [the University of Illinois Press] catalogue." --NewCity Lit"In clear and precise prose Scott chronicles the coalescence of Black vaudeville and how T.O.B.A. helped establish and nurture the initial flowering of what became the incalculably influential Black entertainment industry. Readers who enjoyed Entertaining Raceby Michael Eric Dyson and Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib will find Scott’s unique history compelling. " --Booklist"Michelle R. Scott's T.O.B.A. Time: Black Vaudeville and the Theatre Owners' Booking Association in Jazz-Age America is a scholarship of the highest order. It provides an in-depth analysis of an organization that played an important role in providing a space for entrepreneurs and talented individuals to forge an independent role for themselves in segregated America. Scott effortlessly combines the minutiae of a multifaceted activity such as vaudeville with the broader currents which were operating in America in the early decades if the twentieth century." --British Journal of Industrial Relations“Scott’s meticulously researched and exquisitely detailed account reveals the broad impact of the T. O. B. A. circuit and the complexities of its organization and operations. The discussions of individual performers--famous and obscure--and their experiences as they worked the circuit are riveting. This is a benchmark book in theater studies and the definitive account of this fascinating institution.”--Allyson Nadia Field, author of Uplift Cinema: The Emergence of African American Film & The Possibility of Black Modernity Table of ContentsPreface AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: They Called It T.O.B.A. Chapter 1. “Whistling Coons” No More: Race Uplift & the Path to T.O.B.A. Chapter 2. Hebrew, Negro, and American Owners: Black Vaudeville and Interracial ManagementChapter 3. T.O.B.A Forms: The Interracial Business Plan for a New Negro BusinessChapter 4. The Multiple Meanings of T.O.B.A: The Performers’ PerspectiveChapter 5. A Responsibility to Community: Circuit Theaters and Black Regional AudiencesChapter 6. “Trouble in Mind": The End of T.O.B.A. TimeEpilogue: T.O.B.A.’s LegacyAppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An excellent study of a long-neglected area in television/media studies and is part of a larger turn toward the centrality of comedy in post-war U.S. culture." Jeffrey Sconce, Northwestern University"—review"A stalwart of television since its earliest days, sketch comedy finally gets the in-depth critical attention it deserves. Nick Marx shows how sketch comedy has fit (and been constrained by) TV's industrial contexts, from live variety shows in its earliest days to movement across media in the era of multiple platforms. These case studies not only chart sketch comedy's past, they provide the theoretical and analytical tools to consider its future."—Ethan Thompson, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, blurbTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Sketch Comedy and Reflexive Flexibility1. From Radio Voices to Variety Choices: The Colgate Comedy Hour and Sketch Comedy in Early Television2. "and You're Not": Saturday Night Live in the Network Era and Beyond3. Brand X: MTV's The State and Generation X in the Multi-Channel Transition4. Sketch Comedy's Identity (Post-)Politics: Inside Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, and Comedy Central in the Post-Network EraConclusion: Sketch Comedy and Cultural CohesionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"An excellent study of a long-neglected area in television/media studies and is part of a larger turn toward the centrality of comedy in post-war U.S. culture." Jeffrey Sconce, Northwestern University"—review"A stalwart of television since its earliest days, sketch comedy finally gets the in-depth critical attention it deserves. Nick Marx shows how sketch comedy has fit (and been constrained by) TV's industrial contexts, from live variety shows in its earliest days to movement across media in the era of multiple platforms. These case studies not only chart sketch comedy's past, they provide the theoretical and analytical tools to consider its future."—Ethan Thompson, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, blurbTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Sketch Comedy and Reflexive Flexibility1. From Radio Voices to Variety Choices: The Colgate Comedy Hour and Sketch Comedy in Early Television2. "and You're Not": Saturday Night Live in the Network Era and Beyond3. Brand X: MTV's The State and Generation X in the Multi-Channel Transition4. Sketch Comedy's Identity (Post-)Politics: Inside Amy Schumer, Key & Peele, and Comedy Central in the Post-Network EraConclusion: Sketch Comedy and Cultural CohesionBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisFocusing on star writer/performer comedians—Kathy Griffin, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, and Ellen DeGeneres—Pretty/Funny demonstrates that women’s comedy has become a prime site of feminism in the twenty-first century.Trade Review"Can a woman comic be pretty and funny? This academic (but readable) feminist take on six transgressive women laugh-getters - DeGeneres, Sykes, Silverman, Griffin, Cho and Fey- shows how each challenges the conventional role the culture assigns them" - Ms. Magazine "Focuses on Katy Griffin, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Maragert Cho, Wanda Sykes, and Ellen DeGeneres" - Chronicle of Higher Education "Pretty/Funny compiles six case studies of famous female comedians who write their own material - Fey, Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes and Ellen DeGeneres. Particularly, it focuses on how each woman's comedy challenges the pretty/funny binary that has shape-shifted as women making their own comedy expands [...] Race and sexuality fittingly play a big role in the book's analyses as well, looking at how these comedians' writing challenge and poke fun at how gender appears in sexism, racism, anti-semitism and homophobia. Pretty/ Funny is a fun and revealing book fit for anyone interested in the academic underpinnings of the anti-authoritarian bastard children (lady comics) of a cultural bastard child (comedy)." - Columbus Alive! "In her new book Pretty Funny: Women Comedians and Body Politics, Linda Mizejewski - Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University in Columbus - rips apart the notion that there are no funny women, and pours scorn on the idea that funny women should be judged only by their appearance. Pretty/Funny is very accessible for the non-academic reader, and is an enjoyable stomp through the sexist battlefield of the comedy circuit." - What the Frock?Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Pretty/Funny Women and Comedy's Body Politics: Funniness, Prettiness, and Feminism Chapter One. Kathy Griffin and the Comedy of the D List Chapter Two. Feminism, Postfeminism, Liz Lemonism: Picturing Tina Fey Chapter Three. Sarah Silverman: Bedwetting, Body Comedy, and "a Mouth Full of Blood Laughs" Chapter Four. Margaret Cho Is Beautiful: A Comedy of Manifesto Chapter Five. "White People Are Looking at You!" Wanda Sykes's Black Looks Chapter Six. Ellen DeGeneres: Pretty Funny Butch as Girl Next Door Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBuster Keaton''s autobiography is a view into the quirky mind behind the stoic face of the legendary film comedian.

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Book SynopsisJean-Luc Godard, like many of his European contemporaries, came to filmmaking through film criticism. This collection of essays and interviews, ranging from his early efforts for La Gazette du Cinéma to his later writings for Cahiers du Cinéma, reflects his dazzling intelligence, biting wit, maddening judgments, and complete unpredictability. In writing about Hitchcock, Welles, Bergman, Truffaut, Bresson, and Renoir, Godard is also writing about himself,his own experiments, obsessions, discoveries. This book offers evidence that he may be even more original as a thinker about film than as a director. Covering the period of 1950-1967, the years of Breathless, A Woman Is a Woman, My Life to Live, Alphaville, La Chinoise, and Weekend, this book of writings is an important document and a fascinating study of a vital stage in Godard''s career. With commentary by Tom Milne and Richard Roud, and an extensive new foreword by Annette Michelson that reassesses Godard in light of his later films, here is an outrageous self-portrait by a director who, even now, continues to amaze and bedevil, and to chart new directions for cinema and for critical thought about its history.Table of Contents* Introduction by Richard Roud * Early Texts: 1950-1952 * Return to Criticism and First Short Films: August 1956-January 1958 * The Year of A Bout de Souffle: January-July 1959 * Marginal Notes While Filming: August 1959-August 1967 * Commentary by Tom Milne

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Book SynopsisHere at last is an introduction to film theory and its history without the jargon. Noted film scholar V. F. Perkins presents criteria for expanding our understanding and enjoyment of movies. He employs common sense words like balance, coherence, significance, and satisfaction to develop his insightful support of the subtle approach and of the unobtrusive director. Readers will learn why a scene from the humbler movie Carmen Jones is a deeper realization of filmmaking than the bravura lion sequence in the classic Battleship Potemkin. Along the way Perkins invites readers to re-experience with clarity, directness, and simplicity other famous scenes by directors like Hitchcock, Eisenstein, and Chaplin. Perkins examines the origins of movies and embraces their use of both realism and magic, their ability to record as well as to create. In the process he seeks to discover the synthesis between these opposing elements. With the delight of the fan and the perception of the critic, Perkins

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Book SynopsisThe Story of American Vernacular DanceTable of Contents* Marshall Winslow Stearns: An Appreciation by James T. Maher * Prologue Prehistory * Africa and the West Indies * New Orleans and the South * The Pattern of Diffusion Beginnings * From Folk to Professional * Early Minstrelsy * Minstrel Dances and Dancers * Late Minstrelsy The Vernacular * Medicine Shows and Gillies * Carnivals, Circuses, and Negro Minstrels * Roadshows, T.O.B.A., and Picks * The Witman Sisters Tin Pan Alley and Song Lyrics * Ballroom Origins * The Song Writer: Perry BradfordI * The Song Writer: Perry BradfordII Broadway and the Reviewers * Williams and Walker and the Beginnings of Vernacular Dance on Broadway * Early Harlem * Shuffle Along * Broadway: The Early Twenties * Broadway: The Late Twenties * Choreography: Buddy Bradley Technique: Pioneers, Innovators, and Stylists * King Rastus Brown and the Time Step * Bill Robinson: Up on the Toes * Frank Condos: Wings and the Expanding Repertory * James Barton: Versatility * Harland Dixon and Character Dancing * John W. Bubbles and Rhythm Tap * Fred Astaire Specialties * Eccentric Dancing * Comedy Dancing * Russian Dancing Acrobatics * Straight Acrobatics * The New Acrobatics * The Flash Acts The Class Acts * The Original Stylists * The First Class-Act Team: Greenlee and Drayton * Pete Nugent and the Class Acts * Coles and Atkins: The Last of the Class Acts The Jitterbug * Harlem Background * The Savoy Ballroom * From Coast to Coast Requiem * Baby Laurence and the Hoffers Club * Groundhog * The Dying Breed * Epilogue

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Book SynopsisBy 1982 Francis Ford Coppola had won five Academy Awards at the same time he was over 20 million in debt following the disastrous failure of One from the Heart. This astute biography critically examines Coppola''s singular vision and why it makes such paradoxes not only possible but prevalent in his long turbulent career. At the age of 32 Coppola became a superstar in Hollywood with The Godfather, which rapidly climbed to the top of the all-time box-office hits. Two years later he won the coveted Palme d''Or at the Cannes festival for The Conversation. His savage epic of the Vietnam War, Apocalypse Now, established him as the most daring, brilliant filmmaker of his generation. This book not only goes behind the cameras to track the creative and financial turmoil involved in his productions, but offers perceptive analyses of his films, including all three parts of The Godfather and the visually stunning remake of Dracula. Based on three years of research and exclusive intervTable of Contents* Introduction * The Italian Connection * The Studio Grind * Independence and the Dream of Zoetrope * The Godfather * Picking Up The Conversation * Back to Corleone * Lost in the Jungle * Blows to the Heart * Back to Back in Tulsa * Playing The Cotton Club * From Rip van Winkle to Peggy Sue * Tragedy and Revival * TuckerThe Dream Triumphant * Back to the Future * Filmography

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Book SynopsisParker Tyler (1904-1974), one of the few great American film critics, was intimate with and enormously respected by many of the underground and experimental filmmakers of his time. In this book, Tyler evaluated the Underground in general and the seminal films in particular, covering the history and scope of the genre with insight and verve. Like Tyler''s Screening of the Sexes: Homosexuality in the Movies is one of the masterpieces of cinema literature.Table of Contents* The Underground Taboo Versus the Taboo on Reality * The Exploding Peephole of the Underground * Toward Exhibition and Exhibitionism * Popularizing Peepshows: the Infantile Gimmick * No Establishment at All? * Underground Climb: from Exhibitionism to Art * Underground Infantilism: Surfacing Superstars * Superstar Space: the Playroom * Can the Technician Escape the Pad? * The Pad Can Be Commercialized * Performing Children, Performing Madmen * The ParanoiacCritical Kick * The Pads Predecessor: an Archetype * Underground Film Is Primitive Film * Where the Rub Is * The Abstractness of the Avant-Gardes * The Avant-Garde Laboratory * Dotting the Eyes of Distortion * Psychedelic Anamorphosis and Its Lesson * Dotting the Eye of History * Film Aesthetics: Rampant and Purist * The Plot Thickensbut Seriously * The Plastic Pulse Ticks On * In the Pad: Plastique versus Surplot * Hard-core History * The Esthetics of Film History * The Population Explosion and the Remedy * Basic Film Forms * Hisotyr and Manifesto * The Shape of Things to Come? * Coda

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