£14.95

Beginners Please

how to start, run and enjoy an amateur drama group

Ann Moore, with a foreword by Bill Maynard

224pp paperback. ISBN 978 1902528 236 £14.95

The definitive book for amateur drama enthusiasts!

Starting out in amateur drama? You've come to the right place...

This book offers a thorough but highly practical guide to the business and practice of amateur drama, written by a director with over fifty years' experience in both amateur and professional theatre.

Beginning with a survey of the practicalities and legalities of setting up an amateur drama group BEGINNERS PLEASE then deals in detail with how to put on a show.

Although focussing on staged drama, the principles outlined apply to any theatrical venture, and cover

  • publicity
  • marketing
  • front of house
  • stage and set design
  • lighting
  • sound
  • the roles of director and back stage crew.

The book concludes with a section dealing with drama technique.

While not a formal acting manual, the dozens of exercises covering improvisation, speech, movement and working as a team will provide invaluable resources for weekly drama group meetings as well as honing technique to ensure that public performances are as good as they can be.

Whether you are running a drama group in a village hall, after-school club or even a prison, BEGINNERS PLEASE is an invaluable and unique resource that will inspire and assist group leaders at all levels of experience.

Also contains material suitable for

• BTEC First ‘Performing Arts Production Process’ and ‘Business’ modules (A1 & A2)
• BTEC National ‘Performing Arts Business’ (Unit 3), plus useful material for many others at Ceritificate and Diploma levels

"Just as sport is good for our health, theatre is good for our hearts and minds. Ann Moore's timely book gives us the tools to establish new groups to benefit not just the participants, but the whole community."

Gavin Stride, Chair of the Independent Theatre Council

 

"An engaging guide [by] an evangelist of enjoyment... This is a book that carries a friendly air of authority and it is not only the novice who will benefit from it."

John Slim, NODA National News (vol 65, no 4)

"A well-presented guide by a tireless champion of amateur theatre... thorough but practical."

Amateur Stage Magazine (Nov 2007)

 

 

DOWNLOAD PDF SAMPLES

Intro - including table of contents

First page of each chapter - get a feel for the contents