Book Description

Jacob Adler, with his performances in the Yiddish KING LEAR, URIEL ACOSTA and Shylock in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, became first a megastar of the exploding Yiddish theatre, and then all of Broadway. His memoirs, originally written and published in Yiddish and now translated (by his granddaughter) into English for the first time provides not only a compelling portrait of one of America's greatest actors but a fascinating social history of his time. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A compelling and highly recommended social history
Translated with commentary by Lulla Rosenfeld, and enhanced with an informative introduction by Stella Adler, A Life On The Stage: A Memoir is esteemed Yiddish actor Jacob Adler (1855-1926) self-written autobiography. Acclaimed during his own lifetime as one of the great actors of his day, a time now more than seven decades gone. This candid and engaging memoir was originally composed and published in Yiddish and provides the reader with a kind of "window in time" to discover what life was like in the Yiddish theater and on Broadway. From his years with a troupe of Yiddish folk singers and theatrical productions in Odessa, to his journey to America and performances at the Union Theater on Lower Broadway, we are treated to a memoir that is as much a tribute to the development of the Yiddish theater in Russia, England, and America, as it is a compelling and highly recommended social history as lived through by a most remarkable and memorable man. ... Read more

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Great subject, horribly written
Much less a bio than an ego trip for the author. Forum is reduced to about 2 pages in the book. How did this ever get published? Skip it and look for another bio on Mostel. ... Read more

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Ibsen's four years in Italy were years of rest, of solitude, of calm. The attitude of Ibsen to Italy was totally distinct from that of other illustrious exiles of his day and generation. The line of pilgrims from Stendhal and Lamartine down to Ruskin and the Brownings had brought with them a personal interest in Italian affairs; Italian servitude had roused some of them to anger or irony; they had spent nights of insomnia dreaming of Italian liberty. Casa Guidi Windows may be taken as the extreme type of the way in which Italy did not impress Ibsen. ... Read more

Book Description

Born in 1930, Lorraine Hansberry earned critical acclaim as a dramatist before her death at age 34. Only a few years earlier, in 1959, her first-produced play, A Raisin in the Sun, received enthusiastic praise of Broadway critics and audiences alike. It was the first and longest running play by an African-American woman to be produced on Broadway. When it won the New York Drama Circle Award for the best new drama that year, Hansberry became the first black woman and the youngest recipient ever to receive that honor. This reference book is a guide to her brief life and enormously influential career. The volume includes entries for all of her plays, with each entry providing plot synopses and production information. It also contains a wealth of bibliographical material, useful to students and scholars for conducting further research. ... Read more

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It was incredible.I loved it!
I LOVED I ... Read more

Book Description

The road to the professional dramatic stage was not easily traveled by Black actresses, but some did make the transition from minstrels and musicals to drama beginning at the turn of the century. In this first study specifically on early Black actresses, Jo Tanner traces the progress of such stage pioneers, focusing especially on Anita Bush, Laura Bowman, and Abbie Mitchell, who achieved success on their own in the first three decades of the century and influenced and helped train a new generation of Black actresses. In the process, Tanner uncovers racial attitudes and preconceptions which forced Black actresses primarily into "mammy" roles. It took fortitude as well as talent for these women to pave the way. ... Read more

Book Description

Actress, producer, determined negotiator, patron of the arts, Lucille Lortel knew how to cultivate friends among reviewers, producers and publicists, how to work a room to her best advantage, and a master at self-promotion, she knew how to develop her name and reputation into beacons of risk-taking fearlessness and artistic promise in the avant garde theater community. Indeed, the Lucille Lortel Awards are presented annually to honor the best play and the best musical of the Off-Broadway season. Amadeus Press/Limelight Editions is pleased to announce publication of the first biography of one of the twentieth century’s pioneering women of theater.

In researching LUCILLE LORTEL, author Alexis Greene had full cooperation from The Lucille Lortel Foundation, and her work incorporates primary source materials, interviews, diaries, correspondence, photographs, and various records from the public archives. This important book is for those who know of Lucille Lortel’s achievements in theater, those with an interest in New York theater history, and for those interested in notable American women. LUCILLE LORTEL combines in-depth biography of Ms. Lortel and her immediate family and historical information on all plays presented and playwrights and actors engaged in her productions. People such as Bertolt Brecht, Lotte Lenya, Marian Seldes, Athol Fugard, Edward Albee, Eva Le Gallienne, June Havoc, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Burton, Larry Kramer and M Genet make frequent appearances in these pages. ... Read more

Book Description

Richard Flusser and the After Dinner Opera Companytells the tale of a little opera company that could.

An opera lover since childhood, Richard Flusser founded the After Dinner Opera Company in 1950. Through the thick and thin offifty years and always on a shoestring, he and his wife Beth, with dozens of talented singers, have produced hundreds of American comic operas, many of them historic debuts: in 1956 the ADO became the first American company to take American operas to Europe. ... Read more

Book Description

Yasmina Reza is best known as the author of the immensely successful Tony award-winning play Art. Her latest work, Hammerklavier, is a bittersweet collection of autobiographical sketches that have love, loss, and the relentless passage of time as their themes. Convinced that one's deepest thoughts can be said simply, Reza does so with unequaled humor and perceptiveness. She contemplates evanescence and death in her young daughter's toothless smile, secretly mourning that it will inevitably change. In the title story, the sometimes adversarial but very loving relationship Reza shared with her father is examined in terms of their love of music. ... Read more

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Simplicity concealing profundity
I'm only familiar with the French original, so I cannot comment on how, or indeed whether, the translation has caught Reza's tone. The original is stunningly spare and simple in its prose, like Beckett or Pinter but without even their levels of affectation. Yet each sentence glistens. Passing moments, events, sounds, emotions are caught with precision and soul. The microtomed slices of life thus presented accumulate somehow into a profound, deeply moving, yet unsentimental esthetic whole. With this work, Reza reveals yet another dimension to her very considerable Art. ... Read more

Book Description

On October 15, 1880, with great excitement and fanfare, two Sarah Bernhardts set sail for New York from Le Havre for a theatrical tour of the United States. One wanted to introduce French culture to a backward country, and the other wanted to make money. As an actress, she behaved in a fashion that amused and scandalized her audiences, and as a woman, she was an unwed mother and a shrewd businessperson. Bernhardt’s multiple personas and "otherness" were what fascinated the American public; her name, her eccentricities, and her genius had already made her world famous.

Sarah Bernhardt’s first American theatrical tour, from her arrival in 1880 to her return to Europe in May 1881, is chronicled here. She traveled as far west as Kansas City and as far south as New Orleans, all the while sparking cultural commentary about her performances, her artwork, and her lifestyle. This book provides an overview of the contemporary reviews, caricatures and satires, considers Bernhardt’s reception by the American press and American audiences, and discusses the way in which the Bernhardt iconography was created and the assumptions that underlie it. ... Read more

Book Description

Lillian Hellman was the most daring and original playwright of her time. In spite of her three volumes of highly acclaimed memoirs, Hellman has remained an enigma because of her need to conceal her real life and to invent a legend.

Carl Rollyson reveals -through newly discovered diaries, letters, interviews and state department files - the truth about Hellman's controversial political activities, her personal feuds, and her numerous tempestuous love affairs.

Learn the real story of how Hellman and Dashiell Hammett formed their liaison; new information about her lawsuit and feud with Mary McCarthy; and insight into how Hellman attempted to influence a circle of acolytes to defend her reputation. ... Read more

Book Description

Legends of Health & Fitness are non-fictionalized stories that present the lives of contemporary, health and fitness role models for young adults. These are the stories of real men and women who, despite busy lives, find time each day to ensure their health. Each book in the series begins with a chapter that gives a history and background of the sport or career and ties the sport to health and fitness.

Legends of Health & Fitness are apropriate for all middle school and high school students who want to lead a healthy and fit lifestyle.

The book, Female Fitness Stars of TV and the Movies profiles Cher, Goldie Hawn, Lucy Lawless, and Demi Moore. Each entertainer has her own reason for staying fit, but most of all, they want to look good in front of the camera. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Very Insightful
This book was great. The stars in the book were very candid and insightful. I was encouraged by the way that everyone in the book made it seem so easy to get in shape and stay healthy. I would definently recommend this to anyone who is new to getting and staying in shape. ... Read more

Book Description

For many performers, stage life and real life are separate identities. For master illusionist Harry Houdini, the two were inextricably linked. In this widely acclaimed biography, Ruth Brandon shows how Houdini’s obsession with his own mortality drove him to create death-defying stunts that not only captivated the public but also subdued his own raging psychological demons.


As Brandon relates Houdini’s methods of escape, she asks: What was he trying to escape from? Her exploration of the psychic landscape of one of the most enduringly famous performers of the twentieth century makes for utterly fascinating reading. Brandon reveals much that is new: how Houdini invented a phantom son; why he wrote long daily letters to his wife, Bess, who lived one floor below him; his combative relations with mediums and spiritualists, including Arthur Conan Doyle; and the first full description of his fabled death. This definitive biography allows readers to peer into Houdini’s psyche and understand him more deeply than ever before. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Strongly Suggested Book
This book is good. It has many interesting facts about Houdini. It explains his life and career. I strongly suggest it.

Decent, but there are better
If you're planning on buying just one Houdini book, go with Kenneth Silverman. Although there are parts of Brandon's book which are excellent, I grew tired of her opinions and psycho-babble. Ultimately, I got the feeling that the author simply didn't like Houdini. Perhaps I should have been warned when reading Brandon's bio: "She likes to think of biography as a framework within which to look at cultural history." Houdini was a complex person, to say the least. Personally, I'd rather be presented with the facts so I could form my own opinion.

Good but...
I've read every biography on Harry Houdini and this one is good...but it isn't the best. (The best is Ken Silverman's Houdini! The Career of Ehrich Weiss.) Ruth Brandon seems to have read several old Houdini bios and, well, borrowed the information. Even her much publicized (and much maligned) "psycho-babble" comes right out of Bernard C. Meyer's Houdini A Mind in Chains (1976). Indeed, this excellent long out-of-print book seems to be Ms. Brandon's Deep Throat. Her chapter relating the events leading up to Houdini's death is taken almost paragraph for paragraph from the Meyer book. And do we really need to hear about the author's own childhood experiences with magic? Still, it's a good read, but for a serious and truly revealing Houdini bio go with the Silverman book.

Interesting but Flawed
A very interesting book for the most part. I only gave it four stars, however, because of the author's intermittent psycho-babble ramblings.

a well-written biography of the master magician.
I have read a few books on Harry Houdini, and I have found Ms. Brandon's book to be very informative, interesting, and insightful. Since I purchased this book two years ago, I have read it over and over again. My husband usually asks,"haven't you finished that book yet?!" I really enjoyed it. ... Read more

Book Description

A profile of the authors life as a famous Soviet puppeteer and puppet theatre director. He describes childhood impressions, writes of earlier professions as artist and actor, and finally about his personal experiences with puppetry which helped him achieve mastery of his craft.

Born in Moscow in 1901, he describes every step he took to his profession, how he worked on individual productions, and an account of all of his productions.

In the 1920s Sergei Obraztsov founded the State Central Puppet Theatre in Moscow – the biggest in Russia, an educational center of professional and amateurs theatre groups. The center houses the museum of theatrical puppets, a library on the theme, manuscript and pedagogical departments, and one of the world’s largest collection of theatrical puppets (about 3000 from 50 countries).Now over 50 years old, The Sergei Obraztsov Central Puppet Show has entertained tens-of-thousands of fans in 50 different countries, with a witty program that parodies slipshod variety performances. ... Read more