Book List
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Comedy Writing Step by Step
by Gene Perret
How to write and sell your sense of humor by Bob Hope's head comedy writer.
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Creating Unforgettable Characters
by Linda Seger
A practical guide to character development in films, TV series, advertisements, and short stories.
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Free Play: Improvisation in Life and the Arts
by Stephan Nachmanovitch
An intense and superb guide to creativity regardless of the medium.
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Games for Actors and Non-Actors
by Augusto Boal
A companion handbook to Boal's Theatre of the Opressed.
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Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
by Keith Johnstone
An idea book with a fascinating exploration of the nature of spontaneous creativity.
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Improvisation
by John Hodgson and Ernest Richards
This practical book focuses on the way in which improvised drama helps people draw on their imaginative resources.
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Improvisation for the Theater:
A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques
by Viola Spolin
The most recent edition of the improviser's Bible from the originator of theatre games.
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Respect for Acting
by Uta Hagen
A textbook on acting by one of the greatest living actors with a passion for the craft.
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Sanford Meisner on Acting
by Sanford Meisner, Dennis Longwell and Sydney Pollack
A glimpse into the creative mind of the best known and beloved teacher of acting in the country.
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Something Wonderful Right Away
by Jeffery Sweet
An oral history of the The Second City and the Compass Players through interviews with prominent alumni.
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Successful Stand-Up Comedy
by Gene Perret
Advise on gathering material, rehearsing, and polishing an act by Bob Hope's head comedy writer.
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The Compass
by Janet Coleman
A history of the improvisational theatre that revolutionized American comedy.
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The Inner Game of Tennis
by W. Timothy Gallwey
A handbook on the mind/body connection and the art of focusing.
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Theatre of the Opressed
by Augusto Boal
A combination of analysis and practice that is indispensable to those involved in dramatic theory as well as performance technique.
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To the Actor : On the Technique of Acting
by Michael Chekhov
A standard text for students of the theater clarifying the pivotal role of the actor's imagination.
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Truth in Comedy : The Manual of Improvisation
by Charna Halpern, Del Close and Kim Johnson
The improv method handbook from Chicago's Improv Olympic with a foreword by alumni Mike Myers.
