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He discusses the challenge of making and trying to justify cuts in Hamlet. A casual remark from an actress leads to a feminist production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He describes the delicate collaboration between director and performer as he works with actors preparing for The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, and Hamlet. Other chapters treat a set designer’s bold red drapes that influenced the director’s concept for Julius Caesar, and the cross-influence of back-to-back runs of Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstsern Are Dead and Hamlet.  In a highly personal concluding chapter, Homan tells of joyously working with a spontaneous young actor playing Puck and with an audience of unruly teenagers who wept at a performance of Lear.  Delightfully written, and filled with practical insights, Directing Shakespeare draws together scholars, critics, and those who work in the theater to bring the written word to life.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49650937921809,"sku":"GOR009628237","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0821415506.jpg?v=1761389541"},{"product_id":"hitler-in-the-movies-book-sidney-homan-9781611479256","title":"Hitler in the Movies","description":"In Hitler in the Movies: Finding Der Fuhrer on Film, a Shakespearean and a sociologist explore the fascination our popular culture has with Adolf Hitler. What made him Hitler? Do our explanations tell us more about the perceiver than the actual historical figure? We ask such question by viewing the Hitler character in the movies. How have directors, actors, film critics, and audiences accounted for this monster in a medium that reflects public tastes and opinions? The book first looks at comedic films, such as Chaplain s The Great Dictator or Ernst Lubitsch s To Be or Not to Be (1942), along with the Mel Brooks s 1983 version. Then, there is the Hitler of fantasy, from trash films like The Saved Hitler s Brain to a serious work like The Boys from Brazil where Hitler is cloned. Psychological portraits include Anthony Hopkins s The Bunker, the surreal The Empty Mirror, and Max, a portrait of Hitler in his days in Vienna as a would-be artist. Documentaries and docudramas range from Leni Reinfenstahl s iconic The Triumph of the Will or The Hidden Fuhrer, to the controversial Hitler: A Film from Germany and Quentin Tarantino s fanciful Inglourious Basterds. Hitler in the Movies also considers the ways Der Fuhrer remains today, as a ghostly presence, if not an actual character. Why is he still with us in everything from political smears to video games to merchandise? In trying to explain this and the man himself, what might we learn about ourselves and our society?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49735267942673,"sku":"NGR9781611479256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52594685214993,"sku":"NLS9781611479256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53082708246801,"sku":"NIN9781611479256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1611479258.jpg?v=1754287189"},{"product_id":"comedy-acting-for-theatre-book-sidney-homan-9781350012776","title":"Comedy Acting for Theatre","description":"Analysing why we laugh and what we laugh at, and describing how performers can elicit this response from their audience, this book enables actors to create memorable – and hilarious – performances. Rooted in performance and performance criticism, Sidney Homan and Brian Rhinehart provide a detailed explanation of how comedy works, along with advice on how to communicate comedy from the point of view of both the performer and the audience. Combining theory and performance, the authors analyse a variety of plays, both modern and classic. Playwrights featured include Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Christopher Durang, and Michael Frayn. Acting in Shakespeare's comedies is also covered in depth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50276641243409,"sku":"GOR013417327","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50373151129873,"sku":"CIN1350012777G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52110977335569,"sku":"NGR9781350012776","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1350012777.jpg?v=1751113834"},{"product_id":"art-s-visionary-moment-book-sidney-homan-9781839993008","title":"Art's Visionary Moment","description":"The collection Art’s Visionary Moment: Personal Encounters with Works That Last a Lifetime was inspired by T. S. Eliot’s observation in his Dante (1929): “The experience of a poem is the experience both of a moment and of a lifetime. … There is a first, or an early moment which is unique, … which can never be forgotten, but … is never repeated integrally; and yet which would become destitute of significance if it did not survive in a larger whole of experience.” In this collection, scholars and artists from a variety of fields speak in personal terms, but with what one has called “intellectual passion,” of a work of art (poem, play, novel, film, visual art, among others) that, as Dante suggest, has had an immediate effect on them (the “Visionary Moment” from the title) yet survives “in a larger whole of experience” (that “Last a Lifetime” in the collection’s sub-title). Some of the titles of essays already submitted show the range of this inquiry: “Conversations with the Dead”; “Playing Richard III: The Experience of a Moment and a Lifetime”; “Picasso’s ‘Three Musicians’”; “Poetry Meets Power: Tamburlaine the Great”; “Pleasant Dreaming with ‘Thanatopsis’”; “From Madness to Miracle: An Encounter with Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale”; “Fight the Power” Spike Lee’s Visionary Moment”; and “Plastic Art Moment.”","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51054371045649,"sku":"NIN9781839993008","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51216181854481,"sku":"NGR9781839993008","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52662372401425,"sku":"NLS9781839993008","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1839993006.jpg?v=1750866091"},{"product_id":"pivotal-lines-in-shakespeare-and-others-book-sidney-homan-9781032348629","title":"Pivotal Lines in Shakespeare and Others","description":"Sidney Homan defines a pivotal line as “a moment in the script that serves as a pathway into the larger play … a magnet to which the rest of the play, scenes before and after, adheres.” He offers his personal choices of such lines in five plays by Shakespeare and works by Beckett, Brecht, Pinter, Shepard, and Stoppard. Drawing on his own experience in the theatre as actor and director and on campus as a teacher and scholar, he pairs a Shakespearean play with one by a modern playwright as mirrors for each other. One reviewer calls his approach “ground-breaking.” Another observes that his “experience with the particular plays he has chosen is invaluable” since it allows us to find “a wedge into such iconic texts.” Academics and students alike will find this volume particularly useful in aiding their own discovery of a pivotal line or moment in the experience of reading about, watching, or performing in a play.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51125743386897,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51125745287441,"sku":"NIN9781032348629","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52593502257425,"sku":"NLS9781032348629","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1032348623.jpg?v=1751048698"},{"product_id":"hitler-in-the-movies-book-sidney-homan-9781611479270","title":"Hitler in the Movies","description":"In Hitler in the Movies: Finding Der Fuhrer on Film, a Shakespearean and a sociologist explore the fascination our popular culture has with Adolf Hitler. What made him Hitler? Do our explanations tell us more about the perceiver than the actual historical figure? We ask such question by viewing the Hitler character in the movies. How have directors, actors, film critics, and audiences accounted for this monster in a medium that reflects public tastes and opinions? The book first looks at comedic films, such as Chaplain s The Great Dictator or Ernst Lubitsch s To Be or Not to Be (1942), along with the Mel Brooks s 1983 version. Then, there is the Hitler of fantasy, from trash films like The Saved Hitler s Brain to a serious work like The Boys from Brazil where Hitler is cloned. Psychological portraits include Anthony Hopkins s The Bunker, the surreal The Empty Mirror, and Max, a portrait of Hitler in his days in Vienna as a would-be artist. Documentaries and docudramas range from Leni Reinfenstahl s iconic The Triumph of the Will or The Hidden Fuhrer, to the controversial Hitler: A Film from Germany and Quentin Tarantino s fanciful Inglourious Basterds. Hitler in the Movies also considers the ways Der Fuhrer remains today, as a ghostly presence, if not an actual character. Why is he still with us in everything from political smears to video games to merchandise? In trying to explain this and the man himself, what might we learn about ourselves and our society?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52116383432977,"sku":"NLS9781611479270","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781611479270.jpg?v=1759399430"},{"product_id":"why-the-theatre-book-sidney-homan-9780367861957","title":"Why the Theatre","description":"Why the Theatre is a collection of 26 personal essays by college teachers, actors, directors, and playwrights about the magnetic pull of the theatre and its changing place in society.  The book is divided into four parts, examining the creative role of the audience, the life of the actor, director, and playwright in performance, ways the theatre moves beyond the playhouse and into the real world, and theories and thoughts on what the theatre can do when given form onstage. Based on concrete, highly personal examples, experiences, and memories, this collection offers unique perspectives on the meaning of the theatre and the beauty of weaving the world of the play into the fabric of our lives.  Covering a range of practices and plays, from the Greeks to Japanese Butoh theatre, from Shakespeare to modern experiments, this book is written by and for the theatre instructor and theatre appreciation student.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52334584889617,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52334585479441,"sku":"NLS9780367861957","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780367861957.jpg?v=1758157323"},{"product_id":"why-the-theatre-book-sidney-homan-9780367861889","title":"Why the Theatre","description":"Why the Theatre is a collection of 26 personal essays by college teachers, actors, directors, and playwrights about the magnetic pull of the theatre and its changing place in society.  The book is divided into four parts, examining the creative role of the audience, the life of the actor, director, and playwright in performance, ways the theatre moves beyond the playhouse and into the real world, and theories and thoughts on what the theatre can do when given form onstage. Based on concrete, highly personal examples, experiences, and memories, this collection offers unique perspectives on the meaning of the theatre and the beauty of weaving the world of the play into the fabric of our lives.  Covering a range of practices and plays, from the Greeks to Japanese Butoh theatre, from Shakespeare to modern experiments, this book is written by and for the theatre instructor and theatre appreciation student.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52335608758545,"sku":"NLS9780367861889","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53013793800465,"sku":"NIN9780367861889","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780367861889.jpg?v=1758160554"},{"product_id":"playing-offstage-book-sidney-homan-9781498549745","title":"Playing Offstage","description":"What happens when a theatrical production moves both literally and aesthetically off the stage and into the world surround the playhouse? 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Drawing on examples from film studies to sociology, from the social sciences to medicine, this volume will appeal to scholars and upper-level students in the areas of communication and media studies, comparative literature, film studies, economics, English, international affairs, journalism, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theatre.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52418326135057,"sku":"NLS9781032154640","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53035978359057,"sku":"NIN9781032154640","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781032154640.jpg?v=1758925885"},{"product_id":"how-and-why-we-teach-shakespeare-book-sidney-homan-9780367245672","title":"How and Why We Teach Shakespeare","description":"In How and Why We Teach Shakespeare, nineteen distinguished college teachers and directors draw from their personal experiences and share their methods and the reasons why they teach Shakespeare.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52480750518545,"sku":"NLS9780367245672","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780367245672.jpg?v=1759850696"},{"product_id":"comedy-acting-for-theatre-book-sidney-homan-9781350012769","title":"Comedy Acting for Theatre","description":"Analysing why we laugh and what we laugh at, and describing how performers can elicit this response from their audience, this book enables actors to create memorable – and hilarious – performances. Rooted in performance and performance criticism, Sidney Homan and Brian Rhinehart provide a detailed explanation of how comedy works, along with advice on how to communicate comedy from the point of view of both the performer and the audience. Combining theory and performance, the authors analyse a variety of plays, both modern and classic. Playwrights featured include Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Christopher Durang, and Michael Frayn. Acting in Shakespeare's comedies is also covered in depth.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52533816066321,"sku":"NLS9781350012769","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781350012769.jpg?v=1760666392"},{"product_id":"playing-with-reality-book-sidney-homan-9781032188560","title":"Playing with Reality","description":"This volume explores how and why we deny, or manipulate, or convert, or enhance reality. 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One is that the play's full text is realized only in performance, or rather, through the sum of all its performances. For the text embraces not just the playwright's dialogue but also the actor's subtext, blocking, gestures, and movement, along with the lighting, sound, set, costumes, props, indeed, the entire picture presented by the stage. Two is that, despite the actor's need to play the moment, or the director's notion of theatrical presence, a play is not just for the moment but rather exists within the larger world of space and time surrounding the theater. Here that text exists in a context that is simultaneously historical and economic, political and philosophical. As such, scholars and people working in the theater have much to say to each other. Staging Modern Playwrights is therefore meant to appeal to those both in the study and on the stage, the audience in and outside the house.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53522161074449,"sku":"NLS9781611481945","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-sidney-homan.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}