... FUNDS OF INFORMATION Twenty years ago, John Pick, an academic at City University who had also run an arts centre and done a bit of acting, was something of a scourge to the arts establishment, with publications that suggested that the arts had always been there, had usually found means of supporting them selves and did not deserve the amount of financial support from public bodies that they ...

... Instructive acting account COMPILED By PETER HEPPLE It is human nature, I suppose, to speculate more about the private lives of actors than about how they entered the profession and go about preparing for a role. In the Company of Actors, by Carole Zucker (A&C Black, £12.99 paperback), does, however, fulfil an excellent service for those who are serious about becoming actors. Sixteen of ...

... Stormy chronicle of high offstage drama Compiled By Peter Hepple As the English Stage Company settles down in its new auditorium, with restaurant attached, it is as well to be reminded of its bumpy ride over the last 44 years. It was in 1956, five years after the idea of a theatre dedicated to new writing was first mooted, that the Royal Court reopened with Angus Wilson's play The Mulberry ...

... The Bard's human side COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE Judging by recent box office and Oscar success, Shakespeare is big business these days. Well, he has always been big to those with the smallest desire to find out a little bit more of their fellow man but having come down from his ivory tower he has shown the masses just what he can do. Or so the media logic goes; and it is also an image that ...

... Calling all rock Years ago a band would take the name of its leader. Then along came the rock revolution and the collective name of the band became as important as its music. Nowadays, we take names for granted, it is part of the branding. Mark Beech, in The A-Z of Names In Rock (Robson Books, £12.99, paperback) has pro duced one of those volumes which might be regarded as an ultimate book for ...

... CLEAR SIGNALS The Best of Jazz (Robson Books, £11.99) bears the same title as the Radio 2 programme Humphrey Lyttelton has preserv ted for many years, and is distin guished by the same urbanity and easy knowledge he brings to his broadcast activities. This is, in fact, a combination of two books, the first was pub lished 20 years ago, the second six years later. In it he dissects the styles, ...

... PARK LIFE The twin ttalianate towers of the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne make it one of the most distinctive of our seaside theatres. And at a time when such playhouses have all but disappeared in the form in which we used to know them, it is comfort ing to know that the DP is still thriving, even if it is somewhat overshadowed by the much larger Congress Theatre next door. The ...

... EXPRESS YOURSELF I am as guilty as anybody else at using the term Expressionist to describe something about which I have only the vaguest notion, invariably relating to a play or design from post-First World War Germany. David F Kuhns' German Expressionist Theatre bridge University Press, £40) is a weighty, exhaustive and some times exhausting volume which is incredibly detailed in its ...

... Introduction to great movers and shakers COMPILED BY PETER HEPPLE For many years I have had a poster print of Loie Fuller on my study wall, though I was never certain who she actually was, except for being a dancer. She was in fact a pioneer of interpretive dance even if she was not really a trained dancer, and was aisu one or me nrsx 10 realise me possibilities of stage lighting. Watching ...

... Has Swinson still something to say? 1 WRITING FOR TELEVISION by Arthur Swinson i Adam Charles Black. 2nd edition. 16/. TPHE second edition of a book must be a mark of success. s Since the first edition of Writing For Tele- E vision appeared five years ago, TV in this 1 country has developed enormously. Has Arthur Swinson, 1 one of our best known 2 playwrights still some- 1 thing useful to ...

... Greater TV Advertising Two prominent economists have been examining the situation in Advertising in a Free Society by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon. published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. Their view is that TV advertising will grow; that the increase will be at the expense of any signifi cant growth in the press. One factor would tip the balance even more sharply against the ...

... A Little Love and Good Company. Cathleen Nesbitt. Faber and Faber. £4.25. NOTABLE actresses often tell their stories but few as well as Cathleen Nesbitt in A Little Love and Good Company. The main quality that distinguishes her book is its combination of sensitivity and intellect. Miss Nesbitt is a very intelligent woman, not in the merely brainy sense, but in her appreciation and ...