By Patricia Gray. Based on the classic by J.R.R. Tolkien.Cast: approximately 26. Variable number of hobbits and other inhabitants of Middle Earth. It's unusual for a modern work to become a classic so quickly, but Tolkien's "ring" stories, which began with The Hobbit, clearly are in this very special category. They stir the imagination and intellect of everyone they touch. Bilbo, one of the most conservative of all Hobbits, is asked to leave his large, roomy and very dry home in the ground in order to set off as chief robber in an attempt to recover an important treasure. It's the last thing that any sensitive Hobbit would want to do, but great benefit eventually results—not only for Bilbo but for all of the Hobbits who inhabit Middle Earth—and the hearts of those children and adults who continue to enjoy this kind of magic. Multiple simple sets. Approximate running time: 120 minutes.

    Includes Crowley's "An Initiated Interpretation of Ceremonial Magic," his version of "The Bornless Ritual," Enochian translations of some of the Goetic invocations, an introduction, and notes. Illustrated. Smythe-sewn and printed on acid-free paper.

    (doubling possible.) / 5 ints. or unit set. Recently revived on Broadway to great acclaim, this is the rollicking tale of three down and out troupers who decide to head for Hollywood and try their luck with the newly invented talkies. Due to a series of consistent blunders, the most stupid of the three is carried to pinnacles of fame and fortune until he's literally made a god of the industry. It's a fast paced and wild romp and a marvelous spoof of tinsel land.

    Three candidates. This would be a really bad time to have a stain on your shirt...A savage, acid-tongued new play by Mike Bartlett, one of the UK's most exciting and inventive young writers, and the author of the off-Broadway smash hit Cock. Razor sharp and blackly comic, Bull is a savage and insightful play about office politics or playground bullying, depending which side you're on. Genuinely thrilling, daring and inventive, acclaimed playwright Bartlett probes the dark side of the modern workplace.Bull enjoyed its US premiere in spring 2013 at 59E59 Theaters's "Brits Off-Broadway" festival.

    Both are beautifully crafted dramas that celebrate Irish gifts for lyrical language. They are reprinted here from authoritative editions, complete with Synge's preface to The Playboy of the Western World.

    Since the captain of the City Watch has left the force to become a gentleman, Discworld is in search of a few good cops. And being a cop in this unpredictable universe is no easy job, so the search goes on for a few good trolls, dwarves, and such.

    Included are The Roaring Girl, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Eastward Ho!, and Every Man in His Humour. The text is freshly edited using modern spelling. A critical introduction, a wide-ranging annotation, and an informative bibliography illuminate the plays' cultural contexts and theatrical potential for reader and performer alike.

    Through it you can change your circumstances, live according to a developing sense of personal responsibility, effect change around you, and stop living as a helpless cog in some clockwork universe. All acts of personal/collective liberation are magical acts. Magic leads us into exhilaration and ecstasy; into insight and understanding; into changing ourselves and the world in which we participate. Through magic we may come to explore the possibilities of freedom.

    Just as Russ Kick's Guides focusing on secrets and lies from the mainstream media, government, and other establishment institutions rethought what a political science book could look like and whom it would appeal to, Book of Lies redefines occult anthologies, packaging and presenting a huge array of magical essays for a pop culture audience. Just some of the contents:An introduction by comics genius Grant Morrison, who also contributes a threepart article on Pop Magick.Mark Pesce, author of The Playful World, compares computer programming and spellcasting.Genesis POrridge, father of Industrial Music and Rave culture explains how samples in a rave song can have magical consequences.Paul Laffoley discusses his magical artistic strategies (Metzger compares Laffoley to Merlin the Magician).Magical Thinking--an extended excerpt from Daniel Pinchbeck's Breaking Open the Head.William Burroughs and the occult.Nevill Drury, Australia's most noted occult writer, tells of Dion Fortune, Austin Spare, and Rosaleen Norton.Why Does Aleister Crowley Still Matter?Donald Tyson's "The Enochian Apocalypse Working." Were the seeds of the end of the world sown in the Elizabethan era?.The first ever biographical essay on Marjorie Cameron, the fascinating character from Los Angeles' occult and beatnik scene.Hitler and the occult--Peter Levenda interview by Tracy Twyman.Robert Temple on how his book The Sirius Mystery's, controversial thesis (for which he was ridiculed) was proven by the Hubble telescope twentyfive years late.An exclusive Anton LaVey interview by Michael Moynihan, author of bestselling book Lords of Chaos.Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis, looks at H. P. Lovecraft's Magick Realism.

    It covers all of Kane's major plays and productions, contains hitherto unpublished material and reviews, and looks at her continuing influence after her tragic early death. Locating the main dramatic sources and features of her work as well as centralizing her place within the 'new wave' of emergent British dramatists in the 1990's, Graham Saunders provides an introduction for those familiar and unfamiliar with her work.

    Examines every category of occult phenomena from ESP to Eastern ritual and explores the basic laws of magic, relating them to the natural laws of the universe.

    A contemporary of Luther, an enemy of the medical establishment, a scourge of the universities, an alchemist, an army surgeon, and a radical theologian, he attracted myths even before he died. His fantastic journeys across Europe and beyond were said to be made on a magical white horse, and he was rumored to carry the elixir of life in the pommel of his great broadsword. His name was linked with Faust, who bargained with the devil.Who was the man behind these stories? Some have accused him of being a charlatan, a windbag who filled his books with wild speculations and invented words. Others claim him as the father of modern medicine. Philip Ball exposes a more complex truth in The Devil's Doctor—one that emerges only by entering into Paracelsus’s time. He explores the intellectual, political, and religious undercurrents of the sixteenth century and looks at how doctors really practiced, at how people traveled, and at how wars were fought. For Paracelsus was a product of an age of change and strife, of renaissance and reformation. And yet by uniting the diverse disciplines of medicine, biology, and alchemy, he assisted, almost in spite of himself, in the birth of science and the emergence of the age of rationalism.

    As the teachers struggle daily to nurture and groom, the students prefer to hang out and “chillax”. With upskirting and Facebooking, griping and politicking, school takes on a whole new meaning as the colourful characters struggle to prove that those who can, teach.Written by Singapore’s most prolific playwright Haresh Sharma, Those Who Can’t, Teach was first staged by The Necessary Stage in 1990 to critical acclaim. Twenty years later, Sharma revisits this classic to revitalise it for the Singapore Arts Festival 2010, transforming it into a powerful portrayal of the pressures and challenges facing teachers (and students) in schools in the 21st century.“The play throws up questions on the roles of parents, students and teachers, but does not collapse into an impotent tirade against society. The script is joyous. The laughter is warmly wry, not caustic.” —The Straits Times“Those Who Can’t, Teach does much to do away with the stereotypes and fallacies of the teaching profession.” —The Business Times

    There he meets his soul mate, who is an initiate of a higher order. In his eagerness to make rapid progress he falls prey to the dark brotherhood. The Masters use this near deadly experience to further test and teach him as part of their ultimate plan. He and his true love learn to work together in service to the Masters and humanity.

    In contrast, Karl Popper's seminal book "The Logic of Scientific Discovery" has lapsed into relative obscurity. Although the two men debated the nature of science only once, the legacy of this encounter has dominated intellectual and public discussions on the topic ever since.Almost universally recognized as the modern watershed in the philosophy of science, Kuhn's relativistic vision of shifting paradigms--which asserted that science was just another human activity, like art or philosophy, only more specialized--triumphed over Popper's more positivistic belief in science's revolutionary potential to falsify society's dogmas. But has this victory been beneficial for science? Steve Fuller argues that not only has Kuhn's dominance had an adverse impact on the field but both thinkers have been radically misinterpreted in the process. This debate raises a vital question: Can science remain an independent, progressive force in society, or is it destined to continue as the technical wing of the military-industrial complex? Drawing on original research--including the Kuhn archives at MIT--Fuller offers a clear account of "Kuhn vs. Popper" and what it will mean for the future of scientific inquiry.