Acting for Young Actors
For Money Or Just for Fun
Written by Mary Lou Belli and Dinah Lenney

Format: Trade Paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Back Stage Books
On Sale: August 1, 2006
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-8230-4947-9 (0-8230-4947-7)

Aimed at teens and tweens, Acting for Young Actors lets kids hone their skills and develop their craft. It begins with the five W's: WHO am I? WHAT do I want? WHY do I want it? WHERE am I? WHEN does this event take place? Sounds basic - but many young... Read more >

Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
The Apollo Theater and American Entertainment
Edited by Richard Carlin and Kinshasha Holman Conwill
Foreword by Smokey Robinson

Format: Hardcover, 264 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: April 27, 2010
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-58834-269-0 (1-58834-269-7)

*An Outstanding Academic Title of 2011 — Choice Magazine

Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment celebrates the seventy-five year history of the Apollo Theater, Harlem’s landmark performing arts space and the iconic showplace for the best in jazz, blues, dance, comedy, gospel, R & B... Read more >

Masters of Movement
Portraits of America's Great Choreographers
Written by Rose Eichenbaum
Foreword by Clive Barnes

Format: Trade Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: October 1, 2007
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-1-58834-248-5 (1-58834-248-4)

Where does the impulse to create originate? How does one cope with the highs and lows of the artist’s life? What is the choreographer’s responsibility to the dancers, the audience, the self? These are just a few of the probing questions that Rose Eichenbaum, a dancer turned photographer, asks 59 of... Read more >

Steve McQueen
A Biography
Written by Marc Eliot

Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: Crown Archetype
On Sale: October 25, 2011
Price: $26.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-45321-1 (0-307-45321-9)

Steve McQueen is one of America’s legendary movie stars best known for his hugely successful film career in classics such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, and The Towering Inferno as well as for his turbulent life off-screen and impeccable style. His unforgettable physical beauty... Read more >

Mediabistro.com Presents Small Screen, Big Picture
A Writer's Guide to the TV Business
Written by Chad Gervich

Format: Trade Paperback, 448 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: November 25, 2008
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-307-39531-3 (0-307-39531-6)

The book has been adopted for course use at Long Island University and California State University, Fullerton

From mediabistro.com, the media industry’s most well-respected source for jobs, professional development, and community, this inside-the-business guide gives readers the knowledge and tools needed to infiltrate Hollywood and land a job as a TV... Read more >

If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery
In Search of Billie Holiday
Written by Farah Jasmine Griffin

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: One World/Ballantine
On Sale: April 30, 2002
Price: $14.95
ISBN: 978-0-345-44973-3 (0-345-44973-8)

Singer, composer, actress, lover, wife, writer, pleasure seeker, drug addict, icon, commodity, myth and mystery: Billie Holiday is still one of the most famous jazz vocalists of all time. But Holiday's image - the gifted torch singer with insatiable appetites for food, sex, alcohol and drugs - is not the full... Read more >

How to Get the Part... Without Falling Apart!
Featuring the Haber Phrase Technique for Actors
Written by Margie Haber and Barbara Babchick
Foreword by Heather Loclear

Format: Trade Paperback, 360 pages
Publisher: Lone Eagle
On Sale: October 1, 1999
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 978-1-58065-014-4 (1-58065-014-7)

Gene Hackman, Halle Berry, Heather Locklear, Gabriel Byrne, James Bond's Pierce Bronson, Kelly Preston, most of the cast from Melrose Place and 1000s of actors all take acting classes from Margie Haber. How to Get the Part... gives actors tools to break through their psychological roadblocks to auditioning. Read more >

Divine Utterances
The Performance of Afro-Cuban Santeria
Written by Katherine J. Hagedorn

Format: Trade Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Smithsonian Books
On Sale: August 17, 2001
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-56098-947-9 (1-56098-947-5)

In Divine Utterances, Katherine J. Hagedorn explores the enduring cultural and spiritual power of the music of Afro-Cuban Santería and the process by which it has been transformed for a secular audience. She focuses on the integral connections between sacred music performances and the dramatizations of theatrical troupes, especially the state-sponsored... Read more >

How to Be a Working Actor, 5th Edition
The Insider's Guide to Finding Jobs in Theater, Film & Television
Written by Mari Lyn Henry and Lynne Rogers
Foreword by Joe Mantegna

Format: Trade Paperback, 432 pages
Publisher: Back Stage Books
On Sale: December 10, 2007
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-8230-8895-9 (0-8230-8895-2)

The celebrated survival guide for the working actor - now completely updated and expanded with a foreword by Tony award-winning actor Joe Mantegna.

Renowned for more than two decades as the most comprehensive resource for actors, How to Be a Working Actor is a must-read for achieving success in The Business. Now... Read more >

Lady Sings the Blues the 50th Anniversary Edition

Written by Billie Holiday and William Dufty
Foreword by David Ritz

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: July 25, 2006
Price: $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-2386-6 (0-7679-2386-3)

LADY SINGS THE BLUES is the fiercely honest, no-holds-barred autobiography of Billie Holiday, the legendary jazz, swing, and standards singing sensation. Taking the reader on a fast-moving journey from Holiday’s rough-and-tumble Baltimore childhood (where she ran errands at a whorehouse in exchange for the chance to listen to Louis Armstrong and... Read more >

Apollo's Angels
A History of Ballet
Written by Jennifer Homans

Format: Trade Paperback, 672 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
On Sale: November 29, 2011
Price: $20.00
ISBN: 978-0-8129-6874-3 (0-8129-6874-3)

Finalist, 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction
Named one of “The 10 Best Books of 2010” by the editors of the New York Times Book Review
A 2011 Choice "Outstanding Academic Title"
A 2012 American Library Association Notable Book for Adults (Nonfiction)

For more than four hundred years, the art of ballet has... Read more >

The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook, Updated and Expanded Edition
An Actor's Reference to Over 1,000 Scenes and Monologues from More than 300 Contemporary Plays
Edited by Ed Hooks

Format: Trade Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Back Stage Books
On Sale: October 16, 2007
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-8230-9949-8 (0-8230-9949-0)

All actors and acting teachers need The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook, the invaluable guide to finding just the right piece for every audition. The unique format of the book is ideal for acting teachers who want their students to understand each monologue in context. This remarkable book describes the characters... Read more >

Decoded

Written by Jay-Z

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
On Sale: November 16, 2010
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6892-0 (1-4000-6892-4)

Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time.

“Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic. . . . Heartfelt, passionate... Read more >

Ball of Fire
The Tumultuous Life and Comic Art of Lucille Ball
Written by Stefan Kanfer

Format: Trade Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: November 9, 2004
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-72771-9 (0-375-72771-X)

As a movie actress Lucille Ball was, in her own words, “queen of the B-pluses.” But on the small screen she was a superstar—arguably the funniest and most enduring in the history of TV. In this exemplary biography, Stefan Kanfer explores the roots of Lucy’s genius and places it in the... Read more >

Groucho
The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx
Written by Stefan Kanfer

Format: Trade Paperback, 496 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: May 8, 2001
Price: $17.00
ISBN: 978-0-375-70207-5 (0-375-70207-5)

This definitive biography of one of the world’s greatest comedians unflinchingly yet affectionately uncovers the man behind the cigar.

Here is the amazing career of the man the world recognized as Groucho: the improbable disasters of the vaudeville years; the Marx Brothers, an act so funny W.C. Fields refused to follow it... Read more >

Kazan on Directing

Written by Elia Kazan

Format: Trade Paperback, 368 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: January 12, 2010
Price: $17.95
ISBN: 978-0-307-27704-6 (0-307-27704-6)

Elia Kazan was the twentieth century’s most celebrated director of both stage and screen, and this monumental, revelatory book shows us the master at work. Kazan’s list of Broadway and Hollywood successes—A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, On the Waterfront, to name a few—is a testament to his profound... Read more >

The Back Stage Guide to Stage Management, 3rd Edition
Traditional and New Methods for Running a Show from First Rehearsal to Last Performance
Written by Thomas A. Kelly

Format: Trade Paperback, 304 pages
Publisher: Back Stage Books
On Sale: June 16, 2009
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-8230-9802-6 (0-8230-9802-8)

The Most Widely Used Manual For Aspiring And Veteran Stage Managers - Now Revised and Expanded


The next best thing to shadowing a Broadway stage manager, this detailed, behind-the-scenes book as been brought completely up to date. First published in 1991, it is widely used and has been lauded as the most... Read more >

Opera and the Morbidity of Music

Written by Joseph Kerman

Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publisher: New York Review Books
On Sale: April 8, 2008
Price: $27.95
ISBN: 978-1-59017-265-0 (1-59017-265-5)

The death of classical music, the distinguished critic and musicologist Joseph Kerman declares, is “a tired, vacuous concept that will not die.” In this wide-ranging collection of essays and reviews, Kerman examines the ongoing vitality of the classical music tradition, from the days of Guillaume Dufay, John Taverner, and William Byrd... Read more >

Wilco
Learning How to Die
Written by Greg Kot

Format: Trade Paperback, 256 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: June 15, 2004
Price: $15.00
ISBN: 978-0-7679-1558-8 (0-7679-1558-5)

Wilco: Learning How to Die traces critically-acclaimed band Wilco's story as its music grew from its punk and alt-country origins, addressing some of the key issues surrounding the music business: How is music of substance created while the gulf between art and commerce widens in the corporate consolidation era? How does... Read more >

This Business of Music Marketing and Promotion
A Practical Guide to Creating a Completely Intergrated Marketing and E-Marketing Campaign
Written by Tad Lathrop

Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Billboard Books
On Sale: October 1, 2003
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-0-8230-7729-8 (0-8230-7729-2)

The maxim in the music industry has always been "You can't make it on talent alone," and with This Business of Music Marketing & Promotion, you don't have to. In language that is simple and direct, author Tad Lathrop details promotional skills, publicity plans, royalty guidelines, and more, all supported by... Read more >

Learning to Live Out Loud
A Memoir
Written by Piper Laurie

Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: Crown Archetype
On Sale: November 1, 2011
Price: $24.99
ISBN: 978-0-8230-2668-5 (0-8230-2668-X)

At the age of seventeen, in the glory days of movie-making, Piper Laurie was living every little girl’s dream. Having been selected by Universal Studios to be a contract star, Piper was removed from her acting class and provided with stylists, chaperones, leading roles, and handsome dates, and elevated to the... Read more >

Improv Wisdom
Don't Prepare, Just Show Up
Written by Patricia Ryan Madson

Format: Hardcover, 160 pages
Publisher: Harmony
On Sale: May 3, 2005
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-1-4000-8188-2 (1-4000-8188-2)

One of the 50 Best Spiritual Books of 2005, Spirituality & Health magazine

Improv Wisdom teaches us how to apply the maxims of improvisational theater to real-life challenges­helping readers to loosen up, think on their feet, and take on everything life has to offer with skill, chutzpah, and a sense of humor... Read more >

Cole Porter

Written by William McBrien

Format: Trade Paperback, 480 pages
Publisher: Vintage
On Sale: December 5, 2000
Price: $16.95
ISBN: 978-0-679-72792-7 (0-679-72792-2)

In his life and in his music, Cole Porter was "the top"—the pinnacle of wit, sophistication, and success. His songs—"I Get a Kick Out of You," "Anything Goes," and hundreds more—were instant pop hits, and their musical and emotional depths have made them lasting standards.

William McBrien has captured the creator of... Read more >

A Long Strange Trip
The Inside History of the Grateful Dead
Written by Dennis McNally

Format: Trade Paperback, 736 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
On Sale: August 12, 2003
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-7679-1186-3 (0-7679-1186-5)

The complete history of one of the most long-lived and legendary bands in rock history, written by its official historian and publicist–a must-have chronicle for all Dead Heads, and for students of rock and the 1960s’ counterculture.

From 1965 to 1995, the Grateful Dead flourished as one of the most beloved, unusual... Read more >

Kids Take the Stage
Helping Young People Discover the Creative Outlet of Theater
Written by Lenka Peterson and Dan O'Conner
Foreword by Paul Newman

Format: Trade Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Back Stage Books
On Sale: May 1, 2006
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-0-8230-7746-5 (0-8230-7746-2)

The classic Kids Take the Stage is one of the best-selling Back Stage Books of all time. Now Back Stage is proud to present the completely revised and updated second edition of this indispensable guide to getting young people on stage and helping them create their own shows. For teachers, for... Read more >