Creating Solo Performance is an innovative toolbox of exercises and challenges focused on providing you – the performer – with engaging and inspiring ways to explore and develop your idea both on the page and in the performance space. The creation of a solo show may be the most rewarding, liberating and stressful challenge you will take on in your career. This book acts as your silent collaborator as you develop your performance, by helpfully arranging exercises under the following headings: Beginnings Creating character Generating material Using your performance space Technology Endings Collaboration Exercises can be explored in sequence, at random or according to your specific needs and interests as a performer. By enabling you to create a bespoke formula that best applies to your specific subject, area of interest, style and discipline, this book will become an indispensable resource as you produce your solo show.
Creating Solo Performance is an innovative toolbox of exercises and challenges focused on providing you – the performer – with engaging and inspiring ways to explore and develop your idea both on the page and in the performance space. The creation of a solo show may be the most rewarding, liberating and stressful challenge you will take on in your career. This book acts as your silent collaborator as you develop your performance, by helpfully arranging exercises under the following headings: Beginnings Creating character Generating material Using your performance space Technology Endings Collaboration Exercises can be explored in sequence, at random or according to your specific needs and interests as a performer. By enabling you to create a bespoke formula that best applies to your specific subject, area of interest, style and discipline, this book will become an indispensable resource as you produce your solo show.
A hands-on guide for artists, students, and teachers of devised theatre, at any stage of their practice. This book is packed with thoughtful exercises distilled from twenty-five years of interdisciplinary artist workshops and teaching devising and performance making at universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. Created and curated by Leslie Hill and Helen Paris, artists who work internationally at the interface of academia and professional practice, this collection provides exercises for devising, composing, and editing original works. The exercises are clear and accessible, enhanced with vivid examples from contemporary performance practice and relevant political contexts. Moreover, the authors offer tools for giving and receiving feedback, fostering critical reflection, and framing artistic work within academic research contexts. Hill and Paris's compelling approach does more than merely provide performance recipes; it highlights the vital cultural relevance and potential personal impact of the creative explorations that the authors invite us to undertake.
Focusing specifically on solo making and performing, this unique and exciting text allows the experts to speak for themselves. In interviews with Misri Dey, six recognised solo performers working across a range of performance genres – including theatre, dance, live and performance art, site-specific performance, music video and film – provide insightful and practical strategies for creative making and performing processes. Interviewees include Bryony Kimmings, Tim Etchells, Bobby Baker, Mike Pearson, Wendy Houstoun and Nigel Charnock. Engaging and accessible, this is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of theatre, performance and acting, scholars, lecturers and performance practitioners. It will also appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of women's studies, creative writing and the visual arts.
SOLO PERFORMANCE ON STAGE by Ronald Rand, Goodwill Cultural Ambassador and world-acclaimed solo performer in 25 countries takes the reader on an intimate journey into the organic process of creating your own solo performance on stage through the 'Art of Transformation' using Stanislavsky's "Method of Physical Actions." The theater is a transcendent communication of the human spirit, flowing from the passion of all those creating in collaboration with each other. Transformation is the embodiment of our joy of being alive. Christopher Plummer calls SOLO TRANSFORMATION ON STAGE "An unforgettable journey of passion, insight and discovery!" Stephen Lang writes in his Foreword "An astonishing outpouring of energy and experience. Ronald Rand brings a way to seek out a greater realization of what life means to you, putting into words what every actor feels in their heart; that what we do is as crucial to life as bread, fire, or salt. A noble and useful book." Step inside Ronald Rand's two-hour transformation into Harold Clurman - how a solo performance is born, takes off and literally changes the face of the world! Experience his insightful experiences with Stella Adler, Harold Clurman, and Jerzy Grotowski, and life-changing 'moments of depth' from some of the world's memorable performers including Cicely Tyson, Paul Robeson, Ira Aldridge, James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier, Laurette Taylor, and Marlon Brando. SOLO TRANSFORMATION ON STAGE offers over twenty inspiring interviews by performers who have created their own solo plays including Adrienne Barbeau, Billy Crudup, Olympia Dukakis, Eve Ensler, Hershey Felder, Marga Gomez, Julie Harris, Stephen Lang, Tony Lo Bianco, Laurence Luckinbill, Angelica Page, Christopher Plummer, Elizabeth van Dyke, and Ben Vereen. SOLO TRANSFORMATION ON STAGE will speak passionately to experienced actors and students alike, and become an invaluable resource for postgraduate students of theatre and performance, acting lecturers and teachers, and all lovers of theater.
Have you ever had an idea you thought would make a great one-person show? Ever thought about writing that idea yourself, but didn't know how to start? Are you ready to get out of your own way? GOING SOLO takes you through the entire process of developing, writing, marketing, and producing, your own dynamic one-person show. By following the exercises outlined in this book, critically acclaimed writer/actor, Aaron Braxton, shows you how to thoroughly complete your first solo draft in 8 weeks or less. What is the story you want to tell? How do you want to authentically create it? Whatever the subject matter, no one has your life experiences. No one can tell your story, from your perspective, better than YOU. With GOING SOLO, you will become fearless and reveal the framework by which you think. You will create an engaging plot and 3 dimensional characters who have substance, depth and move audiences. What is in your heart? What are you dying to release to the world? With GOING SOLO, you will possess the tools necessary to consciously make a paradigm shift and finally step into your greatness.
Throughout his life, Louis Armstrong tried to explain how singing with a barbershop quartet on the streets of New Orleans was foundational to his musicianship. Until now, there has been no in-depth inquiry into what he meant when he said, “I figure singing and playing is the same,” or, “Singing was more into my blood than the trumpet.” Creating the Jazz Solo: Louis Armstrong and Barbershop Harmony shows that Armstrong understood exactly the relationship between what he sang and what he played, and that he meant these comments to be taken literally: he was singing through his horn. To describe the relationship between what Armstrong sang and played, author Vic Hobson discusses elements of music theory with a style accessible even to readers with little or no musical background. Jazz is a music that is often performed by people with limited formal musical education. Armstrong did not analyze what he played in theoretical terms. Instead, he thought about it in terms of the voices in a barbershop quartet. Understanding how Armstrong, and other pioneer jazz musicians of his generation, learned to play jazz and how he used his background of singing in a quartet to develop the jazz solo has fundamental implications for the teaching of jazz history and performance today. This assertive book provides an approachable foundation for current musicians to unlock the magic and understand jazz the Louis Armstrong way.
This book explores the fundamentals of popular music performance for students in contemporary music institutions. Drawing on the insights of performance practice research, it discusses the unwritten rules of performances in popular music, what it takes to create a memorable performance, and live popular music as a creative industry. The authors offer a practical overview of topics ranging from rehearsals to stagecraft, and what to do when things go wrong. Chapters on promotion, recordings, and the music industry place performance in the context of building a career. Performing Popular Music introduces aspiring musicians to the elements of crafting compelling performances and succeeding in the world of today’s popular music.
