dance
drama
music
stagecraft

Drama
| TV/Radio/Film Scripts | Plays | Monologues & Audition Speeches |
| Handbooks for Actors & Drama Reference Books | Theatre Games |

A Pocketful of Python (A Pocketful of Python)   John Cleese (Editor), Michael Palin (Preface) : features favourite sketches and memories from the series as picked by a member of the cast for each separate volume.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Screenplay (Methuen Film)  Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

monty pythonThe Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus: All the Words (Monty Python's Flying Circus)  Monty Python

The Monty Python's "The Life of Brian" (Methuen Film)  Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle

Blackadder: the Whole Damn Dynasty: 1485-1917  Richard Curtis, Ben Elton, John Lloyd, Rowan Atkinson

The Complete Fawlty Towers (Methuen Humour)  John Cleese, Connie Booth : "What did Basil Fawlty fail to avoid mentioning? Why did Sybil keep snagging her cardies? Where was Polly on the night of the Great Wedding Anniversary disaster? This book presents the scripts for the show's classic episodes..."

Only Fools and Horses: The Scripts - The Bible of Peckham 2  John Sullivan : "features episodes from the sixth and seventh series and includes specially-written original material, such as Who's Who in Peckham, and Del Boy's family album."

"The Royle Family" Complete Scripts  Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash

The Very Best of "Frasier"  Channel 4 : contains fifteen of the best "Frasier" scripts.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Scripts  Jennifer Saunders

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Original Radio Script  Douglas Adams

99 Film Scenes for Actors  Angela Nicholas

The Vicar of Dibley: The Great Big Companion to Dibley  Richard Curtis, Paul Mayhew-Archer : Meet the parishoners and fall in love with Dibley as the scripts of the television programme are published here in a "prayer-book" format.

More "Bottom": The Scripts  Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson : "A collection of scripts from the second series of BBC Television's comedy series, "Bottom", featuring the anarchic adventures of Richie and Eddie, two of life's losers, played by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson."

The Art of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - Including the Screenplay  Mark Cotta Vaz, Doug Chiang (Illustrator)

monty pythonMonty Python's Big Red Book  Graham Chapman : contains zany writing and illustrations used by Monty Python.

The Best of "Round the Horne"  Barry Took, Mat Coward

Under Milk Wood  Dylan Thomas

Educating Rita (New Longman Literature)  Willy Russell : "Hairdresser Rita feels that life is passing her by. She wants an education, but does Frank have anything to teach her? This edition is part of a series of pre- and post-1914 works chosen especially for 14-18 year olds. The series features fiction, anthologies, poetry, plays and non-fiction. "

The Best of Frasier: Fifteen Complete Scripts of the Finest Frasier Episodes  frasierChristopher Lloyd : "Frasier is, quite simply, one of the best programmes on the box and anyone who has ever tuned in to spy on the deceptively intricate machinations of the Seattle psychiatrist and his band of merry misfits will undoubtedly want to own this book. With an introduction by Christopher Lloyd, the executive producer, The Best of Frasier is a compilation of 15 complete scripts from the first five series of the Emmy Award-winning show. From the pilot episode, "The Good Son", where the now familiar cast cut their teeth and won over a network, to the out and out farce of "The Matchmaker" and "The Ski Lodge" and the delightful parody "Last Tango in Seattle", each script is a small work of art that has deservedly won a place in the annals of sit-com history.
The Best of Frasier is a joy to read, with the pure genius of the writers even managing to combat the nagging difficulties that stage direction and technical jargon as seen on a page can often cause a reader. And as the written words transform themselves into the distant baritone boom of Frasier, the steely affectations of Niles, the rasping common sense of Martin, the strange English lilt of Daphne and the honeyed tones of Roz without the benefit of a television and a remote control, there is no mistaking that Frasier is still, and probably will always remain, something very special indeed". -- an Amazon.co.uk Review by Susan Harrison --

Withnail and I: The Original Screenplay (Bloomsbury Film Classics)  Bruce Robinson : "Withnail and I is often described as a cult classic but as one of the most sought after videos in the country that notion of cult should not be confused with a lack of popularity. Year after year another set of students gets initiated into the cult of "Withnail" and after a few viewings (because it really is one of those films that viewers keep returning to) find themselves quoting ad nauseam some of the best lines ever delivered in a British film comedy (they are, admittedly, less funny when quoted by an inebriated 20-year old!).
This original screenplay is the sourcebook for these ubiquitous quotes about Withnail and his unnamed house-mate "I" (or "Marwood", as he appears in the script), acting students in the late 60s, bombed from too many drugs and bummed out by too much poverty. They decide that some time in the country to rejuvenate (in the run-down holiday cottage of rich Uncle Monty) is the best remedy. After a drunken ride through interminable rain they get to the cottage--and then the fun really starts! Bruce Robinson has proved in his hugely enjoyable novel The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman what a fantastic writer he is and access to the screenplay only confirms that it was the quality of his dialogue that makes "Withnail" such a peerless classic. An essential companion to one of the funniest films ever made" -- an Amazon.co.uk Review by Nicola Hollins --

shakespeareShakespeare in Love  Tom Stoppard (Foreword), Marc Norman (Foreword) : "Tom Stoppard has always had an ear for the Bard, stretching back to his surreal and hilarious early plays Rosencrantz and Guildernstein are Dead and Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoots Macbeth. For those who have already seen the film of Shakespeare in Love, this screenplay offers a chance to savour Stoppard's exuberant collaboration with the renowned screenwriter Marc Norman. The result gives us amongst many other things a dog, Hamlet, Kit Marlowe, Elizabeth I and probably one of the best screenplays based around Shakespeare in modern cinema.
The pace of the script, from its opening long shot of London in 1593, to the final shot of Viola (played in the film by Gwyneth Paltrow) walking off into her brave new world, is breathtaking. The verbal fireworks and Shakespearean borrowings are not only worthy of the Bard himself, but perfectly recreate the conditions of the Elizabethan theatre. The jokes and allusions fly thick and fast, often straining the agility of even the most nimble Shakespeare scholar, but at the heart of the screenplay is both a compelling love story and an ingenious perspective on the inspiration behind both Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night. A wonderful piece of writing--long may Shakespeare in Love keep the Bard in fashion!" -- an Amazon.co.uk Review by Jerry Brotton --

South Park: the Scripts: The Scripts (A Channel Four Book)  Tray Parker, Matt Stone : contains ten of the best South Park scripts, with Kenny, Stan, Kyle and Cartman at their dysfunctional best...

| TV/Radio/Film Scripts | Plays | Monologues & Audition Speeches |
| Handbooks for Actors & Drama Reference Books | Theatre Games |

pygmalionPygmalion (Penguin Classics)  George Bernard Shaw, Dan H. Laurence (Editor), Nicholas Grene (Introduction) :"Pygmalion both delighted and scandalized its first audiences in 1914. A brilliantly witty reworking of the classical tale of the sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with his perfect female statue, it is also a barbed attack on the British class system and a statement of Shaw's feminist views. In Shaw's hands, the phoneticist Henry Higgins is the Pygmalion figure who believes he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl, into a duchess at ease in polite society. The one thing he overlooks is that his 'creation' has a mind of her own..."

" Medea" and Other Plays (Penguin Ancient Classics)  Euripides, Philip Vellacott (Translator)

Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Collins Classics)  William Shakespeare

A Streetcar Named Desire / A Play in Four Parts / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Glass Menagerie (Penguin Modern Classics Drama)  Tennessee Williams

"The Importance of Being Earnest" and Other Plays: "Lady Windermere's Fan"; "Salome"; "A Woman of No Importance"; "An Ideal Husband"; "The Importance of Being Earnest"  Oscar Wilde, Peter Raby (Editor)

Lord Jim (Norton Critical Edition)  Joseph Conrad, Thomas C. Moser (Editor)

The Oxford Shakespeare: "The Merchant of Venice" (Oxford World's Classics)  William Shakespeare, Jay L. Halio (Editor)

Arthur Miller Plays: All My Sons / Death of a Salesman / The Crucible / A Memory of Two Mondays / A View from the Bridge (Methuen World Classics)  Arthur Miller

Samuel Beckett: the Complete Dramatic Works  Samuel Beckett : A volume containing the English texts of all the plays of Samuel Beckett, including "Waiting For Godot", "Krapp's Last Tape", "Endgame" and "Not I".

Othello (The New Penguin Shakespeare)  William Shakespeare, Kenneth Muir (Editor)

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and Other Plays (Penguin Modern Classics Drama)  Tennessee Williams

The Sonnets / A Lover's Complaint (Penguin Classics)  William Shakespeare, John Kerrigan (Editor) : With their devastating depiction of lust and jealousy, love tangled with hate, hetrosexual and homosexual desire, Shakespeare's sonnets are among the most breathtaking-and mysterious-love poems yet written. The complete sequence is published here.

Beautiful Thing: An Urban Fairytale (Methuen Modern Plays)  Jonathan Harvey : tells of the unlikely romance between Jamie and Ste in a comic portrait of adolescent self-discovery.

blood brosBlood Brothers (Methuen New Theatrescripts)  Willy Russell : student edition of Willy Russell's successful folk opera [the story of two Liverpudleian brothers who grow up on opposite sides of the social tracks] which includes notes on the career of the playwright and an interview with him, an introduction giving the background to the play, a discussion of various interpretations, notes on individual words and phrases, and photographs of the original production.

The Complete Greek Tragedies: Aeschylus I  Aeschylus, David Grene (Editor), Richmond Lattimore (Editor)

Julius Caesar (Oxford School Shakespeare)  William Shakespeare, Roma Gill (Editor)

The Glass Menagerie (Penguin Plays and Screenplays)  Tennessee Williams

Cabaret: The Illustrated Book and Lyrics  Joe Masteroff, Fred Ebb, John Kander : Photographs from the 1998 Broadway revival accompany the playscript.

The Oxford Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale  William Shakespeare, Stephen Orgel (Editor) : One of Shakespeare's most haunting and enigmatic late plays, The Winter's Tale is a fine example of Shakespeare's fascination with the dramatic genre of romance--the portrayal of magical lands, familial conflict and exile, and final reunion and reconciliation. Drawing on Robert Greens story Pandosto, Shakespeare's play tells the story of the middle-aged Leontes, king of Sicilia, and his childhood friend Polixenes, the king of Bohemia. Leontes mistakenly believes that his friend is having an affair with his wife, Hermione. In his jealousy, and consumed by "tremor cordis", he tries to murder Polixenes, who flees, and accuses his wife of adultery. Hermione gives birth to a baby girl, Perdita, who Leontes denounces as illegitimate, and casts her out into the wilderness. Hermione is ultimately proved innocent, but her son, Mamillius, dies of grief. Hermione collapses, apparently dead, and Leontes is left to pick up the tragic consequences of his actions. Time passes, and the action moves to Bohemia, where the lost child Perdita has grown up a shepherdess in the midst of "great creating nature". The final scenes of the play draw towards resolution and reconciliation between Leontes, Hermione and their lost daughter, culminating in one of Shakespeare's most moving final scenes. One of Shakespeare's most consummate plays, The Winters Tale is a fascinating study of male insecurity and the relations between art and nature. -- an Amazon.co.uk Review by Jerry Brotton. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

The Oxford Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream  midsummerWilliam Shakespeare, Peter Holland (Editor) : "Traditionally seen as one of Shakespeare's more romantic and enchanting plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream has more recently been seen as a darker and more sinister play than generations of schoolchildren have ever imagined. The play has usually been seen as a comical tale and confused identities and the fickleness of youthful love, as the young lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena escape parental control and the "sharp Athenian law" of their elders by eloping into the forest outside the city. Unfortunately they stumble into civil war in fairyland, where King Oberon and Queen Titania fight over possession of a beautiful young Indian "changeling" boy. The appearance of the "rude mechanicals", a group of Athenian workers, including the weaver Nick Bottom, compounds the confusion. Chaos, confusion and "shaping fantasies" reign before the final settlement of the play, but underneath all the hilarity many critics have discerned more ambivalent attitudes towards coercive parental control, bestial sexuality and the destructive power of desire. These approaches in no way detract from the exquisite lyricism of many sections of the play, but make it a more complex and effective comedy than has often been appreciated." -- an Amazon.co.uk Review by Jerry Brotton. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

| TV/Radio/Film Scripts | Plays | Monologues & Audition Speeches |
| Handbooks for Actors & Drama Reference Books | Theatre Games |

Audition Speeches for Men (Stage and Costume)  Jean Marlow :"A follow-on from "Actors' Audition Speeches" this title includes speeches from plays written and produced in the 1990s, with extracts from West End productions ("Art" and "Cressida"), and films ("Pulp Fiction"). Comments from directors, casting directors, actors and teachers are included."

Audition Speeches for Women (Stage and Costume)  Jean Marlow : includes speeches from plays written and produced in the 1990s - including Pulp Fiction!

The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook: An Actor's Guide to Over 1,000 Monologues and Dialogues from More Than 300 Contemporary Plays  Ed Hooks : provides context for actors when reading for auditions. Full scene analyses for over 1000 monologues and dialogues from more than 300 plays are provided.

Actors' Audition Speeches for All Ages and Accents (Stage and Costume)  Jean Marlow

Actresses' Audition Speeches for All Ages and Accents (Stage and Costume)  Jean Marlow

Classical Audition Speeches for Women (Stage and Costume)  Jean Marlow : A collection of classical audition speeches selected from plays spanning the following periods; Elizabethan-Jacobean, Restoration, eighteenth century and late nineteenth to early twentieth century.

Two-minute Monologs: Original Audition Scenes for Professional Actors  Glenn Alterman : a collection of character monologues from an established New York City playwright. The variety of characterizations in this book range from gritty, real life drama to comedy.

50 Great Monologs for Student Actors: a Workbook of Comedy Characterisations for Students Bill Majeski

Audition Speeches for Young Actors 16+ (Performing Arts)   Jean Marlow : a wide variety of speeches for young actors in the 16- to 18-year-old age group

Pocket Monologues for Women  Pomerance : A selection of monologues for actresses

audition speechesActresses' Audition Speeches for All Ages and Accents: For All Ages and Accents  Jean Marlow (Editor) : The pieces in this book require a particular accent or dialect and include speeches for Asian, Italian, South African, American, Jamaican, Irish, Liverpudlian, Yorkshire, Newcastle and Welsh parts.

Monologues for Young Actors  Lorraine Cohen (Editor)

More Monologues for Teenagers: Contemporary Scene-study Pieces for Young Actors  Roger Karshner

Dialect Monologues  Roy Karshner, Stern

One on One: the Best Women's Monologues for the Nineties (Applause Acting Series)  Jack Temchin (Editor)

The Vagina Monologues  Eve Ensler

woman alone"A Woman Alone" and Other Plays  Franca Rame, Dario Fo, Stuart Hood (Introduction), Gillian Hanna (Introduction), Ed Emery (Translator), Christopher Cairns (Translator) : A collection of one woman plays written by Rame and Fo, which explore the joys and vicissitudes of woman's experience. The plays featured include "Rise and Shine", "Alice in Wonderless Land", "An Arab Woman Speaks", "I'm Ulrike - Screaming", "It Happened Tomorrow" and "A Mother"

 

| TV/Radio/Film Scripts | Plays | Monologues & Audition Speeches |
| Handbooks for Actors & Drama Reference Books | Theatre Games |


Dance | Drama | Music | StageCraft

 

| LMA Home | Stage School | Voice Squad | Summer Schools | LMA Community | Contact | Links |