Theater Biographies

Ted Swartz and his Ted & Company TheaterWorks team are known for blending Bible stories with comedy and poignancy, and pushing the envelope on issues of faith and social justice. But who is Ted Swartz? Follow along in this engaging memoir as Swartz finds his way as a middle child in an eastern Pennsylvania traditional Mennonite home to his early work in the family butcher shop. Journey with Ted through the decision of uprooting his young family to attend seminary and then embracing life as a writer and actor.

The Sit Room brings you inside the secretive Situation Room of the White House, the most important deliberative room in the world, during the early 1990s when the author was one of the policymakers who framed the Clinton Administration's policy toward the bloody Balkans War. Drawing upon newly declassified documents and his own notes, David Scheffer, who later became America's first Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, weaves the true story of how policy options were debated in the Sit Room among the highest national security officials.

Dick Powell made a career of reinventing himself. Born in Arkansas, the young tenor played horn and banjo, and sang with various dance bands and orchestras in Pittsburgh and elsewhere before he was brought to Hollywood, where he sang opposite Ruby Keeler and others in such classic Busby Berkeley musicals as 42nd Street, Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers of 1935, and the Al Jolson film, Wonder Bar.

In 2005, Anna Massey was awarded a CBE for services to drama.Daughter of the Canadian actor, Raymond Massey (perhaps best-known for his role as Dr Gillespie in the TV series Dr Killdare), and Adrianne Allen (also a very successful stage actress), drama was in her blood. Her brother, Daniel, was a much-acclaimed actor. And even her godfather was one of the great film directors of all time – John Ford.

A powerful force in theatre since the 1970s, Williamson's plays have uniquely explored the pulse of our Australianness. After five decades of chronicling the blunders, mishaps and messes that he and his fellow Australians got themselves into, Williamson has penned his long-awaited memoir, Home Truths. It reveals the story of the man behind the work

The definitive memoir of David Williamson, author of iconic dramas such as The Removalists, The Club, Don's Party, Emerald City and Travelling North, as well as more than fifty other plays, explores the life of the writer and the true stories and real lives that inspired his works. A powerful force in theatre since the 1970s, Williamson's plays have uniquely explored the pulse of our Australianness. After five decades of chronicling the blunders, mishaps and messes that he and his fellow Australians got themselves into, Williamson has penned his long-awaited memoir.

Insightful, incisive and enlightening, the first volume of Simon Callow's comprehensive biography of Orson Welles. Now in abridged audio, Callow's vastly entertaining chronicle of Welles's first 26 years seems even finer than it did in 1995. The author's ability to skewer his subject's evasions and lies while retaining critical affection for him is perhaps explained by the fact that Callow, an actor himself, understands the need to mythologise. Welles's innovative theatrical work in the 1930s has never been better described or analysed.

Entra en escena con Lin-Manuel Miranda en esta adición a la serie número uno en ventas del New York Times que explica cómo la leyenda de Broadway comenzó antes de Hamilton y Encanto. ¡Ahora en español! Lin-Manuel Miranda, nacido en Nueva York de padres puertorriqueños, fue un apasionado de las artes y la creatividad desde muy temprana edad. Se involucró en el teatro desde niño y escribió su primer musical de Broadway, In the Heights, mientras estaba aún en la universidad.

Offen, ehrlich und persönlich: Schauspieler und Musiker Volker Lechtenbrink erzählt in seiner Biografie die Geschichte eines bewegten Lebens. Das künstlerische Multitalent Lechtenbrink berichtet von seinen Anfängen am Hamburger Theater und prägenden Begegnungen mit Größen der Schauspiel- und Musikszene. Berufliche Erfolge, private Höhen und Tiefen und vieles mehr - Lechtenbrink gewährt seinen Lesern mit einem Augenzwinkern brandneue Einblicke in seinen Werdegang zu einem der bekanntesten Schauspieler Deutschlands.

A daughter longs to guide her mother through the hardest of journeys of memory loss, paving a way with her own remembrance; for memory is an actor’s most powerful tool. Before the settling and subsidence of life, Hayley prepares to perform a show to honour her mother, Joan.

This is the story of amateur dramatics in Britain. In a triumphant mix of memoir, social history, interviews and manifesto, Jenny Landreth opens our eyes to am-dram and shows us a vibrant world that is a crucial part of our culture. Starting with the Mystery Plays of the Middle Ages, we move, via Shakespeare, to the Georgian aristocrats who built opulent private theatres in their own homes, then to the halcyon days of radical lefties taking political theatre to the streets and on to the present day.

Люди театра - мемуары Владимира Алексеевича Гиляровского, русского писателя, поэта, журналиста.

Luise Lunow ist Schauspielerin. Sie erzählt in ihrem Hörbuch "Auch eine Rosine hat noch Saft" in ernsten und heiteren Episoden aus ihrem ereignisreichen, spannenden 80-jährigen Leben. In Babelsberg geboren, erlebte sie den Bomben-Krieg und den Hunger der Nachkriegszeit, pendelte täglich zwischen Ost- und Westberlin, erfüllte sich ohne Geld und fremde Hilfe ihren großen Wunsch, Theater zu spielen, arbeitete mit interessanten Kollegen und Regisseuren und lieh als Synchronsprecherin ihre markante Stimme vielen ausländischen Schauspielerinnen.

Erinnerungen eines legendären Theatermachers. Erstmals erzählt Tom Pauls von dem Moment, der ihn für die Bühne begeisterte, von Selbstzweifeln während seines Schauspielstudiums, den Widersprüchen vor 1989 sowie dem Neuanfang nach 1990. Noch nie sprach er so persönlich von den Höhen und Tiefen seiner Karriere, über die Rolle des Theaters in der DDR, die Ostalgie sowie gegenwärtige Katastrophen wie Elbe-Hochwasser und Corona-Pandemie. Ohne Herausforderungen ging es bei ihm nie. Aber mit Possen bringt er unverdrossen sein Publikum zum Lachen und macht immer weiter Theater.

The riveting story of the rivalry between the two most renowned actresses of the 19th century: legendary Sarah Bernhardt, whose eccentricity on and off the stage made her the original diva, and mystical Eleonora Duse, who broke all the rules to popularise the natural style of acting we celebrate today. A scandalous, enormously entertaining history full of high drama and low blows, Playing to the Gods is the enthralling account of the feud that changed theatre forever.

Clifton Webb was one of those rare motion picture actors who became a major box-office star when he was in his mid-50s. Indeed, his first sound movie was Laura (1944), and his role as Waldo Lydecker in that classic film noir earned him the first of three Oscar nominations. Four years later, Clifton Webb became a household name when he played Lynn Belvedere and poured a bowl of mush onto a baby's head in Sitting Pretty.

Die Mauer ist gerade erst gefallen. Im mecklenburgischen Neustrelitz verlässt der 19-jährige Charly Hübner sein Elternhaus im Streit. Er findet Zuflucht am Theater und in der Literatur, liest wie besessen und landet nahezu unumgänglich bei den Jahrestagen von Uwe Johnson. Ein dicker Wälzer, der trotz der manchmal sperrigen Sprache und verwinkelten Erzählweise einen so noch nie erlebten Sog auf den damaligen Teenager ausübte. Aus dem Teenager von damals ist heute einer der beliebtesten deutschen Schauspieler geworden – während Johnson mehr und mehr in Vergessenheit geraten ist.

At 18, after moving to London with dreams of becoming an actress, an impressionable girl who paints freckles on her face begins work experience in a West End theatre company. In between mail-outs and making cups of coffee she meets the formidable producer Thelma Holt. Within a fortnight Thelma has stolen her, cancelled her audition for RADA, sent her to evening classes to learn to type, organised a miniscule salary and renamed her. From that moment she becomes Sweetpea.

Audrey Hepburn was not your usual movie star. She was the highest paid actress of her day, yet she never took a formal acting lesson. A child of war, and the daughter of a Fascist sympathizer, she spent her last years helping children of other wars. An Academy Award-winner for her first major film role (Roman Holiday), Hepburn continued her storybook career with such classic movies as Sabrina, Funny Face, The Nun's Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, My Fair Lady and Wait until Dark. Her two marriages ended in divorce.

Sheridan Morley writes: "When my father died at eighty-four on the morning of Derby Day 1992 (one of the few he ever missed), he and I had been together for just over fifty years. In the immediate aftermath of his sudden death, I knew two things; how much I would always miss the sheer joy of his company, and how much I wanted to write about him, if only to explain to myself and my children the life and career of the last great Boulevardier of his or any other time."