Coaching the reader through each stage of the creative journey, this is the first book that shows actors how to write successful monologues, performance-art pieces, and one-person plays.
The writing process is explained in easy-to-follow steps, from getting started, to expanding and tightening dialogue, developing character, editing and rewriting, rehearsing the final piece, and playing to audiences. Included are interviews with seasoned pros, techniques for marketing and promoting solo shows, and information about artists' communities, competitions, and grants.
Glenn Alterman, an award-winning actor and prolific writer for stage and screen, is the author of Promoting Your Acting Career and several other helpful books for thespians. He lives in New York.
Beginning with a brief history of the one-person show, the author, himself an accomplished playwright, screenwriter, and actor, has written a comprehensive manual for anyone interested in preparing and producing their own solo performance piece. Chapters cover how to begin writing your own monolog, different types of solo material, fundamentals of a good monolog, creating characters and rehearsing, and performing and marketing your show. Included are samples of monologs and interviews with performance artists and directors, among them Quentin Crisp, Penny Arcade, Spalding Gray, Danny Hoch, and Kate Clinton. Useful appendixes cover lists of artists' colonies, theaters that accept solo material, publishers, competitions, agents, and tips on applying for grants. Well organized and clearly written, this book can be recommended for public, high school, and academic libraries. -Howard E. Miller, Rosary H.S., St. Louis Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Beginning with a brief history of the one-person show, the author, himself an accomplished playwright, screenwriter, and actor, has written a comprehensive manual for anyone interested in preparing and producing their own solo performance piece...Well organized and clearly written." (Library Journal )
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Glenn Alterman is a multi-award winning playwright, the author of 22 theater related books (including eight books of original monologues), a screen writer, an actor, a top New York City commercial print model, and a highly respected monologue/audition acting coach. He was born in Brooklyn, New York to a bar-owning father and house-wife mother. For many years he was a relatively succesful New York actor. One day, while frustrated about trying to find a monologue for an important upcoming audition, he decided to try write his own. He had no idea how to do this so he just took a huge leap of faith and did. That first monologue took several days to write, but ended up being a huge hit hit, winning him many auditions and opening the door to a new career, writing. Fate and good fortune lead to the publication of his first book of original monologues, Street Talk. Many books of original monologues (about 400 monologues) followed. His books include: An Actors Guide- Making It In New York (and the recently released, completely revised "Second Edition"). The Perfect Audition Monologue, Glenn Alterman's Secrets To Successful Cold Readings, Sixty Seconds To Shine--101 One Minute monologues, Creating Your Own Monologue, Promoting Your Acting Career, Two Minutes and Under (Original Monologues for Actors, Volumes 1, 2, and 3), Street Talk (Original Character Monologues for Actors), Uptown (More Original Monologues For Actors), The Job Book: One Hundred Acting Jobs for Actors, The Job Book 2: One Hundred Day Jobs for Actors, What to Give Your Agent for Christmas, and Two Minute Monologues. Two Minutes and Under, Street Talk, and Uptown were the number one best-selling books of original monologues in 1992, 1993, and 1995 and, along with Creating Your Own Monologue, Promoting Your Acting Career, The Job Book, The Job Book 2, and Two Minutes and Under, were all "Featured Selections" in the Doubleday Book Club (Fireside Theater and Stage and Screen Division"). Most of his published works have gone on to multiple printings. As a playwright, Mr. Alterman is the recipient of the first Julio T. Nunez Artist's Grant, The Arts and Letters Award in Drama, and scores of playwriting awards. His play The Pain in the Poetry was published in 2009 The Best Ten Minute Plays For 2 or More Actors. Mr. Alterman's plays, Like Family and The Pecking Order, were optioned by Red Eye Films (with Alterman writing the screenplay). His play, Solace, was produced off-Broadway by the Circle East Theater Company (formerly Circle Rep Theater Company). Nobody's Flood won the Bloomington National Playwriting Competition, as well as being a finalist in the Key West Playwriting Competition. Coulda-Woulda-Shoulda won the Three Genres Playwriting Competition twice, two years in a row! The prize included publication of the play in the Prentice Hall textbook, used in college theater departments all over the country. Mr. Alterman wrote the book for Heartstrings: The National Tour (commissioned by DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation for Aids), a thirty-five city tour that starred Michelle Pfeiffer, Ron Silver, Susan Sarandon, Marlo Thomas, and Sandy Duncan. Other plays include Kiss Me When It's Over (commissioned by E. Weissman Productions), starring and directed by André De Shields; Tourists of the Mindfield (finalist in the L. Arnold Weissberger Playwriting Competition at New Dramatists); and Street Talk/Uptown (based on his monologue books), produced at the West Coast Ensemble. Goin' Round on Rock Solid Ground and Unfamiliar Faces were finalists at the Actors Theater of Louisville's playwriting competition. Spilt Milk received its premiere at the Beverly Hills Rep/Theater 40 in Los Angeles and was selected to participate in the Samuel French One-Act Festival. The Danger of Strangers won Honorable Mention in the Deep South Writers Conference Competition, was a finalist in the George R. Kernodle Contest, was selected to be in the Pittsburgh New Works Festival and has had over 35 productions, including at Circle Rep Lab, the West Bank Downstairs Theater Bar (starring James Gandolfini), the Emerging Artists Theater Company's one-act marathon, the Vital Theater Company in New York, and, most recently, with the Workshop Theater Company. There have been several major productions of his original monologues play, God In Bed, both in the United States and in Europe. Mr. Alterman's work has been performed at Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), Circle in the Square Downtown, HERE, LaMaMa, in the Turnip Festival, at the Duplex, Playwrights Horizons, at several theaters on Theater Row in New York, as well as at many theaters around the country. Mr. Alterman has been a guest artist and given master classes and seminars on "Monologues" and "The Business of Acting" at such diverse places as the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia, the Edward Albee Theater Conference (Valdez, Alaska), Southampton College, Western Connecticut State College, Broadway Artists Alliance, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the Dramatists Guild, the Learning Annex, the Screen Actors Guild, the Seminar Center, in the Boston Public School System, and at many acting schools and colleges all over the country. In 1993, Mr. Alterman created the Glenn Alterman Studios, where actors receive monologue/audition coaching, as well as career preparation. He was named "Best Monologue/Audition Coach in the Tri-State Area" by Theater Resources Magazine and first runner up as "The Best Private Acting Coach In New York", by the readers of Back Stage. He presently lives in New York City, where he's working on several plays, works on TV commercials, and coaches actors. On the Web, he can be reached at www.glennalterman.com.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 starsBest monoloque help book ever., January 9, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Creating Your Own Monologue (Paperback)
I take acting lessons in a group acting course and this book Creating Your Own Monologue, not only helped me with my own acting but the class and coach was thrilled that I had brought it in because using this book helped all of us to improve our work tremendously .
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5.0 out of 5 starsAll Actors MUST buy this book!, May 13, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Creating Your Own Monologue (Paperback)
I feel that this book is the most helpful book I've ever read about monologues. Mr. Alterman ABSOLUTELY knows his subject! I have written 5 wonderful monologues due to this brilliant book. Every step was so clear. The interviews were also quite wonderful!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: Creating Your Own Monologue (Paperback)
After years of looking all over for that "perfect" monologue I finally bought Mr. Alterman's book. It was a god-send. I actually wrote a WONDERFUL monologue due to this book. I now write monologues all the time and they get a terrific response! This book is really an actors dream Try it, you'll see. It's really a totally empowering book for actors!
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First Sentence:
For our purpose in this book, solo art refers to one actor/artist, alone on a stage before a live audience, performing material that he has created. Read the first pageKey Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
character monologues, audition monologue, monologue writing, monologue play, unsolicited material, autobiographical monologue, solo material, short monologue, performance art pieces, own monologue, solo shows, regular play
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Los Angeles, Danny Hoch, Spalding Gray, Quentin Crisp, Evan Handler, John Leguizamo, Mambo Mouth, Naked Angels, Penny Arcade, Shelly Mars, Dael Orlandersmith, Kate Clinton, Public Theater, Anna Deavere Smith, Blown Sideways, Eric Bogosian, Pretty Fire, Sherry Glaser, Street Talk, Charlayne Woodard, Family Secrets, Manhattan Theater Club, Peter Askin, Beauty's Daughter
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