Miss Lilly's Ballet School has been invited to perform for the Princess of Mouseland, and Angelina hopes to be a prima ballerina. But disaster strikes and she is only given a minor role. Angelina wants to leave the school. But then a turn of events leads to a happy ending for all!
Angelina loves to do gymnastics with her new friends, Alice. But when Angelina can't do a handstand, all the older children laugh at her, and Alice joins in. By the end of the story, Angelina and Alice learn the importance of teamwork and become the best of friends all over again. (Preceeding text courtesy of penguin.co.au)
Angelina can hardly wait. She is going to be a big sister! But Angelina's excitement turns to jealousy when her new little sister becomes the centre of attention. Maybe having a little sister isn't going to be fun after all.
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An ageing king makes a capricious decision to divide his realm among his three daughters according to the love they express for him. When the youngest daughter refuses to take part in this charade, she is banished, leaving the king dependent on her manipulative and untrustworthy sisters. In the scheming and recriminations that follow, not only does the king's own sanity crumble, but the stability of the realm itself is also threatened.
'Oh wings are splendid things, make no mistake: they really help you rise in the world.' These plays, written over forty years, contain Aristophanes' trademark bawdy comedy and dazzling verbal agility. In The Birds, two frustrated Athenians join with the birds to build the utopian city of 'Much Cuckoo in the Clouds'. The Knights is a venomous satire on Cleon, the prominent Athenian demagogue, while The Assembly women considers the war of the sexes, as the women of Athens infiltrate the all-male Assembly in disguise. The lengthy... read more
The beautiful but sharp-tongued Katherina has sworn, never to accept the demands of any would-be husband. But when she is pursued by the wily Petruchio, it seems that she has finally met her match. And as he meets her own caustic words with a feigned, capricious cruelty, Katherina quickly comes to understand the absurdity of her shrewish behaviour, in one of the greatest of all comic battles of the sexes.
"Strangers in Between" - There's a climate of fear in friendly Goulbourn and Shane is forced from his family, and flees to Kings Cross. A lost boy in a loopy neighbourhood, Shane is unsure of his sexuality, more unsure of how to find intimacy and completely thrown by having to choose between laundry liquid and powder. He meets two strangers - the very-Sydney Will, who offers brotherhood, sex and something unexpected; and the beguiling Peter, a 50-year-old gay man whose mother is dying in a nursing home. After Shane's brother Ben ma... read more
A young prince meets with his father's ghost, who alleges that his own brother, now married to his widow, murdered him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild madness while plotting a brutal revenge. But his apparent insanity soon begins to wreak havoc on innocent and guilty alike.
Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ensure his ambitions come true. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, and the dead return to haunt him. A story of war, witchcraft and bloodshed, Macbeth also depicts the relationship between husbands and wives, and the risks they are prepared to take to achieve their desires. This book includes a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and the Elizabethan theatre, a separate i... read more
In the Duke's absence from Vienna, his strict deputy Angelo revives an ancient law forbidding sex outside marriage. The young Claudio, whose fiancee is pregnant, is condemned to death by the law. His sister Isabella, soon to become a nun, pleads with Lord Angelo for her brother's life. But her purity so excites Angelo that he offers her a monstrous bargain: he will save Claudio if Isabella will visit him that night.
In The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare weaves together two ancient folk tales, one involving a vengeful, greedy creditor trying to exact a pound of flesh, the other involving a marriage suitor's choice among three chests and thereby winning his (or her) mate. Shakespeare's treatment of the first standard plot scheme centres around the villain of Merchant, the Jewish money-lender Shylock who seeks a literal pound of flesh from his Christian opposite, the generous, faithful Antonio. Shakespeare's version of the chest-choosing device ... read more
In need of money, the fat and foolish Falstaff devises a scheme to seduce two married women and steal their husbands' wealth. By talking to each other, however, the wives soon discover his plan and begin to plot their own revenge. Relentlessly inventive, this comic humiliation of a foolish would-be seducer is a lively, compelling and ultimately joyous celebration of the all-conquering power of laughter. This book includes a general introduction to Shakespeare's life and the Elizabethan theatre, a separate introduction to The Me... read more
Saturn has returned, and a moment of doubt changes everything. The universe conspires against Matt and Zara, and Zara is jettisoned into orbit. Sex on drugs has become sordid, but the allure of the threesome is still tempting. The prospect of having children is no longer odious, but mortgages and responsibility remain objects of contempt. It's time for lock down. But who's playing? Shifting perspectives on identity and Tommy Murphy's trademark comic flair combine to create a lively theatre of insight and ingenuity.
Auden often said that metre and rhyme led him down unexpected paths to thoughts he wouldn't otherwise have had, and in this respect versification and fornication are not so different. Benjamin Britten, sailing uncomfortably close to the wind with his new opera, "Death in Venice", seeks advice from his former collaborator and friend, W H Auden. During this imagined meeting, their first for twenty-five years, they are observed and interrupted by amongst others their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. You ar... read more
If theatre were a religion, explains David Mamet in his opening chapter, 'many of the observations and suggestions in this book might be heretical'. As always, Mamet delivers on his promise: in "Theatre", the acclaimed author of "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "Speed the Plow", calls for nothing less than the death of the director and the end of acting theory. For Mamet, actors are either good or they are non-actors, and good actors generally work best without the interference of a director, however well-intentioned. Issue plays, politic... read more
Illustrated with a wealth of photographs and designs for decor and costumes, most never before published, Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance 1945-1965 surveys the major companies, the many smaller groups which flourished, modern dance, the beginnings of Aboriginal theatrical dance which became established
Igor Stravinsky was a towering composer of the twentieth century and closely linked to dance. His early commissions for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes - "The Firebird", "Petrouchka", and "The Rite of Spring" - put him on the international map. This survey analyses each of Stravinsky's ballet pieces.
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The scientists of showbiz. Magic has enchanted humankind for millennia, evoking terror, laughter, shock and amazement. Once persecuted as heretics and sorcerers, magicians have always been conduits to a parallel universe of limitless possibility - whether invoking spirits, reading minds, or inverting the laws of nature by sleight of hand. Long before science fiction, virtual realities, video games, and the Internet, the craft of magic was the most powerful fantasy world man had ever known. As the true pioneers of special effects in... read more
