No comments about La barca sin pescador--Siete gritos en el mar.

No comments about Prince Friedrich of Homburg: A Drama.

3 comments about The Business of Acting: Learn the Skills You Need to Build the Career You Want.

1. An actor friend of mine gave me a copy of this book as a going away present. I am moving from New York to L.A. to pursue a career in acting, in television, mostly. It was feeling a little overwhelmed about what I was getting myself into, but this book has helped me feel empowered about my decision. There is so much to having a career in this business that I never realy gave a thought to. I never learned in school the stuff that's in this book. I'm moving to L.A. in three days and I can't wait! This book has become my lucky charm. Thank you! :)



2. I have read a lot of books about acting, but this is the first book I have ever seen (and read) about the business of acting. I learned so much about the business that I did not know before. This book showed me how being a great actor is not enough to have a real career as an actor. I learned lots of new tactics about how to take charge and how to stay in charge of my career.

   I have worked three times since I bought this book! Thank you!




3. This book has become an invaluable tool. It was easy to read and answered all of my questions. It has taught me more than my 4 years in college. I highly recomend this book!

1 comments about The Playwright's Handbook: Revised Edition.

1. This book is a friendly guide to an almost mystical subject; the stage play.
   Good clear advice and encouragment along the way.
   If you love the stage go for it.

No comments about Sabrina Fair..

1 comments about Style: Acting in High Comedy (Applause Acting Series).

1. If anyone is wondering about Maria Aiken's comedic genius, just watch A Fish Called Wanda again (she plays the wife). Her acting career on stage is legendary, and she has directed in the style of High Comedy all over the place, and to great renown. Read this book and you will know why. Based on her teaching experience (which includes The Juilliard School among many illustrious others), this book is a useful guide to the skills that will put a High degree of polish on your verbal stage comedy pyrotechnics, from Shakespeare to Coward. It should be on every working stage actor's shelf. It is on the reading list for the course that I teach in Shakespearean acting at Princeton. I have been known to hand copies to cast members here in NYC as well! Read it and weep... with laughter!

No comments about Acting the Song: Performance Skills for the Musical Theatre.

1 comments about 2007: The Best Ten-Minute Plays for Three or More Actors (Contemporary Playwrights) (Contemporary Playwrights).

1. I had the opportunity to see the Naked People Play in Baltimore and it was a treat. The writing jumps out at you and it's thought provoking. Great piece to do for the small budget theater or College environment.

5 comments about Digital Filmmaking 101: An Essential Guide to Producing Low Budget Movies.

1. So i read this book in a few days and basically what it helped me with is to have a good picture of what it would take for an overall production from start to finish. It went into detail in some areas more than others but it gave a good general view that could be followed if you wanted to make movies.
   
   It gave me exactly what i was looking for, which was a basic introduction on the process of movie making from start (concept and screenwriting) to finish (post production and distribution). This helped me assess what needed to be done to ... make a movie!



2. For the ultra-low budget filmmaker, there is no better book to read than digital filmmaking 101. This book tells you everything you will need to know to make a quality feature length movie on a shoestring budget.
   
   Every filmmaker dreams of being at the helm of a 20 million dollar movie. However, there are only 7 studios in the U.S. that have that kind of capital and they aren't going to give you 20 million dollars to make a movie until you first make a 2 million dollar movie. How many people have 2 million dollars lying around? Not many. So how do you get people to give you 2 million dollars for a movie? You make a 200,000 dollar movie. How many people have $200,000 lying around? Some do but most don't. So how do you get people to give you $200,000 for a movie? You make a $20,000 movie. $20,000 is a little more within reach for a lot of people but for many others it is still an insurmountable obstacle. How do you raise $20,000 to make a movie? You make an $8000 ultra-low budget movie. This is what Digital Filmamking 101 teaches you how to do. $8000 is well within reach for most people. That's a part-time job for a year or so. As a first time filmmaker, which is more within reach? The $20 million film or the $8,000 film. Start with the $ 8000 movie and save the $20,000, $200,000 and $2 million films for your 2nd, third and fourth films respectively. The big studios will then be more likely to give you $20 million to make a movie because you have already demonstrated that you know what you know what you're doing. You will have made a movie for $8000, $20,000, $200,000 and $2 million.



3. I disagree with the comments from others who trash this book. It isn't a great book but it is a very good one that is appropriately titled "101" because its an introduction to digital filmmaking. It includes most of the information you need to know to put an ultra low-budget digital feature together. The authors (wisely) avoided too many references to technical equipment or how to operate them because, as we all know, by the time the book is published, whatever technology they referred to would be outdated. If you're looking for a book that goes into production details like lighting, camera angles, setting up shots, and directing actors you won't find that in this book.
   
   On the other hand, the book has a lot of information about how to get started, how to set up a small production company, equipment you'll need, creating and working within a tight budget, planning and working within a production schedule, finding and auditioning actors and crew, sourcing equipment, post production, distribution, and a lot of other useful stuff. I recommend it as a good place for any aspiring indie filmmaker to start.



4. Has lots of information and tips on "how-to-" do many things. But I wouldn't try to make a movie of it. It just didn't hit me.



5. I bought this book thinking it would help in a film project utilizing a good camera and a few volunteers. Unfortunately it does not even have much to say about the possibilities of digital filmmaking, but rather gives a disorganized (how about some editing?) depiction of their experience in making two films. I am not sure they even used the digital format.... The true focus is how to produce a film with little budget, and little experience. Not a bad topic, but not what I was expecting from the title. Three stars for the appendix, the chapter on working with the crew, and budget.

5 comments about Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince.

1. Allegedly the first biography released without full consent of the studio, Eliot offers an unflattering portrait of Uncle Walt. While some of his assertions are absurd (Disney's incestous relationship with his daughter, Disney's predisposition to cross dressing as part of an alleged Norman Bates complex), the book does address many of the issues that had not been publicly acknowledged prior to it's release. Disney's involvement with the House of UnAmerican Activities Commitee in the 1950s, the animator's strike of the 1940's that nearly crippled the studio, and the fact the Disney studio was the first animation studio to delegate menial tasks to women, are all addressed in this book.
   Is it totally legit? No.
   Does it make for an enjoyable read? Yes.



2. Other readers have pointed out the flaws in this book, most of them dealing with errors of fact and the author's tendency to spin yarns from a few disconnected pieces of Disney's life. While it's true that he's done that, he also has unflinchingly laid bare the abuse in Walt's early life (which is glossed over in other authorized bios) and how he reacted to it.
   
   If Eliot really wanted to do a number on Disney, he might have charged many other things, but even he doesn't dare suggest that, for example, Disney's interest in the Mouseketeers was anything other than absolutely normal paternal interest. (He does suggest, from one photograph reprinted in the book, that Disney may have had an affair with Dolores del Rio, but there's absolutely no substantiation for that in the text.)
   
   I personally am a huge fan of all things Disney and a great admirer of Walt Disney himself. His achievements were so towering that it seems petty to worry about his less-than-perfect side. When Eliot refers to `careers ruined' at Disney Studios, he's speaking of employees who felt stifled by the atmosphere and who did not receive as much credit as they would have liked for their achievements. But Disney made it plain from the beginning that he was going to promote the Disney name and nothing else, and it worked beautifully. Anyone who was looking for more personal glory had the option of leaving, and many did. Those who stayed had to know what the rules were.
   
   The one new revelation here that I have to admit intrigues me is Eliot's assertion that Disney's favorite breakfast, when he ate alone at his studio desk, was fresh doughnuts dunked in scotch. (Eliot claims Disney's drinking was excessive.) Photos of the aging Walt Disney show him with the red cheeks and bloodshot eyes of a habitual drinker. So perhaps Eliot is right about this.
   
   However, if Walt really did begin his day with fresh doughnuts dunked in scotch (I can't explain why, but I find this endearing), and every bio of him has already stressed his extreme dependence on cigarettes, well, to me the wonder isn't that he died as young as he did, but that he LASTED as long as he did ... And how lucky for all of us that he did.
   
   I thought parts of this bio were genuinely interesting, but it did not make me love Disney less, just sympathize with him more.



3. I'm not saying don't read this book, just take the author's pronouncements with a grain of salt. It is a fascinating subject that deserves better research, but at least the book's negative conjectures help balance out the corporate suppressions found in the authorized biography.
   
   In the first chapter, the author informs us that Elias Disney (Walt's father) got married in the spring of 1888 and his first child (Herbert) was born later that year. Elias soon got bored with the tedium of having a new baby in the house and enlisted to fight in the Spanish-American War. Seven days into basic training he became disillusioned and was given a medical discharge for a suspect knee. He returned to Florida in time to see his Florida orange grove destroyed by a record frost in the spring of 1889.
   
   The problem with this account is that the Spanish-American War actually happened ten years later (from April-August 1898). This is one of the few assertions in the chapter that can be easily checked. If Eliot was that careless or indifferent about his research, one is reluctant to credit his more "out-there" conjecture, like: "Because paper and pencils were rarely available, Walt improvised, usually with a piece of coal on toilet paper. That was all he needed to pass a free hour sketching the gentle farm animals he considered his only true friends. He especially loved the feeling when they brushed up against him while he lay in the tall grass trying to capture their likenesses".
   
   It is hard to imagine any biographical subject prone to as much distortion as Walt Disney; for corporate reasons or for personal ones. So readers would be advised to read ANY Disney biography for its entertainment value, not for its historical accuracy or objectivity.
   
   Than again, what do I know? I'm only a child.



4. If you don't know anything about Walt Disney and you want to know more don't let this be the first book you read. Read, How to be Like Walt or Walt Disney: An American Original. Then read this book if you want. It does give more detailed information on events like the strike by his employees or that he was a hard task master, which you can get from any other book and not this one.
   First this book wants you to look at Disney in a negative way. Why we like to see the bad in people I do not know. I mean yes he had flaws but this book wanted to bash Disney's image all together. Then a lot of so called facts are not hard evidence which makes the book seem like a tabloid trash book. Like for example he tries to prove that Disney was 10 years older than he really was. That makes no sense because when he changed his birth year on his passport so that could be 17 to get into the army, Disney looks like he's 15 or 16 years old. He looks very young. He doesn't look like he could be 27. Maybe if he had said 2 years instead of 10 I would have believed that but 10 years is a large gap. A person does a lot of changing in 10 years.
   I don't know about you, but if I do great things in my life I don't want someone trying to discredit my good deeds by posting my flaws in a book. I'm human and I have flaws, I don't care if you know, but if I did some good some time, I would want that to be my legacy. I think it should be Walt's to. He was a genius. We love him.



5. 
   The author's style is prosaic at best, and he often stumbles through sentences like a drunken sailor navigating past barstools in a dimly-lit dive. I really wanted this book to be fresh and fascinating, because, like many Americans who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, I always thought of Walt Disney as a clever, kindly, and innovative man. Eliot debunks that image somewhat, but he repeats stuff unnecessarily and fails to create a coherent image of his subject.
   
   If you really want all the "dirt on Disney," this book's for you... but don't expect it to be a great read.