Best of
Drama

1998

True to the Game


Teri Woods - 1998
    Gena the main character finds herself in true blue love with Quadir, a millionaire associated with the cartel. Quadir is faced with combating the art of extortion and interception masterminded by the notorious Junior Mafia, which reigns from the inner city streets of Philadelphia onto the pages of this book. Both Gena and Quadir find themselves caught up in the vicious, yet seductive, world of drugs and money, only to find that success int his Game is no easy win. There's no way out once you're in, and everyone in stays forever...TRUE. Enjoy a copy today of the ORIGINAL and CLASSIC cover copy of TRUE TO THE GAME!

Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty, 1485-1917


Richard Curtis - 1998
    Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty is the book for you. Here, at last, for the first time, are the full scripts of one of British television's funniest comedies. Follow the hilarious misadventures of the despicable Edmund Blackadder and his dimwitted sidekick Baldrick through four centuries of hopelessly mangled English history: from medieval nastiness through English history: from medieval nastiness through Elizabethan and Regency glory, to the mud and sauteed rats of the First World War. Aside from the ball-bouncingly funny scripts themselves, Blackadder also features special bonus sections: "Instruments of Torture in the Late Middle Ages"; "Medieval Medicine" ("1. Herbs; 2. Leeches; 3. Saw It Off"); and an indispensable "Index of Blackadder's Finest Insults".

The Wake of the Wind


J. California Cooper - 1998
    California Cooper's third novel, is her most penetrating look yet at the challenges that generations of African Americans have had to overcome in order to carve out a home for themselves and their families. Set in Texas in the waning years of the Civil War, the novel tells the dramatic story of a remarkable heroine, Lifee, and her husband, Mor. When Emancipation finally comes to Texas, Mor, Lifee, and the extended family they create from other slaves who are also looking for a home and a future, set out in search of a piece of land they can call their own. In the face of constant threats, they manage not only to survive but to succeed--their crops grow, their children thrive, they educate themselves and others. Lifee and Mor pass their intelligence, determination, and talents along to their children, the next generation to surge forward. At once tragic and triumphant, this is an epic story that captures with extraordinary authenticity the most important struggle of the last hundred years.

Rosie


Lesley Pearse - 1998
    But when housekeeper Heather Farley arrives, Rosie finds a mother - and a friend - to look after her.Several years later, Thomas Farley comes to find his sister. Rosie can only tell him that she disappeared in mysterious circumstances, abandoning her small son Alan. Determined to get young Alan and Rosie out of the clutches of Cole and his sons, Thomas helps unearth a terrible truth about the family. A truth that forces Rosie away from the farm and out into a cruel world where she must somehow come to terms with her shocking past. Is it possible that the man who brought ruin on her family might also bring happiness to Rosie?

Searching for David's Heart: A Christmas Story


Cherie Bennett - 1998
    Then she meets the boy who received David's heart in an organ transplant, and learns that life truly does go on.A journey of faith, hope, and love.Life at Darcy's house isn't always easy. Money is tight, and her parents argue a lot. Darcy's shy and quiet with most people, but it's not like that with her brother, David. He and Darcy are soul mates. Until David gets a girlfriend, that is, and starts to treat Darcy as if she were a pest. Darcy is hurt and humiliated, and one day after a huge fight, Darcy runs off. David chases after her and is killed in a shocking accident. Darcy is sure his death is her fault.Then Darcy's parents decide to donate David's heart for transplant. Darcy believes that if she can find David's heart, even if it's beating in someone else's body, she will have found her brother, and in some way he will still be alive. And so the search for David's heart begins.

I Know This Much Is True


Wally Lamb - 1998
    . . .One of the most acclaimed novels of our time, Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True is a story of alienation and connection, devastation and renewal, at once joyous, heartbreaking, poignant, mystical, and powerfully, profoundly human.

Jessica


Bryce Courtenay - 1998
    One quiet day, the peace of the bush is devastated by a terrible murder. Only Jessica is able to save the killer from the lynch mob – but will justice prevail in the courts?Nine months later, a baby is born … with Jessica determined to guard the secret of the father's identity. The rivalry of Jessica and her beautiful sister for the love of the same man will echo throughout their lives – until finally the truth must be told.Set in the harsh Australian bush against the outbreak of World War I, this novel is heartbreaking in its innocence, and shattering in its brutality.'A deserved bestseller, based on fact, a story told with heartbreaking honesty.' Australian Women's Weekly'Courtenay draws on the social satire of Jane Austen and the dark forces of Thomas Hardy, and his tragic heroine parallels Antigone … ' Herald Sun

Breaking The Silence


Diane Chamberlain - 1998
    A woman who remembers nothing—except the distant past. Visiting Sarah Tolley seemed a small enough sacrifice to make.But Laura's promise results in another death. Her husband's. And after their five-year-old daughter, Emma, witnesses her father's suicide, Emma refuses to talk about it…to talk at all.Frantic and guilt ridden, Laura contacts the only person who may be able to help. A man she's met only once—six years before. A man who doesn't know he's Emma's real father.Guided only by a child's silence and an old woman's fading memories, the two unravel a tale of love and despair, of bravery and unspeakable evil. A tale that's shrouded in silence…and that unbelievably links them all.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane and Other Plays


Martin McDonagh - 1998
    "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" portrays ancient, manipulative Mag and her virginal daughter, Maureen, whose mutual loathing may be more durable than any love. In "A Skull in Connnemara," Mick Dowd is hired to dig up the bones in the town churchyard, some of which belong to his late and oddly unlamented wife. And the brothers of "The Lonesome West" have no sooner buried their father than they are resuming the vicious and utterly trivial quarrel that has been the chief activity of their lives. "[McDonagh is] the most wickedly funny, brilliantly abrasive young dramatist on either side of the Irish Sea.... He is a born storyteller."--"New York Times"

The Lion King: Pride Rock On Broadway


Julie Taymor - 1998
    This book features a developmental history of the production through beautiful artwork, photos, and behind-the-scenes details of the challenges the director and actors faced and the making of the elaborate sets, costumes, and masks.

Learning To Swim


Clare Chambers - 1998
    In dramatic contrast to her own conventional family, the Radleys were extraordinary, captivating creatures transplanted from a bohemian corner of North London to outer suburbia, and the young Abigail found herself drawn into their magic circle: the eccentric Frances, her new best friend; Frances' mother, the liberated, headstrong Lexi; and of course the brilliant, beautiful Rad.Abigail thought she'd banished the ghost of her life with them and the catastrophe that ended it, but thirteen years later a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken ...

Charlie


Lesley Pearse - 1998
    Charlie meets kind, funny student Andrew, whose love helps her through the hard times and further unexpected tragedy. Together, can they unravel the mysteries of the past that haunt the Welsh family? And will facing up to those mysteries destroy their love for each other or make it stronger?

Hedwig and the Angry Inch


John Cameron Mitchell - 1998
    In 2001, the mesmerizing film adaptation was released to equally glowing reviews. Brilliantly innovative and oddly endearing, Hedwig and the Angry Inch—inspired by Plato’s Symposium—is the story of “internationally ignored song stylist” Hedwig Schmidt, the victim of a gruesomely botched sex-change operation, as dazzlingly recounted by Hedwig (née Hansel) herself in the form of a lounge act, backed by the rock band The Angry Inch.

Milk in My Coffee


Eric Jerome Dickey - 1998
    When he shares a ride with a vivacious young white girl, a romance grow between the unlikely pair--much to the chagrin of Jordan's friends and family. Love on the other side of the color bar forces him to examine his own values and makes him stand up against what everyone expects him to do. In this brightly entertaining and emotionally complex novel, Dickey again demonstrates why he is one of the hottest voices in African-American fiction today.

Chinatown


Robert Towne - 1998
    Jake Gittes is a successful 'bedroom dick': a private eye specialising in cases of marital infidelity. Paradoxically he might also be the last truly ethical man in a corrupt town. Lured into an investigation of the death-by-drowning of City Water Commissioner Hollis Mulwray, Gittes gets more than usually entwined with his new client, Mulwray's enigmatic widow Evelyn. He then finds himself crossing swords with Evelyn's redoubtable father, the aging business magnate Noah Cross, who has professional and personal reasons of his own for wanting both Hollis and Evelyn silenced.Academy Award-winner for Best Original Screenplay of 1974, Robert Towne's Chinatown is widely regarded as the finest American movie script of the post-war years. Complex in narrative design, infused with the sordid real-life history of Los Angeles' economic growth and unmistakably adult in its updating of the trademark violence and sexual intrigue of film noir, on the page Chinatown still shines - and cuts - like a blade.

The Complete Talking Heads


Alan Bennett - 1998
    In Bed Among the Lentils, a vicar's wife discovers a semblance of happiness with an Indian shop owner. In A Chip in the Sugar, a man's life begins to unravel when he discovers his aging mother has rekindled an old flame. In A Lady of Letters, a busybody pays a price for interfering in her neighbor's life.First produced for BBC television in 1988 to great critical acclaim, the Talking Heads monologues also appeared on the West End Stage in London in 1992 and 1998. In 2002, seven of the pieces were performed at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles for a highly praised brief engagement, and in 2003 a selection of the monologues premiered in New York at the Minetta Lane Theatre. These extraordinary portraits of ordinary people confirm Alan Bennett's place as one of the most gifted, versatile, and important writers in the English Language.

Aik Mohabbat Sau Afsanay / ایک محبت سو افسافے


Ashfaq Ahmed - 1998
    Ashfaq Ahmed is a consummate master of words.

Crave


Sarah Kane - 1998
    It received its English premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London in September 1998.

A Daughter's Choice


June Francis - 1998
    But when Celia, her natural mother, re-enters her life, her world is turned completely upside down.Tormented by her divided loyalties, Katie is plagued by a question Celia refuses to answer – who is her real father? (Note: Originally published as Somebody Else's Girl)

Singing in the Comeback Choir


Bebe Moore Campbell - 1998
    Witty, warm, and wonderful, this new novel from the author of Brothers and Sisters and Your Blues Ain't Like Mine takes readers into the lives of two unforgettable women: Maxine, who thinks she has it all, and her grandmother Lindy, a once-brilliant singer who's about to give Maxine a lesson in faith, commitment--and comebacks.

Mallawindy


Joy Dettman - 1998
    Six years later her sister Liza disappears while they are staying at their uncle's property. What Ann sees that day robs her of her memory and her speech. Ann escapes her anguished childhood, finding love and a new life away from Mallawindy. But there is no escape from the Burton family and its dark secrets. Ann must return to Mallawindy and confront the past if she is ever to be free.

Got Your Back: Protecting Tupac in the World of Gangsta Rap


Frank Alexander - 1998
    Millions of fans wept, while many critics claimed it was the inevitable result of a thugged-out lifestyle. The mystery surrounding the shooting-a suspect has yet to be named-has increased, and rumors of gang wars, disloyalty, and government conspiracies continue to linger. Only Frank Alexander, Tupac's bodyguard druing the last year of his life, knows the real story.Got Your Back details the exploits of one of the most famous rappers of all time. The drugs, the women, the violence, the money-all provided fuel to the fire that was Tupac's life. As his platinum-selling, posthumously released albums prove, Tupac lives on through his music. Complete with exclusive new interview material with Tupac's mother, Afeni, Got Your Back provides an insider's view of a life gone awry.

A Place Called Morning


Ann Tatlock - 1998
     Booklist, Starred Review! Mae Demaray retreats from life after her young grandson dies accidentally while under her care. What was once a quiet life in an old clapboard house on a quiet Minneapolis street, rich with the hues of security and love, is now shattered. But a decades-old family secret, based on an unlikely friendship over the years, brings redemption and restoration once it is revealed.

Coast Road


Barbara Delinsky - 1998
    Barbara Delinsky has always had a gift for creating tales of extraordinary emotional power and depth. Now the New York Times bestselling author of Three Wishes surpasses herself once again in a novel that takes readers on a journey as richly textured, colorful, and poignant as the northern California landscape in which the book is set. Rachel Keats and Jack McGill were artists, deeply in love when they married, until the rush of life took its toll. After ten years of marriage, they divorced and went their separate ways. Jack stayed in San Francisco. Rachel moved with their two young daughters to Big Sur. Six years later, an alarming middle-of-the-night phone call demands that Jack put aside his own busy life and career as a leading architect to rush to his ex-wife's hospital bed. While she lies comatose, Jack maintains a bedside vigil and finds himself getting to know Rachel better than he ever did -- through their daughters, her friends, and, even more, through her art. Meanwhile, the beauty and grace of the Redwood canyon where she has made her home also work their own special alchemy upon Jack. He begins to see Rachel, his daughters, and the story of his marriage with new eyes. Coast Road celebrates those things in life that matter most -- the kinship of neighbors, the companionship of friends, and the irreplaceable time spent with children and family. Barbara Delinsky depicts with exquisite accuracy the ties that bind each of us to those people and places we hold most dear.

The Apartment


Billy Wilder - 1998
    Jack Lemmon played the 'schnook' who lends out his apartment for his boss's sexual trysts, only to fall in love with the boss's girl - played by Shirey MacLaine. The Apartment is a beautifully judged piece of writing saved from cynicism by Wilder and Diamond's tenderness towards their central characters. This edition of the screenplay includes a specially commissioned introduction by Mark Cousins.

Eleemosynary


Lee Blessing - 1998
    As the play begins, Dorothea has suffered a stroke, and while Echo has reestablished contact with her mother, it is only through extended telephone conversations, during which real issues are skirted and their talk is mostly about the precocious Echo's single-minded domination of a national spelling contest. But, in the end, after Dorothea's death, both Artie and Echo come to accept their mutual need and summon the courage to try, at last, to build a life together-despite the risks and terrors that this holds for both of them after so many years of alienation and estrangement.

The Pact


Jodi Picoult - 1998
    Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet—a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.

Collected Stories


Donald Margulies - 1998
    Changing styles in feminist thought, the tangled connections between creativity and ideology, the writer’s odd place in our money-centered world, the way we turn our friends into surrogate families—while always fluid and lively, the play is thick with ideas, like a stockpot of good stew.” –Michael Feingold, Village Voice“Beautifully layered. Margulies delivers a spot-on glimpse of New York's literary scene: the power of a Times book review, or the milestone of the 92nd Y's authors series, or the significance of a little-known but much-revered lit mag like the now-defunct Grand Street. He's even better at teasing the sense of betrayal that can dissolve creative friendships…the ethics of friendship and fiction smack into each other.” –Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post“[Collected Stories] digs into its engaging tale of aesthetics and ethics with intelligence and sharp, literate humor….Mr. Margulies has found fertile material in the struggles of the creative classes to reconcile the demands of ambition with the exigencies of life.” –New York Times“This provocative piece of theater serves as a timely reminder that we are defined by our feelings and memories — and such precious thoughts are sacred.” –Matthew J. Palm, Orlando SentinelCollected Stories explores the vexed emotional and legal question of a writer's right to create art from the biographical material of another person's life-particularly when that other person is also a writer. Meditating upon the recent, real-life conflict between poet Stephen Spender and novelist David Leavitt, Margulies has created two of the most vivid and moving fictional characters of his career: Ruth Steiner, an aging, highly regarded author who never wrote about her youthful affair with real-life poet Delmore Schwartz, and Lisa Morrison, a student of Steiner's who, after publishing a much-ballyhooed first short-story collection under Steiner's direction, follows up with a novel that draws upon the Schwartz affair. The result is charged drama with the depth and weight of the finest prose fiction. Winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best New Play.Donald Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends. The play received numerous awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination, and has been produced all over the United States and around the world. In addition to his adaptation of God of Vengeance, his many plays include Collected Stories, The Country House, Sight Unseen, The Model Apartment, The Loman Family Picnic, What’s Wrong with This Picture? and Time Stands Still. Mr. Margulies currently lives with his wife and their son in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at Yale University.

Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human


Harold Bloom - 1998
    A landmark achievement as expansive, erudite, and passionate as its renowned author, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human is the culmination of a lifetime of reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare. Preeminent literary critic-and ultimate authority on the western literary tradition-Harold Bloom leads us through a comprehensive reading of every one of the dramatist's plays, brilliantly illuminating each work with unrivaled warmth, wit and insight. At the same time, Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created human nature as we know it today.

Palace of Tears


Anna King - 1998
    If finding her mother Nellie in hospital after a savage beating from her husband wasn’t enough, Emily’s plight deepens when she yields to the advances of Tommy, a young soldier, and becomes pregnant with his child.Not for nothing is Victoria station nicknamed the ‘palace of tears’. As trainloads of men leave for the Western Front, and Emily says goodbye to Tommy, she is left contemplating the life of a single mother. Yet amidst the devastation, happiness still lies within her grasp… A classic saga of World War One, Palace of Tears is a perfect read for fans of Carol Rivers, Sally Warboyes, and Annie Murray.

Love Thine Enemy


Nora Fountain - 1998
     Paris has always been one of her favourite places, but as she walks down the street on her first day and sees a tall stranger with cornflower blue eyes and hair the colour of wheat, she is hit by what the French call un coup de foudre, and her life is changed forever. Maximilian von Engelberg is a German, but despite being proud of Germany, he is against the Nazis, unlike his brother Herman, who is with the SS. He, too, hopes war can be averted, but knows it is a matter of time. He also knows he should stay away from Helen Latimer, but he can’t help himself. Christian Meursault is the Count of Clemenceau, and owns a chateau in Normandy. He has his friends for a weekend, including Helen and Max, and as they play in the pool and eat fabulous food, no one can imagine war. But soon, Hitler invades Poland, and war is inevitable. As Helen’s brother Charles calls her home, Max’s brother Herman insists he return to the Fatherland as well. But when Helen discovers she is pregnant, Max decides they will marry, and escape to Portugal, a country that is neutral. But fate has other plans for them, and Max ends up in Germany. Soon they are both married to other people, as war rages around them. But despite impossible odds, this is not the end of the story for Max, who ends up based in Normandy, and Helen, who starts to work for the French Resistance when her beloved brother Charles is shot down over the English Channel. With so much death, who knows who will survive, and at what cost? Rich in history and filled with the joy of life, Love Thine Enemy is a satisfying read brimming with romance and love during a very dark time. Praise for Nora Fountain ‘Love conquers all in this moving historical romance’ – Holly Kinsella Nora Fountain is a professional novelist and translator. Her short stories have been published in many magazines in the UK and abroad. She writes both contemporary and historical romance, and loves to paint. Nora has served on the committee of the Romantic Novelists Association and is a member of the Society of Authors and the Chartered Institute of Linguists. She lives in Dorset, where she finds Thomas Hardy country and the people who live there, an inspiration.

Tales from Shakespeare


Marcia Williams - 1998
    With the help of her signature comic-strip style, the Bard’s 400-year-old masterworks become as relevant to young readers today as they were to theatergoers way back then.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - Illustrated Screenplay


George Lucas - 1998
    From the Rebels' defeat at the Battle of Hoth to the battle between Luke and Darth Vader, The Empire Strikes Back continues the story of Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and the others as they struggle to overthrow the evil Galactic Empire.

The Long Road Home


Danielle Steel - 1998
    The click, click click of her mother's high heels strikes terror into her heart, as she has been told that she is to blame for her mother's rage - and her father's failure to protect her. Her world is a confusing blend of terror, betrayal and pain, and Gabriella knows that there is no safe place for her to hide.When her parents' marriage collapses, her father disappears and her mother abandons her to a convent, where Gabriella's battered body and soul begin to mend amid the quiet safety and hushed rituals of the nuns. And when she grows into womanhood, young Father Joe Connors comes into her life. Like Gabriella, Joe is haunted by the pain of his childhood, and with her he takes the first steps towards healing. But their relationship leads to disaster as Joe must choose between the priesthood and Gabriella. She struggles to survive on her own in New York, where she seeks escape through her writing, until eventually she is able to find forgiveness, freedom from guilt, and healing from abuse.In this work of daring and compassion, Danielle Steel has created a vivid portrait of an abused child's broken world which will shock and move you to your very soul.

The House of Yes


Wendy Macleod - 1998
    Book by Wendy MacLeod, MacLeod, Wendy

By the Bog of Cats - Acting Edition


Marina Carr - 1998
    Set on the bleak, ghostly landscape of the Bog of Cats, this provocative drama discloses one woman's courageous attempts to lay claim to that which is hers, as her world is torn in two. At the age of seven, Hester was abandoned on the side of the bog by her wild and fiercely independent mother, Big Josie Swane. Hester has spent a lifetime waiting for Big Josie to return. To compound her sense of abandonment, Hester's long-term lover, Carthage Kilbride, with whom she has a seven-year-old daughter, is selling her "down the river" for the promise of land and wealth through a marriage with the local big farmer's daughter. Alone and dejected, Hester has no one to whom she can turn except the local misfits, Monica Murray and the Catwoman. As ever in Carr's dramas, the small community is populated by richly woven characters from the outrageous, stultifying mother of the groom, Mrs. Kilbride, to the brutal and mercenary farmer, Xavier Cassidy. In the final moments of the action, we witness a woman provoked beyond the limits of human endurance. BY THE BOG OF CATS is a furious, uncompromising tale of greed and betrayal, of murder and profound self-sacrifice.

Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America


Sarah Schulman - 1998
    Written with a powerful and personal voice, Schulman’s book is part gossipy narrative, part behind-the-scenes glimpse into the New York theater culture, and part polemic on how mainstream artists co-opt the work of “marginal” artists to give an air of diversity and authenticity to their own work. Rising above the details of her own case, Schulman boldly uses her suspicions of copyright infringement as an opportunity to initiate a larger conversation on how AIDS and gay experience are being represented in American art and commerce. Closely recounting her discovery of the ways in which Rent took materials from her own novel, Schulman takes us on her riveting and infuriating journey through the power structures of New York theater and media, a journey she pursued to seek legal restitution and make her voice heard. Then, to provide a cultural context for the emergence of Rent—which Schulman experienced first-hand as a weekly theater critic for the New York Press at the time of Rent’s premiere—she reveals in rich detail the off- and off-off-Broadway theater scene of the time. She argues that these often neglected works and performances provide more nuanced and accurate depictions of the lives of gay men, Latinos, blacks, lesbians and people with AIDS than popular works seen in full houses on Broadway stages. Schulman brings her discussion full circle with an incisive look at how gay and lesbian culture has become rapidly commodified, not only by mainstream theater productions such as Rent but also by its reduction into a mere demographic made palatable for niche marketing. Ultimately, Schulman argues, American art and culture has made acceptable a representation of “the homosexual” that undermines, if not completely erases, the actual experiences of people who continue to suffer from discrimination or disease. Stagestruck’s message is sure to incite discussion and raise the level of debate about cultural politics in America today.

Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour


Scott Skelton - 1998
    This multisegment foray into the macabre proved to be a new forum for Serling's unique brand of storytelling. In chronicling the turbulent history behind this innovative program, authors Scott Skelton and Jim Benson provide fascinating production detail and behind-the-scenes material, with critical commentary, complete cast and credit listings, and synopses of all ninety-eight episodes.Containing more than one hundred photographs-some never before published-this book is spiced with anecdotes from such film and television luminaries as Leonard Nimoy, John Astin, Sydney Pollack, Roddy McDowall, Richard Kiley, and Leslie Nielsen. Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour offers the first comprehensive overview of a significant entry in the annals of classic television.

The Collected Plays, Vol. 4


Neil Simon - 1998
    For more than thirty years, Simon's wry and astute observations on life, love, and the human condition have been making audiences laugh uproariously even as his beautifully realized characters touch their hearts. These five plays, including the Pulitzer- and Tony-award-winning Lost in Yonkers, show Simon at the pinnacle of his extraordinary career. Rumors Lost in Yonkers Jake's Women Laughter on the 23rd Floor London Suite Including the author's introduction: "How to Stop Writing and Other Impossibilities"

Velvet Goldmine


Todd Haynes - 1998
    At the center of the story is Brian Slade, a glam rocker of the '70s whose rise and fall becomes the subject of an expose by a British newspaper reporter thirteen years later.

Rumpole and the Man of God


John Mortimer - 1998
    Luckily, Rumpole's got other ways to sway a jury. Meanwhile, an old friend's fiancee is looking suspiciously familiar. But from where? Once more, John Mortimer lets Rumpole maintain his hilariously cynical commentary throughout ceaseless smoking, drinking and uncommon lawyering.

Talking Heads 2


Alan Bennett - 1998
    From Patricia Routledge's Miss Fozzard, whose new chiropodist turns out to be rather peculiar, to Eileen Atkins' portryal of an antiques dealer who lets a masterpiece slip through her fingers, the characters come alive through Bennett's writing.These tales of desperation and loneliness are handled with the lightness of touch, compassion and shrewdly observed detail that have made Alan Bennett one of the country's best-loved writers: 'Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet' with Patricia Routledge / 'The Hand of God' with Eileen Atkins / 'Playing Sandwiches' with David Haig / 'The Outside Dog' with Julie Walters / 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' with Penelope Wilton / 'Waiting for the Telegram' with Thora Hird.

The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volume 2


Paul Lauter - 1998
    In response to readers' requests, the editors of the "Heath Anthology continue to develop and reinforce its greatest strengths: diverse reading selections and strong ancillaries. With the assistance of more than 200 contributing editors, the editors have updated biographical and critical information and added new works of interest to both instructors and students.The Fourth Edition features writers and selections that highlight the divergent communities and diverse voices constituting the United States, both past and present. Volume 2 (which can be packaged with a free supplement of Whitman and Dickinson works) opens with African American folk tales and regional writers, and includes sections on the Beat Movement and the Vietnam Conflict.

Voyage Beyond Doubt


Bruce Moen - 1998
    The ultimate travel memoir, Voyage Beyond Doubt allows you to witness the power of the human mind as moen uses his Monroe Institute training to communicate with the dead, journey through the afterlife and come back again with a greater understanding of life, death, and what it's really all about.Moen relates numerous incredible experiences of discovery: meeting his dead grandmother, aiding lost souls to find their way to the afterlife, beginning a "ghost-busting" service, and gaining a fuller, more complete understanding of the regions of the nonphysical. Moen even encounters now-deceased OBE explorer Bob Monroe in his travels in the beyond. A thrilling adventure into the unknown. Voyage Beyond Doubt is a travel guide for the new intrepid explorers of the nonphysical realms.

Terra Nova


Ted Tally - 1998
    Refusing the use of sled dogs as unsporting, Scott and his team struggle to drag their heavy gear across a frozen wasteland, only to find that Amundsen has preceded them to their goal. The play is also a study of British pride and upper-class resolve—Scott's aristocratic sense of destiny and command and his young bride's ability to understand her husband's compulsive drive while failing to accept his motivations. But it is in the tragic trip back, as the members of the expedition die one by one, that the play reaches its dramatic apogee, capturing with chilling intensity the awesome bravery of men who must accept the bitter knowledge that suffering and death will be the only reward for their heroism.

Sweet Smell of Success


Clifford Odets - 1998
    Written by Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest, The Sound of Music) and the celebrated leftist playwright Clifford Odets, it is a vicious dissection of the world of public relations and journalism which conjures up a world of creeping hysteria and acid disenchantment. Tony Curtis playing the scuttling press agent Sidney Falco, and Burt Lancaster the Walter Winchell-like columnist J. J. Hunsecker, gave the performances of their careers.With a specially commissioned introduction by Ernest Lehman, and an appreciation of the film's director, Alexander Mackendrick, by James Mangold.

More Far Eastern Tales


W. Somerset Maugham - 1998
    From the love affair between a missionary and a drunkard to the mystery surrounding a death at sea, this collection gives a warm and humourous insight into life and history of life in the colonies and stands as a superbly entertaining and compelling testament to Maugham's skill and power as a short story writer.For an alternate cover edition see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

A Million Tears


Paul Henke - 1998
    For the enterprising immigrant - a land of optimism and hope. From the hardship and poverty of Wales in 1890, this is the story of the Griffiths family and their journey to succeed in the new country. Henke describes the excitement of the pioneers in the early twentieth century. A tale of intrigue and adventure - the characters come to life against the backdrop of the time. You will not want to put this book down.A Million Tears is a mighty epic, a tale of love and hate, murder and suicide, poverty and wealth – this is a story of a family whose devotion for each other helps them to succeed where others fail.

Her Not All Her: On/With Robert Walser


Elfriede Jelinek - 1998
    It highlights what Jelinek calls ‘the fundamental fragmentation’ of Walser’s voice, revealing Walser as ‘one of those people who, when they said “I”, did not mean themselves’. Presented here in a prize-winning translation by Damion Searls, it shows Jelinek to be an impassioned virtuoso reader of classic European writers. The cahier contains an essay by the Director of the Robert Walser Centre, Reto Sorg, and thirteen paintings by the British artist Thomas Newbolt.

Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays


Jean Lee Cole - 1998
    Best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, she also published numerous short stories and essays, three other novels, and two books on black folklore.            Even avid readers of Hurston’s prose, however, may be surprised to know that she was also a serious and ambitious playwright throughout her career. Although several of her plays were produced during her lifetime—and some to public acclaim—they have languished in obscurity for years. Even now, most critics and historians gloss over these texts, treating them as supplementary material for understanding her novels. Yet, Hurston’s dramatic works stand on their own merits and independently of her fiction.            Now, eleven of these forgotten dramatic writings are being published together for the first time in this carefully edited and annotated volume. Filled with lively characters, vibrant images of rural and city life, biblical and folk tales, voodoo, and, most importantly, the blues, readers will discover a “real Negro theater” that embraces all the richness of black life.

Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire (Bloom's Guides)


Harold Bloom - 1998
    - Comprehensive reading and study guides for some of the world's most important literary masterpieces- Concise critical excerpts provide a scholarly overview of each work- "The Story Behind the Story" details the conditions under which the work was written- Each book includes a biographical sketch of the author, a descriptive list of characters, an extensive summary and analysis, and an annotated bibliography

Monster


Daniel MacIvor - 1998
    "Monster," a one-man play, begins in the total darkness of a movie theatre. After a long silence, someone in the audience rudely shushes his neighbour, and the show begins. Daniel MacIvor transforms himself into a series of characters whose lives seem eerily related. There's the young boy who tells the story of the neighbour lad who hacked up his father in the basement. There are alcoholic Al and whiny Janine, the lovers who quarrel, make up, and decide to marry after seeing a movie about a lad who...well, same thing. There's the ex-drunk who dreamed up the movie, but got no credit because he was said to have stolen the idea from a famous unfinished film, a claim that so angered him that he went back on the sauce. And there's the movie maker who made that incomplete epic.

Clouds/Wasps/Peace


Aristophanes - 1998
    446386 BCE), one of the world's greatest comic dramatists, has been admired since antiquity for his iridescent wit and beguiling fantasy, exuberant language, and brilliant satire of the social, intellectual, and political life of Athens at its height. He wrote at least forty plays, of which eleven have survived complete. In this new Loeb Classical Library edition of Aristophanes, Jeffrey Henderson presents a freshly edited Greek text and a lively, unexpurgated translation with full explanatory notes.Three plays are in Volume II of the new edition. Socrates' "Thinkery" is at the center of "Clouds, " which spoofs untraditional techniques for educating young men. "Wasps" satirizes Athenian enthusiasm for jury service and the law courts as well as the city's susceptibility to demagogues. In "Peace, " a rollicking attack on war-makers, the farmer-hero makes his famous trip to heaven on a dung beetle to discuss the issues with Zeus.

The Veil


Diane Noble - 1998
    But that veil is about to be drawn away. Amidst the majestic beauty of 1857 Utah, the members of one secluded religious group claim to want nothing more than to practice their beliefs without persecution. Yet among them are many who engage in secret vows and brutal acts of atonement…all in the name of God.But one young woman, Hannah McClary, dares to question the truth behind the shroud. Soon Hannah and the young man she loves–Lucas Knight, who has been trained from childhood to kill on behalf of the Church–find themselves fighting for their very lives.As a group of unwary pioneer families marches into Utah toward a tragic confrontation with the Saints at a place called Mountain Meadows, Hannah and Lucas are thrust into the most difficult conflict of all–a battle for truth and justice–even as they are learning for the first time about unconditional love, acceptance, and forgiveness.…

The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories


Ilan Stavans - 1998
    The variety of tales captured here is stunning. Readers will find stories such as A Yom Kippur Scandal by Sholem Aleichem, the father of Yiddish literature; Before the Law by Franz Kafka; Looking for Mr. Green by Saul Bellow; The Spinoza of Market Street by Isaac Bashevis Singer; and Midrash on Happiness by Grace Paley. Stavans has included many pieces by Americans, including such markedly different writers as Cynthia Ozick, Bernard Malamud, Moacyr Seliar, Stanley Elkin, Delmore Schwartz, Dan Jacobson, Francine Prose, Allegra Goodman, and Philip Roth. And here too are pieces from around the globe, by writers no less varied: Isaac Babel, Italo Svevo, Primo Levi, Elias Canetti, Amos Oz, and Danilo Kis. What emerges in the end is proof of an observation by Ba'al Makshoves--that the Jews may have many languages and a dozen echoes in foreign tongues, but only one literature. And it is one of the finest in the world.The many marvelous tales that fill The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories affirm that a shared identity can exist without sterile uniformity--and that writers can engage their religious and cultural heritage without losing touch with those rich, complex ambiguities that inhabit the heart.

Four Plays: A Thought in Three Parts / Marie and Bruce / Aunt Dan and Lemon / The Fever


Wallace Shawn - 1998
    Here, four plays are brought together, revealing the mordant social observance and subversive wit of a body of work that has struck terror in the hearts of theatergoers on both sides of the Atlantic. Shawn's themes include sexual convention, historical guilt, and the conflict between high and low culture, all described with a remarkable, attentive language that juxtaposes colloquialisms and slang with poetic incision. Brilliant and biting, his plays are sometimes horrifying, sometimes hilarious, but never, ever dull. They are prizes for any reader ready to be challenged with new, unflinching (and maybe even dangerous) ways of looking at the world.

Naomi in the Living Room and Other Short Plays


Christopher Durang - 1998
    Contains among others:Phyllis and XenobiaA short short play about two sisters, featuring pudding.

A Christmas Carol


Emily Hutchinson - 1998
    Each provides the reader a sense of the author's style and an understanding of the novel's theme.

Alan Bennett at the BBC


Alan Bennett - 1998
    A linking script, written and read by Bennett, is included.

Plays 1: Normal / Penetrator / Year of the Family / The Night Before Christmas / The Censor


Anthony Neilson - 1998
    Anthony Neilson's plays collected in one volumeIncludes the plays: Normal "a tight, powerful, three-hander…achieved with a sense of discipline and thematic energy" (Guardian), Penetrator "This is one of the blackest, funniest and most shocking comedy dramas you will ever see" (Sunday Times), Year of the Family "His writing is as tight and courageous as ever…highly recommended for those who like to think" (What's On), The Night Before Christmas "is a smutty, dangerously funny but ultimately warm-hearted cri de coeur against the Christmas Industry" (Stage); The Censor "is a profound and tragic vision of humanity at its bare forked basics" (Evening Standard).

A Pocket Guide to Shakespeare's Plays


Kenneth McLeish - 1998
    The book includes an introduction to Shakespeare and his times, a note on the sources, cast lists, synopses, main character descriptions, an essay on each play and a selection of well-known quotations.

Four Short Plays: Days Ahead / The Madness of Lady Bright / This is the Rill Speaking / Say de Kooning


Lanford Wilson - 1998
    (1 man.) THE MADNESS OF LADY BRIGHT traces the mental breakdown of Lesley Bright, an aging homosexual whose past returns to haunt him with the emptiness of the choices he made. (2 men, 1 woman.) THIS IS THE RILL SPEAKING, A Play for Voices, is a poetic, mosaic-style evocation of small-town life told through multiple voices which shift and blend from identity to identity. (3 men, 3 women.) SAY DE KOONING pits an artist and two female lovers against the very strains of modern life they hoped to escape by summering at the beach. Not even there, though, can they avoid the pitfalls of their own demanding personalities.(1 man, 2 women.)

The White Rose


Lillian Groag - 1998
    Asking for resistance and sabotage of the war effort, among other things, they published their thoughts in five separate anonymous leaflets, which they titled "The White Rose" and which were distributed throughout Germany and Austria during the summer of 1942 and the winter of 1943. When captured, the police inspector of the town, Robert Mohr, is intrigued by Sophie, the youngest of the conspirators and the only girl among them. Mohr, who doesn't really take the crime of passing leaflets so seriously, knows that the Third Reich does and is pressured by a superior, Mahler, to obtain a conviction. Mohr wants to save Sophie from certain execution and tries to get her to sign a confession saying that she didn't know what she was doing and that she was misled by the others. But Sophie counters with why she is fighting for what is right, the meaning of pride and when it counts and the loyalty she feels to the others, especially her brother who is a leader in the group. The conversations between Sophie and Mohr and the interrogation scenes of the other conspirators reveal a complex group of people, all clinging to beliefs that ultimately can not be fulfilled at this point in time. In the end, all in The White Rose group are executed, and the Nazi regime continues its devastation until the end of World War II.

Scooter Thomas Makes it to the Top of the World


Peter Parnell - 1998
    Book annotation not available for this title.

Ms-Directing Shakespeare: Women Direct Shakespeare


Elizabeth Schafer - 1998
    She explores the works of such prestigious directors as Joan Littlewood, actress and director Dame Judi Dench, Gale Edwards, and Jude Kelley, and she looks at a variety of productions directed by women. In interviews with the author, the directors discuss their craft, their critics, and the innovative approaches they have brought to performances of Shakespeare's plays. These thoughtful reflections on the art of directing and the challenges facing women directors will be illuminating reading for anyone interested in the world of the theater and Shakespeare.

Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture


Michael Anderegg - 1998
    Welles's three film adaptations of Shakespeare, Macbeth, Othello, and Chimes at Midnight, are examined.

The Draughtsman's Contract


Peter Greenaway - 1998
    Neville, an ambitious draughtsman, visits the estate of landowner Mr. Herbert at Wiltshire. Securing a commission from Mrs. Herbert, Neville secures a contract whereby he is allowed unrestricted freedom of Mrs. Herbert's most intimate hospitality in exchange for twelve drawings. This adulterous contract is signed without knowledge from Mr. Herbert, and the result is a domestic intrigue from which Mr. Neville is unable to disentangle.

Dog Opera


Constance Congdon - 1998
    They have Manhattan apartments and separate unsatisfactory sex lives. Though more loving than most couples and searching for partners, they are incompatible: he is gay. Maddi is overweight and drawn to men who treat her badly. He hides behind snappy retorts and skepticism. Maddie's alcoholic mother, Peter's father, lovers, pickups and friends with A

Insurrection: Holding History


Robert O'Hara - 1998
    A remarkable debut by a talented new African-American playwright.

Four More by L'Amour (Boxed Set) (Louis L'Amour)


Louis L'Amour - 1998
    Each story is in a one-hour dramatic program, with rousing music, authentic Western sound effects, and a full cast of professional actors.

Low Country


Anne Rivers Siddons - 1998
    Caroline is the chatelaine of a magnificent home, hostess to her husband's wealthy friends and prospective clients, and the official "one-woman welcome wagon" for young, eager talent that her husband, Clay, imports to their corner of South Carolina to work for the family company--a vastly successful land-developing conglomerate. If Caro drinks a little too much for Clay's liking, he knows the reason why, and he takes comfort in the fact that she can escape to the island in the Lowcountry that her beloved Granddaddy left her. Wild and seemingly timeless, the island is a place of incomparable, breathtaking beauty--and it is the one place where Caroline can lose herself and simply forget.Roaming the island is a band of wild ponies, whose freedom and spirit have captivated Caro since she was a child. When she learns that her husband must either develop the island or lose the company that he spent his whole life building, she is devastated. The Lowcountry is Caroline's heritage--the one constant she believed would never change. A resort would not only tame (and therefore destroy) the island she loves--but what will happen to the wild ponies? Spurred to action and inspired with new purpose, Caroline must confront the part of herself that she has numbed with alcohol and careful avoidance, and she must reconsider her priorities--what is important that she would die for it? In fighting to save the island--her island--Caroline draws on an inner strength that forces her to reconsider her role in society, her marriage, and, ultimately, herself. Low Country is a story of personal renewal and transformation --one woman's proper Old South upbringing and expectations colliding with the new South's runaway prosperity. It is magnificently told, and it is Anne Rivers Siddons at her absolute best.

Rounders Screenplay m/tv: A Screenplay


David Levien - 1998
    Mike McDermott, a law student and master card-player, finds that law school is lacking the kind of thrills and excitement offered by backroom card games.

Four Jacobean Sex Tragedies: William Barksted and Lewis Machin: The Insatiate Countess; Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher: The Maid's Tragedy; Thomas Middleton: The Maiden's Tragedy; John Fletcher: The Tragedy of Valentinian


William Barksted - 1998
    The plays included are The Insatiate Countess, The Maid's Tragedy, The Maiden's Tragedy, and The Tragedy of Valentinian.

Resistance Trilogy: Death and the Maiden


Ariel Dorfman - 1998
    

No Author Better Served: The Correspondence of Samuel Beckett & Alan Schneider


Maurice Harmon - 1998
    The correspondence between Beckett and Schneider offers an unparalleled picture of the art and craft of theater in the hands of two masters. It is also an endlessly enlightening look into the playwright's ideas and methods, his remarks a virtual crib sheet for his brilliant, eccentric plays.Alan Schneider premiered five of Beckett's plays in the United States, including Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, and Endgame, and directed a number of revivals. Preparing for each new production, the two wrote extensive letters--about intended tone, conception of characters, irony and verbal echoes, staging details for scenes, delivery of individual lines. From such details a remarkable sense of the playwright's vision emerges, as well as a feel for the director's task. Of Godot, Beckett wrote to Schneider, "I feel my monster is in safe keeping." His confidence in the director, and Schneider's persistent probing for a surer understanding of each play, have produced a marvelous resource: a detailed map of Beckett's work in conception and in production.The correspondence starts in December 1955, shortly after their first meeting, and continues to Schneider's accidental death in March 1984 (when crossing a street to mail a letter to Beckett). The 500 letters capture the world of theater as well as the personalities of their authors. Maurice Harmon's thorough notes provide a helpful guide to people and events mentioned throughout.

Ruperts Birthday and Other Monologues.


Ken Jenkins - 1998
    Filled with poignant insights about her rural girlhood, the monologue follows the thread of Louisa's life-and makes it clear why the only birthday she acknowledges, or celebrates, is Rupert's. (1 woman.) The second monologue, CHUG, is a tall tale about the picaresque adventures of the title character and his unlikely involvement in the business of raising frogs-thousands of them. Richly humorous and filled with bizarre incidents, Chug's story is both cautionary and enlightening and a tribute to one man's will to win-even when it means coping with a superabundance of frog legs. (1 man.) The third monologue, AN EDUCATED LADY, is a poetic evocation of a magical spring; a pet raccoon named Albert; and a mysterious old man who communes with spirits not of this earth. Moving and disturbing, the story is of dark woods and primal happenings and of secrets carried to the grave. (1 woman.) In the final monologue, CEMETERY MAN, we meet an aging gravedigger who is about to be replaced by a backhoe-and who does not accept the change gracefully. And as he recounts his experiences, it becomes abundantly clear that digging a proper grave is a human thing, which calls for care and concern if the departed are to go peacefully into eternity. (1 man.)

Godzilla Likes to Roar!


Kerry Milliron - 1998
    Godzilla roars when he's hungry, when he wants to play with his monster friends, and when he's tired. But eventually, even monsters have to go to sleep! This is a gentle monster "good night" tale for the youngest Godzilla fans.

Sean O'Casey: Plays 2: The Shadow of a Gunman; The Plough and the Stars; The Silver Tassie; Purple Dust; Hall of Healing


Seán O'Casey - 1998
    "The Shadow of the Gunman" and "The Plough with Stars," two installments in the Dublin Trilogy, give a realistic look at life in the slums of Dublin. Meanwhile, "The Silver Tassie," originally rejected by William Bulter Yeats (director of the Abbey Threatre), is a tragicomedy based on the cruel horrors of World War I. It shows the price which the common people have to pay for the stupidities of war. "Purple Dust "and "Hell and Healing a"re also included in this volume which show O'Casey's use of expressionism and symbolism.

Stanislavski and the Actor


Jean Benedetti - 1998
    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Summertree


Ron Cowen - 1998
    Cowen's hero, just about to turn twenty, is discovered dreaming in the backyard (or is it less friendly territory?) and the action of the play is mostly what happens in his head as he surveys his life up to this particular afternoon. Going backward and forward in time with the swiftness of reverie, we see the young man's relationships with his well-meaning but obtuse father, his loving but possessive mother, his compliant but unsentimental girlfriend. The father keeps after him to dress better, make a lot of friends, stick to business, 'be a man.' The mother shuttles between a desire to see him out of the nest and a yen to keep him at home. The girlfriend will be faithful to him while he's in the Army; but, of course, she'll go to the movies with other fellows. Another character is a neighbor boy, in effect the hero's little brother and sometimes in effect, the hero as a kid. And there is a soldier who helps spell out the true location of this friendly summertree." Which is, ultimately, Vietnam, and a battle from which there will be no return. But the life cycle goes on, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, but filled, always, with the bittersweet memories which must become, in the final essence, all that we can truly hold onto.

The Secret Rapture and Other Plays


David Hare - 1998
    He is the author of seventeen plays, many of which have been presented on Broadway. Included n this collection are Fanshen, A Map of the World, Saigon: Year of the Cat, The Bay at Nice, and The Secret Rapture.

Who's Afraid of Godzilla?


Marc Cerasini - 1998
    He goes off to live alone on a deserted island, then one day, he senses trouble back on Monster Island. He returns to find that Anguirus, one of the monsters, has fallen into a volcano pit. Using his long tail, Godzilla saves Anguirus, and his act of kindness dispels the fears of the other monsters. Happily, Godzilla finally finds a home.