The Wise Child and Magic. Three Plays

Name: The Wise Child and Magic. Three Plays
Price: 62.42 AUD
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ISBN: 9781945938375

Christopher Vened

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Hardback

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English

Moonrise Press
03 November 2025

Theatre direction & production; Creative writing & creative writing guides

""The Wise Child and Magic. Three Plays"" is a creative adaptation from classical fairy tales. ""The Emperor's New Clothes,"" originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, is a satire on human vanity, narcissism, mendacity, and pretentiousness. ""The Maiden without Hands,"" originally included in the Grimm's Fairy Tales, is a surreal story about the fears and hopes a girl experiences during puberty. ""Psyche,"" originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, is a tragic story about a talented Renaissance artist who seeks perfection in art. But he gives up his vocation as a sculptor because a girl breaks his heart. Christopher Vened lives in Los Angeles but he spent his formative years in Poland, as an actor-mime of the internationally renowned Wroclaw Pantomime Theatre - there he acquired a flair for mythological theater. He wrote the acting textbook, ""In Character: An Actor's Workbook for Character Development,"" which has been published by Heinemann Drama since 2000. He has taught acting and movement, both in Europe and the States. He directed and choreographed shows. His writing and directing credits for the stage include the one-man show Human Identity and the play Infidel. Recently his autobiographic book, ""A Theatrical Memoir: An Interview with Myself,"" was published in Poland.

By: Christopher Vened
Imprint: Moonrise Press
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 8mm
Weight: 336g
ISBN: 9781945938375
ISBN 10: 1945938374
Pages: 124
Publication Date: 03 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christopher Vened is originally from Poland where he had an illustrious career as an actor in an internationally renowned theatre company, the Wroclaw Pantomime Theatre of Henryk Tomaszewski. When martial law was declared in Poland in the end of 1981, Christopher defected to the West for political reasons. First, he stayed in West Berlin, where he worked in Transformtheater and founded his own company, Impuls. Then, in 1984, he permanently moved to the USA, where he rebuilt his career teaching acting, choreographing, directing, and writing plays. He wrote the acting book, In Character: An Actor's Workbook for Character Development, which is published by Heinemann Drama since 2000. His writing credits include a one-man show Human Identity; a play Infidel; and A Theatrical Memoir: An Interview with Myself. Recently, he wrote The Theater Manifesto of an Old Man, where he talks about his own philosophy of theatre. He leans towards the theater of meaning, and believes that in modern, postmodern culture, meaning has been relativized, or distorted, or lost, and needs to be restored or rediscovered. His most delightful project was the theatre production of Three Stories, which consists of three plays based on classical fairy tales: The Emperor's New Clothes, The Maiden Without Hands, and Psyche. He was commissioned to write these plays by the Acting Conservatory of OCSA, where he also directed these plays in the school's Studio Theatre, in the fall of 2019.