This latest work from the author of Our Lady of 121st Street "shares many of the traits that have made Mr. Guirgis a playwright to reckon with in recent years: a fierce and questing mind that refuses to settle for glib answers, a gift for identifying with life's losers and an unforced eloquence that finds the poetry in lowdown street talk. [Guirgis brings to the play] a stirring sense of Christian existential pain, which wonders at the paradoxes of faith" (Ben Brantley, The New York Times).

    It is an inspired study in moral uncertainty with the compellingly certain structure of an old-fashioned detective drama. Even as Doubt holds your conscious attention as an intelligently measured debate play, it sends off stealth charges that go deeper emotionally. One of the year’s ten best.”—Ben Brantley, The New York Times“[The] #1 show of the year. How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity unlike anything we have seen from this prolific playwright so far. Blunt yet subtle, manipulative but full of empathy for all sides, the play is set in 1964 but could not be more timely. Doubt is a lean, potent drama . . . passionate, exquisite, important, and engrossing.”—Linda Winer, NewsdayChosen as the best play of the year by over 10 newspapers and magazines, Doubt is set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, where a strong-minded woman wrestles with conscience and uncertainty as she is faced with concerns about one of her male colleagues. This play by John Patrick Shanley—the Bronx-born-and-bred playwright and Academy Award-winning author of Moonstruck—dramatizes issues straight from today’s headlines within a world re-created with knowing detail and a judicious eye. After a stunning, sold-out production at Manhattan Theatre Club, the play has transferred to Broadway.John Patrick Shanley is the author of numerous plays, including Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Dirty Story, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia Sexualis, Sailor’s Song, Savage in Limbo, and Where’s My Money?. He has written extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Congo, Alive, Five Corners, Joe Versus the Volcano (which he also directed), and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for original screenplay.

    Ruhl dramatizes a community of players rehearsing their annual staging of the Easter Passion in three different eras: 1575 northern England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergua, Bavaria, as Hitler is rising to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through Reagan’s presidency. In each period, the players grapple in different ways with the transformative nature of art, and politics are never far in the background, as Queen Elizabeth, Hitler, and Reagan each appear, played by a single commanding actor.Sarah Ruhl’s plays include Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Eurydice, and The Clean House, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work has been widely produced both throughout the country and internationally, and she is the recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

    She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim s families. THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate. Winner of the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award.

    Esther, a black seamstress, sews exquisite lingerie for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. She has saved enough to allow her to dream of one day opening a beauty salon for black women, and at thirty-five years old, longs for a husband and a future. When she begins to receive beautiful letters from a lonesome Caribbean man who is working on the Panama Canal, it looks like life may be about to take a different course.This is the acting edition of the play.

    He is trying to save his life, to save your life—in that order. In his quest for salvation, he'll stop at nothing, be distracted by nothing, except maybe a piece of lint, or the woman in the second row.

    The party that he and his brother Darren have been planning has been brought forward - to tonight.In a lawless, ravaged city, where memories of the past have been brutally erased, the boys and their team survive by realising their clients' darkest fantasies. But just how far are they prepared to go in trading humanity for information? As the light fades and events spiral out of control it becomes clear that on the success of the evening hangs not just their security, but their existence. The world is at its worst?let the party begin. Mercury Fur is a challenging new work containing some explicit scenes that may cause offence.Published to tie-in with the play's premier at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth and The Chololate Factory, London in February 2005, produced by Paines Plough."Philip Ridley is a singular writer, a prolific polymath, probably a genius, and the creator of some of the most peculiar, grotesque and compelling British plays (and films) of the last several years" Time Out

    The production received the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. In 2007, the play opened simultaneously at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York and and at American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco.

    The only homelands that exist are imaginary. Love is nothing; there is only . Eunice, a former prodigy, comes home to decide what to do with the baby that has unexpectedly taken root inside her. But before she can move forward she must first confront the ghosts of a difficult past. 99 HISTORIES is a play about memory, legacy and the unbreakable bond between mother and child."

    In order to fill the position, the city council invites a small number of musicians to audition for the appointment, including Johann Sebastian Bach. This, however, is not his story. Based on actual events, Bach at Leipzig imagines with uncommon intelligence and wit how six little-known musicians resorted to bribery, blackmail, and betrayal in an attempt to secure the most coveted musical post in all of Europe.

    Gathered here are three of Wright's early plays, including Interrogating the Nude, a tongue-in-cheek reimagining of the uproar surrounding the debut of Marcel Duchamp's work in America; Watbanaland, a satiric dissection of yuppie desire and a haunting look at family and faith; and the Obie Award-winning Quills, which explores the boundaries of artistic expression and the dangers of censorship as they played out in the Marquis de Sade's final days at Charenton Asylum.

    In this sly critique of contemporary relationships, Reza skillfully picks apart the friendship of three men via a bowl of olives and a white-on-white painting. Now translated into more than 30 languages, Art continues to be performed worldwide, even as Reza's other plays have garnered similar acclaim. Life x 3, Reza's most recent offering, again highlights her satirical wit as two couples face off in three different versions of the dinner from hell. Praised as "compact, cool and clever" by Christopher Isherwood of Variety, Reza uses the acidic exchanges of her characters to illuminate their inner desire for love and acceptance. Also included in this edition are two earlier plays, The Unexpected Man and Conversations After a Burial. Each elucidates the startling difference between public and private life, be it in the confines of a train compartment or a country estate in the aftermath of a loved one's passing.

    Petersburg Beach, Florida. Antagonism between a gay man and the widow of a Southern Baptist minister gives way to profound compatibility as they swing dance, tango, foxtrot and cha-cha while sharing more than dance steps. During the sixth an

    * Consists of the two critically acclaimed plays performed at the National Theatre both printed in one volume - thus offering exceptional value for money. * Invaluable teacher's notes and student drama activities written by Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan, recognised experts in the area of Drama in English. * Philip Pullman worked closely with playwright Nicolas Wright to create the text, and both writers have contributed introductions to our edition. * The exciting, highly imaginative storyline, which captivates boys and girls alike, offers a wide range of textual and dramatic investigations. Parts for all the class, and ideal for smaller groups, with potential for interchangeable male/female roles.

    Mixing laughter and tears—and told in words, music, and dance—the stories explore the hardship, struggles, and joys of their lives. ’da Kink has been staged in Toronto and New York and served as the basis for a recent drama special on Vision TV.

    An act of violence brought them together. Will another tear them apart?

    Fewer Emergencies'Things are definitely looking up--brighter light--more frequent boating--more confident smile--things are improving day by day--who ever would've guessed?'Fewer Emergencies premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2005.

    Now hidden in a Viennese brothel watched over by Leda Otenreath, a madam on the verge of madness, Pity finally sees the boy of her dreams.

    The play sheds light on an unexplored aspect of Shakespeare's life by looking through the eyes and heart of the woman who spent a lifetime with-and without-the great poet. This work is the celebration of a life unbowed by tragedy and unapologetic in the face of public scorn.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    It touches on the failures of education and parenting, on media pressure and overdoses. Kurt Cobain comes to mind. More universally, Haunting Julia mourns how in adolescence and adulthood, we do our loves wrong.' Financial TimesSugar Daddies'A timely warning about the dangers of role-playing and pretence . . . But the real fascination lies in watching Ayckbourn's own transformation from social observer to impassioned moralist.' GuardianDrowning on Dry Land'Ayckbourn at the top of his game.' Guardian'A coruscatingly acid and funny play.' The TimesPrivate Fears in Public Places'Ayckbourn's construction has a masterly clarity; his writing combines ruthless observation with mature tolerance. Nobody else writing today can create a sense of a complicated little world in 90 minutes, or make banal lives seem so unforgivably interesting. Listen: it's a master's voice.' Sunday Times

    Since Bluebird in 1998, Stephens has gained recognition for humane plays that display a sharp observation and compassionate response to the lives of ordinary people in urban locations.

    Each book within the set includes a facsimile of the film's actual shooting script, plus exclusive extras, such as introductions by or interviews with the filmmakers, notes on the film's production, selected movie stills, and complete cast and crew credits. Includes: "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind": Oscar(R)-winner for Best Original Screenplay; features a Q&A with Charlie Kaufman and introduction by director Michel Gondry"Adaptation": Kaufman's adaptation of Susan Orlean's bestselling book "The Orchid Thief" with commentaries by Orlean and Robert McKee, plus an in-depth interview with Kaufman and director Spike Jonze.

    It explores the dynamics of health, family and community with the story of her mother’s extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself. In this solo show with other people in it, Kron asks the provocative question: Are we responsible for our own illness? But the answers she gets are much more complicated than she bargained for when the play spins dangerously out of control into riotously funny and unexpected territory.Lisa Kron has received numerous honors, including several OBIE Awards, the Cal Arts/Alpert Award, the Bessie Award and the GLAAD Media Award. Ms. Kron lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

    Dionysus brings an army of women into the mountains surrounding the city and casts a spell over the city's own female population, leading them to abandon their husbands, sons, and fathers and to follow the god into the countryside and engage in his forbidden revels. Pentheus, king of Thebes, leads an army against the god, only to be defeated in battle and, as he secretly watches the revels, to be torn limb from limb by the frenzied Bacchae. Original illustrations silk-screened on handmade paper accompany the story. This unique handcrafted book will be a treasured addition to the libraries of those who love the arts of ancient Greece and the art of fine, contemporary bookmaking. J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM

    The Light in the Piazza has ravishing power. It’s as if Guettel were determined to capture the golden light of Tuscany in a bottle. His lyrics are remarkable, and the book, written by Craig Lucas, is written with characteristic empathy and humor. Brilliant.” –Frank Rich“The Light in the Piazza beautifully captures the eternal allure of Italy. . . . The story wraps itself around your heart.”—Chicago Sun-Times“Sumptuous and romantic. Guettel’s music and lyrics represent a genuine expense of spirit. The Light in the Piazza offers a complex contemplation of the well-defended emptiness of every man and woman. It doesn’t want theatergoers to feel good; it wants to make them feel deeply. And it does.” –New YorkerComposer Adam Guettel, best known for his Floyd Collins, has teamed with Prelude to a Kiss playwright Craig Lucas to create a passionate and soaring new musical. Based on Elizabeth Spencer’s 1960 novella, The Light in the Piazza is the story of a young American woman whose chance encounter with a charming young Italian man in a Florentine piazza sets off a whirlwind romance, with an unsettling revelation.Craig Lucas is a playwright, screenwriter and director. His plays include Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, Blue Window, God’s Heart, The Singing Forest and Small Tragedy. His screenplays include Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists and The Dying Gaul, which he also directed. Mr. Lucas’ awards include the L.A. Drama Critics Award, an OBIE Award for Best Play and Best Director, and the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.Adam Guettel is a composer/lyricist living in Seattle, where he is Artist in Residence at the Intiman Theatre. His other work includes Floyd Collins and Saturn Returns (recorded by Nonesuch Records as Myths and Hymns). Mr. Guettel’s awards include the Stephen Sondheim Award, the ASCAP New Horizons Award, and the American Composers Orchestra Award.

    "There is a kindness to Reed Bye's poetry that is impossible to separate from the considerable skills variously on display throughout his work; it is part of his sense of measure, and would alone, rare quality that it is, make Join The Planets a pleasure to engage. That Bye's poems are rich with observation and musical range, as well as a deeply nuanced sense of scale, raises the stakes: this is a sorely needed book, and it is a joy to have it in the world"— Anselm Berrigan. Reed Bye's previous books include Some Magic at the Dump, Erstwhile Charms, Border Theme, Heart's Bestiary and Passing Freaks and Grace. His first CD, Long Way Around, was released in 2005 and is available from SPD. Bye is a professor at Naropa University, and lives with his wife in Boulder, Colorado.

    represents one of the towering achievements of civilization. It is the crucible in which Western Civilization was given form. It created democracy, not in its modern parliamentary or representative form, but a direct democracy, one in which the Athenian citizen governed himself, which is what democracy means: rule by the people. Along with this gift to civilization came trial by jury, and from there the flowering of a culture whose achievement has led the world ever since: Philosophy, sculpture, architecture, poetry-and by no means least-theater. Of the three supreme tragedians of Classical Athens, Aeschylus, in the first half of the century, took his tales largely from Homer and the Heroic World of war and warriors. Sophokles regarded man more humanistically, and created characters of grand moral integrity. Euripides, the last of the three, created his image of man less heroically, less idealistically. His image of man reflected what Athens became from mid-century onward: a super wealthy world power, a cruel colonist, and an ever-present danger to its Greek neighbors, a threat that precipitated the devastating Peloponnesian War (431-404) which was to end with the fall of Athens. The glory of Athens, then, from mid-century onward, degenerated fast into a world of collapsing political and moral structure, and this is the world that Euripides mirrors in his characters. His people are no longer the heroes of Aeschylus, the moral giants of Sophokles, but men who are frequently petty, conniving, small minded, out for themselves and their own aggrandizement. They are psychologically drawn, they are conflicted, they are frequently mad-in a word, they are us, if only we look deeply enough. Euripides is the most modern of the Greek tragedians. Volume I: Alkêstis, Mêdeia, Children of Heraklês, Hippolytos. Volume II: Andromachê, Hêkabê, Suppliant Women, Êlektra, The Madness of Heraklês.Volume III: Trojan Women, Iphigeneia in Tauris, Ion, Helen, Cyclops. Volume IV: Phoenician Women, Orestês, Bakkhai, Iphigeneia in Aulis, Rhesos. Of Mueller's Aeschylus translations, PAJ (Journal of Performance and Art) has written: "For those who want their Greek alive and kicking (and screaming and bleeding), these translations of Aeschylus's extant works will serve as a vital and exhilarating read. But more importantly, they will serve as superb acting texts of the world's earliest playwright for today's directors and designers." And Library Journal writes of his Sophokles co-translations: "These contemporary English translations . . . bring Sophokles dramatically to life and serve to enhance our appreciation of the timelessness of his work."

    It is accompanied by stimulating background materials containing fantastic ideas for drama exercises, as well as further activites to answer English Framework and NC objectives.

    Golem Stories retells an old Kabalistic legend. It's a ghost story and a love story, about a childlike clay man who may be a demon inside. In The Living Methuselah, the oldest living man survives every disaster is human history, with the help of his wife Serach, the oldest living woman. But when a doctor tells him he will only live until the end of the play, will this be his final curtain? To find the title character of A Shylock, Jacob Levy interrogates every character in The Merchant of Venice, but oddly Hamlet may know the most-although this Hamlet is a woman. And in One-Eyed Moses and the Churning Red Sea, Rabbi Tzipporah Finestein dreams Moses is a pirate captain, but what do the dreams mean? Two congregants hold the key.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    Though nearly four centuries old, they display surprisingly modern sensibilities regarding sex, violence, morality, and honor. Brilliantly introduced and annotated by Frank Kermode, these seven Jacobean masterpieces are the finest and most representative plays of a time when drama was the most vital and important mirror of English society.

    A play based on five stories by Icelandic author Svava Jakobsdóttir, interwoven into an allegorical black comedy about ordinary women's lives.A young bride chops off her left hand to give to her lover; a mother allows her children to remove her brain as an educational activity; a man builds a perfect home for a marriage he knows will be perfect because his fiancée has told him she will die on their wedding day; another man builds kitchen so perfect that his wife will not be able to use it; a girl dreams of having a baby but has dozens.The stories are: Give Unto Us Each OtherA Story For ChildrenA Crab, A Wedding, DeathKitchen To MeasureA Party Under A Stone WallA Pregnant Woman

    Although set in different decades of the twentieth century, the playsare all absolutely modern in the human struggles they depict."Sisters Matsumoto" tells of three Japanese American sisters who return to their family farm in Stockton, California, after living in an internment camp during World War II. "The Wind Cries Mary" is a gripping drama set in the tumultuous heyday of social upheaval that was San Francisco in 1968, when California's Asian American intellectuals were first finding a political voice. "Ballad of Yachiyo," set in 1919 in Hawai'i, is a moving story of a girl's coming to sexual maturity after being sent from home to work for an alcoholic artisan and his wife.

    Beautiful illustrations on every page guide you through the characters, plot, scenes and more in Hamlet, The 1-Hour Guidebook.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    Not of war, but of ordinary people’s courage. Not of death, but of life and love.”—Ottawa CitizenDuring World War II, Allan, a young RCAF pilot, and Moira, an auxiliary worker at the Blatchford Field in Edmonton, try desperately to maintain their long-distance relationship. But is the printed word enough to keep love alive in a world turned upside down?

    'LEAP features splendid language and easy confidence with heady material. Think Tom Stoppard," Creative LoafingBACKGROUND-a time-twisting, science-drama about the inspirational study of cosmology and the devastating effects of denied credit. Based on a true story of Dr. Ralph Alpher.PARTS THEY CALL DEEP-A hilarious southern drama with three generations of women in a Winnebego. 'PARTS THEY CALL DEEP is a little gem,"-"New York Times"'It is easy to imagine future theatrical success for Gunderson and this year's YPI winners,"-"New York Times"'There's no denying she's one of the most formidably talented voices to emerge here in years."-Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    Northern Irish writer McCafferty has relocated the action to 1960s London, where the young couple has just arrived from Belfast.

    To her shock, he turns out to be Greg, her former husband, who sixteen years earlier and for no clear reason left and simply never came back. Now, he has returned, but the family he left no longer exists. Catherine informs him that their son, David, disappeared eight years ago and remains missing. One by one each member of the family tells Greg a version of what happened the summer David disappeared. Their stories are a meditation on loss and the abiding power of the unknowable. But they are also about the need we all have for explanations, answers and, perhaps above all, absolution. For as they reveal their stories, the only thing that becomes clear is that the nine-year-old boy who vanished is far from the only thing they lost.

    Drama. Translated from the Spanish by Emily Toder. This three-act play in verse by Spanish poet, novelist, and dramaturge Felipe Benitez Reyes, tracks the nonsensical, disorienting, and rather tragicomic journey of three monarchs lost in a boundless desert, on a long, dark, and endless night, in which the notions of power, place, and purpose are all tipped on their heads and crushed. In a paradoxically classic fusion of the chivalrous and postmodern traditions, THE ERRANT ASTROLOGERS is like waiting for Godot with Sancho Panza, all on the set of Ishtar, and told in the haunting, rich verse of Reyes's own.

    It's about shame and judgement, about who deserves to be loved and forgiven. It looks at how people exploit each other and where they find the beauty; and the qualities of transcendence, letting go and forgiveness.

    She is that versatile auteur who partakes of the best features of Singapore’s young but recognisable dramatic tradition. She excels with her fine ear for registering pitch and voice and wisely confines her characters and their liaisons to a milieu with which she is familiar. Still, to label her trilogy as lesbian plays is to be reductive. These plays succeed primarily because they are textured, weaving ruminations on personal identity, love and friendship, family and kinship, religious faith, the inextricable connection between the personal and political, the dialectics of centre and margin.-Dr. K.K. Seet

    There's a funny smell coming from one of Jim's storage units. And Kate's losing it after spending all day with the police. There's no going back after what they've seen.Breathing Corpses was first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in February 2005.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    represents one of the towering achievements of civilization. It is the crucible in which Western Civilization was given form. It created democracy, not in its modern parliamentary or representative form, but a direct democracy, one in which the Athenian citizen governed himself, which is what democracy means: rule by the people. Along with this gift to civilization came trial by jury, and from there the flowering of a culture whose achievement has led the world ever since: Philosophy, sculpture, architecture, poetry-and by no means least-theater. Of the three supreme tragedians of Classical Athens, Aeschylus, in the first half of the century, took his tales largely from Homer and the Heroic World of war and warriors. Sophokles regarded man more humanistically, and created characters of grand moral integrity. Euripides, the last of the three, created his image of man less heroically, less idealistically. His image of man reflected what Athens became from mid-century onward: a super wealthy world power, a cruel colonist, and an ever-present danger to its Greek neighbors, a threat that precipitated the devastating Peloponnesian War (431-404) which was to end with the fall of Athens. The glory of Athens, then, from mid-century onward, degenerated fast into a world of collapsing political and moral structure, and this is the world that Euripides mirrors in his characters. His people are no longer the heroes of Aeschylus, the moral giants of Sophokles, but men who are frequently petty, conniving, small minded, out for themselves and their own aggrandizement. They are psychologically drawn, they are conflicted, they are frequently mad-in a word, they are us, if only we look deeply enough. Euripides is the most modern of the Greek tragedians. Volume I: Alkêstis, Mêdeia, Children of Heraklês, Hippolytos. Volume II: Andromachê, Hêkabê, Suppliant Women, Êlektra, The Madness of Heraklês.Volume III: Trojan Women, Iphigeneia in Tauris, Ion, Helen, Cyclops. Volume IV: Phoenician Women, Orestês, Bakkhai, Iphigeneia in Aulis, Rhesos. Of Mueller's Aeschylus translations, PAJ (Journal of Performance and Art) has written: "For those who want their Greek alive and kicking (and screaming and bleeding), these translations of Aeschylus's extant works will serve as a vital and exhilarating read. But more importantly, they will serve as superb acting texts of the world's earliest playwright for today's directors and designers." And Library Journal writes of his Sophokles co-translations: "These contemporary English translations . . . bring Sophokles dramatically to life and serve to enhance our appreciation of the timelessness of his work."

    We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

    Included in this volume are revisionist retellings of Troy Women, Phaedra, Elektra and more. Each retelling is given a fresh, modern spin, yet each manages to remain true to the original plays themes and essence. All of these plays have been performed in theatres around the US and UK. LIST OF PLAYS Phaedra by Matthew Maguire - an intense and erotic present-day story inspired by an Ancient Greek myth and a response to the classic French drama by Jean Baptiste Racine. Troy Women by Karen Hartman - an adaptation of Euripides' verse play, The Trojan Women, in a contemporary poetic style Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl - a of the ancient Greek myth, told from the point of view of Eurydice. At the Chicago premier, the Chicago Tribune said the following, Full of twists... Sarah Ruhl is a big talent. True Love by Charles Mee - based on The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus, playwright Mee creates an explosively theatrical hybrid, the vaudevillian tragicomedy. Symposium, Euripides' Hippolytus and Racine's Phaedra.

    To keep this vibrant tradition alive, the National Foundation for Jewish Culture established the New Play Commissions in Jewish Theatre in 1994. The commissions are awarded in an annual competition. Their goal is to help emerging and established dramatists develop new works in collaboration with a wide variety of theatres. Since its inception, the New Play Commissions has contributed support to more than seventy-five professional productions, staged readings, and workshops. This anthology brings together nine commissioned plays that have gone on to full production. Ellen Schiff and Michael Posnick have selected works that reflect many of the historical and social forces that have shaped contemporary Jewish experience and defined Jewish identity—among them, surviving the Holocaust, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the lives of newcomers in America, Israel, and Argentina. Following a foreword by Theodore Bikel, the editors provide introductory explanations of the New Play Commissions and an overview of Jewish theatre. The playwrights comment on the genesis of their work and its production history.

    A rich fabric of interlocking stories set in Liverpool, England.

    Despite his role on explorer Robert Edwin Peary's North Pole expeditions, Matthew Henson (1870-1955), has resigned himself to the shadows of history.A young man, Robert Peary Jr., wants to ensure his late father's name stands as the discoverer of the Pole. In 1935, these two men meet in the Eskimo Room of the American Museum of Natural History, home to the Inuit artifacts that Peary collected and the gruesome secret that haunts Henson.Inspired by historical fact, Two Words for Snow uses a chance fictional encounter to imagine the repercussions Peary's quest had on the psyches of its protagonists - and to tell a story of colliding cultures, ambition and betrayal.