Illustrated throughout with informative how-to and candid shots of young working actors, BREAK A LEG! is as comprehensive as it is high-spirited. There are sections on body preparation, including warm-ups, stretches, and breathing exercises. Theater games, improv, miming, and other fun ways to develop technique. Important acting skills, such as voice projection, crying on command, learning accents, and staging falls and fights without getting hurt. Theperformance: analyzing scripts, building a character, what to expect from rehearsals, and overcoming stagefright. A backstage look at blocking, lighting, and other technical aspects of theater production. And for the fun of costumes and make-up, a 16-page color insert. In addition, it covers legends and lore (Why is Macbeth cursed? Why do we say "break a leg"?) and offers dozens of must-see movie recommendations. Plus, for the ambitious, talented, and just plain curious, there's advice on how to make a career of it all, with tips on agents and auditions and getting jobs in theater, film, TV, and radio.
Lise Friedman is coauthor, with her sister Ceil Friedman, of Letters to Juliet, the inspiration behind the idea for the 2010 film Letters to Juliet, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Amanda Seyfried. The Italian edition of the book, Lettere a Giulietta, was published by TEA, and the Portuguese, Cartas para Julieta, by Soeman. A former dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Lise is also the author of two Children's Book of the Month Club selections--First Lessons in Ballet and Break a Leg! The Kids Guide to Acting and Stagecraft--and of Alvin Ailey Dance Moves! A Dance-Based Approach to Movement and Exercise, and is coauthor, with photography Mary Dowdle, of the forthcoming Becoming a Ballerina (fall 2012, Viking Penguin). She is an adjunct professor at New York University's Gallatin School, writes frequently about the performing arts for various publications, and was editor of the award-winning quarterly Dance Ink and the dance writer for Microsoft's New York Sidewalk, an online site focused on arts and culture. She also has edited several books, including Poor Dancer's Almanac: Managing Life and Work in the Performing Arts and John Gruen's People Who Dance, and, as editorial director of Access Press, Inc., a series of international travel guides. She lives in New York City.
