Designed to provide insight and an overview about each text for students and teachers, these guides endeavor to develop knowledge and understanding rather than just provide answers and summaries.

    She disposes of the hard-dying myth that the great Italian actress played simply on the inspiration of the moment. Miss Le Gallienne's thesis is that Duse's artistic triumphs resulted from her victories over herself, triumphs of character achieved through intellectual and spiritual struggle. In support of her title Miss Le Gallienne adduces evidence of Duse's long and earnest study of the writings of mystics and philosophers. This book is thoughtful, sensible, candid and literate. Miss Le Gallienne's own memories provide a fascinating glimpse into both herself and the tired, fading great actress whom she adored.

    A young countess saves her tenants from starvation, but only by selling her soul to the Devil. The sleepy parish of Nyadnanave sees a vision of a cockerel that dares the inhabitants to break the shackles of Church and State. All these plays were met with moral outrage and rioting in their native Ireland.Yeats's 'The Countess Cathleen' (1892), J. M. Synge's 'The Playboy of the Western World' (1907) and O'Casey's 'Cock-a-doodle Dandy' (1949) emerged from a period of traumatic change for Ireland. While the plays bear witness to the immmense social upheavals of the turn of the twentieth century, they also represent a new age of Irish drama that rose from the turmoil, and their lessons ring true to this day.

    This edition contains the definitive versions of these works, a foreword in which Rabe examines the interwoven relationship of the plays, and an afterword in which he discusses the process of their construction.

    "Once in a Lifetime" is a satire about three small-time vaudevillians who set out for Hollywood as films move from silents into sound.The 1936 Pulitzer Prize winner "You Can’t Take It With You" is about a zany family of hobby-horse enthusiasts. For thirty-five years Grandpa has done nothing but hunt snakes, throw darts, and avoid income-tax payments; his son-in-law makes fireworks in the basement, and other assorted family members write plays, operate amateur printing presses, and play the xylophone. They live in playful eccentricity until daughter Alice brings home her Wall Street boyfriend."The Man Who Came to Dinner" (1939) became a long-running hit. It portrays an eminent lecturer (based on Alec Woollcott) who accepts a dinner invite in a small Ohio town, slips on the ice outside his hosts’ home, and is forced to their sickbed. Convalescing he turns the house into bedlam with his wacky friends and diabolic pranks.Also included in this volume are “Men at Work” and “Forked Lightning,” two essays Kaufman and Hart wrote about each other.

    This play, translated from the original Marathi, is one of his most gripping, socially relevant ones.

    Emotional blackmail, drug abuse and immoral relationships are observed in this early, once scandalous work from the playwright-actor, which made Coward a star. "Here is a piece which is the dernier cri in the theatrical mode, un peu shocking perhaps, but no less popular on that account," twittered James Agate in the Sunday Times.

    Theatre script, playbook

    George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision of "Negative Utopia" is timelier than ever-and its warnings more powerful in this three-act adaptation.

    They are about guns, campaign buttons, and a cabin in the Vermont woods that stinks of wood smoke and kerosene -- and about their associations of pleasure, menace, and regret.The resulting volume may be compared to the plays that have made Mamet famous: it is finely crafted and deftly timed, and its precise language carries an enormous weight of feeling.

    Concerned something has happened to her husband, Jill follows a string of clues to try and find out the secret Charles was keeping from her.

    He visits an old flame, buys a gun and goes on a blistering road trip through the new home front.'I don't blame the war. The war was alright. I miss it. It's just you come back to this.'Written during the London bombings of 2005, Motortown is a fierce, violent and controversial response to the anti-war movement - and to the war itself. Chaotic and complex, powerful and provocative, Simon Stephen's new play portrays a volatile and morally insecure world.Motortown premieres at the Royal Court Theatre on 21 April 2006. It follows the critically acclaimed On the Shore of the Wide World (Manchester Royal Exchange/National Theatre), winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play (2005).

    Many have large casts and an equal mix of boy and girl parts. Set in the Malayan jungle in 1942, this play explores what happens when soldiers have to confront the reality of war.

    This volume includes all of Chopin's 26 preludes, 21 nocturnes and 19 waltzes. It features a biography of the composer, notes on the individual genres, and pieces that surfaced after Joseffy's time-honored editions were initially published. Contents: 24 Preludes, Op. 28 * Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 45 * Prelude in A-flat Major, B. 86 * 3 Nocturnes, Op. 9 * 3 Nocturnes Op. 15 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 27 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 32 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 37 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 48 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 55 * 2 Nocturnes, Op. 62 * Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72, No. 1 * Nocturne in C-sharp minor, B. 49 * Nocturne in C minor, B. 108 * Grand Valse Brillante in E-flat Major, Op. 18 * 3 Waltzes, Op. 34 * Waltz in A-flat Major, Op. 42 * 3 Waltzes, Op. 64 * 2 Waltzes, Op. 69 * 3 Waltzes, Op. 70 * Waltz in E Minor, B. 56 * Waltz in E Major, B. 44 * Waltz in A-flat Major, B. 21 * Waltz in E-flat Major, B. 46 * Waltz in E-flat Major, B. 133 * Waltz in A minor, B. 150

    It has received worldwide productions, whether as a study of parent-child relationships, as in its landmark 1976 production directed by Miller in Beijing, or as a critique of Western capitalism and has been filmed once for television and twice for movies.