The Overcoat
The Overcoat which is generally acknowledged as the finest of Gogol's memorable Saint Petersburg stories, is a tale of the absurd and misplaced obsessions.
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Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
Illuminates the Russian writer's thoughts on madness, bureaucracy, and illusion in these five tales. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
La Mandragola
A superior treatment of Machiavelli's minor masterpiece! Flaumenhaft's beautifully crafted, literal translation aims to capture the original intent of the playwright. Machiavelli himself distinguished carefully between translations and revisions; thus, Flaumenhaft finds a faithful translation essential to conveying Machiavelli's thought and to allowing direct access to the work. The Prologue explores the relationship between Machiavelli's stage comedies--part of the Comedia Erudita of the Italia...
The Comedies of Machiavelli
This volume of sparkling translations - "The Woman From Andros", Machiavelli's version of Terence's classic comedy; "The Mandrake", the earliest and perhaps greatest Italian theatrical classic of all; and "Clizia", a work inspired by Plautus' "Casin" - brings to life in English plays whose racy vernacular language, subtle characterisation, and innovative dramatic construction preceded Shakespeare's establishment of English-speaking theatrical comedy by more than a half century.
Broadway Bound
Based on the original play by Neil Simon, the story traces the attempts of Eugene and Stan Jerome's attempts to break into show business as comedy writers in the 1950s.
Neil Simon Monologues: Speeches from the Works of America's Foremost Playwright
This is the first authorized collection of monologues from Mr. Simon's plays and the most significant contribution to the drama genre in the past twenty-five years. As a scene-study book it is invaluable to actors at all levels. This definitive publication contains speeches for men and women from "Come Blow Your Horn" through "Jake's Women." Each play is comprehensively synopsized, and an in-depth exposition establishing setting and intent precedes each speech. With an introduction by Jack Lemm...
Rappaccini's Daughter
Part fairy tale, part Gothic horror story, Rappaccini’s Daughter is an inspired tale of creation and control. It is published here with two additional short stories by Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown and A Select Party. With a Foreword by Simon Schama. Giovanni Guasconti, a student at the University of Padua, is enchanted to discover a nearby garden of the most exquisite beauty. In it abides a young woman, perhaps the most beautiful Giovanni has ever seen. Yet as he looks out from an upstairs...
The Misanthrope
Alceste. No. My heart loathes you now, and this refusal alone effects more than all the rest. As you are not disposed, in those sweet ties, to find all in all in me, as I would find all in all in you, begone, I refuse your offer, and this much-felt outrage frees me for ever from your unworthy toils.
The Middle Class Gentleman
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known as Molière (1622- 1673) was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. He studied at the Jesuit Clermont College, then left to begin a life in the theatre. Thirteen years on the road as an actor helped him to polish his comic abilities, while he also began writing combining Commedia dell'Arte elements with the more refined French comedy. Through the patronage of a few aristocrats including the b...
The Bungler
Poet Richard Wilbur’s translations of Molière’s plays are loved, renowned, and performed throughout the world. This volume is part of Theater Communications Group’s new series (with cover designs by Chip Kidd) to complete trade publication of these vital works of French neoclassical comedy. The Bungler is Molière’s first recognizably great play, and the first to be written in verse. The charming farce is set in Sicily and born of the great Italian tradition of the commedia dell’arte:...
L'Avare
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit Molière, (1622-1673) est un dramaturge et acteur de théâtre français. Considéré comme l'âme de la Comédie-Française, il en est toujours l'auteur le plus joué. Impitoyable pour le pédantisme des faux savants, le mensonge des médecins ignorants, la prétention des bourgeois enrichis, Molière aime la jeunesse qu'il veut libérer des contraintes absurdes. Très loin des rigueurs de la dévotion ou de l'ascétisme, son r?'le...
L'ecole Des Femmes
Molière"s classic verse comedy: the folly of one man"s attempt to mold the "perfect" wife — and his eventual undoing as she outsmarts him --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Imaginary Invalid
A hypochondriac, victimized by pompous physicians, tests the loyalty of a loving daughter and discovers the contempt of his scheming and greedy second wife. This classic comedy from one of the most brilliant satirists in the history of literature deflates the pretensions of society and reveals the universal frailties of humanity.
Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde
In three short months, Oscar Wilde, the most celebrated playwright and wit of Victorian England, was toppled from the apex of British society into humiliation and ruin. Drawing from trial documents, newspaper accounts, and writings of the key players, Moises Kaufman ignites an incendiary mix of sex and censorship, with a cast of characters ranging from George Bernard Shaw to Queen Victoria herself.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1590 or 1591. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and tropes with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. The play also deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the conflict between friendship and love, and th...
Teaching Drama to Young Children
Teaching Drama to Young Children has been written for teachers of children aged five to eight who would like to teach drama, but are not sure how to begin.
The Betrothal: A Sequel to the Blue Bird, a Fairy Play in Five Acts and Eleven Scenes
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck was a francophone Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life. His plays form an important part of the Symbolist movement.
Mary McCarthy's Theatre Chronicles
This volume brings together Miss McCarthy's lively controversial essays on the theatre from the 1930's up to the present day. The intelligence and vitality of the author's analysis brings past productions of Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen, Chekhov, Wild, Odets, Saroyan, Wilder back to the reader with immediacy and freshness. Written in her trenchant prose, Miss McCarthy's articles on the drama are amusing, sharp, original and penetrating.
6 Characters in Search of an Author
First performed in 1921 with Romans calling out 'Madhouse!' from the audience, "Six Characters in Search of an Author" has remained the most famous and innovative of Pirandello's plays. Often labeled a satirical tragicomedy, this play initiated the anti-illusionism movement of the early twentieth century, rejecting realism in favor of a more symbolic, dreamlike quality. When an acting company's rehearsal is interrupted by six family members who wish their life story to be enacted, the result is...
Il gioco delle parti
L’azione si svolge tutta nell’arco di trentasei ore, da una sera a un mattino. In una città; qualunque. Leone Gala è tradito dalla moglie, Silia, con il suo migliore amico, Guido Venanzi. Ma egli è uomo di mondo, e pertanto, senza drammi apparenti, ha accettato di andarsene da casa e di lasciare il suo posto a Guido: purché tutto avvenga nel rispetto delle forme imposte dal suo ruolo sociale. E ora tanto civile perbenismo ossessiona Silia, la quale appena le si presenta una fortuita occ...
Enrico IV
Pirandello's savage comedy from 1921 reflects the warp of European reality after World War I and advances his philosophical arguement that reality is never a rock certainty, only a subjective creation.
Così è (se vi pare)
osì è (se vi pare) (English: Right you are (if you think so)) is an Italian drama by Luigi Pirandello. It premiered 18 June 1917 in Milan.
Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore
Six Characters in Search of an Author (Italian: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore) is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello. The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" ("Madhouse!"). Subsequently the play enjoyed a much better reception. This improved reception was helped in 1925 when, with the third edition of the play, Pirandello provided a foreword clarifying...
Five Plays
A fine selection of Dunsany's plays, including: "he Gods of the Mountain," "The Golden Doom," "King Argimenes and the Unknown Warrior," "The Glittering Gate," and "The Lost Silk Hat." Features a new introduction by Dunsany scholar Darrell Schweitzer.
The Bedford Introduction to Drama
With an abundance of plays, commentaries, and useful editorial features, the best-selling Bedford Introduction to Drama is the most comprehensive introductory drama resource available, giving students a diverse overview of dramatic literature and instructors a text with enough breadth and flexibility to complement a variety of approaches.
Achieving Flawless Auditions and Performances
This Laura King mini-series includes 2 powerful self-hypnosis CDs: Laura King s Improve Memory and Increase Concentration and the Laura King Release Performance Anxiety that guides you, the performer, through the process of how to prepare your body and mind for your upcoming audition and performance. Often time s actors and actresses sabotage their own performances way before they even set foot on the stage. This insightful self-hypnosis mini-series by Laura King teaches you how to improve your...
Gospel Plays, Operas, and Later Dramatic Works
Although Langston Hughes had a lifelong engagement in theater and other performance arts, his work in this area is the least known of his rich and complex contributions to African American expressive culture. This volume focuses on Hughes's plays after 1942, along with all of his other work written for performance, including operas, musicals, radio plays, ballet libretti, and song lyrics, all of which demonstrate his strong determination to inject an African American presence into a range of cul...
Lanford Wilson: Collected Works, Vol. 3: The Talley Trilogy
The fourth volume of Smith and Kraus' publication of the complete works of playwright Lanford Wilson. The plays in this volume include Fifth of July, Talley's Folly (the winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize) and Talley and Son. This collection will include introductory notes by the playwright, original cast and production information. From the New York Times: One of the rewards of the plays in the unfolding Talley Cycle is our knowledge of the interrelated, reflected worlds. When a character opens...
Scriptwork: A Director's Approach to New Play Development
Despite the popular myth that plays arrive at the theater fully formed and ready for production, the truth is that for centuries, most scripts have been developed through a collaborative process in rehearsal and in concert with other theater artists. David Kahn and Donna Breed provide the first codified approach to this time-honored method of play development, with a flexible methodology that takes into account differing environments and various stages of formation. Directors can use this un...
Book of Days
Acclaimed by Frank Rich as "a writer who illuminates the deepest dramas of American life with poetry and compassion," Lanford Wilson is one of the most esteemed contemporary American playwrights of our time. Nowhere is this more evident than in his latest play, Book of Days, which has won the Best Play Award from the American Theater Critics Association. Book of Days is set in a small town dominated by a cheese plant, a fundamentalist church, and a community theater. When the owner of the chees...
The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming from a script mostly by Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf, with uncredited contributions by others. The Wizard of Oz was based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, who died twenty years before the film was released.[1] It features Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr and Frank Morgan, with Billie Burke, Mar...
Learning Through Drama: Report of the Schools Council Drama, Teaching Project
A guide to teaching drama. It stresses the place of drama in the school curriculum and makes detailed recommendations both on the organization and on the content of drama teaching.
Inwardness and Theater in the English Renaissance
Katharine Eisaman Maus explores Renaissance writers' uneasy preoccupation with the inwardness and invisibility of truth. The perceived discrepancy between a person's outward appearance and inward disposition, she argues, deeply influenced the ways English Renaissance dramatists and poets conceived of the theater, imagined dramatic characters, and reflected upon their own creativity.
Gulf War/Black
Gulf War and Black are two one-act plays by 2009 Man Booker Nominee Joyce Carol Oates. Gulf War: An affluent young couple entertains an older couple for an evening of cocktails and politics during the Gulf War. But as the evening continues, the conversation take a bizarre and absurd tone. Black: In this evening of cocktails and dinner, a couple anxiously awaits the arrival of an ex-husband. As the wine glasses are drained, the evening becomes dark and intense, revealing the true colors of the c...
The Key/Tone Clusters
The Key and Tone Clusters are two one-act plays by 2009 Man Booker Nominee Joyce Carol Oates. The Key: a hilarious perverse encounter between a vacationing suburban housewife, recently separated from her husband, and a prosperous businessman. Tone Cluster: a chilling trig-comedy that takes the form of an interview between a middle-aged, middle-class American couple and the media. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Edward Asner, Hector Elizondo, Don Reed, Joyce Van Patten and ...
O Locura O Santidad
1901. The text of the play is in Spanish. With introduction and notes by J. Geddes and Freeman M. Josselyn. From the Introduction: The remarkable career of Jose Echegaray in science, politics and letters during the latter half of the nineteenth century has attracted the attention of students in each of these departments of human activity. Indeed, the results of Echegaray has accomplished in any one of these branches entitle him to a distinguished position. To the student of letters, this fact i...
The Great Galeoto: Folly Or Saintliness, Two Plays Done From The Verse Of Jose Echegaray
Two Plays Done From The Verse Of Jose Echegaray.
The Rehearsal Handbook for Actors and Directors: A Practical Guide
A useful guide for all actors, directors, and theater makers who want to optimize their rehearsal time.
A Voyage Round My Father
In John Mortimer's most famous and highly autobiographical play, a young man looks back on an unconventional childhood and youth overshadowed by his irascible and eccentric father. Sent away to boarding school to be 'prepared for life', he finds teachers deranged by shell shock after the First World War and boys who try to coat their ordinary home lives with romance. As the Second World War begins, the mild-mannered protagonist tries to become a writer, but is compelled to become a barrister lik...
Training for Performance: A Meta-Disciplinary Account
Responding to the revitalized interest in the area of training for performance, this invaluable resource is the first academic book to provide a comprehensive definition of one of the most frequently used terms in theatre and performance studies. Rather than define training as a set of preparatory activities, this book describes what training means through explaining four processes (each conceived as a meta-disciplinary category: vocation, obedience, formation, automatization) of training commo...
Six Degrees of Separation
A young black man named Paul shows up at the home of art dealer Flan Kittredge and his wife Ouisa, who live overlooking Central Park in New York City. Paul has a minor stab wound from an attempted mugging, and says he's a friend of their children at Harvard University. The Kittredges are trying to sell a painting by Paul Cézanne and now have this wounded stranger in their home. Paul claims he is in New York to meet his father, who is directing a film version of the Broadway musical Cats. Paul ...
Lake Hollywood
The first act finds us on the shore of Scroon Lake in New Hampshire in August 1940. Agnes and Andrew, a soap salesman, arrive at Agnes’ home which she shares with her sister, Flo. Flo would like nothing better than to have the home all for herself. Also at the lake are Flo’s oddly infantile new husband, Randolph, who intends to run for office, and Randolph’s mother, Mrs. Larry, who speaks with a false German accent like a B movie Marlene Dietrich. The woods around the lake are ablaze, ...
Lydie Breeze
Lydie Breeze opens at dawn at the Hickman house, on Nantucket. The “very sparsely furnished” parlor and stairs leading to a landing are visible; there is also a porch and a beach with an upended rowboat buried in the sand. Lydie enters, carrying a candle, and kneels in prayer, followed by Beaty, who leads her through a strange ritual that tells of the suicide of Lydie’s mother, Lydie Breeze. The two invoke the dead woman’s spirit to “keep her alive.” It becomes clear that Beaty has ...
Plays of Gods and Men
Contains four of Lord Dunsany's fantasy plays: "The Tents of the Arabs," "The Laughter of the Gods," "The Queen's Enemies," and "A Night at an Inn." Part of the Wildside Fantasy Classics series. Introduction by Lin Carter and John Gregory Betancourt.
Polly: an opera
Trapes. There it is now! Whoever heard a man of fortune in England talk of the necessaries of life? If the necessaries of life would have satisfy'd such a poor body as me, to be sure I had never come to mend my fortune to the Plantations. Whether we can afford it or no, we must have superfluities. We never stint our Expence to our own fortunes, but are miserable, if we do not live up to the profuseness of our neighbours.
Complete Plays of John Galsworthy, Volume 1
John Galsworthy (14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. Notable works include The Forsyte Saga (1906—1921) and its sequels, A Modern Comedy and End of the Chapter. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.
Exiled: An Evolutionary Comedy in Three Acts
John Galsworthy, an English novelist and playwright, and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932 was born August 14, 1867 in Surrey, England, the son of a well-to-do solicitor. He had a typical childhood of that time, was sent away to public school and then went to Oxford, where he studied law and graduated in 1889. Galsworthy showed little interest in being a lawyer, and in 1892 met Joseph Conrad, with whom he developed a life-long friendship. Conrad, among other friends, encoura...
Strife
WILDER. [Breaking in fussily.] It's a regular mess. I don't like the position we're in; I don't like it; I've said so for a long time. [Looking at WANKLIN.] When Wanklin and I came down here before Christmas it looked as if the men must collapse. You thought so too, Underwood.
The Complete Plays of John Galsworthy Volume 2
Includes: First Series: The Silver Box -- Joy Strife Second Series: The Eldest Son -- The Little Dream - Justice Third Series: The Fugitive -- The Pigeon -- The Mob Fourth Series: A Bit O' Love -- The Foundations -- The Skin Game Six Short Plays: The First and The Last -- The Little Man -- Hall-marked Defeat -- The Sun -- Punch and Go.
Marriage à la Mode
Marriage à-la-Mode was first performed in London in 1673 by the King's Company. It is written in a combination of prose, blank verse and heroic couplets. It has often been praised as Dryden's best comedic endeavour, and it's said that "the comic scenes are beautifully written, and Dryden has taken care to connect them with the serious plot by a number of effective links. He writes with . . . one of the most thoughtful treatments of sex and marriage that Restoration comedy can show." The play c...
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