Title: How Does The Show Go On? An Introduction to the Theater.
Author: Thomas Schumacher
Pages: 1-115

This book talked about the theater and all the things it takes to put a production on. You learned about the kinds and styles of theater as well as the front of house, which included important people behind the scenes such as the playwright, choreographer and costume designer. Next was the back of house where you learned about actors, props, special effects and lighting. This book was great because even though I have been to a lot of plays, there was a lot of information that I did not know. I will share some of the interesting facts with you. Did you know that the moth’s costume from the play, Tarzan,  is actually made up of high tech digital pictures which have been printed onto pieces of fabric? Also, in Tarzan, the set is made entirely of inflatable walls. Did you know that every theater has a single light bulb called a ghost light, which is placed near center stage each night before everyone goes home? The light burns all night so that when people come in in the morning, they don’t fall into the orchestra pit of down a trap door. This book was written by the producer of the Tony Award-Winning musical, the Lion King, so I’m sure he knows what he is talking about.

This book was so good because it answered all the questions I had about this topic. It relates to me in a lot of ways. I have seen several of the plays they talk about in the book so it was really neat to get a more behind the scenes look at them. Also, this Wednesday, me and nine other students from Mrs. Pfeil’s Drama class will be putting on a play for the 6th grade. In the book, there are a lot of things you can pull out and look at such as a Playbill, theater ticket and a small copy of a rehearsal script. That’s really cool. The book also talks about how they use cables so actors and actresses can walk on walls. When I saw Mary Poppins with my parents, one of the actors walked up the walls and on the ceiling so it was cool to see how he did that. I would be really scared to do that. They talked about Quick Change and the different tricks and techniques actors used in order to switch out of costumes very quickly. In Greater Tuna at Springfield Little Theater, the two characters in the play were switching costumes very quickly so now I know how they did that. I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars because it was such detail and it really held my attention. I recommend this book to those in my drama class or anyone else that likes seeing what happens behind the scenes of a production.