Theatre direction and production Books

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisMark B. Sandberg explores the architectural metaphors that Henrik Ibsen introduced into mainstream Western thought - embodied by the titles of his plays A Doll's House, Pillars of Society, and The Master Builder. His book will appeal to those interested in architectural theory, literary and theater history, and Scandinavian studies.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Ibsen's uncanny; 2. Facades unmasked; 3. Home and house; 4. The tenacity of architecture; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisWritten by a team of leading international scholars, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and War illuminates the ways Shakespeare''s works provide a rich and imaginative resource for thinking about the topic of war. Contributors explore the multiplicity of conflicting perspectives his dramas offer: war depicted from chivalric, masculine, nationalistic, and imperial perspectives; war depicted as a source of great excitement and as a theater of honor; war depicted from realistic or skeptical perspectives that expose the butchery, suffering, illness, famine, degradation, and havoc it causes. The essays in this volume examine the representations and rhetoric of war throughout Shakespeare''s plays, as well as the modern history of the war plays on stage, in film, and in propaganda. This book offers fresh perspectives on Shakespeare''s multifaceted representations of the complexities of early modern warfare, while at the same time illuminating why his perspectives on war and its consequences continue to matter now and in the future.Trade Review'The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and War is much more than an overview of a field or guide to an area and performs valuable intellectual work in bringing together diverse perspectives on a subject that embarrasses as well as attracts readers, many of whom want a straightforward understanding of a complicated subject that will inevitably resist mastery.' Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary SupplementTable of Contents1. Beyond shallow and silence: war in the age of Shakespeare Paul E. J. Hammer; 2. Just war theory and Shakespeare Franziska Quabeck; 3. Shakespeare on civil and dynastic wars David Bevington; 4. Foreign war Claire McEachern; 5. War and the classical world Maggie Kilgour; 6. 'The question of these wars': Shakespeare, warfare, and the chronicles David Scott Kastan; 7. Instrumentalizing anger: warfare and disposition in the Henriad Gail Kern Paster; 8. War and Eros David Schalkwyk; 9. Shakespeare's language and the Rhetoric of war Lynne Magnusson; 10. Staging Shakespeare's wars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Michael Hattaway; 11. Reading Shakespeare's wars on film: ideology and montage Gregory Semenza; 12. Shakespeare and World War II Garrett A. Sullivan Jr; 13. Henry V and the pleasures of war Paul Stevens; 14. Macbeth and Trauma Willy Maley; 15. Coriolanus and the use of power Catherine M. S. Alexander.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948, Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year''s textual and critical studies and of the year''s major British performances. The theme for Volume 73 is ''Shakespeare and the City''. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/collections/shakespeare-survey This fully searchable resource enables users to browse by author, essay and volume, search by play, theme and topic and save and bookmark their results.Table of Contents1. Continental Shakespeare Karen Newman; 2. The stranger at the door: belonging in Shakespeare's Ephesus Nandini Das; 3. City origins, lost identities and print errors in The Comedy of Errors Alice Leonard; 4. The circulation of youthful energy on the early modern London stage: migration, intertheatricality, and 'growing to common players' Harry R. McCarthy; 5. In conversation with Shakespeare in Jacobean London: social insanity and its taming schools in 1 and 2 Honest Whore Chi-Fang Sophia Li; 6. Hearing voices: signal vs urban noise in Coriolanus and Augustine's Confessions Lars Engle; 7. Caesar and Lear in Hong Kong: appropriating Shakespeare to express the inexpressible Miriam Lau Leung Che; 8. Before we sleep: Macbeth and the curtain lecture Neil Rhodes; 9. 'The story shall be changed': antique fables and agency in A Midsummer Night's Dream Charlotte Scott; 10. A lawful magic: new worlds of precedent in Mabo and The Winter's Tale Nicholas Luke; 11. 'Cabined, cribbed, confined': advice to actors and the priorities of Shakespearean scholarship' Michael Cordner; 12. 'What country, friends, is this?': Tim Supple's Twelfth Night revisited Peter J. Smith; 13. Through a glass darkly: Sophie Okonedo's Margaret as racial other in The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses Jennie M. Votava; 14. 'Who's there?': Britain's twenty-first century obsession with celebrity Hamlet (2008-2018) Gemma Kate Allred; 15. Shakespearean performance in England 2019 Stephen Purcell and Paul Prescott; 16. Professional Shakespeare productions in the British Isles 2018 James Shaw; 17. Critical studies Charlotte Scott; 18. Shakespeare in performance Russell Jackson; 19. Editions and textual studies Peter Kirwan.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948, Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year''s textual and critical studies and of the year''s major British performances. The theme for Volume 74 is ''Shakespeare and Education. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/collections/shakespeare-survey This fully searchable resource enables users to browse by author, essay and volume, search by play, theme and topic and save and bookmark their results.Table of Contents1. Whither goest thou, Public Shakespearian? Sharon O'Dair and Timothy Francisco; 2. Teaching Shakespeare in a Time of Hate Alexa Alice Joubin and Lisa S. Starks; 3. Playful Pedagogy and Social Justice: Digital Embodiment in the Shakespeare Classroom Gina Bloom, Nicholas Toothman, and Evan Buswell; 4. Digital Resources, Teaching Online and Evolving International Pedagogic Practice Christie Carson; 5. Teaching Shakespeare with Performance Pedagogy in an Online Environment Esther Schupak; 6. PPE for Shakespeareans: Pandemic, Performance, and Education Kevin A. Quarmby; 7. 'In India': Shakespeare and Prison in Kolkata and Mysore Sheila T. Cavanagh; 8. Shakespeare for Cops Jeffrey R. Wilson; 9. Younger Generations and Empathic Communication: Learning to Feel in Another Language with Shakespeare at the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre in Rome Maddalena Pennacchia; 10. Shakespeare in nineteenth-century Bengal: An Imperative of 'New Learning' Madhumita Saha; 11. Forging a Republic of Letters: Shakespeare, politics and a new university in early twentieth-century Portugal Rui Carvalho Homem; 12. Cultural Inclusivity and Student Shakespeare Performances in Late-Colonial Singapore, 1950-9 Emily Soon; 13. Using performance to strengthen the higher education sector: Shakespeare in twenty-first century Vietnam Sarah Olive; 14. Counterpublic Shakespeares in the American Education Marketplace Jillian Snyder; 15. Taking Love's Labour's Lost seriously Nigel Wood; 16. The Thyestean Language of English Revenge Tragedy on the University and Popular Stages Elizabeth Sandis; 17. Going to School with(out) Shakespeare: Conversations with Edward's Boys Harry R. McCarthy and Perry Mills; 18. Intimacy and Schadenfreude in Reports of Problems in Early Modern Productions Ceri Sullivan; 19. The True Tragedy as a Yorkist Play? Problems in Textual Transmission Richard Stacey; 20. Henry VIII and Henry IX: Unlived lives and re-written histories Laura Jayne Wright; 21. 'And his works in a glass case': The Bard in the Garden and the Legacy of the Shakespeare Ladies Club Genevieve Kirk; 22. Hamlet and John Austen's Devil with a (Dis)pleasing Shape Luisa Moore; 23. Shakespeare, #MeToo, and his New Contemporaries Pamela Royston Macfie; 24. 'While memory holds a seat in this distracted globe': A Look Back at the Arden Shakespeare Third Series Jennifer Young; 25. Shakespeare Productions in London Lois Potter; 26. Productions Outside London Peter Kirwan; 27. Professional Productions in the British Isles, January – December 2019 James Shaw; 28. The Year's Contribution to Shakespeare Studies: 1. Critical Studies reviewed by Jane Kingsley-Smith; 2. Editions and Textual Studies reviewed by Emma Depledge.

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Book SynopsisGemma Kate Allred is a doctoral researcher at the Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland.Benjamin Broadribb is a doctoral researcher at The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.Erin Sullivan is Reader in Shakespeare at The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.Trade ReviewA remarkably cathartic read. * Shakespeare Survey *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Cultural Cartography of The Digital Lockdown Landscape Gemma Kate Allred (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and Benjamin Broadribb (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) Part One: Analyses 1. The Screen Language of Lockdown: Connection and Choice in Split-Screen Performance John Wyver (University of Westminster, London, UK) 2. Lockdown Shakespeare and the Metamodern Sensibility Benjamin Broadribb (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 3. Notions of Liveness in Lockdown Performance Gemma Kate Allred (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland) 4. Creation Theatre and Big Telly’s The Tempest: Digital Theatre and the Performing Audience Pascale Aebischer and Rachael Nicholas (University of Exeter, UK) 5. Immersion in a Time of Distraction: ‘The Under Presents: Tempest’ Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 6. What You Will in the Time of COVID-19: Exploring the Digital Arts, Race and Flexible Resistance David Sterling Brown (Trinity College, Connecticut, USA ) and Ben Crystal (The Shakespeare Ensemble, Global) Part Two: Case Studies 7. ‘Shakespeare for Everyone’ The Show Must Go Online in conversation with Gemma Kate Allred (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and Benjamin Broadribb (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 8. Ricardo II: una producción bilingüe de Merced Shakespearefest William Wolfgang (University of Warwick, UK) and Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 9. ‘Your play needs no excuse’ CtrlAltRepeat in conversation with Gemma Kate Allred (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and Benjamin Broadribb (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 10. ‘Are we all met?’: Responding to Shakespeare’s Canon through Online Community Performance Jennifer Moss Waghorn, Katrin Bauer, Sarah Hodgson, Diane Lowman, Kathryn Twigg and Martin Wiggins (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 11. ‘Present fears are less than horrible imaginings’ Big Telly Theatre Company in conversation with Gemma Kate Allred (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and Benjamin Broadribb (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) 12. Teaching Shakespearean Performance in Lockdown Andrew James Hartley (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA), Sarah Hatchuel (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, France) and Yu Umemiya (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan) in conversation with Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) Part Three: Lockdown Digital Arts: An Extended Year in Review Gemma Kate Allred (Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland), Benjamin Broadribb and Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) I. Spring II. Summer III. Autumn IV. Winter / Spring Conclusion: Shakespeare after Lockdown Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK) Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTom Cantrell is a Professor of Theatre and Head of the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York, UK. He has published widely on acting processes, including Acting in Documentary Theatre (Palgrave 2013), Acting in British Television (Palgrave 2017) and Exploring Television Acting (Bloomsbury 2018), co-written with Christopher Hogg.Katherine Graham is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, UK, where her research focuses on the agency of materials in performance. She has also worked extensively as a lighting designer for theatre and dance and has published work about light in Theatre and Performance Design Journal, Studies in Theatre and Performance, and Contemporary Theatre Review. She is co-editor, with Kelli Zezulka and Scott Palmer, of Contemporary Performance Lighting: Experience, Creativity, Meaning (Bloomsbury 2023).Mark Love-Smith is a Senior Lecture

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Book SynopsisRobert Marsden is an experienced theatre director and theatre academic, currently Head of the Media and Performance Department at Staffordshire University, UK. As a director, he has worked across subsidised and commercial sectors since 1999 and has taught directing, acting and theatre making in universities and drama schools since 2001. He has published articles in journals for Palgrave, as well as in trade papers from The Stage to Drama and Theatre magazine amongst others, and is the author of Inside the Rehearsal Room (2022).

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Book SynopsisAlex Watson is a principal lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Theatre, Brighton, BIMM University, UK. His publications include articles for Theatre Notebook (2022) and Contemporary Theatre Review (2022), as well as chapters for Methuen Engage (2022), Contemporary Drama in English (2023), and The Routledge Companion to 20th-Century Theatre (forthcoming).

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Book SynopsisLeo Butler is an award-winning playwright from Sheffield, UK. His plays have been produced by many of the UK's most important theatres, including the National Theatre, Royal Court, Almeida, Birmingham Rep, and Royal Shakespeare Company. He has taught and run workshops at major international theatres and cultural centres, including Teatro De La Palabra in Chile; Dot Theatre in Turkey; Studio Emad Eddin in Egypt; National Theatre in Nigeria; Reps Theatre in Zimbabwe; Market Theatre in South Africa; Teatro Britanico in Peru; and Merlin International Theater in Hungary. He has written many celebrated plays about young people, including Made of Stone (Royal Court), Redundant (Royal Court - winner of the George Divine Award), Boy (Almeida) and Decades (Brit School/Bridge Theatre Co.) He has written historical plays such as I'll Be The Devil (RSC) and contemporary dramas such as Lucky Dog (Royal Court), Faces in the Crowd (Royal Court), The Early Bird (Queen's Theatre, Belfast) and All You Need is LSD (Birmingham Rep). He has also adapted classics like Woyzeck (Birmingham Rep), pantomimes and comedies such as Cinderella (Theatre Royal Stratford East), and written musicals such as Alison! The Rock Opera (Royal Court/King's Head). For 10 years, Leo Butler was Writers Tutor at the Royal Court Theatre and helped nurture a new generation of playwriting talent.

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Book SynopsisSomething exciting is happening with the contemporary history play. New writing by playwrights such as Jackie Sibblies Drury, Samuel Adamson, Hannah Khalil, Cordelia Lynn, and Lucy Kirkwood, makes powerful theatrical use of the past, but does not fit into critics' familiar categories of historical drama. In this book, Benjamin Poore provides readers with tools to name and critically analyse these changes.The Contemporary History Play contends that many history plays are becoming more complex and layered in their aesthetic approaches, as playwrights work through the experience of being surrounded by numerous and varied forms of historical representation in the twenty-first century.For theatre scholars, this book offers a means of interpreting how new writing relies on the past and notions of historicity to generate meaning and resonance in the present. For playwrights and students of playwriting, the book is a guide to the history play's recent past, and to the state of the art: what techniques and formulas have been popular, the tropes that are widely used, and how artists have found ways of renewing or overturning established conventions.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on qualitative research exploring the techniques of playwriting instructors, this book outlines signature pedagogies within playwriting instruction for novice' writers and how they may be reimagined and reinvigorated. Through research gathered in interviews with 11 instructors, and surveying their methods, syllabi and handouts, Andrew Black interrogates key challenges within dramatic writing pedagogy: the myth that it, along with creativity, cannot be taught; the lack of clarity about the instructional value of playwriting education for diverse contemporary audiences; the tendency to allow the writing product to drive instruction rather than process; and the tension between traditional and experimental models of play construction and how this can confound instructional techniques. Identifying 3 indispensable and signature pedagogies that are consistently used in the classroom the writing exercise, the use of mentor texts and the workshopping of student material this boo

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Book SynopsisEditors:Anne García-Romero is Professor of Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. She's the author of The Fornés Frame: Contemporary Latina Playwrights and the Legacy of María Irene Fornés (2016). In 2018, she received a Luksic Foundation grant to teach in Chile. Her plays include Paloma, Juanita's Statue, Earthquake Chica, and Santa Concepcíon. Coca Duarte is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile School of Theatre, Santiago, Chile. She's the author of Writing the Scene, Tracing the Present: Dramatic Strategies of the Chilean Theater 2007-2017 (2023). Her plays include Juana de Arco, Mala Leche, Mal and Plaga.Inés Stranger is Professor of Theatre at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile School of Theatre, Santiago, Chile. She's the author of Playwriting Notebook: Theory, Technique and Exercises (2011). Her plays include Cariño, Malo, Malinche and Tálamo. She received the Fondo del Libro award from Chile's Council on Art and Culture.Playwrights:Ximena Carrera is a Chilean actor, playwright, producer, screenwriter and teacher. In 1997, she founded the theatre company, The Trumpet, with actor and director Sebastián Vila. Her works include Por encargo del olvido, Naturaleza Muerta, Medusa, and Ningún pájaro canta por cantar. She's the 2010 winner for Best Play from the Chile Drama Critics Circle.Isidora Stevenson is a Chilean playwright, director and teacher. Her works include Campo, Hilda Peña, Réplica, Guerra, Bernarda, El nudo, Informe de una mujer que arde, Soledad Escobar, Niebla, Mi corazón es un ancla, Fin, and Amanda Labarca. She's the 2014 winner of the Chile National Theater Festival.Nona Fernández is a Chilean actor, playwright and novelist. Her plays include El Taller, winner of the 2012 Altazor y Nuez Martín prizes, Liceo de niñas, and Paren la Música, winner of the 2021 Best Play from the Chilean Drama Critics Circle. Her award-winning novels include Mapocho, Space Invaders and Chilean Electric.Leyla Selman is a Chilean actor, poet, and playwright. She is a member of the Colectivo Frío, a collective focusing on art, theatre and film. Her plays include El mejor truco de magia jamás visto, Ifigenia, OtraMuerta Anunciada, La Ciudad de la Fruta and Los Ojos de Lena. She's the 2024 winner for Best Play from the Chile Drama Critics Circle.Carla Zúñiga is a Chilean actor, playwright and teacher. In 2012, she founded the company, La Niña Horrible, with Javier Cassanga. Her works include Sentimientos, La trágica agonía de un pájaro azul, and El amarillo sol de tus cabellos largos. She's the 2020 winner for Best Play from the Chile Drama Critics Circle.Translators:Constanza Brieba is a Chilean director, actor, translator and arts administrator. She studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA). She has served as a theatrical translator in Chile for the British Council, the North American Institute of Culture and the French Institute of Culture. Her theatrical translations have been produced in Chile, England and Switzerland. Andrea Thome is a Chilean/Costa Rican-American playwright and translator. Recent plays: Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes); Cymbeline (modern English translation'); A Dozen Dreams (installation); Pinkolandia (multiple U.S. productions; translated into Russian). Spanish-English translations include Guillermo Calderón's Neva (Public Theater, CTG) and Rodrigo García's You Should Have Stayed Home, Morons (Radar LA).Alexandra Ripp is a dramaturg, translator and arts administrator. She has worked at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, Carolina Performing Arts, Five College Dance, and most recently with movement-based artist nora chipaumire. She served as co-editor of Imagined Theaters: Chile. She holds an MFA and DFA from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.Yael Prizant is an adapter, translator, devisor, and dramaturg. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre, an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy and has taught at UCLA, the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and Johns Hopkins SAIS. Her book, Cuba Inside Out: Revolution and Contemporary Theatre, investigates effects of politics and globalization on the stage. She has translated works of Cuban playwrights and is the dramaturg for Máscaramentos at the Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

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Book SynopsisJ. Austin Eyer is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at The Pennsylvania State University. He also serves as the Head of Musical Theatre for Musiktheater Bavaria in Germany. He has performed on Broadway in Evita, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Billy Elliot, The Little Mermaid, Curtains and The Secret GardenLyndy Franklin Smith is an Instructor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at University of Kentucky, Artistic Director of The Lexington Theatre Company, and a professional Director/Choreographer. She performed on Broadway in A Chorus Line and The Little Mermaid; Tours of Fosse and White Christmas and NYC's Radio City Christmas Spectacular.Trade ReviewAustin Eyer and Franklin Smith are both experienced [swings] and take the reader through the background to the swing concept, rehearsing as a swing, dealing with whatever you have to do in the show and what happens at the end of it. There’s a lot of practical advice about learning songs and dancing routines, and combining it – if required – with the role of dance captain. A useful and accessible book about a subject which really needed spelling out clearly. Yes, it’s about Broadway but nearly all the advice and examples are applicable wherever musical theatre is being staged. * The Stage *As this text so wonderfully captures, swings are mathematicians, artists, soloists, team members, team leaders, peacekeepers, and miracle-workers. What a gift to have their stories told! Future swings, take this gift and run with it! * Andy Blankenbuehler, Choreographer *A revelation! . . . This user-friendly guide explains everything you need to know to be a successful swing or cover on any stage, anywhere. It takes all of the confusion and intimidation out of the job and explains every responsibility in detail. A guaranteed gem!’ * Lyn Cramer, University of Oklahoma *A must-read for anyone considering a career in the theater, Broadway Swings is an eye-opener that will teach any old theater fan new tricks. -- Dave Quinn * NBC In the Wings *Table of ContentsPreface by J. Austin Eyer and Lyndy Franklin Smith Foreword by Susan Stroman Acknowledgments Introduction Some Terms to Know 1 What is a Swing? 2 Selecting the Swing 3 Swings in Rehearsal 4 The Next Step: Tech Rehearsal and Previews 5 On with the Show 6 And the Show Goes On . . . and On . . . and On . . . 7 Closing Time 8 So You Think You Can Swing? 9 Swings as Dance Captains 10 Swings beyond Broadway 11 Swing Stories 12 Thoughts from the Creative Team 13 Swinging On Appendix A: Meet the Swings Appendix B: Sources/Further Reading

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Book Synopsis''A sparkling memoir ... A delight from start to finish'' NINA STIBBE ''Anyone who loves the theatre will love this book'' ZOË WANAMAKER In 1980s London, Sweetpea Slight is en route to drama school when she is snapped up to work as an assistant to the maverick theatre producer Thelma Holt. Full of wit, charm and backstage intrigue, her irresistible memoir of the resulting twenty years is at once the poignant story of a young woman coming of age, and an exhilarating journey down the rabbit hole into the enchanting world of theatre.Trade ReviewA sparkling memoir full of charm and wit, with moments of poignancy and lots of gossip. If you love theatre, you'll adore this book - it's a delight from start to finish -- Nina Stibbe, author of LOVE, NINAA sparkling memoir [that evokes] the rougher glamour of backstage life ... With its anecdotes, backstage intrigue and charming portrait of a young woman navigating theatre's enchanting parallel worlds, Get Me the Urgent Biscuits should find itself a wider audience to amuse -- Victoria Segal * SUNDAY TIMES *A superbly written and moving account of one woman's efforts to understand the world and her own place in it ... Part of its beauty comes from the air of sadness that hangs over it ... In the end, this is a story about learning who you are by pretending to be other people -- Mark Mason * DAILY MAIL *As this sparkling memoir reveals, it was a heady life of first nights, famous actors, mad deadlines and long, underpaid hours ... But as the years pass, she realises that the long hours, poor pay and her conflicted sexuality are making her unhappy and this adds a dash of melancholy to the deliciously entertaining froth ... Sweetpea's sobering honesty transforms this hugely enjoyable memoir into something more poignant and serious -- Eithne Farry * SUNDAY EXPRESS *Sweetpea's memoirs catch beautifully (and without malice) London theatreland's engaging resilience ... I loved this book for its selfless, slightly dazed sketch of the clattering chaos of theatre production -- Quentin Letts * DAILY MAIL Books of the Year *An utterly beautiful description of what it's like to move to London, and come to terms with your changing ambitions as well as yourself -- Mark Mason * THE SPECTATOR Books of the Year *A charming memoir about offstage theatrical shenanigans ... Get Me the Urgent Biscuits is an elegy for a London that is wholly lost ... [It] contains a number of enchanting thespian vignettes -- Roger Lewis * THE TIMES *Sweetpea, like Alice following the White Rabbit into the hole, takes us on an extraordinary adventure in theatrical wonderland. An insight into the theatre world which she shares with the reader with such ease and charm. The successes, the failures, but most of all the characters, and her homage to the wondrous Thelma Holt, who takes her on her fantastic journey. Anyone who loves the theatre will love this book. A must -- Zoë WanamakerThis glorious description of the maverick flame-haired theatre impresaria Thelma Holt by her hapless, charming assistant Sweetpea Slight made me put the book down and laugh loud and long, sweeping away tears so I could carry on reading -- Anna ChancellorDestined to become an instant classic. For the hardcore theatre buff, it has it all: a passion for performance, beautifully observed backstage howlers, celebrity gossip, devotion beyond the call of duty and, at its heart, a dazzling portrait of one of the great eccentrics of contemporary British theatre ... Get Me the Urgent Biscuits is an assured and ingenious conflation of autobiographical rite of passage, sharp character study and serious theatrical endeavour. It is also crying out to be adapted for the screen -- Nick Smurthwaite * THE STAGE *The old French saying 'no man is a hero to his valet' gets a sprightly modern twist in Sweetpea Slight's memoir of working for formidable theatrical grande dame Thelma Holt ... Charmingly ditzy and packed with backstage gossip, this is a poignant account of coming of age in the theatre -- Jane Shilling * DAILY MAIL Must Reads *Terrific memoir of working in the London theatre in the 1980s. Slight's job was lowly, but she has plenty of great anecdotes - not all of them particularly discreet * READER'S DIGEST *The dazzling debut of a born storyteller. The book crackles with wit while knocking you sideways with its poignancy -- Anne RobinsonThe uproarious memoir about the author's apprenticeship to maverick theatre impresario Thelma Holt. Slight was en route to drama school when Holt snapped her up, cancelled her RADA audition and changed her name to Sweetpea. Helen Mirren, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman all have cameos. It's irresistible * SAGA Magazine *Slight is brilliant at conveying the intoxicating world of theatre ... [A] triumph of a book -- Emily Bearn * THE OLDIE *A treasure trove of who's who in theatre ... An utterly beguiling book, full of hilarious and tragic incidents. Absolutely wonderful, darling -- Claire Looby * IRISH TIMES *Anyone who's ever dreamed of working in theatre will love Sweetpea Slight's memoir ... It's simply hilarious, darling * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *Gloriously gossipy ... You'll love it, my darlings -- Sarra Manning * RED online *The latent luvvie in me adored this piquant coming-of-age memoir -- Caroline Sanderson * THE BOOKSELLER *A funny and poignant memoir of London theatreland in the 1980s and 1990s ... full of witty anecdotes * TOWNSWOMAN *

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