"Threading the subtle seam between what lives and what remains, A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause succeeds in conjuring the poetry of Marcel Marceau's performance as both a character on stage and in history. . . . Like pulling a ghost from a dark room, this is an accomplished work of historical portraiture: precise in its objects, complex in its melancholy, and insightful in its humor." —Thalia Field Part biographic inquiry, part lyric portraiture, radio producer Shawn Wen reanimates world-renowned mime Marcel Marceau's silent art. The book opens in darkness, a single figure standing in the spotlight. It's Marceau in his signature hat, painted face, black clothes, and ballet slippers. Over time, the text accumulates objects: dolls, paintings, icons, wives, children, cities, and performances. By turns whimsical and melancholic, this spare volume takes shape through capsule histories, interview clips, vivid scenes, and archival research. Shawn Wen is a writer, radio producer, and multimedia artist. Her writing has appeared in The New Inquiry, The Seneca Review, The Iowa Review, The White Review, and the anthology City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis (Faber and Faber, 2015). Her radio work broadcasts regularly on This American Life, Freakonomics Radio, and Marketplace. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Ford Foundation Professional Journalism Training Fellowship and the Royce Fellowship.
If you are a singer, you are an athlete. And the athletic skills that make you a great vocalist come from one source: your brain.The Singing Athlete is the first book of its kind: a view on voice training through the lens of both the physical body and the nervous system. As one of the top teachers of professional Broadway performers, Andrew Byrne has developed a unique synthesis of athletics and neuroscience that will guide you to higher levels of performance. In addition to his work on Broadway, Andrew is devoted to studying the training methods used by Olympic athletes as a Master Practitioner of Z-Health functional applied neuroscience. He has taken thousands of hours of research and boiled it down into an easily digestible form that will help you unlock amazing new vocal skills. When you buy The Singing Athlete, you're not just picking up a book. You're getting a complete training system. With your purchase, you get lifetime access to The Singing Athlete Video Guide, a companion website that includes over 150 training videos. You'll learn the correct form for every drill, explore awesome bonus content, and download PDFs to track your progress. Through the fully illustrated book and the accompanying videos, you will learn to: Breathe correctly for stress reduction and optimal vocal support Exercise your tongue, jaw, and throat in ways that lower threat in your brain Use your ears and eyes to improve vocal range and stamina Heal any scars that might be holding you back Eliminate reflux, tinnitus, sinus problems, and other vocal stumbling blocks Move better, feel better, and sing better FAQs How is The Singing Athlete different from other vocal training systems? When you study voice, your instructor is always practicing neurology--either accidentally or on purpose. A lot of voice systems can tell you about the anatomy of the voice, but The Singing Athlete provides a crucial missing piece--how to train your brain. Once you understand how your nervous system is in charge of your singing, the way you practice will shift forever, and everything your teacher says will make more sense. I'm an instructor of a certain style of vocal training. Can I integrate The Singing Athlete into what I already do? That is one of the greatest strengths of this system; this material can fit in seamlessly with almost any style of training. The Singing Athlete is designed to complement what you already do, providing a new framework to expand and focus your thinking. Lisa Rochelle (NYC Singing Voice Specialist) says it this way: "The Singing Athlete negates no other system, no other technique, and no other pedagogy. It can be used to meet a singer where they are." How will I know if this training is working? The process in The Singing Athlete (known as "Assess and Reassess") will you show you precisely what kind of exercise your voice appreciates. With The Singing Athlete, there is no guesswork and you will be sure you are doing the right drills. I'm not a Broadway singer--I sing other styles (pop/country/R&B/classical, etc.) Can I get good results from this book? The Singing Athlete is independent of vocal style. You can apply these exercises to any vocal style, from heavy metal to grand opera. Whether you want to sing "Quando m'en vo" or "Call Me Maybe", Andrew has got you covered. How does The Singing Athlete Video Guide work? Learning movement is a visual process. To get the most out of the exercises, Andrew has shot a video of each drill. This will allow you to make sure you've got the form right, as well as learn details about how to use and tweak the drills. Once you've purchased the book, you can get lifetime access to the Video Guide at thesingingathlete.com. (Plus, there are some cool songs there, too.)
The Fantasticks tells an age-old tale. Its ingredients are simple: a boy, a girl, two fathers, and a wall. Its scenery, a tattered cardboard moon, hovers over an empty wooden platform. With these bare essentials, Jones and Schmdt launched a theatrical phenomenon unmatched the world over.
For years theater director Bryan Doerries has been producing ancient Greek tragedies for a wide range of at-risk people in society. His is the personal and deeply passionate story of a life devoted to reclaiming the timeless power of an ancient artistic tradition to comfort the afflicted. Doerries leads an innovative public health project—Theater of War—that produces ancient dramas for current and returned soldiers, people in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, tornado and hurricane survivors, and more. Tracing a path that links the personal to the artistic to the social and back again, Doerries shows us how suffering and healing are part of a timeless process in which dialogue and empathy are inextricably linked. The originality and generosity of Doerries’s work is startling, and The Theater of War—wholly unsentimental, but intensely felt and emotionally engaging—is a humane, knowledgeable, and accessible book that will both inspire and enlighten.
Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of practicing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct complex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By completing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the methods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard keyboard, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the simple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Figure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcomponents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accurate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chainsaws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.
An annotated collection of more than 300 unusually interesting and detailed passages includes views by observers from ancient Greece to modern times on acting, directing, make-up, costuming, props, much more.
