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Book SynopsisA Monologue is an Outrageous Situation! How to Survive the 60-Second Audition explains how to successfully tackle the cattle call acting audition with a sixty-second monologue. Through Q&As, tips, directorâs notes, and a glossary full of outrageous actions meant to inspire the actor into truly connecting with the piece, this book shows actors where and how to find a monologue, edit it, and give the best audition possible.Table of ContentsPart One: A Monologue is…? An Audition is an outrageous situation The Sixty second Dilemma What is a monologue? A monologue is an Outrageous situation What to Look for when choosing a Monologue What to Avoid in a Monologue Part Two: Working on a Monologue Read the Play Ask the Stanislavski Question Given Circumstances Take 3 Tips from the script Editing a Monologue—include Table Piecing a monologue together—include Table Memorize—ASAP Blocking How to Move (Because you must) Monologue Pitfalls Outrageous Exercises and Improvs Part Three: Time to Audition Steps of Your Audition How Should I introduce my Monologue? Where Should I place My Focus? Focus 1.0, 2.0 Should I take time to ‘get into it’ before I start? Your Actual Run Time Your Audition Must Show… Your Sixty-second Audition Must Prove… How much can the Auditors See in 60 seconds? What Do the Auditors Want to See in a Call Back? When Does the Audition Really Begin? When Does the Audition End? Part Four: "Just a Few Notes." Realism is Not Real Positive Negative Playing Emotion Playing Explosions Playing Characters that are Rich That are Poor That are heroic That are evil That are courageous That are cowardly Crying and Yelling is Not Dramatic Don’t TRY to be Funny Dress and Hygiene for Men Dress and Hygiene for Women Final Thought on Clothes Tattoo is Taboo Exit Epilogue Appendix MONOLOGUE SUGGESTIONS WHERE TO FIND MONOLOGUES UNIFIED AUDITIONS HEAD SHOT PRODUCTION

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Book SynopsisThey don't care about the truth or changing anything. They just want to discredit us. Bury us under a load of insinuation and then shut us up by paying us off. I can't bear to bleed out my pain and it not mean anything. When Mel meets Dave at a protest, she believes she has met her kindred spirit. Dave soon becomes central to her life and her activist friends. But is he who he appears to be?An emotionally compelling drama that explores love, betrayal, secrets and lies and exposes the brutality of a police policy that used any means necessary to undermine political protest.Based on a true story, Any Means Necessary centres on the events surrounding a group of environmental activists and the 2011 court case that charged them with trespass at nearby Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.This real-life event set in Nottingham uncovered a national scandal that has led to a full police apology and an admission that their officers' behaviour was an abuse of the women's human rightsTrade ReviewA poignant and tender story . . . as funny as it was moving * Sunday Times on "Mathematics of the Heart" *[Achieves] a balance between brittle humour and broody thoughtfulness * The Times on "Mathematics of the Heart" *Brims with vitality and acuity, resulting in a pleasing and pertinent play about the nature of rivalry and relationships * Stage on "Mathematics of the Heart" *The case of police spies forming sexual relationships with political activists has been so well documented . . . that it is fair to ask what a dramatist can add. In the case of Kefi Chadwick, who has written this fascinating play, she brings a vivid picture of the mutual destructiveness of fraudulent affairs, but also an awareness that collective action can lead to public change. [...] The virtue of the play is that it links private and public worlds. Through the story of Mel and Dave, it explores the difficulty of faking a long-term relationship without a genuine sense of entanglement. [...] what is heartening about Chadwick's play is that it reminds you of past wrongs while showing that women have the power to take present action. * Guardian *bold and insightful . . . Chadwick's play remains powerful, political stuff . . . a true-life horror story in which individuals count for nothing and everyone is expendable. * Stage *Kefi Chadwick's text is excellent . . . Anyone hoping for a one-sided evening of left-wing agitprop would have trudged home disappointed. It is altogether more complex and interesting than that. And it manages to end on an . . . optimistic note. * Nottingham Post *Any Means Necessary is a fascinating play that looks at events where the audience are likely to know the ending and the corrupt motivations of the police. Yet we still sit as onlookers breathlessly observing the lies unfolding and they are told with such conviction that our sympathies find it difficult to know who to side with. * Big Issue *Chadwick's play seeks to demonstrate the scale of the betrayal of ordinary women by a corrupt police institution. . . . The dynamics of the protesters ring true, the warmth of their friendships compensating for some occasional artificial speechifying . . . offers an important, emotive call for action by demonstrating the scale of the betrayal perpetuated on activists and exposing the belligerent callousness of the police towards those affected. It painstakingly captures the insidiousness of a lie that sullies everything it touches and destroys the ability to trust. . . . [Any Means Necessary] establishes a platform which, one hopes, will enable many more victims to speak about their experiences and seek justice, and, crucially, prevent this happening again. * Exeunt *

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Book SynopsisHighTide Theatre Festival was founded in 2006 and has since become one of the most prolific homes of new writing. It has been described by the Telegraph as one of the little gems of the artistic calendar in Britain and by the Daily Mail as famous for championing emerging playwrights and contemporary theatre.2016 marks ten years of HighTide, during which time numerous emerging playwrights and new plays have shot to prominence.This anniversary volume brings together four of the key plays that have come out of HighTide Theatre Festival''s programme during this time: Ditch by Beth Steel is a clear-eyed look at how we might behave when the conveniences of our civilisation are taken away, and a frightening vision of a future that could all too easily be ours.peddling by Harry Melling is a poetic monologue about a young homeless man, which confronts whether it''s a good thing to turn a blind eye and let people get on with their lives, or whether that''s exactly how people Trade ReviewSteel's text is an evocative mix of farm metaphors, punchy dialogue and moments of dreamy wistfulness * Tribune on 'Ditch' *Feels like the intersection of Beckett and Albee * New York Times (Critics' Choice) on Harry Melling's 'peddling' *A life-in-overdrive comic drama . . . Dan LeFranc’s snappy dialogue captures the tumultuous tenor of family gatherings * New York Times on 'The Big Meal' *Lampedusa is one of the most gently enticing pieces of storytelling you will see, softly encroaching on the moral consciousness like a lullaby. . . . Lustgarten's descriptions of drowning have a power that comes from fleshy detail matched by poetic virtuosity. There's dark beauty here, on the sharp end of Europe's implosion * The Times on 'Lampedusa' *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Steven Atkinson Ditch by Beth Steel peddling by Harry Melling The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc Lampedusa by Anders Lustgarten

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Book SynopsisChristopher Shinn is an American playwright from New York. His plays include Now or Later (shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play), Dying City (Pulitzer Prize finalist), Where Do We Live (winner of an Obie in Playwriting), An Opening In Time, Teddy Ferrara, Picked, Four, What Didn't Happen, On the Mountain, Other People, and The Coming World. His adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway (American Airlines Theatre), and he has written short plays for Naked Angels (Democracy Project), the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, the Bush Theatre (Sixty-Six Books), and Headlong (Decade). His work has been premiered by Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, the Goodman, the Royal Court, and the Soho Theatre, and later produced around the world. Christopher Shinn's awards include a GuggenheiTrade ReviewNow Or Later is as potent as David Mamet’s Oleanna in its exposure of how liberal creeds can – one way or another – be murkily tied in with intolerance * Independent on "Now Or Later" *The play keeps delivering small shocks and aches that end in a standoff, or maybe in that pause between despair, resignation, and a twinge of hope. Haunting. * New York Times on "Four" *Surprising nuance and sudden surges of emotion. The play offers several outstanding monologues, some tender, some searing, and one unforgettable * New Yorker on "On the Mountain" *Better than any play I’ve seen at finding the natural existential anxiety in the frustration and powerlessness of being a movie actor. Offers ample evidence of this dramatist’s singular gift for presenting human murkiness with precisely shaded clarity. Impeccably observed. * New York Times on "Picked" *Shinn opens a window into lives that we rarely see on stage * Broadway World *A playwright who writes with unshowy depth and unforced menace on a challenging subject * New York Magazine *Shinn territory is a land of bruised souls sharing awkward silences, their subtext and inchoate impulses placed carefully between them. A dramatist who writes from an intensely interior zone * Time Out New York *Table of ContentsIntroduction Now or Later Four Picked On The Mountain

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Book SynopsisChris Johnston (19512017) was the Director of improvisation company Fluxx, and Co-Director of both Rideout and Livestock. He taught at a range of colleges and institutions including University of Warwick and Staffordshire University, UK.Trade ReviewFollowing the seismic events of recent years we have possibly never had a greater need for disobedience, and this book is a timely and invaluable overview of the vital role that critical and creative thinking can play in both imagining and shaping new worlds. Through Chris Johnson's wide-ranging frames of reference and rigorous and inspirational writings we are reminded that theatre, as a practice, as a place and as a context, can be a safe space for dangerous ideas. -- Lois Keidan, Live Art Development Agency, London, UKTable of ContentsIntroduction Part One – In the World 1. Principles 2. Identity 3. Manoeuvres 4. Relationships 5. Survival Part Two – In the Room 6. Performing 7. Facilitating Appendix: Beginnings

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Book SynopsisKatie Douglas is an award-winning screenwriter and playwright whose writing credits include Eastenders and Secret Diary of a Call Girl. She was part of the Liverpool Everyman's Young Writers' Group, as well as the Bruntwood Hub. She has worked with Liverpool Everyman, the RSC, Paines Plough, Soho and The Royal Exchange. Douglas was awarded the Frank Deasy Award in 2013.

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Book SynopsisEva O'Connor is an Irish writer and performer based in London. Founder of Sunday's Child Theatre Company, she has written and produced multiple plays with the company. Her one-woman show My Name is Saoirse won the First Fortnight Award at the Dublin Fringe 2014 and the Argus Angel at the Brighton Fringe 2015. It was also adapted for RTE Radio 1, and was broadcast in their Drama on One slot in April 2015. Eva O'Connor was part of the Traverse young writers group and selected for the Traverse 50 in 2014. Her play Overshadowed about a young girl's struggle with anorexia premiered at the Dublin Fringe in September 2015 and won the Fishamble New Writing Award. She also has an MA in theatre ensemble from Rose Bruford drama school.Trade ReviewA dark, insightful, sometimes funny portrayal of eating disorders * The Irish Times on Overshadowed *An enlightening and heartbreaking piece of theatre that opens the eyes of its audience * Edinburgh Festival Magazine *[L]ively and absorbing * Scotsman *

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