Search results for ""nick hern books""
Nick Hern Books Zoo and Twelve Comic Monologues for Women
At Miami's Cherokee Valley Zoo & Conservation Centre, the most dangerous thing that ever happened was the tapir's caesarian section. That is until Hurricane Jonas sets itself on a crash course straight towards it. Now zookeeper Bonnie must rush to batten down the hatches and ensure the safety of her animals – and herself. Halfway across the world in the Yorkshire Dales, Bonnie's friend Carol feels the repercussions of that tempestuous night. Will she be able to help from afar? Or will the danger they all face turn out to be deeper and darker than a spot of bad weather? Lily Bevan's play Zoo is a wildly inventive comedy drama about courage, female friendship and flamingos. It premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, where it was selected as one of the Guardian's Best Shows of the Fringe. It also enjoyed London runs at Theatre503 and the 2020 VAULT Festival. This edition also includes twelve comic monologues for female performers, some of which featured in the BBC Radio 4 series, Talking to Strangers (co-written with Sally Phillips), and were performed by Olivia Colman, Jessica Hynes and Emma Thompson, amongst others. 'Lily Bevan is one of the most consistently astonishing writers of her generation. She has an imagination like no other and her relationship with words is like a marriage between Flaubert and Spike Milligan' Emma Thompson
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Unknown Rivers
‘I have to draw a new map. I have to be seen. For her. For all of us!’ Since her ordeal five years ago, nineteen-year-old Nene rarely leaves home. Secure within her mum's embrace, Nene now keeps the outside world securely on the other side of her bedroom window. But weekly visits from her best friend start to fill the void and on one unexpected day, when Nene is finally beyond the walls of her sanctuary, a long-forgotten spark is powerfully reignited in her, one which will change her direction forever… A poignant and life-affirming play, Chinonyerem Odimba's Unknown Rivers is a testament to the extraordinary powers of female friendship – where there's turmoil, trauma and hardship, there's also love, bravery and hope, making it possible to go with the flow… and live. Unknown Rivers premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in October 2019.
£20.82
Nick Hern Books Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor
A top-ranking director sets out his rehearsal techniques in this invaluable handbook for actors and directors. Mike Alfreds' Different Every Night is the culmination of a lifetime of work in the theatre, the most complete rehearsal methodology in print since Stanislavsky. It offers a vital masterclass for actors and directors, full of sound practical advice and guidance, and is packed with techniques for bringing the text to life and keeping it alive - both in rehearsal and performance. 'Most of what I am as an actress I owe to Mike Alfreds. He gave me the language and the tools I needed for my craft' Pam Ferris, from her Foreword 'If I was allowed to train again to be an actor, but I was only allowed one teacher, it would have to be Mike Alfreds. To me he is a genius when it comes to acting and storytelling' Mark Rylance
£15.29
Nick Hern Books My Name is Rachel Corrie
The moving account of the life and early death of a young female activist, adapted from her own writings. Why did a 23-year old woman leave her comfortable American life to stand between an Israeli army bulldozer and a Palestinian home in the Gaza strip? Compiled from her letters, diaries and emails by Alan Rickman and Guardian journalist Katharine Viner, My Name is Rachel Corrie recounts, in her own words, her short life and sudden death. My Name is Rachel Corrie was first performed by Megan Dodds at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in April 2005, winning Best New Play at the 2006 WhatsOnStage Awards.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Paul
An irreverent and provocative drama questioning the basis of Christianity, by the author of The Romans in Britain. The most famous conversion in history - when Saul became Paul on the road to Damascus - was a trick. It was actually Jesus appearing to him. Jesus did not die on the cross but was rescued and sheltered by his brother James, by Peter and by Peter's wife, Mary Magdalene. But they prefer to keep Paul in the dark because, although he is mistakenly preaching that Christ rose again, at least it keeps him busy and gets the Christian message out there... Now imprisoned by Nero, Peter finally tells Paul the truth before they go to their deaths as the first Christian Martyrs. Howard Brenton's play Paul was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 2005.
£8.99
Nick Hern Books Conor McPherson Plays: Two
The second collection of plays from the multi-award winning author. Included in this volume is Conor McPherson's The Weir, one of the most successful plays of recent years. In a bar in a remote part of Ireland, the local lads are swapping spooky stories to impress a young woman from Dublin newly moved into the area... 'A spellbinder that transfixes you... No praise in fact is too high' Guardian Dublin Carol is set on Christmas Eve, when a Dublin undertaker is visited by his estranged daughter urging him to face up to the past. 'McPherson writes like a dream.... The play works an ingenious spell' Daily Mail Port Authority tells of three interwoven lives: a boy leaves home for the first time; a man starts a job for which he is unqualified; a pensioner is sent a mysterious package... 'Overwhelmingly poignant... desolate, searing eloquence' Evening Standard And in Come on Over, published here for the first time, a Jesuit priest, sent to investigate a 'miracle' in his home town, re-encounters the woman who loved him thirty years before. 'Piercingly evocative, powerfully exploring the tension between human and divine love' Daily Telegraph The volume also contains an Afterword by the author.
£17.09
Nick Hern Books Actions: The Actors' Thesaurus
A vital companion for actors in rehearsal - a thesaurus of action-words to revitalise performance, with a foreword by Terry Johnson. Finding the right action is an essential part of the process of preparation for the actor. Using this thesaurus of active verbs, the actor can refine the action-word until s/he hits exactly the right one to help make the action come alive. The method of 'actioning' is widely used in rehearsal rooms, but has never before been set down in a systematic and comprehensive way. 'If you want to act, or act better, Actions will take you a long way on the journey to excellence' Terry Johnson
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Treasure Island
A fresh and genuinely thrilling adaptation of the classic tale, and one that keeps close to Stevenson's original story. When young Jim Hawkins is left a treasure map by the dying buccaneer Billy Bones, he sets sail on the Hispaniola in search of the island. Among the crew, the one-legged Long John Silver becomes his greatest friend - but Silver has a shocking secret in store, and when they reach their destination, Jim faces danger and adventure greater than he could ever have imagined. Stuart Paterson's adaptation of RL Stevenson's Treasure Island was first performed by Birmingham Stage Company at Birmingham Old Rep in 2007, followed by a UK tour. This edition of the script includes production notes with ideas for casting and staging the play. Suitable for young people to watch and perform.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Wit
A striking and sharply funny reflection on the frailty of existence and the complex relationship between knowledge and love. Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a renowned specialist in the brilliantly difficult Holy Sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. Her approach to her illness is not unlike her approach to Donne: aggressively probing and intensely rational. But during the course of her illness – and her stint as a prize patient in an experimental chemotherapy programme – she comes to reassess her life and her work with profundity and an unbearably moving wry humour. Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit was first performed in 1995. It was filmed for TV by Mike Nichols in 2001, starring Emma Thompson (who also wrote the screenplay).
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Death and the Maiden
A classic of 20th-century theatre, Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden ran for a year in the West End, was a hit on Broadway and was filmed by Roman Polanski starring Ben Kingsley and Sigourney Weaver. A woman seeks revenge when the man she believes to have been her torturer happens to re-enter her life. Death and the Maiden was given a first reading at the Institute for Contemporary Art in London in November 1990. After a workshop production staged in Santiago, Chile, in March 1991, the play had its world premiere at the Royal Court Upstairs, London, in July 1991, transferring to the Main Stage at the Royal Court in October. The play then transferred to the West End, at the Duke of York's Theatre, in February 1992. Death and the Maiden won the 1992 Olivier Award for Best New Play.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Long Day's Journey into Night
A true modern classic from one of the twentieth century's most significant writers, Long Day's Journey into Night is an intensely autobiographical, magnificently tragic portrait of the author's own family - a play so acutely personal that he insisted it was not published until after his death. One single day in the Tyrones' Connecticut home. James Tyrone Snr is a miser, a talented actor who even squanders his talent in an undemanding role; eldest son Jamie is an affable, whoremongering alcoholic and confirmed ne'er-do well; youngest son Edmund is poetic, sensitive, suffering from a respiratory condition and deep-seated disillusionment; and their mother Mary, living in a haze of self-delusion and morphine addiction. Existing together under this roof, and the profound weight of the past, they subtly tear one another apart, shred by shred. 'Set in 1912, the year of O'Neill's own attempted suicide, it is an attempt to understand himself and those to whom he was irrevocably tied by fate and by love. It is the finest and most powerful play to have come out of America' Christopher Bigsby Eugene O'Neill's play Long Day's Journey into Night was written in 1939-41, and first published in 1956 (after O'Neill's death in 1953). It was first performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm, in February 1956, and had its first American production at Helen Hayes Theater, New York, in November that year. It won the Tony Award for Best Play, and O'Neill was posthumously awarded the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This edition includes a full introduction, biographical sketch and chronology.
£9.20
Nick Hern Books Stuff
Vinny's organising a surprise birthday party for his mate, Anita. It's not going well: his choice of venue is a bit misguided, Anita's not keen on leaving the house, and everyone else has their own stuff going on. Maybe a surprise party wasn't the best idea? Tom Wells's Stuff is a play about friendship and loss – and the way people try to do the right thing for their mates when there isn't really a right thing to do. Written specifically for young people, the play formed part of the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers rich opportunities for an ensemble cast of teenagers.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books SAUCE and All honey: Two Plays
Two sweet and saucy comedies from an award-winning Irish playwright. In SAUCE, Mella is a compulsive liar, Maura is a kleptomaniac – and neither has any friends. Recently out of controlling relationships, they are thrust into uneasy freedom. Can they overcome their flaws together to avoid dying alone? Or will their compulsions engulf them in the end? A play about death and rebirth, Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's SAUCE was first staged at Bewley's Café Theatre, Dublin, in 2019 as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, and revived there in 2022. In All honey, Ru and Luke are throwing a house-warming party. But their guests are more interested in whispering in the box room than joining the festivities. Explosive characters and unfolding secrets mean the hosts will have to clean up more than red-wine stains and glitter. Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's debut play, All honey is about sex, secrets and suspicion. It premiered at the New Theatre in 2017 as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, winning the 2017 Fishamble New Writing Award. It was revived at Bewley's in 2018 and Project Arts Centre in 2020.
£11.69
Nick Hern Books When the Crows Visit
‘…and all the sins of his father and his forefathers came out of his body, through the pores of his skin, in the form of crows.’ When a son returns home after being accused of a violent crime, a mother is forced to confront the ghosts of her past when the crows visit. Inspired by true events in modern-day India, Anupama Chandrasekhar's play When the Crows Visit explores the themes of Ibsen's Ghosts and the cyclical nature of oppression. This dark and thrilling play premiered at Kiln Theatre, London, in October 2019, directed by Artistic Director Indhu Rubasingham.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Princess & The Hustler
‘My name is Phyllis Princess James. I will wear this crown every day. I will never take it off even when I am asleep.’ Meet Princess. A cheeky ten-year-old, with a plan to win the Weston-super-Mare Beauty Contest. Trouble is, her mum is busy working several jobs, her brother, a budding photographer, won't even take her picture and then – The Hustler returns. In 1963 Bristol, as Black British Civil Rights campaigners walk onto the streets, Princess finds out what it really means to be black and beautiful. Chinonyerem Odimba's play Princess & The Hustler was first seen at the Bristol Old Vic in February 2019, followed by a UK tour, in a co-production between Eclipse Theatre Company, Bristol Old Vic and Hull Truck Theatre, directed by Dawn Walton. The play was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Best New Play Award 2018.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Caryl Churchill Plays: Five
In this collection of plays from one of our finest dramatists, Caryl Churchill demonstrates her remarkable ability to find new forms to express profound truths about the world we live in. Complete with a new introduction by the author, this volume contains: Seven Jewish Children (Royal Court Theatre, London, 2009): a short play about seven families wondering how to protect their children, written at the time of the bombing of Gaza by Israel in 2008–9. Love and Information (Royal Court, 2012): a fast-moving kaleidoscope in which more than a hundred characters try to make sense of what they know. Ding Dong the Wicked (Royal Court, 2012): two families on opposite sides of a war, locked in identical hatred. Here We Go (National Theatre, 2015): a play about dying and being dead. Escaped Alone (Royal Court, 2016): three old friends and an unexpected neighbour have tea in a sunny back yard, and face catastrophes. Pigs and Dogs (Royal Court, 2016): a look at how colonialism crushed the fluidity of sexuality in Africa and brought a new intolerance, as shown in the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. Also included are three previously unpublished short plays, each written in response to political events: War and Peace Gaza Piece (2014), Tickets are Now On Sale (2015) and Beautiful Eyes (2017). 'The wit, invention and structural ingenuity of Churchill's work are remarkable… she never does anything twice' Telegraph 'The most dazzlingly inventive living dramatist in the English language' New York Times
£15.29
Nick Hern Books Again
A once close-knit family of four reunite after a long period of estrangement. This time, this time, it must go right. Words never said. Words said that shouldn't be. Contradicting memories. Family history builds like sedimentary rock, layer upon layer. In this warm and touchingly comic new drama, Stephanie Jacob peels away the facades and literally re-sets the clock. As the four characters tussle for what they think they want, we are allowed to peer into the recesses of that unknowable unit which so shapes each of our lives: the family. Moving, funny, infinitely relatable, Again is a brand new play with an ingenious theatrical twist. It premiered at London's Trafalagar Studios in 2018.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Bad Roads
'I spend the night in an officer’s barracks, where no woman has ever set foot.' In the darkest recesses of Ukraine, a war is raging. A journalist takes a research trip to the front line. Teenage girls wait for soldiers on benches. A medic mourns her lover killed in action. Natal'ya Vorozhbit's play Bad Roads is a heartbreaking, powerful and bitterly comic account of what it is to be a woman in wartime. It was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, in November 2017, in a production directed by Vicky Featherstone. It was developed by the Royal Court International Department, and translated by Sasha Dugdale. Natal’ya Vorozhbit is the leading Ukrainian playwright of her generation and has worked with the Royal Court since 2004. Her work includes The Khomenko Family Chronicles, Maidan Diaries (Royal Court) and The Grain Store (RSC).
£11.99
Nick Hern Books How To Be A Kid
Warning: Contains dancing, chocolate cake and an epic car chase. Molly cooks. Molly does the dishes. Molly gets her little brother Joe ready for school. Molly is only twelve, but she doesn't feel much like a kid any more. Now her mum is feeling better, maybe things will get back to normal. Maybe Molly can learn to be a kid again. A touching and funny story of family, friends and fitting in, Sarah McDonald-Hughes' play How To Be A Kid is ideal for seven- to eleven-year-olds to watch, read and perform. It was first produced in 2017 by Paines Plough in their pop-up theatre, Roundabout, in a co-production with Theatr Clywd and the Orange Tree Theatre. How To Be A Kid was named Best Play for Young Audiences at the 2018 Writers' Guild Awards.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Oslo
A darkly funny political thriller, winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Play. In 1993, in front of the world’s press, the leaders of Israel and Palestine shook hands on the lawn of the White House. Few watching would have guessed that the negotiations leading up to this iconic moment started secretly in a grand manor house in the middle of a forest outside Oslo. J.T. Rogers' play Oslo tells the true story of two maverick Norwegian diplomats who coordinated top-secret talks and inspired seemingly impossible friendships. Their quiet heroics helped lead to the groundbreaking Oslo Accords. The play had a sell-out run in New York in 2016, and received its UK premiere at the National Theatre, London, in September 2017, prior to a West End transfer.
£13.99
Nick Hern Books The Voice Exercise Book: A Guide to Healthy and Effective Voice Use
Fall in love with your voice. Get to know how it works. You will soon feel how good it is to sound like you. In The Voice Exercise Book, Jeannette Nelson - Head of Voice at the National Theatre - shares the voice exercises she uses with many of Britain's leading actors to help to keep their voices in shape. Her belief is that all of us, not just actors, can learn to use our voices well. Whether you perform professionally or you just want to be understood clearly and easily, you can improve your voice by knowing how it works and by practising simple exercises. The aim is not to 'fake it' – to try to sound like someone else. It is to find your authentic voice: to be honestly and clearly you in any situation. 'Jeannette’s warm-up sessions are tremendous and this book extends those exercises.' Zoë Wanamaker CBE 'Jeannette’s knowledge is astonishing, and her approach so gentle and effective.' Derren Brown 'She makes voice production endlessly fascinating and fun. There is no one better.' Rory Kinnear 'A must for anyone who is serious about producing a strong, clean noise from their voice box.' Sir Lenny Henry
£12.99
Nick Hern Books The Flick
Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about three cinema attendants - 'Wondrous, devastating, hilarious, and infinitely touching. A play to be treasured' New York Times. In a run-down movie theatre in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35-millimetre film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lacklustre, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely tuned ear for comedy, The Flick is a hilarious and heart-rending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world. The Flick arrived at the National Theatre, London, in 2016, direct from New York, where it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It went on to win Best New Play at the 2016 Critics' Circle Awards.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Puppetry: How to Do It
A practical, accessible and inspiring guide to using puppetry in theatre - the perfect entry point for anyone looking to use puppets in their productions, to explore what puppets can do, or to develop their puppetry skills. Written by an experienced theatre and puppetry director, Puppetry: How to Do It focuses on the performer and the craft of bringing any puppet to life. No puppet-making is required to use this book: starting just with simple objects, it lays out the skills required to unlock a puppet's limitless potential for expression and connection with an audience. Inside you'll discover fifty practical, easy-to-follow exercises - for use in a group or on your own - to develop elements of the craft, build confidence and help you improve your puppetry through play and improvisation. Also included are sections on different types of puppet, thinking about how the puppeteer is presented on stage and how to direct and devise puppet performances Ideal for actors and performers, for directors and designers, and for teachers and students of all ages and levels of experience, this book will demystify the art of puppetry, and help you become more confident and creative with all kinds of puppets and objects on stage. 'Based on the workshops he developed for training performers for War Horse, Mervyn has written this book to share his craft... the exercises are clear and easily reproducible for many different types of participants... a wonderful gift to the field of puppetry. I hope that it will be used widely to introduce adventurous spirits to this dynamic art form.' Cheryl Henson, President of the Jim Henson Foundation, from her Foreword.
£33.01
Nick Hern Books Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons
'Let's just talk until it goes.' The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons imagines a world where we're forced to say less. It's about what we say and how we say it; about the things we can only hear in the silence; about dead cats, activism, eye contact and lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons, lemons. Sam Steiner's play premiered at Warwick Arts Centre in 2015 and won three Judges' Awards at the National Student Drama Festival, before appearing at Latitude Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Camden People's Theatre, London.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Crocodile
‘I’m not angry with you, Zack, I’m angry in general. I’m an artist, that’s my job.’ Ivan is a struggling actor who hasn’t yet achieved the recognition he feels he deserves. But all that is about to change when, one afternoon at the zoo with his friend Zack, he is swallowed whole by a crocodile. Based on Dostoyevsky’s short story, Tom Basden's The Crocodile is a ferociously funny, eye-poppingly theatrical play about art, animals and what happens when you try to take on the system from within… a crocodile. It premiered as part of the 2015 Manchester International Festival, in a co-production with The Invisible Dot.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books Mermaid
A bold reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen's tale of love, loss and desire, transported to a contemporary setting. Beneath the ocean's waves there is no death or pain or separation. Above, the modern world is beset with war, poverty and desire. On her sixteenth birthday, a mermaid rises up to the surface, leaving her childhood behind for ever when she falls in love with a mortal prince. She knows that she can no longer live at the bottom of the ocean - but must she destroy herself in order to be loved? Polly Teale's Mermaid was first performed by Shared Experience and Nottingham Playhouse on a UK tour in 2015.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books buckets
How to fill what's left of your day. How to fill the rest of your days. Sick buckets, bucket rattling, bucket lists, buckets of love. Wry, emotive, funny and heartfelt, buckets is a play with a unique perspective on a universal dilemma: how do you deal with the fact that time always runs out? Across thirty-three interconnected scenes – some just a few lines, others mini-plays in their own right – buckets swings through a kaleidoscopic world of sadness and happiness, illness and health, youth and experience, kissing and crying, singing and dying. Adam Barnard's open-ended text can be performed by any number and composition of actors. buckets premiered at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in May 2015.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books Bird and other monologues for young women
Three hard-hitting, distinctive monologues for young female actors, from one of the country's most exciting young playwrights. Bird is a cutting-edge monologue that throws light on the experience of a teenager in contemporary Britain. It's four in the morning and Leah is waiting for her boyfriend to call. Over the course of a single night she tells us what it's like to be fourteen, fearless and full of love. But everything isn't what it seems, and as the sun comes up, Leah begins to unpick the true nature of her relationship. Bird was first presented by Root Theatre and Echo, on a tour of the UK, in 2014. This edition also includes the monologues Gypsy Girl and Where I'm From.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Initiate
A thrilling tale of altruism, greed, and the search for a way to belong. When a British couple are seized by Somali pirates, an East London taxi driver decides to rescue them. Meeting disbelief with determination, he dismisses the fears of his wife and flies out to negotiate their release. Speeding from the banks of the Thames to the now unfamiliar world of his homeland, he confronts the family he left behind and the bravado of the defiant men he once called brothers. Alexandra Wood's play The Initiate premiered at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a production by Paines Plough, where it won a Fringe First Award, before touring.
£8.99
Nick Hern Books Burying Your Brother in the Pavement
A play about grief and looking at someone that little bit more closely. Tom's brother Luke is dead. This has upset a lot of people but it hasn't upset Tom. Or, rather, it has upset him, but in ways he can't explain and other people can't understand. You see, Tom and Luke were never friends. In fact, Tom didn't really like Luke at all. So it's an odd decision - to try and bury Luke in the pavement of the Tunstall Estate where he was killed. But to Tom, it sort of makes sense, in a stupid-weird kind of way. As he sleeps out on the pavement, he comes across planning officials, tramps, undertakers, police officers, sisters, mothers, estate agents, ghosts, pavement elephants, sky dragons and a strange lad called Tight who wants to sell him a Travelcard. Written specifically for young people, Burying Your Brother in the Pavement was part of the 2008 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books A Hard Rain
A play about what happens when you push things underground, set in New York 1969 in the sweltering few days before the eruption of the Stonewall riots. Kicked out of the military after a year in Vietnam, Ruby rocks up in Greenwich Village in high heels and a rage, and meets the street kid who will change his world. Jon Bradfield and Martin Hooper's vibrant drama unfolds in a mafia-run bar greased with smart-talking queers, bribe-happy cops and nervous Wall Street high-flyers. A Hard Rain premiered at Above the Stag Theatre, London, in 2014.
£9.99
Nick Hern Books The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit
A revised and updated edition of Bella Merlin's essential guide to Stanislavsky. The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit collects together for the first time the terms and ideas developed by Stanislavsky throughout his career. It is organised into three sections: Actor-Training, Rehearsal Processes and Performance Practices. Key terms are explained and defined as they naturally occur in this process. They are illustrated with examples from both his own work and that of other practitioners. Each stage of the process is explored with sequences of practical exercises designed to help today's actors and students become thoroughly familiar with the tools in Stanislavsky's toolkit. 'Bella Merlin magically converts her extensive knowledge into real-world practice and on-the-floor technique. This new edition is a necessary and lively resource for any theatre practitioner' David Chambers, Professor of Directing, Yale School of Drama 'One of the essential books about acting for both professionals and students… brings new clarity to unlocking what Stanislavsky means for actors today' Michael Earley, Principal, Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
£12.99
Nick Hern Books Pronoun (NHB Modern Plays)
A love story about transition, testosterone, and James Dean. Josh and Isabella are childhood sweethearts. They were meant to spend their gap year together, they were meant to be together forever. But Isabella has now become a boy. Pronoun was commissioned as part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival and premiered by youth theatres across the UK. Especially written for young actors, the play can be performed by a cast of seven, with some doubling of roles, or a much larger cast.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books So You Want To Be A Corporate Actor?
A practical guide for actors who want to find work in the corporate sector, by a veteran with over 1400 corporate events to his credit. Thousands of actors in the UK make their living not from treading the boards but in the conference centres and training rooms of the nation’s corporate sector. In this, the first book to be published about the increasingly accessible and lucrative business of corporate acting, Paul Clayton shows how this sort of work – training, coaching, role-plays, Forum Theatre and live events – can keep you in paid employment, and your skills sharp, whilst you look for other acting opportunities. He takes you through every aspect of the industry, with a series of practical examples and invaluable tips at every stage, including: What sort of work is available – and how you can get it The various role-play techniques you’ll encounter The dos and don’ts for offering constructive feedback to your clients What Forum Theatre is – and how to do it How to handle live events – and escape with your dignity intact Written with humour and great insight, So You Want To Be A Corporate Actor? encourages you to look at your skills from a business point of view, enabling you to take control over your own career. It is a must-read for any actor wishing to broaden their skills and make themselves more employable at all stages of their career. ‘For actors wishing to utilise their theatrical skills within the corporate world, this book should be their bible. It is crystal clear, informative and irreverent – and lays out in simple terms how actors need to think and present themselves to be employable.’ Janet Rawson, Co-founder of Steps Drama Learning Development
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Misterman
A virtuosic study of one man's descent into religious mania in small-town Ireland. Inishfree might seem like a quaint Irish town, but fierce evangelist Thomas Magill knows better. He knows that jovial Dwain Flynn is a miserable drunk, that Timmy O'Leary enslaves his lovely mother, and that sweet Mrs Cleary is a blasphemous flirt. It is down to Thomas, with God on his shoulder, to save this sinful place. But the townsfolk are not listening, an angel is misbehaving and a barking dog will not be silenced. Just how far will Thomas go in his quest for salvation? Enda Walsh's Misterman was first performed by the author in a Corcadorca Theatre Company production at the Granary Theatre in Cork in April 1999, directed by Pat Kiernan. A revised version was produced by Landmark Productions and Galway Arts Festival, and performed at the Black Box Theatre, Galway, as part of the Galway Arts Festival, in July 2011. This edition of the revised play was published alongside the production at the National Theatre, London, in 2012, directed by the playwright, starring Cillian Murphy.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books First Person Shooter
A funny and foreboding play about what happens when gaming and military technology collide. Seventeen-year-old student Adrian has a serious habit - playing military shooters on his computer games console. Single mum Maggie wants him to study Classics at uni and stop locking himself in his room pwning* n00bs**. With the help of computer geek Tom, Maggie deciphers gaming lingo in an attempt to reconnect with Adrian. But when a revolutionary new technology Tom has invented gets picked up by the Ministry of Defence, their lives are rocketed from the virtual to the actual battlefield. Paul Jenkins' play First Person Shooter was first staged at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 2010. *Pwn – (verb) to kill, to annihilate, or to totally dominate your opponent **n00b – (noun) a novice or somebody unskilled at a particular game
£8.99
Nick Hern Books Tribes (NHB Modern Plays)
Nina Raine's clever and subtle new play. Billy's family, like every other, is a club, with its own private language, jokes and rules. You can be as rude as you like, as possessive as you like, as critical as you like. Arguments are an expression of love, and after all, you love each other more than anyone in the world. Don't you? But Billy, who is deaf, is the only one who actually listens. When he meets Sylvia, he decides he finally wants to be heard.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Passionate, highly entertaining and gloriously funny - Robert Tressell's classic pre-First World War account of the working lives of a group of housepainters and decorators is vividly adapted by Howard Brenton. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists recounts the little daily successes and the disasters of a group of working-class men, living under the constant fear of being laid off by employers forever looking for new corners to cut. Both workers and bosses are caught in a system spiralling out of control, but why is it the workers always come out worse? Howard Brenton's stage adaptation, first performed at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool in June 2010 in a co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre, lays bare the many social injustices perpetrated on these men whilst capturing their individual characters with touching truth to life.
£12.99
Nick Hern Books Cockroach
A dark and compelling vision of a world infected by violence. A seemingly normal detention in a seemingly normal modern-day comprehensive school. A teacher valiantly battles on with biology revision. She believes only education will set her pupils free. For outside the classroom, the world is in the middle of a long and bloody war. Despite her best efforts, the tide of conflict is soon lapping at the school gates and, one by one, pupils and teacher are pulled under as their hopes and dreams float away from them. 'Sam Holcroft is uncompromising in her ideas and deeply ambitious for the power of theatre. It's a long time since a young writer has thrilled me this much' Vicky Featherstone, director of the National Theatre of Scotland's production of Cockroach
£9.99
Nick Hern Books Mrs Klein
Nicholas Wright's play about the controversial psychoanalyst Melanie Klein is a haunting and poignant study of mother-daughter relationships. In 1934 the son of Melanie Klein, Britain's most admired psychoanalyst, was reported killed in a climbing accident. There were no witnesses. Nicholas Wright's play shows the effect of this shattering and unexpected death on Mrs Klein, on her daughter and on her new assistant Paula, a young refugee from Hitler's Berlin. Melanie Klein had herself come to Britain from Berlin with a controversial mission to extend psychoanalysis to infants. But her analysis of her own children has damaged her relationship with them almost beyond repair, and the news of her son's death provokes a bitter confrontation with her daughter. Nicholas Wright's Mrs Klein was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 1988. This edition was published alongside the revival at the Almeida Theatre in 2009.
£10.93
Nick Hern Books Hedda
In Lucy Kirkwood's version of Hedda Gabler, Ibsen's nineteenth-century heroine is relocated to London in 2008, to startling effect. Hedda, still mourning for the father she adored, returns from honeymoon with a husband she doesn't love, to a flat and a pregnancy she doesn't want. Trapped by her past and terrified of her future, bored by her life but too cowardly to walk away from it, she finds herself caught between three men. And in the end, something has to give. Lucy Kirkwood's play Hedda was first performed at the Gate Theatre, London, in August 2008.
£13.99
Nick Hern Books This Wide Night
A tender portrayal of two women trying to start again after serving their time in prison. On her release from prison, Lorraine heads straight to Marie's. On the inside they used to share everything, but the friendship that once protected them now threatens to smother the fragile freedom they have found. Chloë Moss's play This Wide Night was first performed at Soho Theatre, London, in August 2008, in a production by Clean Break, the theatre, education and new writing company that works with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. It was revived, in this revised version, at Soho Theatre in November 2009. This Wide Night won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2009.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books The Hills of California
'This house. It's called "Sea View". It's just I've looked out of every window, and you can't. You can't see the sea.' Blackpool, 1976. The driest summer in two hundred years. The beaches are packed. The hotels are heaving. In the sweltering backstreets, far from the choc ices and donkey rides, the Webb Sisters are returning to their mother's run-down guest house, as she lies dying upstairs. Jez Butterworth's play The Hills of California was first performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End in 2024, directed by Sam Mendes, and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Neal Street.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Red Pitch
'The way they're changing endz is nuts.' Red Pitch. South London. Three lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave. A coming-of-age story about what it means to belong somewhere, Tyrell Williams' fast-paced and sharp-edged play tells a powerful story about gentrification, regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London's communities. Red Pitch received an ecstatic critical and audience response when it was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in February 2022, directed by Associate Artistic Director Daniel Bailey. The production was revived at the Bush in September 2023, with this definitive version of the text. For Red Pitch, Tyrell Williams won the Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Critics' Circle Theatre Award both for Most Promising Playwright, The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, the George Devine Award, as well as the Off West End Award for Best New Play. An earlier version of the play was presented in June 2019, as part of the Untold Season at Ovalhouse, London.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books Grenfell: in the words of survivors
'It was a tower block, but it was home.' The early hours of Wednesday 14 June 2017. The north-west corner of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A twenty-four-storey residential tower. The scene of a national tragedy. This powerful verbatim play is drawn from the testimony of residents – a group of survivors and bereaved – at the heart of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It reveals the impact of the multiple failures that led to the most devastating residential fire in the UK since the Second World War, and asks: how do we stop this ever happening again? Startling, urgent and deeply moving, Grenfell: in the words of survivors explores the courage and resilience of an ill-treated community and their continued campaign for justice. Created from interviews by Gillian Slovo, the play was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in July 2023, co-directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike. 10% of the net proceeds from sales of this book will be donated by the publisher to the Grenfell Foundation, who support the bereaved and survivors in the aftermath of the fire, as well as help them ensure Grenfell is remembered long into the future.
£11.99
Nick Hern Books untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play
'We could stop here. We could stay here. It's not so bad, is it?' Kim is having one of those days. A terrible, very bad, no-good kind of day, and the worst part is… it all feels so familiar. Caught up in a never-ending cycle of events, she looks for the exit but the harder she tries, the worse it gets and she begins to wonder: who's writing this story? She makes a break for it, smashing through a hundred years of bloody narratives that all end the same way. Can she find a way out before it's too late? With breathless hilarity, Kimber Lee's untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play jumps through time, wriggling inside of and then exploding lifetimes of repeating Asian stereotypes, wrestling with history for the right to control your own narrative in a world that thinks it can tell you who you are. Winner of the International Award for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019, the play was co-produced in 2023 by the Royal Exchange, Factory International for Manchester International Festival, the Young Vic Theatre and Headlong, and directed by Roy Alexander Weise. It was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, as part of Manchester International Festival, before transferring to the Young Vic Theatre, London.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man
Arriving from his East Midlands beginnings into a London thick with the grime of industrialisation, Joseph Merrick is an anomaly. In a city of factories that churn out uniformity, there is no place for someone like him. But Merrick and the city are evolving into something new. We follow him through the workhouse, the freak show and the hospital, as he searches for acceptance in a society that just wants to stare at him. Powerful, angry and surprising, Tom Wright's acclaimed play imagines an alternative history of the person who came to be known as 'the Elephant Man'. It restores Joseph Merrick to the centre of his own story: a man fighting for his right to be and to belong. The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man was first performed at Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre, before receiving its European premiere at Nottingham Playhouse in 2023, directed by Stephen Bailey, and supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust.
£10.99
Nick Hern Books When Winston Went to War with the Wireless
In May 1926, Britain grinds to a halt, as workers down tools for the General Strike. With the printing presses shut down, the only sources of news are the government's British Gazette, edited by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, and the independent, fledgling British Broadcasting Company, led by John Reith. The stage is set for a fierce battle over control of the news and who gets to define the truth. Jack Thorne's When Winston Went To War With The Wireless is a gripping play about the birth of a great British institution and its efforts to stay impartial. It premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in June 2023, directed by Katy Rudd, with Stephen Campbell Moore as Reith, Adrian Scarborough as Churchill, and Haydn Gwynne as Stanley Baldwin. 'Jack Thorne never ceases to stimulate and entertain' Evening Standard
£10.99