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Lycurgan Athens and the Making of Classical Tragedy
by Johanna HaninkThrough a series of interdisciplinary studies this book argues that the Athenians themselves invented the notion of 'classical' tragedy just a few generations after the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War. In the third quarter of the fourth century BC, and specifically during the 'Lycurgan Era' (338-322 BC), a number of measures were taken in Athens to affirm to the Greek world that the achievement of tragedy was owed to the unique character of the city. By means of rhetoric, architecture, inscriptions, statues, archives and even legislation, the 'classical' tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides) and their plays came to be presented as both the products and vital embodiments of an idealised Athenian past. This study marks the first account of Athens' invention of its own theatrical heritage and sheds new light upon the interaction between the city's literary and political history.
Lydia
by Octavio SolisDrama / 4m, 3f Set in the 1970s on the Texas border separating the United States and Mexico, Lydia is an intense, lyrical, and magical new play. The Flores family welcomes Lydia, an undocumented maid, into their El Paso home to care for their daughter Ceci, who was tragically disabled in a car accident on the eve of her quincea era, her fifteenth birthday. Lydia's immediate and seemingly miraculous bond with the girl sets the entire family on a mysterious and shocking journey of discovery.
Lydia Thompson: Queen of Burlesque (Forgotten Stars of the Musical Theatre)
by Kurt GanzlFirst Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Lydie Breeze
by John Guare“Two previously produced full-length plays . . . welded into a seamless whole . . . is wonderful theater and satisfying, compelling reading.” —BooklistFrom award winning playwright John Guare, an extensive reworking of his two 1981 plays about a nineteenth-century commune in Nantucket. Lydie Breeze is a two-play, six-hour cycle about four seekers who come to the island to create a special model for a better world in the ashes of the Civil War and end up as a model for the corruption of twentieth-century idealism. The result is an almost surreal saga of American life, with allegorical meditations on the contradictions and interconnectedness of all things and the chaotic nature of the universe.
Lying in the Middle: Musical Theater and Belief at the Heart of America (Music in American Life)
by Jake JohnsonThe local and regional shows staged throughout America use musical theater’s inherent power of deception to cultivate worldviews opposed to mainstream ideas. Jake Johnson reveals how musical theater between the coasts inhabits the middle spaces between professional and amateur, urban and rural, fact and fiction, fantasy and reality, and truth and falsehood. The homegrown musical provides a space to engage belief and religion—imagining a better world while creating opportunities to expand what is possible in the current one. Whether it is the Oklahoma Senior Follies or a Mormon splinter group’s production of The Sound of Music, such productions give people a chance to jolt themselves out of today’s post-truth malaise and move toward a world more in line with their desires for justice, reconciliation, and community. Vibrant and strikingly original, Lying in the Middle discovers some of the most potent musical theater taking place in the hoping, beating hearts of Americans.
Lyric Incarnate: The dramas of Aleksandr Blok
by Timothy WestphalenLyric Incarnate examines the plays of Aleksandr Blok, the pre-eminent poet of Russian Symbolism and one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Blok's plays have received less attention than his poetry in the West, and this book is the first and only English-language monograph devoted to Blok the playwright. In chronological succession, each of Blok's major plays is examined in detail. Special attention is accorded to Blok's relations with the major directors of his time, particularly Meyerhold and Stanislavsky. Blok's role, for instance, in Meyerhold's formulation of the theatre of the grotesque proved to be critical, and his relation to the Moscow Art Theatre just before the October Revolution helped to define the future course of that theatre. Blok's innovative dramatic technique is carefully studied at each stage in his career, from his earliest "lyric dramas" , such as A Puppet Show and The Stranger, to his great tragedy The Rose and the Cross.
Lysistrata
by AristophanesAristophanes' play, Lysistrata, takes place toward the end of the Peloponnesian War and centers on the lives of the soldiers' wives. One woman, Lysistrata, under the impression that a man's libido is ultimately his driving force in life, comes up with an interesting peace solution: to deny their husbands sexual relations until they can settle on a peace agreement that will end the war. However, Lysistrata's strategy effectively creates even more war than before as the sexes begin to feud with each other. Aristophanes' play is both comic and poignant as it reveals the relationship between men and women in classical Athens society.
Lysistrata
by Aristophanes Jeffrey HendersonThis English translation of Aristophanes' most popular comedy will appeal to the modern reader because of its lively and imaginative plot, memorable heroine, good jokes, and appeal for peace and tolerance between nations and between the sexes. This edition includes background material on the historical and cultural context of this work, suggestions for further reading, notes, and a map. The Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays to provide access to understanding Greek culture and the roots of contemporary thought.
Lysistrata
by Aristophanes Sarah RudenThis rollicking new translation of Aristophanes' comic masterpiece is rendered in blank verse for dialogue and in lyric meters and free verse for the songs. Appended commentary essays--on Athenian democracy, ancient Greek warfare, Athenian women, and Greek Comedy--offer lively and informative discussions not only of Aristophanes, but of the broader fifth-century social, political, and cultural context as well.
Lysistrata
by AristophanesFirst presented in 411 B.C., this ancient comedy concerns the efforts of Lysistrata, an Athenian woman, to persuade other woman to join together in a strike against the men of Greece, denying them sex until they've agreed to put down their arms and end the disastrous wars between Athens and Sparta.When the strike begins, and the men respond, the comedic battle of the sexes that ensues makes this spirited play one of the most enjoyable of the classics. In it, Aristophanes employs a mixture of shrewd logic and raffish humor that fully exploits the rich comic potential of the story and its underlying antiwar sentiment. Always a favorite of audiences, Lysistrata, because of its pointed feminist sympathies, is studied and performed today more than ever.
Lysistrata and Other Plays
by Aristophanes Alan H. SommersteinThree plays by the comedian of Ancient Greece Writing at the time of political and social crisis in Athens, Aristophanes was an eloquent yet bawdy challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. The Achanians is a plea for peace set against the background of the long war with Sparta. In Lysistrata a band of women tap into the awesome power of sex in order to end a war. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged. <P><P> For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Lysistrata and Other Plays: The Acharnians, The Clouds, Lysistrata
by AristophanesThe Acharnians/The Clouds/Lysistrata'We women have the salvation of Greece in our hands'Writing at a time of political and social crisis in Athens, the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes was an eloquent, yet bawdy, challenger to the demagogue and the sophist. In Lysistrata and The Acharnians, two pleas for an end to the long war between Athens and Sparta, a band of women on a sex strike and a lone peasant respectively defeat the political establishment. The darker comedy of The Clouds satirizes Athenian philosophers, Socrates in particular, and reflects the uncertainties of a generation in which all traditional religious and ethical beliefs were being challenged. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Alan H. Sommerstein
Lysistrata, The Women's Festival, and Frogs (Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture #Volume Forty-Two)
by Aristophanes Michael EwansMost readers nowadays encounter the plays of Aristophanes in the classroom, not the theater. Yet the "father of comedy" wrote his plays for the stage, not as literary texts. Many English translations of the plays were written decades ago, and in their outdated language, they fail to capture the dramatic liveliness of the original comedies. Now Michael Ewans offers new and lively translations of three of Aristophanes' finest plays: Lysistrata, The Women's Festival, and Frogs. While remaining faithful to the original Greek, these translations are accessible to a modern audience--and actable on stage. Here readers will discover--in all its uncensored glory--the often raw sexual and scatological language Aristophanes used in his fantastically inventive works. <p><p>This edition also contains all that a reader needs to understand the plays within a broader context. In his comprehensive introduction, Ewans discusses the political and social aspects of Aristophanic comedy, the conventions of Greek theater, and the challenges of translating ancient Greek into modern English. In his theatrical commentaries--a unique feature of this edition--Ewans draws on his own experience of directing the plays in a replica of the original theater. In scene-by-scene analysis, he provides insight into the major issues each play raises in performance. The volume concludes with two glossaries--one of proper names and the other of Greek terms--as well as a bibliography that includes the most recent scholarship on Aristophanic comedy.
Lysistrata, Women at the Thesmophoria, Frogs (Hackett Classics)
by Aristophanes"Arnson Svarlien's translation offers fresh insight into three of Aristophanes's greatest comedies. The verse flows smoothly, and throughout it is stressed that these plays belong on a stage, with guidance on how that might be accomplished. At the same time, the detailed Introduction and interpretative notes on every page show that both Arnson Svarlien and Storey are deeply committed to presenting a vibrant, modern Aristophanes, and to giving the tools needed for readers and actors to form their own opinions on matters of ongoing scholarly controversy." —C.W. Marshall, FRSC, Professor of Greek, The University of British Columbia
Lysistrata: A New Verse Translation
by AristophanesAristophanes, a native Athenian and the leading exponent of Greek comedy, was born c. 450 BCE. Today forty-three of his plays are known by title; eleven survive. The most famous of these is the whimsical fantasy Lysistrata. A perennial classroom and stage favorite as well as the basis of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq, the play is as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago. The premise is simplicity itself: to end the Peloponnesian War, women decide to withhold sex from their husbands until the fighting stops. The play is by turns raucous, bawdy, frantic, and funny. David Mulroy’s exciting new translation retains the original’s verse format, racy jokes, and vibrancy—setting it apart from previous efforts, which are typically reproduced as prose or depart from meaning and meter. His introduction offers a concise summary of Aristophanes’ life and social milieu, including a brief overview of the Peloponnesian War, which took place during the playwright’s lifetime. The appendices include guides on translating meter and Greek pronunciation for aspiring thespians.
Lysistrata: Clouds, Birds, Lysistrata, Women Of The Assembly (The Norton Library #0)
by AristophanesAbout Aaron Poochigian’s translation “Aristophanes was a funny, often obscene social commentator, and he was also a brilliantly fluent, wide-ranging poet, whose lyric rhythms were recited and sung to music, with dancing. It’s very rare for modern translators to convey his poetic virtuosity or make any attempt to bring his meters to life. But Aaron Poochigan has achieved this feat, crafting polymetric translations that convey the whole range of Aristophanes’ larger-than-life characters and provocative, alternative reality scenarios. This new translation is zany, sharp, inventive, vivacious, and surprisingly relevant for our times.” (Emily Wilson, translator of Homer’s Odyssey)
L’eterno istante in cui mi sono sentita felice
by Hitomi IidaUna lettera d'amore per la mia anima gemella capace di guardare con occhi nostalgici oltre il tempo e lo spazio.
M is for the Million
by Jack SharkeyComedy / 7-13m, 4-5f / Lenore has been living high on the income from her daughter's million dollar trust, but if Meg marries before her 25th birthday she gets the trust and Lenore will be penniless. The wedding is scheduled aboard a Mediterranean bound steamship. Complications abound as Lenore tries to stall the marriage, Meg's secret identity and additional fiances surface, a commercial spy intrudes, and a love mad Athenian is ready to marry mother or daughter. Love potions, a ship that can't decide where it's headed and other zany twists make this madhouse of activity great fun.
M. Butterfly
by David Henry HwangJohn Lithgow and B. D. Wong recreate their original roles from the Tony Award-winning production. Inspired by an actual espionage scandal, a French diplomat discovers the startling truth about his Chinese mistress. Bored with his routine posting in Beijing, and awkward with women, Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat, is easy prey for the subtle, delicate charms of Song Liling, a Chinese opera star who personifies Gallimard's fantasy vision of submissive, exotic oriental sexuality. He begins an affair with "her" which lasts for twenty years, during which time he passes along diplomatic secrets, an act which, eventually, brings on his downfall and imprisonment. Interspersed with scenes between the two lovers are others with Gallimard's wife and colleagues, which underscore the irony of Gallimard's delusion and its curious parallel to the events of Puccini's famous opera. Combining realism and ritual with vivid theatricality, the play reaches its astonishing climax when Song Liling, before our very eyes, strips off his female attire and assumes his true masculinity - a revelation which the deluded Gallimard can neither credit nor accept and which drives him finally - and fatally - deep within the fantasy with which, over the years, he has held the truth at bay.
M. Butterfly: Broadway Revival Edition
by David Henry HwangWinner of the Tony Award for Best Play, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and soon to be back on Broadway in a revival directed by the Lion King's Julie Taymor, starring Clive Owen"A brilliant play of ideas… a visionary work that bridges the history and culture of two worlds."—Frank Rich, New York TimesBased on a true story that stunned the world, and inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, M. Butterfly was an immediate sensation when it premiered in 1988. It opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government—and by his own illusions. He recalls a time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive—and as elusive—as a butterfly.How could he have known that his true love was, in fact, a spy for the Chinese government—and a man disguised as a woman? The diplomat relives the twenty-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both.M. Butterfly is one of the most compelling, explosive, and slyly humorous dramas ever to light the Broadway stage, a work of unrivaled brilliance, illuminating the conflict between men and women, the differences between East and West, racial stereotypes—and the shadows we cast around our most cherished illusions.The original cast included John Lithgow as Gallimard and BD Wong as Song Liling. During the show's 777-performance run, David Dukes, Anthony Hopkins, Tony Randall, and John Rubinstein were also cast as Gallimard. Hwang adapted the play for a 1993 film directed by David Cronenberg, starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone.TEXT OF THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY PRODUCTION
ME, ELVIS: CONDEMNED BY SUCCESS
by Lilian G. Selvaggio Lázaro DroznesElvis Presley's lifespan is the tragic story of a star prisoner of his own success and the circumstances surrounding him. Teenagers dream about becoming rock stars and Elvis wonders, "What can rock stars dream about?" At 23, Elvis has achieved much more than what he has dreamed of in his wildest fantasies, just to end up trapped in his own image, feeling that his life no longer belongs to him. He is trapped inside the machinery he himself has created. This work of dramatic fiction recreates the most significant moments in the idol's life through anecdotes and his songs, in order to show a chain of situations that lead an idol to pay the price of fame with his own life.
MIentras Espero La Cacería
by Valerie Hockert Guillermo Alberto Cervantes VindiolaDurante el último día de la temporada de caza en en extremo noroeste de los Estados Unidos, George Howard recuerda los muchos momentos de su vida. Desde su niñez marcada por la muerte de su hermano mayor, sus días como estudiante de preparatoria hasta su vida adulta, George ha pasado por un sinnúmero de cosas buenas y contrariedades que lo han conducido hasta este punto en su vida. En este último día de caceria, tomará una decisión que marcará el siguiente curso de su vida.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play
by August WilsonPulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences and The Piano LessonWinner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best PlayThe time is 1927. The place is a run-down recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage, of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play in Two Acts
by August WilsonThe time is 1927. The place is a run-down recording studio in Chicago. Ma Rainey, the legendary blues singer, is due to arrive with her entourage to cut new sides of old favorites. Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage . . . of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation . . .
MaXXXine: The Novel
by Tim WaggonerHer dream was to be a star…but Hollywood can be a killer. In 1985… Adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break… But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past…