Stop the Show! A History of Insane Incidents and Absurd Accidents in the Theater - Softcover

Schreiber, Brad

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560258209 ISBN 13: 9781560258209

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2006

Synopsis

The first book to compile all of theater's glorious bloopers--an uproarious homage to the stage
Stop the Show! is the first book to assemble humorous, frightening and bizarre anecdotes about the history of all that went wrong during live theatrical productions in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. It is the publishing equivalent of TV bloopers for the legitimate stage.

This book includes stories from top directors, actors, playwrights and technicians from New York, Los Angeles, and points in between, to the United Kingdom, from the 19th century to today. There are stories about missed entrances and exits, onstage unscripted fights between performers, improvised lines, accidental pratfalls, falling scenery, and costume, lighting and makeup screwups. The backstage provides sordid tales of practical jokes, treachery, misplaced props, wild arguments, and generally the kinds of things Michael Frayn created for his farce about a theatrical disaster, Noises Off.

This book doesn't leave out the theatergoers either, who snore, fight with each other, talk back to the performers, search for their seats, become suddenly ill, eat, drink, make merry, and are yelled at by the performers--all of which sometimes prompts the show to stop, even though we've always been told it must go on.

About this title

About the Author:

Brad Schreiber attended San Francisco State University, majoring in English/Creative Writing. He studied with Kay Boyle and Leonard Wolf and cofounded two theatre-comedy troupes, performing TV, stage, radio and clubs throughout the Bay Area. He cofounded the San Francisco Playwrights Center in 1980, won a residency grant from the Edward Albee Foundation and has had his work produced in Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and San Francisco. At the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, as a playwright, he workshopped with Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin. His radio work includes winning an award from the National Audio Theatre Festivals in Missouri for his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's The One Who Waits. He also adapted Philip K. Dick's Sales Pitch and Lewis Padgett's The Proud Robot, the latter for the Nebula Award winning series 2000X. All aired on NPR. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Schreiber cofounded the New One Act Theatre Ensemble, worked as an executive, writer and producer at PBS affiliate KCET and began his careers as journalist and author. Schreiber is in his 11th year as columnist for L.A.'s oldest weekly newspaper, Entertainment Today and writes theatre criticism for Back Stage West. Schreiber is also author of the best-selling parody of the Guinness Book of World Records, Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders and the humor writing how-to, What Are You Laughing At? He is currently Vice President of Storytech Literary Consulting, founded by Chris Vogler (The Writer's Journey) and is Supervising Producer on the Court TV series North Mission Road, inspired by his book on the L.A. Coroner's office, Death in Paradise. His most recent theatre credit was Multimedia Consultant on the world premiere production of What I Heard About Iraq at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood.

Review:

"Mr. Schreiber's book of anecdotes should be deposited in every dressing room both on and off Broadway."--Eric Bogosian

"Among its many virtues is its historical sweep, from gaffes at our local theaters, both present and centuries past, to tales of Burton and Gielgud, to Moliere's onstage death during a performance of The Imaginary Invalid...The humor is nonetheless timeless and universal, so returning to the book after some time, to revisit the same joke in new shapes, provides a source of endless pleasure."--Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly

"Remember those funny stories you heard told by actors as they revealed the craziest thing that happened to them during their last show? Entertainment journalist and theatre critic Brad Schreiber has cleverly compiled some of the best and "worst" moments in theatre for his book Stop the Show!: A History of Insane Incidents and Absurd Accidents in the Theater, published by Thunder's Mouth Press/Avalon Publishing. It's a perfect gift for theatregoers or actors on their opening night."--Connie Danese, LA Stage magazine

"I happily suggest Brad Schreiber's compilation of awful and wonderful little moments of theatre history...Do I sound disparaging if I say this is an ideal volume for the bathroom? I thank heaven for books like these, which let you begin with any section or page at random and be entertained. This particular volume comprises chapters entitled "At a Loss for Words," "Who Are You Wearing?" "A Drastic Change of Scenery," "Noises Off," "Hard Shoes to Fill" and "Who Asked You?" The book spans hundreds of years of stagecraft, and I feel it would be churlish to spoil any story by previewing it for you, but I will mention the names Mike Nichols, Lunt and Fontanne, Irving Berlin, Debra Monk, Gwen Verdon and Nicol Williamson, to whet your appetite."--Bob Gutowski, TalkinBroadway.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1560258209
• ISBN 13: 9781560258209
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 273