Live Theater

At the height of the McCarthy era, an experimental theater troupe set up shop in a bar near the University of Chicago. Via word-of-mouth, astonished crowds packed the ad-hoc venue to see its unscripted, interactive, consciousness-raising style. From this unlikely seed grew the Second City, the massively influential comedy theater troupe, and its offshoots - the Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, SNL, and a slew of others. Sam Wasson charts the meteoric rise of improv in this richly reported, scene-driven narrative.

Why Shakespeare? What explains our continued fascination with his poems and plays? In Living with Shakespeare, Susannah Carson invites 40 actors, directors, scholars, and writers to reflect on why his work is still such a vital part of our culture.

This warm, loving, and often hilarious personal history of My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi describes the cast of a great era in American musical theater: Moss Heart, Fritz Loewe, Julie Andrews, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Cecil Beaton, Louis Jourdan, Maurice Chevalier, Leslie Caron, Vincente Minelli, Arthur Freed, and many others. How these people worked together to conceive, finance, write, produce, stage, and present these brilliant shows is detailed here.

Burlesque: A Living History captures the spirit of this unique art form through hundreds of photographs and stories from many who were a part of America's most colorful past. This audiobook highlights the careers and contributions of selected artists, many of whom were the nuts and bolts of burlesque. It also acknowledges just some of the young performers of today who are diligently working to remember the days of old. When burlesque theatres and clubs went dark, a whole world went dark with them.

"Für sein legendäres Bühnenprogramm "Das ist ein Theater!" mit den amüsantesten Theater-Anekdoten aus fünf Jahrzehnten im Scheinwerferlicht erntete und erntet Heinz Marecek immer wieder aufs Neue tosenden Applaus. Nach über 4.000 Vorstellungen, vielen Dutzend Inszenierungen und Kinofilmen sowie hunderten Fernsehproduktionen blieben jedoch noch zahlreiche Geschichten unerzählt. So darf man sich nun auf die lange herbeigesehnte Fortsetzung von Heinz Mareceks Erfolgsprogramm freuen. Seine selbst durchlebten, bühnenreifen Erzählungen stehen dabei heitere Bonmots berühmter Theaterautoren gegenüber.

Für sein legendäres Bühnenprogramm Das ist ein Theater! mit den amüsantesten Theater-Anekdoten aus fünf Jahrzehnten im Scheinwerferlicht erntete und erntet Heinz Marecek immer wieder aufs Neue tosenden Applaus. Nach über 4.000 Vorstellungen, vielen Dutzend Inszenierungen und Kinofilmen sowie hunderten Fernsehproduktionen blieben jedoch noch zahlreiche Geschichten unerzählt. So darf man sich nun auf die lange herbeigesehnte Fortsetzung von Heinz Mareceks Erfolgsprogramm freuen. Seine selbst durchlebten, bühnenreifen Erzählungen stehen dabei heitere Bonmots berühmter Theaterautoren gegenüber. 

Before Tim Federle became a best-selling author and a Broadway playwright, he worked as a back-up dancer at the Super Bowl, a polar bear at Radio City, and a card-carrying chorus boy on Broadway. Life Is Like a Musical features 50 tips learned backstage, onstage, and in between gigs, with chapters such as "Dance Like Everyone's Watching" and "Save the Drama for the Stage". This charming and clever guide will appeal to all ages and inspire listeners to step into the lead roles of their own lives, even if they're not recovering theater majors.

Ted Swartz and his Ted & Company TheaterWorks team are known for blending Bible stories with comedy and poignancy, and pushing the envelope on issues of faith and social justice. But who is Ted Swartz? Follow along in this engaging memoir as Swartz finds his way as a middle child in an eastern Pennsylvania traditional Mennonite home to his early work in the family butcher shop. Journey with Ted through the decision of uprooting his young family to attend seminary and then embracing life as a writer and actor.

Seit Erscheinen seines gefeierten Romans Rabenliebe hat Peter Wawerzinek wohl an die hundert Mal daraus gelesen...

Generationen von Schauspielern haben Lessings Stück interpretiert, und zu Recht gilt "Nathan der Weise" als eine der Paraderollen auf deutschen Bühnen. Mitschnitt aus dem Deutschen Theater in Berlin.

Tomas Kyd, the son of the notorious Captain William Kyd, had always had well enough. Yet enough was not at all satisfaction. Enough only stirred within him a desire for more: a desire for love, adventure, and a life of nobility that he felt he, too, so richly deserved. However, his father's curse, that which he shares with the pirate crew of his father's unfinished voyage, has always kept him from discovering a life he thought worth living.

Peter Palitzsch (1918-2004), der große alte Mann des modernen Theaters, langjähriger Wegbegleiter Brechts, hat drei kurze Texte über Krieg, Gewalt und Emigration mit jeweils tödlichem Ausgang geschrieben. "Die drei Episoden zeigen, daß jeder Tod in einem (gesellschafts-) politischen, öffentlichen Umfeld stattfindet. Der Tod ist gar nicht privat.