Recent TLA News
Book Review: A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting
A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting Daniel Dresner London: Methuen Drama, 2018 ISBN-13: 978-1350039438 Daniel Dresner sets out to offer the student of film acting valuable support both as a fledgling artist and as a person in his book A Life-Coaching Approach to Screen Acting. I can report that he succeeds. A Life-Coaching Approach to […]
Book Review: Script Analysis for Theatre: Tools for Interpretation, Collaboration and Production
Script Analysis for Theatre: Tools for Interpretation, Collaboration and Production Dr. Robert Knopf London: Methuen Drama, 2017 ISBN-13: 978-1408184301 Dr. Robert Knopf’s Script Analysis for Theatre: Tools for Interpretation, Collaboration and Production provides an insightful and adept guide to a practice that has proven elusive to both theatre students and practitioners. As the author […]
Book Review: 100 Greatest American Plays
100 Greatest American Plays Thomas S. Hischak Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017 ISBN-13: 978-1442256057 Over time, theatregoers and practitioners develop their own mental list of favorite plays, though they may never bother to commit their list to paper. We are, of course, each entitled to our own criteria for the selections we make of […]
Book Review: The Sixties, Center Stage: Mainstream and Popular Performances in a Turbulent Decade
The Sixties, Center Stage: Mainstream and Popular Performances in a Turbulent Decade. Edited by James M. Harding and Cindy Rosenthal. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0472053360. For those of a certain age, or even younger, “The Sixties,” writ large, is an era of extraordinary cultural change, indelible in its historic […]
Book Review: By Women Possessed: A Life of Eugene O’Neill
By Women Possessed: A Life of Eugene O’Neill Barbara and Arthur Gelb New York: Marian Wood Books/Putnam, 2016 ISBN 978-0399159114 Eugene O’Neill’s towering predominance among American dramatists is, quite simply, undeniable. Winner of a Nobel Prize, a record four Pulitzer Prizes, his fifty-plus plays written beginning in the late 1910s established a standard for Broadway […]
Book Review: Experiencing Stanislavsky Today
Experiencing Stanislavsky Today Stephanie Daventry French and Philip G. Bennet. London: Routledge, 2016 ISBN 978-0415693950 In Experiencing Stanislavsky Today, authors Stephanie Daventry French and Philip G. Bennett introduce new performers to the tenets and practices of Konstantin Stanislavsky’s highly influential System of acting. The authors have coupled an expert understanding of Stanislavsky’s life and […]
Book Review: Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago: In Their Own Words
Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago: In Their Own Words. By John Mayer. New York: Bloomsbury Methuen, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4742-3945-5. The Steppenwolf Theatre Company mostly tells its own extraordinary story in John Mayer’s engaging book examining the methods, history, and overall mission of the company which, among other things, has created a much-imitated dynamic ensemble […]
Book Review: Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin
Some Enchanted Evenings: The Glittering Life and Times of Mary Martin David Kaufman New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2016 ISBN 978-1250031754 420 pp. David Kaufman brings readers a lively new journey through the career and personal life of an iconic star who enchanted audiences for decades both on stage and via the small […]
Book Review: Then and Now, a Memoir
Then and Now: a Memoir Barbara Cook with Tom Santopietro New York, NY: Harper, 2016 ISBN 978-0062090461 256 p. The word “legend” is applied with casual abandon these days. A recent New York Times ad hailed Idina Menzel as a “legend” with all of two Broadway shows under her belt. Taking nothing away from […]
Book Review: A Girl’s Got to Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright
A Girl’s Got to Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright Donald Spoto Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2016 ISBN 978-1628460452 263 p. Movie and Broadway stars come in all sizes and shapes. A rare few excel both on screen and the live stage, all of which makes the strange case of Teresa Wright (1918-2005) […]