Antigonick is her first attempt at making translation into a combined visual and textual experience: it will provoke poetry readers, classical scholars, theatre people and comic-book aficionados.

    (Theater Communications Group)"Baker may just have the subtlest way with exposition of anyone writing for the theater today ... There is something distinctly Chekhovian in the way her writing accrues weight and meaning simply through compassionate, truthful observation."            --Charles Isherwood, New York Times"Baker has a soft spot for the abandoned, the discarded, the hard-luck case ... her heartbreaking works of staggering focus have actually rescued realism from the aesthetic scrap heap."            --Helen Shaw, Timeout New York"Baker is a writer whose plays have a quiet, hypnotic charm a grace and humor. She's able to take ordinary, low-key situations--a small-town acting class, guys wasting time in an alley behind a café--and fill them with gentle comedy, generosity of spirit and an eye (and ear) for the foibles that make us all so hopelessly human."            --Village Voice

    I know all the countries of the world and the capital cities. And every prime number up to 7507. Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But Christopher's detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that turns his world upside-down.Simon Stephens's adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling, award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time offers a richly theatrical exploration of this touching and bleakly humorous tale.

    Filled with behind-the-scenes information and photos of the cast and crew, this annotated script will enchant and entertain fans of the book and the play alike.

    Kim is a first-generation Korean immigrant and the proud owner of Kim's Convenience, a variety store located in the heart of downtown Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood. There, he spends his time serving an eclectic array of customers, catching petty thieves, and helpfully keeping the police apprised of illegally parked Japanese cars. As the neighbourhood quickly gentrifies, Mr. Kim is offered a generous sum of money to sell - enough to allow him and his wife to finally retire. But Kim's Convenience is more than just his livelihood - it is his legacy. As Mr. Kim tries desperately, and hilariously, to convince his daughter Janet, a budding photographer, to take over the store, his wife sneaks out to meet their estranged son Jung, who has not seen or spoken to his father in sixteen years and who has now become a father himself.Wholly original, hysterically funny, and deeply moving, Kim's Convenience tells the story of one Korean family struggling to face the future amidst the bitter memories of their past.This edition includes an eight-page black-and-white photo insert of the original Fringe production and the Soulpepper production.

    Infinite possibilities. 'Let's go for a drink. I don't know what I'm doing here anyway. One drink. And if you never want to see me again you never have to see me again'. Nick Payne's "Constellations" is a play about free will and friendship; it's about quantum multiverse theory, love and honey. "Constellations" premiered at the Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2012.

    A hit musical Off-Broadway, Once premiered on Broadway in spring 2012 to rave reviews.Enda Walsh is the author of five Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award-winning plays, including Penelope, The Walworth Farce, and The New Electric Ballroom. He also co-wrote the film Hunger, which won the Camera d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová are the stars and songwriters of the 2006 film Once, for which they won an Academy Award for Best Song. The two comprise the musical folk-rock duo The Swell Season, which is currently touring the United States. A documentary film of the duo, The Swell Season, was an official selection of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Hansard is also a member of the Irish band The Frames and Irglová is a classically trained Czech pianist and vocalist.

    Edgar) and directed by Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men). In November 2008, California's Proposition 8 stripped the freedom to marry away from gay and lesbian couples. Now, two of the nation's most renowned attorneys, under the auspices of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, have joined forces to challenge Proposition 8 under the United States Constitution. "8" faithfully recreates the progression of the historic 2010 federal trial through original court transcripts and interviews conducted with the plaintiffs, as their stories are brought to life before a live audience.

    Not on this earth but elsewhere . . .Determined to make his mark like those before him, Pharus is hell-bent on being the best choir leader in the school's fifty-year history. First he must gain the respect of his peers, but he's an outsider in a world steeped in rites and rituals, a community that demands he conform.Tarell Alvin McCraney's piercing new play set in an all boys, all black American prep school scores a gospel refrain of the politics of minority and masculinity.Choir Boy premiered at the Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court, London, in September 2012. It was commissioned by, and is a co-production with Manhattan Theatre Club and was supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

    The fourth play written by playwright Rajiv Joseph follows the lives of two best friends tumultuous relationship and lives as they come together over a 30 year period.

    Crafted around the stories of Achilles and Hector, in language that is by turns poetic and conversational, "An Iliad" brilliantly refreshes this world classic. What emerges is a powerful piece of theatrical storytelling that vividly drives home the timelessness of mankind's compulsion toward violence.

    With little adult supervision, they feed and care for each other, making up the rules as they go. But when Kenny's and Benji's relationship becomes more than friendship, and Edith shoots something she really shouldn't shoot, the formerly indifferent outside world comes barging in whether they want it to or not.

    We have History as our guide. In tough times, the British do what we have always done. We muddle through.This House is a timely and relevant political comedy, exploring Westminster and the 1974 hung parliament.In the run-up to the General Election pressure mounts as squabbling whips attempt to attract key regional votes. As it becomes clear the results will be closely balanced, the play tracks the formation, perils and consequences of a coalition government, including the compromises, conflicts and power games all in the interest of gaining control of Parliament.With well-paced, witty and waspish dialogue, This House playfully explores the childish digs and chauvinistic attitudes that riddle political life. Award-winning playwright James Graham combines comedy with comment in this portrayal of the strain between the thinking individual, the pressure to toe the part line and the end goal of winning government.

    Desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen. Big-hearted and fiercely funny, The Whale tells the story of a man's last chance at redemption, and of finding beauty in the most unexpected places.

    An absurdest comedy satire about the American Television Matriarch, her Nuclear Family, and the nature of motherhood and women's' rights from the 1950s to the present.

    Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. All relationships have their ups and downs; the optimism of youth becomes the wisdom of experience. Love is a leap of faith.

    Rajiv Joseph's groundbreaking new American play explores both the power and the perils of human nature.

    Ten years later, he left with those same stars circling around his head. Reeling from the humbling routine of an actor looking for work--any work, even for a chewing gum commercial, clad as a beaver in Speedo trunks and a Scooby-Doo cape while surrounded by beautiful women dressed to the nines--Rothstein found humor the best solution to saving his sanity. Meanwhile, his money-generating job paralleled his dream employment. Rothstein's ten-year sentence as a waiter in a Jewish deli frequented by Tinsel Town's celebrities gave him more of the same ego pummeling, doled out in equal measure by customers and managers, but with a twist. The occasional hit men and drive-bys added just enough excitement to make near-death experiences an unwelcome reality. Here, too, laughter saves the day, and Rothstein gleefully shares the inspirations for a never-ending comedy of terrors. Just as frequently, his own missteps find him flat-flat face on the pavement, sharing space with customers familiar to the world. And yes, Rothstein does name names. Find your favorites in As the Matzo Ball Returns and see Hollywood stars--and waiters everywhere--in a whole new light. As the Matzo Ball Turns was also honored as a 'Finalist in the Humor Category' from Forward Book of the Year Awards.

    When a former Black Revolutionary and political prisoner decides to connect with his estranged daughter, he discovers that fatherhood might be the most challenging revolution of all.

    A sweet little old lady, alone in her house, is pitted against a a gang of criminal misfits who will stop at nothing…Posing as amateur musicians, Professor Marcus and his gang rent rooms in the lopsided house of sweet but strict Mrs Wilberforce. The villains plot to involve her, unwittingly, in Marcus' brilliantly conceived heist. The police are stumped, but Mrs Wilberforce becomes wise to their ruse and Marcus concludes that there is only one way to keep the old lady quiet. With only her parrot, General Gordon, to help her, Mrs Wilberforce is alone with five desperate men.

    From drama to comedy to crime-thriller, Yee brings us a variety of plots and characters in a series of imaginative, thought-provoking vignettes.

    Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston played the lead role in the play’s celebrated Broadway performance at the Neil Simon Theatre, for which he was awarded the Tony Award for Best Actor. In this volume, Cranston provides a never-before-published illuminating and personal introduction to the play.All The Way tells the story of the tumultuous first year of the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, thrust into power following Kennedy’s assassination and struggling to hold onto the White House in an election that forces him to make concessions. In 1964, this pivotal year in American history, he passes a landmark civil rights bill, but begins his fateful descent into Vietnam. LBJ is fiercely determined to lift the country out of the ashes and rebuild it into The Great Society—by any means necessary.

    When Agnes finds Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook, however, she stumbles into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was Tilly's refuge. In this high-octane dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and 90s pop culture, acclaimed young playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.

    Wade is one of theatre's most vibrant young playwrights and a leading female voice on the British theatre scene.

    Bastian's news takes a backseat when his sister, Rissa, suddenly decides that she's pregnant, and though not yet showing, expects to deliver "any minute now." Both children are then bombarded with Mother's news of an older brother that they've never known about, Thom, who has returned home for Thanksgiving from the

    The play creates a violent world where good intentions count for very little, and offers an incisive, honest look at what it means to be a good parent.Contractions is an ink-black comedy about work and play: Emma's been seeing Darren. She thinks she's in love. Her boss thinks she's in breach of contract. The situation needs to be resolved. Artefacts depicts a father-daughter reunion which, after 16 years, crosses between the world of a British teenager and an Iraqi expert in antiquity, and is complicated by the ambivalent gift of a precious Mespotamian vase.  Cock is a punchy play which takes a playful, candid look at one man's sexuality and the difficulties that arise when you realize you have a choice.

    "In Joshua Young's WHEN THE WOLVES QUIT, the palpable influences of cinema and surrealism are woven together in this luminous play-in-verse. The firing of a gun triggers this emotional investigation of faith, memory, and the afterlife. With the same ferocity of a fired bullet Young's work accelerates the reader through his poetic obsession where the woods are ghostly and the path through the thicket is somewhere off the stage. With ingenuity and his strong gifts as a storyteller, Joshua Young's tale invites readers to become major characters and to explore a place that is the "middle ground between closure and myth." Oliver de la Paz"Long after reading it, Joshua Young's WHEN THE WOLVES QUIT still sits on my chest heavy as stone, lapping at my throat with a sometimes tongue and the always threat of teeth. When I scream blood-lust for new words, this book is what I greedily nightmare about." J. A. Tyler"A remarkable and delightful full-length debut, Joshua Young's WHEN THE WOLVES QUIT is a poetic Lynchian noir unlike any poetry before. Interrogating a familiar, provincial American space where 'secrets are damp, / caught in the space between the throat and the front teeth, ' Young entices us to step onto the stage itself. ENTER STAGE LEFT someone disappears. ENTER STAGE RIGHT see the missing through a keyhole or worse, through the slats of your neighbor's nearly closed blinds. Brilliantly suppressing distinctions between poetry, drama, and fiction, here is a frightening polyphony of voices, where all become victims of their own crimes where 'suffering moves and breathes.' The smallest details are even more disturbing, such as an out of tune piano plinking over the debris of other people's lives in half-abandoned rooms. When told in the book this is dream, we think nightmare. Most worryingly, Young manages to implicate an audience who is much too titillated by the oblique violence happening offstage. Just try to remove yourself from that association, reader." Richard Greenfield"

    And although it may sound like a horror, it's not! The songs are hilariously campy and the show is bursting with more farce than a Monty Python skit. EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL unearths the old familiar story: boy and friends take a weekend getaway at abandoned cabin, boy expects to get lucky, boy unleashes ancient evil spirit, friends turn into Candarian Demons, boy fights until dawn to survive. As musical mayhem descends upon this sleepover in the woods, “camp” takes on a whole new meaning with uproarious numbers like “All the Men in my Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons,” “Look Who’s Evil Now” and “Do the Necronomicon.” / Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical

    . . . Herzog deftly avoids simple-minded polemics in favor of richly detailed people who are as ready to examine their relationships as they are their consciences."—Variety"A funny, moving new play . . . 4000 Miles is a quiet meditation on mortality. But it's hardly a downer: Ms. Herzog's altogether wonderful drama also illuminates how companionship can make life meaningful, moment by moment, in death's discomforting shadow."—The New York TimesKnown for delicately detailed character studies that subtly balance humor and insight, Amy Herzog is swiftly emerging as a striking new voice in the American theater. After the Revolution, an astute and ironic drama about how society appropriates history for its own psychological needs, was heralded by The New York Times as one of the Ten Best New Plays of 2010. Herzog's other critical hit, 4000 Miles, is a quiet rumination on mortality in which twenty-one-year-old Leo seeks solace from his feisty ninety-one-year-old grandmother Vera in her New York apartment.Amy Herzog received the 2011 Whiting Writers' Award and the 2008 Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights. Her plays have been produced or developed at the Yale School of Drama, Ensemble Studio Theater, Arena Stage, Lincoln Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New York Stage and Film, Provincetown Playhouse, and ACT in San Francisco. Her newest play, Belleville, premiered at Yale Rep in fall 2011.

    Some of which are like firecrackers on a rope. Tennessee WilliamsTennessee Williams' lesser-known one act plays reveal a tantalising and fascinating perspective to one of the world's most important playwrights.Written between 1934 and 1980, the plays of the very young writer, then of the successful Tennessee Williams, and finally of the troubled man of the 1970s, this volume offers a panoramic yet detailed view of the themes, demons, and wit of this iconic playwright.The volume depicts American life during the Great Depression and after, populated by a hopelessly hopeful chorus girl, a munitions manufacturer ensnared in a love triangle, a rural family that deals "justice" on its children, an overconfident mob dandy, a poor couple who quarrel to vanquish despair, a young "spinster" enthralled by the impulse of rebellion, and, in The Magic Tower, a passionate artist and his wife whose youth and optimism are not enough to protect their 'dream marriage.'This collection gathers some of Williams's most exuberant early work and includes one-acts that he would later expand to powerful full-length dramas: 'The Pretty Trap,' a cheerful take on The Glass Menagerie, and 'Interior: Panic,' a precursor to A Streetcar Named Desire.Plays included are: At Liberty, The Magic Tower, Me, Vashya, Curtains for the Gentleman, In Our Profession, Every Twenty Minutes, Honor the Living, The Cast of the Crushed Petunias, Moony's Kid Don't Cry, The Dark Room, The Pretty Trap, Interior: Panic, Kingdom of Earth, I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark on Sundays and Some Problems for The Moose Lodge. The volume also features a foreword by Terence McNally.

    Together, they tell the story of Irish emigration - of those who went and those who were left behind. Crossing oceans and spanning decades, Murphy's three plays cover the period from the Great Hunger of the nineteenth century to the 'new' Ireland of the 1970s, exploring what we mean when we call a place 'home'.Conversations on a Homecoming: County Galway, 1970s. Even the humblest of small-town pubs can be a magnet for dreamers. Michael, after a ten-year absence, suddenly returns from New York and has a reunion with old friends, in that same pub 'The White House'.A Whistle in the Dark: Coventry, 1960Irish emigrants, the uprooted Carney family, adapt aggressively to life in an English city.Famine: County Mayo, 1846In Glanconnor village in the west of Ireland, the second crop of potatoes fails. The community now faces the real prospect of starvation.With an introduction by Dr Patrick Lonergan, NUI GalwayDruidMurphy, presented by Druid in a co-production with Quinnipiac University Connecticut, NUI Galway, Lincoln Center Festival and Galway Arts Festival, marks a major celebration of one of Ireland's most respected living dramatists and toured Ireland, London and the US in 2012.

    When Olivia loses control at her birthday party, her friends decide to intervene once and for all, but perhaps each of these five women is battling an addiction of some sort.

    It is the conclusion of the Very Potter trilogy of Harry Potter-inspired musicals produced over four years by StarKid Productions. Rather than a full musical, as with its previous installments, the production took the form of a live staged reading of the script, with performances of the songs at LeakyCon in Chicago, Illinois, on August 11, 2012. It featured nearly all of the StarKid actors and actresses, including actor Darren Criss, who returned to the company to reprise his role as Harry Potter, and Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the original film series.The script and soundtrack became available in December 2012, and official footage of the play was released on the StarKid YouTube channel on March 15, 2013. The story is a parody, based on several of the Harry Potter novels (particularly Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) by J. K. Rowling, as well as their film counterparts.

    When Agnes finds Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook, however, she stumbles into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was Tilly's refuge. In this high-octane dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and 90s pop culture, acclaimed young playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.

    William Bloor, a Foxfinder, arrives at Sam and Judith Covey’s farm to investigate a suspected contamination. What follows will change the course of all their lives, forever.

    It makes the blood rush."Olivier-award winning actor Adrian Lester plays Ira Alridge in the world premiere of Lolita Chakrabarti's new play, Red Velvet, which launches Indhu Rubasingham's reign as the Tricycle Theatre's new Artistic Director. The play is set in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. A young black American actor, Ira Aldridge, has been asked to take over the role. But, as the public riot in the streets, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?Written by the 2012 Most Promising Playwright (Evening Standard Awards) Lolita Chakrabarti, Red Velvet uses imagined experiences based on the often-forgotten, but true, story of Ira Aldridge, an African-American actor who, in the nineteenth century, built an incredible reputation on the stages of London and Europe.

    When she interviews Sahana, an elderly Muslim woman who has spent her life assisting survivors of the Armenian genocide, she learns a devastating secret that she resolves to share with the world at any cost, even if it means revealing her own shocking secret.

    Includes The Author, joint winner of the 2010 John Whiting Award and winner of a Total Theatre award for innovation; England; An Oak Tree, winner of a Village Voice Obie; and My Arm

    To mark his seventy-fifth birthday in July of 2012, the British Library has released, for the first time, the original BBC broadcasts of four of his most important radio plays in this five-disc audio set. Dating from 1967 to 1991, the plays collected here are Albert’s Bridge, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Dog It Was That Died, and In the Native State. The actors featured include Peggy Ashcroft, John Hurt, Penelope Keith, and Felicity Kendal. Revealing the humor and humanity characteristic of his works for the stage and film, this sample of Tom Stoppard’s original plays for the radio will heighten any fan’s interest in and appreciation for the writer’s complete oeuvre.

    Campbell and Shaw on Broadway. The play toured this hemisphere and Europe for two years before its return to Off-Broadway. It is a masterful compendium of badinage with Shaw and Mrs. Campbell in scenes of both confrontation and distancing. Here is Shaw in all his contradictions; he adores the actress, Mrs. Campbell, most ascetically, and persuades her to play in Pygmalion. He frets with her when she leaves for America, and yet he refuses permission to publish the letters that would save her from bankruptcy. Mrs. Campbell is his match; she published them anyway. Here is a strange and intriguing romance fought around the world.

    When one of her pupils - the damaged, articulate Micah - takes offence at an off-the-cuff remark about how life on Earth began, Susan is thrown into an ethical firestorm about science and faith that leads to her fearing for her safety.Casting light on the tension between religion and secular liberalism, How the World Began explores the debate between creationism and evolution, and how this is taught in schools. With hints of American classics like Inherit the Wind and The Catcher in the Rye, the play traces the inexorable, fatalistic momentum from a single casual act into an all-encompassing dispute. A dispute which then threatens the very foundations of a community still reeling from a colossal disaster. In addition to its relevant and complex themes, the play is also about human psychology and what drives people to extreme ideological positions in times of duress.With writing which is provocative, moving and intelligent, Catherine Trieschmann asks important questions alongside in-depth character studies. This shrewd and compassionate drama is astute, perceptive and controversial.

    . . . Vividly written. . . . An intriguing and evocative drama."—The San Francisco Chronicle, on Brainpeople"Mr. Rivera's intimate play . . . uses historical fact as a frame to pose intriguing questions about what might have happened."—The New York Times, on School of the AmericasThree new works from José Rivera, a writer known for his lush language, open heart, and stylistic flirting with the surreal. Boleros for the Disenchanted is the moving story of the playwrights own parents: their sweet courtship in 1950s Puerto Rico, and then forty years later in more difficult times in America. With Brainpeople, Rivera explores the troubled minds of three women in a post-apocalyptic setting who feast on a freshly slaughtered tiger. In School of the Americas, he imagines Che Guevara's encounter—more passionate than political—with a young schoolteacher in Bolivia. Also included is his one-act penned in protest of California's Proposition 8, Pablo and Andrew at the Altar of Words.José Rivera's works include the plays References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, Marisol, Cloud Tectonics, and Sueno (an adaptation of Life Is a Dream), as well as the Oscar-nominated screenplay to The Motorcycle Diaries.

    Closer to home, though, language is failing him. He doesn't know what to say to his wife, Mary, to keep her from leaving him, and he doesn't recognize the deep feelings that his lab assistant, Emma, has for him.

    Told through the lens of Wallace Stevens’ poem �Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” the subject of her uncompleted thesis, Margaret evokes beautiful, ordinary and painful memories. An intimate portrait of a writer making her way back to poetry one step at a time.

    A housing project in North Memphis, originally developed in the 1950s to attract white residents, the area had, by the nineties, become a byword for poverty and drug-related crime. In 2000, the Memphis City government received a $35 million federal grant in order to redevelop the area, and in 2003, the neighbourhood was demolished, following the relocation of hundreds of black residents.Hurt Village is not just a housing project, it’s a way of life for thirteen-year-old Cookie. Desperate to move her family out of the project, Cookie’s great-grandmother, Big Mama, is waiting on the local government to find them a new homr in suburban Raleigh. When she’s denied aid due to earning slightly over the public assistance maximum, her grandson, Buggy, recently returned from war and suffering from PTSD, renews old acquaintances and plunges the family back into a life of drug-dealing, addiction and gang violence, in order to forge a better life for them somewhere new.Hurt Village premiered at the Signature Theatre Company, New York City, in 2012. It is the fourth of Katori Hall’s ‘Memphis’ plays.

    This Critical Companion encompasses his plays for the stage, radio and television, and will be indispensable to students of his work.Challenging and at times perplexing, Beckett's work is represented on almost every literature, theatre and Irish studies curriculum in universities in North America, Europe and Australia. Katherine Weiss' admirably clear study of his work provides the perfect companion, illuminating each play and Beckett's vision, and investigating his experiments with the body, voice and technology. It includes in-depth studies of the major works Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape, and as with other volumes in Methuen Drama's Critical Companions series it features too a series of essays by other scholars and practitioners offering different critical perspectives on Beckett in performance that will inform students' own critical thinking. Together with a series of resources including a chronology and a list of further reading, this is ideal for all students and readers of Beckett's work.

    This explosive, multimedia story of a young woman trapped in a living nightmare combines direct, chilling performances with video and animation to create a site-specific experience that is both intimate and immersive.

    He's almost Christ-like, from a distance, in terms of height and weight. Listen closely or drift off uncontrollably as he speaks to you directly about the notion of home, about the notion of the world. A provocative new work by Pulitzer Prize finalist Will Eno.

    Chong’s play examines self-censorship, expressing her concern that the way people write, and the subjects they write about, is changing in Hong Kong. In an unidentified city that is a thinly disguised Hong Kong, citizens exist on the shifting boundary between the ideals of freedom and economic development. Scattered, primitive voices rage against progress and democratic evolution. The story follows an editor as he investigates the disappearance of his friend, a socially and historically conscious writer, with the help of a former student. They are soon overwhelmed by the torrent of conflicting ideas shaping the city – from economic growth and social conscience to personal experiences of grief and desire. Ultimately, their discoveries tear them apart. Chong Mui-ngam has been awarded four Best Script Awards at the Hong Kong Drama Awards, and the Outstanding Young Playwright Award by the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies. Her translation of Chinglish, a collaboration with David Henry Hwang, premiered in Chicago in June 2011.========"A news story published two years ago caught my attention: a theatre group fell victim to intimidation for preparing a play about June 4th. When I saw the name of the director, I was sure this was not a publicity gimmick — he is an old schoolmate whom I trust and respect. I called him and learnt that pressure was exerted on the team, and some production staff even decided to call it quits. While I was angered by this deplorable change in the “creative environment”, I was heartened to learn that people cared enough to report this kind of news, that we could still openly expose such injustice. How a seedling flourishes depends on its surrounding climate: what nurtured my play from concept to finished script are the storms and vicissitudes our city has ridden in the recent past." Dedicated to the wild boars of the city - Candace Chong Mui-ngam 《野豬》- 2012香港藝術節委約及製作兩年前一則報道引起我的注意：有劇團因為排演有關「六四」主題的話劇而受到恐嚇，我一看導演名字，已排除這是宣傳的可能─他是一個我十分信任和尊重的舊同學。我撥了一通電話，知道他們的確因為製作題材受到壓力，有些工作人員更因此請辭。一方面我為「創作環境」迫不得已的改變而感到氣憤，另一方面我慶幸，社會上還有這樣的報道、我們還可以公開地抱不平。 一顆種子會結成什麼樣的果子，

    Osofisan combines the broad contours of Shakespeare's plot with his distinctive style, including Yoruba songs, rituals, and performances, as well as the metatheatric intervention of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Claudius in the Yoruba story line.

    It showcases work produced at a number of the leading theatres during the last decade and charts something of the extraordinary range of current playwriting in America. It will be invaluable not only to readers and theatergoers in the U.S., but to those around the world seeking out new American plays and an insight into how U.S. playwrights are engaging with their current social and political environment.There is a rich collection of distinctive, diverse voices at work in the contemporary American theatre and this brings together six of the best, with work by David Adjmi, Marcus Gardley, Young Jean Lee, Katori Hall, Christopher Shinn and Dan LeFranc. The featured plays range from the intimate to the epic, the personal to the national and taken together explore a variety of cultural perspectives on life in America. The first play, David Adjmi's Stunning, is an excavation of ruptured identity set in modern day Midwood, Brooklyn, in the heart of the insular Syrian-Jewish community; Marcus Gardley's lyrical epic The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry deals with the migration of Black Seminoles, is set in mid-1800s Oklahoma and speaks directly to modern spirituality, relocation and cultural history; Young Jean Lee's Pullman, WA deals with self-hatred and the self-help culture in her formally inventive three-character play; Katori Hall's Hurt Village uses the real housing project of "Hurt Village" as a potent allegory for urban neglect set against the backdrop of the Iraq war; Christopher Shinn's Dying City melds the personal and political in a theatrical crucible that cracks open our response to 9/11 and Abu Graib, and finally Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal, an inter-generational play spanning eighty years, is set in the mid-west in a generic restaurant and considers family legacy and how some of the smallest events in life turn out to be the most significant.

    The three plays gathered in this volume—Melissa Arctic (winner of the 2005 Helen Hayes Award), Orange Flower Water, and The Pavilion—are all set in the fictional town of Pine City, Minnesota. The plays share a focus on love and relationships and feature a consistent undercurrent of observation and speculation about the nature of time. Melissa Arctic brings Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale into the present, retaining the original’s captivating mix of the comic and tragic. A brutally frank exploration of marriage, Orange Flower Water examines the irresistible lure and poisonous effects of unrealistic expectations within love, and portrays the inescapably compromised contours of relationships founded on adultery. The Pavilion, a lyrical and rueful homage to Our Town, is a meditation on dashed dreams and unquenchable hopes, set at a twenty-year high school reunion. In all three plays, Wright shows himself to be one of the most perceptive and engaging playwrights working today.

    To familiarize the reader with the world of each playwright, Tichler and Kaplan introduce us to the environments in which the work happens, conducting their interviews in the playwright’s home, a dark theater, or a coffee shop. Topics of conversation range from the playwrights’ earliest memories of the theater to finding their unique voices, and from their working relationships with directors, actors, and designers to their involvement in the purely commercial aspects of their profession. Taken together, these conversations constitute a collectively taught master class in the art and craft of writing for the stage.

    Here, the enterprise of playwriting itself is being re-imagined. Here, above all else, is a commitment to becoming in the theatre.For all that, each play is concerned with what is unfinished business in Ireland. How astonishing, then, that these plays should revolve for the most part around identity and, in particular, sexual identity. How identity comes into play, how we open up the field of play, how we raise into collective experience the exercise of that play – the urgency in the playwriting would appear to lie precisely here.We can read from the historical moment – from a narrative emphasizing an economic bubble and its hangover – into these plays. Or we can take these playwrights at their word and observe lives lived at the contour of identities in the making. It is for us as readers, just as we have as theatre-goers – frequently scandalized, enthralled, shamed, appalled, unburdened, tickled pink – to decide.

    I mean, you're now in a motel on the side of the highway, blood on the walls, and this book is a note on a nightstand. Joshua Young has written a maddening book of clues that hang on to us until we crumble into the impossible joke of it. I got inside and tried to call you, but you didn't pick up. Young's phones are made of static. And there is no you. And there are no heroes. And an old birthday cake. A cow keeps rocking." -Zachary Schomburg

    Ellis, a Grand Cyclops of the KKK, and Ann Atwater, an African American civil rights activist, during the desegregation of the Durham, North Carolina, schools in 1971. BEST OF ENEMIES exposes the poison of prejudice in the hearts of Atwater and Ellis, who, by facing each other, are forced to face the worst, and best, in themselves."

    In Monkey Bars their words are spoken by adults. Not adults playing children, but adults playing adults, in adult situations. Monkey Bars is a revelatory verbatim show that is funny, touching and endlessly surprising.

    I had a string quartet compose a piece of music dedicated to the 2 dash 10." This collection is a drama teacher's dream! Ten short two-person plays (inspired by the numbers 10 and 2!) in a variety of themes and lengths. Excellent for classwork and for competition.The plays can to be performed as a group or individually. More flexibility than you'll ever need. Over three million combinations!Titles in this book: Quippage (1M 1F)The Big Lie (2 Either)Pretty Girl Plain Girl (2F)Santa Runs a Sweat Shop (2 Either)Ms. Spitspot's Spick and Span Play Place (1F 1 Either)My Father Went to Switzerland and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt. (1F 1 Either)Time, What Is It? (2 Either)The Last Dance (2F)Ten Minutes, Ten Minutes, Ten Minutes, Ten Minutes (2 Either)The Itsy-Bitsy Spider Or Else (2M)

    During his nearly fifty-year career as a writer, actor, director, and producer, Shepard has consistently focused his work on the ever-changing American cultural landscape. James A. Crank's comprehensive study of Shepard offers scholars and students of the dramatist a means of understanding Shephard's frequent experimentation with language, setting, characters, and theme. Beginning with a brief biography of Shepard, Crank shows how experiences in Shepard's life eventually resonate in his work by exploring the major themes, unique style, and history of Shepard's productions. Focusing first on Shepard's early plays, which showcase highly experimental, frenetic explorations of fractured worlds, Crank discusses how the techniques from these works evolve and translate into the major works in his "family trilogy": Curse of the Starving Class, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, and True West. Shepard often uses elements from his past--his relationship with his father, his struggle for control within the family, and the breakdown of the suburban American dream--as major starting points in his plays. Shepard is a recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, eleven Obie Awards, and a Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Augmented with an extensive bibliography, Understanding Sam Shepard is an ideal point of entrance into complex and compelling dramas of this acclaimed playwright.

    Although the subject of a film by Fellini, The Satyricon was staged for the first time in history in the Debating Chambers, Glasgow University Union on 30th January 2006. The play highlighted themes of male rape, mental illness and suicide, which were not necessarily evident in the original text.

    Each play is introduced by critically acclaimed writers themselves.The volume includes:KIN by Bathsheba Doran, (with an introduction by Chris Durang)Kin sheds a sharp light on the changing face of kinship in the expansive landscape of the modern world.“Simply terrific. Perhaps the finest new play of the season. Funny and audacious, haunting, and exquisitely wrought.” - Charles Isherwood, New York TimesMIDDLETOWN by Will Eno (with an introduction by Gordon Lish)Middletown was awarded the prestigious Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play in 2010.“Middletown glimmers from start to finish with tart, funny, gorgeous little comments on big things: the need for love and forgiveness, the search for meaning in life, the long, lonely ache of disappointment.” - Charles Isherwood, New York TimesCOMPLETENESS by Itamar Moses (with an introduction by Doug Wright)Completeness is a 21st-century romantic comedy about the timeless confusions of love.“A funny, ridiculously smart new play. I haven’t seen another play recently that so perfectly captured love – hot-blooded, fearless, fickle – at this stage in life. I was left with nothing but admiration.” - Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg NewsGOD'S EAR by Jenny Schwartz (with an introduction by Edward Albee)“This ode to love, loss and the routines of life has the economy and dry wit of a Sondheim love song … Schwartz is a real talent and she is trying something ambitious … In [her] very modern way, [she is] making a rather old-fashioned case for the power of the written word.” - Jason Zinoman, New York Times

    A soldier is being held hostage. Two boys are searching for monsters. All these things are connected by both family and time but what story can be told when family and time are broken? Set over the course of twelve years, Shivered unpicks the story of two families and then re-weaves it into something new and startling. Seven people, one war, a derelict car plant and mysterious lights in the sky come together in the Essex new-town of Draylingstowe, where the view from green hills once offered hope and prosperity for all. An oblique and startlingly anachronistic piece, the timeframe is an emotional, rather than linear sequence, reflecting the characters' broken memories and shattered lives. Depicting a panorama of people and time, connecting links of friendship, family and encounters eddy around each other in a tantalising, surprising and intelligent way. Shivered is a state of the nation play meets a dreamlike memory play.

    It's an exhilarating glimpse into the last days of the tumultuous reign of Charles I, as he wages a losing battle to govern as he chooses.

    Naive and loving as she is, she does not realise that for him the marriage is a sham, an extended 'date'. It’s not long before he goes away, leaving her pregnant. Still, she trusts that he will return one fine day (Un bel dì). He does, but it is not the homecoming of which Madame Butterfly dreamed: she is devastated to discover that the callous Pinkerton is now married to an American girl. Heartbroken and despairing, Butterfly commits suicide in one of the most tragic and moving climaxes in opera. In this operatic masterpiece, Puccini depicts the clash of two cultures, weaving ‘The Star-spangled Banner’ throughout his music. The Humming Chorus, Ah! Dolce notte! (‘Oh, night of rapture’), and the Flower Song join Un bel dì in any list of favourite tunes.Written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ are concise, entertaining and easy to read books about opera. Each is an opera guide packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.Other ‘Short Guides to Great Operas’ that you may enjoy include those on Tosca, La Bohème and Lucia di Lammermoor.

    Exactly like the last. Every day, he tries to make sense of the world around him; the girl sitting on the lawn outside his window, the pages of a book filled with the same sentence, the 80 year old man looking at him in the mirror.In 2009 Patient H.M.’s brain is dissected live on the internet to a global audience of 400,000 people, cut into carefully preserved slices: manuscripts of tissue like the pages of a book.In 1953 Henry Molaison emerges from experimental brain surgery without any recollection of the last two years of his life or the ability to form new memories.In 1935 nine-year old Henry is knocked over by a bike, leaving him unconscious for five minutes.Following Analogue's critically acclaimed Mile End and Beachy Head and inspired by the world’s most important neuroscientific case-study, 2401 Objects tells the remarkable story of a man who could no longer remember, but who has proven impossible to forget.‘I defy anyone not be drawn into this deeply moving examination of life, death and memory.’ - Telegraph‘2401 Objects is a solid, well-researched piece of theatre that adds to Analogue's ever-growing canon of work.’ - Total Theatre Review‘Beautifully-sculpted... an understated and outstandingly gentle piece of theatre’ -The Scotsman

    Includes 2008's jury prize selection, Any Night> by Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn, as well as past hits from the festival: Richardthesecond by Matthew MacFadzean, The Unforgetting by Alan Dilworth, Little Dragon by Keira Loughran, and Matador Love and Our Father by Morwyn Brebner.

    Jo Clifford’s play is a timely reminder of how the greatest ideals can become sullied and how we have recklessly blurred the delicate distinctions between value, price, cost and worth.

    His ravaged appearance shocked the world. At the same time another old friend, Elizabeth Taylor, was beginning a crusade to raise awareness of the little-understood AIDS.Tracy Ann Oberman's new play is inspired by these events, imagining how they might have played out and exploring the relationships between Hollywood icons - the professional virgin, the all American man and the woman condemned as an "erotic vagrant" by the Pope.It marks the end of one Hollywood era and the start of another, presenting a vivid snapshot of stardom and sexuality, love and loss.

    Moving from the war in Afghanistan, through the dream world of morphine-induced hallucinations to the physio rooms of Headley Court, the play explores the consequences of injury, both physical and psychological, and its effects on others as the soldiers fight to win the new battle for survival at home. Drawn from the personal experience of the wounded, injured and sick Service personnel involved, Owen Sheers' "The Two Worlds of Charlie F". premiered at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in January 2012 and toured nationally that summer.[Source: www.amazon.com]

    One of the plays, "Sons of York," has never before been published, but earned James Graham a nomination for the Empty Space Mark Marvin Award."A History of Falling Things "is a gentle love story about a young man and woman forced to confront their fears of the outside world and discover what really matters to their lives. "Tory Boyz" is a fast-paced, political comedy about prejudice and ambition in Westminster, looking at homosexuality in the British Conservative party, both today and in the past.As Ben, self-employed, skint and emotionally vulnerable, begins to stitch together the patchwork quilt that was the Tax Year 2009/2010, he relives a year that was both hilarious and tragic, all mixed up in one shoe box of receipts. "The Man" is an affectionate and funny portrait of an individual's year-long experience, pieced together from receipts, shopping and commercial transactions. "The Whisky Taster" is a contemporary, subtle and witty exploration of feeling and perception in the modern world of advertising, and about seeing things too clearly in a city that never stands still. "Sons of York" Described as 'undoubtedly one of the best new plays of the year' ("British Theatre Guide"), "Sons of York" depicts three generations of the same family moving in together in Hull as the Winter of Discontent of 1978 builds up.

    

    In this new and thoughtful piece, a strange relationship forms between an outspoken nun and the leader of a group of scientists researching ageing and Alzheimer's in her convent as a group of nuns open their doors, and minds, to some curious academics.

    It premiered at the National Theatre, London, in June 2012.

    Performed at The Old Market in Brighton, 2011. "McCabe’s thoughtful and thorough, yet pacy and quick-witted script" - Bella Todd, Latest7.

    After all, his only opponent is nerdy Christy Martin, who wants to eliminate football. But when a mysterious Super PAC gives her an unlimited budget, things start to get very ugly. Mark must face total annihilation or accept the services of a slick professional campaign manager with questionable ethics and a million-dollar Super PAC of his own. A hilarious and timely satire on the contemporary political scene.

    Compelled by the threat of bankruptcy, the ageing fishing trawler The Violet is forced out into treacherous weather. Risking storms, friendships and relationships ashore, will the crew lose more than a way of life?Bound by Jesse Britton premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2009, where it was awarded a fringe First amongst other awards. It has since toured in the UK and Australia, where it won the Adelaide Advertiser Critics Circle Award 2010.

    Published as part of Checkpoint Theatre’s 10th anniversary celebrations, these plays are evidence of the burgeoning renaissance in Singapore playwriting.This collection of eight critically-acclaimed plays features the work of up-and-coming playwrights Christine Chong, Kenneth Chong, Lucas Ho, Dan Koh, Cheryl Lee, Laremy Lee, Faith Ng and Shiv Tandan. All the plays were written under the mentorship of Huzir Sulaiman and have been produced by Singapore theatre companies. The collection includes wo(men) by Faith Ng and The Good, the Bad, and the Sholay by Shiv Tandan, which were both nominated for Best Original Script in the Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards in 2011 and 2012 respectively.The plays are by turns lyrical and hilarious, and are marked by their intellectual rigour, emotional honesty, and refined technique. Checkpoint Theatre is committed to nurturing the next generation of Singapore theatre practitioners, and these plays serve both as a record of powerful new work and as a valuable resource for students and makers of theatre everywhere.

    As the citizens reflect on the dreams, secrets, and regrets of their lives, they paint a gritty and honest portrait of the town as all of their pasts are illuminated.

    Egusi Soup is a fast, furious and funny new family drama about intergenerational and cross-cultural relationships.

    His characters are finely drawn and the dialog is for the most part seamless... "-- David Wisehart, Author, "The Devil's Lair""'Friends Like These' is a shrewd study of modern adolescence."-- Ben Trawick-Smith, NYTheatre.com"Crafts eloquently captures the petty jealousies, pointless cruelties, and heightened self-consciousness of painful adolescence."-- Marc Miller, Backstage"(Playwright Gregory Crafts) has thrown in surprising details and created authentic characters who give us a fresh twist on teen angst."-- Jennie Webb, Backstage"Wonderfully written, 'Friends Like These' is a must see play and will put a knot in your stomach by the end."-- Rachel Stoll, LATheatreReview.com"Poignant script, gripping execution. Never a dull moment."-- SCV TVAn original play by Gregory Crafts, 'Friends Like These' takes a candid and poignant look at the staggering issue of violence in our high schools. Garrett is an outsider who spends most of his troubled existence in a fantasy world called Haven…that is until he meets Nicole, the popular cheerleader with a curious mind. As quickly as things begin looking up for Garrett, they come crashing down, forcing him to face both his past mistakes and his harsh present reality while he struggles for redemption. This gut-wrenching piece unswervingly explores the emotional trauma brought on by social mores during high school, forcing a confrontation with the causes and tragic consequences that left us staggered as a nation during Columbine and other high school shootings.

    When John, Susan, Titty and Roger are granted their wish to set sail on their beloved boat Swallow, they know it will be the summer holiday of a lifetime. But their adventure truly begins when they encounter Nancy and Peggy, the self-proclaimed Amazon Pirates, and the dastardly Captain Flint. 'Warm hearted, affectionate and fun' - Daily Telegraph 'Perfect – a brilliant feat of nerve and humour' - Daily Mail 'Full of wild adventure' - Guardian 'Infectious... Helen Edmundson provides a sprightly script' - Financial Times

    Based on the short story A Report to an Academy by Franz Kafka, this new adaptation is by acclaimed writer Colin Teevan.

    This play hurls one of Greek tragedy's most compelling sagas into a sleek netherworld of sex, drugs and trance music. Iphigenia is the daughter of a political celebrity who embraces sensuous excess with a transgendered glam rock star named Achilles in a desperate attempt to flee her inevitable fate. "Svich's text is a unique language spoken by beings that inhabit the intermediate world that she creates. It vacillates between poetry and realism, composing a theatrical intercultural dialogue that fuses aspects of modern Latin American slang with US media lingo and original rock lyrics." -Chiori Miyagawa, The Brooklyn Rail "Sacrificial women haunt the darkling world created by Caridad Svich in her bold play. It creates a transfixing vision of hell on earth, buttressed by Svich's fractured poetic voice and her unblinking laser gaze at the ethical costs of cheap labor and disposable celebrity. Svich cunningly twists our expectations of class and gender roles." -Kerry Reid, The Chicago Tribune "Caridad Svich's IPHIGENIA ... A RAVE FABLE is an exhilarating play. The narrative subtlety is what makes Svich's redux of Euripides's IPHIGENIA IN AULIS so stirring. Through video projections, throbbing music and brand-name chemicals may offer escape, they punish the soul. Svich's remarkable poetry and crackling words reveals that the ravers, now permanently numb, also want Iphigenia dead. A play of mythic power." -Mark Blankenship, Variety "Caridad Svich's play has gorgeous, drunken poetry ... This 'rave fable' re-invents the story of Agamemnon's doomed daughter as one of modern political exigency. In the chorus (of dead girls of Ciudad Juarez) Svich layers elegy and comedy, the shame and fear she feels for these lost girls. Svich makes the anonymous city stand in for the gods of ancient drama ― just as unforgiving, just as hungry, just as brutal." -Helen Shaw, N Y Sun

    Inside, his wife and child are being held hostage by an escaped murderer. An otherwise normal day in an otherwise comfortable life is not ending how it should. But rather than play the victim and accept this terrible fate, Ido decides to take control and embarks upon an extraordinary mission of revenge. Set in Tokyo in 1974, this dark and unconventional satire asks what happens when the victim becomes the aggressor, the weak become powerful and the watcher becomes the watched.‘As its supple mood shifts - from comedy, to tragedy, to eroticism - it exposes the sharp edge of cruelty that all these aesthetic modes share. It satirises the enjoyment of violence [and] walks that fetishistic line between pain and pleasure.’ – Time Out

    Three hermits, living in a lighthouse without a light, discover a runaway circus clown washed ashore. (1 act, 2 male, 2 female). Footprints on Water -- a darkly comic parable of belief and judgement. A religious zealot wills God to wipe out his morally bankrupt village so he can start the world again. (1 act, 4 male, 2 female).

    Words loved him. Now he's a great writer.' -Bono 'James X is like nothing we have seen before. Flynn's use of documents and the interplay between the printed file, his own memories, and the terrible truth that finally emerges creates a brilliantly original mix of theatre, performance art, documentary and direct human encounter. What Flynn wants to give us is a record not of his sufferings but of our collective cruelties and we are forced to take possession of a catalogue of crimes carried out in our name.' - Fintan O'Toole, Irish Times 'Riff after riff in this powerful one man show is incredibly vivid. Flynn frequently turns phrases into a kind of rapping rhyme. It has the strange double effect of a child trying to remember and a crazy person trying to blot things out.' - Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner 'The structure is like that of Christopher Unborn by Fuentes, an account of life literally from the womb, and of the tribulations that beset a child's passage through a country that is portrayed as grim, authoritarian and deeply prejudiced against him and his kind.' - Bruce Arnold, Irish Independent 'James X is relevant politically, socially, economically and spiritually, and not just in this country. The abuse is only a tiny part. I'm talking about a whole system. James X affects adults, it affects children, it affects all the social services in this country. I'm not doing this for my career, my ego or for theatrical reasons - I'm doing this because it's necessary. If anybody wants to figure out how it all happened, at least there will be one document out there that shows why it happened and what the character of James X did with it.' Gerard Mannix Flynn

    The narrator often channels MGM for advice as she tries to succeed as a second-generation American.

    In Birthday, an anxious young woman slips away from a unwelcoming birthday party in a bar only to discover a stranger sitting in the other room. Confiding old secrets and past mistakes as the party rages nearby, they find they may have a chance to forgive themselves and each other. In Nobody six people come together, each for their own reasons, at a restaurant on the Lower East Side. Obsessively going over the events of the day, they grasp at trying to come to terms with their disjointed lives and their singular, unsettling dream.

    These three plays - A LITTLE BETRAYAL AMONG FRIENDS, THE LABYRINTH OF DESIRE and THE MONSTER IN THE GARDEN - play fast and loose with issues of gender, sexuality, and identity and shed new light on works from Spain's golden age of drama.