BroadwayWorld's 2024 Christmas Book Gift Guide
Check out our recommendations for books that every theatre lover will adore!
By: Aliya Al-Hassan Dec. 04, 2024
Christmas is nearly here and there is no better time of year to dive into a new book. You're in luck, because theatre's best have put pen to paper to turn out theatre page-turners of every kind. From theatre biographies to theatre history; check out BroadwayWorld's recommendations for books that every theatre lover will adore!
Playscript Subscriptions
The ultimate gift for any theatre-lover, a Playscript Subscription from leading theatre publishers Nick Hern Books is the perfect way to keep up to date with the most exciting contemporary drama by today's top writers. Every month, you'll receive a great new play, straight from its production on the UK’s most renowned stages. 6-Month and 12-Month subscriptions are available in both paperback and ebook, starting from just £50 – and you get a printable Gift Certificate to hand to the lucky recipient on the day.
Who Is Lin-Manuel Miranda?
By Elijah Rey-David
Born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, Lin-Manuel Miranda had a passion for the arts and creativity from a young age. He participated in theater as a child and wrote his first Broadway musical, In the Heights, while he was still in college. That show won him his first Tony Award for Best Musical! He went on to create and star in the beloved musical Hamilton about the life of Alexander Hamilton. A nonstop writer, Lin-Manuel contributed music for other major projects such as Moana, Encanto, Star Wars, and The Little Mermaid. He has won a Pulitzer prize, five Grammy awards, three Tony Awards, and two Emmy awards so far in his successful career as a composer, lyricist, actor, and director.
The Actor and the Space – Signed CopyGive something truly special with a signed copy of this hotly anticipated new book by Declan Donnelan, the world-leading director and co-founder of Cheek by Jowl. This indispensable follow-up to his bestselling The Actor and the Target offers a bold new way of thinking about acting and performance, and is endorsed by luminaries including Cate Blanchett, Adrian Lester and Matthew Macfadyen.
Running the Room: Conversations with Women Theatre Directors
by Rosemary Waugh
An unparalleled first-hand account of how brilliant theatre is made, this fascinating book features interviews with many of the leading directors working on British stages today exploring the craft. Plus, get a set of exclusive postcards featuring quotes from a selection of the interviewees – including RSC co-Artistic Director Tamara Harvey, and incoming National Theatre AD Indhu Rubasingham – if you order direct from publisher Nick Hern Books.
A Sense of Theatre: The Untold Stories of the Creation of Britain’s National Theatre
A Sense of Theatre is an eye-witness account of the birth and subsequent triumph of one of the world’s most famous theatres. Since the iconic building opened in 1976 on London’s South Bank, The National Theatre’s deployment of extraordinary architecture and exemplary theatrical talent has drawn audiences worldwide. However, the 100-year dream of a national theatre for the nation did not happen without crises and setbacks. The theatre architecture has challenged generations of theatre makers, leading to innovation that has changed theatre worldwide. The architect, Sir Denys Lasdun, initially a neophyte in theatre design, subsequently became an initiator of a new way of approaching theatre design: through deep collaboration between architecture and theatre.
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The official tie-in edition to the acclaimed, award-winning revival of Shakespeare's extraordinary psychological drama starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, which is currently wowing West End audiences and comes to cinemas next year. It features the version of Shakespeare's text performed, alongside a fascinating rehearsal diary, colour photos, and interviews with leading cast and creative team-members.
Mike Bartlett (Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatists)
By William C. Boles
Hailed as one of the most talented playwrights to have emerged in the late 2000s, Mike Bartlett's diverse range of plays strike at the heart of the various crises predominant in the early twenty-first century. Offering the first extensive examination of the plays and television series written by award winning playwright Mike Bartlett, this volume not only provides analysis of some of Bartlett’s best-known works (Cock, Doctor Foster, King Charles III, and Albion), but also includes new interviews with Bartlett and some of his closest and oft relied upon collaborators. In this book, Bartlett’s plays and television series are grouped together thematically, allowing the reader to observe the cross-pollination between his works on the stage and screen. The book also includes an introductory biographical chapter that discusses early influences on his writing (Harold Pinter, Mark Ravenhill, Tony Kushner, and Quentin Tarantino), his time in the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court, and his work with the Apathists.
Jocelyn Bioh: Three Plays: Merry Wives; Nollywood Dreams; School Girls, Or, The African Mean Girls Play
By Jocelyn Bioh
This first collection of plays from American contemporary playwright Jocelyn Bioh brings together a trilogy of celebrated work recently seen in New York and around the world. "Ms. Bioh, a native New Yorker whose parents emigrated from Ghana in 1968, has made it her mission, theatrically and personally, to tell stories about African and African-American characters that buck expectation and defy stereotype." (New York Times).
One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg
One Tough Dame: The Life and Career of Diana Rigg offers a sweeping portrait of the revered performer’s life and career. Deemed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1994, Diana Rigg (1938–2020) initially found fame as super sleuth Mrs. Emma Peel in the 1960s BBC/ABC-TV espionage series, The Avengers. A classically trained and multi-award-winning thespian, Rigg was known for her diverse body of work ― from her big-screen debut in 1969 as Countess Teresa di Vincenzo, wife of James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, to her Tony Award–winning, leading role in Medea on Broadway, culminating with her Emmy-nominated portrayal as Lady Olenna Tyrell on the heralded small-screen gem, Game of Thrones.
Brian Friel: Beginnings
By Kelly Matthews PhD
When Brian Friel died in 2015, the New York Times described him as ‘ the Irish Chekhov’ , and the Guardian called him ‘ the father of modern Irish drama’ . He had long been acclaimed as Ireland’ s leading contemporary playwright, with 24 plays for Broadway and West End theatres, including the iconic Faith Healer, Translations and Dancing at Lughnasa. But Friel’ s beginnings are more elusive, as was the playwright in his later years. He stopped giving interviews and cultivated a reclusive mystique that grew in proportion to his theatrical success. Based on newly discovered documents in the BBC and New Yorker archives, Brian Friel: beginnings reveals Friel’ s youthful personality and his struggles to get noticed as a young writer. Friel’ s correspondence with his first mentors – Belfast BBC radio producer Ronald Mason, New Yorker editor Roger Angell, and theatre director Tyrone Guthrie – shows how he shaped his early work, how he chose to write for the theatre, and how the patterns that became so memorable in his later plays were set in motion by his beginnings.
Prima Facie: Special Edition
by Suzie Miller
This hit, multi-award-winning play – with a stunning central performance by Jodie Comer – is back in cinemas this month following sold-out runs in London and New York. Get your hands on this stunning edition of the script featuring the definitive version of the performance text, together with colour photos and exclusive additional content including contributors from Comer, Miller and others – giving you a fascinating behind-the-scenes insight into the making of the play and the issues it explores.
Theatre Kids: A True Tale of Off-Off Broadway
By John DeVore
An unforgettable ode to the ephemeral, chaotic magic of the theatre and the weirdos who bring it to life, Theatre Kids is DeVore’s buoyant, irreverent, and ultimately moving account of outsize ambition and dashed hopes in post-9/11, pre-iPhone New York City. Sharply observed and bursting with hilarious razzle-dazzle, it will resonate with anyone who has ever, perhaps against their better judgment, tried to bring something beautiful into the world without regard for riches or fame.
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