Hansen Publishing Group

David Kaplan’s FIVE APPROACHES TO ACTING Now in eBook Format

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:30:48 +0000

David Kaplan’s FIVE APPROACHES TO ACTING SERIES has just become available in ebook format. Now acting instructors and acting students have a convenient and inexpensive means of teaching and studying these five approaches to acting. Each ebook volume retails for $9.99. All are available for the Kindle at Amazon, the iPad and iPhone at the Apple iBookstore, the Nook at Barnes and Noble and soon from Kobo.

Getting to the Task, Part One includes practical exercises for class and rehearsals, techniques for analyzing a text for tasks, techniques for maintaining and deepening performances, examples from film to study, and a useful working vocabulary. It explains how other approaches might expand Stanislavsky’s vision. Getting to the Task, Part One separates Stanislavsky from his inaccurate (and widely influential) translators and interpreters in America. Getting to the Task, Part One separates The System from “The Method” — itself the subject of Building Images, Part Three in the Five Approaches to Acting Series.

An episode is something that happens onstage that the audience understands separately from the whole of the play: Romeo reveals himself to Juliet, the Gentleman Caller breaks Laura’s heart, Didi and Gogo wait for Godot. Playing Episodes, Part Two in the Five Approaches to Acting Series includes a useful explanation of terms, instruction in applying techniques in rehearsal and performance, practical classroom exercises, detailed script analysis, the history and theory behind the approach, as well as inspiring examples to be seen on film.

The source of an actor’s imagery may be different, but the techniques for applying them in rehearsal and performance are remarkably similar. Building Images, Part Three includes practical techniques for an actor to build imagery — external and internal — in rehearsal. Building Images, Part Three offers strategies for text analysis based on imagery, and offers strategies for maintaining and deepening imagery in performance. Building Images, Part Three gives examples in film and from the history of acting. It separates “the Method” from Stanislavsky’s System and explains why an actor would want to use one, or neither.

Inhabiting the World of the Play, Part Four lays out a ten-part plan for actors to analyze a play and ways to create individual roles within plays. Inhabiting the World of the Play, Part Four gives practical applications in rehearsal and performance, explains how to apply a world of the play analysis to a text, and points actors towards available examples in film. A world of the play analysis is especially useful for plays that require heightened behavior: Shakespeare, Genet, Ionesco, for example, but also its an approach very useful for “realistic” plays. You think Neil Simon’s characters have the same rules in life or onstage as Tennessee Williams’s characters? Think again.

The power to place an image in other people’s minds, and to make that image vivid enough to arouse listeners to emotions of their own, is rightly called casting a spell — spell being related to the German word spiel, for “story.” Telling a Story, Part Five in the Five Approaches to Acting Series offers practical techniques for analyzing texts and performing stories within the context of a play, whether written by Sam Shepard, Tennessee Williams, the ancient Greeks, or Shakespeare. Telling a Story suggests strategies for actors to switch between performance and story-telling in their approach to any role.

Film Historian John DiLeo Gets Singled Out

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:21:22 +0000

John DiLeo

Yes, John DiLeo, author of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY:HIS ESSENTIAL SCREEN ACTORS, SCREEN SAVERS: 40 REMARKABLE MOVIES AWAITING REDISCOVERY, and the forthcoming SCREEN SAVERS II (March 2012), was singled out earlier this month, but not in the usual way.

Hansen Publishing Group has broken his books TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY:HIS ESSENTIAL SCREEN ACTORS, and SCREEN SAVERS: 40 REMARKABLE MOVIES AWAITING REDISCOVERY into single electronic chapters that are available for sale as ebooks at Amazon.com, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes and Noble.com and Kobo. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY chapters are focused on individual actors who starred in two or more Tennessee Williams’ films. The list of eleven actors includes Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Vivien Leigh and others. SCREEN SAVERS features forty chapters devoted classic twentieth-century movies that need rediscovery like The Man Who Laughs (1928), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), One Way Passage (1932), It Started With Eve (1941), Rachel and the Stranger (1948), Portrait of Jennie (1948), The Big Country (1958), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Hour of the Gun (1967), Two for the Road (1967) and Time After Time (1979), to name only a few.

Screen Savers and Tennessee Williams and Company by John DiLeo

It is our hope that new readers will discover John DiLeo’s work while searching for information about a film or an actor. The electronic singles are priced modestly, so general readers and researchers will find great value in them and expand their curiosity to the larger works by John DiLeo. The chapters from TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY:HIS ESSENTIAL SCREEN ACTORS are priced at $2.99 each while the chapters from SCREEN SAVERS: 40 REMARKABLE MOVIES AWAITING REDISCOVERY are priced at $.99 each. All are now available on either the Kindle, the iPad, the Nook and the Kobo reader.

John DiLeo’s next book with Hansen Publishing Group is SCREEN SAVERS II: MY GRAB BAG OF CLASSIC MOVIES (releasing March 2012) which features more essays about classic twentieth-century films, featured blogs from screensaversmovies.com, and eighty-five quizes for golden age movie lovers.

The Reputation of Tennessee Williams: Tears, Laughter, and Gasps

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:40:55 +0000

Tennessee Williams

As the centennial year of Tennessee Williams’ birth comes to a close, I cannot help but reflect on the centennial celebrations, the festivals, and the many performances that took place across the country in 2011 to honor the playwright. For us at Hansen Publishing Group, 2011 began with a flurry of work in January on TENN AT ONE HUNDRED: THE REPUTATION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, edited by David Kaplan. We finished it just in time for its New York City release on February 7th at the Tennessee Williams celebration hosted by the 92nd Street Y and co-curated by David Kaplan and Thomas Keith.

In mid-February, we were editing Kenneth Holditch’s updates and revisions to Richard Freeman Leavitt’s book, THE WORLD OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS. With the devotion of a true friend, Kenneth Holditch had undertaken the task of completing the text for the deceased Leavitt who was a personal friend of Tennessee Williams. THE WORLD OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS was released on Tennessee Williams’ 100th birthday, March 26, at The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. To our joy, the book sold out at the festival!

Books about Tennessee Williams at Hansen Publishing Group

Our authors were equally busy spreading the good news about Tennessee Williams. Gregg Barrios’ RANCHO PANCHO, a play about Tennessee Williams and his lover Pancho Rodriguez, was produced by Camino Real Productions in Albuquerque, New Mexico for two weeks in late July and early August as part of a Tennessee Williams celebration. John DiLeo, our film historian, presented talks based on his book TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY: HIS ESSENTIAL SCREEN ACTORS at The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival and at the Black Bear Film Festival. David Kaplan, author of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN PROVINCETOWN and editor of TENN AT ONE HUNDRED: THE REPUTATION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, was the co-curator at the 92nd Street Y’s Tennessee Williams celebration and curator for the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival for the sixth straight year. David Kaplan also did an extensive interview on National Public Radio about Tennessee Williams and his reputation. Kenneth Holditch, co-author of THE WORLD OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, presented at The Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival and at the Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival. Joseph M. Paprzycki, the author of the play LAST RITES, and his South Camden Theatre Company devoted their entire 2011-2012 season, “Tenn Times Ten,” to plays by and about Tennessee Williams.

With the centennial year closing, with the festivals and celebrations behind us, with the high school, community, college and professional productions winding down, I have been wondering if our Tennessee Williams titles have brought attention to Tennessee Williams’ work or raised people’s awareness about Tennessee Williams’ life. My musing ceased when I recently received an email from David Kaplan with just a link, a link to a review about a production of “Period of Adjustment” at the San Francisco Playhouse.

The review, entitled “SF Playhouse’s ‘Period of Adjustment’ A Rare Treat for Tennessee Williams Fans” by Charles Kruger, opens with this paragraph:

Tennessee Williams best work is, of course, universally celebrated as among the greatest accomplishments of 20th century dramatic literature. Still, for a writer of such Olympian reputation, he is often disrespected. In the publishers blurb for a recent collection of essays (“Tenn At One Hundred: The Reputation of Tennessee Williams”, edited by David Kaplan), an anonymous publicist notes that “at the time of his death in 1983, he was the most produced playwright in the country and one of the most ridiculed American writers.”

After reading that paragraph, I knew that we had reached someone, someone who was reaching others. As a publisher, this was my greatest reward to know that one of our books was touching others and provoking thought. As to the reputation of Tennessee Williams, I’ll leave that to the words of David Kaplan from his “Introduction” to TENN AT ONE HUNDRED: THE REPUTATION OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS:

As with all writers one hundred years after their birth, and for hundreds of years to come, Williams’ reputation will spring from his words. That he will have any reputation hundreds of years from now is certainly no fact, but it is my belief. That belief refreshes itself when I witness over and over again what Williams’ words do when spoken and heard: they move people to tears and to laughter and to gasps of recognition.

David Kaplan’s Tennessee Williams in Provincetown makes Holiday Book List

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:42:55 +0000

David Kaplan and his book TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN PROVINCETOWN

It’s December and ’tis the season for releasing book lists for 2011. David Kaplan’s Tennessee Williams in Provincetown made the list of books about Provincetown at Provincetown.com. In the article entitled “Give Books about Provincetown this Holiday Season,” author Laura Shabott says this about David Kaplan’s Tennessee Williams in Provincetown:

The racy cover of this book belies the extraordinary text within it.

But not too racy to be the only book cover shown in the article! Thank you, Laura.

Yes, since it’s release in 2007, David Kaplan’s Tennessee Williams in Provincetown has become a perennial bestseller each summer in Provincetown at Mark Leach’s NOW Voyager bookstore. In fact, it’s been a bestseller for Hansen Publishing Group too since its release. Sadly, Mark has informed me that he’ll be closing the store for good on December 24th. If you’re in Provincetown between now and then, please buy a copy of Tennessee Williams in Provincetown at the Now Voyager bookstore.

Otherwise, you can purchase a copy of David Kaplan’s TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN PROVINCETOWN (Hansen Publishing Group) at your local bookstore. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN PROVINCETOWN is available as a trade paperback and as an ebook. The paperback can also be ordered online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other online retailers. The ebook version of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN PROVINCETOWN is available on the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad and other platforms.

Kondazian Book Tour for THE WHIP Begins in Watsonville, California

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:30:29 +0000

Karen Kondazian’s book tour for THE WHIP, a new historical novel about the Californian stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, begins in Watsonville, California on Wednesday, December 9, 2011 from 5:30 pm–7:30 pm at the Watsonville Public Library in the main library meeting room. The event is free and open to the public. It features a reading from THE WHIP by Ms. Kondazian, a question and answer session about the writing of THE WHIP and Charley Parkurst, a book signing and free refreshments. Copies of THE WHIP will also be available for purchase at the event.

Watsonville, California was chosen as the first event for Ms. Kondazian’s book tour for her novel THE WHIP because Charley Parkhurst is a local legend. Charley Parkhurst spent the last part of her life in Watsonville and is buried there. It was upon Charley Parkhurst’s death in December 28, 1879 in a small cabin outside Watsonville that it was discovered that Charley Parkurst was really a woman. The news about the discovery that Charley Parkhurst was a woman was picked up by local and national newspapers at the time, like the Watsonville Pajaronian, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the San Francisco Call, the Providence Journal and The New York Times. The author of Charley Parkhurt’s obituary that appeared in the Watsonville Pajaronian in January 1, 1880 captures the spirit of Karen Kondazian’s inspiration for her novel THE WHIP and the event:

Of course great curiosity is excited as to the cause that led this woman to exist so many years in such strange guise. There may be a strange history that to the novelist would be a source of inspiration.

THE WHIP by Karen Kondazian is published by Hansen Publishing Group. THE WHIP is available as a trade paperback and as an ebook. The paperback can be ordered online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and other online retailers. The ebook version of THE WHIP is available on the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad and other platforms.

New World Review: Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP is Classic Americana

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:00:45 +0000

Again Karen Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP, a historical novel about the Californian stagecoach driver Charley Parkhurst, has received a wonderful review. This time in the December 2011 issue of the New World Review. The review is especially meaningful since Fred Beauford, the Review’s editor-in-chief, decided to review Kondazian’s THE WHIP himself. As he confessed to me in an email, “I got so carried away with it that I decided to review it myself.”

Beauford’s review recognizes THE WHIP as Karen Kondazian’s debut novel and speaks about her talent as a new novelist:

One thing I really like about this job is that I get to discover promising new talent far outside of the world of agents, New York publishers, academics, and establishment book reviewers.

Karen Kondazian’s debut novel, The Whip, is in that category. Her well-written work, based on a true story, displays all the confidence of a seasoned novelist. I didn’t detect one false note.

Beauford ends his review declaring that Kondazian’s THE WHIP is “classic Americana” and recommends that readers should give the book their attention:

I have often been accused of never meeting a book I didn’t like. But try The Whip on, nevertheless, despite me. I think you will get as caught up in it as I was. This is classic Americana.

The entire review of Karen Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP can read at the New World Review web site.

Karen Kondazian Liberates Charley Parkhurst Story in her novel THE WHIP

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:25:42 +0000

Karen Kondazian, author of THE WHIP

If you are a woman who as a young girl donned a ten-gallon hat, slung a pair cap pistols on your hips, slipped barefoot into a pair of over-sized cowboy boots and dreamed of being part of the Old West, then Karen Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP was written for you.

THE WHIP is a historical novel about the legendary stagecoach driver, or whip, Charley Parkhurst. Known as “One-Eyed Charley,” “Six-Horse Charley,” and “Parkie” to his closest friends, Charley Darkey Parkhurst was really a woman named Charlotte. In a time when women had few vocations to choose from (wife, school teacher or prostitute), Charlotte bound her breasts tightly with strips of cloth, dressed in men’s clothing, and hit the open road as a stagecoach driver and never looked back. She was a woman who not only lived in a man’s world—she mastered it. She could drink whiskey, chew tobacco and drive a team of six horses better than any man in her day. She became the stuff of legend as a celebrated California stagecoach driver who began driving stagecoaches from Sacramento to San Francisco during the 1849 California Gold Rush.

THE WHIP is more than a Western novel. Karen Kondazian creates an empowering and uplifting tale about a mid-nineteenth century woman for a twenty-first century reader. It is a story about love, revenge and a woman on her own. As Charlotte declares in THE WHIP,

I went out into the world…it wasn’t easy to be a woman on my own. Men get to have dreams. Women don’t.

Disguised in men’s clothing, Charlotte’s liberation begins. Her dreams of working with horses and being on her own become a reality. However, her liberation does not stop there. The narrator of THE WHIP tells it this way:

…she had the rare and exquisite freedom to choose—to move between the world of man and woman…

It is this “exquisite freedom to choose” that novelist Karen Kondazian explores with great success in creating the fictional exploits of her character, her Charlotte. Having Charlotte transform from man to woman and back again, Kondazian creates some awkward, tender and sometimes humorous moments. One day Charlotte could be dressed in a duster, sporting a shotgun and have her stagecoach heldup by a famous outlaw dressed in sugar sacks. The following evening dressed in her “whore’s wardrobe,” Charlotte could be having a tryst with a renowned gambler in the upper room of a San Francisco saloon. Although a real-life legend, the Charley Parkhurst that Karen Kondazian portrays in THE WHIP is person who liberates herself from the trappings of her time and never forgets that she’s a woman.

Had Horace Greeley read THE WHIP, he would have said, “Go West young woman, go West.”

Karen Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP Receives Great Advance Reviews

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:33:04 +0000

Karen Kondazian’s THE WHIP, a novel about the legendary stagecoach driver Charley “Charlotte” Parkhurst (1812–1879), has already received great advance reviews prior to its mid-November release. Here are a few snippets:

Keddy Ann Outlaw from the Library Journal:

This quick-paced, wily tale is a fascinating blend of both fact and fiction that is sure to engage Western and historical fiction fans…

Art Kusnetz from the forthcoming San Francisco Books and Travel:

The Whip, a thrilling and soul-searching read, raises questions about revenge and forgiveness as she [Kondazian] takes the reader along dusty trails. Above all this novel captures brilliantly the zeitgeist of the stagecoach era.

Tara from the Book Babe Blog:

Awesome read, excellent narrative, perfect blend of fact and fiction, and though Charley faces an incredibly sad amount of misery and misfortune, the book managed to make me laugh at times as well as shake my head in sympathy.

Karen Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP has also garnered several blurbs from writers and celebrities praising the novel. Here’s a few that capture THE WHIP and Karen Kondazian’s appeal:

From Thomas Fleming, New York Times best-selling author of Conquerors of the Sky:

“You won’t know what The Whip means until you read this fascinating book. It’s a piece of the Old West, a part of America’s past, told with amazing authenticity.”

From Jim Beaver, star of HBO’s Deadwood and author of Life’s That Way:

Take it from someone who’s had firsthand experience with great art exploring the human spirit in a Western setting: Karen Kondazian’s The Whip is just that. This is a story that cries out through its adventurous surroundings—a call from deep in the human heart, a call for understanding, for love, for identity—and it does so through the skill of a magnificent writer. (It also cries out to be a movie. It’s that rich, visual, and dramatic.)

From Edward Achorn, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Fifty-nine in ’84:

Karen Kondazian’s The Whip is a cracking good story with more twists and turns than a wagon trail through the mountains. Kondazian takes what could be a hackneyed adventure tale of Charley Parkhurst’s gender-shifting revenge and imbues it with surprising tenderness and yearning.

From Elise Ballard, author of Epiphany:

The Whip is one of the best books I’ve read in long time…a real page turner. I didn’t want it to end and it stayed with me long after I put it down. I’ve noted quotations from the book that I continue to revisit because they struck such deep chords in me. I laughed and cried. The experience reminded me of reading Lonesome Dove—you go on a true journey with the characters, especially our hero/heroine, Charley Parkhurst, and you don’t have to be a fan of Westerns to love it. The novel is inspired by the extraordinary true story of one of the first stagecoach drivers of the Wild West, so you get a bit of a history lesson, and the writing is poetic and poignant, making you feel as if you are right there with the characters—feeling what they’re feeling, smelling the smells, seeing the sights, tasting the grit, and experiencing their love, joy, pain and the all the nuances in between. The story is unusual, complicated, fast-paced, and beautifully written. It’s quite simply, epic. I can’t wait for the movie version!

Karen Kondazian’s novel THE WHIP is being published by Hansen Publishing Group. THE WHIP releases in mid-November. The paperback can be pre-ordered online now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The ebook version of THE WHIP will also be available on the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad and other platforms in mid-November.

Gregg Barrios’ “I-DJ” Slated for Overtime Theater 2012 Season

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:56:47 +0000

Gregg Barrios, playwright and poet

Playwright Gregg Barrios’ new play I-DJ has been selected for the Overtime Theater’s 2012 season. Gregg Barrios’ play was among sixty submissions of original work by Texas playwrights being considered by the San Antonio theater. The Overtime Theater’s 2012 season consists of eight plays, so it’s an honor for Gregg to have his work selected from such a large field of writers. Barrios’ I-DJ is about an aging West Coast DJ and his search on the air waves for validation as a gay Chicano. I-DJ will be performed July 11–August 11, 2012. Visit the Overtime Theater web site for more information.

LA CAUSA by Gregg Barrios is published by Hansen Publishing Group and is available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and your local bookstore. LA CAUSA is also available as an ebook for the Kindle, the Nook, and the iPad and iPhone.

RANCHO PANCHO is published by Hansen Publishing Group and is available in paperback for $11.95 from your favorite online retailer. RANCHO PANCHO is also available as an ebook for $4.99 on the Kindle, the Nook, the iPad and iPhone, and the Kobo eReader.

John DiLeo Examines Tennessee Williams Influence at Black Bear Film Festival

Jon Hansen, Publisher — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:54:20 +0000

John DiLeo

John DiLeo, author of TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY and SCREEN SAVERS, is once again presenting at the annual Black Bear Film Festival which runs October 14-16, 2011. John DiLeo’s presentation is entitled “Tennessee Williams: Under the Influence” and takes place on Saturday, October 15, at 1:00pm. This is a wonderful and entertaining presentation that I’ve seen before and thoroughly enjoyed. It’s a must see for Tennessee Williams fans and film buffs alike who will enjoy the movie clips and trivia that John DiLeo presents. John DiLeo has made presentations about Tennessee Williams at The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival and most recently at the National Arts Club in New York City. Be sure to visit John DiLeo’s blog SCREEN SAVERS for his weekly blogs about classic movies. For more information about John DiLeo’s presentation, please check the Black Bear Film Festival web site.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY: HIS ESSENTIAL SCREEN ACTORS, John DiLeo’s most recent book, was reviewed by Andrew Holleran in an essay entitled, “I Rise in Flames, Cried the Phoenix” in the September-October 2011 issue of the The Gay & Lesbian Review. Holleran had this to say about TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND COMPANY:

Opinionated, intelligent, exhaustive…if you want the dish on a Williams movie, it’s all here.

John DiLeo’s Tennessee Williams and Company: His Essential Screen Actors is available in paperback for $25.95 from your favorite online retailer or local bookstore. Tennessee Williams and Company is also available as an ebook for $9.99 on the Kindle, the Nook, and the iPad and iPhone.

John DiLeo’s Screen Savers: 40 Remarkable Movies Awaiting Rediscovery is available in paperback for $24.95 from your favorite online retailer or bookstore. Screen Savers is also available as an ebook for $9.99 on the Kindle, the Nook and the iPad and iPhone.