Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre
(Sprache: Englisch)
Noël Coward on theatre was as dazzling and entertaining as his masterful plays and lyrics. Here his ideas and opinions on the subject are brilliantly brought together in an extraordinary collection of commentary, lyrics, essays, and asides on...
lieferbar
versandkostenfrei
Buch (Gebunden)
42.20 €
- Lastschrift, Kreditkarte, Paypal, Rechnung
- Kostenlose Rücksendung
Produktdetails
Produktinformationen zu „Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre “
Klappentext zu „Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre “
Noël Coward on theatre was as dazzling and entertaining as his masterful plays and lyrics. Here his ideas and opinions on the subject are brilliantly brought together in an extraordinary collection of commentary, lyrics, essays, and asides on everything having to do with the theatre and Coward's dazzling life in it.The book Noël Coward wanted, promised, threatened to write and never did.
Including essays, interviews, diary entries, verse, his views on his fellow playwrights: "My Colleague Will," Shaw, Wilde, Chekhov, Barrie, Maugham, Eliot, Osborne, Albee, Beckett, Miller, Williams, Rattigan, Pinter, and Shaffer.
Coward on the critics many of whom irritated him over the years but came to admire him: James Agate, Alexander Woollcott, Graham Greene, Kenneth Tynan among them.
And on the plays he wrote, among them: The Vortex; Hay Fever; Private Lives; Design For Living; Blithe Spirit.
Here is the Master on the producers who crossed his path: André Charlot, C. B. Cochran, Binkie Beaumont. And the actors in the Coward galaxy: John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, Gertrude Lawrence, the Lunts, etc. . . .
His views on the art of acting: auditions, rehearsals, learning the lines, clarity of delivery, timing, control, range, stage fright, fans, theater audiences, revivals, comedy, "the Method," plays with a "message," taste, construction, "Star Quality," etc. . . .
And last, but Noël Coward least, his experience in, and thoughts on: revue, cabaret, television, and musical theater, Bitter Sweet, Conversation Piece, Pacific 1860, After the Ball, Ace of Clubs, Sail Away, The Girl Who Came to Supper, Words and Music, This Year of Grace, London Calling! . . . and much more.
Ingeniously, deftly compiled, edited, and annotated by Barry Day, Coward authority and editor of The No l Coward Reader and The Letters of No l Coward.
Lese-Probe zu „Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre “
1Early Stages
But I Heard the Curtain Going Up
The Boy Actor
I can remember, I can remember.
The months of November and December
Were filled for me with peculiar joys
So different from those of other boys.
For other boys would be counting the days
Until end of term and holiday times
But I was acting in Christmas plays
While they were taken to pantomimes.
I didn t envy their Eton suits,
Their children s dances and Christmas trees.
My life had wonderful substitutes
For such conventional treats as these.
I didn t envy their country larks,
Their organised games in panelled halls;
While they made snow-men in stately parks
I was counting the curtain calls.
I remember the auditions, the nerve-racking auditions:
Darkened auditorium and empty, dusty stage,
Little girls in ballet dresses practising positions
Gentlemen with pince-nez asking you your age.
Hopefulness and nervousness struggling within you,
Dreading that familiar phrase, Thank you, dear, no more.
Straining every muscle, every tendon, every sinew
To do your dance much better than you d ever done before.
Think of your performance. Never mind the others.
Never mind the pianist, talent must prevail.
Never mind the baleful eyes of other children s mothers
Glaring from the corners and willing you to fail.
I can remember. I can remember.
The months of November and December
Were more significant to me
Than other months could ever be
For they were the months of high romance
When destiny waited on tip-toe,
When every boy actor stood a chance
Of getting into a Christmas show,
Not for me the dubious heaven
Of being some prefect s protégé!
Not for me the Second Eleven.
For me, two performances a day.
Ah, those first rehearsals! Only very few lines:
Rushing home to mother, learning them by heart.
Enter Left through window Dots to mark the cue lines:
Exit with others Still, it was a
... mehr
part.
Opening performance; legs a bit unsteady,
Dedicated tension, shivers down my spine,
Powder, grease and eye-black, sticks of make-up ready
Leichner number three and number five and number nine.
World of strange enchantment, magic for a small boy
Dreaming of the future, reaching for the crown,
Rigid in the dressing-room, listening for the call-boy
Overture Beginners Everybody Down!
I can remember. I can remember.
The months of November and December,
Although climatically cold and damp,
Meant more to me than Aladdin s lamp.
I see myself, having got a job,
Walking on wings along the Strand,
Uncertain whether to laugh or sob
And clutching tightly my mother s hand,
I never cared who scored the goal
Or which side won the silver cup,
I never learned to bat or bowl
But I heard the curtain going up.
I knew in my teens that the world was full of hatred, cruelty, vice, unrequited love, despair, destruction and murder. I also knew at the same time that it was filled with kindness, pleasure, joy, requited love, fun, excitement, generosity, laughter and friends. And through all my years I have never changed in my mind the balance of these absurd phenomena.
Noël Coward was literally born to the sound of music.
At the turn of the century music in a domestic context meant the family gathered round the piano for a sing-song. Noël could sing those familiar songs and hymns word perfectly to the end of his life. But that early exposure certainly helped bring o
Opening performance; legs a bit unsteady,
Dedicated tension, shivers down my spine,
Powder, grease and eye-black, sticks of make-up ready
Leichner number three and number five and number nine.
World of strange enchantment, magic for a small boy
Dreaming of the future, reaching for the crown,
Rigid in the dressing-room, listening for the call-boy
Overture Beginners Everybody Down!
I can remember. I can remember.
The months of November and December,
Although climatically cold and damp,
Meant more to me than Aladdin s lamp.
I see myself, having got a job,
Walking on wings along the Strand,
Uncertain whether to laugh or sob
And clutching tightly my mother s hand,
I never cared who scored the goal
Or which side won the silver cup,
I never learned to bat or bowl
But I heard the curtain going up.
I knew in my teens that the world was full of hatred, cruelty, vice, unrequited love, despair, destruction and murder. I also knew at the same time that it was filled with kindness, pleasure, joy, requited love, fun, excitement, generosity, laughter and friends. And through all my years I have never changed in my mind the balance of these absurd phenomena.
Noël Coward was literally born to the sound of music.
At the turn of the century music in a domestic context meant the family gathered round the piano for a sing-song. Noël could sing those familiar songs and hymns word perfectly to the end of his life. But that early exposure certainly helped bring o
... weniger
Autoren-Porträt von Noël Coward
BARRY DAY was born in England and received his M.A. from Balliol College, Oxford. He has written and produced plays and musical revues showcasing the work of Noël Coward, the Lunts, Oscar Wilde, and others. Day is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Trustee of the No l Coward Foundation and was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Noël Coward
- 2021, 480 Seiten, Maße: 16,8 x 24,2 cm, Gebunden, Englisch
- Herausgegeben: Barry Day
- Verlag: KNOPF
- ISBN-10: 0525657959
- ISBN-13: 9780525657958
- Erscheinungsdatum: 08.11.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
A thorough, useful, and handsomely produced compendium of [Coward s] extensive writing on the medium through which he most frequently and most effectively expressed himself . . . in Day s pages, Coward tells us that theater is not a place for ideas, for probing motive, for engaging with the dark or the barely understood in human life it is diversion, pure and simple. Simon Callow, Airmail[Coward s] dual role equal parts revolutionary and reactionary is handsomely illuminated in Barry Day s Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre . . . Throughout, he addresses his subject with clear-eyed affection . . . compelling . . . a many-pieced mosaic of a man of many pieces. Brad Leithauser, Wall Street Journal
An illuminating collection of anecdotes, encomiums, and gripes . . . Theater fans will savor this portrait of a confident artist ( I am probably the best comedian alive ) whose wit wasn t confined to the stage . . . An entertaining peek behind the curtain at 60 years in the theater. Kirkus
Sparkling . . . Day s selections showcase Coward s dazzling prose, which is always lively, urbane, and stocked with well-aimed zingers . . . Theater pros and fans alike will revel in Coward s incisive, compulsively readable takes on showbiz. Publishers Weekly
Kommentar zu "Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre"
Schreiben Sie einen Kommentar zu "Noël Coward on (and in) Theatre".
Kommentar verfassen