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Although the performing arts community was stricken, the city so known for its culture quickly rebounded and began reconstructing the city, and gave number one priority to rebuilding its artistic venues. Between 1906 and 1911, architects designed and built eight new theaters in the downtown area, each of which reflected the latest designs and modern technology. The great theatrical legacy of San Francisco quickly resumed. Out of those eight original venues, only the American Conservatory Theater stayed in operation as a full-time professional theater. It has often been referred to as the birthplace of San Francisco’s legitimate drama since 1910, which was the year the theater was completed and opened to the public.

Designed by one of the most prominent architecture groups in San Francisco, Bliss and Faville, the theater’s construction began in 1909. The exterior of the building reflects the style of the late Victorian era, combining elements of a baroque influence with styles from neoclassicism designs. The façade of the building is composed mostly of yellow brick and terra cotta glazed with polychrome. The marquee, which was originally made of metal and glass like other theaters of the time, was replaced in 1987 by a reproduction made of all metal. But for the most part, the theater since its construction has retained most of the original design elements and character both on the outside and on the inside. Standing as a proud example of early 20th-century architecture, the theater remains faithful to the period in history in which it was built.

The building, which opened in January of 1910, was known originally as the Columbia Theater. It was named for a theater hat had been destroyed during the earthquake. The theater picked right up where it had been before the fire, presenting distinguished companies as well as stage celebrities with international reputations, such as Isadora Duncan, Sarah Bernhardt, and Nazimova. Along with changes in management between 1924 and 1928, the theater changed names briefly to the Wilkes Theater and the Lurie Theater, and then reopened on February 6, 1928, with the name The Geary Theater. That name remained until the building’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2006, when the building was renamed to the American Conservatory Theater.

Over the past century the theater has been home to historic productions that featured many legendary figures of American 20th-century dramatic works, including Basil Rathbone, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, Frederic March, George Arliss, Ethel Waters, Alfred Lunt, Boris Karloff, Ina Claire, Paul Muni, Katherine Cornell, Laurence Olivier, Lynne Fontanne, and Judith Anderson, among many others. In addition to memorable stage productions, the theater presented the premieres of two classic American movies, Disney’s Fantasia as well as Citizen Kane by Orson Welles.

The mission statement of the theater is a simple and straightforward one. continue reading »

To receive a handful of applause from your audience, you need to develop your skills to make people laugh continuously. Here are the tips for stand up comedy. Remember this quote, “If every word I said could make you laugh, I’d talk forever..”

Right Attitude
The masses shall evaluate your comedy skills. To develop a right attitude, be observant about comedy shows and performances of renowned comedians. In every performance, learn from constructive criticism. This helps to improving the performance.

Do not Copy
The piece of comedy should be your own creation. Never imitate others. Do not copy a joke from others or rephrase the language. Even if you do subconsciously or unintentionally, you can be caught by audiences. You can retain your old work and try to innovate new ideas and scripts and build a solid ground for performance.

Listen to Yourself
Since you are a beginner, record your performance. Observe your own performance and the spontaneity in your act. This will give you the opportunity to examine yourself and make changes for future. Reflect on your performance and be a self critic to get the best out of it.

Communication Skills
Your thoughts, your gesture and your sense of humor must be well communicated to people. When you observe yourself on videotape, emphasize on your oratory skills. Analyze if you are speaking too fast or slow and how people are responding to your gestures. You need to study the minds of the audience as well.

Observe Comedians
Hang around comedy clubs, theaters and festivals to see live performances of comedians. Observe stand up comedy shows and movies. Scrutinize their performances, observe their styles and their professional performances. This way, you can improve your skills and become a successful stand up comedian.

Tips for Writing Stand Up Comedy

Writing stand up comedy, needs subtle blending of goods scripts, humor and funny punch lines. The total content should be in sync with perfection. Check out these stand up comedy writing tips.
•Write down any humorous or odd event in your life in details. You can also write about any of your crazy hobbies. Read more on types of comedy continue reading »

•Before you start drawing, the first thing to do is to observe. So, just search on the internet for the pictures of simple anime. Then observe these pictures, and notice the contours, the eyes, the nose, the eyes, the mouth, the hair, etc. Also, observe the different between male and female faces.
•Now take a clean sheet of paper, and start to draw the anime face. First make the outline of the head, for which you need to first draw a circle, and then draw the two pointed lines for the chin. You can draw a sharp chin for a villain, a rounded one for a cute anime girl, or one with a little square jaw for the strong male hero. Make light divisions for the pencil to place the eyes, nose and mouth.
•This will help you to set the features at their right place, and maintain symmetry better. The vertical line on the circle will help in symmetry and placing of nose and mouth. The vertical line should be half way on the circle to place the eyes. Also, draw the neck outlines, otherwise the head will look as if floating in the air.
•Then draw the anime hairstyles, many people tend to do this as last step, but it is a good idea to draw the hair below, so that drawing eyes becomes easier, as hair tend to overlap the eyes sometime. Hair are generally lots of choppy hair with long bangs, which means a lot of volume you will have to show and draw the ends spiky and edgy.
•Then use the guidelines to draw eyes, they are like rounded rectangles, and the iris is generally big, and draw small circles on the iris to indicate highlights, to show light being reflected.
•Then draw a pointed small nose line, and then fill up at the opposite end, to show depth and volume. continue reading »

The individual who has won the most Oscars in history is Walt Disney. The co-founder of Walt Disney Productions and creator of Mickey Mouse, has won a total of 26 Oscars, of which 4 are honorary. For Snow White, he received 1 full size Oscar and seven miniature statuettes. He also has the most number of Academy Award nominations, with 59. He also won the most Oscars in one year – 4 in 1954.

Most Oscar Winners – Film

The maximum number of Oscars won by a film is 11, and only 3 films have touched this record.

Ben Hur (1959)
Directed by William Wyler, this epic won 11 out of its 12 nominations, and missed out on the best and supporting actress award. Ben Hur, played by Charlton Heston, is betrayed by his childhood friend and made a galley slave. The story depicts his struggle with slavery, the loss of his family, and finally gaining his freedom. This film was lauded for its religious backdrop, rich settings and impressive storyline.

Titanic (1997)
The tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic, right from the passengers boarding, to the final moments of the survivors being rescued, is the main plot of this James Cameron classic. The tale of rich-poor romance between Jack, a charming drifter, and Rose, an upper-class young lady, made the film eternally famous in the romance aspect. The detailed special effects, the rich historical dramatization, and the poignant love story, made this movie one of the highest grossing films of all time. It won 11 out of its fourteen nominations.

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The box office success the Trilogy of The Lord of the Rings came to a close with this film. It had 11 nominations and won all 11 Oscars. It is also the first fantasy film to win the best film Oscar. Based on the Tolkien novel, LOTR: Return of the King, it portrays the last stand of Middle Earth against the march of Sauron. It also depicts the ending to the long journey of Frodo to Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. Each scene in this movie is memorable, from Aragorn calling the army of the dead, to the battle between the Nazguls and Gondor. Not just the picturization or the effects, the actors and storyline literally pull the viewer into Middle Earth. The highest number of nominations is 14, and only two films All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997) have received this number.

Most Oscar Winners – Acting

Katherine Hepburn
Out of 12 Oscars nominations in her award-winning career, Katherine Hepburn won 4, all for best actress. She is ranked as the greatest female star by the American Film Institute. The movies for which she won are
•Morning Glory (1933)
•Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
•The Lion in Winter (1968)
•On Golden Pond (1981)
Jack Nicholson
Famous for playing crazy and weird characters, this actor has won 2 best actor awards (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975, As Good As it Gets -1997), and 1 best supporting Oscar (Terms of Endearment – 1983). He has had a total of 12 nominations in his career.

Walter Brennan
This relatively unknown character actor, had a film career spanning five decades, and has appeared in more than 230 film and television roles. Out of 4 nominations in his career, he won 3 best supporting actor Oscars for his roles in
•Come and Get It (1936)
•Kentucky (1938)
•The Westener (1940)
The most Oscar wins for best supporting actress are Shelley Winters (The Diary of Anne Frank – 1959, A Patch of Blue – 1965) and Dianne Wiest (Bullets over Broadway – 1994, Hannah and Her Sisters – 1986), with two each. continue reading »

Rock and Alternative Rock
Rock music started hitting the streets in the 1960s, and it evolved as a subset of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, classical music and folk music that had been around since the 1940s. The primary focus in rock music is on the electric guitar, and the many solos that can be created with it. The bass guitar and drums are also highly in focus here, and for some time, even synthesizers were the rage. Today, we relate any music that is slightly ‘heavy’ with rock music, and this has also led to the combination of rock music with various other genres.

This has led to the birth of folk rock, classical rock, punk rock, blues rock, jazz rock, soft rock, heavy metal, hard rock, grunge rock, progressive rock and most recently, alternative music. Rock music is something that is omnipresent in all cultural references today, and it is no secret that we associate rock musicians with a rebellious lifestyle, incessant substance abuse, tremendous fan bases all around the world, and an ever present attribute of self destruction.

Country Music and Folk Music
Out of the different types of music genres that exist, country music is certainly one of the oldest. It originated in the 1920s in Southern parts of the United States, and it has slowly spread to all parts of the world. Country music, also known as Western music, was the genre of choice of Elvis Presley and this was the genre of music he specialized in, though he slowly embraced the more popular rock and roll genre as well. The defining characteristic of country music is an acoustic guitar, with just the vocals of the singer to accompany it.

Folk music, on the other hand, has always been known been as the music of the lower classes. This has lost significance today, but in the 19th century this had more relevance, due to the large disparity in the standard of living of various classes. Folk music also revolves around simple acoustic guitar rhythms, and it is characterized by its socially evoking lyrics.

Trance
To define trance in a short space is virtually impossible, and it should suffice to say that it is a form of electronic dance music. One associates trance with fast beats, repetitive loops of mesmerizing sound, and a blatantly obvious dropping and speeding up of the tempo of the song. This genre evolved mostly in the 1990s, and today there are several sub-genres of it as well.

You have your house trance, psychedelic trance, ambient trance, German trance, Goan trance, dream trance, acid trance, progressive trance and neo trance amongst many others. The association of trance music is generally made with underground rave parties, though most of this music is now also spreading to mainstream culture.

Hip Hop Music and Rap Music continue reading »