The Understudy (novel)
   HOME
*





The Understudy (novel)
''The Understudy'' is a 2005 novel by David Nicholls. Plot summary Stephen C. McQueen is an actor living in London. Unlike his namesake, the famous Hollywood star, Stephen does not enjoy success, even though he considers himself very good at his profession. His career basically consists of "playing" dead people, i.e. victims of TV crimes, and the eponymous leading role in ''Sammy the Squirrel Sings Favourite Nursery Rhymes''. He lives in a bedsit, and cannot even afford a refrigerator. His wife Alison left him for another man. Often daydreaming about famous actors and their best scenes, Stephen is still looking for his own break-through as an actor. Meanwhile, he focuses on his job as understudy to Josh Harper, who plays Lord Byron on stage of the ''Hyperion Theatre'' on Shaftesbury Avenue. Josh, only recently voted the 12th sexiest man in the world, is the star of the show and embarking on a Hollywood career, having already collected a BAFTA award and waiting the release of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


David Nicholls (writer)
David Alan Nicholls''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England and Wales, 1837–2006''. 6B. p. 1327. (born 30 November 1966) is a British novelist and screenwriter. Early life and education Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril College at Eastleigh, Hampshire, taking A-levels in Drama, English Literature, Physics and Biology. He also took part in college drama productions, playing a wide range of roles. He went onto study at the University of Bristol, graduating with a BA in Drama and English in 1988. He later trained as an actor at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. First career Throughout his 20s, he worked as an actor, using the stage name David Holdaway. He played small roles at various theatres, including the West Yorkshire Playhouse and, for a three-year period, at the Royal National Theatre. He struggled as an actor and has said "I’d committed myself to a profession for which I lacked not just talent a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Shaftesbury Avenue
Shaftesbury Avenue is a major road in the West End of London, named after The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It runs north-easterly from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus. From Piccadilly Circus to Cambridge Circus, it is in the City of Westminster, and from Cambridge Circus to New Oxford Street, it is in the London Borough of Camden. Shaftesbury Avenue was built between 1877 and 1886 by the architect George Vulliamy and the engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, to provide a north–south traffic artery through the crowded districts of St. Giles and Soho. It was also part of a slum clearance measure, to push impoverished workers out of the city centre. Although the street's construction was stalled by legislation requiring rehousing some of these displaced residents, overcrowding persisted. --> Charles Booth's Poverty Map shows the neighbourhood makeup shortly after Shaftesbury Avenue opened. The avenue is generally considered th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Hodder & Stoughton Books
Hodder is an English surname, derived from the Old English word "hod", meaning hood. People * Christopher Hodder-Williams (1926–1995), British writer *Francis Hodder (1906–1943), Irish cricketer, rugby union player and Royal Air Force officer *Harvey Hodder (born 1943), Canadian politician * Ian Hodder (born 1948), British archaeologist *Jim Hodder (musician) (1947–1990), American musician, from Steely Dan *Kane Hodder (born 1955), American actor and stuntman * Mark Hodder (fl. 2010–2015), English writer *Michael Hodder (1968–1999), British train driver killed in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash *Stephen Hodder, MBE (born 1956), English architect *Walter Hodder (born 1909-1993), Canadian educater and politician * Jim Hodder (politician) (1940-2021), Canadian politician * Mary Hodder (born 1945), Canadian politician * Other uses *Hodder & Stoughton, a British publisher * Kane Hodder (band), American hardcore band * River Hodder, a river in Lancashire, England See also * ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

2005 British Novels
5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on each hand. In mathematics 5 is the third smallest prime number, and the second super-prime. It is the first safe prime, the first good prime, the first balanced prime, and the first of three known Wilson primes. Five is the second Fermat prime and the third Mersenne prime exponent, as well as the third Catalan number, and the third Sophie Germain prime. Notably, 5 is equal to the sum of the ''only'' consecutive primes, 2 + 3, and is the only number that is part of more than one pair of twin primes, ( 3, 5) and (5, 7). It is also a sexy prime with the fifth prime number and first prime repunit, 11. Five is the third factorial prime, an alternating factorial, and an Eisenstein prime with no imaginary part and real part of the form 3p ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Novels By David Nicholls
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lycra
Spandex, Lycra, or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is a polyether-polyurea copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont's Benger Laboratory in Waynesboro, Virginia, US. The generic name "spandex", which is an anagram of the word "expands", is the preferred name in North America. In continental Europe, it is referred to by variants of "elastane", including (France), (Germany, Sweden), (Spain), (Italy), and (Netherlands); and in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand, it is primarily known as "Lycra". Brand names for spandex include Lycra (made by The Lycra Company, previously a division of DuPont Textiles and Interiors), Elaspan (The Lycra Company), Acepora (Taekwang Group), Creora (Hyosung), INVIYA (Indorama Corporation), ROICA and Dorlastan (Asahi Kasei), Linel (Fillattice), and ESPA (Toyobo). History In the post-World War II era, DuPont Textiles Fibers Department ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Extra (acting)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera, or ballet production who appears in a nonspeaking or nonsinging (silent) capacity, usually in the background (for example, in an audience or busy street scene). War films and epic films often employ background actors in large numbers: some films have featured hundreds or even thousands of paid background actors as cast members (hence the term "cast of thousands"). Likewise, grand opera can involve many background actors appearing in spectacular productions. On a film or TV set, background actors are usually referred to as "junior artists", "atmosphere", "background talent", "background performers", "background artists", "background cast members", or simply "background", while the term "extra" is rarely used. In a stage production, background actors are commonly referred to as " supernumeraries". In opera and ballet, they are called either "extras" or "supers". Casting Casting criteria fo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


British Academy Of Film And Television Arts
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *''Brit(ish)'', a 2018 memoir by Afua Hirsch *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) See also

* Terminology of the British Isles * Alternative names for the British * English (other) * Britannic (other) * British Isles * Brit (other) * Brito ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the greatest of English poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy Narrative poem, narratives ''Don Juan (poem), Don Juan'' and ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage''; many of his shorter lyrics in ''Hebrew Melodies'' also became popular. Byron was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, later traveling extensively across Europe to places such as Italy, where he lived for seven years in Venice, Ravenna, and Pisa after he was forced to flee England due to lynching threats. During his stay in Italy, he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire and died leading a campaign during that war, for which Greeks rev ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Hodder & Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint (trade name), imprint of Hachette (publisher), Hachette. History Early history The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publisher for the Congregational church, Congregational Union. In 1861 the firm became Jackson, Walford and Hodder; but in 1868 Jackson and Walford retired, and Thomas Wilberforce Stoughton joined the firm, creating Hodder & Stoughton. Hodder & Stoughton published both religious and secular works, and its religious list contained some progressive titles. These included George Adam Smith, George Adam Smith's ''Isaiah'' for its ''Expositor’s Bible'' series, which was one of the earliest texts to identify multiple authorship in the Book of Isaiah. There was also a sympathetic ''Life of Francis of Assisi, St Francis'' by Paul Sabatier (theologian), Paul Sabatier, a French Protestant pastor. Matthew Hodder ma ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Understudy
In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness, injury, emergencies or death, the understudy takes over the part. Usually when the understudy takes over, the theater manager announces the cast change prior to the start of the performance. Coined in 1874, the term ''understudy'' has more recently generally been applied only to performers who can back up a role, but still regularly perform in another role. Similar tasks Performers who are only committed to covering a part and do not regularly appear in the show are often referred to as standbys and alternates. Standbys are normally required to sign in and remain at the theater the same as other cast members, although sometimes they may call in, until they are released by the production stage manager. If ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bedsit
A bedsit, bedsitter, or bed-sitting room is a form of accommodation common in some parts of the United Kingdom which consists of a single room per occupant with all occupants typically sharing a bathroom. Bedsits are included in a legal category of dwellings referred to as houses in multiple occupation (HMO). Bedsits arose from the subdivision of larger dwellings into low-cost accommodation at low conversion cost. In the UK, a growing desire for personal independence after World War II led to a reduced demand for traditional boarding houses with communal dining. Bedsits are often occupied by young single people, students, those unable to purchase their own properties, or those whose occupation is of a transitory nature; the cost is typically lower than for other types of property. Someone whose employment is a long distance from their home may sometimes rent a bedsit to reduce the cost and inconvenience of daily travel. Other countries The Canadian and American equivalents to ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]