Experienced prop maker Eric Hart walks readers through techniques used in historical and contemporary prop making and demonstrates how to apply them to a variety of materials. Hundreds of full-color photographs illustrate the tools and techniques used by professional prop makers throughout the entertainment industry. New features to the second edition include: Updated information on the latest tools and materials used in prop making Both metric and standard measuring units Step-by-step photos on common techniques such as upholstery, mold making, and faux finishing Expanded coverage of thermoplastics, foam, and water-based coatings

At the turn of the 21st century, a significant boom in the construction of cultural buildings took saw the creation of hundreds of performing arts centers, theaters, and museums. After these buildings were completed, however, many of these cultural organizations struggled to survive, or, alternatively, drifted off mission as the construction project forced monetary or other considerations to be prioritized. Building Better Arts Facilities: Lessons from a U.S. National Study examines the ways in which organizations planned and managed building projects during this boom, and investigates organizational operations after projects were completed. By integrating quantitative data with case-study evidence, the authors identify the differences between the ways some organizations were able to successfully meet the challenges of a large construction project and others that were not. With empirical evidence and analysis, this book highlights better practices for managing and leading cultural building ventures. Readers of this book – be they arts managers, politicians, board members, city planners, foundation executives, or philanthropists – will find that book provides valuable perspective and insight about building cultural facilities, and that reading it will serve to make building projects go more smoothly in the future.

A guide to readers' theater covers such topics as writing scripts, managing performances, and assessing performances.

Advice culled from interviews with more than 100 experts in the field The best practices that consistently lead to successful theater operation are now revealed in this comprehensive resource. Culled from surveys and interviews with theater managers and experts in crucial functional areas, this guide provides important tips for all people who work or want to work in regional, campus and community-based theaters. Proven strategies from managers, staff, and volunteer leaders cover virtually every aspect of running a theater - from audience development and fundraising to facility development and community involvement. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Acknowledged as the nation’s foremost expert on audience development involving America’s growing multicultural population by the Arts and Business Council, Donna Walker-Kuhne has now written the first book describing her strategies and methods to engage diverse communities as participants for arts and culture. By offering strategic collaborations and efforts to develop and sustain nontraditional audiences, this book will directly impact the stability and future of America’s cultural and artistic landscape. Donna Walker-Kuhne has spent the last 20 years developing and refining these principles with such success as both the Broadway and national touring productions of Bring in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk, as well as transforming the audiences at one of the U.S.’s most important and visible arts institutions, New York’s Public Theater. This book is a practical and inspirational guide on ways to invite, engage and partner with culturally diverse communities, and how to enfranchise those communities into the fabric of arts and culture in the United States. Donna Walker-Kuhne is the president of Walker International Communications Group. From 1993 to 2002, she served as the marketing director for the Public Theater in New York, where she originated a range of audience-development activities for children, students and adults throughout New York City. Ms. Walker-Kuhne is an Adjunct Professor in marketing the arts at Fordham University, Brooklyn College and New York University. She was formerly marketing director for Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ms. Walker-Kuhne has given numerous workshops and presentations for arts groups throughout the U.S., including the Arts and Business Council, League of American Theaters and Producers, the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for Arts to name a few. She has been nominated for the Ford Foundation’s 2001 Leadership for a Changing World Fellowship.

EMPAC is a building like no other. The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Center (EMPAC) is an extraordinary instrument for artists and researchers alike. With its concert hall, a theater and experimental black box studios, EMPAC bridges the ever-expanding potential of digital technology with the most refined details for acoustics, visual production and performing arts. EMPAC is designed, without compromise, for technology and the human experience, ranging from performances and new productions in time-based arts to the creation and navigation of large-scale immersive environments by researchers and engineers. On the campus of the oldest technological university in the U.S., the vision of EMPAC synthesizes a grand architectural gesture with the complex requirements of a true interdisciplinary enterprise for the 21st century. By using a series of essays, drawings, images and team insights, Professor Mark Mistur takes us through the collaborative process of a world-class team – led by Grimshaw Architects, Kirkegaard Associates, Fisher Dachs Associates, Buro Happold engineers and the Architect of Record Davis Brody Bond Aedas with the owner’s team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under its President Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson – from concept to completion. Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson’s forward describes a vision for a 21st century research university and EMPAC as one instrument to enhance the culture of a polytechnic institute and to provoke innovation. An essay from EMPAC director Johannes Goebel focuses on the human dimension and the senses and the frontier of time-based arts. Essays by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, acoustician R. Lawrence Kirkegaard, theater design consultant Joshua Dachs and Grimshaw Architects’ partner involved in the project from beginning to end William Horgan, each examine the question of performance- based design integration and tell the stories of innovations that resulted from their various important points of view. The building and the book do more than promise results. Being in operation for two years at the conclusion of writing the Architecture of EMPAC, the book concludes with appendix complete with the events it has been home to, the artists who have been in residence and the new productions to date, parts of which are captured and included in a DVD.