5 comments about Pentecost (NHB International Collection).

1. If you fear change and provocative discussion, don't read or see this play. If you appreciate the struggle of people on the other side of the world, if you want to listen to an intelligent critique on society, and if you want to enjoy an brilliantly crafted fiction, read it. And see it if it's playing near you. I don't know what that guy who wrote that it's "the worst play ever" was thinking, but it's pretty evident that he doesn't think very broadly. Theatre for entertainment is all well and good, but anyone who thinks it can't also be a vessel for social change is a fool, and people who bash things they don't agree with clearly demonstrate themselves as such. So read this play, and regardless of whether you love it or loathe it, TALK about it. I think that's what the playwright wanted in the first place.



2. Firstly, let me dispell the comment below about gratuitous [physical] sex: there is no sex in this play, and only a brief nude scene which is completely unsexual. My college just performed this great play, and it took a while to warm up to it. The first time I tried reading the script, I had an extremely hard time getting through it. If David Edgar is guilty of one bad thing in this play, it is for dealing with too many issues and ideas. This work is jam-packed with ideas--not randomely, but ideas brought forth by characters who fittingly have them and feel the need to share them. There is a great line in the play: "we are the sum of those who have invaded us." Let this play invade you.



3. I had the misfortune of seeing this, the worst of all plays this summer at the Old Globe in San Diego. A talented cast tried to perform and make sense of the fractured farce. Fantastically staged by a highly talented and capable set design team, the execution of the play was hampered by the pretentiousness of the written word. The audience found itself thinking, and then gave up. The reason this perverse bombardment of the senses was all the more damaging to the psyche was that you could see there were talented people behind the actual production; it was just the worst script of all time getting in the way. It was the ONLY play to lose money for the Old Globe this summer.

   Intellectually stunted, Pentecost was seemingly written by a 16 year old raging at the world, the author a frustrated bore wishing the world to bear witness to this over-indulgent tantrum. Teeny boppers who wish to show off how much they know write in such a style, packing facts into their essays without any breadth of knowledge or understanding. What you have here is a one sided and bizarre assault on the western world, penned by a completely misguided and over-rated British playwright with more than a few screws loose.

   The farcical Mr. Edgar is infamous for having his acting students perform bizarre stunts, one went the bathroom on stage, amongst other stunts. In this play there is gratitious anal sex, and other unsubtle techniques hacks and the terminally attention starved use in lieu of actual writing talent. The only thoughts provoked during this overwrought, seminally pathetic, unsettling, and misguided folly are "Why did I pay to see this garbage," and "where's the exit to this theater?"

   If you ever have the urge to see a play by a self-loathing, arrogant, pseudo-intellectual with a penchant for sado-masochism and infantile rantings on the western world by a clearly deranged sociopath, this "play" will be right up your alley, jack!




4. I have used this play in several undergraduate classes in European Politics. One of its many virtues is that it starts a lot of conversations with students who by their own admission know very little about eastern europe. And yet whenever I have students from eastern europe in the class, they always find many parts of the play deeply authentic. It's getting a bit dated by now (2003), but I still think it's a terrific starting point for discussions about borders, ethnicity, and commerce in contemporary europe.



5. This play reads into the structure of language barriers and breaks into the strife between the eastern and western hemispheres. Though the bracketed english is a bit confusing at times, the play itself is easy to get involved in. It is based around the mystery of who painted a mystery fresco inside of a small church. As the mystery unfolds, so do the characters. The plot keeps the reader inthraled and wondering who will be the greedy one. I recommend this book to all theater majors because of its use of structure and role reversals. It really lends a hand to those looking for a piece about the barriers and definitions between cultures.

5 comments about Swashbuckling: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Art of Stage Combat and Theatrical Swordplay - Revised and Updated Editi.

1. Although I bought this book for a friend who directs, I looked through it myself when it arrived. I was very impressed by the fact that the author brought you through from basic "beginner" preparations, then progressed to the more complicated moves. It was as if you were taking lessons in a conventional classroom with a personal instructor. Directions were concise and easy to understand, especially accompanied by the plethora of photographs, giving you a clear visual of the instruction being conveyed. I also found it interesting that the author saw fit to interject some historical background into the lessons; it helped to set a mood and mindset in the imagination of the reader and spiced up what otherwise could be dry reading (as with many "how-to" books).
   I would recommend this book for anyone interested in directing for stage in theatre or for training for Renaissance faire.
   (P.S. - my friend loves the book!)



2. With this newly updated edition, Richard Lane has made a great book even better. Whether your an actor, director, or fight choreographer, this book provides an extensive overview to the types of stage combat to cover every situation.



3. For as much effort Lane goes into talking about historical manuals and techniques you'd think he'd employ a few into his book. What is in here displays the same Hollywood style fluff we have seen for ever. Though he mentions historical manuals, and even makes a few quotes from them, he chooses to ignore the wealth of information and instruction they posses. The rapier section is devoid of any mention of counter thrusting techniques, which make up the majority of rapier parries. There is virtually no evidence in any 16th or early 17th century rapier manual that shows parries in which the tip of the weapon was directed at the ground or in the air as Lane displays. The broadsword section is similar in its disregard for historical references. In fact his usage of the term 'broadsword' to talk about two handed longswords or single hand medieval arming swords is incorrect. He even quotes someone who identifies the term 'broadsword' properly as a basket hilted weapon in the 17th and 18th centuries. For some unknown reason he still insists on using the term broadsword when it is obvious that its usage in this regard is completely inaccurate. Missing are the essential guards and cuts of German and Italian longsword and in its place are less efficient and woefully inaccurate parries and movements.
   People will rationalize these crucial mistakes by saying its theatre (or film) ...the only concern is to entertain. However, when the purpose of the show is to recreate a point in history, you have the responsibility to do the homework and put in the time and effort it deserves.
   The book is not a total loss. There are a lot of good bits about the theory behind stage combat and its role to performers- not just fighters. It has a very extensive warm up/stretching section that would be of value even if you never pick up a sword.
   Overall, a decent effort, but hardly 'The Bible' that it's touted to be. This is not infallible truth.



4. I use this book as a supplement for my beginning combat classes. It is very clear, concise, and serves as a great reference for foundational technique.



5. This is a useful text for those currently studying stage combat or interested in studying stage combat. A warning- THIS IS NOT A DO IT YOURSELF guide to stage combat. The only safe and sane way to learn stage combat is to study (i.e. take a class at your local university or acting studio) with a fully accredited stage combat teacher.

   The book's information is thorough and useful if one is in a classroom setting.

2 comments about Nostalgia Isn't What It Used to Be.

1. In an article entitled "In Praise of Older Women," "Time" magazine once remarked that Simone Signoret was "everywoman's Bogart, in a trenchcoat, dangling a cigarette, in "Room At The Top." Should you find yourself saying some modern equivalent of "Right on, sister,"at this, you might want to find this autobiography.
   
   Signoret (born, Wiesbaden, Germany, March 25,1921; died, High Jura, France, September 30,1985 ) might seem typically French middle-class at first glance. In fact,she was raised in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris, in an intellectual atmosphere. She studied English in school, took a teachers degree, and tutored in English and Latin. She spoke English, German, and French. But her father, an officer in the French army and a linguist who later worked at the United Nations, was descended from Polish Jews. He barely made it out of France ahead of the German Occupation of World War II: he fled to England, where he served with French General Charles de Gaulle. This left Signoret, as a young woman, to shoulder the burden of supporting her mother and two younger brothers. She first went to work at a collaborationist newspaper, "Le Nouveau Temps," so collaborationist that her boss Jean Luchaire, faced a firing squad at war's end.
   
   However, she herself discovered the Cafe Flore, home of France's intelligentsia these many years, and decided she wanted to act. Through the Occupation of France, she continued, by working constantly in the film industry, always as an extra or perhaps with just one line,to support mother and brothers. She lacked proper papers, owing to her father; used her mother's maiden name, Signoret, rather than her father's name, Kaminker; and had to keep a low low profile.
   
   But all wars eventually end, even World War II, and her career began to build. Along the way to "Casque d'or, " her first major French picture, she loved, lived with, had a girl Catherine by, and eventually married French film director Yves Allegret. Then in a dramatic, wrenching emotional upheaval, she met French cabaret star Yves Montand. They eventually married, and she even managed to talk him into making a few movies, such as "Wages of Fear," "Z", and "State of Siege."
   
   The couple were outspoken left-wingers, and though Hollywood began to flirt in the 1950's, they couldn't get visas to enter this country. Mind you, they had minds of their own. Previous commitments required them to tour the Soviet Union shortly after its brutal repression of the Polish Uprising of 1956. One evening the Politburo came to late supper, and the pair told then-leader Nikita Khrushchev just what they thought of his methods.
   
   At any rate, in 1959, at age 38, Signoret became an international star with the English-made "Room at the Top." She and her husband were finally able to get visas into the States: she was able to be in Los Angeles in 1960 to collect her Best Leading Actress Oscar for "Room." She was the first woman to win the Best Actress award in a non-American made film. The couple decided to stay on while Montand made "Let's Make Love" with Marilyn Monroe.
   
   Signoret discusses the period when she and Montand lived above Marilyn Monroe and her then-husband Arthur Miller, in Bungalows 20 and 21 of the Beverly Hills Hotel, as "Let's Make Love" was made. There was nearly worldwide gossip about a Monroe-Montand affair, and later Monroe did tell her dresser Lena Pepitone, that after Signoret and Miller left town for other commitments, they did. Signoret, however, never believed it. She wrote of Monroe, "She's gone, without ever knowing that I never stopped wearing the champagne colored silk scarf she'd lent me one day....It's a bit frayed now, but if I fold it carefully, the fray doesn't show."
   
   The author is biting in her treatment of Lillian Hellman, who confided in her book "Pentimento" that she hated Signoret's "Regina" in the French stage production of Hellman's play "The Little Foxes." She's moving in her discussion of a handsome young Greek, holding a carnation in a famous picture. He was a left-winger, and was clandestinely murdered, in the beams of a Dodge truck, by the neo-fascist right in 1953. He and his carnation were reborn in Montand's "Z."
   
   And the woman's wonderful on her decision to age, " like everybody else, and quietly accept the idea that 45 puts you on the road to 46 rather than to 44.... It's very easy to go on functioning at the same rhythm as your contemporaries, to mature with them, and to age with them. And it's miraculous when life brings you parts that seem to grow better each year, stronger, laden with the memories and personal experiences that have put those lines on your face. They are the scars of the laughter, the tears, the questions, the astonishments and the certainties that are also those of your contemporaries. I chose not to go /to the plastic surgeons/. I didn't go because I've never been a star." Now there, Mme Montand, you fibbed a bit.
   
   The actress was also well-known for her films "Les Diaboliques," and "Ship of Fools," in which she co-starred with Vivien Leigh. She is buried in Paris's famed Le Pere Lachaise Cemetery. A French postage stamp was issued in her honor on October 3, 1998. The late great American jazz singer Nina Simone always told interviewers she'd taken her name from Signoret's. Signoret, you see, had a lot going for her, in addition to that dangling cigarette.



2. It rarely happens that a great movie actress also manages to be a great writer. Signoret tells her life story in a lively, literary prose. She makes no excuses for the mistakes she made. She is a master in evoking the atmosphere of a meeting, a conversation or a movie set. Her description of the people she meets on her travels are rivetting.

5 comments about Splendor in the Grass..

1. i am a spanisch woman (canary island) an how can i get this book hear. thankyou



2. The poem y'all are looking for is "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth.



3. I do not know if this is the book I am looking for! I saw the movie Splendor In The Grass with Natalie Wood & Warren Beatty and I loved the poem. I always wanted to get the poem from that movie. It is such a moving piece. To get the poem I would either like to purchase the book or purchase the writer's works. I don't know which is better. Maybe he wrote even better poems that I would like. So maybe I should just get the author's works.After I get established or read the books then I will send a review. Thank you. Julia Reid



4. I loved the book it pulled me in till the very last page there was such a meaning to it and it was so wonderfully written I enjoyed it so much that I went and got the movie and it was equilly great. I would reccomend the book to any one



5. I liked the movie very much. I want to read the poem from the movie!

No comments about Lincoln Center: A Promise Realized, 1979 - 2006.

2 comments about The Birds (Dover Thrift Editions).

1. The problem with "The Birds" ("Ornithes") is that for once Aristophanes does not seem to be attacking some specific abuse in Athens. Still, we suspect that even this little fantasy is not simply escapist entertainment. Certainly there are those who see it as a political satire about the imperialistic dreams that resulted in the disastrous invasion of Sicily (which happened the year before his play was produced in 414 B.C.). Then again, this could just be Aristophanes bemoaning the decline of Athens.

   Pisthetaerus ("Trusting") and Euelpides ("Hopeful") have grown tired of life in Athens and decide to build a utopia in the sky with the help of the birds, which they will name Necphelococcygia (which translates roughly as "Cloud Cuckoo Land"). Pisthetaerus and his feathered friends have to fight off those unworthy humans, malefactors and public nuisances all, who try and join their utopia. Then there are the gods, who come to make some sort of agreement with the new city because they have created a bottleneck for sacrifices coming from earth.

   Because it is a more general satire, "The Birds" tends to work better with younger audiences than most comedies by Aristophanes. Besides, the chorus of birds lends itself to fantastic costumes, which is always a plus with young theater goers. In studying any of the Greek plays that remain it is important to I have always maintained that in studying Greek plays you want to know the dramatic conventions of these plays like the distinction between episodes and stasimons (scenes and songs), the "agon" (a formal debate on the crucial issue of the play), and the "parabasis" (in which the Chorus partially abandons its dramatic role and addresses the audience directly). Understanding these really enhances your enjoyment of the play.




2. Or rather, you can give an Athenian wings but he won't become a gentle agrarian bird rather, he'll rouse the citizenship, attack the Gods, and turn on you at the last possible moment. While some literary critics tout this as Aristophanes' most unfathomable work, well, I just think they're being silly. Maybe that's my own lack of education speaking, but I think The Birds a pretty obvious, as well as bitingly funny, commentary on humans, or men, or Athenians (all of these concepts probably being more or less the same to Aristophanes)as hopelessly political and power-hungry beings. One thing I love about this, and, I suppose, all of the Greek dramas, is that they are ultimately very malleable and applicable to my (our?) modern experience. (With a certain ammount of difficulty) you can lead a 21st Century North American to social conciousness but they're still gonna want and have the economic buying power to get, cheap Nikes. Cynical? Yes. Scathing? Yes. Real? You betcha. Sure we've got indoor plumbing, but our cultural context is back in the golden age. Lucky we've still got dudes like Aristophanes to give us a clue as to how to slog through it all.

No comments about The Best of 24 Hours: New Ten-Minute Plays.

3 comments about The Job Book: 100 Acting Jobs for Actors (A Career Development Book).

1. I am thrilled to have read this book and highly recommend it to everyone who wants to get ahead in their acting career. This book really gave me insight and great tips on just how to proceed. I thank the author for helping me on my way to fame.



2. I found this book to be a very instumental tool. The knowledge and experience Glenn Alterman has definitely comes out in this book. I have found the perfect gift to give to friends persuing a career in the arts!



3. This book has no value and should have a rating of minus 5 star or a turkey. The book is a rip off. Content is lacking and no time or thought was given to presenting information that could be used.

5 comments about Bram Stoker's Dracula: The Film and the Legend (A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook).

1. The film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, is a wonderful adaptation of Bram Stoker's book. The film follows the book almost faithfully and is fast paced and gripping. This book is a must-have for Dracula fans; and I recommend another book, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, that, by its title, would not lead a Dracula fan to read it. But, by all means, I highly recommend it and you will not be able to put the book down. The Historian will sweep you off of your feet with its well documented Dracula story.



2. The book Dracula is a great book, it is a clasic novel that every person should read evin if they dont like the whole gothic sean.The book keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time you cant even put it down to go pee its so good, I figured it would be just a nother rip off of some stupid movie that someone wrote but this book is where all the vampire novels came from, this is the fother of all vampire novels and it is the best.



3. Yes, it is slightly campy and overacted but it was a genuine reproduction of the book - only better. The mood, the story, the characters, the castle, I liked it all.

   This Dracula is not the violent, blood-thirsty monster featured in so many of these types of movies. Instead, Gary Oldham (what a selection!) is the dark, sensuous eternal phantom, at once mesmerizing and intoxicating. The trick of using a diary is especially effective in this case in that it gives the story some structure. Even Keanu Reeves was good as the helpless husband.




4. Yes, it is slightly campy and overacted but it was a genuine reproduction of the book - only better. The mood, the story, the characters, the castle, I liked it all.

   This Dracula is not the violent, blood-thirsty monster featured in so many of these types of movies. Instead, Gary Oldham (what a selection!) is the dark, sensuous eternal phantom, at once mesmerizing and intoxicating. The trick of using a diary is especially effective in this case in that it gives the story some structure. Even Keanu Reeves was good as the helpless husband.




5. I think this book is a must for fans of horror films and artsy movies. This Dracula is an artistic venture into the horror genre, most notorious for its gore and guts aspects. I like the photographs and the conceptual designs being put into the movie.

No comments about Unfriendly Witnesses: Gender, Theater, and Film in the McCarthy Era (Theater in the Americas).