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Merry Widow
by Charles GeorgeOperetta \ 6 m, 12 f w/flexible chorus. \ Int. \ All the world famous songs have been retained, embellished with new lyrics that critics believe to be the best words ever to the Lehar score. There's a new story of a dashing European prince and his romance with a beautiful American widow. The comedy is clever and wholesome and is not difficult to cast or stage.
27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other Plays
by Tennessee WilliamsThe thirteen one-act plays collected in this volume include some of Tennessee Williams's finest and most powerful work. They are full of the perception of life as it is, and the passion for life as it ought to be, which have made The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire classics of the American theater. Only one of these plays (The Purification) is written in verse, but in all of them the approach to character is by way of poetic revelation. Whether Williams is writing of derelict roomers in a New Orleans boarding house (The Lady of Larkspur Lotion) or the memories of a venerable traveling salesman (The Last of My Solid Gold Watches) or of delinquent children (This Property is Condemned), his insight into human nature is that of the poet. He can compress the basic meaning of life--its pathos or its tragedy, its bravery or the quality of its love--into one small scene or a few moments of dialogue. Mr. Williams's views on the role of the little theater in American culture are contained in a stimulating essay, "Something wild...," which serves as an introduction to this collection.
Aeschylus I: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (The Complete Greek Tragedies #1)
by Aeschylus David Grene Richmond Lattimore"These authoritative translations consign all other complete collections to the wastebasket."--Robert Brustein, The New Republic. "This is it. No qualifications. Go out and buy it everybody."--Kenneth Rexroth, The Nation. "The translations deliberately avoid the highly wrought and affectedly poetic; their idiom is contemporary.... They have life and speed and suppleness of phrase."--Times Education Supplement. "These translations belong to our time. A keen poetic sensibility repeatedly quickens them; and without this inner fire the most academically flawless rendering is dead."--Warren D. Anderson, American Oxonian. "The critical commentaries and the versions themselves... are fresh, unpretentious, above all, functional."--Commonwealth. "Grene is one of the great translators."--Conor Cruise O'Brien, London Sunday Times. "Richmond Lattimore is that rara avis in our age, the classical scholar who is at the same time an accomplished poet."--Dudley Fitts, New York Times Book Review.
Los demonios y otras adaptaciones teatrales
by Albert CamusUn novedoso volumen con las seis obras que adaptó Albert Camus en su labor teatral, cuatro de ellas inéditas en castellano. Además de escribir cuatro obras originales, Albert Camus llevó a cabo una intensa labor como adaptador y director teatral. Ese trabajo poco conocido lo ocupó desde sus días de estudiante en Argelia hasta poco antes de su muerte, y las seis obras reunidas en este volumen dan testimonio de la pasión con que lo llevó a cabo. Una de ellas procede de un clásico francés del siglo XVI, dos son versiones de obras de Calderón y Lope de Vega, una cuarta retoma una pieza de Dino Buzzati y las dos restantes llevan a escena novelas de Faulkner y Dostoievski. El conjunto no solo ofrece un complemento perfecto de las obras del autor que hemos reunido con el título de Teatro, sino que muestra toda su versatilidad en el ámbito amplio de la escena, uno de los pocos lugares del mundo donde, en sus palabras, era feliz. «El teatro me ofrece la comunidad que necesito -escribió-. Aquí todos estamos vinculados sin que nadie deje de ser libre: ¿no es una buena fórmula para la sociedad futura?».
Indoor Sport
by Jack PerryComedy / 3 m., 3 f. / Interior / This ideal comedy for summer stock originally toured with Darren McGavin as the often absent soldier of fortune cargo pilot who desperately attempts to stop his wife's divorce plans and intentions to marry another man. Sheila gave up her tennis career for marriage and is fed up with living alone. Unaware of her plans, Gary returns for their anniversary with lavish gifts and romantic thoughts, accompanied by an ultra cynical foreign correspondent who's soured on marriage. Sheila's intended is a handsome, ex pro football star from her home town. In high school, he was Sheila's older sister's steady. Sister is now an ad agency account executive. As the evening develops into a night of veiled hostility, tactical maneuvering and one upmanship. An incorrigible, nosy cleaning woman rounds out the cast.
The Living Room: A Play
by Graham GreeneThe illicit affair of a devout woman in London ignites a shattering family crisis in the author’s “ruthlessly honest” first play (The Guardian). In a dour Holland Park house with rooms and secrets long shuttered live three unyielding forces for morality: rigidly religious sisters Helen and Teresa, and their brother, a Roman Catholic priest. Into the lives of this insular trio comes their young grandniece, Rose Pemberton, following the death of her mother. To the mortification of her aunts, Rose has also brought her lover, Michael Dennis, who is twenty-five years Rose’s senior, married, and a psychology lecturer dictated by reason, not faith. In a home that reeks of sanctimony, Rose and Michael are as welcome as sin. But it’s the arrival of Michael’s distraught wife—armed with righteous emotional blackmail and worse—that ignites an unexpected fury and makes real the family’s greatest fears. Premiering in London in 1953 and moving to Broadway one year later, Graham Greene’s debut as a dramatist was hailed by Kenneth Tynan as “the best first play of its generation.”
The Miser and Other Plays
by Jean-Baptiste MoliereMolière combined all the traditional elements of comedy - wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire - to create richly sophisticated and enduringly popular dramas. The Miser is the story of Harpagon, a mean-spirited old man who becomes obsessed with making money out of the marriage of his children, while The Hypochondriac, another study in obsession, is a brilliant satire on the medical profession. The School for Wives, in which an ageing domestic tyrant is foiled in his plans to marry his young ward, provoked such an outcry that Molière followed it with The School for Wives Criticized - a witty retort to those who disapproved of the play's supposed immorality. And while Don Juan is the darkest and most tragic of all the plays in this collection, it still mocks the soullessness of the skinflint with scathing irony.
Natalie Needs a Nightie
by Neil SchaffnerFarce / 4m, 3f / Interior / A guaranteed laugh riot! In an apartment house Tommy Briggs has his mail, calls, and visitors frequently misdirected to a girl's apartment whose pen name is also Tommy Briggs. Tommy's boss expects his young executives to be married so he tries to have someone pose as his wife. The trouble is he ends up with too many "wives." Then as he got a big bonus on the strength of a new "baby" he has to produce one for the boss. Again, there's too many, including one not of his race. Adding to this confusion is a compulsive chambermaid who snitches drinks and takes all clothing found on a particular chair to the cleaners including many vital articles such as the boss's garments placed there while he is in the shower.
Three Plays
by EuripidesOne of the greatest playwrights of Ancient Greece, the works of Euripides (484-406 BC) were revolutionary in their depiction of tragic events caused by flawed humanity, and in their use of the gods as symbols of human nature. The three plays in this collection show his abilities as the sceptical questioner of his age. Alcestis, an early drama, tells the tale of a queen who offers her own life in exchange for that of her husband; cast as a tragedy, it contains passages of satire and comedy. The tragicomedy Iphigenia in Tauris melodramatically reunites the ill-fated children of Agamemnon, while the pure tragedy of Hippolytus shows the fatal impact of Phaedra's unreasoning passion for her chaste stepson. All three plays explore a deep gulf that separates man from woman, and all depict a world dominated by amoral forces beyond human control.
The Bacchae and Other Plays: Ion the Women of Troy Helen the Bacchae
by Philip VellacottThe plays of Euripides have stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. This volume, containing Phoenician Women, Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Orestes, and Rhesus.
The Confidential Clerk: A Play
by T. S. EliotA comedy of mistaken identities erupts in the household of a wealthy London entrepreneur in this play by the Nobel Prize–winning author.A motley play of family mysteries, The Confidential Clerk follows Sir Claude and Lady Elizabeth as they reconnect with their long-lost illegitimate children—even though they aren’t quite certain whose child is whose. “Extraordinarily good fun,” this is one of Eliot’s greatest comedies, full of wit, crisp dialogue, and parental hijinks laced with some of Eliot’s finest poetry and existential reveries (The Atlantic).Praise for The Confidential Clerk“The dialogue . . . has a precision and a lightly felt rhythm unmatched in the writing of any contemporary dramatist.” —Times Literary Supplement (UK)“A triumph of dramatic skill: the handling of the two levels of the play is masterly and Eliot’s verse registers its greatest achievement on the stage—passages of great lyrical beauty are incorporated into the dialogue.” —Spectator (UK)
The Crucible (Penguin Plays)
by Arthur MillerA haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community <P><P>The place is Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. <P>But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft--and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village. <P>First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witch-hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. <P>It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving but that compels readers to fathom their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theater ever can.
Cyrano de Bergerac: Large Print (Dover Thrift Editions Ser.)
by Edmond RostandWidely considered the most popular modern French play, Cyrano de Bergerac has dazzled audiences with its wit and eloquence since it premiered in 1897. <P><P>Cyrano, a quarrelsome, hot-tempered swordsman, as famous for his dueling skills and pugnacity as for his inordinately long nose, is hopelessly enamored of the beautiful Roxane. <P>She, in turn, is in love with Christian, a handsome but inarticulate and slow-witted suitor. <P>Asked for help by Christian in wooing Roxane, Cyrano pours out his heart in romantic dialogues -- delivered under cover of night and dense foliage -- and through ardent love letters written in the name of Christian. <P>Presented here in a rich blank verse translation by poet Louis Untermeyer, this beloved romantic comedy will be warmly received by theater buffs as well as students and teachers of drama and literature.
The Lost Colony
by Paul GreenIn 1937, The Lost Colony, Paul Green's dramatic retelling of the founding and mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke Island colony, opened to standing-room-only audiences and rave reviews. Since then, the beloved outdoor drama has played to more than 3 million people, and it is still going strong. Produced by the Roanoke Island Historical Association at the Waterside Theater near Manteo, North Carolina, The Lost Colony has run for more than sixty summers almost without interruption. (Production was suspended during World War II, when the threat of German submarines prowling the coast made an extended blackout necessary.)The model for modern outdoor theater, The Lost Colony combines song, dance, drama, special effects, and music to breathe life into shadowy legend. This rendering of the play's text, edited and with an introduction by Laurence Avery, brings this pioneering work back into print.
Shakespearean Stage Production: Then and Now (Routledge Library Editions: Shakespeare in Performance #3)
by Cécile De BankeAn absorbing and original addition to Shakespeareana, this handbook of production is for all lovers of Shakespeare whether producer, player, scholar or spectator. In four sections, Staging, Actors and Acting, Costume, Music and Dance, it traces Shakespearean production from Elizabethan times to the 1950s when the book was originally published. This book suggests that Shakespeare should be performed today on the type of stage for which his plays were written. It analyses the development of the Elizabethan stage, from crude inn-yard performances to the building and use of the famous Globe. Since the Globe saw the enactment of some of the Bard’s greatest dramas, its construction, properties, stage devices, and sound effects are reviewed in detail with suggestions on how a producer can create the same effects on a modern or reconstructed Elizabethan stage. Shakespeare’s plays were written to fit particular groups of actors. The book gives descriptions of the men who formed the acting companies of Elizabethan London and of the actors of Shakespeare’s own company, giving insights into the training and acting that Shakespeare advocated. With full descriptions and pages of reproductions, the costume section shows the types of dress necessary for each play, along with accessories and trimmings. A table of Elizabethan fabrics and colours is included. The final section explores the little-known and interesting story of the integral part of music and dance in Shakespeare’s works. Scene by scene the section discusses appropriate music or song for each play and supplies substitute ideas for Elizabethan instruments. Various dances are described – among them the pavan, gailliard, canary and courante. This book is an invaluable wealth of research, with extensive bibliographies and extra information.
Spider's Web
by Agatha ChristieFull Length Play / Mystery Thriller / 8m, 3f / Interior Set. Clarissa, the second wife of Henry Hailsham Brown, is adept at spinning tales of adventure for their bored diplomatic circle. When a murder takes place in her drawing room she finds live drama much harder to cope with, especially as she suspects the murderer might be her young stepdaughter Pippa. Worse still, the victim is the man who broke up Henry's first marriage. Moreover Henry will be arriving shortly with a V.I.P. who might take a dim view of bodies in the drawing room. Clarissa's fast talking places her and Pippa in some hair raising experiences. By the time Henry arrives, the murderer has been unmasked and all is normal so normal that Henry is unable to believe Clarissa when she explains why there are no refreshments for their honored guest.
Storm is Breaking
by Jim DamicoComedy / 1 m., 1 f. (off stage), 1 boy / Ext. / Winner of the first National Collegiate Playwriting Contest, this is a portrait of a boy who has been following an ant along the sidewalk for several hours. It is a picture that is hard to put out of your mind, and its intimations leave lasting thoughts. The boy prevents a man from stepping on the bug-- insect, the boy corrects him. For to the boy, everything on earth has size and significance.
Thirty Pieces of Silver: A Play in Three Acts
by Howard FastA couple in Washington, DC, is torn apart when a friend is accused of treasonJane and David Graham live upper-middle-class lives in mid-century Washington, DC. Jane minds the home with the help of a fulltime maid, and David works at the Treasury Department. But when the FBI visits their house one evening to ask questions about a friend&’s political beliefs, the answers the two give separately cause them both to wonder whether they truly know each other. Soon nothing is certain as the ideological fears plaguing the nation threaten to destroy Jane and David&’s family. Howard Fast&’s first play, Thirty Pieces of Silver was performed in several countries, from Australia to Europe, and offers an insightful look at the destructive power of reactionary politics in America. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Howard Fast including rare photos from the author&’s estate.
Under Milk Wood
by Dylan ThomasThe definitive new edition of Thomas's famous radio play Under Milk Wood is the masterpiece "radio play for voices" Dylan Thomas finished just before his death in 1953. First commissioned by the BBC and broadcast in 1954, it has been performed and celebrated by Anthony Hopkins, Richard Burton, Elton John, Tom Jones, Catherine Zeta Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O'Toole, and many others. In Under Milk Wood, Thomas gave fullest expression to his sense of the magnificent flavor and variety of life. A moving and hilarious account of a spring day in a small Welsh town, the play begins with dreams and ghosts before dawn and closes "as the rain of dusk brings on the bawdy night." This new edition contains the definitive version of the play, edited by the noted Dylan Thomas scholars Walford Davies and Ralph Maud, with an in-depth introduction by Davies as well as extensive and helpful textual and explanatory notes.
Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
by Samuel BeckettFrom an inauspicious beginning at the tiny Left Bank Theatre de Babylone in 1953, followed by bewilderment among American and British audiences, Waiting for Godot has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama. As Clive Barnes wrote, “Time catches up with genius … Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century.” <P><P>The story revolves around two seemingly homeless men waiting for someone—or something—named Godot. Vladimir and Estragon wait near a tree, inhabiting a drama spun of their own consciousness. The result is a comical wordplay of poetry, dreamscapes, and nonsense, which has been interpreted as mankind’s inexhaustible search for meaning. Beckett’s language pioneered an expressionistic minimalism that captured the existential post-World War II Europe. His play remains one of the most magical and beautiful allegories of our time.
Witness For The Prosecution
by Agatha ChristieFull Length Play / Mystery Thriller / 8m, 5f / Interior Set. Leonard Vole stands in the dock, accused of murder. His wife can prove his innocence but when she takes the stand she denies his alibi. Can he escape the hangman's noose? Winner! New York Critics Circle Award.
Bauble for Baby
by E. P. ConkleComedy / 1m, 3f / Interior / A delightful sequel to the popular Sparkin' with the same delightful characters: Lessie, Orry, Susan, and Granny Painsberry. Takes place a year or so after Sparkin' and centers around Lessie and Orry's new baby and a Christmas present Orry has just made for the little one.
The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, Volume T
by Thornton WilderThe publication of volume two of this landmark collection celebrates the close of the centennial year of Thornton Wilder's birth. This volume collects 17 plays from the author's three-minute and five-minute plays for five actors series and includes the full-length play The Alcestiad, a major work by the author of Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth which has long been unavailable.
Euripides I: Alcestis, The Medea, The Heracleidae, Hippolytus (The Complete Greek Tragedies #3)
by Euripides Rex Warner Ralph Gladstone Richmond Lattimore David GreneVolume 3 of the Grene and Lattimore editions, which offer the most comprehensive selection of the Greek tragedies available in English.