The Fiery Serpent
His first prayer was, “Dear God, please don’t make me a born again, evangelical Christian.” This surprising prayer was the beginning of an academic quest; a journey of faith that led Paul Kuritz to write The Fiery Serpent. Kuritz found that, as Moses’ bronze serpent symbolized God’s revealed love and redemption, storytelling in film and theater can and should communicate the same saving message.
Due to the success of blockbuster films like The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a heightened interest in the dramatic arts as new avenues of revealing God’s truth. With bold ideas and solid, biblical research, The Fiery Serpent presents a Christian paradigm for the arts by exploring how best to model film and theater after His own work in creation. Read excerpts on Google Books or Buy this book.
The Best American Short Plays 2001-2002
From its inception, The Best American Short Plays has identified new, cutting edge playwrights who have gone on to establish award-winning careers, including Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, Terrence McNally, and David Mamet.
Includes Paul’s play “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Buy this book.
The Making of Theatre History
“Art and Theatre do not exist within the common time and space continuum. Although they may be limited by their own size or space, they exist ‘outside’ of linear limitations (suspending beliefs and extending them). Past, present and future become one when presented through the artist’s medium.” -David Chethlahe Paladin (1926-1984)
Remaining true to this theory, Paul Kuritz’s book differs from the norm in a clearly holistic approach to the history of theatrical art. The Making of Theatre History more than presents the different schools of thought associated with the theatre. It also shows how theatre and society as a whole are irrevocably intertwined.
From myths, magic, and ritual, to realism, Modernism, and manifestoes, Kuritz presents a chronological overview that focuses on people rather than events. Countries important to the various movements are reviewed within the context of that movement.
The text’s main thrust is to help readers understand not just one major period or movement, but to give them the ability to perceive the motion of structure, characters, and ideas throught theatre’s rich history. Read excerpts on Google Books.
Fundamental Acting
This book provides students with a clear, common sense, non-faddish technique for performing on stage. Kuritz’s technique is explained in terms of the actors’ personal, common, everyday dramatic experiences. Simple exercises build upon one another as the technique is explored. Kuritz supplies actors with a special comfort and confidence in two of the stage’s most daunting features – comedy and Shakespearean verse poetry. The book eases the nervous actors into both, by building in the basic techniques basis in their everyday experience and logic. Comedy and verse become seen as two variations or extensions of the fundamental acting process, rather than as exotic unique skills. Buy this book.
Playing: An Introduction to Acting
Think of playing as a child and playing as an actor, think of ordinary life and the drama unfolding on the stage…Paul Kuritz, in Playing: An Introduction to Acting shows you the link between these processes.This book shows how this link can help the actor to realize the potential of recalling effectively the joy of play as a child and letting it lead to an open, natural, and vulnerable frame of mind so that “play” can be relearned psychologically, physically, and vocally.
The author approches the art and craft of acting four ways: an introduction to yourself as a playing instrument; an introduction to your text as the framework for your play; an introduction to your character; an introduction to the theatre as the arena for your playing. He points out that the actor never stops growing and that this introduction with it’s diverse exercises will offer a basic foundation on which to build the skills needed for the craft of acting. Read excerpts on Google Books.