2 comments about Puppetry in Early Childhood Education (Puppetry in Education Series).

1. This book contains instructions for making just about every imaginable type of puppet: cloth hand puppets, finger puppets, glove puppets, paper bag puppets, cup puppets, stick puppets. . . It has patterns for making a story apron, including instructions for creating scenery on the apron. It also has suggestions for puppets to go with specific children's books, poems, or songs. There are puppet making activities for children that are appropriate throughout the elementary years. It's full of photographs and amusing illustrations.



2. This book is a great resource for anyone who works with young children and wants to introduce puppetry into the classroom.
   Super ideas! Pictures and graphics add a lot. I had the privilege of studying with Tamara Hunt and she is incredible.

3 comments about People and Pianos: A Pictorial History of Steinway and Sons.

1. Relatively recently updated, this book is a brief and sugar coated, but very interesting history of the Steinway & Sons company, arguably manufacturer of the finest pianos in the world. The black and white photos (not terribly well reproduced) give a sort of scrapbook character to the piece.
   
   For the piano officianado who appreciates the character of a Steinway, it is a nice little history of the Company.



2. This is a reprinting of the book written by Theodore Steinway on legal pads that in 1953 was given to Steinway and Sons employees as a commemoration of the company's one hundredth anniversary in the U.S. The original book was reprinted in 1961 with minor additions. This reprinting expands the earlier limited-printing editions with a 40-page section with material by Henry Steinway and the president of Steinway and Sons Bruce Stevens recounting the history of the company over the last 50 years. Both old and new parts are heavily illustrated with photographs of noteworthy individuals and Steinway pianos from different eras. Readers learn why and how the Steinway piano came to be and continues to be the preferred piano by almost every top music performer and composer around the world.



3. First written in 1953, People And Pianos is a chronicle of the history of Steinway & Sons, an institution famous for creating great pianos. The original edition was a memento to commemorate the company's 100-year anniversary; now a new edition is made available to the public, filled cover-to-cover with vintage black-and-white photographs and illustrations as well as an update by Bruce Stevens that continues the saga of Steinway & Sons to the present day. Personal reminiscences on maestros such as Ignace Jan Paderewski, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Josef Hofmann, Glenn Gould, Rudolf Serkin, Dame Myra Hess, and Arthur Rubinstein by Henry Z. Steinway, the last family member to be involved in the business, are included. A remarkable narrative, especially recommended for piano enthusiasts interested in knowing the inner details of an institution that took upon itself the task of creating great and complex musical instruments.

No comments about Rachel: A Play In Three Acts (1920).

No comments about The Busie Body.

1 comments about Puccini's LA Boheme (Dover Opera Libretto Series).

1. This is an excellent translation of the libretto of a deservedly popular opera. Unlike many translations, this one is not at all stiff and formal; on the contrary, it flows, much like the opera itself. The Dover edition is a particulary nice size and weight, making it convenient to carry to the opera or to read while listening to a recording of it.

No comments about National Rhythms, African Roots: The Deep History of Latin American Popular Dance (Dialogos (Albuquerque, N.M.).).

5 comments about Solving Your Script: Tools and Techniques for the Playwright.

1. ...is the one that actually addresses what you do when you write.

   Jeffrey Sweet, in his Dramatist's Toolkit, looked at what playwrights actually do when they are writing, but spent a relatively short time with each subject. Solving Your Script is a wonder, taking those ideas and going into them in depth. Sweet presents, for each topic, some discussion, an example from his own scripts, an exercise, and then several annotated responses to the exercises. Often, Sweet will teach as much in the notes for each exercise as in the rest of the book.

   Each lesson is an invaluable aid in the method of creating not a play - Sweet does very little by way of play discussion - but a scene. The book looks at ways to generate and bring out conflicts between and within characters, how to actually craft scenes that will captivate your audience. This is such a fresh and useful approach that I do not think that there is a peer to Solving Your Script. The only book to come close is Michael Wright's worthy Playwriting in Process.

   Everybody's got an opinion on play structure and how you ought to write your play and what should be at the center of it. There are a lot of prescriptivist texts on playwriting out there. The formula books, of which there are many, will at best frustrate you and at worst help you to turn out a formulaic, forgettable play. Sweet's book will help you refine your dramatic skills. Buy this along with his Dramatist's Toolkit and Wright's Playwriting in Process for a trifecta of tools for honing your playwriting instincts.




2. I've read several books that explained how to follow the three-act structure in writing a movie or play.

   But Jeff Sweet's books include specific ideas writers can use to improve their work line by line.

   Negotiation over objects, the power of the unspoken word and violation of rituals are some of the devices Sweet explores in his book.

   Each idea is amply illustrated with scenes written by students which are accompanied by Sweet's comments.

   This book will enable you to improve your work as a playwright/screenwriter.




3. Jeff's book is a welcome and helpful addition to a playwright's library. It's a book that I refer to often. It's a great companion to The Dramatists' Toolkit.



4. I didn't think Jeffrey Sweet could top The Dramatist's Toolkit, which is full of insightful analyses of well known plays and related advice to playwrights. Solving Your Script is equally engaging and useful. It comes at the subject of playwriting from another perspective. It, too, is full of advice, but it also offers not just writing exercises, but samples of completed exercises with detailed critiques. I admire the practical, specific ideas in both of Sweet's books, and I recommend them both.



5. "The Dramatists Toolkit" collected much of the common-sense wisdom playwright and teacher Jeff Sweet has accumulated in his highly successful career. In "Solving Your Script," he does the service of offering a workbook-style companion piece.

   Sweet doesn't claim to be offering any pedagogically-structured tutorial; rather, both books offer a variety of lessons into which the reader may dip freely when a particular question or need arises. His aptly-named first book called itself a "Toolbox", into which a worker may reach for the tool which is needed at that moment. The follow up provides a collection of exercises in the use of those same tools.

   I'm a playwright with over thirty professional productions, and I also teach from time to time, and I have found Mr. Sweet's book tremendously useful in both areas. His is a friendly voice which welcomes the reader as a collaborator, never straying into a pedantic or professorial tone. I recommend it highly to anyone who has any interest in the theatre, whether as artist, teacher, or passionate audience member.

No comments about Step by Step: A Complete Movement Education Curriculum.

2 comments about Fun with Hand Shadows.

1. This is a great book! A great gift idea. Very neatly organized and easy to read. Compact, and loads of fun with younger kids.



2. It thought that it was absolutly fabulous I would recommend it to everyone who likes shadow puppets and who likes making them it is wonderful. I dont know who would make such a good book it taught me how to do peoples faces and everything it is so cool

No comments about The Theatre of Black Americans: A Collection of Critical Essays.