A very different kind of fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Hale. *What if you were to meet the number-one person on your laminated list—you know, that list you joke about with your significant other about which five celebrities you’d be allowed to run off with if ever given the chance? And of course since it’ll never happen it doesn’t matter… * Mormon housewife Becky Jack is seven months pregnant with her fourth child when she meets celebrity hearththrob Felix Callahan. Twelve hours, one elevator ride, and one alcohol-free dinner later, something has happened…though nothing has happened. It isn’t sexual. It isn’t even quite love. But a month later Felix shows up in Salt Lake City to visit and before they know what’s hit them, Felix and Becky are best friends. Really. Becky’s husband is pretty cool about it. Her children roll their eyes. Her neighbors gossip endlessly. But Felix and Becky have something special…something unusual, something completely impossible to sustain. Or is it? A magical story, The Actor and the Housewife explores what could happen when your not-so-secret celebrity crush walks right into real life and changes everything.

Kenna is graduating high school and following her dreams. When she gets to New Orleans she is ready to pursue them. Can one night change her mind or will she forget the man with the sapphire blue eyes and make her own dreams come true?While on a school exchange visit to Paris, a young teenager becomes an unexpected witness to a drugs raid. English exchange student Lily holds the key to a serious crime incident at the local Bar Tabac. Making her escape, she heads for the banks of the Seine. But now she’s not sure why and from whom she is running and what she discovers is not quite what she expects . . .Fast moving adventure set in Paris for the 11+ age group.

Actor, a young man of Ancient Greece looking to make a name for himself, ends up on a trail of side-kicking for some of the greatest heroes ever. However, each one seems to be a little off from their legend. All turn out to be jerks. Will Actor survive to be a hero himself?Actor, a young man of Ancient Greece looking to make a name for himself, ends up on a trail of side-kicking for some of the greatest heroes ever. However, each one seems to be a little off from their legend. Jason is a jerk. Perseus is an old fart. Theseus is a liar. And so on and so on. Only by the skin of his teeth is he able to survive each time, but when will he be the hero? When will he deserve to become a legend?This is a play in One Act intended for a minimum of two actors. It is a comedy-farce, and it requires a few basic props, blackbox theatre, some costume change for second (or more) actor(s), and repeatedly breaking the fourth wall. It's a good small piece for a mildly mature to fully mature audience.ATTN: Reading it is free. Producing it requires you to contact me the author. Please.

Jason is running from tragedy, hiding in Ellery, but it's only when he meets Kieran that he finds love.Jason McInnery, hounded by the paparazzi after his brother's death, runs to the one place where he hopes people won't sell him out. The place where he was born. Hiding in the tourist cabins at Ellery Mountain Resort out of season, he thinks he finally has room to breathe.Kieran Dexter is a man who knows what he wants; gorgeous actor Jason tied up and begging. When the hottest sex he's ever had turns to feelings of love, he's faced with convincing Jason to give them a try and stay in Ellery.

From USA Today bestselling author Leslie Langtry comes the next wacky, wild, wonderful Merry Wrath mystery...Whether they like it or not, culture is coming to Who's There, Iowa in the form of community theater! Merry Wrath, former CIA operative turned suburban Girl Scout Troop leader has high hopes when Ye Olde Opera House is renovated, and newcomers Ophelia and her husband Dante arrive from off-off-off Broadway (...Street in Peoria) with their stage pig, Iago, to put on a production of Derek the Sparkly Unicorn Ninja, which was written by the mysterious SeBasquetian deCatalonia Braveheart.But chaos is the name of the game when half the town and their hamsters show up for auditions, Merry has been volunteered as Stage Manager, and her precocious troop are planning death-defying stunts and dangerous special effects. It certainly doesn't help that Ophelia emotes like a deranged drama queen and Dante seems to think there's a Tony Award for seducing women. When one of...

It is 1984 when Ethan Jones is finally allowed to leave a mental institution in Ottawa. He has just emerged from a six-month delusion his mind created and is now unable to remember. Now that he is officially back from the living dead, Ethan must accept that his beloved Mila is gone forever, that his psychiatrist cannot reciprocate his love for her, and that sanity has its challenges. Undecided on what to do or where to go next, Ethan returns with his parents to their home in Toronto. As his family struggles with the return of a son and brother believed lost to internal trauma, Ethan unearths a renewed desire to pursue his love for music. As he embraces a new chapter and starts a band, Ethan thrives on the joy that accompanies doing what he loves. But soon Ethan is challenged to overcome much of what he cannot recall from his time away. As he becomes conflicted between who and what he loves and what he is, his past returns with a vengeance and transforms everything. The Musician is the much-awaited sequel to The Actor. The Musician continues the compelling tale of a young mans journey as he emerges from a delusion to pursue his love of music and confront unfinished business from his past. **

Nearly any time you hear a voice but don’t see a person speaking, there’s a voiceover actor at work. On television, radio, in videogames, animation, sports arenas, or on audiobooks, voiceover is everywhere. It’s a surprisingly diverse field open to people with various backgrounds and skill sets, so whether you’re an actor looking to expand his earning potential, someone who excels at creating characters with her voice, or someone who’s constantly being told what a great voice he has, there can be work for you as a voice actor. This guide is for you if.... --- you've been told "You have a great voice!" but don't know where to start... --- you hear commercials on the radio and say "That could be me!" --- you've ever dreamed of being in video games or animation... Basically, if you've ever wanted to start a career as a voice actor (or you're even curious about the career itself), "How to Be a Voice Actor" is the best place for you to start. With a comprehensive overview of the career of voiceover itself, a step by step guide on how to "find your sound," make your reel, get an agent, and get voice over work, "How to Be a Voice Actor" is an invaluable resource, whether you're just starting out from a home studio, or you've got some experience under your belt. Included in this guide: -- A comprehensive listing of voice over agents and agencies -- Recommendations for voice over workshops and training -- When and how to apply for voice over jobs -- What to put in your reel, and on your website -- What to do in voiceover auditions to get casting directors to notice you "How to Be a Voice Actor" is constantly being updated with great resources, including social media for agencies, workshops, and voiceover websites.

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William Esper, one of the most celebrated acting teachers of our time, takes us through his step-by-step approach to the central challenge of advanced acting work: creating and playing a character. Esper's first book, The Actor's Art and Craft, earned praise for describing the basics taught in his famous first-year acting class. The Actor's Guide to Creating a Character continues the journey. In these pages, co-author Damon DiMarco vividly re-creates Esper's second-year course, again through the experiences of a fictional class. Esper's training builds on Sanford Meisner's legendary exercises, a world-renowned technique that Esper further developed through his long association with Meisner and the decades he has spent training a host of distinguished actors. His approach is flexible enough to apply to any role, helping actors to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.

It is 1991 when Ethan Jones finally wins the role of his dreams in an upcoming, big screen movie. With the envelope holding the script clutched in his hand, he arrives at his California apartment where he can hardly wait to tell his girlfriend the exciting news. But when he finds the door unexpectedly ajar, he has no idea that in just a few seconds, the life he has fought so hard to obtain will be shattered. Eight years earlier, Ethan is attending university in Ottawa, Canada. One evening after seriously contemplating suicide, he finds his way into a club where he meets Mila Monahan, a beautiful acting student who saves him from himself. After he watches Mila rehearse a university play, Ethan catches the acting bug and decides to pursue his own creative passions, causing a collision with his more secure ideals. But when Mila suddenly disappears, Ethan vows he will never stop chasing the dream she inspired in him, believing in a world entirely different from the one he is living in. The Actor is a gripping tale of a young man’s unforgettable journey of self-discovery in overcoming the trauma of a personal tragedy. It is a story of love, hardship, persistence and overwhelming joy where The Actor learns he can portray anything he can imagine.

Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school. With these words, one of our most brilliantly iconoclastic playwrights takes on the art of profession of acting, in a book that is as shocking as it is practical, as witty as it is instructive, and as irreverent as it is inspiring.Acting schools, “interpretation,” “sense memory,” “The Method”—David Mamet takes a jackhammer to the idols of contemporary acting, while revealing the true heroism and nobility of the craft. He shows actors how to undertake auditions and rehearsals, deal with agents and directors, engage audiences, and stay faithful to the script, while rejecting the temptations that seduce so many of their colleagues. Bracing in its clarity, exhilarating in its common sense, True and False is invaluable.From the Trade Paperback edition.

They say bad news comes in threes. Jarrod Jarvis is about to test that theory. Bad news item #1. Former child actor Jarrod Jarvis fails to convince the California parole board not to release Wendell Butterworth, the stalker who has followed him since his first Oscar Mayer commercial. #2. Jarrod's NBC pilot flatlines before it even hits the air. #3. His agent/best friend Laurette decides to marry gorgeous, talent-free, and dubiously shady soap actor Juan Carlos Barranco. But things are about to get worse. During Laurette's drive-thru wedding at the Hearst Castle, one of the guests has a heated scene of his own with Juan Carlos—just before crashing into the three-tier wedding cake, poisoned by a glass of champagne.Jarrod is convinced that Juan Carlos is connected to the murder, and he's determined to get the goods on Laurette's new husband, even if it means trailing him to the set of his latest movie, a low-budget horror film, and taking a (gasp!) supporting...

Getting butchered at the hands of a serial killer in the "high concept" slasher film, Creeps, was supposed to revive former child star Jarrod Jarvis's career. Instead, it's a celluloid Titanic. While nursing his wounds at the post-premiere party at a Starbucks on Beverly Boulevard, Jarrod runs into Wallace Goodwin, one of the former writers on Go to Your Room, the beloved eighties show that made Jarrod a star. He's shocked to discover that the neurotic, egotistical Wallace has penned a play bound for London's West End, with a scene-stealing part for Jarrod.Faster than he can say his catchphrase, "Baby, don't even go there!" Jarrod's hitting the boards in London. . .and the boards are hitting back, big time. As much as the actors all seem to loathe one another, they truly resent Jarrod. The hotshot young director with a thing for girls named Kate berates him at every turn. British legend Dame Sylvia Horner is so sloshed she can barely read her lines....

In 1984 Antony Sher, hailed as "the most exciting actor of his generation" by the Observer, made his debut - on homemade crutches - as the infamous Richard III in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of the play. He would go on to win the Laurence Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for best actor. In his own words and sketches, he chronicles his personal and professional journey to this award-winning performance, from the moment he was offered the role to opening night, in the critically acclaimed book Year of the King, now available in this special 20th anniversary edition. From his brainstorm to use crutches to bring the king's deformity to life, to his research for the role, which included watching interviews with psychopaths, reading about mass murderers, and speaking with doctors and physically challenged individuals, to his visit to his homeland of South Africa, to his experiences in working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the reader is given a front-row seat to Sher's physical and mental preparation - or rather transformation - for his landmark performance as "the bottled spider."About the AuthorAntony Sher was born in South Africa and shot to fame as an actor for the Richard III that is the subject of this book. Other roles at the RSC include the Fool to Michael Gambon's Lear, Tamburlaine, Cyrano, Macbeth (with Harriet Walter) and, this year, Iago. He has published three novels, a book of his paintings and drawings and an autobiography, Beside Myself (Hutchinson 2001). His first play, I.D., premiered at the Almeida in 2003 with Sher in the lead. He was knighted in 2000.

"Baby, don't even go there!"That was Jarrod Jarvis's catch phrase as the adorable, girl-crazy moppet on the eighties sitcom, Go To Your Room! It was a great ride until the tabloids caught the popular teen idol kissing another guy at the L.A. gay rodeo. "Gay" and "teen heartthrob" not exactly being career-making words at the time, Jarrod's star crashed harder than a Kathie Lee Gifford CD.Flash forward: Now happily living with his cop boyfriend, Charlie, and their dog, Snickers, in the Hollywood Hills, Jarrod's ready to hit the comeback trail. . .but he never imagines how fame will strike this time. At a reading with his psychic, Jarrod is disturbed to hear that someone close to him will be murdered and even more shocked when it turns out to be his best friend, Willard Ray Hornsby, also a former child star. When Willard is found face down in his own lap pool, the cops call it an accident, but Jarrod's far from convinced—and he's ready to play the...

Recognizable for his cherubic countenance and roles playing mild-mannered fathers in movies and on TV, Dick Van Patten has one of the lengthiest and most impressive track records in the acting business. In fact, he estimates that “I’ve probably had more jobs than any other actor living.” As a child, Van Patten performed alongside Broadway stars such as Melvyn Douglas, Tallulah Bankhead, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, often winning roles over newcomers such as Marlon Brando and Roddy McDowell. He worked in radio and became a familiar face in the early days of television, even becoming “everydad” in the1970s comedy/drama Eight is Enough. He’s been a roommate to Burt Lancaster, a next-door neighbor to Michael Jackson and a successful businessman. In Eighty Is Not Enough, this beloved actor reflects on a career that has lasted over seven decades. Along the way he shares insights and anecdotes about some of the biggest names in TV, movies and theater, along with the challenges he has faced as a husband, father, animal rights crusader and working actor in an ever evolving business.About the AuthorAn actor since the age of seven, Dick Van Patten has appeared on 600 radio shows, in 24 feature films and seven television series. He isbest known for playing Tom Bradford on the TV series Eight Is Enough and as a spokesman for the Natural Balance pet food line.

Glancing quickly over the bar, he saw the bartender lying face down in a pool of blood, senselessly gunned down simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. New York City in the prohibition era, and Bill Sutton's wife thinks he earns an honest crust as a rent collector. Instead, he leads an extraordinary double-life as 'Willie the Actor', a notorious bank robber. Based on a true story, the novel's protagonist is a gentle gunman who never once fires a shot.But it was believed he was jinxed and almost everyone he works with comes to a violent end.

Curvy voice coach Charlotte is used to helping actors get their accents right...but this time she's way out of her depth. Hired to teach Hollywood hunk Tanner Cole a British accent in just one week, she makes a lasting first impression when she accidentally flashes him on webcam. Dragged from her sheltered life in London, the posh Brit soon finds herself in the craziness of Beverly Hills...and living in Tanner's mansion. The billionaire actor turns out to be as blue collar--and as hot--as they come, and she needs every trick in her book to help him fake it as an English lord. Unhappy with her curves, Charlotte can't believe that he could possibly be interested in her. But when their rehearsals for romantic scenes keep getting out of control, she begins to see that the bad boy has hidden depths. Does he want more than a one-night stand? And can he overcome her own fears and insecurities to win her over? If he can, their troubles may be just beginning. Charlotte's been hiding her entire life. Is she ready for the glare of the spotlight?

In order to get the attention of Christian Romanov, Hollywood's latest British import and newest bad boy, Zoe Ambrose disguises herself at a masked ball as a woman named Amber. She has seduction on her mind and Christian is the target.