Search results for ""nick hern books""

A captivating, darkly comic play that questions what it means to be human. In a world where using technology to erase people's imperfections and disabilities is increasingly normal, one couple is going back to basics. Far from the city, Mark and Violet are looking forward to the natural birth of their first baby. But one of them has a secret that threatens to undermine their perfect world. Stacey Gregg’s Override was first performed at Watford Palace Theatre in October 2013 as part of the theatre's Ideal World Season.

Read more less

Within the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the world's leading museum of art and design, there lies an extraordinary wealth of material relating to a single individual: the playwright William Shakespeare. This book presents a fascinating selection of one hundred objects – often surprising, always delightful – chosen by the museum’s curators for the insight each affords into the world of Shakespeare and his plays. The objects are drawn from across the V&A's rich and varied collections. There are paintings, sculptures, pieces of jewellery, engravings and figurines. There are posters and playbills, costume designs, photographs, illustrations and film stills. Also included are original costumes worn by Henry Irving, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Rudolf Nureyev and Ian McKellen. Amongst the more unexpected objects are a bed (the Great Bed of Ware, which Shakespeare mentions in Twelfth Night), a sword (presented to Edmund Kean after his performance as Macbeth) and a real human skull (Yorick to Jonathan Pryce's Hamlet). Some of the greatest Shakespearean performances and productions of all time are memorialised, including Sarah Bernhardt’s Hamlet, Ellen Terry's Lady Macbeth, John Gielgud's Lear, Olivier's Richard III, Paul Robeson's Othello, many of Henry Irving's performances, David Garrick's celebratory Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 and Peter Brook's iconic 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Each object is illustrated in full colour and is accompanied by a compact essay on its history, its provenance, and what it has to tell us about Shakespeare and his plays, particularly in performance. The result is a book that not only underlines Shakespeare's infinite variety, but also reveals his astonishing legacy in material things, a substantial pageant that has not faded.

Read more less

A timely play based on the true story of a Nobel Laureate. On 3 April 2011, as he was boarding a flight to Taipei, the Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Airport. Advised merely that his travel "could damage state security", he was escorted to a van by officials after which he disappeared for 81 days. On his release, the government claimed that his imprisonment related to tax evasion. Howard Brenton's play is based on recent conversations with Ai in which he told the story of that imprisonment - by turns surreal, hilarious, and terrifying. A portrait of the Artist in extreme conditions, it is also an affirmation of the centrality of Art and of freedom of speech in civilised society.

Read more less

'Love or knowledge: which would you choose?' A moving, comical and eye-opening story of four young women fighting for education and self-determination against the larger backdrop of women’s suffrage. 1896. Girton College, Cambridge, the first college in Britain to admit women. The Girton girls study ferociously and match their male peers grade for grade. Yet, when the men graduate, the women leave with nothing but the stigma of being a 'blue stocking' - an unnatural, educated woman. They are denied degrees and go home unqualified and unmarriageable. In Jessica Swale's debut play, Blue Stockings, Tess Moffat and her fellow first years are determined to win the right to graduate. But little do they anticipate the hurdles in their way: the distractions of love, the cruelty of the class divide or the strength of the opposition, who will do anything to stop them. The play follows them over one tumultuous academic year, in their fight to change the future of education. Blue Stockings received its professional premiere at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in August 2013, directed by John Dove.

Read more less

An inspiring, practical handbook for anyone working with young people to make devised theatre. Devising theatre is a fundamental element of the Drama curriculum, but managing the process is often demanding, difficult and challenging. It can lead even highly competent Drama teachers to feel disempowered. However, help is at hand, whether you're a novice coping with your first exam season, a non-specialist or a veteran in need of some fresh ideas. Making Theatre provides a framework that will take the stress out of the process, and help your students realise their full potential. Joss Bennathan answers the common questions raised by Drama teachers, such as: What is the best way of grouping my students? How do I manage and monitor several groups rehearsing simultaneously? How do I include the erratic attender without jeopardising the work of the others? What degree of directing and guidance is appropriate? He shows how to build the foundations that underpin devised theatre, and provides ten invaluable structures to meet the needs of different students, regardless of their level of skills. These structures will help you to ensure that your students avoid shallow, clichéd work and demonstrate their understanding of the relationship between style, content and form. There is a diverse range of stimulus material including song lyrics, prose extracts, verbatim testimony and artwork, all reproduced in this book - and also available to download and print. The book includes a range of stand-alone exercises covering key areas, including: Voice and movement Characterisation Communication Scene transitions Narrative economy and clarity Performance conventions

Read more less

A ferociously gripping play that tackles the challenging moral issues of contemporary military occupation and its effect on the mental health of serving soldiers with startling insight. Falklands War veteran Major Oscar Hadley is sent to a combat zone to probe allegations of severe misconduct by Eddie Clark, a young squaddie from Burnley and part of a self-styled ‘Bully Boy’ unit of the British Army. As the interrogation develops, Oscar begins to discover that ‘truth’ in a modern insurgency can be a point of view rather than a fact. Written with startling insight by author and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, Bully Boy was first performed at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, in 2011.

Read more less

A devastating drama about family and the ties that bind us together. Sixty five miles. The distance between Hull and Sheffield. The distance between a man and the daughter he's never met. Pete and Rich are two very different brothers. Reunited after nine years, both are seeking forgiveness. Rich needs to confront ex-girlfriend Lucy, and the shadows of his recent past. Pete's search is for the one woman in his life he has never known, his daughter. Matt Hartley's play Sixty Five Miles won the Under-26 Award at the 2005 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, and was first staged by Hull Truck Theatre in 2012.

Read more less

It's finals day for the Class of 2011. Benny, Mack, Timp and Cam are due out of their five bedroom flat tomorrow morning; five bedrooms, five chairs, four boys - and one hell of a party. Stepping into a world that doesn't want them, these boys start to wonder whether there's any point in getting any older. How will they find the fight to make it as adults? Tonight marks the end of an era. It's hot. And there'll be girls. Predict a riot. This is a world premiere presented by Headlong theatre company - touring the UK 2012. From award-winning playwright Ella Hickson, whose debut "Eight" won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and the Carol Tambor 'Best of Edinburgh' Award in 2008.

Read more less

‘I want you to remember something… You do what you want with your life. Alright? Break heads if you need to and hearts if you have to, but whatever you do don’t do what I did. Don’t waste yourself.’ Frank has been married for forty five years. Three years ago he fell in love. Luke Norris's taut and tender debut play, Goodbye to All That, asks if it's ever too late to start again. It was first staged at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2012.

Read more less

A funny, touching and at times savage portrait of a family full of longing that's losing its grip – The Last of the Haussmans examines the fate of the revolutionary generation. Anarchic, feisty but growing old, high-society drop-out Judy Haussman remains in spirit with the ashrams of the 1960s, while holding court in her dilapidated art deco house on the Devon coast. After an operation, she's joined by her wayward offspring, her sharp-eyed granddaughter, a local doctor and a troubled teenager who makes use of the family's crumbling swimming pool. Over a few sweltering months they alternately cling to and flee a chaotic world of all-day drinking, infatuations, long-held resentments, free love and failure. Stephen Beresford's play The Last of the Haussmans was first staged at the National Theatre, London, in 2012, in a production starring Julie Walters and Rory Kinnear.

Read more less

'This book gives some of the very best of Shakespeare’s twenty-first-century colleagues an opportunity to share insights that can only come from playing him' Nicholas Hytner, from his Foreword Twelve leading actors take us behind the scenes of landmark Shakespearean productions, each recreating in detail their memorable performance in a major role. Roger Allam on his Falstaff in both Henry IV plays at Shakespeare’s Globe Eileen Atkins on Viola in two productions of Twelfth Night seventeen years apart Simon Russell Beale on Cassius in Deborah Warner’s modern-dress Julius Caesar Chiwetel Ejiofor on his Donmar Warehouse Othello, directed by Michael Grandage Sara Kestelman on Hippolyta and Titania in Peter Brook’s iconic white-box Dream Ian McKellen on one of Shakespeare’s most demanding of roles: King Lear Michael Pennington on stepping in at the eleventh hour as Timon of Athens Alan Rickman on re-evaluating the melancholic Jaques in As You Like It Fiona Shaw on Shakespeare’s Shrew, Katherine, in Jonathan Miller’s production Patrick Stewart on his Las Vegas-set Shylock, a role he has played many times Harriet Walter on Imogen in Shakespeare’s late romance, Cymbeline, at the RSC Zoë Wanamaker on her National Theatre Beatrice, directed by Nicholas Hytner Each actor leads us through the choices they made in rehearsal, and how the character works in performance, shedding new light on some of the most challenging roles in the canon. The result is a series of individual masterclasses that will be invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays. Shakespeare On Stage: Volume 2 was shortlisted for the 2018 Theatre Book Prize. ‘Absorbing and original… Curry’s actors are often thinking and talking as that other professional performer, Shakespeare himself, might have done.’ TLS on Shakespeare On Stage: Vol. 1

Read more less

An acclaimed trilogy of plays exploring the impact of war on ordinary lives. In Being Friends, two young men meet in a Kentish field in 1944 as doodlebugs whizz overhead. One is a conscientious objector, the other an artist, but an intense bond forms between them. In Lost, May Appleton, whose son is serving in the Falklands, receives the visit that every mother dreads. In Making Noise Quietly, set in 1986 in the Black Forest, a German businesswoman takes into her home a fugitive British private and his disturbed stepson. Robert Holman's trilogy of short plays, collectively called Making Noise Quietly, was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in June 1986. It was revived by the Oxford Stage Company at the Whitehall Theatre, London, in April 1999 following a UK tour. It received a major revival at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in April 2012.

Read more less

Ten years after 9/11, twenty international writers respond to the defining event of our times. Published here are their individual plays, which woven together formed the basis of Decade, an immersive theatrical production from Headlong theatre company, first staged at Commodity Quay, St. Katharine's Dock, London, in 2011. The writers: Samuel Adamson, Mike Bartlett, Alecky Blythe, Adam Brace, Ben Ellis, Ella Hickson, Samuel D. Hunter, John Logan, Matthew Lopez, Mona Mansour, DC Moore, Abi Morgan, Rory Mullarkey, Janine Nabers, Lynn Nottage, Harrison David Rivers, Simon Schama, Christopher Shinn, Beth Steel, Alexandra Wood.

Read more less

A funny, moving and topical portrayal of the world in flux, Invisible explores the many sides of migration. Lara left home convinced that hard work and talent would reward her with a better life. Anton was forced to leave his village and finds himself suspended sixteen floors above a city cleaning windows. Malik stands on a beach and looks out towards a country where women apparently walk around half-naked. Felix, a young businessman with a pretty wife and a lucrative future, finds it difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. Amid the world of visas and wind turbines, commuter flights and nightclubs, fairy tales and tabloid press a chance meeting drives disparate lives towards a chilling point of no return... Tena Štivičić's play Invisible was first performed at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, in 2011.

Read more less

Stella Feehily brings her trademark wit and emotional insight to this revealing play that goes behind the public face of charities, journalists and NGOs, and is drawn directly from workshops and interviews with aid workers, doctors, human rights defenders, government advisers, journalists and photographers. A seasoned human rights defender and her idealistic young colleague embark on a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. For Mathilde, it's an induction into a life less ordinary. For Sadhbh it's back to madness and chaos away from her lover and London – exactly as she likes it. But while Mathilde lets off steam with a photographer and a spliff, Sadhbh has her own encounter: tea with a smart but brutal young warlord she's investigating. Stella Feehily's play Bang Bang Bang was first performed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, in 2011, in a production by Out of Joint that subsequently toured the UK, including performances at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in October 2011.

Read more less

Gregory Doran's account of his quest to re-discover Cardenio, the lost play written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher. A thrilling act of literary detection that takes him from the Bodleian Library in Oxford, via Cervantes' Spain to the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. Fully illustrated throughout, Shakespeare’s Lost Play tells a fascinating story, which, like the play itself, will engross Shakespeare buffs and theatregoers alike. Doran’s much-praised production of Cardenio for the Royal Shakespeare Company marked the culmination of years spent searching for a famously 'lost’ play co-authored by William Shakespeare. In this book, Doran takes us with him on his quest to unearth every extant clue and then into the rehearsal room as he pieces together a play unseen since its first performance in 1613. The result, as the Guardian attested, is ‘an extraordinary and theatrically powerful piece, one that should both please audiences and keep academic scholars in work for years’.

Read more less

A romantic-comedy-thriller about the heat of love and the magic of changing perspectives. Lin Han and Jie Hui have exchanged 536 emails and 72 jpegs, though they've only just met. She's sure he's the man she could fall in love with, if only he'd do it first. But Jie Hui's a little distracted. When his business partner gets shot, things start to get very complicated – especially when he realises his heart is broken. Meanwhile, Madeleine finds herself falling for James, the most attractive man she's met in years. And the feeling seems to be mutual. It's just a pity he's the policeman questioning her about the shooting of her ex-boyfriend… Rona Munro's play Pandas was first staged at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2011.

Read more less

Lucy Kerbel's 100 Great Plays for Women is an inspiring guide to a hundred plays that put female performers centre stage, dispelling the myth that 'There just aren't any good plays for women'. With a foreword by Kate Mosse. Women buy the majority of theatre tickets, make up half the acting profession, and are often the largest cohort of any youth theatre or drama club. And yet they have traditionally been underrepresented on stage. 100 Great Plays for Women seeks to address this gap by celebrating the wealth of drama available for women to perform. Theatre director Lucy Kerbel's myth-busting book features compact and insightful introductions to 100 plays, each of which has an entirely or predominantly female cast, with the female characters taking an equal or decisive role in driving the on-stage action. Also included are ten plays for solo female performers. The result is a personal but wide-ranging reappraisal of the theatrical canon, a snapshot of the very best writing – from ancient times right up to the present day – that has female protagonists at its heart. A fascinating mixture of familiar and less well-known works dealing with a broad range of themes, it is an essential resource for all directors and producers looking for plays to stage, writers seeking inspiration and actors trying to track down a new audition piece. It is also an exciting provocation that will have readers, both male and female, championing their own personal favourites. The book is the culmination of a project by Tonic Theatre and the National Theatre Studio. Tonic Theatre was founded by Lucy Kerbel in 2011 to support the theatre industry in achieving greater gender equality in its workforces and repertoires; it partners with leading theatre companies around the UK on a range of projects, schemes and creative works. The National Theatre Studio provides support and resources for both emerging and established theatre-makers of outstanding talent, and contributes to the National’s ongoing search for and training of new artists. 'A gem of a book… Lucy Kerbel has done hard-working directors and artistic directors, of spaces large and small, a great service.' Kate Mosse, from her foreword

Read more less

An alternative autobiography of the well-loved actor and man of the theatre, winner of the Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography. In My Life in Pieces Simon Callow retraces his life through the multifarious performers, writers, productions and events which have left their indelible mark on him. The story begins with Peter Pan – his first ever visit to the theatre – before transporting us to southern Africa and South London, where Callow spent much of his childhood. Later, he charms his way into a job at the National Theatre box office courtesy of his hero, Laurence Olivier – and thus consummated a lifetime’s love affair with theatre. Alongside Olivier, we encounter Paul Scofield, Michael Gambon, Alan Bennett and Richard Eyre, all of whom Callow has worked with, as well as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Alec Guinness, David Hare, Simon Gray and many more. He writes too about figures he did not meet but who greatly influenced his life and work, figures such as Stanislavsky, Nureyev and Cocteau, as well as Charles Laughton and Orson Welles. And he even makes room for not-quite- legit performers like Tony Hancock, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howard – and Mrs Shufflewick. The result is a passionate, instructive and beguiling book which, in tracing Simon Callow’s own ‘sentimental education’, leaves us enriched by his generosity and wisdom. 'first rate... the best writer-actor we have' David Hare 'Simon Callow combines zest, originality and passion and has elegantly turned his views and life in the theatre into an astonishing memoir' Richard Eyre

Read more less

Two plays from one of the leading dramatists of the 20th century. In Who is Sylvia?, Mark is obsessed with a girl called Sylvia, whom he kissed just once at a garden party when he was 17. He makes a habit of pursuing physically identical girls for the rest of his life - despite having a wife and growing son. Terence Rattigan's play Who is Sylvia? premiered in the West End in 1950, where it ran for over a year. He seems to be offering a bittersweet portayal of his father - and maybe of his own frustrated love life. Also included in this volume is Duologue, a short monologue play for a female actor in which a woman reminisces movingly about her dead husband. Originally written for television and appearing here for the first time in print, Duologue was broadcast in 1968 and subsequently staged in 1976 in a double bill with The Browning Version.

Read more less

Love in Idleness is the third in Terence Rattigan's unofficial trilogy of war plays (after Flare Path and While the Sun Shines). It is published here alongside an earlier version of the play, Less Than Kind, which was never staged during Rattigan's lifetime. Michael, eighteen, returns to wartime London from schooling in Canada, brimming with youthful left-wing convictions. Reunited with his mother, he is alarmed as he begins to realise that she is the mistress of a leading member of the war cabinet. Sparks fly between the idealistic younger man and the pragmatic politician, while the mother is torn between them... Love in Idleness was first staged at the Lyric Theatre, London, in December 1944, in a version rewritten by Rattigan at the request of the production's stars, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The earlier version of the play, Less Than Kind, was never staged and remained unpublished until 2011, the centenary of Rattigan's birth. That version was premiered at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in January 2011. This volume presents both plays in full so that readers may judge for themselves which is the better. This edition includes an authoritative introduction by Dan Rebellato, a biographical sketch and chronology.

Read more less

This delightful stage adaptation combines all the joy and mystery of Kenneth Grahame's much-loved classic with the lightness of touch and playful theatricality that award-winning playwright Mike Kenny is known for. Tired of spring-cleaning, Mole leaves Mole End and ventures out to the riverbank, where he befriends the resourceful Ratty, the gruff Badger and the infamous Toad of Toad Hall (Poop-poop!). Together they explore the Wide World, and the Wild Wood, and try to keep Toad out of trouble…! With ample opportunities for creativity on stage and wonderful character parts for actors, it is ideal for schools and youth theatres, or any drama groups looking for a fresh new version of an old favourite. This version of The Wind in the Willows was first staged at the Theatre Royal, York, in 2010.

Read more less

Four plays from award-winning playwright Fin Kennedy, created in parnership with Mulberry School in East London - ideal for performance by schools and youth groups. Tender, uncompromising, haunting and lyrical, these four plays together comprise a contemporary chronicle of the lives of East London's young women. In The Urban Girl's Guide to Camping, four young friends leave the city behind and head into the wilderness, but a burning secret threatens to tear their lives apart. A bittersweet comedy about life, love and friendship once school is long gone. Mehndi Night is a touching family tale about resentment and forgiveness on the night before a wedding, exploring the pleasures and pains of a cross-cultural identity in twenty-first century Britain. From the heart of London's East End, Stolen Secrets are urban fairytales, bold, lyrical and gruesome, that can be performed individually or together for maximum shock value. In The Unravelling, a dying mother challenges her daughters to weave her the greatest tale, using nothing more than pieces of cloth. A Fringe First Award-winning fable about the power of mythology to change your life. These plays are the result of a unique four-year partnership between award-winning playwright Fin Kennedy and Mulberry School in East London. Originally performed by the school at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and at Southwark Playhouse, London, they are written in an ensemble storytelling style that will suit younger performance groups around the country, especially those looking for predominantly female roles.

Read more less

A collection of wide-ranging and ambitious short plays reflecting the complexities of women and political power in the United Kingdom. The four plays published here look back to the moments in history when women possessed - or achieved - power, and what they did with it. The Milliner and the Weaver by Marie Jones, about the Suffragette movement in Ireland, as the question of Home Rule divides the nation. The Lioness by Rebecca Lenkiewicz is about Queen Elizabeth I, the myth and the reality. Handbagged by Moira Buffini, about the working relationship between Mrs Thatcher and the Queen. Bloody Wimmin by Lucy Kirkwood, about the protests at Greenham Common, a political landmark in the fight for nuclear disarmament. The plays were first performed at the Tricycle Theatre, London, as part of the Women, Power and Politics season in June 2010. The other plays presented in the season are available in the companion volume, Women, Power and Politics: Now.

Read more less

A celebration of a great English heroine, Anne Boleyn dramatises the life and legacy of Henry VIII's notorious second wife, who helped change the course of the nation's history. Traditionally seen as either the pawn of an ambitious family manoeuvred into the King's bed or as a predator manipulating her way to power, Anne – and her ghost – are seen in a very different light in Howard Brenton's epic play. Rummaging through the dead Queen Elizabeth's possessions upon coming to the throne in 1603, King James I finds alarming evidence that Anne was a religious conspirator, in love with Henry VIII but also with the most dangerous ideas of her day. She comes alive for him, a brilliant but reckless young woman confident in her sexuality, whose marriage and death transformed England for ever. Howard Brenton's play Anne Boleyn was first performed at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in July 2010, and was named Best New Play at the Whatsonstage.com Awards in 2011. The play was revived at the Globe in 2011 and toured regionally in 2012 in a joint production between Shakespeare’s Globe and English Touring Theatre.

Read more less

Thirteen leading actors take us behind the scenes, each recreating in detail a memorable performance in one of Shakespeare's major roles. * Brian Cox on Titus Andronicus in Deborah Warner's visceral RSC production * Judi Dench on being directed by Franco Zeffirelli as a twenty-three-year-old Juliet * Ralph Fiennes on Shakespeare's least sympathetic hero Coriolanus * Rebecca Hall on Rosalind in As You Like It, directed by her father, Sir Peter * Derek Jacobi on his hilariously poker-backed Malvolio for Michael Grandage * Jude Law on his Hamlet, a palpable hit in the West End and on Broadway * Adrian Lester on a modern-dress Henry V at the National, during the invasion of Iraq * Ian McKellen on his Macbeth, opposite Judi Dench in Trevor Nunn's RSC production * Helen Mirren on a role she was born for, and has played three times: Cleopatra * Tim Pigott-Smith on Leontes in Peter Hall's Restoration Winter's Tale at the National * Kevin Spacey on his high-tech, modern-dress Richard II * Patrick Stewart on Prospero in Rupert Goold's arctic Tempest for the RSC * Penelope Wilton on Isabella in Jonathan Miller's 'chamber' Measure for Measure The actors discuss their characters, working through the play scene by scene, with refreshing candour and in forensic detail. The result is a masterclass on playing each role, invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare – and fascinating for audiences of the plays. Together, the interviews give one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of these characters in performance, and of the choices that these great actors have made in bringing them thrillingly to life. 'These passages of times remembered contribute vividly to the sense of a teemingly creative period when Shakespeare seemed to have been rediscovered.' Trevor Nunn, from his Foreword

Read more less

The opportunities for presenters have never been greater. But, although it's seen as a glamorous job and a step to celebrity, being a TV presenter is also hard work, and demands a varied range of journalistic, technical, performance and personal skills. With a background in TV directing, working with professional presenters and training new ones for the TV industry, Kathryn Wolfe takes you through the techniques and skills required to become a successful presenter, including: How to read from a prompt and use in-ear monitoring How to talk to camera and talk to time How to cope with live, recorded, studio and location shoots How to present from home How to present for specialist channels (children's, shopping, weather) How to create a successful CV and convincing showreel Hands-on exercises and checklists will guide you through improving your posture, overcoming nerves, developing correct breathing and good diction, being natural, evaluating your performance, and much more. The book is also packed with accessible advice and top tips from dozens of experienced and new presenters currently working on TV. It tells you what happens in auditions, and, above all, how to go about getting a job as a presenter. 'Essential and entertaining, this is a superb one-stop shop for anyone aiming at an on-camera career. Invaluable insider insights from a top telly-box talent' Paul Ross (The Big Breakfast, Channel 4; Jeopardy!, Sky One; This Morning, ITV) 'Kathryn is the consummate teacher in TV presenting. Skilled at helping people find their own style, while combining with traditional tips and tricks used by more established presenters' Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije (Jeremy Vine, Channel 5; 5 News) 'This splendid book covers every aspect of the job. I look forward to seeing you on my telly!' Chris Tarrant (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, ITV) 'Accessible, engaging and easily read… a great companion guide on your journey' Natasha Huq (Grand Designs: The Streets, Channel 4)

Read more less

A simple and delightfully inventive re-telling of the stories from the Arabian Nights. It is wedding night in the palace of King Shahrayar. By morning, the new Queen Shahrazad is to be put to death like all the young brides before her. But she has one gift that could save her – the gift of storytelling. With her mischievous imagination, the young Queen spins her dazzling array of tales and characters. On her side are Ali Baba, Es-Sindibad the Sailor and Princess Parizade – adventurers in strange and magical worlds populated by giant beasts, talking birds, devilish ghouls and crafty thieves. But will her silver-tongued stories be enough to enchant her husband and save her life? This revised edition of Dominic Cooke's Arabian Nights was published alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company's production in 2009.

Read more less

A rich evocation of a world poised on the brink of Stalin's Great Terror, based on the 1994 Oscar-winning film written by Nikita Mikhalkov and Rustam Ibragimbekov. General Kotov, decorated hero of the Russian Revolution, is spending an idyllic summer in the country with his beloved young wife and family. But on one glorious sunny morning in 1936, his wife's former lover returns from a long and unexplained absence. Amidst a tangle of sexual jealousy, retribution and remorseless political backstabbing, Kotov feels the full, horrifying reach of Stalin's rule. Peter Flannery's play Burnt by the Sun was first staged at the National Theatre, London, in the Lyttelton auditorium, in March 2009, in a production directed by Howard Davies.

Read more less

A darkly comic and freewheeling epic that gets to the heart of small-town politics and what it means to please all of the people all of the time. A provincial town is in search of a hero. A shell-shocked soldier downs vodka on his return from the frontline in Chechnya. As Ilya arrives home he stumbles into the epicentre of an extraordinary power struggle that threatens to tear the town apart. Mikhail and Vyacheslav Durnenkov's play The Drunks was first performed, in this English version by Nina Raine, by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2009.

Read more less

A heartfelt slice of life in small-town Ireland, brimming with passions and all-too-human foibles, from the author of the well-loved Wexford Trilogy. Set in rural Ireland of the early 1960s, Lay Me Down Softly introduces the colourful if seedy burlesque that is Delaney's Travelling Roadshow – and in particular its boxing hall, where prizefighter Dean takes on all comers on a nightly basis. That is, until a challenge from a professional fighter upsets the apple-cart… Billy Roche's play Lay Me Down Softly was first performed at the Abbey Theatre Peacock, Dublin, in 2008.

Read more less

An adaptation for the stage of Jacqueline Wilson's popular novel. Ten-year-old Andy used to live happily at Mulberry Cottage with her family: Mum, Dad, and Radish the rabbit, who lives in Andy's pocket and shares all her secrets. But then it all went wrong: Mum went to live with Bill, and Dad went off with Carrie. And Andy is expected to shuttle between the two - living out of a suitcase - and come to terms with her strange new families. Vicky Ireland's stage adaptation of The Suitcase Kid was first staged at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2007. Seen all over the country, this resourceful dramatisation is suitable for young actors as well as young audiences. Vicky Ireland has provided production notes to indicate how the play can be staged even with minimal resources - plus a lot of ingenuity!

Read more less

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills Each Good Audition Guide contains a range of fresh monologues, all prefaced with a summary of the vital information you need to place the piece in context and to perform it to maximum effect in your own unique way. Each volume also carries a user-friendly introduction on the whole process of auditioning. Shakespeare Monologues for Men contains 50 monologues drawn from across the Shakespeare canon. Each speech is prefaced with an easy-to-use guide to Who is speaking, Where, When and To Whom, What has just happened in the play and What are the character's objectives. In fact, everything the actor needs to know before embarking on the audition! Shakespeare Monologues for Men is edited by director, teacher and academic Luke Dixon. 'Sound practical advice for anyone attending an audition' Teaching Drama Magazine on the Good Audition Guides

Read more less

A comic and deeply moving play about being young at the end of the world. Premiered at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Hampstead Theatre, London.

Read more less

A stage drama about Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, one of the most eminent astronomers of the twentieth century. Premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2024.

Read more less

A compelling new drama that imagines a confrontation between two giants of stage and screen, Elia Kazan and Arthur Miller. Premiering at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in September 2024.

Read more less

A thrillingly adventurous adaptation of the beloved and radical story about the magic of nature and the nature of magic, premiered at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2024.

Read more less

A darkly comedic tale of national divides, folk horror and the end of the world as we know it. Premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, and the Royal Court Theatre, London.

Read more less

A stage thriller set in the world of competitive swimming,from a major US writer.

Read more less

A thrilling play about a turbulent time in Scotland's history, continuing Rona Munro's series of history plays set during the reigns of Scotland's generations of Stewart kings.

Read more less

A gripping play that examines the nature of identity and the consequences of right-wing extremist ideology against the backdrop of London's skinhead and gay scenes of the 1970s and 1980s.

Read more less

A tender and playful drama that examines what makes a family and what holds it together.

Read more less

Roleplay, desire and compassion intertwine in a play about the complexities of humanitarian work. Premiered at The Yard Theatre, London, in 2024.

Read more less

'I'm the one who's left behind. I'm the one to tell the tale. I knew them both, knew how they lived and how she died.' Ella Grey and her friends are ordinary kids from ordinary families in an ordinary world. They fall in and out of love, play music, stare at the stars, yearn for excitement, and have parties on the beautiful beaches of Northumberland. One day a stranger – a musician called Orpheus – appears on the beach, entrancing them all, but particularly Ella. Where have they come from and what path will Ella follow? A Song for Ella Grey is a version of the myth of Orpheus that sings of the madness of youth, the ache of love, and the near-impossibility of grasping death. Zoe Cooper's stage adaptation of David Almond's award-winning novel was first produced in 2024 by Pilot Theatre, in association with Northern Stage and York Theatre Royal. This edition includes the full text of the play along with a range of teaching materials and resources designed to help educators bring the play to life for their students. Praise for the novel: 'Infused with lyricism and with the fire and oddness of adolescence. Fresh, involving and lucid, it is a song in itself and teens will find it fills them with poignant longing and joy' Telegraph 'The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is retold against a wild Northumbrian landscape: life, death, love and myths. Just wonderful' Bookseller 'Extraordinary' Metro 'Spell-binding… impossible to resist' Herald

Read more less

A grippingly authentic play about living with an eating disorder, winner of the 2023 Papatango New Writing Prize.

Read more less

'Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of any sort of… disappointed love.' Catherine Morland knows little of the world, but who needs real-life experience when you have novels to guide you? Seizing her chance to escape her claustrophobic family and join the smart set in Bath, she meets worldly, sophisticated Isabella Thorpe – Iz, to her friends – and so Cath's very own adventure begins. This playful and surprising reimagining of Northanger Abbey is infused with the spirit of Jane Austen's original novel and fizzes with imagination and humour. It was premiered in 2024 at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, before touring to Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.

Read more less

Five plays by leading playwright Chris Bush: Steel; Faustus: That Damned Woman; Nine Lessons and Carols; Hungry (Paines Plough, 2021) andNot the End of the World (Schaubühne, Berlin, 2021).

Read more less

MALAPROP Theatre is an award-winning collective of Irish theatremakers, who seek to challenge, delight and speak to the world we live in (even when imagining different ones). This volume brings together four of their bold, playful and genre-spanning plays, all premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival between 2017 and 2023. In Everything Not Saved, ex-lovers argue about when they were happiest, police officers rewrite history, and Rasputin dances like no one’s watching. Oh, and also the Queen is there. Before You Say Anything questions how everyone can be safe at the same time. A time-travelling set of interweaving stories exploring injustice, freedom and bravery. Where Sat the Lovers is about codes, hallucinations, Isaac Newton, war crimes, seeing meaning where there's none and vice versa. In an age of misinformation, how do you know if you know the right things? HOTHOUSE tackles climate breakdown with big ideas, a lot of laughs, and some truly grotesque cabaret numbers. Cruise ships, horny/murderous songbirds, fecund/fatalistic rabbits, loving/bruising parents and Minnie Riperton all make an appearance in this play with songs, which asks if things can ever get better. MALAPROP Theatre are Carys D. Coburn, John Gunning, Breffni Holahan, Molly O'Cathain, Maeve O'Mahony, Claire O'Reilly and Carla Rogers. 'MALAPROP have quickly distinguished themselves as one of Ireland's most exciting emerging companies' Ruth McGowan, Director, Dublin Fringe Festival (2018-23) 'A company of real ambition. One which is using theatrical form to grapple with the complexities of a world where the ground is constantly shifting beneath our feet and where what we believe can be recalibrated not just on a daily basis but minute by minute' Lyn Gardner, Stage Door 'Reminiscent of early Caryl Churchill... this is thinking theatre at its best' Irish Independent

Read more less