Books published by Nick Hern Books

An exhilarating play about a ruthless female City trader who takes on a young and ambitious protegee.

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills. This collection features twenty-five fantastic duologues for two women, almost all written since the year 2000 by some of our most exciting dramatic voices, offering a wide variety of character types and styles of writing.

A selection of the best contemporary scenes for two male actors. In the Good Audition Guides series.

A funny and passionate play from the author of The Pride and The Faith Machine.

'This is a book about how to beat the living daylights out of another human being safely...'Roger Bartlett - professional fight director and Master Teacher for the British Academy of Stage & Screen Combat - leads you through everything you need to know in order to create and perform unarmed stage fights that are compelling, realistic and, above all, safe.Starting with the essential concepts, including Victim Control and Reversal of Energy, you will learn how to perform all of the following moves:SlappingPunchingKickingStranglingPulling and PushingFallingLockingBlockingEach technique is clearly described, extensively illustrated, and accompanied by online videos demonstrating it in slow motion and at full speed. Also included are chapters on understanding and conveying your character's pain, and creating and rehearsing your own fight sequence.For those already trained in stage combat, it will serve as a comprehensive reminder of what you have learned, and supplement your ongoing training. For amateur, fringe and student companies, the book offers a thorough understanding of the practicalities of staging a fight, but also helps you to recognise when you may need to call upon the services of a qualified professional.Whatever your current level of experience, Stage Combat: Unarmed is the essential book for directors, actors, students and teachers, or indeed anyone looking to incorporate safe, effective stage fights into their productions.

A selection of the best contemporary scenes for two actors, one man and one woman. In the Good Audition Guides series.

Award-winning actress Dame Harriet Walter reflects on performing Shakespeare's most famous roles - both male and female. An exploration of the Shakespearean canon through the eyes of a self-identified 'feminist actor' - but, above all, a remarkable account of an acting career unconstrained by tradition or expectations.

'She has, to my knowledge, an almost unblemished record in never having failed to spot a great new play...' Philip Howard, from his ForewordJoyce McMillan has been writing about theatre in Scotland for more than three decades. As drama critic successively for The Guardian, Scotland on Sunday and The Scotsman, she has reviewed thousands of plays. During that time she has borne witness to an extraordinary cultural and political renaissance in Scotland, reflected in the newfound confidence of its playwrights, in the vibrancy of its theatre culture and in its recent outburst of new theatre companies.Compiled by McMillan and the theatre director, Philip Howard, Theatre in Scotland is a panoramic history of modern Scottish theatre, reported from the frontline. It traces the remarkable journey of Scottish theatre towards its new self-confidence: the road to 1990, when Glasgow was European Capital of Culture; followed by the explosive expansion of the 1990s; culminating in the emergence of the National Theatre of Scotland and its drive to bring theatre culture right into the heart of the nation.Gathered here are the leading Scottish playwrights, from John Byrne to Liz Lochhead, from David Greig to David Harrower, as well as the full breadth of English playwrights, from Shakespeare to Pinter. There are reflections on the great Scottish plays, classic - Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, Men Should Weep - and modern - Black Watch, The James Plays. There are reports not only from the urban theatre centres of Edinburgh and Glasgow but from all over Scotland; and from the feast that is the Edinburgh Festival, to the nourishing A Play, A Pie and A Pint.A leading thinker and writer about Scotland, McMillan has an incomparable ability to detect the wider cultural resonances in Scottish theatre, and to reveal what it can tell us about Scotland as a whole. Her book serves as a portrait of a nation and a shared cultural life, where visions of 'what we have been, what we are, and what we might become' are played out in sharp focus on its stages.'When Scottish theatre works [its] magic over the coming years, I will be there, to try to catch the moment in print, and to tell it as it was. And believe me, on the good nights and the bad ones, the privilege will be mine: to be paid to go looking for joy, and occasionally to find it.' Joyce McMillan

Twelve leading actors, including Alan Rickman, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Eileen Atkins, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, discuss playing twelve key Shakespearean roles.

The story of a young girl trapped in an increasingly tiny world. Based on a true story.

Five of the most exciting voices in theatre explore the pressures on our public services as one young woman buckles under pressures of her own.

Reproduces the text of the "Shakespeare First Folio" (1623) in modern type.

A double bill by Terence Rattigan, featuring two plays of striking contrast that display his astonishing range as a writer.

Ibsen's forensic examination of a marriage as it falls apart, in a version by Richard Eyre. How is a life well-lived? Alfred Allmers comes home to his wife Rita and makes a decision. Casting aside his writing, he dedicates himself to raising his son. But one event is about to change his life forever. Little Eyolf was first performed in 1894. This new version, adapted and directed by Richard Eyre, premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2015. The third in a trilogy of revelatory Ibsens, Little Eyolf follows Richard Eyre's multi-award-winning adaptations of Ghosts (Almeida, West End and BAM, New York), and Hedda Gabler (Almeida and West End).

The average person will speak 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out. Sam Steiner's award-winning play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons imagines a world where we're forced to say less.

A play about conflicted desire and dangerous loyalties in a world trembling in the grip of a devastating epidemic.

An insightful and revealing play, inspired by real events, which explores society's uncomfortable embrace of the outsider.

An exhilarating and unsentimental exploration of working-class life in Belfast.

A play about a group of young women seeking to form a new type of society and a better way of living. Part of Platform, a series of big-cast plays with predominantly or all-female casts, written specifically for performance by school, college and youth-theatre groups.

A powerful drama based on the extraordinary life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a poet, nun and major literary figure of Mexico.

A shattering play about one woman's unspeakable decision.

A gripping, kaleidoscopic drama about a clash of values in multicultural Britain, from actor and playwright John Hollingworth.

A deeply provocative thriller set in a blighted landscape where nature is fiercely taking its course, Deluge is a gripping drama from the Papatango Prize-winning author of Coolatully. Winner of the 2014 Eamon Keane Full-Length Play Award.

The essential, one-stop handbook for actors, with everything you need to survive and thrive, from the team behind the internationally successful Surviving Actors conventions.Being an actor is a vocation, but it's also a real-life job. Talent, determination and passion are vital, but will only get you so far. In addition to developing the craft of acting, actors have to remember that it is a career, and so the business side needs to be taken just as seriously.This manual covers the day-to-day essentials you need to succeed in the industry, with sections that cover:Establishing your personal brand and business planGetting great headshots, showreels, voicereels and a website Dealing with agents, casting directors and auditionsDeveloping your networking skillsAnd managing your moneyHonest, straightforward, but also empowering, it will help you unlock your potential and focus on being the best, most employable - and, hopefully, successful - actor you can be.Compiled by the team at Surviving Actors, and drawing on a wide range of other experienced professionals, theSurviving Actors Manual is designed to help you develop and sustain your career and to create your own new opportunities.Felicity Jackson and Lianne Robertson both trained as actors. Together they run Surviving Actors, founded in 2009 to help and encourage other actors in all areas of their professional lives.