No comments about Acting -- Make It Your Business: How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor.

No comments about The Anthropology of Performance (PAJ Books).

1 comments about Henry IV, Part II (Folger Shakespeare Library).

1. Surely this is not a review of the Shakespeare's play. I am not in a position to say anything about Shakespeare except it's something like an addiction. After you read a few of his plays in the original - everything else looks pale, like a comics book more or less.
   
   This is about Folger Shakespeare Library. I read Hamlet, Tempest and Henry IV Part I and Part II in their editions. They are amazingly good. I can't find enough words. Five stars is not enough for them.
   
   I read "The Merchant of Venice" in "The Annotated Shakespeare" - you can't even compare it with the Folger Library editions, which adds so much value for the contemporary reader both with their line by line commentary and with their articles before and after the play.
   
   Simply the best.

4 comments about Reflections: Twenty-One Cinematographers At Work.

1. This is a great book that I used just recently in coordination with an cinematography class at NYU. Its my favorite of all my textbooks on the subject because it deals with actual application of teachings by people actually making movies right now. But the book showcases those people first and foremost and teaches second. And it expects an experienced reader, often using industry terms and concepts without any explaination. That said, I totally reccommend it. It is the best book in actually helping you come to your own conclusions as to how to light a scene and why.



2. Yes, it's one of the best book... with a lot of french cinematographers. Eric is right ;-)



3. This is one expensive book, but what a joy!
   
   Personal work flows of some of the very best cinematographers of our time, described by them in their own language. Lighting diagrams for many common shots and explanations of exactly what made them look so good. Footage examples galore, with many what-if comparisons.
   
   Haskell Wexler on lighting interiors. Vilmos Zsigmond talking about what makes for great portraits, and why "key-to-fill lighting ratios are an important stepping-stone for students but [he rarely uses them in his shooting]. Laszlo Kovacs talking about the dangers of video assist, being specific about it and not judgmental. Allen Daviau on "why we hate multiple cameras: because we [light differently] for close-ups." And much more...
   
   This book was put together with love by ASC Press and this also shows in the great color printing and gorgeous paper.
   
   A true joy, IMHO.



4. The ultimate book about cinematography in technical and artistical ways. Excellent and richly illustrated.

3 comments about Public Speaking: Strategies for Success (5th Edition) (MySpeechLab Series).

1. I had to get this book from COM101 (public speaking) I will admit that the book is often very dry but it's a decent book. The book looks very contemporary. It is a very politically correct textbook.(Aren't they all) This book came to me in perfect condition.



2. I received the book in good condition and in a timely manner.



3. For most people, public speaking isn't something that comes easy. In fact, most people dislike giving speeches (putting it mildly). I was one of those people that didn't come easy for. But, after careful studying of the tips/techniques to give a good speech, ways to analyze your audience, and many other concepts, I was able to give successful speeches, with the confidence that being well prepared provides. The topics in this book are easy to understand and remember, explain nearly all of the issues important for a successful speech, and are arranged in a manner that allows the student to get more sophisticated as he/she progresses through the course without presenting an information overload in the beginning and without holding all of the useful information until the end. I think that this book is a valuable text not only for the student but for anyone that would like to improve their public speaking skills.

5 comments about Fashions of the Gilded Age, Volume 1: Undergarments, Bodices, Skirts, Overskirts, Polonaises, and Day Dresses 1877-1882.

1. I am very pleased with this book and I think it gives a load of information for a very reasonable price.
   
   The book (together with vol.2) is overfilled with all kinds of garments you can imagine and for each sort of garment there are always many styles.
   
   It is not directly a drafting book, it does not tell you how to draft your own bodice etc. by using your measurements, but the method of using the patterns and the enlarging rulers is very close to that and, as I think, it might produce a very good substitution for a custom-drafted dress with saving a lot of your time and being very simple to do. It is something between custom drafting and pre-sized patterns, because you create the garments by using your bust and back length measurement, which are the two most important measurements for making a garment suited to your proportions and it will probably need only little easy modifications like adding/substracting from waist and hip width and maybe some changes for the front length. But all possible and most frequent modifications are very well explained in the book.
   
   It is all written in such a way that even with no or little knowledge of drafting, you'll be able to produce a probably very well fitted garments.
   
   For a drafting professional, it's a good help when doing things like skirts, especially draped overskirts and all garments creating a shape or silhouette that is hard to figure out. Even if you won't use the patterns for enlarging and draft the things yourself, you can very well keep to the shape of the patterns as you can see, unlike in so many pattern books, NUMBERS.
   
   I think this book has the best ratio of the price and the information given of all costume book I've come through. It's a pity that there are no such books for earlier periods:-(



2. This is a great book for seamstresses with some experience(I think it would be too hard for beginners.It would be good if you have some comprehenesion on sizing(drafting patterns yourself for example)but that isn't even necessary.I think it would be easier though:)
   
   Frances Grimble gives clear instructions for changing patterns to size and even to different body shapes(large bust, short back etc.
   You do need to take some time for this, but well, you'll have an authentic pattern in your hands, how great is that?;)And there are so many in this book! I was having a very hard time finding real historical patterns in The Netherlands(so far found one french journal from 1902)and I feel like a kid in a candystore now.:)I <3 this book already.
   
   You can make a complete outfit, from undergarments to overgarments.
   
   If you have some sewing experience and you love this period it is really a great book!
   
   
   
   Amazon's service is excellent too. It didn't take very long for the item to arrive(from US to the Netherlands)(with one step faster shipping, expidited?)it was even a lot faster then the estimated arrival time.



3. This book is wonderful. I believe I own every book Frances Grimble has written and anxiously await more. The variety of patterns is amazing and allows the experienced sewer to create their own designs from various components, like sleeves and collars. This sure beats trying to decipher the patterns in an original 1890's issue of Harpers!



4. This book contains patterns for the following:
   corsets, hoopskirts and bustles (some)
   underclothing and negligee wear (quite a few)
   day and evening skirts (only about four)
   day bodices (quite a few)
   evening bodices (some)
   overskirts (some)
   polonaises (some)
   day dresses (quite a few)
   
   some = around ten
   quite a few = over 20
   
   I would recommend this book for anyone who likes victorian costuming. It not only works as a pattern book, but as a source book, having lots of pictures you can use for reference. Even if you just look through it, it really can help you understand the styles of that era.



5. The pictures and descriptions within the book are an excellent reference if you are researching and intending on recreating one of these beautiful designs. Advanced knowledge of sewing skills is a must for those who wish to recreate these (definantly not for the novice sewer). Frances Grimble, you've done it again. Please keep them coming. I will buy every book you put out.

5 comments about In and Out of Character.

1. Written at the age of 70, Basil Rathbone's autobiography is as eloquent, thoughtful, and sophisticated as he appeared to be on-screen. He describes in detail his childhood, army life during WWI, and early stage experience before coming to Hollywood to make movies, but more than anything it is a tender tribute to his beloved wife and soul mate, Ouida.
   
   Having read the reviews here, I knew there wouldn't be much detail or insight into the Sherlock Holmes movies (my favorite Rathbone role), but I was still disappointed and amazed at the hatred he felt for the character. After 16 movies, he became so identified with Holmes that his serious movie career was effectively over. He felt the role was cartoonish and common compared to the many classical and literate roles he played and much preferred acting in challenging parts on the stage.
   
   He sometimes writes in agonizing detail about people I didn't know and those sections were a challenge to finish, but overall, I found the book quite interesting, an intimate look at a passionate man whose work I have long enjoyed.



2. Unlike many more modern "autobiographies" that are written "with" such and such an author that "helps" the celebrity write his or her book, it appears that this was written pretty much solo by Rathbone himself. And it is superbly written ... in fact, some readers may find the grammar and language somewhat different than books written more recently. And that is part of it's greatness; I could practically 'see' Mr. Rathbone speaking the words as I read the book. The author assumes that the reader will be familiar with some Shakespearian plays and roles as he describes when and why he took on such parts in plays ... I found that to be just a bit vague because of my unfamiliarity with Shakespeare, but that does not detract much from my enjoyment of the book. I would have liked to see more details of his friendship with some better known Hollywood stars, especially Nigel Bruce, whose work I admired. In fact, Bruce gets hardly any mention in the book, and considering that it was written in the early 60's, I'm surprised the Bruce's death (in 1953, I think) is not mentioned at all. This may be due to Rathbone's eventual disenchantment with the Holmes character in general, but still, it's a shame that there isn't a bit more about the Holmes years and the actors that made them. I was tempted to give the book 4 stars because of these omissions, but hey: It's Rathbone's story to tell, and if he wanted to say little about these events, I can respect that. Still, it's one of the best written and most enjoyable biographies I have ever read.



3. I have attempted to order this book for close to a year, and the pub date continues to be moved out. I would love to review the book, but if the publisher cannot get the volume out, that is impossible. Why the long delay/???



4. Of the many actors who have played me on screen, Basil Rathbone is unquestionably the most famous. He's also the most loved among the general public, though some of my more fanatical admirers (the ones who belong to clubs devoted to my legend) have been known to sneer at ol' Basil, perhaps because many of his films updated the stories that my agent, Arthur, wrote about my adventures, or tend to dislike Nigel Bruce's essentially comic portrayal of old Conan Doyle, I mean Watson (I assure you they are one and the same).

   Well, what can I say? Rathbone is my favorite, too, even though he did tend to frown on his association with me in later years (not surprisingly, since many people insisted he WAS me). Rathbone was a better man than me in many respects, and I delighted in reading his autobiography, even the sections that did not involve his portrayal of yours truly (the bulk of the book, in fact). Basil was not only a brilliant actor, but a fine human being with an intense love of man's best friend (in fact, he seemed more devoted to his dogs than to his own family).

   This is an exceptionally good read. I recommend it highly.




5. I have always enjoyed Mr. Rathbone's performances as Sherlock Holmes. To relish this enjoyment, I have collected the forteen motion pictures and all of the radio plays by Mressrs. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson. None of this familiarity, however, prepared me personally for the reading of "In and Out of Character" by Basil Rathbone.

   For a number of years, I had attempted to obtain a copy of the book and only recently was successful through "Amazon.com". I'm not entirely sure what I expected in reading the autobiography by Mr. Rathbone. Perhaps seeing "movie stars" and actors interviewed on television, the terms vanity and shallowness became synonymous with the profession.

   To those of you reading these frightfully inadequate words..I urge you to read this insightful and sensitive work of a truly gifted man. To quote Mr. Rathbone's reference about a fellow thespian in the book, "He had a fine, flexible, inquisitive mind and a beautiful poetic command of the English language."

   A very refreshing read.

5 comments about Six Characters in Search of an Author (Dover Thrift Editions).

1. A play containing a play within a play. Just as the title states, 6 characters go in search of someone to tell their story and portray their life. It is cleverly well-written with the characters getting in fights with the actors who are to portray them as well as getting into arguments with the director who is to write their story. The story they tell is insignificant in relation to the set-up they provide. After hearing their story, you are left with a feeling of "is that all?" If I were approached by these 6 characters, I would turn down writing their story. Then again, the play isn't about their story, it is about them finding someone to tell their story. Pirandello stepped outside the normal barriers for playwriting and came up with an incredible play that I can only hope to see performed in my lifetime.



2. Luigi Pirandello kicked theatre convention out the door with "Six Characters in Search of an Author." Illusion and reality get a bit bent out of shape, as fictional characters stroll about and converse with managers and actors. It's a brilliant piece of existentialist work, and one that had a distinct effect on theatre after that.
   
   It opens with several unnamed theatre people -- the Manager, the Leading Man, the Prompter -- rehearsing a play in an empty theatre. "During this manoeuvre, the Six CHARACTERS enter, and stop by the door at back of stage," Pirandello tells us: a florid Father, timid Mother, equally timid Boy, arrogant Son, sexy Step-Daughter and too-young-to-have-much-personality Child.
   
   "As a matter of fact . . . we have come here in search of an author . . ." the Father tells the manager. The characters have been abandoned by their author, who "no longer wished, or was no longer able" to put them into a story. And now they want the theatre company to provide them with a vehicle that will make them immortal -- and they have to convince the Manager that they are worthy.
   
   Pirandello dispels the unreality of the play with "Oh sir, you know well that life is full of infinite absurdities, which, strangely enough, do not even need to appear plausible, since they are true." While the events of this play seems to be sort of gimmicky, Pirandello uses them with unusual grace (and not a few moments of bizarre comedy).
   
   The characterizations are among the weirdest I've ever seen -- we have an entire family drama going on without a play/novel/film for it. Lovers, illegitimate kids, sibling rivalry and marital fights. Ironically, the Character family overshadows the "real" people on the stage. The Manager is a fun character, though, perpetually impatient and overstressed. "Pretence? Reality? To hell with it all!" the Manager cries near the end of the play.
   
   But Pirandello's odd play "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is both pretense and reality, and it's a fun and enlightening ride while it lasts.



3. Luigi Pirandello's 1921 play "Six Characters in Search of an Author" ("Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore") has the deserved reputation of being the first existentialist drama and having a profound effect on later playwrights, especially those practitioners of the Theater of the Absurd such as Samuel Beckett ("Waiting for Godot"), Eugene Ionesco ("Rhinoceros"), and Jean Genet ("The Maids"). Pirandello's writing often focuses on elements of madness, illusion and isolation, all of which are inspired by the tragic aspects of his personal life in which his wife went insane and his daugther tried to commit suicide. In 1921 during a five week period Pirandello wrote his two acknowledged masterpieces, "Six Characters in Search of an Author" and "Henry IV." While "Six Characters" was successful when it opened in Rome it was also considered scandalous. However, it soon being performed in Milan, London, New York, and Germany. Because of his great influence on modern theater, Pirandello was awareded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1934. Two years later, while in negotiations to appear in a film version of "Six Characters," he died.
   
   The setting for "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is a rehearsal for a play (By Pirandello) that is interrupted by the arrival of six characters. Their leader, the father, tells the manager that they are looking for an author. It seems that the author who created them never finished their story and they are unrealized characters who have not yet been fully brought to life. The father insists that they are not real people but characters, and the manager and his cast can only laugh at the idea. But then they become intrigued by the bits and pieces of the story the six characters have to tell.
   
   The father is an intellectual who married the mother, a peasant woman. However, she fell in love with his male secretary and the father, bored with his wife, encouraged her to leave. She does, leaving behind the eldest son who is embittered by the abandonment. The mother has three children with this other man but then the father starts to miss her and watches the other children grow up. This new family moves away, but after the other man dies the mother and her children return to the city. The mother gets a job at Madame Pace's dress shop, but it turns out to be a brothel where the step-daughter ends up being employed. One day the father shows up and is set up with the step-daughter. However, the mother stops them from reaching the obvious conclusion and the entire family moves in with the father and the resentful son.
   
   The manager agrees to produce their story and become the author for whom they have been searching. He tries to stage the scene where the father meets the step-daughter in the dress shop but both characters insist that what the actors are doing is not realistic. The manager allows them to finish out the scene instead. This sets up the basic juxtaposition of "drama" and "reality" for the rest of the play, with the key scenes in the lives of these characters providing more questions than they answer about what happened and what it means. At the point when the manager can no longer tell the difference between acting and reality he becomes fed up with the entire thing and ends the rehearsal, providing an audience that has already been challenged by these changing notions of reality with an abrupt ending to the drama.
   
   Almost all of the characters in the play are known by their roles rather than their names, such as the Leading Man and the Second Female Lead. One of the few characters in the drama who has a name is Madame Pace, who is in charge of the dress shop that also serves as a brothel where the step-daughter works. It is perhaps this formality that serves to distance us from the production more than the strangeness of the action or the aged of the words, even though they are adapted to the modern ear. There may or may not be a real story here, but the ultimate point of this play is that the tradition of reality in the theater no longer holds true.
   
   The radical idea here is that there is an immutability of reality for these six characters. Because they are forms, forced into performing the actions for which they were imagined, there is an inherent conflict with life. This is why the son wants to escape but cannot leave the studio and must play his role, as must the Mother and the rest of the characters. This is just as true of all the other characters besides the six, although the others are less inclined to see the truth, or at least the reality, of their own situation until the end, when the final scene of the drama seeks to dissolve the "stage" reality completely. Where Pirandello succeeds in the end is in having it both ways, for we can interpret what we have seen as being reality or as being acting. Either way, you are left to the same conclusion.



4. I highly recommend the Signet Classics edition of this play, translated by Eric Bentley. He provides a wonderful opening essay, as well as Pirandello's own forward.

   The plot, I'm sure you know, involves six characters who stumble upon a theater rehearsal. They are not so much looking for an author as a play in which to exist. Pirandello breaks the fourth wall as no other author had before him. It is a very daring and original piece. A must for any serious student of drama.




5. "Six Characters in Search of an Author" is truly a unique play. For some readers, characters on paper are actual human beings, but once we see them portrayed by genuine living people on the stage and big/small screen, we abandon our imagination about the person the character began as. Luigi Pirandello took this idea and wrote an ingenious play. Is reality in fact reality, or is it only what we perceive it to be? This play opens up a world of uncertainty. The concept of the play challenges the mind. I recommend.

No comments about Creative Play Activities for Children With Disabilities: A Resource Book for Teachers and Parents.

1 comments about Henry VIII (Folger Shakespeare Library).

1. This is my second book of Folger Shakespeare Library and I'm very happy with it as with my first purchase. I'm not a Shakespeare scholar. I read Shakespeare's plays because I love his beautiful language and always enjoy high drama. So for me Folger's edition of Henry VIII is just perfect. It has nice introduction featuring some information about Shakespeare's life, theatre, publication of his plays and understanding his language. It's quite informative but not overwhelming.
   Explanatory notes are following the original text of the play and conviniently placed at the left pages. That makes reading of even the most difficult pieces more injoyable and easier.
   After the play there is an essay by B. Mowat wich had some interest for me too.
   As for the play itself, I highly enjoyed it. Feeling an atmosphere of Henry VIII's coart, and following dramas of Chatherine's, Cardinal Wolsey's and Duke of Buckingham's lives gave me an actual thrill of enjoying a perfection.