Book picks similar to
Elizabethan Drama: Eight Plays by John Gassner


drama
classics-old-fiction
literature-fiction-drama-poetry
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La Cage Aux Folles


Jerry Herman - 1983
    Complete vocal score to the Broadway sensation with 11 songs: The Best of Times * I Am What I Am * A Little More Mascara * Look over There * Song on the Sand (La Da Da Da) * With You on My Arm * and more.

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean


Ed Graczyk - 1982
    Now middle-aged women, they were teenagers when Dean filmed Giant two decades ago in nearby Marfa. One of them, an extra in the film, has a child whom she says was conceived with Dean during the shoot. The ladies' congenial reminiscences mingle with flash backs to their youth; then the arrival of a stunning but familiar stranger se

Lazarus: The Complete Book and Lyrics (NHB Modern Plays)


David Bowie - 2015
    Years later he's still stranded here, soaked in cheap gin and haunted by a past love. But the arrival of another lost soul brings one last chance of freedom...Inspired by the book The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis and its cult film adaptation starring David Bowie, Lazarus brings the story of Thomas Newton to its devastating conclusion.Written by Bowie with the playwright Enda Walsh, and incorporating some of Bowie's most iconic songs, Lazarus was first performed at New York Theatre Workshop in 2015, starring Michael C. Hall and directed by Ivo Van Hove. The production transferred to London in 2016.‘Ice-bolts of ecstasy shoot like novas through the fabulous muddle and murk of Lazarus, the great-sounding, great-looking and mind-numbing new musical built around songs by David Bowie’- Ben Brantley New York Times‘Wild, fantastical, eye-popping. A surrealistic tour de force’ - Rolling Stone Data Lookups Explore 'I'm a dying man who can't die.' Thomas Newton came to Earth seeking water for his drought-ridden planet. Years later he's still stranded here, soaked in cheap gin and haunted by a past love. But the arrival of another lost soul brings one last chance of freedom...Inspired by the book The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis and its cult film adaptation starring David Bowie, Lazarus brings the story of Thomas Newton to its devastating conclusion.Written by Bowie with the playwright Enda Walsh, and incorporating some of Bowie's most iconic songs, Lazarus was first performed at New York Theatre Workshop in 2015, starring Michael C. Hall and directed by Ivo Van Hove. The production transferred to London in 2016.‘Ice-bolts of ecstasy shoot like novas through the fabulous muddle and murk of Lazarus, the great-sounding, great-looking and mind-numbing new musical built around songs by David Bowie’- Ben Brantley New York Times‘Wild, fantastical, eye-popping. A surrealistic tour de force’ - Rolling Stone

Four Great Plays: Ghosts / The Wild Duck / An Enemy of the People / A Doll's House


Henrik Ibsen - 1958
    Ghosts - the startling portrayal of a family destroyed by disease and infidelity. The Wild Duck - A poignant drama of lost illusions. An Enemy Of The People - Ibsen's vigorous attack on public opinion. And A Doll's House - the play that scandalized the Victorian world with its unsparing views of love and marriage, featuring one of the most controversial heroines - and one of the most famous exits - in the literature of the stage.,p>Although Ibsen outraged many of his contemporaries, he persisted: he shocked the unthinking into thinking and blasted through the thick fog of convention to the restless human passions hidden underneath. Today his plays remain masterpieces of psychological insight and theatrical power.

Ubu and the Truth Commission


Jane Taylor - 1998
    "Ubu and the Truth Commission" is the full play text of a multi-dimensional theatre piece which tries to make sense of the madness which overtook South Africa during apartheid.

Day Use: Sex, Secrets & Stories


Dalia Rosenfeld - 2014
    In her despair, following this disaster, she decides to change and rehabilitate her life. She turns her life upside down and opens a business for day use renting rooms by the hour for intimacy purposes. At the same time, she begins to search for the truth regarding her husband’s death and investigates a series of explosions that took place in secret military facilities. She refuses to believe that the series of explosions is random and unconnected. ˃˃˃ Funny, tragic and dramatic stories Her new unorthodox job exposes her to a new, intriguing world. She collects funny, tragic and dramatic stories about her guests’ She writes about her experiences and publishes a book about them.Her new fascinating life exposes the reader to amusing and even occasionally frightening stories. ˃˃˃ Based on real life events The book also sheds light on Israel’s nuclear secrets. The ending is surprising and unpredictable. The story is based on real life events; although the names have been changed to avoid invasion of privacy. Scroll up and grab a copy today.

Golden Child


David Henry Hwang - 1998
    A “skillfully-told story that engages the emotions as well as the brain,” Golden Child explores the impact of these decisions on each of his great-grandfather’s three wives, and succeeding generations (Entertainment Focus).David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (OBIE Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist), Golden Child (1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), Family Devotions (Drama Desk nomination), and the books for musicals Aida ( co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 Broadway revival), and Tarzan, among other works. David Henry Hwang graduated from Stanford University, attended the Yale School of Drama, and holds honorary degrees from Columbia College in Chicago and The American Conservatory Theatre. He lives in New York City with his wife, actress Kathryn Layng, and their children, Noah David and Eva Veanne.

A Steady Rain


Keith Huff - 2010
    But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, their friendship is put on the line. The result is a difficult journey into a moral gray area where trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a sobering backdrop of pimps, prostitutes, and criminal lowlifes.A dark duologue filled with sharp storytelling and biting repartee, A Steady Rain explores the complexities of a lifelong bond tainted by domestic affairs, violence, and the rough streets of Chicago.

Chewing Gum Dreams


Michaela Coel - 2013
    Friendship. Aaron, Candice, sex and Connor Jones. Chewing Gum Dreams is a one-woman play that recalls those last days of innocence before adulthood.Written and performed by Michaela Coel who spent her childhood in Hackney, London, Chewing Gum Dreams won the 2012 Alfred Fagon Award."Coel is by turns casually cruel, hilariously funny, naïve, wise and vulnerable. Her play tackles some difficult themes, including sexual assault, violence, and underachievement across generations…a serious new talent." Londonist"An engrossing, engaging and compelling one-woman show... nothing short of virtuosic." What's On Stage"A promising, resilient artist." Ché Walker

A Cross of Crocuses


Ken Ross - 2018
    There are many surprises, and shocks too, as events steer them on an unpredictable course. They learn that their children are not the individuals they had imagined them to be; their perception of each changes and they suffer bitter disappointment. Is there any escape for either of them, and if there is, will their health allow it?

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?


James Shapiro - 2010
    In this remarkable book, Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro explains when and why so many people began to question whether Shakespeare wrote his plays. Among the doubters have been such writers and thinkers as Sigmund Freud, Henry James, Mark Twain, and Helen Keller. It is a fascinating story, replete with forgeries, deception, false claimants, ciphers and codes, conspiracy theories—and a stunning failure to grasp the power of the imagination. As Contested Will makes clear, much more than proper attribution of Shakespeare’s plays is at stake in this authorship controversy. Underlying the arguments over whether Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, or the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare’s plays are fundamental questions about literary genius, specifically about the relationship of life and art. Are the plays (and poems) of Shakespeare a sort of hidden autobiography? Do Hamlet, Macbeth, and the other great plays somehow reveal who wrote them?Shapiro is the first Shakespeare scholar to examine the authorship controversy and its history in this way, explaining what it means, why it matters, and how it has persisted despite abundant evidence that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the plays attributed to him. This is a brilliant historical investigation that will delight anyone interested in Shakespeare and the literary imagination.

Jesus Christ Superstar -- A Rock Opera: Piano/Vocal


Tim Rice - 1970
    Songs include: Heaven on Their Minds * Everything's Alright * Hosanna * Pilate's Dream * I Don't Know How to Love Him * The Last Supper * I Only Want to Say (Gethsemane) * King Herod's Song * Superstar.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee


William Finn - 2006
    Vocal selections from the popular Broadway musical, including: 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee * My Friend, the Dictionary * Pandemonium * I'm Not That Smart * Magic Foot * Prayer of the Comfort Counselor * My Unfortunate Erection * Woe Is Me * I Speak Six Languages * The I Love You Song.

Caterpillar Without A Callsign (ATLAS)


Isaac Hooke - 2013
    I don't have a callsign, not yet. I'm just a caterpillar. A baby moth.I joined up because, well, I've always wanted to pilot an ATLAS mech. What can I say? We're talking three meters of pure, mobile destructive power here. A thousand hydraulically actuated joints. Head-mounted sensor package with built in LIDAR, night vision, flash vision, zoom. Crash protection. Jump jets. Active protection countermeasures. Swappable weaponry. Deployable ballistic shield. Sound like the war machine of your dreams?It is.I finally got my chance to pilot one of these babies on a little deployment out in Mongolia.Under a rather unusual set of circumstances...CATERPILLAR WITHOUT A CALLSIGN is a 7,800 word military science-fiction story set in the ATLAS universe.ATLAS, the full-length military science-fiction novel from Isaac Hooke, is now out. To download your copy, visit: http://amzn.to/1oIndEj

The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940


John Bishop - 1998
    As the composer, lyricist, actors and director prepare their performance, and a blizzard cuts off any possible retreat, bodies start to drop in plain sight, knives spring out of nowhere, masked figures drag their victims behind swiveling bookcases, and accusing fingers point in all directions. However, and with no thanks to the bumbling police inspector who snowshoes in to investigate, the mystery is solved in the nick of time and the "Slasher" unmasked-but not before the audience has been treated to a sidesplitting good time and a generous serving of the author's biting, satiric and refreshingly irreverent wit.