Enormously likable and a habitual screw-up, Eric Mercer has settled into a sometimes raucous, underachieving life in his one-stoplight hometown—a life cobbled together from his part-time activities as bartender at the American Legion, assistant mortician, and father to his beloved 5-year-old daughter, Tess. Tess seems to be the main reason smart, talented, twenty-four-year-old Eric is staying in town, though her mom, a centerfold-quality beauty, would have it otherwise. When Jill, the lost love of his life, returns to Pinely in the same week that the town goes nuts in preparation for the high school football team's Big Game, life unexpectedly shifts into high gear, and Eric must blunder his way toward enlightenment—fast. Authentic and refreshingly unpredictable, Small Town Odds is written with an acute sense of place and character reminiscent of Richard Russo.

    These stories will give you goose-bumps, will scare you, will make you laugh and cry.Each story is inimitable in its own way and gives an insight into varied human emotions. Author has assembled stories from all spheres of life into this book.The Book will definitely leave a smile on your face, once you have read them all.

    He announces he is the Lord of Misrule and appoints his Court of Fools.Very quickly odd things start to happen.Previously unseen magic is revealed, and paranormal characteristics are unveiled.And unfortunately, darker events occur, too.Unless Avery, Alex, and the other witches can find a solution, Yuletide may not be as joyous as they hoped.

    Recommended for all collections." - Choice

    Book by McLure, James

    Written with the full co-operation of Sondheim himself, it examines each of Sondheim's masterpieces - including West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods - as well as the other Sondheim productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in repertory, as revivals, as opera, on film, and on television. this account is based on hundreds of hours of interviews with Sondheim and his associates.

    Only two characters appear on stage; Hughie, the third and most important one, is dead. It is Hughie's innocence, gullibility, and need to believe in a far more exciting existence than he ever knew which gives some kind of purpose to the shabby lives of the two who remain. O'Neill here again writes of the defeated and the courage that comes by way of illusions reflecting still other illusions in a world that needs them all.Hughie, the only surviving manuscript from a series of eight one-act monologue plays that O'Neill planned in 1940, was completed in 1941.

    (Reprinted)

    Blood Wedding tells the story of a couple drawn irresistibly together in the face of an arranged marriage; Doña Rosita the Spinster follows the appalling fate of a young woman beguiled into the expectation of marriage and left stranded for a lifetime whilst Yerma is possibly Lorca's harshest play following a woman's Herculean struggle against the curse of infertility. Set in and around his home territory, Granada, the plays return again and again to the lives of passionate individuals, particularly women, trapped by the social conventions of narrow peasant communities. The plays appear here in new playable translations.

    The people, including five comic characters abandoned or greatly diminished in the later play, "Uncle Vanya," for which Chekhov borrowed his own characters and material, do not allow themselves to be daunted. This translation of The Wood Demon was produced by the Mark Taper Forum as a classics lab workshop production in 1992...

    The troubadours sing of its mystical loveliness and tell tales of love and honour woven around the constant battles between Christendom and Islam. For Honfroy, a young squire in the service of the Knights Templar, the reality is less poetic and far grimmer. The Kingdom of Jerusalem tenaciously holds onto the ribbon of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, has united his warring factions. He is now determined to wipe the stain of the first crusade from the honour of Islam and regain the Holy City of Jerusalem. When Saladin’s army invades, Honfroy is catapulted into a world of treachery and deceit, where his life is in danger from both Moslem and Christian alike. From the blood-stained sands of the Holy Land to the intrigue of the court in Jerusalem, Honfroy grapples with his meteoric rise in fortune. His friendship with the new king, Baudoin, comes increasingly under threat from the political wiles of his mentor, Odo the Templar Grand Master, and the king’s mother, Agnes of Courtenay. Honfroy is enchanted by the beautiful but older Agnes. Not even the power of the Grand Master, however, can protect him when their secret liaison comes to the attention of the king. Banished from the court, Honfroy’s courage and skills are honed on the kingdom’s frontiers until the day when Odo summons his apprentice once more. Set against the turbulent background of the crusades, the Templar’s Apprentice is a gripping and enthralling tale of courage, friendship, love and treachery, reaching its blistering climax at the battle of Marj Ayyun.

    This modern riff on the fifteenth-century morality play Everyman follows Everybody (chosen from amongst the cast by lottery at each performance) as they journey through life’s greatest mystery—the meaning of living.

    After the murder of her beloved father, even those closest to her could not be trusted. So she kept to herself.When the handsome Laird to-be starts courting her, Lorraine is truly baffled. He never paid her any attention in the past. Why does he care now?A renowned warrior and heir to the clan's Lairdship, Daividh MacDougall can have any woman he desires. Many women pine for him, but his eyes are only for one lonely lass. Even if his intentions are not so honorable – for he’s bound by a wager to seduce her.The more time he spends with Lorraine, the greater the spark of desire grows, and soon, his passion for her becomes real. But before he can confess the truth, a dark plot against him starts to unfold, and everything changes.With his secrets revealed, Daividh's enemies can ensure Lorraine hates him forever. Before taking his life, that is…It started as a bet, but it became a deadly game…

    Ms. Herzog writes with keen sensitivity to the complex weave of feelings embedded in all human relationships, with particular attention to the way we tiptoe around areas of radioactive emotion." - New York Times"Whatever the ideal contemporary American drama is, it has to look a lot like The Great God Pan. It is provocative and subtle, slowly, carefully revelatory, sweetly moving, thought-provoking, funny and insightful." - New York Observer"An intelligent, delicately articulate writer." - Village Voice"A moving and unsettling look at the nature of identity and the vagaries of memory. With subtlety and compassion, Herzog contemplates how well we can really know ourselves." - BackstageJamie's life in Brooklyn seems just fine: a beautiful girlfriend, a burgeoning journalism career, and parents who live just far enough away. But when a possible childhood trauma comes to light, lives are thrown into a tailspin. Unsettling and deeply compassionate, The Great God Pan tells the intimate tale of what is lost and won when a hidden truth is suddenly revealed.Amy Herzog's plays include 4000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize finalist), After the Revolution and Belleville. Ms. Herzog is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Whiting Writers' Award, an Obie Award and the Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights.

    But Betty's luck turns to delicious lunacy when this sensible Everywoman gets drawn into the chaotic world of some very unsavory housemates - her friend Trudy, who talks too much; the lewd, seminaked Buck, who tries to have sex with everyone; and Keith, a serial killer who hides in his room with a mysterious hatbox. With sand between her toes, walking a thin line between sanity and survival, poor Betty will leave her summer vacation more terrorized than tan.