The Complete Idiot's Guide to Acting

Brian O'Neil

Acting as a Business: Strategies for Success

O'Neil updates his indispensable resource to keep up with the latest show-business trends, and helps readers put control of their acting career where it belongs: in their own hands.

Steven Louis Shelley

A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting

Now fully updated, "A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting" has handy step-by-step illustrations of the technical tools and methods used for lighting design along with real-life examples showing why some techniques succeed while others fail.

Duchartre, Pierre L. Ducharte

The Italian Comedy

The roots of the Italian commedia dell'arte stretch back to the Atellanae Fabulae, popular farces of ancient Rome. Modern descendants can be found in the antics of a comic like Charles Chaplin. But as an institution it was unique -- a perfected theater of improvisation where gifted actors created some of the most memorable characters the theatre has ever seen. It was from this enchanting world that Harlequin and Punch, the Doctor and the Captain, Pantaloon and Brighella emerged to reign over Europe for three centuries. Writers, composers, and painters have drawn inspiration from the commedia; its influence is obvious in the work of Lope de Vega, the English Elizabethan dramatists, Moliere, Callot, Watteau, Cezanne, and Picasso.One of the most important books written on this aspect of theatrical history is this famous study. Tracing the beginnings, growth, and influence of the commedia dell'arte, Duchartre describes the improvisations, staging, masks, scenarios, acting troupes, and characters that made up this special form of theater. Unfortunately, the English translation that appeared in 1929 has been out of print for decades, leaving scholars and theater lovers without a ...