Description
A unique guide to every aspect of putting on your own solo show: choosing the subject, raising the finance, booking the venue - and performing it!
More and more actors - faced with ever longer periods of unemployment - are turning to the solo show as a way of keeping active, keeping visible, and keeping the wolf from the door! This book is essential reading for anyone contemplating such a move, and comprehensively covers every aspect of putting on your own one-person show.
Being a veteran of the solo-show circuit, as a writer, performer and director, Gareth Armstrong is the ideal guide. He takes you step by step through each stage of the process:
* Choosing the right material - or devising your own
* Raising the finance
* Finding the venues
* Hiring a bookings manager and other personnel
* Arranging publicity
* Winning an audience
There is a special section on that mecca for solo shows, the Edinburgh Fringe, and an extensive appendix covering funding bodies, venues, festivals and more. Throughout the book, Armstrong illustrates his points with case studies of actual solo shows by performers such as Miriam Margolyes, Linda Marlowe and Guy Masterson.
'So You Want To Do A Solo Show? is a thorough, meticulous, hands-on, "how-to-do" manual, covering everything from the germination of an idea right through to the costing of the flyers. It is, I think, the most valuable read for any performer who has ever thought "If only I could have some control over the way my career is going"' Maureen Lipman, from her Foreword
About the Author
Gareth Armstrong created his own solo show, Shylock, and performed it over six hundred times in over thirty countries and throughout the United States. He now collaborates with other writers and actors in the making of solo performances which tour extensively in the UK and internationally. For more information, visit his website.
Reviews
'This book does exactly what it says on the front cover... Armstrong specialises in clear explanations and common sense... it may prevent many nervous breakdowns'
* British Theatre Guide *'Eminently readable and very useful... a fantastic resource'
'A timely and essential companion'
* The Stage *Book Information
ISBN 9781848420847
Author Gareth Armstrong
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books
Weight(grams) 235g
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 138mm * 12mm
