This innovative and timely collection offers a wide-reaching critical evaluation of performance in television, mapping out key conventions, practices and concerns while introducing performance theory and criticism to the established field of television studies. Chapters from leading scholars move through a range of examples from different styles and genres, from Game of Thrones to America's Next Top Model. Individual performances are analysed in close detail as the authors debate central questions of meaning, value and achievement. Opening out new pathways for inquiry and investigation, this book is an important touchstone for undergraduate and postgraduate students of television, media and theatre studies with an interest in the work of actors and non-actors on screen.

Looking at contemporary film and television, this book explores how popular genres frame our understanding of on-screen performance. Previous studies of screen performance have tended to fix upon star actors, directors, or programme makers, or they have concentrated upon particular training and acting styles. Moving outside of these confines, this book provides a truly interdisciplinary account of performance in film and television and examines a much neglected area in our understanding of how popular genres and performance intersect on screen. Each chapter concentrates upon a particular genre or draws upon generic case studies in examining the significance of screen performance. Individual chapters examine contemporary film noir, horror, the biopic, drama-documentary, the western, science fiction, comedy performance in ‘spoof news’ programmes and the television ‘sit com’ and popular Bollywood films.

Since the first series of Pop Idol aired in the UK just over a decade ago, Idols television shows have been broadcast in more than forty countries all over the world. In all those countries the global Idols format has been adapted to local cultures and production contexts, resulting in a plethora of different versions, ranging from the Dutch Idols to the Pan-Arab Super Star and from Nigerian Idol to the international blockbuster American Idol. Despite its worldwide success and widespread journalistic coverage, the Idols phenomenon has received only limited academic attention. Adapting Idols: Authenticity, Identity and Performance in a Global Television Format brings together original studies from scholars in different parts of the world to identify and evaluate the productive dimensions of Idols. As one of the world's most successful television formats, Idols offers a unique case for the study of cultural globalization. Chapters discuss how Idols shows address particular national or regional identity politics and how Idols is consumed by audiences in different territories. This book illustrates that even though the same television format is used in countries all over the globe, practices of adaptation can still result in the creation of unique local cultural products.

The documentation of practice is one of the principle concerns of performance studies. Focusing on contemporary performance practice and with emphasis on the transformative impact of video, photography and writing, this book explores the ideological, practical, and representational implications of knowing performance through its documentations.

As reality television extends into the experiences of the everyday, it makes dramatic and often shocking the mundane aspects of our intimate relations. This book addresses the impact of this endless opening out of intimacy as an entertainment trend that erodes the traditional boundaries between spectator and performer.

'If you're working with Nancy Bishop you know you're in good, accomplished hands, whether you're a director or an actor.' – Neil Burger, Director of The Illusionist Auditioning for Film and Television is a must-have book and video guide for actors, written from the perspective of a Casting Director and offering practical advice on audition technique, scene analysis, online casting and social media. Auditioning for Film and Television is a practical workbook written from a casting director's point of view that teaches actors the craft of film auditioning in front of the camera. It shows actors how to use today's internet technologies to advance their careers and features success strategies and actual exercises to achieve results in the casting studio. A new edition of the popular Secrets from the Casting Couch, and now including video, Auditioning for Film and Television includes commentary, analysis and questions in workbook form for scenes from many celebrated films; exercises for actors to practise in front of a camera; and advice on career advancement and marketing in the age of social media.