Applause: 89 books

Twin Peaks, the infamously strange, seductive, and confounding murder mystery that made network television safe for surrealism, is returning to the small screen after 25 years. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost, the series enjoys a hallowed standing in popular culture and remains a touchstone...

From the books and movies that inspired George Lucas to imagine the Star Wars universe, to early screenplay drafts that were never filmed, to short biographies of many people who made key contributions to the movies' success, Star Wars FAQ explores every aspect of the original Star Wars trilogy (Star...

If Elvis Presley had not wanted to be a movie star, he would never have single-handedly revolutionized popular culture. Yet this aspect of his phenomenal career has been much maligned and misunderstood – partly because the King himself once referred to his 33 movies as a rut he had got stuck in...

A favorite of film followers for 50 years, James Bond is the hero loved by everyone: Men want to be just like him, women just want to be with him. Moviegoers around the world have spent more than $5 billion to watch his adventures across the last five decades. What's not to enjoy about such a glorious...

Your one-stop classical workshop! At last, over 175 of Shakespeare's finest and most performable monologues taken from all thirty-seven plays are here in two easy-to-use volumes (Men and Women). Selections travel the entire spectrum of the great dramatist's vision, from comedies, wit and romances, to tragedies, pathos and histories.

This collection of 75 solo speeches and performance pieces for actors has been selected from the finest material being written today for theatre in America and England. Solo! presents dramatic monologues on the cutting edge. All selections include acting notes along with the quick and easy guide to the art of auditioning.

Horror Films FAQ explores a century of ghoulish and grand horror cinema, gazing at the different characters, situations, settings, and themes featured in the horror film, from final girls, monstrous bogeymen, giant monsters and vampires to the recent torture porn and found footage formats. The book...

Illustrations throughout

Best known for the hit musicals West Side Story and Gypsy, Arthur Laurents began his career writing socially minded plays such as Home of the Brave and Time of the Cuckoo. He also garnered impressive credits as a screenwriter (The Way We Were) and stage director (La Cage aux Folles). Such a varied...

Whether auditioning for graduate programs or professional productions, In Performance is an indispensable collection of monologues for today's aspiring young actors. Featured are dynamic monologues from contemporary stage plays of the past 15 years, as selected by a professional acting teacher, director,...

Illustrations throughout

Kids of today face a different world – and a different set of challenges – then did the children of even 15 years ago. Playing with a Purpose features a collection of monologues that reflects these new attitudes and circumstances. Highly diversified in its view of the family and the child's place...

In a series of funny, tender, and touching dialogues, former Saturday Night Live writer Zweibel recalls his buddy-and-almost-lover friendship with SNL actress Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer. Zweibel claims he “merely scribbled the dialogues playing in my head ” and, indeed, these recreated...

Mankind has been predicting its own demise through various methods, from fables and religious scriptures to hard-core scientific studies since the dawn of time. And if there is one thing Hollywood knows how to exploit, it is the fears of Things to Come. Movies about the end of the world have been...