Entertainment & Performing Arts

A five-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and bestselling novelist shows how to tell a great story - and why doing so matters....

Louise Erdrich ( The Plague of Doves) talks about her latest collection of stories....

How do master storytellers compel us? There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story, but few have used a scientific approach....

A full-cast BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman’s celebrated apocalyptic comic novel, with bonus length episodes and outtakes....

First there was the insomnia.Then there were the support groups that helped him sleep.Then Marla Singer turned up, muscled in on ascending bowel cancer and ruined everything.Then he met Tyler Durden. Then came Fight Club....

Author Milan Hain reveals the mechanisms by which Hollywood film producer David O. Selznick and his collaborators discovered and promoted new stars...

BBC radio productions of Dostoevsky's masterpieces, plus selected shorter fiction and bonus programmes exploring his life and work....

A Place in My Heart is a many-splendored thing. It is a listicle. It is a celebration of the power of storytelling. It is also an account of a life lived in the Bollywood trenches....

Honest, heart-warming and insightful, An Unsuitable Boy is both the story of the life of an exceptional filmmaker at the peak of his powers and of an equally extraordinary human being who shows you how to survive and succeed in life....

Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business....

'A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29, at Little Paddocks, at 6:30pm. Friends please accept this, the only intimation.'....

This is the story of the voice of a generation, the legend—Kishore Kumar. Beginning with his time spent in Khandwa, Bhagalpur and Indore and going on to Bombay where Kishore moved to try his luck in cinema, this new biography by Parthiv Dhar and Anirudha Bhattacharjee tells it all....

Where do comedians come from? Why is it that one person is a funny bloke down the pub while another actually makes a living by standing up in front of an audience telling jokes? And where does all that material come from....

Writers will understand why they're stuck and how to get unstuck through proven methods of breaking the logjam of self-judging and second-guessing that keeps good screenplays from being finished....

Now in a second edition, Theatre Studies: The Basics is a fully updated guide to the wonderful world of theatre. The practical and theoretical dimensions of theatre—from acting to audience—are woven together throughout....

Actor, voice actor, and comedian H. Jon Benjamin helps us all feel a little better about our own failures by sharing his own - despite his success starring on Archer and Bob's Burgers - in a hilarious, self-helpful memoir....

Exactly 50 years ago, in 1955, the release of Pather Panchali heralded the arrival of a master in the world of cinema. Over the next 40 years, Satyajit Ray came to be regarded as one of the world’s finest filmmakers ever....

Stories for Work walks you through the science of storytelling, revealing the secrets behind great storytellers and showing you how to master the art of storytelling in business....

The key principles of stand-up comedy can be applied to your speaking engagements and presentations to make you funnier, more interesting, and better looking (or at least two of the three)....

"I've experienced a whole lot the last few years and I have a lot to share....

Whether you want to write your own scripts or simply gain a deeper appreciation for the great stories you see unfold on the screen, Professor Angus Fletcher is here to show you the way....

Stella Adler was one of the 20th Century's greatest figures. She is arguably the most important teacher of acting in American history. Her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly captured and encapsulated by Howard Kissel, in the 22 lessons you'll hear in this audiobook....

Mani Ratnam’s Nayakan is among Time’s "100 Best Movies Ever", and his Roja launched A.R. Rahman. For the first time ever, Mani Ratnam opens up here, to Baradwaj Rangan, in a series of freewheeling conversations - candid, witty, pensive, and sometimes combative....

Ein immerzu hungriger Junge, mit der Mutter aus dem bombardierten München in ein bitterarmes Nest in den Alpen geflohen. Ein Jugendlicher mit...

Constantin Stanislavski (1863-1938), arguably the most influential director in the history of the theater, was the founder of the renowned Moscow Art Theater....

The animations of Japan's Studio Ghibli are among the most respected in the movie industry. Their delightful films rank alongside the most popular non-English language films ever made, with each new eagerly anticipated release a guaranteed box-office hit. Yet this highly profitable studio has remained fiercely independent, producing a stream of imaginative and individual animations. The studio's founders, the late Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, have created timeless masterpieces. Although their films are distinctly Japanese, their themes are universal.

From the Emmy Award-winning Squid Game to streaming sensations like The Glory and Crash Landing on You, Korean television has emerged onto the global pop culture scene as compelling television—but what exactly makes these shows so irresistibly bingeable? And what can we learn about our societies and ourselves from watching them? From stand-up comedian and media studies PhD Grace Jung comes a rollicking deep dive into the cultural significance of Korean television.

Once again, the legendary comedy duo unearth six vitally important subjects... and then tit about about them. From surviving on a desert island to being eaten by a cardboard crocodile, Dawn and Jennifer will entertain, inform and thoroughly tit about for your pleasure. (Batteries not included.)

The Journey to Ineffectiveness: A Beginner’s Guide” by Dr JC, presents the novel argument that Ineffectiveness is a good thing and we should embrace it. It lays out a plan whereby we can increase our ineffectiveness. The book introduces our other IQ (Ineffectiveness Quotient), which is measured by our behavior, rather than our mental ability. It introduces a number of areas that present us opportunities to increase our IQ in a humorous, and some might say an outrageous, style.

Recorded live at the Friar's Club in New York City, this collection of stand-up routines features some of the greatest American comedians at the height of their comic skills. Presented by Joey Adams—and with introductions by television legends Milton Berle and Phyllis Diller—this recording captures performances by Norm Crosby, Freddie Roman, Soupy Sales, and Henny Youngman. In this nostalgic, hysterical collection, you'll laugh all the way through hundreds of hilarious jokes, gags, and putdowns.

Since its original publication in 1973, Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting has remained a durable classic for all students of acting. As an acting instructor at the Herbert Berghof Studio, Hagen helped to develop the talents of world-class actors like Robert DeNiro, Matthew Broderick, Gene Wilder, Amanda Peet, Austin Pendleton, Whoopi Goldberg, and more. This updated edition illuminates Hagen's original text with a new foreword written by Katie Finneran, retaining the David Hyde Pierce foreword, along with added background on HB Studio.

Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy is the first collection to bring a sustained scholarly perspective to the iconic filmmaker and his legacy beyond the Star Wars films. Edited by Richard Ravalli, this volume analyzes Lucas's overall contribution and importance to the film industry, diving deep into his use and development of modern special effects technologies, the history of his Skywalker Ranch production facilities, and more.

In The Time of My Life, celebrated music journalist Andrea Warner excavates the layers of Dirty Dancing, from its anachronistic, chart-topping soundtrack, to Baby and Johnny’s chemistry, to Bergstein’s political intentions, to the abortion subplot that is more relevant today than ever. The film’s remarkable longevity would never have been possible if it was just a throwaway summer fling story. It is precisely because of its themes—deeply feminist, sensitively written—that we, over 30 years later, are still holding our breath during that last, exhilarating lift.

Peter Cowie's book chronicles the life and the sixty-year film and stage career of Ingmar Bergman as he wrestles of themes of love, sex, and betrayal with the figure of Death hovering overhead. Blending biographical information with critical comment, Cowie presents a man whose life and work were intimately fused.

Apocalypse Television features a dramatic insider's account of the making of and backlash against The Day After. No other book has told this story in similar fashion, venturing behind-the-scenes of the programming and news divisions at ABC, the backlash from the conservative movement and Religious Right, the challenges encountered by the film's production team, and the experiences of the citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, where the film was set and shot.

This step is crucial; in the third session we explore personal branding and how it can land you work. If you’ve been struggling to figure out what your personal brand is, then this is for you!

The behind-the-scenes story of the quintessential film noir and cult classic, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity—its true crime origins and crucial impact on film history—is told for the first time in this riveting narrative published for the film's 80th anniversary. Authors Alain Silver and James Ursini tell the complete history of Double Indemnity in their latest and most provocative work on film noir: From the Moment They Met It Was Murder.

El crítico más seguido y temido del cine español nos cuenta su vida sin tapujos. Carlos Boyero es una de las figuras más seguidas y temidas del cine español. La polémica le persigue desde que hace más de cincuenta años publicara su primer artículo y, desde entonces, nunca ha dejado de estar en el ojo del huracán. Boyero ha sido siempre ácido en sus críticas, irreverente e inconformista en todos los aspectos de su vida.

DESPRE AUDIOBOOK. Mintea omenească se poate lăsa păcălită de aparențe în situațiile cele mai banale. Nu este grav: trebuie doar să înveți să faci diferențele care contează. În Trucuri ale minții, Derren Brown dezvăluie o parte dintre tehnicile pe care le utilizează în spectacolele sale de iluzionism și magie, precum și unele tehnici de hipnoză. Fascinantă și spirituală, cartea este un melanj de sfaturi și anecdote despre cât de ușor de păcălit sunt oamenii, dar și un ghid care îți arată cum să faci pasul decisiv de la a te lăsa înșelat până la a deveni un stăpân al iluziei.

Everyone’s a critic, especially in the digital age—but no one takes on the movies like multiple award-winning author Harlan Ellison. Renowned both for fiction (A Boy and His Dog) and pop-culture commentary (The Glass Teat), Ellison offers in this collection twenty-five years’ worth of essays and film criticism.