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"Then there is the flip side, the shitheads who seem to ruin every production they're involved with or ruin theatre all together for others. I can't stand these people and try to avoid working with them as much as possible. So here is a list of the worst people in theatre that I've either worked with or encountered in some fashion. Some of these might sound familiar."

"Artists frequently hide the steps that lead to their masterpieces. They want their work and their career to be shrouded in the mystery that it all came out at once. It's called hiding the brushstrokes, and those who do it are doing a disservice to people who admire their work and seek to emulate them. If you don't get to see the notes, the rewrites, and the steps, it's easy to look at a finished product and be under the illusion that it just came pouring out of someone's head like that. People who are young, or still struggling, can get easily discouraged, because they can't do it like they thought it was done. An artwork is a finished product, and it should be, but I always swore to myself that I would not hide my brushstrokes."

I love nothing more than a theatre full of people leaning forward in their seats so they don't miss a word. And the roar of a crowd enjoying themselves can be immensely seductive.

The Big Book started with the Scouts-L Skits FAQ, and a few other small compilations of skits. People have sent me individual skits and groups of skits. My sincere thanks to Merl Whitebook, the most prolific contributor to this volume. My thanks also to Hans Hussman, Bob Jenkins, the US Scouting Service Project, the Australian Scouting Association, and a cast of other characters.

Reading and watching William Shakespeare's plays shouldn't make you feel stupid. But the 400 years between when they were written and today have put up barriers of culture and language that make it hard to read or watch them clean. People (alive and dead) are always telling you what to think about these plays instead of just letting you engage them yourself.

What makes RBI so different is that Ron has a genuine curiosity about all of his guests. And there's no script; there's no agenda; there are no pre-written questions. Its just honest, real talk with incredibly talented and creative people about what they do, and how they do it. You can't find interviews like this anywhere else.

" But why does mere revision make so many Shakespeare fans so uncomfortable? Some people don't like any alterations to Shakespeare's text nor even presenting them in anything other than their historical settings. To me, such an ultrapurist approach can lead to what I somewhat derisively call "museum piece Shakespeare"-though, I must say, I do enjoy visiting and spending hours in museums, and among my favorite stagings of Shakespeare are text-centric, historically costumed productions. But even these are cut for length. Furthermore, to varying degrees, each could be called an "adaptation" because any time an actor picks up a Shakespearean role, he or she is adapting it for that production, and sometimes adapting it from performance to performance, depending on the theater and audience."

"'Relaxed' performances, aimed at people with disabilities and their carers, are few and far between - but they have benefits for all of us. The whole point of theatre is that disruption should be possible"

"But not all kinds of audience analysis are evil. It's an important but often-overlooked practice for any organization. When I ask an NGO "who are you trying to engage with?", the answer is often simply "everybody" or "you know, the people on our list". There’s an inclination to think “everybody will obviously be interested in our cause!” In reality, the more you refine who you want to talk to, the easier it is to reach them. Consider these two sample audiences:"

A custom targeted localized publicity campaign can bring get you media coverage in the newspapers, and on radio and TV for your local events. You can conduct the campaign so that you drive people to your event and also get feature stories which talk about your event. Both will improve sales.

Students often get hung up on the notion that in the theatre, sets, costumes, props all have to meet the standard of the movies. They have to be three dimensional and real. A car must have four wheels and move. A house must have two levels and different rooms. The truth is actually quite different - a theatre audience is very forgiving. If you let them know what world the play inhabits (two people sitting side by side on cubes, one holds their hands up as if holding a steering wheel) they will believe. They will go along for the ride. A single object can be so many different things - a chair can be a chair, or a car, or a mountain. The possibilities are endless.

While that might seem semantic, the feedback effect is significant. Rather than reject ideas in their entirety, Pixar creates an additive approach to sharing feedback. It actively encourages artists to come up with their next steps based on the leads they receive. The process borrows from the tenets of improv, in which partners keep the sketch alive by "accepting all offers" and mining for comedic wrinkles in each other's ideas. People who operate with "yes, and…" thinking use their words to amplify ideas, not silence them.