eBooks de Artes Escénicas, página 13 de 110

In "The Sharper Detected and Exposed," Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin delves into the intricate world of deception and illusion, drawing upon his experiences as a magician and a pioneer of modern conjuring. This work serves as both an expose and a critique of fraudulent practices prevalent in the mid-19th century, merging sharp prose with vivid anecdotes to engage the reader. Robert-Houdins literary style is characterized by clarity and precision, allowing complex concepts of illusion to unfold seamlessly. Situated in the context of Frances burgeoning interest in magic and escapology during the era, the book illuminates the fine line between entertainment and trickery, exploring deeper ethical implications of magic in society. Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, often hailed as the father of modern magic, was deeply influenced by his background as a watchmaker, which cultivated his fascination with mechanics and illusion. His innovative performances transformed the perception of magic from mere trickery to an art form worthy of respect. This book reflects his desire to educate the public about the intricacies of deception, grounding his art in a moral framework that sought to elevate the perception of magicians in an age rife with charlatans. Readers intrigued by the enchantment of magic, as well as those interested in the socio-cultural dynamics of 19th-century France, will find "The Sharper Detected and Exposed" an essential read. This book not only entertains but also illuminates the historical context of performance art, making it a riveting addition to the library of any aspiring magician or cultural historian.In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience:- A succinct Introduction situates the works timeless appeal and themes.- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the eras events and influences that shaped the writing.- An Author Biography reveals milestones in the authors life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text.- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the works messages, connecting them to modern life.- Handpicked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.

A guide to the hidden workings of plays and the trade secrets that govern their writing - by the acclaimed playwright Steve Waters.Drawing on a wide range of drama, both historical and modern, Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing scenes, acts, space, time, characters, language and images to show how a play is more than the sum of its parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism.Almost uniquely amongst accounts of playwriting, Waters book looks at the ways in which good plays move their audiences, generating powerful emotional responses that often defy conventional analysis.The Secret Life of Plays is for playwrights at any stage of their career, and will inspire and inform drama students as well as working actors and directors. Most of all it is for anyone who has ever laughed or cried in the theatre and wants to know why.Theatre is a live medium, about bodies, sweat and feeling, even if it is informed by ideas and reason. How a thing composed of words manages to carry within it the currents of energy that generate that impression of life is what I want to explore Steve Waters Steve Waters book is like his plays: clear, elegant and stimulating throughout David Edgar

"The Seagull", performed in 1896 and published in Russia the following year as Chayka, is a slice-of-life drama by Anton Chekhov set in the Russian countryside at the end of the 19th century. The cast of characters is dissatisfied with their lives. Some desire love. Some desire success. Some desire artistic genius. No one, however, ever seems to attain happiness.Scholars have often said that Chekhovs plays are not plot driven. Instead, the plays are character studies designed to create a specific mood. Some critics view "The Seagull" as a tragic play about eternally unhappy people. Others see it as a humorous albeit bitter satire, poking fun at human folly.

The Seagull is one of the best ever dramas about the theatre, yet on the very first opening night it was a famous failure. The play triumphed later in Stanislavskis production and became one of the greatest events in the history of Russian theatre and one of the greatest new developments in the history of world drama.

MASHA and MEDVIEDENKO come in from the left, returning from a walk.MEDVIEDENKO. Why do you always wear mourning?MASHA. I dress in black to match my life. I am unhappy.MEDVIEDENKO. Why should you be unhappy? [Thinking it over] I dont understand it. You are healthy, and though your father is not rich, he has a good competency. My life is far harder than yours. I only have twenty-three roubles a month to live on, but I dont wear mourning. [They sit down].MASHA. Happiness does not depend on riches; poor men are often happy.MEDVIEDENKO. In theory, yes, but not in reality. Take my case, for instance; my mother, my two sisters, my little brother and I must all live somehow on my salary of twenty-three roubles a month. We have to eat and drink, I take it. You wouldnt have us go without tea and sugar, would you? Or tobacco? Answer me that, if you can.MASHA. [Looking in the direction of the stage] The play will soon begin.

"The Scarlet Letter" is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1850 and considered a masterpiece of American literature and a classic moral study.The year is 1642. Boston is a Puritan settlement, and one of its citizens, Hester Prynne, is led from the prison to the scaffold to stand in judgement before the town magistrates. In her arms, she carries her infant daughter Pearl, whose birth has sparked this inquiry. On the scaffold, Hester refuses to reveal the name of the childs father. As punishment, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A that marks her as an adulteress...

The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

In The Rock Ahead by Edmund Yates, readers are immersed in a thrilling narrative that explores themes of love, betrayal, and societal expectations. Set in the Victorian era, the books literary style is characterized by intricate character development and vivid descriptions of the time periods social norms. The novel is imbued with a sense of drama and tension, keeping readers on the edge of their seats with each page turn. With a keen eye for detail, Yates paints a vivid picture of London society, making the setting come alive for readers. As a prominent figure in Victorian literature, Yates captures the essence of the time period with precision and nuance. His insightful commentary on the constraints of society and human relationships adds depth to the narrative, making The Rock Ahead a compelling read for fans of classic literature. Recommended for those interested in Victorian novels and the exploration of complex human emotions.

The picture of a great, misguided soul, endowed with every gift of excellence; yet lost in spite of all its gifts! Unbridled passions and bad companionship corrupt his heart, urge him on from crime to crime, until at last he stands at the head of a band of murderers, heaps horror upon horror, and plunges from precipice to precipice into the lowest depths of despair. Great and majestic in misfortune, by misfortune reclaimed, and led back to the paths of virtue. Such a man shall you pity and hate, abhor yet love, in the Robber Moor. You will likewise see a juggling, fiendish knave unmasked and blown to atoms in his own mines; a fond, weak, and over-indulgent father; the sorrows of too enthusiastic love, and the tortures of ungoverned passion.

Biagio Martini is a successful lawyer. But he fears thunderstorms, and the memory of what happened in the old house by the river, when he was a child, corrodes his soul. Agata Rubino, on the other hand, is a fearless and courageous woman. She fears nothing as she hunts down the one who destroyed her life. Biagio and Agata do not know each other, they have never met; they do not know that their destinies are about to intertwine in an inexorable way.PUBLISHER: TEKTIME

An unrivalled unofficial history of the rise and partial fall of fringe theatre, Mike Bradwells deadpan account of his adventures is one of the funniest and angriest books to come out of theatre today. Winner of the 2010 Theatre Book Prize awarded by the Society for Theatre Research.As he travels through a counterculture peopled by nutters, chancers, dreamers and prophets, Bradwell makes us marvel at his resilience and creativity, captured in a succession of vivid and often laugh-out- loud episodes such as: creating a character with Mike Leigh; enjoying the onstage mass orgasms of The Living Theatre; eating fire with Bob Hoskins; becoming an underwater escapologist (reluctantly) in the Ken Campbell Roadshow; creating Hull Truck; and doing battle with the Health and Safety brigade, the funding bodies and a Polish heavy-metal disco during his ten years running the famous Bush Theatre in West London.Bradwell was a passionate champion of the alternative as well as an admired and successful director. In this book, he makes a compelling and urgent case for preserving the true and subversive spirit of theatre from castration at the hands of bankers, consultants, stakeholders, cultural-diversity compliance monitors and the Arts Council. Towards the end of this brilliant account of his epic forty-year journey, Mike tells us, I dont believe that theatre is safe in the hands of grown-ups, and it is his healthy, eternal youthfulness that makes the book so inspiringMike Leigh, from his Foreword

Richard Austin Freeman (11 April 1862 28 September 1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. He claimed to have invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detectives attempt to solve the mystery). Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels. Many of the Dr. Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology. Austin Freeman was the youngest of the five children of tailor Richard Freeman and Ann Maria Dunn. He first trained as an apothecary and then studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1887. The same year he married Annie Elizabeth, with whom he had two sons. He entered the Colonial Service and was sent to Accra on the Gold Coast

One man. Two worlds. A timeless tale of power, love, and betrayal.Step into post-Napoleonic France with The Red and the Black, Stendhals legendary exploration of ambition, hypocrisy, and romantic obsession. Follow Julien Sorel a poor yet brilliant young man as he climbs the rigid social ladder through cunning, seduction, and sheer determination.In a world ruled by clergy and aristocrats, Julien navigates the tension between personal dreams and societal expectations. His journey is at once thrilling and tragic, told with sharp insight into the human psyche and the institutions that bind us. A favorite of literary giants like Nietzsche and Balzac, this novel defined 19th-century realism.Whether youre drawn to political intrigue, passionate love, or psychological drama, this classic offers it all in elegant, biting prose that still stirs readers today.

Edith Nesbit was born in London. She grew up in France, Germany, and Kent, and wrote over 60 books of fiction for children, including Five Children and It, The Wouldbegoods, and The Railway Children. She died in 1924 in New Romney, Kent, England.

The Queen Of Dolls And Other Talesby Romana VillariNoir stories for those who love to walk the path of restlessness without stoppingThe Queen Of Dolls And Other TalesThe body of an elderly lady is found in mysterious circumstances. It seems a news story like many others behind which lies an intrigue that Vittoria will discover thanks to her sensorial gifts.The paranormal runs through all the stories of the collection as a guiding thread.

For many people, even within the theatre industry, prop making is something of a dark art, practised by gifted individuals who manage to produce intricate works battling against short deadlines. However, the skills of prop making are relevant to many industries and contexts, whether for art projects, carnival floats, live action role-play (LARP), model railways or film and television. The options and applications are endless, but the traditional skills remain the same. The Prop Makers Workshop Manual is a definitive guide to the materials and practices used within the professional performing arts industries, covering both traditional techniques and modern practices. Supported by original hand-drawn illustrations and over 300 colour photographs, topics covered include: paper mache and card construction; flexible canes and withies; timber and steel frameworks; sculpting, moulding and casting processes; texture and paint techniques; GRP and epoxy resins; thermoformable plastics, including Plastazote and Wonderflex and finally, an introduction to life casting.

Lo, the earths bound and limitary land, The Scythian steppe, the waste untrod of men! Look to it now, Hephaestusthine it is, Thy Sire obeying, this arch-thief to clench Against the steep-down precipice of rock, With stubborn links of adamantine chain. Look thou: thy flower, the gleaming plastic fire, He stole and lent to mortal mana sin That gods immortal make him rue to-day, Lessoned hereby to own th omnipotence Of Zeus, and to repent his love to man!

Australian-born novelist, born Mary Annette Beauchamp. By marriage she became Grafin (Countess) von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell. Although known in her early life as Mary, after the publication of her first book, she was known to her readers, eventually to her friends, and finally even to her family as Elizabeth, and she is now invariably referred to as Elizabeth von Arnim. She also wrote under the pen name Alice Cholmondeley.Arnim would later refer to her domineering first husband as the "Man of Wrath" and writing became her refuge from what turned out to be an incompatible marriage. Arnims husband had increasing debts and was eventually sent to prison for fraud. This was when she created her pen name "Elizabeth" and launched her career as a writer by publishing her semi-autobiographical, brooding, yet satirical Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898). Detailing her struggles both to create a garden on the estate and her attempts to integrate into German high-class Junker society, it was such a success that it was reprinted twenty times in its first year. A bitter-sweet memoir and companion to it was The Solitary Summer (1899). Other works, such as the The Benefactress (1902), Vera (1921), and Love (1925), were also semi-autobiographical. Other titles dealing with feminist protest and witty observations of life in provincial Germany were to follow, including The Princess Priscillas Fortnight (1905) and Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907).Although she never wrote a traditional autobiography, All the Dogs of My Life, her 1936 account of her love for her pets, contains many glimpses of the glittering social circle of which she was part.

Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three childrens novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 18851886), A Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, Manchester, England. After her father died in 1852, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 immigrated to the United States, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee. There Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. In 1870, her mother died, and in 1872 Frances married Swan Burnett, who became a medical doctor. The Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their two sons were born, before returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C., Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which (That Lass o Lowries), was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of childrens fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.Burnett enjoyed socializing and lived a lavish lifestyle. Beginning in the 1880s, she began to travel to England frequently and in the 1890s bought a home there, where she wrote The Secret Garden. Her oldest son, Lionel, died of tuberculosis in 1890, which caused a relapse of the depression she had struggled with for much of her life. She divorced Swan Burnett in 1898, married Stephen Townsend in 1900, and divorced him in 1902. A few years later she settled in Nassau County, Long Island, where she died in 1924 and is buried in Roslyn Cemetery.In 1936 a memorial sculpture by Bessie Potter Vonnoh was erected in her honour in Central Parks Conservatory Garden. The statue depicts her two famous Secret Garden characters, Mary and Dickon.

Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 27 March 1931) was an English writer. He is best known as a novelist, but he also worked in other fields such as journalism, propaganda and film. Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which were joined together at the beginning of the 20th century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the family moved to a larger house between Hanley and Burslem. Bennett was educated locally in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Bennett was employed by his father but the working relationship failed. Bennett found himself doing jobs such as rent-collecting which were uncongenial. He also resented the low pay; it is no accident that the theme of parental miserliness is important in his novels. In his spare time he was able to do a little journalism, but his breakthrough as a writer came after he had moved from the Potteries. At the age of 21, he left his fathers practice and went to London as a solicitors clerk.