The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare

The Dream Factory: London’s First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare by Daniel Swift

Shakespeare's plays are well known. His life is also explored in various forms in fact and fiction. This book takes a different approach of exploring the culture of theater at the time. Shakespeare was put one of the characters in this drama. Theaters had become a popular form of entertainment at the time. The goals and rights of performers and playwrights were being established. The capitalistic financing scheme was just starting to take hold. People borrowed from each other and didn't see huge value in their work. Traveling troupes had their own separate economics. The plague seemed to bring much crashing down - especially with the unknown length of time. The book is loaded with interesting detail, though it went on a bit too long for me to maintain interest.

The School for Scandal

The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

The LA Theatre Works dramatization includes an insightful interview at the end that discusses the art of radio acting as well as the career of the playwright. Sheridan had a very short but influential career penning plays. He did not view himself as a playwright and moved on to politics after a short time writing plays. 

The play itself is a comedy of manners. People spend a lot of time poking fun of and criticizing others. These people are primarily gossips who hatch plans to ruin others. The bad behavior backfires and eventually everyone seems to get their just rewards. The humor is such that it can be easily grasped without understanding the plot.

Impro

Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone

This book is about education as much as it is improvisation. In improvising, you must be willing to think on your feet and take risks. Getting somebody in the condition to do that requires work. At times, you need to be able to "roll with it" to keep some situation going, rather then shift elsewhere. It is also valuable to "think different". You may have difficulty coming up with a situation on the fly. However, thinking of it a different way makes it easy to come up with something.