Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, refleting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page -- through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show's creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent's life-affirming message all the more poignant.

       The Beauty Queen of Leenane was first presented as a Druid Theatre/Royal Court Theatre co-production in January 1996.

    Today he is recognized not only as the most successful American playwright of all time, but also as one of the greatest. More than the humor, however, it is the humanity of Neil Simon's vision that has made him America's most beloved playwright and earned him such enduring success. Now, in Rewrites, he has written a funny, deeply touching memoir, filled with details and anecdotes of the writing life and rich with the personal experiences that underlie his work.Since Come Blow Your Horn first opened on Broadway in 1960, few seasons have passed without the appearance of another of his laughter-filled plays, and indeed on numerous occasions two or more of his works have been running simultaneously. But his success was something Neil Simon never took for granted, nor was the talent to create laughter something that he ever treated carelessly: it took too long for him to achieve the kind of acceptance -- both popular and critical -- that he craved, and the path he followed frequently was pitted with hard decisions.All of Neil Simon's plays are to some extent a reflection of his life, sometimes autobiographical, other times based on the experiences of those close to him. What the reader of this warm, nostalgic memoir discovers, however, is that the plays, although grounded in Neil Simon's own experience, provide only a glimpse into the mind and soul of this very private man.In Rewrites, he tells of the painful discord he endured at home as a child, of his struggles to develop his talent as a writer, and of his insecurities when dealing with what proved to be his first great success -- falling in love. Supporting players in the anecdote-filled memoir include Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis, Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Maureen Stapleton, George C. Scott, Peter Sellers, and Mike Nichols. But always at center stage is his first love, his wife Joan, whose death in the early seventies devastated him, and whose love and inspiration illuminate this remarkable and revealing self-portrait. Rewrites is rich in laughter and emotion, and filled with the memories of a sometimes sweet, sometimes bittersweet life.

    The gaucheness, the rush of excitement, and the inarticulate tenderness of young love are beautifully captured in writing of great truth and delicacy. Only the most irrational of homophobes could fail to be moved by it."—Daily Telegraph"Deliciously upbeat ... seldom has there been a play which so exquisitely and joyously depicts what it's like to be sixteen, in the first flush of love and full of optimism. Truly a most unusual and beautiful thing."—Guardian"An unfakeably truthful portrait of adolescent self-discovery, showing sensitivity and fun pushing up like wild flowers through the concrete crevices of a Thamesmead estate. This is the most heartening working-class comedy since A Taste of Honey."—Independent on Sunday

    The evening consisted of six Durang one act plays. It was directed by Walter Bobbie; set was by Derek McLane, costume by David C. Woolard, lighting by Brian Nason, sound design by Tony Meola; production stage manager was Perry Cline, stage manager was Greg Fletcher. Durang/Durang is an evening of six one acts. It is thus not a full length play, but it is a full evening.

    The critically acclaimed drama by one of England's most successful mid-century playwrights.

    Quills premiered at Washington, D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in 1995 and subsequently had its debut Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop. Quills garnered the 1995 Kesselring Prize for Best New American Play from the National Arts Club and, for Wright, a 1996 Village Voice Obie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Playwriting.

    During the past ten years Harold Pinter has written a new play, three film scripts, sheaves of poems, several sketches and created, with composer James Clarke, a pioneering work for radio, Voices. He has acted on stage, screen and radio, he has appeared on countless political platforms, and his work has been extensively celebrated in festivals at Dublin's Gate Theatre and New York's Lincoln Center. In 2005 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and in 2006, the European Theatre Prize. As if this were not enough, he has in the last five years twice come close to death. But he has faced hospitalisation with stoic resilience and his spirit remains as fiercely combative as ever. As he wrote in 2005 to Professor Avraham Oz, one of Israel's leading internal opponents of authoritarianism: "Let's keep fighting."

    It provides an insight into how a director and actor approach a classic play and a portrait of theatre in post-apartheid South Africa. Originally published in 1996.

    This revised and expanded Black Theatre USA broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative anthology of African American drama with twenty-two new selections.This collection features plays written between 1935 and 1996.

    It is hard to imagine a better tour guide than Fuchs for a trip through the last thirty years of, as she puts it, what we used to call the 'avant-garde.'" --Essays in Theatre..". an insightful set of theoretical 'takes' on how to think about theatre before and theatre after modernism." --Theatre Journal"In short, for those who never experienced a 'postmodern swoon, ' Elinor Fuchs is an excellent informant." --Performing Arts Journal..". a thoughtful, highly readable contribution to the evolving literature on theatre and postmodernism." --Modern Drama"A work of bold theoretical ambition and exceptional critical intelligence.... Fuchs combines mastery of contemporary cultural theory with a long and full participation in American theater culture: the result is a long-needed, long-awaited elaboration of a new theatrical paradigm." --Una Chaudhuri, New York University"What makes this book exceptional is Fuchs' acute rehearsal of the stranger unnerving events of the last generation that have--in the cross-reflections of theory--determined our thinking about theater. She seems to have seen and absorbed them all." --Herbert Blau, Center for Twentieth Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee"Surveying the extraordinary scene of the postmodern American theater, Fuchs boldly frames key issues of subjectivity and performance with the keenest of critical eyes for the compelling image and the telling gesture." --Joseph Roach, Tulane University..". Fuchs makes an exceptionally lucid and eloquent case for the value and contradictions in postmodern theater." --Alice Rayner, Stanford University"Arguably the most accessible yet learned road map to what remains for many impenetrable territory...an obligatory addition to all academic libraries serving upper-division undertgraduates and above." --Choice"A systematic, comprehensive and historically-minded assessment of what, precisely, 'post-modern theatre' is, anyway." --American TheatreIn this engrossing study, Elinor Fuchs explores the multiple worlds of theater after modernism. While The Death of Character engages contemporary cultural and aesthetic theory, Elinor Fuchs always speaks as an active theater critic. Nine of her Village Voice and American Theatre essays conclude the volume. They give an immediate, vivid account of contemporary theater and theatrical culture written from the front of rapid cultural change.

    A light, fantastic trip down the Great White Way for the little kid in all of us.--Meryl Streep. Full color.

    In Leaking From Every Orifice she was a lesbian, had a sexual relationship with a gay man and ended up pregnant…"She make you laugh as she kicks you in the teeth" (Guardian)

    The first play collection by a young master of razor-sharp wit and black humor.

    "Pennington's great experience of the play...love for it...depth of knowledge...of many productions and interpretations culminate in a book of infinite value to any actor, director and above all to any passionate playgoer...written with passion, humor and rigor...an excellent read." -Ralph Fiennes

    A play of twisted circumstance, mistaken identity and surprising turns, it is deliciously absurd, incredibly funny and poignantly tender.

    While straight plays struggle to survive on Broadway, musicals play to near capacity houses. They are also a favorite of school and community groups. In this smart and practical guide, New Line Theatre artistic director Scott Miller looks at twenty musicals from a director's point of view, with solid suggestions for anyone thinking of embarking on such a production. Includes discussions of Gypsy, Assassins, Into the Woods, My Fair Lady, and West Side Story, as well as many others.Visit Scott's website at http: //www.geocities.com/Broadway/3164/

    Book by Gussow, Mel, Stoppard, Tom

    The following year Getting Out was featured in the Burns Mantle Theatre Yearbook as one of the best plays of the New York season, published by Avon Books, and chosen as a Fireside Book Club Selection.

    Plays are Balm in Gilead, Rimers of Eldritch, Gingham Dog, Lemon Sky, and The Sand Castle.

    The discovery causes a dramatic struggle as representatives from the worlds of art history, religion, and politics stake their claims for the ultimate prize. The unexpected arrival of twelve refugees sets events spiraling toward an explosive climax. This powerful play by the Tony Award winning adaptor of Nicholas Nickleby and author of numerous plays won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play of 1995.

    His work appeared indefatigably in The Nation, The New Republic, The London Observer, The New York Times, Harper's, Esquire, New York Magazine, and more. The Collected Works of Harold Clurman captures over six hundred of Clurman's encounters with the most significant events in American theatre - as well as his regular passionate embraces of dance, music, art and film. This chronological epic offers the most comprehensive view of American theatre seen through the eyes of our most extraordinary critic. 1102 pages, hardcover.

    This compelling collection includes works by award-winning and well-known playwrights such as Anna Deavere Smith, Cherrie Moraga, Pearl Cleage, Marga Gomez and Spiderwoman, as well as many exciting newcomers. Contemporary Plays by Women of Color is the first anthology to display such an abundance of talent from such a wide range of today's women playwrights. The plays tackle a variety of topics - from the playful to the painful - and represent numerous different approaches to playmaking. The volume also includes: * an invaluable appendix of published plays by women of color * biographical notes on each writer * the production history of each play Contemporary Plays by Women of Color is a unique resource for practitioners, students and lovers of theatre, and an inspiring addition to any bookshelf.

    Comic material and showbiz anecdotes combine in this volume, to tell the story of his life at the forefront of British comedy.

    Attention should be given to the terms of copyright with specific attention to public performance. Throughout the book, you will encounter 'preceding' and 'intervening' speeches that are presented in a different type-face. These speeches are not to be read and are included in the interest of orientation, duration and consistency. The synopses of the plays cover major plot points and offer a general story outline. They will never, however, compensate for reading and studying the play scripts and viewing videos of the plays that have been brought to film.

    New Anatomies, Grace of Mary Traverse, Our Country's Good, Love of a Nightingale & Three Birds Alighting on a Field

    Petersburg until his emigration to Latvia and Lithuania in the early 1930s.Accompanying Chekhov's witty, penetrating, and immensely touching accounts are extensive and authoritative notes compiled by leading Russian Chekhov scholar, Andrei Kirillov. Anglo-Russian trained actor Bella Merlin provides a useful hands-on overview of how the contemporary practitioner might utilise and develop Chekhov's ideas.Chekhov was arguably one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century. His life made a huge impact on his profession, and his actor-training techniques inspired many a Hollywood legend - including such actors as Anthony Hopkins and Jack Nicholson -while his books outlining his teaching methods and philosophy of acting are still bestsellers todayThe Path of the Actor is an extraordinary document which allows us unprecedented access into the life, times, mind and soul of a truly extraordinary man.

    What was accepted at the turn of the century as a patriotic celebration of a national hero has emerged in the modern theater as a dark and troubling analysis of the causes and costs of war. This book details the theatrical innovations and political insights that have turned one of Shakespeare's most tradition-bound plays into one of his most popular and provocative.

    It re-examines issues of authorship, dating, primary material, orality and text. It traces the history of the inflows and outflows, of the pretext, the precursors, the commentators and the interpreters of the text.

    Moore's exhaustive analyses of Stanislavski's original texts, letters, journals and production notes have yielded a revised understanding of Stanislavki's method - and his secret of inspiration - the key to spontaneity on the stage and the path to fresh and naturalistic performance.

    Noted musical theater scholar Jablonski tells the story of Lerner's career and of his personal life--filling in the cracks purposefully left open in Lerner's own autobiography. Photos.

    Contains 13 songs from the acclaimed Broadway stage production, featuring music by Henry Mancini and Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Includes: Le Jazz Hot * Paris by Night * Living in the Shadows * and 10 more, plus color photos and a plot synopsis.

    Kurt Weill was a German cantor's son, cerebral, well-educated. Lotte Lenya was two years older, an Austrian Catholic coachman's daughter, waif-like, less than beautiful but always appealing to men. She survived the abuse of an alcoholic father, escaping to Zurich and finally Berlin, working as a would-be dancer turned actress. When they met, she was a domestic worker in the home of the playwright he had come to recruit as a librettist. Much to his family's dismay, they married in 1926.Fiercely independent and yet codependent, Weill and Lenya spent twenty-five years discovering a way to live together after realizing that they couldn't live apart. Weill gave music to her voice, Lenya gave voice to his music. Their correspondence—first in German and later, after their move to America, in highly flavored English—is uninhibited, intimate, and irreverent. It offers a backstage view of German music and theater, the American musical theater in the late thirties and forties, and Hollywood. The letters are candid, vivid commentaries on world events, the creative process, and the experience of exile.Never before published, this collection reflects the vibrancy of Weimar culture in the Golden Twenties and the vitality that èmigrès brought to American culture. Lenya's unfinished autobiographical account of her life before Weill is also included, along with a prologue, epilogue, and connective commentary. Immensely touching as well as informative, Weill and Lenya's letters preserve a portrait of a memorable love that somehow survived its turbulent surroundings.

    The Atlas includes:ninety maps showing the regions in which particular words, phrases and pronunciations are used detailed commentaries explaining points of linguistic, historical and cultural interest explanations of linguistic terms, a bibliography for further reading and a full index.Based on the Survey of English Dialects - the most extensive record of English regional speech - the Atlas is a fascinating and informative guide to the diversity of the English Language in England.

    The 1995 production at the Royal National Theatre starred Judi Dench and was directed by Anthony Page.

    broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative anthology of African American drama with 22 new selections. Building on the well-respected first edition published in 1974, this edition features previously unpublished works including In Dahomey, Liberty Deferred, and Star of Ethiopia, and the Department of Interior's infamous 1918 food pageant. Contemporary plays by women have been added - Robbie McCauley's Sally's Rape, Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror, and Aishah Rahman's The Mojo and the Sayso, as well as the modern classics - Ntozake Shange's Colored Girls..., Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. The range of this collection extends from 1847 to 1992, including the great names in the African American pantheon of writers - Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Angelina Grimke, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. The chronology begins with William Wells Brown's The Escape: or, a Leap for Freedom, based on his own life as an escaped slave. Two expatriot authors, Ira Aldridge and Victor Sejour, provide glimpses of life in Europe, while at home, playwrights struggled with the issues of birth control, miscegenation, lynching, and migration. The book embraces both commercial successes such as George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum, and Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play, as well as lesser-known masterpieces - Ben Caldwell's The First Militant Preacher, Owen Dodson's The Confession Stone, and Ted Shine's Contribution. The stylistic range, too, runs the gamut of genre from the realism of Ted Ward,Lonne Elder III, and Ed Bullins to the surrealism of Marita Bonner and Aishah Rahman. Comedy is present in Abram Hill's On Strivers Row and Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence which mock the racism of both Blacks and Whites.

    Nick Kaye's introductory essay to the volume offers a useful context for the reader and each interview is preceded by an informative biographical sketch.

    broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative anthology of African American drama with 22 new selections. Building on the well-respected first edition published in 1974, this edition features previously unpublished works including In Dahomey, Liberty Deferred, and Star of Ethiopia, and the Department of Interior's infamous 1918 food pageant. Contemporary plays by women have been added - Robbie McCauley's Sally's Rape, Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror, and Aishah Rahman's The Mojo and the Sayso, as well as the modern classics - Ntozake Shange's Colored Girls..., Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. The range of this collection extends from 1847 to 1992, including the great names in the African American pantheon of writers - Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Angelina Grimke, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. The chronology begins with William Wells Brown's The Escape: or, a Leap for Freedom, based on his own life as an escaped slave. Two expatriot authors, Ira Aldridge and Victor Sejour, provide glimpses of life in Europe, while at home, playwrights struggled with the issues of birth control, miscegenation, lynching, and migration. The book embraces both commercial successes such as George C. Wolfe's The Colored Museum, and Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play, as well as lesser-known masterpieces - Ben Caldwell's The First Militant Preacher, Owen Dodson's The Confession Stone, and Ted Shine's Contribution. The stylistic range, too, runs the gamut of genre from the realism of Ted Ward,Lonne Elder III, and Ed Bullins to the surrealism of Marita Bonner and Aishah Rahman. Comedy is present in Abram Hill's On Strivers Row and Douglas Turner Ward's Day of Absence which mock the racism of both Blacks and Whites.

    The first comprehensive guide to the business of writing for today's stage.

    Gurr draws on the most up-to-date research to provide a general history of company development from the 1560s, when the first of the major companies belonging to great lords began regularly to offer their plays at court and in London, to 1642, when by Act of Parliament they were closed down. He offers detailed and fascinating accounts of each of the forty companies that played in London during the period, including Shakespeare's company, The Chamberlain's/King's Men. His fascinating and authoritative volume will take its place as an indispensable reference work and the authoritative history for all scholars and students of Renaissance--and Shakespearean--drama.

    West, Shay Youngblood, Robert Alexander, Kia Corthron, Keith Antar Mason, and others.

    Check out the best of fashion--from empire waists and bustles to hoop skirts, flapper dresses, and thigh-high mini-dresses--in this stunning look at clothing trends from the 1100s to the present day.