Inspired by Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1891 play about teenage sexuality and society’s efforts to control it, the piece seamlessly merges past and present, underscoring the timelessness of adolescent angst and the universality of human passion.Steven Sater’s plays include the long-running Carbondale Dreams, Perfect for You, Doll (Rosenthal Prize/Cincinnati Playhouse), Umbrage (Steppenwolf New Play Prize), and a reconceived version of Shakespeare’s Tempest, which played in London.Duncan Sheik is a singer/songwriter who also collaborated with Sater on the musical The Nightingale. He has composed original music for The Gold Rooms of Nero and for The Public Theater’s Twelfth Night in Central Park.

    They have hired a housekeeper named Matilde, an aspiring comedian from Brazil who's more interested in coming up with the perfect joke than in house-cleaning. Lane, the lady of the house, has an eccentric sister named Virginia who's just nuts about house-cleaning. She and Matilde become fast friends, and Virginia takes over the cleaning while Matilde works on her jokes. Trouble comes when Lane's husband Charles reveals that he has found his soul mate, or "bashert" in a cancer patient named Anna, on whom he has operated. The actors who play Charles and Anna also play Matilde's parents in a series of dream-like memories, as we learn the story about how they literally killed each other with laughter, giving new meaning to the phrase, "I almost died laughing." This theatrical and wildly funny play is a whimsical and poignant look at class, comedy and the true nature of love.

     “No one except perhaps Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams has aimed so high and achieved so much in the American theater.”—John Lahr, The New Yorker “Heroic is not a word one uses often without embarrassment to describe a writer or playwright, but the diligence and ferocity of effort behind the creation of his body of work is really an epic story. . . . For all the magic in his plays, he was writing in the grand tradition of Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, the politically engaged, direct, social realist drama. He was reclaiming ground for the theater that most people thought had been abandoned.”—Tony Kushner August Wilson’s Century Cycle is “one of the most ambitious dramatic projects ever undertaken” (The New York Times). With it, Wilson dramatizes the African American experience and heritage in the twentieth century, with a play for each decade, almost all set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, where he grew up. Wilson’s extraordinary lifework—completed just before his death in October 2005—is presented here for the first time in its entirety. Art is beholden to the kiln in which the artist was fired. Before I am anything, a man or a playwright, I am an African American. . . . The cycle of plays that I have been writing since 1979 is my attempt to represent that culture on stage in all its richness and fullness and to demonstrate its ability to sustain us in all areas of human life and endeavor and through profound moments of our history in which the larger society has thought less of us than we have thought of ourselves. The characters in the plays still place their faith in America’s willingness to live up to the meaning of her creed. It is this belief in America’s honor that allows them to pursue the American Dream even as it remains elusive. . . . They shout, they argue, they wrestle with love, honor, duty, betrayal; they have loud voices and big hearts; they demand justice, they love, they laugh, they cry, they murder, and they embrace life with zest and vigor. . . . In all the plays, the characters remain pointed towards the future, their pockets lined with fresh hope and an abiding faith in their own abilities and their own heroics.—August Wilson

    Includes: Accident Waiting to Happen * Bride's Lament * Cold Feets * I Am Aldolpho * I Remember Love * Show Off * Toledo Surprise * and more.

    And there is Oshoosi, fresh out of prison, who always takes the wrong track. When his ex-cell mate Elegba gives him a clapped-out car, true freedom seems just around the corner... The Brothers Size is the European debut of an amazing young writer who plants Nigerian myth in the fertile soil of Louisiana. The play premiered at Drum, Plymouth, in October 2007, before touring and transferring to the Young Vic, London.

    The harrowing Osama the Hero shows a group of neighbours taking ill-defined revenge on an odd-ball teenager in a climate of fear. In After the End a woman discovers she has been rescued from Armageddon by a paranoid ex-colleague with a nuclear bunker in his garden. And in a fractured narrative Love and Money portrays a marriage driven to brutal destruction by financial pressures.

    A play by the creator of the "West Wing" about the invention of television, "The Farnsworth Invention" focuses on the battle between Philo Farnsworth, the Mormon from who came up with the concept as a teenager, and David Sarnoff, the escapee from Russian pogrom who had become the ruthless head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and its subsidiary, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).

    Grey Gardens is based on the 1975 Albert and David Maysles film about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's eccentric aunt and cousin. The touching and sometimes heart-wrenching musical adaptation explores the dysfunctional relationship between former socialite Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie, as they languish in a derelict East Hampton manor, Grey Gardens. Propelled by Christine Ebersole's tour-de-force performance, the gorgeous score, and intricate lyrics, the Broadway musical has garnered much critical praise. "An experience no passionate theatergoer should miss." Ben Brantley, The New York Times

    Includes: Never Swim Alone, The Soldier Dreams, You Are Here, In on It, and A Beautiful View.

    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.

    His well-meaning sister Joan and brother-in-law Harry try and make time for him in their busy lives, but no one can get through. Following the burglary of his apartment, Joan is baffled to find her brother blissfully happy and tries to unravel the story behind Beane's mysterious new love Molly.

    Hold tight as the ordinary turns extraordinary in Mark O’Rowe’s exhilarating new play. A blackly comic vision of Dublin infested with demons, from the author of Howie the Rookie.

    Next the hit Broadway musical won countless more fans and an armful of Tonys in 2003. Now Hairspray returns to the screen as an innovative movie musical from New Line Cinema, the producers of Chicago, and director-choreographer Adam Shankman.This lavish companion book celebrates the singular phenomenon that is Hairspray, and the supremely talented cast and crew who brought this new incarnation to life. Features about the cast, locations, sets, and costumes give readers an intimate look behind the scenes. Here are profiles of Hairspray's extraordinary actors, all of whom do their own singing and dancing in the film. John Travolta stars in a career-bending twist as Edna Turnblad, the role created by the late Divine. The dream cast also includes Queen Latifah (Motormouth Maybelle), Michelle Pfeiffer (Velma Von Tussle), and Christopher Walken (Wilbur Turnblad) as well as rising young stars led by new talent Nikki Blonsky as Tracy.Hairspray captures the spirit of a time when everything was changing, in music and in society. This special volume captures the essence of the film's creative achievement with more than 200 vivid production photographs and first-person contributions by Waters, director Shankman (Bringing Down the House), and producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. From casting and scripting to rehearsing, shooting scenes and recording the music--it's all explored and depicted in a unique collector's edition.Features:Film poster and postcardsBooklets that highlight various behind-the-scenes production detailsCharacter profiles including a tip-in "45 RPM single," key facts and Hairspray trivia printed on the facsimile record's sleeve

    This is a hugely original play, both magical and moving, that confirmed Anthony Neilson as one of major voices in contemporary British Theatre. The entire original cast and creative team have been reunited for this keenly anticipated revival.Lisa Jones is on a journey. It's a colourful and exciting off-kilter trip in search of one lost hour that has tipped the balance of her life. The inhabitants of the wonderful world she finds herself in - Dissocia - are a curious blend of the funny, the friendly and the brutal. As Neilson himself put it, 'If you like Alice in Wonderland but there's not enough sex and violence in it, then Dissocia is the show for you'.Realism premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2006. It follows the life of one man during an ordinary day but veers off from the commonplace to become a deliriously surreal trip inside his wayward imagination. It was described by the Guardian as a 'bold and utterly distinctive all-singing, all-dancing show, like nothing else you'll ever see'.

    Book annotation not available for this title...Title: .A Song For Coretta..Author: .Cleage, Pearl..Publisher: .Dramatist's Play Service..Publication Date: .2008/05/30..Number of Pages: .41..Binding Type: .PAPERBACK..Library of Congress: .

    In Rebeck's 1998 drama Abstract Expression, a woman supports her aging father by toiling as a cater-waiter at wealthy people's dinner parties. Thoughtless remarks and unwanted scrutiny are the price Jenny pays to put food on the table (even if it is rich folks' leftovers), but her labor helps protect something precious. Her father, a once-famous Abstract Expressionist painter, hasn't shown his work in years but has steadfastly continued to pursue his vision, creating works that are seen by no one but Jenny. With biting humor and a deep undercurrent of love and sorrow, father and daughter are forced to face what happens when art and the marketplace collide. It's a classic Theresa Rebeck play: life as we know it, but heightened, deepened, and sharpened to a knife edge. Her characters are human beings with all that makes them human. Whether it's a character whose wit and charm we'd all like to possess (like Haley in Bad Dates), someone who forces us to face our own dark potential (like Helen in The Water's Edge), or one who actively courts self-destruction (like Charlie in The Scene), Rebeck's characters get under the skin. Their passions, their tenderness, their rage, their weaknesses, their joys become our own.

    This work contains two of the most performed and studied plays by the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the 20th century, Federico Garcia Lorca, in definitive new translations."

    It's contemporary themes and sophisticated structure have universal appeal to diverse audiences of all ages and political inclinations.

    Louis, MO; Mara Lynn, a housewife and former home-coming queen in Fayetteville, NC; and Alan, a young professor struggling to find his way in New York City. Through heart-wrenching confessions, they wrestle with guilt, prejudice, and the price they and their children must pay for their actions. WHITE PEOPLE is a candid, brutally honest meditation on race and language in our culture.

    Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides: chapter-by-chapter analysis <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /> explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols a review quiz and essay topics Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers.

    Eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove wants nothing more than to be loved by her family and schoolmates. Instead, she faces constant ridicule and abuse. She blames her dark skin and prays for blue eyes, sure that love will follow. With rich language and bold vision, this powerful adaptation of an American classic explores the crippling toll that a legacy of racism has taken on a community, a family, and an innocent girl.

    When his last hope at turning his life around disappears he decides to commit suicide, only to find that a number of people would like him to die on their behalf. On the night of the deed, a party grows towards a glorious climax.Moira Buffini has freely adapted Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide, which was banned by Stalin before a single performance, to create Dying For It. Dying For It premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in March 2007.

    The book provides an excellent range of up-to-date audition pieces, usefully arranged in age groups, and is supplemented with audition tips to improve your acting, and to ensure that the best possible performance.

    Moliere's farcical, tragic, anarchic Don Juan (1665) is the inspiration for Patrick Marber's new play in which the action of the original is relocated to present day Soho, London.Whereas Moliere condemned his anti-hero to a literal Hell, Marber condemns him to a hell of his own making.Don Juan in Soho premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in December 2006.

    He is a writer of ideas, who fills the stage with a kind of lush dramatic literature . . . Beauty of the Father brings to mind the playwright Maria Irene Fornes. Like his artistic forebear, Cruz recognizes the magic in the everyday. And he has found an astonishing language with which to describe it.”—Hilton Als, The New YorkerWhat will we sacrifice in the name of love? After young woman reunites with her painter father in the south of Spain, both fall in love with the same exciting young man. Beauty of the Father invokes the lyrical language of Lorca, as the great poet himself appears to the father and counsels him in his life. The play’s rhythms are infused with the spirit of the Andalusian people who sing their sorrows in cante jondo, as Cruz once again creates musical poetry to honor unrequited love.Nilo Cruz won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Anna in the Tropics. Other works include Two Sisters and a Piano, Lorca in a Green Dress, Night Train to Bolina, A Bicycle Country, and Dancing on Her Knees. He is one of this country’s most produced Cuban American writers.

    A thought-provoking contemplation on art, politics, and the seduction of fascism.

    

    Written for readers who have a passion for Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Wordcraft takes a comprehensive look at Shakespeare's stellar use of language devices throughout his plays, devices he used to ink memorable lines like these: * I must be cruel only to be kind * Fair is foul, and foul is fair * Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more! * Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! In a clear, accessible, non-academic style - using plain terms, modern quotes, and several thousand examples - Shakespeare's Wordcraft deftly reveals how these lasting lines were not accidental or coincidental, but designed and crafted by a master of the word.

    Here is a selection of poems charting a year in the life of a University student in England - both his feelings and thoughts, of love, hate, humanity and drugs, in a contemporary style unlike any other.

    The catchy soundtrack to the Broadway version of Adam Sandler's hit movie features an all-original set of songs (except for "Somebody Kill Me" and "Grow Old With You" which are from the movie) by Chad Beguelin and Matthew Sklar. Our folio features 15 of the show songs, including: Come Out of the Dumpster * Grow Old with You * It's Your Wedding Day * Let Me Come Home * A Note from Linda * Right in Front of Your Eyes * Somebody Kill Me * Someday * and more. This souvenir folio also includes full-color photos from the stage production.

    As the first study in its field, Hysteria, Trauma and Melancholia explores the characteristics and concerns of the Drama of Hysteria, Trauma and Melancholia through in-depth readings of representative plays.

    The story is told in a vignette, modern-vaudeville-style, at once a choral assemblage and a presentation of monologues and scenes that chronicle a community in search of its authenticity. The play was created by the playwright and 19 participants whose life stories form the basis for this multi-disciplined theatre piece.

    But when their widowed father, Boo-Seng, decides to take them on a road trip to Durango, Colorado, the carefully constructed facades of all three begin to crack. As they near their destination, tempers flare, old wounds reopen and secrets are re-vealed. DURANGO is the story of a man who sacrificed everything-a home, a country-for the American Dream, and whose sons must now grapple with the consequences of that choice.

    . . . As the unlikely survival of this opera suggests, the joy and beauty that music and art express can outlast evil even when they cannot defeat it.”—Charles Isherwood, The New York Times“It’s a tale of the outrage and rebellion of even the natural world of dogs, cats, and sparrows against things as unnatural as injustice and poverty and the suffering of children. It’s a story of good defeating evil. But its history is haunted by a single -instance of evil defeating good.”—Tony KushnerTony Kushner provides a new English libretto, and Maurice Sendak the design, for this Czech opera—a beautiful children’s story extolling the virtues of courage and collective action against tyranny. Just before the opera’s 1942 premiere, its composer Hans Krasa was arrested and sent to Theresienstadt, or Terezin, a “model ghetto” that was in reality a death camp. After a copy of the score was smuggled in, Krasa took advantage of the large number of talented instrumentalists there to stage the opera with imprisoned children. Brundibar was performed fifty-five times at Terezin. It is published here with Kushner’s short play But the Giraffe, a sensitively drawn historical backdrop.Tony Kushner’s plays include Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul, A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, and the book and lyrics for Caroline, or Change.Maurice Sendak is the author of over one hundred children’s books, including Where the Wild Things Are.

    Told through Leo’s memories, the play travels through childhood, first friends, and first loves. Passion and poetry weave together in this story of innocence lost.

    Without ignoring the struggles and privations of war, the play is funny, touching and ultimately optimistic.Based on the medieval story of Aucassin and Nicolette and conceived as a form of 'pageant', Siege with its mixing of verse and prose, sprawling structure, employment of different speech patterns and deliberately contemporary touches, gives a unique insight into Fry's development as a stage-craftsman.

    

    His brothers are anxious to help make a good impression on the woman from the agency who has arrived to check on the home and lifestyle of the prospective parents. Unfortunately Dick, who has stashed boxes of smuggled brandy and cigarettes in the house, and Harry, who is in possession of a cadaver he is planning to sell illegally to a medical school, fail miserably. The adoption agency representative is aghast - and the illegal Croatian aliens who do not speak English are no help at all!

    An eager young actress has her eye set on the role of Della, but can she convince a cold, sarcastic director that she's right for the part? A riveting and riotous look at the contemporary audition process, giving new meaning to the term "stealing a scene." A Heideman Award finalist, National 10-Minute Play Contest, Actors Theatre of Louisville, 1997.

    Everybody has qualms. But I'll overcome them."To his family's horror, Ned reveals he's the brains behind a new military technology so sophisticated, so extraordinary, it will revolutionise the nature of warfare. It's only when the Ministry of Defence demands intellectual ownership that Ned begins to question himself, resisting the might of the weapons industry with frightening consequences.Landscape with Weapon is a wry account of private anguish, public responsibility and a problem with no solution. The play premiered at the National Theatre on 20 March 2007.Joe Penhall's previous work for the National Theatre, Blue/Orange, was the winner of the Olivier Awards Best Play (2001), the Evening Standard Award Best Play (2000), and the Critics Circle Award Best Play (2000).

    Journey back to the dark ages where the throne is splattered in blood and death lurks in every corner. Join Macbeth's quest for power—and find out why the truth is very different from the way Shakespeare told it. Groaning with great illustrations, Macbeth and All That is a chilling murder mystery that will keep you guessing to the very end!

    Singin' in the Rain, starring classic film stars Gene Kelly, Donald O'Conner, and Debbie Reynolds, is considered one of the best musicals ever made. This book features music from the movie, providing the lyrics along with piano and chord arrangements for all the songs included. Titles: All I Do Is Dream of You * Broadway Melody * Broadway Rhythm * Fit As a Fiddle (And Ready for Love) * Good Morning * I've Got a Feeling Your Foolin' * Make 'Em Laugh * Moses * Should I * Singin' in the Rain * Temptation * The Wedding of the Painted Doll * Would You? * You Are My Lucky Star * You Were Meant for Me.

    A series of scenes that gradually tell the story of how the financial collapse affects a British couple and how fiscal worry, stress, and fear can strain mankind's greatest emotion.

    

    It was not performed until 2015 when it was finally performed by the Xoregos Performing Company in New York City. The play involves only three characters: Dot, Buddy and Exit Mann. The play serves as a commentary on sexism, colorism, and misogynoir.

    Underneath his veneer of success, however, lies a soul troubled by questions of personal and cultural identity. When his wife leaves him, apparently due to the fact that he won t embrace his heritage and attend the Million Man March, Lewis experiences a disorienting insomnia and inadvertently conjures his ancestors. Three generations of men (all played by one actor), from slavery through Black Power, challenge Lewis to embark on a night journey combining past and present. Infused with abundant humor and woven through with original songs, BLUE DOOR is a tour de force for two actors, a vivid, exuberantly theatrical play about the African-American male experience.

    Book annotation not available for this title.

    National Theatre production of this intense dramatization of Zola's steamy novel by a reputable adaptor.

    Theresa has said that short plays should be just as fulfilling, challenging, and complex as longer pieces. The work in this volume clearly demonstrates her belief. For the first time, Theresa's short plays are published as a single collection. It is very exciting that this work is now available to future generations of actors, directors, and theater companies. The collection reveals a mind carefully attuned to the rhythms of our society and a deep understanding of the personal obstacles individuals face. I have no doubt that these plays will become the staple of acting classes across the country. I am also certain that I will hear these pieces in auditions for years to come.

    Her father, Monty, seeks independence and a place in history. Will Loretta learn the secret she needs to hear? Will Monty forgive her for a slap across the face that broke the rules? A play about the body, love and contradiction.

    A parodic musical of the movie Evil Dead, complete with hit songs such as "I'm Not A Killer," "All The Men In My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons," and "Do The Necronomicon." Follow a group of college students to an abandoned cabin in the woods where mayhem, mischief, blood, and demons await.

    From a sinister one-eyed butcher to beguiling barflies to a sweatshop, Anon must navigate through a chaotic, ever-changing landscape in this entrancing adaptation of Homer's Odyssey.