Product Description

A complete drama course for kids in a book. BREAK A LEG! teaches budding thespians everything they need to know about stagecraft and the production of performances, in home or out.

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. The performance: 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69567 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .63" h x 7.13" w x 9.42" l, .96 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From School Library Journal
Gr 4-10-An informative, how-to guide on the essentials of acting and stage production. This theater-course-in-a-book has sections on body preparation and exercises, theater games and other techniques, acting skills such as accents and stage fighting, analyzing scripts, rehearsals, and overcoming stagefright. It also takes a look backstage with chapters on stage managing, light, sound, and costume design, and advice on doing your own costumes and makeup. And for readers who devour all this information with interest, there's a chapter on acting as a career, with tips on headshots; agents; auditioning; and getting jobs in theater, film, television, and radio. Also included are appendixes with lists of resources, Web sites, and selected monologues and scenes. While the title implies that this book is for children, photos include depictions of teens and adults. This guide is truly chock-full of information, so much so that it at times seems too crowded with photos, inserts, illustrations and diagrams, sidebars with definitions, young actors' quotes, and informative asides on topics such as green rooms and improv troupes. Even so, if you need one book to introduce students to the theater, this is a good choice.
Betty S. Evans, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Lisa Friedman is currently the dance writer for Microsoft's New York Sidewalk. A former dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, she also served as founding editor of the award-winning quarterly Dance Ink and author of First Lessons in Ballet and an adjunct professor at New York University. She is also a contributing editor at Elleand a journalist who writes about the performing arts for various publications. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York, just a short cab ride from the Great White Way!

Customer Reviews

The perfect gift book for aspiring young performers
Break A Leg!: The Kids' Guide To Acting & Stagecraft by Lise Friedman (former dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and an Adjunct Professor, new York University) is a charmingly presented, authoritative, resource-filled "how to" book for young actors and actresses from grade school through high school who would like to act their school theatrical productions, in community theater, the professional stage, or in television and film. Individual chapters address simple warmups, learning to project one's voice, theater games, staying in character, and much more. Break A Leg! is the perfect gift book for aspiring young performers and a highly recommended addition to school and community library reference collections!

Bravo!
What a great book! If you do theatre with kids, this is a great resource. The engaging format draws young readers into the text, has lots of excellent pictures, and provides sections about all aspects of theatrical production, including design and technical theatre. We do Shakespeare with 6th graders and have found this book to be a gold mine of activities and information for theatre kids and adults. Bravissimo!

Excellent - Full of good information and well written
I bought this book to gain new ideas for a drama class which I teach. This book is written for kids that are interested in a career in acting, but I have found some really great information and ideas that I can use as a drama teacher and I am also going to encourage my students to read parts of this book! It is very well laid out, starting with the basics of the acting craft and then building all the way into an explanation of how to get started in the industry. All along the way, the main text is highlighted by quotes from real child actors as well as interesting side notes on various subjects. As someone who has been acting in community and professional theater since I was four years old, I was surprised at the amount of information in this book that was either new to me or written in such a way as to make me totally re-think things which I already knew. I would definitely recommend this book to any child interested in acting, parent of a child interested in acting or drama teacher who works with children.