Free (Kindle) Seven Stages by Geoffrey Trease [Vintage Theatre Arts Figure Biography]

[ATDrake]

Seven Stages by the late English author Geoffrey Trease (Wikipedia), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature who was known for his meticulous historical research and contributions to children's literature, is his vintage theatrical/operatic artistic figures biography, focusing on seven men and women from selected countries and centuries and associated professions who made great contributions to the stage in various forms, from Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe to Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Endeavour Press's Odyssey imprint.

This was originally published in 1964 by William Heinemann and comes with suggested Further Reading (circa the 1960s, so probably all long out of print, though maybe some stuff has made it to one of the Projects Gutenberg or the Internet Archive).

Currently free @ Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK and pretty much everywhere else Amazon sells worldwide, since this is being done via their KDP Select exclusive-or-else program)

Description
A theatrical insight…

Geoffrey Trease’s two books, The Seven Queens of England and Seven Kings of England have been captured the imagination and detailed all there is to know about many of our most famous monarchs.

This time he has chosen the world of the theatre as the background for his lively portraits.

Why Seven Stages?

Because there is no one convenient word for everybody who works in the theatre, whether as playwright or composer, producer or manager, actor, singer or dancer.

Why these particular great figures whose stories are told in these pages?

First, because they represent between them all the arts of the theatre.

Secondly, because these men and women from different countries remind us that the stage-door stands open to both sexes and all nationalities.

And thirdly, these seven lives link up to give an outline of theatrical history at all its greatest and most colourful periods: our celebrated characters are seen against famous settings — among them the Elizabethan playhouse, the Paris and Versailles of Louis the Fourteenth, and Drury Lane in the eighteenth century.

But perhaps the best reason of all for selecting these great men and women, is that as human beings, they held a great interest and their lives, both in and outside the theatre, are truly fascinating.