Writers and writing

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Comedy Bible, The: From Stand-Up to Sitcom—The Comedy Writer's Ultimate How-To Guide
$27.23 ex GST
$29.95 inc GST

Comedy Bible, The: From Stand-Up to Sitcom—The Comedy Writer's Ultimate How-To Guide

Judy Carter

This is the definitive guide to making a career out of making people laugh. If you’ve got a sense of humour, you can learn to make a career out of comedy, says Judy Carter. Whether it’s creating a killer stand-up act, writing a spec sitcom, or providing jokes for radio or one-liners for greeting cards, Carter provides step-by-step instructions in The Comedy Bible. She helps readers first determine which genre of comedy writing or performing suits them best and then directs them in developing, refining, and selling their work.

‘Judy Carter can show you how to make your sense of humour pay off’. - Oprah

The Comedy Bible is proof God does have a sense of humour... Until comedians can enrol in a comedy 101 humourversity course at the school of hard knock-knocks, this is the next best thing.’ Wil Anderson


Currency Press | 978-0-86819-741-8 | AUSTRALIA/NZ | PB
Conversations with Miller
$31.77 ex GST
$34.95 inc GST

Conversations with Miller

Mel Gussow

Forty years of candid conversations between the world-famous playwright and the drama critic of the New York Times.

This book records over a dozen conversations that both charts Miller's development and delves into his earlier life and work.

From the personal to the political Miller is astonishingly candid throughout - even about his relationship with Marilyn Monroe. The result is a self-portrait of a giant of the theatre who is both a 'regular guy' and a fiercely original writer and thinker...

'Full of illuminating candour' Sunday Times

'Brilliantly crafted... Gussow illuminates every facet of the author's personality' Variety
Nick Hern Books | 978-1-85459-666-6 | AUSTRALIA/NZ | PB
Conversations with Pinter
$31.77 ex GST
$34.95 inc GST

Conversations with Pinter

Mel Gussow

Detailed interviews with the Nobel Prize-winning playwright, conducted over twenty years from 1971–1993 by the Drama Critic of the New York Times.

An invaluable insight to Pinter's life and work. 

'A vital companion to his work' The Times

'We're unlikely to get a better insight' Sheridan Morley

Nick Hern Books | 978-1-85459-206-4 | AUSTRALIA/NZ | PB
Critical Perspectives:
$26.36  $4.55 ex GST
$29.00 $5.01 inc GST

Critical Perspectives:

Eight Award-Winning Arts Critics

Katharine Brisbane (ed)
Eight frank confessions by eight prizewinning arts journalists, delving into their individual ways of thinking. Roger Covell writes on concerts; Bruce Elder on popular music; Sandra Hall on film; Marion Halligan on literature; John McCallum on theatre; Cyrus Meher-Homji on recordings; Joanna Mendelssohn on art; and Alan Saunders on food.

Limited stock, available only from Currency Press direct.
Currency Press | 978-0-86819-502-5 | PB
Europe on Stage: Translation and Theatre
$54.50 ex GST
$59.95 inc GST

Europe on Stage: Translation and Theatre

Gunilla Anderman

Plays written by the major European dramatists of the last two centuries —from the firmly established classics of Ibsen and Chekhov to the recent success of Yasmina Reza—are increasingly performed on British stages, often in new translations or versions. But what distinguishes one translation from another? And what social and cultural factors of reception must the translator of a foreign play take into account?

Gunilla Anderman looks at varying approaches to the foreign text as well as the need for new versions of the same play, and discusses the influence of Europen drama in translation and its contribution to and enrichment of English playwright.

‘Anyone interested in theatre today will value Professor Anderman’s book as a reference source as well as a rich and enjoyable commentary on modern European theatre’.

 

Peter Newmark, author of Translation Now in The Linguist


Oberon Books | 978-1-84002-220-9 | AUSTRALIA/NZ | HB
How Plays Work
$32.68 ex GST
$35.95 inc GST

How Plays Work

David Edgar
A masterclass in the art of playwriting by an accomplished and
successful practitioner . How Plays Work has grown out of Edgar’s teaching the University of Birmingham’s MA course in Playwriting Studies. The book analyses the basic elements of dramatic structure – action, plot, character, dialogue, genre – through historical and modern examples. By looking at existing plays and drawing lessons from them, it builds a unique toolkit of theatrical devices for use by other playwrights – as well as by other theatre practitioners and students of drama.

To read a PDF excerpt from our reader's report on the book click here

Nick Hern  | 978-1-85459-371-9 | PB
Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, The: Volume I, 1920-45
$54.55 ex GST
$60.01 inc GST

Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, The: Volume I, 1920-45

Albert J. Devlin /Nancy M. Tischler (Eds)
This volume includes 330 letters written to nearly 70 correspondents, including fellow writers like Clifford Odets, William Saroyan and Christopher Isherwood, and have been chosen from a group of 900 letters collected by the editors. He wrote to family, friends and fellow artists with equal measures of piety, wit and astute self-knowledge; the letters reflect on Williams’ unhappy home life in St Louis, his sister Rose’s instability, the emergence of his own sexuality and problems with alcohol—all in parallel with the advancing knowledge of his art.
''Tennessee was a splendidly indiscreet letter-writer, and as we watch the young T L Williams metamorphose into Tennessee Williams in these pages, it becomes clear that his is the most distinctive, humorous, American voice since Mark Twain'' Gore Vidal
Oberon Books | 978-1-84002-226-1 | AUSTRALIA/NZ | HB
Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, The: Volume II 1945-1957
$79.95 ex GST
$87.95 inc GST

Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams, The: Volume II 1945-1957

Albert J. Devlin /Nancy M. Tischler (Eds)

Volume II of The Selected Letters of Tennessee Williams includes nearly 350 letters written between 1945 and 1957 to 90 correspondents, including Elia Kazan, Carson McCullers, Gore Vidal, publisher James McLaughlin and Audrey Wood, Williams’ resourceful agent. This was a time of intense creativity for the author which encompassed the production of six major plays, including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Alongside Broadway and Hollywood successes, he suffered from a string of personal losses and a deepening depression, making this period an emotional and artistic roller coaster for Williams.

Oberon Books | 978-1-84002-227-8 | HB
So You Want to be a Playwright?
$27.23 ex GST
$29.95 inc GST

So You Want to be a Playwright?

How to write a play and get it produced

Tim Fountain
A manual for would-be playwrights - how to develop your play from first idea to first night.

Directly addressing the reader as a fellow writer, Tim Fountain guides the would-be playwright over the many hurdles that must be cleared—from finding a story that only you know, through the detailed construction of the play act-by-act, scene-by-scene, and on to the many strategies that can help to get it on stage.

Fountain, himself a playwright and former literary manager, raises—and provides answers to—over fifty topics ranging from ‘Should you know which theatre you are writing for?’ to ‘What if you get stuck?’ and on to ‘Where do you send your script?’

The final section deals with actual performance: casting, working with directors, designers and actors, rehearsals and previews. Also included is an appendix of vital websites and other contacts.
Nick Hern Books | 978-1-85459-716-8 | PB
Top Shelf 1: Reading and Writing the Best in Australian TV Drama
$27.23 ex GST
$29.95 inc GST

Top Shelf 1: Reading and Writing the Best in Australian TV Drama

Greg Haddrick
A unique insight into the specialised format of television series and serials and the conditions unders which it is produced.

Top Shelf Volume 1 explores how shows are plotted and ideas developed; the script-editing process; different narrative styles, plots and production techniques; the differences in style and production paramaters between writing for series and serials; how the present writing systems evolved in Australia and the influences of Amercian and Brish systems. 

The companion book, Top Shelf Volume 2 contains five outstanding television screenplays.

‘Greg Haddrick has written a wise, informative book on how TV serials and series are written. It is, quite simply, the best book on the subject that I have ever come across…’ Tony Morphett, multi-award-winning writer and co-creator of Blue Heelers and Water Rats.


Currency Press | 978-0-86819-610-7 | PB
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