theater

Softcover. Woodstock, VT, Countryman Press, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 47 pages. Softcover with paper wrappers and dust jacket. Black and white phtoographs throughout.

Softcover. US, The Countryman Press, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 47 pages, photos in b&w. Light sun-fade to spine, else a clean, tight copy. From publisher's jacket flap: "Berlin was a magic place for the arts in the twenties and early thirties, and no more so than in theater and dance. Fortunately for us, in the midst of this brilliant world, a young woman destined to become one of the best portrait photographers was just beginning her long illustrious career. Fourth generation photographer (her great grandfather had been taught by Daguerre), Lotte Jacobi photographed the brightest personalities of Berlin (and later New York), many of them her friends, in a direct and honest way that remains surprisingly fresh even today. In this book, along with Lotte's reminiscences of each, are revealing portraits of Peter Lorre, Lotte Lenya, Emil Jannings, Anna May Wong, Rene Clair, Lil Dagover, Claire Bauroff, Pauline Koner, Hanya Holme, and many others. Theater and Dance Photographs is a remarkable record of a remarkable time."

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 40 pages. A facsimile reprint of a scandalous pamphlet published in 1772. Kendrick was a notorious literary libeler who had a grudge against David Garrick, manager of Drury Lane, imagining he sabotaged his theatrical career. Clean copy.

Softcover. Los Angeles, Augustan Reprint Society, reprint, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, facsimile reprint from 1717, 56 pages. with an introduction by Jack M. Armistead and Debbie K. Davis. The Augustan Reprint Society Pub. No. 253-254. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Paris, France, Vilo, 1st, 1967, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 72 pages. Hardcover. FRENCH TEXT. B/w illustrations throughout. Decorated glossy cover boards, some chipping of lamination at spine and corners, a couple scratch marks. Previous owner's bookplate on front endpaper. Back cover boards slightly warped so it curls just a touch at top and bottom. Pages clean. Binding tight. A beautifully photo-illustrated volume featuring performance photos and portraits of the world-famous prima ballerina.

Hardcover. NY, Henry Holt, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover. 249 pages. Black and red striped dust jacket with light edgewear. A clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Cheshire House, 1st, 1932, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 147 pages. Half leather with marbled boards. Title in gilt on sun faded spine. Illustrated with wood engravings by Freda Bone. This being #406 of 1200 copies.

Hardcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 342 pages, b&w illustrations. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket.

Hardcover. Lexington KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. An Armenian national raised in Russia, Rouben Mamoulian (1897--1987) studied in the influential Stanislavski studio, renowned as the source of the "method" acting technique. Shortly after immigrating to New York in 1926, he created a sensation with an all-black production of Porgy (1927). He then went on to direct the debut Broadway productions of three of the most popular shows in the history of American musical theater: Porgy and Bess (1935), Oklahoma! (1943), and Carousel (1945). Mamoulian began working in film just as the sound revolution was dramatically changing the technical capabilities of the medium, and he quickly established himself as an innovator. Not only did many of his unusual camera techniques become standard, but he also invented a device that eliminated the background noises created by cameras and dollies. Seen as a rebel earlier in his career, Mamoulian gradually gained respect in Hollywood, and the Directors Guild of America awarded him the prestigious D. W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1983. In this meticulously researched biography, David Luhrssen paints the influential director as a socially conscious artist who sought to successfully combine art and commercial entertainment. Luhrssen not only reveals the fascinating personal story of an important yet neglected figure, but he also offers a tantalizing glimpse into the extraordinarily vibrant American film and theater industries during the twenties, thirties, and forties.

Hardcover. NY, Bobbs-Merrill , 1st, 1954, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in an unclipped dust jacket with faging to spine. Illustrations and jacket art by Al Hirschfeld. One woman's humorous take on life in New York City in the early 1950s. The author was married to NYT drama critic, Brooks Atkinson, but she could write too. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Charlottesville, University of Virginia, 1st Thus, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 106 pages. A Play with black & white illustrations by Faulkner. Clean, tight copy. Introduction by Noel Polk. In a bright yellow dust jacket.

Hardcover. NY, Frederick A. Stokes, 1st, 1929, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, orange cloth covers with stamped lettering in blue on front cover and same on spine. Frontispiece with tissue guard. Patterns in envelope on back pastedown. Square and intact binding. Clean and unmarked endpapers and text pages. History of marionettes, how to make marionettes and several scripts for puppet plays. B&w drawings by Marjorie Flack. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, George Routledge and Sons, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in maroon cloth with bright gilt lettering on spine. 439 pages + 8 pages of publisher's ads in rear.

Hardcover. New York, Scribner, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 338 pages. SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Clean, tight copy. A novel about the author Henry James that attracted praise from reviewers nationwide. It's a bold writer indeed who dares to put himself inside the mind of novelist Henry James, but that is what Toibin, highly talented Irish author of The Heather Blazing and The Blackwater Lightship, has ventured here, with a remarkable degree of success. The book is a fictionalized study, based on many biographical materials and family accounts, of the novelist's interior life from the moment in London in 1895 when James's hope to succeed in the theater rather than on the printed page was eclipsed by the towering success of his younger contemporary Oscar Wilde. Thereafter the book ranges seamlessly back and forth over James's life, from his memories of his prominent Brahmin family in the States-including the suicide of his father and the tragic early death of his troubled sister Alice-to his settling in England, in a cherished house of his own choosing in Rye. Along the way it offers hints, no more, of James's troubled sexual identity, including his fascination with a young English manservant, his (apparently platonic) night in bed with Oliver Wendell Holmes and his curious obsession with a dashing Scandinavian sculptor of little talent but huge charisma. Another recurrent motif is James's absorption in the lives of spirited, highly intelligent but unhappy young women who die prematurely, which helped to inform some of his strongest fiction. The subtlety and empathy with which Toibin inhabits James's psyche and captures the fleeting emotional nuances of his world are beyond praise, and even the echoes of the master's style ring true.

Softcover. Tokyo/NY, Kodansha USA, reprint, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Softcover with a dust jacket, 152 pages. Highlights over 130 outstanding examples from the vast holdings of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Strikingly original and sumptuously colored, the ukiyo-e in these pages recapture the spirit of the period in which they were created. Here can be found the glamorous courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, the flamboyant vigor of kabuki theater, and the diversities of the Japanese landscape. Clean copy

Hardcover. NY, Stein and Day , 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, blue dust jacket, 311 pages with index. Color frontis, b&w illustrations. "In Grimaldi's lifetime (1779-1837) he won fame and affection for his pantomines;" Dickens reordered the memoirs into a straight narrative of Grimaldi's life." Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Aperture , 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with minor wear. 315 pages illustrated in color and b&w. Incorporates images of performances and rehearsals, along with candid photographs by many important photographers, including Imogen Cunningham, Arnold Eagle, Peter Hujar, James Klosty, Annie Leibovitz, Barbara Morgan, and Max Waldman. The book also features examples of Cunningham's choreographic notes, as well as scores, and set and costume designs by the artists with whom he has collaborated over the years. Top corner bumped, causing a mild crease to corner of pages. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, First Edition, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 464 pages. Hardcover. Ivory & light grey cloth boards with gilt titles to spine. Black & white illustrations throughout. Bright dust jacket with ligh wrinkles. Clean, unmarked copy.

Hardcover. Chapel Hill NC, University of North Carolina , 1st, 1938, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, decorated yellow cloth covers with light soil, 227 pages. Illustrated with 7 b&w photos. These five one-act plays, originally produced by the Carolina Playmakers at Chapel Hill and on various tours, offer an unusual combination of brilliant local color and truth about human nature everywhere. Well written, with skillful stage directions and notes on Mexican costume and Spanish pronunciation, they are highly practical for production. Internally clean, no dust jacket.

Hardcover. Ann Arbor, MI, Ardis, 1st English, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 565 pages. B/w illustrations throughout. Gilt title on spine. Decorated endpapers. Dust Jacket shows some wear due to age: yellowing, fraying and chipping to edges of front, spine and back, but still in tact. Cover boards clean, covered in teal fabric and in good shape. Pages clean, edges slightly yellowed. From the front flap: "...a landmark work in Russian theater scholarship, this study reveals Meyerhold in the context of his time, as seen by friends and enemies, actors and critics, and analyzes the development of his remarkable career as Russia's most celebrated and influential experimental director."

Hardcover. NY, Back Stage Books, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 320 pages. Foreword by Frank Rich. Henderson (curator of the White Barn Theater Museum in Westport, Connecticut, she's lectured and written extensively on theater), using the substantial archive of his writings, has assembled a suitable tribute to one of America's most influential creators of theater design. The book proceeds chronologically through Mielziner's life and long career, richly supplemented with photos and high quality color reproductions of the designer's watercolor and pencil drawings, and excerpts from his writings. He designed the original sets for A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, and Carousel and operas such as Don Giovanni. NOTE: While this book is bright and clean, it has a light musty odor.

Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st, 2004, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 256 pages. Through a lively text and 250 stunning duotone images (most never previously published), Millionaires, Mansions, and Motor Yachts re-creates an era of opulence and extravagance that today seems incredible. Dominating this volume are the mansions and yachts of Alfred and Jessie du Pont. Equally larger-than-life personalities include Thomas Lawson, his expansive estate, Dreamwold, and yachts such as Dreamer; empire builder John Spreckels's 227-foot Venetia; Emily Cadwalader, who commissioned a vessel destined for world renown as a U.S. presidential yacht, before checkmating this achievement by ordering the largest private yacht ever built, the 407-foot Savarona; Eugene Tompkins, the "Napoleon of Theater Managers"; George Fabyan; Harry Darlington; and William Rands. Enfolded in this volume's fascinating pages are not only the wealthy individuals who shaped this era but also curmudgeonly writer/yachtsman Thomas Fleming Day, photographer Nathaniel Stebbins, and the designers and builders who created the splendid yachts that here return to life.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1963, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth covers stamped in orange, yellow and white, 474 pages. The memoirs of a major American playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner for Street Scene. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Citadel Press, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 294 pages, b&w illustrations. They were the Godfathers of the Movies. Groundbreaking pioneers of the Hollywood Dream Factory, Joseph and Nicholas Schenck may not have been household names like the Warner brothers or Louis B. Mayer, but they were infinitely more powerful, influential--and ruthless. A pair of Russian immigrants with giant ambitions, the Schencks turned their small nickelodeon business in New York's Bowery into a partnership with Loew's movie theaters and a controlling interest in three major studios: MGM, Twentieth Century-Fox, and United Artists. They painted the silver screen silver, laid the foundations for the all-powerful studio system, and ruled a global movie empire from their Gatsby-sized mansions on the East and West Coasts. Clean copy.