Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy.So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything that’s worth living for.1. Ice Cream. 2. Kung Fu Movies. 3. Burning Things. 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose 5. Construction cranes. 6. MeYou leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of its own.A new play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love.

    Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn't with Emma, it's with everything else. She needs to tell the truth, but she's smart enough to know that there's no such thing. When intoxication feels like the only way to survive the modern world, how can she ever sober up?

    In the mid-1970s Times Square was the seedy symbol of New York’s economic decline. Its once shining star, the renowned Shubert Organization, was losing theaters to make way for parking lots. Bernard Jacobs and Jerry Schoenfeld, two ambitious board members, saw the crumbling company was ripe for takeover and staged a coup amidst corporate intrigue, personal betrayals, and criminal investigations. Once Jacobs and Schoenfeld solidified their power, they turned a collapsed theater-owning holding company into one of the most successful entertainment empires in the world, ultimately backing many of Broadway’s biggest hits, including A Chorus Line, Cats, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, and Mamma Mia! They also sparked the revitalization of Broadway and the renewal of Times Square. Now Michael Riedel tells the stories of the Shubert Organization and the shows that re-built a city in grand style, revealing the backstage drama that often rivaled what transpired onstage, exposing bitter rivalries, unlikely alliances, and—of course—scintillating gossip. This is a great story, told with wit and passion.

    Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family's Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father's hidden desires. Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

    Instead, she joins a group of women “computers,” charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in “girl hours” and has no time for the women’s probing theories. As Henrietta, in her free time, attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love. The true story of 20th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. Social progress, like scientific progress, can be hard to see when one is trapped among earthly complications; Henrietta Leavitt and her female peers believe in both, and their dedication changed the way we understand both the heavens and Earth.

    But before she can get comfortable atop the high school food chain, Veronica falls in love with the dangerously sexy new kid J.D. When Heather Chandler, the Almighty, kicks her out of the group, Veronica decides to bite the bullet and kiss Heather's aerobicized ass... but J.D. has another plan for that bullet.Brought to you by the award-winning creative team of Kevin Murphy (Reefer Madness, Desperate Housewives), Laurence O'Keefe (Bat Boy, Legally Blonde) and Andy Fickman (Reefer Madness, She's the Man). Heathers The Musical is a hilarious, heartfelt and homicidal new show based on the greatest teen comedy of all time. With its moving love story, laugh-out-loud comedy and unflinching look at the joys and anguish of high school, Heathers will be New York's most popular new musical. Are you in, or are you out?

    As his decision brings him face to face with a nation at war with itself, the ones Hero left behind debate whether to escape or wait for his return, only to discover that for Hero, freedom may have come at a great spiritual cost. A devastatingly beautiful dramatic work, Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) is the opening trilogy of a projected nine-play cycle that will ultimately take us into the present.Suzan-Lori Parks became the first African American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Topdog/Underdog in 2002. Her other plays include The Book of Grace, In the Blood, Venus, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom and The America Play. In 2007 her 365 Days/365 Plays was produced at more than seven hundred theaters worldwide. Parks is a MacArthur Fellow and the Master Writer Chair at the Public Theater.

    Peyton’s handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent and quickly falls in love with Zoe, a beautiful octoroon. But the evil overseer M’Closky has other plans—for both Terrebonne and Zoe. In 1859, a famous Irishman wrote this play about slavery in America. Now an American tries to write his own.

    There were of course those rare moments of transcendence that kept me coming back. But why did they come so few and far between?A lot of plays are dull. And one dull play, it seems, can turn us off theatre for good. Playwright and theatre director Jordan Tannahill takes in the spectrum of English-language drama – from the flashiest of Broadway spectacles to productions mounted in scrappy storefront theatres – to consider where lifeless plays come from and why they persist. Having travelled the globe talking to theatre artists, critics, passionate patrons and the theatrically disillusioned, Tannahill addresses what he considers the culture of ‘risk aversion’ paralyzing the form.Theatre of the Unimpressed is Tannahill’s wry and revelatory personal reckoning with the discipline he’s dedicated his life to, and a roadmap for a vital twenty-first-century theatre – one that apprehends the value of ‘liveness’ in our mediated age and the necessity for artistic risk and its attendant failures. In considering dramaturgy, programming and alternative models for producing, Tannahill aims to turn theatre from an obligation to a destination.

    Now he presides over a congregation of thousands, with classrooms for Sunday School, a coffee shop in the lobby, and a baptismal font as big as a swimming pool. Today should be a day of celebration. But Paul is about to preach a sermon that will shake the foundations of his church’s belief. A big-little play about faith in America—and the trouble with changing your mind.- See more at: http://actorstheatre.org/shows/the-ch...

    But what's the second-best hangman in England to do on the day they've abolished hanging? Amongst the cub reporters and sycophantic pub regulars, dying to hear Harry's reaction to the news, a peculiar stranger lurks, with a very different motive for his visit. Don't worry. I may have my quirks but I'm not an animal. Or am I? One for the courts to discuss. Martin McDonagh's Hangmen premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2015.

    But in the late 1960s, Barbara’s extraordinary talent onstage was threatened by debilitating depression and alcoholism that forced her to step away from the limelight and out of the public life. Emerging from the shadows in the early 1970s, Barbara reinvented herself as the country’s leading concert and cabaret artist, performing the songs of Stephen Sondheim and other masters, while establishing a reputation as one of the greatest and most acclaimed interpreters of the American songbook.Taking us deep into her life and career, from her childhood in the South to the Great White Way, Then and Now candidly and poignantly describes both her personal difficulties and the legendary triumphs, detailing the extraordinary working relationships she shared with many of the key composers, musicians, actors and performers of the late twentieth century, among them Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Elaine Stritch, and Robert Preston.Hailed by the Financial Times of London as "the greatest singer in the world",  but preferring to think of herself as "a work in progress", Barbara Cook here delivers a powerful, personal tale of pain and triumph, as straight forward, unflinchingly honest, and open hearted as her singing.

    After a long, intense conversation, Williams sent Grissom on a journey on the playwright’s behalf to find out if he, Tennessee Williams, or his work, had mattered to those who had so deeply mattered to him, those who had led him to what he called the blank page, “the pale judgment.” Among the more than seventy giants of American theater and film Grissom sought out, chief among them the women who came to Williams out of the fog: Lillian Gish, tiny and alabaster white, with enormous, lovely, empty eyes (“When I first imagined a woman at the center of my fantasia, I . . . saw the pure and buoyant face of Lillian Gish. . . . [She] was the escort who brought me to Blanche”) . . . Maureen Stapleton, his Serafina of The Rose Tattoo, a shy, fat little girl from Troy, New York, who grew up with abandoned women and sad hopes and whose job it was to cheer everyone up, goad them into going to the movies, urge them to bake a cake and have a party.  (“Tennessee and I truly loved each other,” said Stapleton, “we were bound by our love of the theater and movies and movie stars and comedy. And we were bound to each other particularly by our mothers: the way they raised us; the things they could never say . . . The dreaming nature, most of all”) . . . Jessica Tandy (“The moment I read [Portrait of a Madonna],” said Tandy, “my life began. I was, for the first time . . . unafraid to be ruthless in order to get something I wanted”) . . . Kim Stanley . . . Bette Davis . . . Katharine Hepburn . . . Jo Van Fleet . . . Rosemary Harris . . . Eva Le Gallienne (“She was a stone against which I could rub my talent and feel that it became sharper”) . . . Julie Harris . . . Geraldine Page (“A titanic talent”) . . . And the men who mattered and helped with his creations, including Elia Kazan, José Quintero, Marlon Brando, John Gielgud . . . James Grissom’s Follies of God is a revelation, a book that moves and inspires and uncannily catches that illusive “dreaming nature.”

    When they are ordered to perform an unthinkable task, the aftermath forces them to question the concepts of friendship, beauty, and duty, and changes them forever.

    Rincewind, a failed student at the Unseen University for Wizards in Ankh-Morpork, is often described by scholars as ‘the magical equivalent to the number zero.' With his most famous characteristic being able to solve minor problems by turning them into major disasters, The Rince Cycle mashes Rincewind's best moments from over thirty novels into a two hour show.

    This collection also includes the acclaimed play An Octoroon, a bombastic theatrical investigation of theater and identity, wherin an old play gives way to a startlingly contemporary piece. The third play, Neighbors, uses old minstrelsy tropes to challenge what makes contemporary society comfortable, and asserts pointedly that it shouldn't be.Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's plays include An Octoroon, Neighbors, Appropriate, Gloria, and War. He is a playwright-in-residence at Signature Theatre. Recent honors include a 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play (An Octoroon and Appropriate).

    He pines for the pretty girl, Christine, but is forced to make his way through the days at school as a bullied dork. He creates Humiliation Sheets to catalog the miserableness of his existence at the bottom of the high school food chain.One day, Jeremy learns about the Squip, a quantum supercomputer in the form of a pill. When Jeremy takes the pill, the Squip helps him become cooler, acting as his own, internal life coach (that speaks directly into Jeremy’s brain in the voice of Keanu Reeves). The Squip directs Jeremy on how to act, encourages him to work out, and guides him through social situations that raise his popularity and status. Jeremy uses his newfound coolness to begin and end a series of shallow relationships with the girls in his school. The Squip teaches Jeremy how girls think, and how to manipulate them. The Squip also berates Jeremy when he hesitates to engage in sexual activity with a girl.As the Squip becomes more and more malevolent in its coaching, Jeremy begins to doubt its advice. By the end of the novel, he decides to deactivate the Squip and takes his friends’ advice for a strategy for asking out Christine.The novel’s main theme is the social structure of high school, and how coolness and a hierarchy of coolness affect young people. The novel paints an ugly picture where sexual conquests are measured and, in particular, the boys’ treatment of the girls is misogynistic and insulting.Be More Chill has been heavily criticized for its depiction of high school social and sexual relationships. Critics have commented on how shallow and easily manipulated the girls seem, and how little regard the boys show for the girls’ feelings.

    Blame shifts over the course of the evening as everyone takes a turn in the hot seat for their real or imagined part in Joel's suicide, and questions are raised that no one is prepared to answer.

    Sally Cookson’s bold and dynamic production uncovers one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfilment on her own terms. From her beginnings as a destitute orphan, Jane Eyre’s spirited heroine faces life’s obstacles headon, surviving poverty, injustice and the discovery of bitter betrayal before taking the ultimate decision to follow her heart.This acclaimed re-imagining of Brontë’s masterpiece was first staged by Bristol Old Vic in 2014 and remounted as a coproduction with the National Theatre in 2015.

    His bold vision of what the theatre can be and what the theatre can do is both uncompromising and exceedingly generous. The SCOT company's groundbreaking productions and methods of training have inspired and continue to inspire generations of theatre artists and audiences. The day I first met Suzuki, the trajectory of my life was altered irrevocably. The very existence of SITI Company is due to Suzuki’s foresight, bigheartedness and determination." -Anne Bogart"What takes my breath away most about Tadashi Suzuki's work is the precision and accuracy with which he manages time and space. For one-and-a-half to two hours, the use of sound, precise scene transitions and mammoth energy compressed through his singular directorial vision create a sustained power which blows the audience away—a shocking style requiring an exceptional attention and concentration from the viewer. His unique method of rigorous actor training has made him a grand master of the rarest variety, enabling him to maintain a company that continues to inspire the evolution of contemporary theatre in our ever-changing world." -Yuri Lubimov"In America the theatre for the most part is naturalistic. People want to be comfortable. They want to identify immediately with the situation. They want everything finished, put in a box and wrapped up with a bow. But I believe, ideally, you want to leave the theatre still thinking about it, still questioning it. What I find exciting about Suzuki’s work is that we come into the theatre and we have a surprise. We have to think about what we have seen and we leave the theatre thinking about it. I believe that in a sense my work is similar to what Suzuki is doing in his work. Theatre that you have to rethink. It poses more questions than answers." -Robert WilsonRenowned for his actor training methods, Tadashi Suzuki provides a thorough and accessible formulation of his ideas and beliefs in this new edition of his theater writings. One of the world's most revered theater directors, Suzuki is also a seminal thinker and practitioner whose work has had a profound influence on theater worldwide. This landmark collection provides a useful, provocative look at his philosophical and practical approaches to the stage. Culture is the Body is a complete revision of Suzuki's influential book The Way of Acting, featuring new essays and in a revised translation by Kameron Steele, a longtime collaborator of Suzuki's.Tadashi Suzuki is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), the organizer of Japan's first international theater festival (Toga Festival), and the creator of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training. Suzuki has articulated his theories in a number of books. He has taught his system of actor training in schools and theaters throughout the world. Besides productions with his own company, he has directed several international collaborations.

    But her obligatory marriage to Henry is rife with the threat of violence and the lure of deceit; her secret liaisons with Thom, her husband’s former brother-in-law, could send her to an early grave; and her devotion to the education and equal rights of Henry’s daughters is putting an even bigger strain on her marriage. Does Kate risk her life to gain authority in both her relationship and her political career? Which love will she be led to if she follows her heart? And what kind of future is there for her children if she makes a crucial mistake?“Here is a playwright who is taking on the big themes of feminism with a restless, probing intelligence and political savvy. Her characters are living, breathing, messy human beings who reach for the stars and who stumble in the dirt. These are not mouthpieces for politically correct punditry, but people whose emotions cause chaos and whose ideas drive their passion. In short, this is the best kind of playwriting: thoughtful, full-bodied, and redolent of the stuff of life.” —Bob White, Director of New Plays, Stratford Festival

    They live alone with their dog Taliban, playing Playstation, watching porn; surviving. Occasionally their chaotic mum Maggie visits, sometimes she passes out on the front lawn. But when Jenny knocks on the door, the boys discover a world far beyond what they know, a world full of love, possibility and danger.

     In remote Pakistan, Nick Bright awaits his fate. A successful financial trader, Nick is kidnapped by an Islamic militant group, but with no one negotiating his release, he agrees to an unusual plan. He will earn his own ransom by helping his captors manipulate and master the world commodities and currency markets. "[A] tense, provocative thriller about the unholy nexus of international terrorism and big bucks...."-Seattle Times "Ahktar again turns hypersensitive subjects into thought-provoking and thoughtful drama"-Newsday "The prime theme is pulsing and alive: when human lives become just one more commodity to be traded, blood eventually flows in the streets"-Financial Times "Whip-smart and twisty"-Time Out New York "The Invisible Hand offers genuine insight into the future of the West" (Village Voice).

    Yet his name is hardly known--except to the musicians who venerate him. At a gathering of songwriters George Gershwin called him "the best of us." Irving Berlin agreed. Paul McCartney sent him a fan letter and became his publisher. Bob Dylan wrote of his fascination with Arlen's "bittersweet, lonely world." A cantor's son, Arlen believed his music was from a place outside himself, a place that also sent tragedy. When his wife became mentally ill and was institutionalized he turned to alcohol. It nearly killed him. But the beautiful songs kept coming: "Blues in the Night," "My Shining Hour," "Come Rain or Come Shine," and "The Man That Got Away."Walter Rimler drew on interviews with friends and associates of Arlen and on newly available archives to write this intimate portrait of a genius whose work is a pillar of the Great American Songbook.

    Unfolding over a single scene, this "delirious tragicomedy" (Chicago Sun-Times) by acclaimed young playwright Stephen Karam "infuses the traditional kitchen-sink family drama with qualities of horror in his portentous and penetrating work of psychological unease" (Variety), creating an indelible family portrait.

    Throughout, clear infographics, rich black-and-white and color photography, and a clever, informative design make this comprehensive overview of musical theater and movie musicals a true showstopper.

    Using the familiar language of acting training, the book offers a method for the achievement of dreams through a five-year life and career plan giving positive steps to develop a happy life as an actor and as a person. It assists performers to flourish using the same kind of business/career planning that is a necessary part of life for entrepreneurs and business people.This introduction to the acting industry provides essential knowledge not only for how the business actually works, but also describes what casting directors, agents, and managers do, demystifies the role of unions, discusses how much things cost, and offers advice on branding and marketing strategies. It differs from other such handbooks in that it addresses the everyday issues of life, money, and jobs that so frequently destroy an actor's career before it is even begun.While addressing NYC and LA, the guide also gives a regional breakdown for those actors who may wish to begin careers or to settle in other cities. It is loaded with personal stories, and interviews with actors, casting directors, and agents from throughout the US.The Actor's Business Plan is the answer to the common complaint by students that they were not taught how to negotiate the show business world while at school. It is the perfect antidote for this problem and can easily fit into a ten or a thirteen-week class syllabus.Offering support as a personal career coach, empowering the actor to take concrete steps towards their life and career dreams, The Actor's Business Plan: A Career Guide for the Acting Life is a must-have book for actors who are determined to be a part of the professional world .

    I'm happily married with two beautiful daughters and I still fit in the same size-ten dress suit I did fifteen years ago. What could possibly threaten me? Linda Wilde has dedicated her life to changing the world. She's won awards for her efforts, at the same time as working hard to become an inspiring mother, and an independent, loving wife.Now, at 55, she seems to have it all. She's a woman in her prime. She's embarking on her most ambitious plan to date. Beneath the surface, though, the cracks are starting to show.Linda by Penelope Skinner premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in November 2015.

    The three works, Platanov, Ivanov and The Seagull, in contemporary adaptations by David Hare, will be staged at the Chichester Festival Theatre in the summer of 2015.

    Austin Eyer and Lyndy Franklin Smith draw on their own experiences as performers, and gather first-hand stories from other Swings about the glories and hardships of their industry. The book features interviews with over 100 Broadway pros-Swing veterans, Stage Managers, Casting Directors, Choreographers, and Directors-including Rob Ashford, Susan Stroman, Jerry Mitchell, Larry Fuller, Tony Stevens, Beverley Randolph, and Frank DiLella.Broadway Swings is the ideal guide for anyone considering a career in this most unique of positions, or anyone curious about what really goes on, behind-the- scenes, in a long-running show.

    In this provocative and challenging new book, he offers his highly personal selection of the 100 greatest plays ranging from the Greeks to the present-day.But his book is no mere list. Billington justifies his choices in extended essays- and even occasional dialogues- that put the plays in context, explain their significance and trace their performance history. In the end, it's a book that poses an infinite number of questions. What makes a great play? Does the definition change with time and circumstance? Or are certain common factors visible down the ages? It's safe to say that it's a book that, in revising the accepted canon, is bound to stimulate passionate argument and debate.Everyone will have strong views on Billington's chosen hundred and will be inspired to make their own selections. But, coming from Britain's longest-serving theatre critic, these essays are the product of a lifetime spent watching and reading plays and record the adventures of a soul amongst masterpieces.

    Katherine Profeta, a working dramaturg for more than fifteen years, shifts the focus from asking “Who is the dramaturg?” to “What does the dramaturg think about?”             Profeta explores five arenas for the dramaturg’s attention—text and language, research, audience, movement, and interculturalism. Drawing on her extended collaboration with choreographer and visual artist Ralph Lemon, she grounds her thinking in actual rehearsal-room examples and situates practice within theoretical discourse about contemporary dramaturgy. Moving between theory and practice, word and movement, question and answer until these distinctions blur, she develops the foundational concept of dramaturgical labor as a quality of motion.             Dramaturgy in Motion will be invaluable to practitioners and scholars interested in the processes of creating contemporary dance and movement performance—particularly artists wondering what it might be like to collaborate with a dramaturg and dramaturgs wondering what it might be like to collaborate on movement performance. The book will also appeal to those intrigued by the work of Lemon and his collaborators, to which Profeta turns repeatedly to unfold the thorny questions and rich benefits of dramaturgical labor.

    Not only do they conduct during rehearsals and performances, but they must also be adept arrangers, choral directors, vocal coaches, and accompanists. Like a record producer, the successful music director must have the flexibility to adjust as needed to a multifaceted job description, one which changes with each production and often with each performer. In Music Direction for the Stage, veteran music director and instructor Joseph Church demystifies the job in a book that offers aspiring and practicing music directors the practical tips and instruction they need in order to mount a successful musical production. Church, one of Broadway's foremost music directors, emerges from the orchestra pit to tell how the music is put into a musical show. He gives particular attention to the music itself, explaining how a music director can best plan the task of learning, analyzing, and teaching each new piece. Based on his years of professional experience, he offers a practical discussion of a music director's methods of analyzing, learning, and practicing a score, thoroughly illustrated by examples from the repertoire. The book also describes how a music director can effectively approach dramatic and choreographic rehearsals, including key tips on cueing music to dialogue and staging, determining incidental music and underscoring, making musical adjustments and revisions in rehearsal, and adjusting style and tempo to performers' needs. A key theme of the book is effective collaboration with other professionals, from the production team to the creative team to the performers themselves, all grounded in Church's real-world experience with professional, amateur, and even student performances. He concludes with a look at music direction as a career, offering invaluable advice on how the enterprising music director can find work and gain standing in the field.

    In discussion with clown aficionados Ezra LeBank and David Bridel, these legends of comedy reveal the origins, inspirations, techniques, and philosophies that underpin their remarkable odysseys. Featuring incomparable artists, including Slava Polunin, Bill Irwin, David Shiner, Oleg Popov, Dimitri, Nola Rae, and many more, Clowns is a unique and definitive study on the art of clowning.In Clowns, these 20 master artists speak candidly about their first encounters with clowning and circus, the crucial decisions that carved out the foundations of their style, and the role of teachers and mentors who shaped their development. Follow the twists and turns that changed the direction of their art and careers, explore the role of failure and originality in their lives and performances, and examine the development and evolution of the signature routines that became each clown’s trademark. The discussions culminate in meditations on the role of clowning in the modern world, as these great practitioners share their perspectives on the mysterious, elusive art of the clown.

    These white-collar professionals would discreetly escape their families to spend their weekends safely inhabiting their chosen female alter-egos. But given the opportunity to share their secret lives with the world, the members of this sorority had to decide whether the freedom gained by openness was worth the risk of personal ruin. Based on real events and infused with Fierstein's trademark wit, this moving, insightful, and delightfully entertaining work offers a glimpse into the lives of a group of "self-made women" as they search for acceptance and happiness in their very own Garden of Eden.

    Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There’s just one problem: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other’s partners as a carefully constructed cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two “All-American” couples are forced to stare down the closet door.

    More than a chronological history, All the Lights On is also about the radiant power of theater. In this articulate and compelling book, Hensley distills what nontraditional audiences, along with the conditions her artists must perform under to reach them, have taught her about Brecht, the Greeks, Shakespeare, musicals, and the essence of what is necessary to make vibrant and essential theater. Her experiences lead her to conclude that theater artists become better and the art form itself much richer when everyone is included in the audience. In Ten Thousand Things productions, people from very different economic classes sit next to each other in the round and often experience unexpected connections with each other. Hensley writes in the introduction, “Not only do we have a chance to experience the multiple viewpoints of many characters in the play, but with all the lights on, we are able to consider the differing viewpoints of the other audience members seated around the circle. It all serves to increase, just a little, the radiance of our world.”“Michelle Hensley’s radiant vision has already converted thousands (including me), and this book will swell that number. One of the very few books that should—no, must—be read by anyone who cares about making an American theater that matters.”Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater“A call to arms for our field. Like the seminal works of Grotowski and Brook, Hensley’s book in its quiet way could redefine and revolutionize theater for generations to come.”Bill Rauch, Artistic Director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and co-founder, Cornerstone Theater Company Michelle Hensley is founder and artistic director of Ten Thousand Things in Minneapolis, where she has brought over fifty tours of award- winning drama to nontraditional audiences in prisons, shelters, and housing projects, as well as the general public. Published in association with HowlRound A Center for the Theater Commons

    This book focuses on the founding and practice of Chicago's Back Room Shakespeare Project, which performs Shakespeare in a spirit closer, probably, to the intent with which they were written.

    Part memoir, part handbook, I Wanna Be a Producer is a road map to the hows and wherefores, the dos and don'ts of producing a Broadway play, written by a Broadway veteran with more than 40 years of experience. This comprehensive and highly informative book features practical analysis and concepts for the producer - and is filled with entertaining anecdotes from Breglio's illustrious career as a leading theatrical lawyer and producer. Breglio recounts not only his first-hand knowledge of the crucial legal and business issues faced by a producer, but also his experiences behind the scenes with literally hundreds of producers, playwrights, composers, and directors, including such theatre luminaries as Michael Bennett, Joe Papp, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Patti Lupone, August Wilson, and Mel Brooks. Whether you are a working or aspiring producer, an investor, or are just curious about the backstage reality of the theater, Breglio shares his knowledge and experience of the industry, conveying practical information set against the real-life stories of those who have devoted their lives to the craft.

    Tonight is the night she’ll fall in love… with the thrill of the stage and with Kitty Butler, a girl who wears trousers.Giddy with desire and hungry for experience, Nancy follows Kitty to London where unimaginable adventures await.

    Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. Following a critically acclaimed premiere at Ars Nova in New York City, and a subsequent Off Broadway transfer, this award winning musical expands the possibilities for this genre with its daring score and bold storytelling.

    One day, in unbearable pain due to undiagnosed stomach cancer, he went to the local hospital, where he was refused care. Then he went to a nearby park and hung himself. Then in 2012 Nakkiah's grandmother fell through the unmended floor of her public housing home and died. Nakkiah found herself at the centre of a story about institutionalised racism. The resulting play lays it all out--her dodgy sex life, a dead man's second chance, and a granddaughter's sense of duty.

    In Georgian London no one is more famous than Samuel Foote. Satirist, impressionist, and dangerous comedian, he is a bona fide celebrity in an age obsessed with fame. He even has the ear of the King. But does fame make you mad?

    The play had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in July 2014, directed by Bill Rauch and starring Jack Willis, and ran at the Seattle Repertory Theatre before a planned Broadway transfer in 2016.In the years from 1965 to 1968, LBJ struggles to fight a “war on poverty” even as his war in Vietnam spins out of control. Besieged by political opponents, Johnson marshals all his political wiles to try to pass some of the most important social programs in U.S. history, while the country descends into chaos over the war and backlash against civil rights. In the tradition of the great multi-part Shakespearian historical plays, The Great Society is an unflinching examination of the morality of power.

    Approaching the storm, the levee collapse, and subsequent socioeconomic catastrophe through the lives of three couples and their families, Biguenet conveys insights into the universal nature of trauma and feelings of loss with heart-wrenching intimacy and palliative humor.Each play -- Rising Water, Shotgun, and Mold -- incorporates the structure of a house as it examines the anatomy of love, moving from the hours just after the levees' collapse to four months into the flood's chaotic aftermath -- and then to a year later when a family returns to their now mold-encrusted home. In aggregate, these plays employ the seemingly simple act of living together to examine questions of what home truly means. Biguenet also delves into the consequences of living in a city wracked by catastrophe and long-simmering racial tensions, yet so beloved by its inhabitants that even decades of federal neglect and municipal mismanagement cannot erase their emotional attachment to the place and to each other.

    Phaedra Backwards retells the Phaedra myth to discover what shaped her. The Map of Argentina offers a meditation on love and what happens when it is denied, or pursued and hunted down. Hecuba was written in reaction to the bad press this Trojan queen receives, and reimagines how she may have suffered and reacted. Indigo is a dark and passionate romance amongst fairies, demons, ghouls and every sort of fantastic creature out of folklore and myth.

    It explores key debates from its 40-year history, engages with the work of groundbreaking thinkers including Elin Diamond, Jill Dolan, Peggy Phelan and Elaine Aston, and includes case studies of recent performances by established and emerging feminist artists.

    Struggling to cast off his radical past and thrust into a position of power, the ambitious and charismatic J Robert Oppenheimer spearheads human history's largest scientific undertaking.

    He argues that viewing technique as both　training and research has much to offer current debates over the role of practice in the　university, including the debates around "practice as research."　Drawing on critical perspectives from the sociology of knowledge,　phenomenology, dance studies, enactive cognition, and other areas, Spatz argues that technique is a major area of historical and ongoing research in physical culture, performing arts, and everyday life.

    It will also be of benefit to organisations and individual readers who want to discover how improv stimulates creativity and confidence in all areas of life. The Improv Book opens up this exciting discipline to a wider audience.

    Leading us through her world of mouth-watering dishes and heart-breaking memories, Chef questions our attitudes to food, prisoners, violence, love and hope. Inspired by an interview Mahfouz conducted with celebrity chef Ollie Dabbous, Chef studies food as the ultimate art form taking stimulus from Dabbous's obsession with simplicity and making something the best it can be.Featuring Sabrina Mahfouz's distinct, lyrical style in abundance, Chef received its premiere at the Underbelly, Cowgate, during the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First, and was produced at the Soho Theatre, London, in June 2015.

    Across seven centuries, small groups of children seek sanctuary in the same solid old wardrobe. It’s the safest place they know – but is it safe enough?The Wardrobe was commissioned as part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival and premiered by youth theatres across the UK. With a variety of roles for young actors, the play can be performed by a large cast of up to twenty-eight, or a smaller cast with doubling.Sam Holcroft’s plays include Edgar & Annabel, part of the Double Feature season at the Paintframe, at the National Theatre, London; Dancing Bears, part of the Charged season for Clean Break at Soho Theatre and Latitude Festival; While You Lie at the Traverse, Edinburgh; Pink, part of the Women, Power and Politics season at the Tricycle; Vanya, adapted from Chekhov, at The Gate; Cockroach, co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Traverse (nominated for Best New Play 2008, by the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland and shortlisted for the John Whiting Award, 2009) and Ned and Sharon at the HighTide Festival. Sam received the Tom Erhardt Award in 2009, was the Pearson Writer-in-Residence at the Traverse Theatre, 2009–10, and was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the National Theatre Studio in 2013.'wonderful... a powerful stimulus for creative drama work' - Drama magazine

    Many of these plays have gone on to receive highly successful productions around the world, garnering glowing reviews along the way.The plays included in the anthology are:The Craft1M/1F Approx. 10 minutesIt's Act 2, Scene 3 in another night's performance of a less-than-riveting romantic drama. As the two young leads navigate their turgid love scene, employing all their dramatic skills in an attempt to breathe life into their two-dimensional characters, another, far more gripping story is unfolding just beneath the surface. Despite a mutual loathing of each other, a devotion to the craft ensures that the show will go on; but the inner dialogues that play out inside each of them reveal a far different narrative than the one being played out on the stage.A Flawed Character2 Any Age/Race/Gender Combination Approx. 10 minutesThe playwright creates the first character of his new play, but soon after the entire process grinds to a halt. As time marches on and the play continues to stagnate, the character's patience begins to wear thin. As frustration turns into animosity and antagonism, the playwright begins to realize that perhaps this is one relationship that was never meant to be. But what's a writer to do?The Skewed PictureM/1F Approx. 10 minutesBob and Betty have settled in for a quiet night at home. That is, until Bob makes a startling discovery that has the potential to reshape their entire existence...or at least their living room. The realization that a parallel universe could be staring them in the face forces them to question just who exactly these people might be, and more importantly, why they're there?Filler1M/1F Approx. 10 minutesTwo characters come to realize that the extended scene written for them in the middle of the play has no intrinsic value, does nothing to propel the story forward, and to all intents and purposes is completely extraneous. Their raison d'être pulled from under them, can they still maintain their credibility and sanity through several pages of what's little more than filler?The Curious Art of Critique2M/1F Approx. 15 minutesWhen reaction to his work on a new drama appears tepid at best, the director decides he must tackle the problem head-on and root out whatever it is that's leaving the audience unmoved. One way or another, the evening seems destined to end in tears.What's the Meta?2 Any Age/Race/Gender Combination Approx. 10 minutesTwo written parts await to be brought to life on a stage. One of them, however, is found to be mired in a crisis of self-worth due to the size and quality of their role. The larger, more developed part must then attempt to convince its smaller counterpart of just how necessary they both are to the production that is soon to begin, and of the true and indisputable collaborative nature of theatre.A Rebel Among the Wretched1M/2F Approx. 10 minutesA celebrated, multi-award winning dysfunctional family drama continues to enthrall audiences night after night.

    Their continued evolution and ability to define and re-define themselves with courage, tenacity, and bravery allow them to confront what seem like insurmountable odds. This continues to shape and inspire Carey and those who work with her."--Olympia Dukakis, Academy Award-winning actress"Carey Perloff's lively, outspoken memoir of adventures in running and directing theatre will be a key document in the story of playmaking in America."--Tom Stoppard, Playwright"Carey Perloff, quite literally, raised a vibrant new theater from the rubble of an old one. This refreshingly honest account of her triumphs and misfires over the past two decades is both a fascinating read and an invaluable handbook for anyone attempting such a labor of love."--Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City"Carey Perloff's marvel of a book is part memoir of a working mother, a passionate artist, a woman flourishing in a male-dominated craft- and part lavish love letter to theater. It is as lively, thoughtful, and insightful an account I have ever read about the art form. This one is for any person who has ever sat in the dark and been spellbound by the transformative power of theater."--Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner"Carey Perloff is a veteran of the regional theatre wars. Beautiful Chaos is her vivacious account of her ambitious work commanding San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre (ACT). The book exudes Perloff's trademark brio: smart, outspoken, full of fun and ferment."--John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh"This is an engaged, engaging, deeply intelligent, and passionate account of why the theatre matters and how it works in a city and in a society. It is also a fascinating and essential chapter in the history of San Francisco itself, as well as the story of a committed theatre artist's determination and vision."--Colm Toibin, author of Nora WebsterCarey Perloff, Artistic Director of San Francisco's legendary American Conservatory Theater, pens a lively and revealing memoir of her twenty-plus years at the helm and delivers a provocative and impassioned manifesto for the role of live theater in today's technology-infused world.Perloff's personal and professional journey—her life as a woman in a male-dominated profession, as a wife and mother, a playwright, director, producer, arts advocate, and citizen in a city erupting with enormous change—is a compelling, entertaining story for anyone interested in how theater gets made. She offers a behind-the-scenes perspective, including her intimate working experiences with well-known actors, directors, and writers, including Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Robert Wilson, David Strathairn, and Olympia Dukakis.Whether reminiscing about her turbulent first years as a young woman taking over an insolvent theater in crisis and transforming it into a thriving, world-class performance space, or ruminating on the potential for its future, Perloff takes on critical questions about arts education, cultural literacy, gender disparity, leadership, and power.Carey Perloff is an award-winning playwright, theater director, and the artistic director of the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco since 1992.

    An account in dramatic form of the Return of Odysseus to Ithaca.

    Disturbing and unrelenting, his tragedies portray what Matthew Arnold referred to as 'the turbid ebb and flow of human misery', allowing the audience to stand onthe verge of the abyss and confront the waste and disorder of human existence. The heroic myths reinterpreted in the plays locate them within a world in which the extremes of human emotion in its darkest hours can be freely explored. It is, however, the creativity of Sophocles' plays which preventsthem from descending into unbridled chaos or despair. The unflinching engagement with heartrending suffering reveals strengths held within the carefully crafted poetry, lyricism, and movement. There is, as Taplin writes, 'no blinking, no evasion, no palliative. ... Out of apparently meaninglesssuffering comes meaning and form.'This original and distinctive verse translation of four of Sophocles' plays conveys the vitality of his poetry and the vigour of the plays as performed showpieces, encouraging the reader to relish the sound of the spoken verse and the potential for song within the lyrics. Each play is accompanied byan introduction and substantial notes on points of fact and interpretation, drawing on the translator's many years of lecturing on Sophocles at the University of Oxford. Oedipus the King , often regarded as the archetypal tragedy, follows Oedipus, the 'man of sorrow', who has unwittingly chosen to enact his prophesied course by murdering his father and marrying his mother. Aias (or Ajax) tells the story of the warrior whose larger-than-life greatness brings him to harrowing humiliation and then to honourable burial. Philoctetes sees a once-noble hero, nursing his resentment during ten years in marooned isolation, eventually restored to glory at Troy. Oedipus at Colonus depicts the blind Oedipus towards the end of his life wandering as a beggar, but rewarded finally with revenge and a sublime death.

    Learning lessons from history's leading critics and taking examples from around the world, he gives practical advice about how to celebrate, analyse and discuss this most ephemeral of art forms - and how to make your writing come alive as you do so.Today, more people than ever are writing about theatre, but whether you're blogging, tweeting or writing an academic essay, your challenges as a critic remain the same: how to capture a performance in words, how to express your opinions and how to keep the reader entertained. This inspirational book shows you the way to do it.Foreword by Chris Jones, Chief theater critic, Chicago Tribune

    The Hummingbird Hotel is the figurative or literal home for a group of strippers, French Quarter service workers, hustlers, and poets who are bound together by their bad luck, bad decisions, and complete lack of pretense. Presiding over them is Miss Ruby, a beloved former burlesque performer who has requested a funeral before she dies. As the people whose lives she has touched gather to celebrate her, they must face themselves, each other, and the consequences of the choices they have made. Airline Highway shows us the tenuous hold that community, authenticity, and real-time ritual have on a rapidly gentrifying New Orleans.

    Matt Hartley’s new play throws a lively and topical spotlight on ‘Generation Rent’ and the lengths they will go to in order to get that first step on the property ladder.

    Once thought impossible to stage, today it is performed with increasing frequency, both in Britain and America. It has been staged more often in the last fifty years than in the previous 350 years of its performance history, its bleak message clearly chiming in with the growing harshness, cruelty and violence of the modern world.Performing King Lear offers a very different and practical perspective from most studies of the play, being centred firmly on the reality of creation and performance. The book is based on Jonathan Croall's unique interviews with twenty of the most distinguished actors to have undertaken this daunting role during the last forty years, including Donald Sinden, Tim Pigott-Smith, Timothy West, Julian Glover, Oliver Ford Davies, Derek Jacobi, Christopher Plummer, Michael Pennington, Brian Cox and Simon Russell Beale.He has also talked to two dozen leading directors who have staged the play in London, Stratford and elsewhere. Among them are Nicholas Hytner, David Hare, Kenneth Branagh, Adrian Noble, Deborah Warner, Jonathan Miller and Dominic Dromgoole. Each reveals in precise and absorbing detail how they have dealt with the formidable challenge of interpreting and staging Shakespeare's great tragedy.

    This inspirational guide leads readers through an active, physical approach to text that can challenge assumptions about even the most familiar of plays, and that will revitalize work in the rehearsal room, workshop, or classroom.

    The book discusses the early evolution of sound design and how it supports the play, from researching sources for music and effects, to negotiating a contract. It shows you how to organize the construction of the sound design elements, how the designer functions in a rehearsal, and how to set up and train an operator to run sound equipment. This instructive information is interspersed with ‘war stores’ describing real-life problems with solutions that you can apply in your own work, whether you’re a sound designer, composer, or sound operator.

    Green, written and performed over a 33 year period, from 1972 to 2005. The plays of Paul Green provide a crawling map of the modern occult, written by an insider who charts the most febrile period it has undergone. From the death rattle of Crowley, who also stalks a quailing Montague Summers’ dreams, through the tragedies of Jack Parsons and Graham Bond, to the snaking wires and interconnects of DJs, rappers and EVP hunters, he captures the sense of danger that the incursion of magick brings into human lives. Neo-Nazi necromancers raise the shade of the Fuehrer. Cursed jazz is blown out of an Atlantean sax mouthpiece. The saga of Graham Bond, who believed himself to be Crowley’s secret son, is told. Pitched rap battles and Electronic Voice Phenomena shriek through the airwaves whilst disembodied DJs drift into the starry heavens. Murder occurs in the final cuts of a doomed movie shot in a Saharan city state. Secrets are divulged and dreams plundered by the agents of control. Magick and music riff off each other in a Burroughsian interzone. The text at the heart of the collection, Babalon, was performed by Travesty Theatre at the Gielgud Studio in London in 2005 with a cosmopolitan cast drawn from the London occult underground. Telling the tragic story of Marjorie Cameron and Jack Parsons, the play had been dropped by the BBC at the very last moment – perhaps due to the long shadow of the other participant in the working, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard of Scientology infamy. Paul Green brings the episode vividly to life, in a stirring ritual recapitulation of the birth of Babalon in the modern era.

    Includes: Fish Eyes, Boys With Cars, and Let Me Borrow That Top.

    Thomas Jefferson (yes that one), Charles Dickens (the very same) and Count Leo Tolstoy (who else?) are brought together in a blistering battle of wits. From Scott Carter (executive producer of Real Time with Bill Maher), this whip-smart comedy examines what happens when great men of history are forced to repeat it.(From dramatists.com)