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

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

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

    Out of work, our slacker decides to become a Macy's elf during the holiday crunch. At first the job is simply humiliating, but once the thousands of visitors start pouring through Santa's workshop, he becomes battle weary and bitter. Taking consolation in the fact that some of the other elves were television extras on One Life to Live, he grins and bears it, occasionally taking out his frustrations on the children and parents alike. The piece ends with yet another Santa being ushered into the workshop, but this one is different from the lecherous or drunken ones with whom he has had to work. This Santa actually seems to care about and love the children who come to see him, startling our hero into an uncharacteristic moment of goodwill just before his employment runs out. (1 man.)SEASON'S GREETINGS. Another funny, touching and twisted monologue about the season. (1 woman.)

    Beginning with his early childhood on New York's prosperous Upper West Side, Secrest describes how Sondheim was taught to play the piano by his father, a successful dress manufacturer and amateur musician. She writes about Sondheim's early ambition to become a concert pianist, about the effect on him of his parents' divorce when he was ten, about his years in military and private schools. She writes about his feelings of loneliness and abandonment, about the refuge he found in the home of Oscar and Dorothy Hammerstein, and his determination to become just like Oscar.Secrest describes the years when Sondheim was struggling to gain a foothold in the theatre, his attempts at scriptwriting (in his early twenties in Rome on the set of Beat the Devil with Bogart and Huston, and later in Hollywood as a co-writer with George Oppenheimer for the TV series Topper), living the Hollywood life.Here is Sondheim's ascent to the peaks of the Broadway musical, from his chance meeting with play-wright Arthur Laurents, which led to his first success--as co-lyricist with Leonard Bernstein on West Side Story--to his collaboration with Laurents on Gypsy, to his first full Broadway score, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. And Secrest writes about his first big success as composer, lyricist, writer in the 1960s with Company, an innovative and sophisticated musical that examined marriage à la mode. It was the start of an almost-twenty-year collaboration with producer and director Hal Prince that resulted in such shows as Follies, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, and A Little Night Music.We see Sondheim at work with composers, producers, directors, co-writers, actors, the greats of his time and ours, among them Leonard Bernstein, Ethel Merman, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Jerome Robbins, Zero Mostel, Bernadette Peters, and Lee Remick (with whom it was said he was in love, and she with him), as Secrest vividly re-creates the energy, the passion, the despair, the excitement, the genius, that went into the making of show after Sondheim show.A biography that is sure to become the standard work on Sondheim's life and art.From the Hardcover edition.

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

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

    It helps you provide opportunities for young people to open up and explore their feelings through theatre, offering a safe place for them to air their views with dignity, respect, and freedom.The purpose of this manual is to provide a clear look at the process and specifics involved in the Hope Is Vital interactive theatre techniques. The organization is sequential, providing a blueprint for creating a workable plan. Beginning with warm-up exercises and bridging activities, the process moves forward to improvisational scenework, where students actually replace characters in the stories. It is at this point that young people engage in their own mini-theatre and look at choices, strategies, and communication.Teachers will want to read this book. Counselors will want to read this book. Community leaders will want to read this book. It is useful in any group setting or as a tool for outreach.

    Book by Wendy MacLeod, MacLeod, Wendy

    Hot Seat is Rich's definitive chronicle of his long run--an encyclopedic anthology of more than three hundred of his best reviews and essays, interspersed with further thoughts, entirely new to this volume, about his adventures on the aisle at the tumultuous time when Broadway was decimated by AIDS and colonized by the British musical.         Rich's opening-night accounts of an era's biggest hits (from The  Phantom of the Opera to Six Degrees of Separation) and most notorious bombs (from Moose Murders to Carrie) are here, as are his year-by-year reflections on major careers both established (Stephen Sondheim, Peter Brook, Jessica Tandy) and new (August Wilson, Kevin Kline, Caryl Churchill).         Here as well are Rich's final words on his sparring matches with Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Hare, among others, and his retrospective lists of which plays and performances he admired most and least--as well as lists of the productions he feels he over--and underrated the first time around.        From the tragic opening night of David Merrick's 42nd Street to the unprecedented triumph of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Hot Seat captures what was in every way a dramatic chapter in cultural history, as told and lived by a journalist with the best seat and sharpest eye in the house.

    Winner of three Tony Awards, including Best Book, Urinetown is a tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold.

    Legislative Theatre is the latest and most remarkable stage in his work. 'Legislative Theatre' is an attempt to use Boal's method of 'Forum Theatre' within a political system to create a truer form of democracy. It is an extraordinary experiment in the potential of theatre to affect social change. At the heart of his method of Forum Theatre is the dual meaning of the verb 'to act': to perform and to take action. Forum Theatre invites members of the audience to take the stage and decide the outcome, becoming an integral part of the performance. As a politician in his native Rio de Janeiro, Boal used Forum Theatre to motivate the local populace in generating relevant legislation. In Legislative Theatre Boal creates new, theatrical, and truly revolutionary ways of involving everyone in the democratic process. This book includes: * a full explanation of the genesis and principles of Legislative Theatre * a description of the process in operation in Rio * Boal's essays, speeches and lectures on popular theatre, Paolo Freire, cultural activism, the point of playwrighting, and much else besides.

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

    

    This is her life.

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

    The subject matter is a prison scandal which shocked the nation in the mid-thirties when convicts leading a hunger strike in prison were locked in a steam-heated cell and roasted to death. "I have never written anything since that could compete with it in violence and horror",Williams said later about the full-length play he developed in 1938. It shows us the young Williams as a political writer in Depression America; its flashes of lyricism and compelling dialogue presage the great plays Williams was later to write.

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

    Based on the author's lifelong interest in interpreting Shakespeare's works for contemporary audiences, Brook's analysis is a typically illuminating and provocative take on our greatest playwright.

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

    Following an introduction to the history and philosophy of psychodrama, the theory is then brought to life by detailed first-hand accounts of psychodrama sessions. The structure of the book innovatively reflects that of the classic psychodrama session--Warm Up, Action, Sharing and the subsequent Processing. Chapters on psychodrama in action include discussion on the new use of psychodrama in the treatment of depression, and the relationship of the discipline to other group psychotherapies. The contributors vividly illustrate the contribution dramatic improvisation can make to emotional health. Contributors: Zerka T. Moreno, Peter Haworth, Susie Taylor, John Casson, Anne Bannister, Gillie Ruscombe-King, Jinnie Jeffries, Olivia Lousada, Chris Farmer, Ken Sprague, Dorothy Langley, Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger

    With the help of David Tushingham, he has adapted Salman Rushdie's classic children's novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories for the stage. Set in an exotic eastern landscape peopled by magicians and fantastic talking animals, Rushdie's novel inhabits the same imaginative space as Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. Haroun sets out on an adventure to restore the poisoned source of the sea of stories. On the way he encounters many foes, intent on draining the sea of all its storytelling powers.

    

    In this case things begin to go awry when Victor Deboshe, a middle-class insurance salesman, becomes impotent, leading his wife, Yvonne, to assume that he has taken a mistress. To test his fidelity she has her friend Lucille write an anonymous letter to Victor, claiming to be infatuated with him and proposing a rendezvous at the notorious Hotel Pussy a Go-Go. Thinking a mistake has been made, Victor persuades his friend Maurice (a famous womanizer) to keep the appointment for him, after which the complications begin to multiply uproariously. Eventually, as must be, things are somehow untangled and set right, but not before the action has expanded to include a violently jealous husband (a hot-blooded Spaniard), a suicidal leap from a window, a nephew with an unfortunate (but hilarious) speech defect, a furious Indian fakir and a lascivious butler, all tumbled together into a riotous medley of slamming doors, revolving beds and wildly amiss gun shots all of which will leave audiences happily breathless from laughter.

    Its links to theatre, photography, music, dance, politics and popular culture have made it popular with contemporary artists. This book covers more than three decades of work.

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

    A remarkable debut by a talented new African-American playwright.

    Titles include: Good Thing Going * Not a Day Goes By * Our Time * The Hills of Tomorrow * Merrily We Roll Along * Old Friends * Like It Was * Honey.

    Ajax, perhaps the earliest surviving tragedy of Sophocles, presents the downfall and disgrace of a great hero whose suicide leads to his rehabilitation through the enlightened magnanimity of one of his enemies.

    In Russia, Soviet Marxism limited Stanislavsky to the physical world and Socialist Realism. These assumptions have blurred other aspects of Stanislavsky drawn from Yoga, Symbolism, and formalist attitudes towards texts.

    Extensive, detailed captions document location, architects, opening date, other data for the Fifth Avenue Theatre (1873), the Hippodrome (1905), the Music Box Theatre (1921), as well as the New Amsterdam, Winter Garden, Ziegfeld, more. Over 200 photos and illustrations.

    The lyricist/librettist of The Fantasticks, the longest-running show in the history of the American theater, takes on a new role as your guide through the magical world of the stage musical.

    It has over 180 full-page drawings showing construction techniques for every conceivable kind of stock scenery piece, from flats (plain ones, door units, hardwall, etc.), to platforms and step units (including two kinds of parallel platforms and even folding-brace stairs), to all kinds of soft goods like curtains and drops. The second edition includes a new chapter on paint and over 20 new illustrations. The author's wry sense of humor will delight and entertain every reader.

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

    Nine parallel lives, interlocked by four infidelities, one missing person and a mysterious stiletto, are woven through a fragmented series of confessionals and interrogations that gradually reveal a darker side of human nature.

    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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

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

    J.—"seemed unlikely casting for the most ruthless titans in the history of American theatre," notes biographer Foster Hirsch. But since the turn of the century, the Shuberts and their heirs have exercised an unequaled power over Broadway and the road. Not until now has there been a complete account of their lives and the evolution of their business.During their heyday from 1905 to the crash of 1929, the Shuberts presented a dozen or more shows each season in New York and twice that number on tour, featuring the most respected and sought-after stars of the day: Al Jolson, Richard Mansfield, Beatrice Lillie, Carmen Miranda, Lillian Russell, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Mae West, Fred Astaire, and the Three Stooges, among many others.Nearly illiterate, the Shuberts conquered commercial theatre, in part because rivals saw them as malaprop-spouting yokels from Syracuse who posed no threat. They were excellent businessmen who seldom financed their enterprises with their own money and who instinctively understood star power. Although jealousy and rivalry dominated their relationships among themselves, they believed in the blood bond and stuck together when attacked from the outside.The story of the Shuberts is an epic tale of business successes and shenanigans on an enormous scale. Embellished with original interview material, this vivid chronicle is a major contribution to the history of the American theatre and is certain to become an essential reference work.

    Elomire, the troupe's renowned leader, is furious because Prince Conti, the troupe's patron, is forcing a street performer, Valere, upon them. Elomire finds Valere and his work to be revolting and base, while Bejart, the troupe's second in command, is worried about offending the Prince, and, thereby, losing their patron. Valere is a terrible bore, who loves nothing more than the sound of his own voice, which he amply demonstrates at his first entrance, where upon he delivers an uproariously funny and extended monologue. Elomire can barely withhold his contempt, but Valere is completely unaware of the barbs tossed his way. The Prince arrives, anxious to see how Elomire and Valere are getting along, having high hopes for their union. The Prince feels Elomire's work has grown stagnant and that the troupe needs new blood. Elomire, convinced that Valere will never be able to work in an ensemble situation, challenges Valere to present one of his plays with the rest of the troupe assists as a compatibility test. The strategy backfires, however, as Valere not only works well with the troupe, but the troupe finds themselves enchanted with Valere and his high jinks theatrics. Seeing this, the Prince immediately offers Valere a place with the troupe over Elomire's protests. Elomire, unable to compromise his artistic principles, strikes out on his own.

    Topics covered include: evoking dramatic moments in second language learning and teaching; the nature of teacher-student interaction in drama-orientated language classrooms; and the psycho-social aspect of drama on learning.

    

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

    This collection features PVG arrangements of 16 songs from the recent Broadway run of this controversial, critically acclaimed new musical that will be opening next year in Europe. Songs include: Come Look at the Freaks * The Devil You Know * Feelings You've Got to Hide * I Will Never Leave You * Leave Me Alone * Like Everyone Else * One Plus One Equals Three * Private Conversation * Say Goodbye to the Freak Show * Tunnel of Love * We Share Everything * When I'm by Your Side * You Should Be Loved * and more. Includes color photos from the Broadway production.

    The killer, Bill Reach, has admitted to the murders of nineteen women, but there may have been more. Over many weeks of interviews, the couple Dan and Iris Henniman grow more and more uncertain of the ethics of what they are doing. Are they simply relating terrifying events, or are they helping readers consume rape, murder and mutilation as if they are consuming any other product of our society? Are they, in fact, helping to turn Bill Reach into a celebrity?

    Included in this edition are four plays from his extraordinary career: "Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie, The Emperor Jones", known for its unusual stage devices and powerful use of symbolism, and "The Hairy Ape", one of O'Neill's experiments in expressionism.

    Organized by genre, each section features a rich selection of representative plays and explorations into each theatrical style and is prefaced by an illustrative essay covering a wide range of subjects, from stage direction to musical accompaniment. With classic and new translations of more than thirty plays and scenes--along with Brazell's detailed, historically rich supplementary material and copious illustrations--no better anthology exists for students of this most fascinating and diverse dramatic tradition.

    In this useful book, Rachel Lebon guides the aspiring singer through the unfamiliar world of commercial singing, from the physical processes of voice, to effective microphone technique and proper studio protocol. The purpose of this handbook is two-fold: to provide practical suggestions that will prepare the student/vocalist for professional singing opportunities, and to present a pedagogical approach that specifically addresses the vocal needs of a singer within the commercial music world. The first section of the text is directed to the aspiring commercial vocalist. It begins with a discussion of the voice as a musical instrument, including discussions of healthy speech patterns, maintaining the voice, and good vocal hygiene. The book also contains resources concerning the mechanics of lead sheets and music preparation, key selection, transposition, and strategies to develop distinctive vocal style and interpretation. Descriptions of the performance context of "club dates," recording sessions, and professional auditions are provided as well. The second section of the helpful handbook is directed toward the voice teacher and aspiring singer, and is devoted to developing confident vocal techniques for singing in commercial idioms. It includes a range of issues from breath management and articulation, to stress release and warm-up exercises. A rewarding aid to singers faced with the continual challenges of the modern, professional singing world.

    Jason, the prodigal son who's been in the Navy since a violent confrontation with his father, has just called from the airport, announcing that he's on his way home. Jason's family his parents Jack and Irene, his sisters Jeanann, Maureen and Peggy, and Aunt Bernice and Uncle George await his arrival as they drink, fight, joke, sing Girl Scout songs, threaten each other with playing Charades and otherwise stake out their territories. Jason arrives with presents for his family from around the world, and a freshly killed pig in the garbage bag to roast, creating a stir at the party and forcing emotions to rise. After Santos, the next door neighbor, casts doubt as to what's really in the garbage bag, Jason takes his family hostage and forces them at gun point to play a life and death game of Charades.

    Also included is An Englishman Abroad and A Question of Attribution. The fascination of these two plays lies in the way they question our accepted notions of treachery and, in different ways, make a sympathetic case for Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt.

    This anthology, compiled by an authority on children's theatre, collects new and overlooked scripts that represent the best of modern playwriting for children. From works adapted from classic children's stories to original contemporary scripts, each play inspires the imagination as it entertains.With complete scripts for twenty plays plus a biographical sketch of each playwright, Theatre for Young Audiences is invaluable for anyone involved in children's theatre, from community theatre groups to teachers and students of dramatic literature.Plays included in this book:Charlotte's Web ... Joseph RobinetteThe Arkansas Bear ... Aurand HarrisReally Rosie ... Maurice SendakThe Secret Garden ... Pam SterlingWiley and the Hairy Man ... Suzan ZederAccording to Coyote ... John KauffmanThe Mischief Makers ... Lowell SwortzellThe Wise Men of Chelm ... Sandra F. AsherCrow & Weasel ... Jim LeonardThe Ice Wolf ... Joanna H. KrausHome on the Mornin' Train ... Kim HinesThe Falcon ... Greg PalmerThe Man-Child ... Arnold RabinHush: An Interview with America ... James StillBocon! ... Lisa LoomerThe Crane Wife ... Barbara CarlisleJungalbook ... Edward MastA Thousand Cranes ... Kathryn S. MillerThe Yellow Boat ... David SaarSelkie ... Laurie Brooks Gollobin

    Published together in one volume, the four Schiller plays 'Don Carlos', 'The Robbers', 'Joan of Arc', 'Love and Intrigue' that inspired Verdi's operas together with 'Mary Stuart'.

    The plays in this volume include: "The Hotel Baltimore," "Serenading Louie," "The Mound Builders," and "Angels Fall."

    Every creative choice is focused on making this abstract compilation of dialogue and actions come to breathing, believable life. The Actor's Script offers a clear, concise, and easily assimilated technique for beginning scriptwork specifically tailored to actors' requirements and sensibilities. Included are: techniques actors need to make the script a powerful and limitless resource for creativity, passion, and transformation processes for breaking scenes into playable beats and actions character analysis from textual information, themes, and larger ideas specific playwriting styles and many excerpts and applications from both contemporary and classic texts. All discussions are applied to actors' unique needs with humor and clarity. Actors who read this book will learn how to break down a script, create the richest and most varied characters, embody the time period and script's unique world, and allow the highest themes and ideas to empassion their choices.Charles S. Waxberg, playwright, director, and actor, has been developing his technique for script analysis since 1981. He has taught script analysis, playwriting, and acting for Carnegie-Mellon University, Stella Adler Conservatory, New York University--Tisch School of the Arts, and the Roundabout Theatre Conservatory, which he founded and where he served as Conservatory Director. Mr. Waxberg has performed in over 25 productions throughout the East Coast and New York City.

    

    The authors guide the reader through the complex role of the scenic artist, discussing his or her relationship with the scenic designer and production staff; the variety of tools used in scenic artistry including paints, materials, and surfaces; and the techniques, both traditional and non-traditional. The book also includes a history of scenic artistry beginning with the Renaissance and Baroque theatres through the Romantic theatre to the present day Modern theatre. Scenic Art for the Theatre is written in easy-to-understand language for both the student and the professional. The tools and techniques sections, complete with hints and how-to's, make this book a handy reference for anyone studying or working in this field.

    She's set up a date for kinky sex with a john who likes to watch her with someone else, but the trouble is all her usual partners are busy. Then her long-lost bisexual brother, Chris, walks through the door and Noelle gets to thinking... "Blood" is certainly funny, but it is actually a potent drama about the impossibility of moral certainties and the possibilities of love. If Noelle is willing to have sex with her own brother, then Chris in his turn is willing to fulfill a lifelong incestuous fantasy. Walmsley follows this pair into a moral swamp in which, when not trying to drown each other or themselves, they struggle for salvation. In a tightly-wound two-act script that makes Sam Shepard look like Neil Simon, they engage in spiraling negotiations over drugs, sex, power, love, and death."—"Globe and Mail"

    From the story of the teenage Lucy in Invisible Friends who revives her childhood imaginary friend when things get difficult at home, onto the storytellers in My Very Own Story and This Is Where We Came In and, finally, to young Ernie who 'illucinates' all sorts of wild and weird happenings with astonishing results.

    The authors break new ground by showing how Elizabethan theater history can be refocused by concentrating on the company that produced the plays, rather than on the authors who wrote them. They provide a full account of the company's acting style, staging methods, touring patterns and repertoire. Their conclusions will interest Elizabethan historians as well as students and scholars of early modern theater.

    

    Linda Apperson clearly and concisely leads the reader through the procedures and responsibilities of stage management, from auditions to closing night. What is "blocking"? How do you "call" a show? Who is the technical director, and why do you want him or her as your best friend? How can you tame (or endure) a prima donna? When is the best time to offer advice to the actors? Ms. Apperson answers these and countless other questions in a resource book that will become a constant companion for both the novice and the experienced theatre person. Especially useful is her attention to personal relationships among actors and crew. She insists that working to create an atmosphere of respect backstage will improve the show onstage, and she shows precisely how this is done, based upon her years of experience in managing the stage. Stage Managing and Theatre Etiquette includes samples of prompt scripts and other essential stage manager's tools.

    Showmen travelled from one end of Europe to the other bringing everything from biblical plays to melodramas and variety to audiences who experienced them as their only form of dramatic entertainment. The first study of its kind in English, Popular Puppet Theatre in Europe is less a history than a comparative study, highlighting a significant aspect of social and cultural history from a national and transnational perspective. It examines the showmen, their audiences, the performance context, and the technical and practical aspects of the puppets and their stages.

    She is also set upon by the Balloon Man, a villainous creature who is responsible for any number of nefarious schemes, including making people buy things just to create litter. This, of course, complicates the life of the Litterman who, with Steve, Chris and Alphonse (three versions of the same character and played by the same actor) contrives to save Madeline from the Balloon Man and give him his comeuppance. Filled with fast-paced action, charming songs and dazzling magic tricks, the play is a constant joy and a theatrical event unique of its kind.

    But now, at thirty, the glory years are gone, and the few Gents who still acknowledge their leader, Frankie, are mired in slum defeatism and a sense of nowhere to go. Unemployed and bitter, they hang around street cor-ners guzzling wine and cracking jokes and deriding the two characters who symbolize what are, in truth, the only alternatives really left to them: the drunken derelict, Zeke, and the flashy small-time racketeer, Braxton. In a desperate attempt to resurrect The Mighty Gents, Frankie takes his men on one final raid the robbery (and accidental murder) of Braxton. But, in the electrifying conclusion of the play, their brief victory turns to ashes and ends in the destruction of Frankie, brought about, ironically, by the de-spised and rejected Zeke.