No comments about Shakescenes: Shakespeare for Two (Applause Acting Series) (Applause Acting Series) (Applause Acting Series).

2 comments about Costume Craftwork on a Budget: Clothing, 3-D Makeup, Wigs, Millinery & Accessories.

1. This is a particularly good supplementary reference for those who have Sylvia Moss' brilliant textbook, Costumes and Chemistry: A Comprehensive Guide to Materials and Applications, which is invaluable for the safety information and product analyses alone, but also features tons of great information at the end following step-by-step processes for creation of high-end Vegas showgirl costumes, Broadway effects, etc. Moss' projects are generally big-budget ones (quite useful to read about but beyond the range of most regional and university theatres' budgets), whereas Tan Huaixiang's book illustrates ways of creating elaborate effects, but offers creative ways of using cheap, easily obtained materials to achieve complicated "fantastical" costume looks.
   
   For my own use, i'm on the fence about using it as a text for my crafts artisanship classes because it seems to be aimed toward designers who primarily work jobs where there's no crafts artisan and do their own crafts, and our program is fairly specific in its focus--top level Costume Production. There's no design track for graduate students at all, so the designer-centricity of the text isn't relevant. There's also a HUGE middle section on millinery and headdress-making that's not really my speed--i'm satisfied teaching my millinery course from Denise Dreher's From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking and Tim Dial's Basic Millinery for the Stage. I do think it's pretty exciting for its masks and prosthetics section; there's not really a good up-to-date text on mask making specifically for theatre (Thurston James' The Prop Builder's Mask-Making Handbook is from the early 1990s, out of print now, and lacking in the safety precautions area.). I intend to keep it in my shop library--many of the projects are very inspiring--and if you are a designer who typically does a lot of your own craftwork, you probably want to check it out!



2. This book jumps right in with instructions to make a full head casting with an alginate negative and finishing with your ultracal 30 positive. She uses this positive to make masks and prosthesis, from foam, and latex. She refers to this as 3-D make-up. Her mask section uses the same head casting to start, but explores different materials from flexible foam sheets (varaform) to decopage.
   She covers wigs with the same step by step detailed procedures. She uses plenty of photo's, and drawings so her instructions are very clear and easy to follow. A beginner will be able to make a wig, whether full or half bald with no problems.
   Her other topic with wonderful detail is millinery. Her hats are beautiful and made from everything! She also covers headresses, with a wonderful section on creating animal heads starting with the wire formature and tieing the foam sheets to achieve different shapes, such as eyelids, ears, mouth parts.
   
   As far as the clothing aspect is concerned, she only touches on it briefly. Her ideas are good but I would recommend other sources.
   
   I believe the title and cover of the book are misleading. I actually bought it for ideas to alter existing costume stock into period pieces. However, I don't think there's another book out there which covers masks, wigs, and headresses with nearly the detail and precision that this one does. This book is a 'stand alone' for costuming from the neck up.

No comments about Making Short Films: The Complete Guide from Script to Screen, Second Edition.

No comments about The Psychology of Neurogenic Communication Disorders: A Primer for Health Care Professionals.

No comments about Theatre.

1 comments about Scenes and Monologues from the New American Theater.

1. This book offers a wide variety of styles and tastes to perform. It also has the plays divided into 2 men, 2 women, and one of both, and 19 monlogues. So it will match whatever your cast are. There are plays for all races and back grounds.

5 comments about Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball.

1. I had been looking forward to this biography, and found myself quite disappointed by the result. The first red flag was a rookie mistake located on the second page of the introduction, and then another on the third (Buster Keaton didn't work for Sennett - five minutes of research would reveal this to a conscientious writer; nor were Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance the first female comedy team - Hal Roach gave us Todd & Pitts a good 20 years prior to Ball & Vance). When these clear mistakes are at the very beginning, one has to wonder what else is in error throughout the book (the topless photo purported to be Lucille, but clearly not, for instance).
   
   Aside from that, this book paints Lucille in a fairly monstrous light, with only glimmers of her generosity and kindness. She herself indicated that she wasn't a funny person, but that it was her writers who made her work SEEM funny, so that's not what's at issue here. The discussions of her seemingly endless tantrums, fits and petty jealousies are piled on until Lucille reads like "Lucy Dearest." Desi, Sr. and her children don't come off much better, and even Gary Morton, who loved her for the last 28 years of her life, doesn't emerge unscathed.
   
   I wanted to read an even-handed biography of Lucy, and a complete one, one that covered her early career in some detail and dealt with her life after I Love Lucy in more than just glancing copy. The bulk of the book is made up of her admittedly iconic 1950's series, but I don't feel as if I learned anything more about Lucille Ball than I knew before I opened the pages, and even more problematic, I don't know what, if any, of the work I can believe. This one is for the completists, I'm afraid, and not to be read as a definitive work on the complex woman who was Lucille Ball.



2. "Love Lucy" was a great book written by Lucille Ball and so was
   "Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time", by Jess Oppenheimer. "Lucille" by Kathleen Brady told the same stories that L. Ball and J. Oppenheimer told, but she gave more body to the characters and gave many more details in general. I've been listening to the book as I do my household chores and I'm enjoying the book so much that I'm performing quiet chores so I can resume listening to the biography. It's very good and so far I have only found one tiny flaw...Lucille Ball said that Vivian Vance did have to stay plump for the I love Lucy show (if I remember correctly) and Kathleen Brady said that Vance's agents claimed that was an untrue rumor. So either the agents knew it was true and didn't want to disclose the fact, or Lucille Ball told an untruth which doesn't make sense or K. Brady reported it incorrectly. I don't think it matters but I would guess that Vance's agents just didn't want to admit to the fact that their client agreed to stay overweight to keep the focus on L.B. For such a huge book...that's an insignificant detail so I think the book is honest and a great read or in my case a great listen.



3. There are some minor factual errors with regard to some of the TV series indicating that the author--an obvious admirer--was not a fan per se. This actually helps in terms of objectivity. The book is unflinching but warm, and is the sole book to really go in depth about Lucille's childhood and teen/young adult years. "Ball of Fire" and many others are shockingly un-new in their stoties and historical references. No one can really know "Lucille" after the fact but this book, and "Desilu" come as close as you canget.



4. When I was ten and heard that Lucy and Desi were divorcing, I was devastated. No one in my little village had ever divorced, and I did not know anyone who knew anyone who had. So, Lucy and Ricky, who were interchangeable in my mind with Lucy and Desi, were the first people I "knew" who took that drastic step. I couldn't figure out how they could be so happy on TV and still want to split.

   A few years later, when Lucy returned to television, along with Ethel, rechristened as Vivian, I kept longing for DesiRicky to show up. Of course he didn't. Later, I saw some of her early movies and became one of the three people in the US who loved her on the screen as Mame. Even though I appreciated her skill and talent, for me, she was always Lucy Riccardo. Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that Lucille Ball was more complex than her TV counterpart.

   Of the half-dozen books I've read about Lucy, which include the newly-released "Ball of Fire", a couple of the books about the series, and Vance's biography, Kathleen Brady's is my favorite. She comes closest to cracking the code, finding what drove Lucille Ball to the top of her profession.

   Brady treats her subject tenderly, but does whitewash the harder side of her character. Rather, she tries to bring the apparently incompatible parts of her personality together into one whole, very understandable person. As much as is possible, she succeeds.

   Where she is sure of details, she gives them. Where she is not, she offers alternate possibilities, for example, the unknown cause of Ball's paralysis that sent her home from NY and to bed for months or, on the more humorous side, exactly what happened the night that Tallulah Bankhead decided to disrobe during a production meeting of the LucyDesi Comedy Hour.

   Well-researched and well-written, this is mandatory reading for any die-hard Lucy fan and an excellent choice for anyone who intends reading only one book about America's most famous comedienne.




5. The Lucille Ball in Kathleen Brady's book, "Lucille: The Life of Lucille Ball" is a study of contradictions. Partly an homage to a star she clearly adores, partly an expose on Lucy's dark side, this book paints an incomplete and unsatisfying picture of America's premiere television comedianne.

   The Lucy in this book comes across both as a scrappy fighter early in her career, and a hardened soul at the end of it, which may very well be true, or not. It was difficult to discover the viewpoint of Lucy that the author was trying to take. At times, it was clearly injected with personal opinions and commentaries not warranted in the biography of someone else's life, both glowing and scandalous. And whereas the majority of the book takes up the years of Desilu's powerhold on the television industry, from I Love Lucy to Star Trek, it shortchanges both her early career and later career, almost as insignificant bookends to her highest pinnacle in the 1950's. Certainly, Lucy had a full, complete life, only some of which is shown here.

   However, there were some parts I did enjoy. Lucy's less-than-impressive movie career which eventually gave birth to her TV persona was interesting, as you root for her to make the transition earlier. Her undying devotion to Desi in the early years, despite mutual fits of jealousy and rage, made for a deepening look at their marriage. And the occasional parts that show her softer, kinder side were warm to read.

   Which leads to this thought. Clearly Lucy is loved country wide; were we ready to learn some negative things about the woman we cherished? Certainly not unknown, nor surprising to anyone who's read other things. The issue perhaps comes in balancing all viewpoints to present a clearer one, rather than being all over the board haphazardly.

   As for Lucie and Desi Arnaz, Jr.'s objections to the book were clear to me as I read through to the end. Kathleen Brady seemed to have a personal vendetta against these two, as she paints them very unfavorably as spoiled Hollywood rich kids. Nary a kind word was said about these two, which leads me to think they offered no assistance in creating this book, so a price was paid for their silence.

   In the end, I did not feel closer to Lucy than I had before reading this. I may suggest grabbing a bowl of popcorn, putting up your feet, and watching some classic episodes of I Love Lucy, to remember Lucy the way she wanted us to remember her, with a smile and a laugh.

No comments about Student Activities Manual for Adler/Proctor/Towne's Looking Out, Looking In, 12th.

5 comments about The Automated Lighting Programmer's Handbook.

1. I have been in the concert production business for a couple of years and this is a great book to have around.



2. A great book that is not to technical and shows some real world ideas and solutions



3. The tips, tricks and techniques have been invaluable for both conventional and moving lighting programming. An excellent purchase for anyone interested in a more organized production. Very well organized, and generalized to facilitate programming virtually any console or utilizing any instrument.
   
   While specific manufacturers are mentioned, they are not covered in great detail. This book is a wonderful suppliment to any programmers library, but cannot replace a thourough understanding of console syntax that is only obtained through expereience and reading console system manuals.



4. Hands down, this is the best book for aspiring and practicing automated programmers available today. It's full of very useful and practical ideas, tips, observations and recommendations. Any programmer who is mindful of raising their game should have a copy and read it regularly.



5. Buying this book to expand my knowledge into this area, I found it a bit thin. It feels stretched to me - like a padded long article. The info about cue types was good, but I'm sure it's covered in user manuals, and the insistence on avoiding mention of specific products diluted the rest of it too much for my liking. I think picking a console and fixtures, even if it's one per chapter, would allow a little more detail. As it is, readable, but unsatisfying.
   
   Certainly room for another edition, hopefully with more detail. I should note that I'm not a beginner, I've been programming other aspects of shows for decades. Possibly a beginner would get more out of it. I gave it more stars because it covers the exact topic I was looking for.

2 comments about Mary Poppins: Anything Can Happen If You Let It.

1. An absolutely amazing book on the creation of the musical Mary Poppins.
   
   It is full of information, facts, photos and even the design folio is included! A beautiful, incredible book that will definitely be kept forever.



2. Though the musical of Mary Poppins was no masterpiece, its production values were certainly enchanting and this well put together volume includes a multitude of color production photos, scenic models and concept sketches from the stage show as well as photos and concept sketches from the much better 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews.
   I'd recommend this book to any fan of this musical (which I wasn't all that keen on) or fan of the film (which I certainly am) or anyone interested in studying stage design.