- Table View
- List View
Skepticism and Belonging in Shakespeare's Comedy (Routledge Studies in Shakespeare)
by Derek GottliebThis book recovers a sense of the high stakes of Shakespearean comedy, arguing that the comedies, no less than the tragedies, serve to dramatize responses to the condition of being human, responses that invite scholarly investigation and explanation. Taking its cue from Stanley Cavell’s influential readings of Othello and Lear, the book argues that exposure or vulnerability to others is the source of both human happiness and human misery; while the tragedies showcase attempts at the evasion of such vulnerability through the self-defeating pursuit of epistemological certainty, the comedies present the drama and the difficulty of turning away from an epistemological register in order to productively respond to the fact of our humanity. Where Shakespeare’s tragedies might be viewed in Cavellian terms as the drama of skepticism, Shakespeare’s comedies then exemplify the drama of acknowledgement. As a parallel and a preamble, Gottlieb suggests that the field of literary studies is itself a site of such revealing responses: where competing research methods strive to foreclose upon (or, alternatively, rejoice in) epistemological uncertainty, such commitments bespeak an urge to avoid or circumvent the human in the practice of scholarship. Reading Shakespeare’s comedies in tandem with a "defactoist" view of teaching and learning points in the direction of a new humanism, one that eschews both the relativism of old deconstruction and contemporary Presentism and the determinism of various kinds of structural accounts. This book offers something new in scholarly and popular understanding of Shakespeare’s work, doing so with both philosophical rigor and literary attention to the difficult work of reading.
Skin Deep
by Jon LonoffComedy / 2m, 2f / Single Set In Skin Deep, a large, lovable, lonely-heart, named Maureen Mulligan, gives romance one last shot on a blind-date with sweet awkward Joseph Spinelli; she's learned to pepper her speech with jokes to hide insecurities about her weight and appearance, while he's almost dangerously forthright, saying everything that comes to his mind. They both know they're perfect for each other, and in time they come to admit it. They were set up on the date by Maureen's sister Sheila and her husband Squire, who are having problems of their own: Sheila undergoes a non-stop series of cosmetic surgeries to hang onto the attractive and much-desired Squire, who may or may not have long ago held designs on Maureen, who introduced him to Sheila. With Maureen particularly vulnerable to both hurting and being hurt, the time is ripe for all these unspoken issues to bubble to the surface. "Warm-hearted comedy ... the laughter was literally show-stopping. A winning play, with enough good-humored laughs and sentiment to keep you smiling from beginning to end." - TalkinBroadway.com "It's a little Paddy Chayefsky, a lot Neil Simon and a quick-witted, intelligent voyage into the not-so-tranquil seas of middle-aged love and dating. The dialogue is crackling and hilarious; the plot simple but well-turned; the characters endearing and quirky; and lurking beneath the merriment is so much heartache that you'll stand up and cheer when the unlikely couple makes it to the inevitable final clinch." - NYTheatreWorld.Com "In a country obsessed with weight, plastic surgery, dating and infidelity, it is little wonder that a playwright has come along to tackle all of these sticky subjects in a new satirical comedy called Skin Deep. This particular production has the virtue of having vital components on firm ground. The crowd delighted in every one-liner the night I attended." - ELJArtsAnnex.Com "Laugh out loud hysterical." -CurtainUp.Com
Skin Flick
by Norm FosterMiddle-aged couple Daphne and Rollie and their friend Alex have found themselves out of work and out of luck. So when they come across a mistakenly rented X-rated movie, they get the idea to make their own porno film for some quick cash. The only problem is none of them want to star in it themselves. As if on cue, Jill, a birthday telegram messenger, accidentally arrives on their doorstep and their cast is set.
Skin & Liars
by Dennis FoonSkin introduces us to a group of Canadian teenagers who are coming of age in the late 1980s. Faced with racial discrimination, Phiroza, Jennifer, and Tuan must navigate the choppy waters of high school, each confronting his or her own set of challenges. Ranging from academic difficulties, to budding relationships, to the trials of adapting to a foreign language and culture, the three share their stories of struggle, survival, and defiance of negative expectations and racist attitudes. Lenny is at the top of her class. Jace seemingly couldn't care less. By all appearances these two classmates are polar opposites, but despite all their differences they are inexplicably drawn towards one another. When it is revealed that each has been trying to hide the same dark secret—that they share a home with an alcoholic parent—each decides to take action and confront the demon they call "Mom" or "Dad."
The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics Ser.)
by Thornton WilderA timeless statement about human foibles . . . and human endurance, this beautiful new edition features Wilder's unpublished production notes, diary entries, and other illuminating documentary material, all of which is included in a new Afterword by Tappan Wilder.Time magazine called The Skin of Our Teeth "a sort of Hellzapoppin' with brains," as it broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, and satire (among other styles), Thornton Wilder departs from his studied use of nostalgia and sentiment in Our Town to have an Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war -- by the skin of their teeth.
The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics)
by Thornton WilderA timeless statement about human foibles...and human endurance, The Skin of Our Teeth is Thornton Wilder’s brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, now reissued with a beautiful new cover and updated afterword by Wilder’s nephew, Tappan Wilder. <p><p> Time magazine called The Skin of Our Teeth "a sort of Hellzapoppin' with brains," as it broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, and satire (among other styles), Thornton Wilder departs from his studied use of nostalgia and sentiment in Our Town to have an Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war—by the skin of their teeth. <p> Witty, clever, and provocative, The Skin of Our Teeth showcases Wilder’s storytelling genius and his extraordinary talents at delving deep into the human psyche.
The Sky Ballads
by Sophie Elizabeth Murten Franklin A. Díaz LárezIn an Asian country, a chain of strange events leaves a bitter mark of desolation on hundreds of people. The unexplained disappearances reach the dozens, and reliable leads only begin to appear years later. In parallel, on the other side of the world, a young lawyer is facing a tough reality check when he begins to practice his profession independently. Affected by what he sees, he decides to take refuge in another activity linked to his academic studies, not suspecting that in doing so, he will have to face the intricacies of his fears, insecurities and ghosts of his past that never really left him. By a strange twist of fate, these two stories cross paths, finally coming to an impactful conclusion no one suspected.
Skydive
by Kevin KerrHaving grown apart after a traumatic and defining moment in their youth, two brothers reconnect to fulfill a life-long ambition to go skydiving. Skydive explores the world of dreams and imagination: the universal human desire to push beyond our physical limitations and to fly.
Slang from Shakespeare: Together with Literary Expressions
by Anderson M. Baten“It was Greek to me.” This handy reference showcases William Shakespeare’s genius, compiling over 1,500 of his most famous epigrams, invectives, literary expressions, and philosophical poems that have found their way into our everyday vernacular.
Slapstick Modernism: Chaplin to Kerouac to Iggy Pop
by William SolomonSlapstick comedy landed like a pie in the face of twentieth-century culture. Pratfalls and nyuk-nyuks percolated alongside literary modernism throughout the 1920s and 1930s before slapstick found explosive expression in postwar literature, experimental film, and popular music. William Solomon charts the origins and evolution of what he calls slapstick modernism --a merging of artistic experimentation with the socially disruptive lunacy made by the likes of Charlie Chaplin. Romping through texts, films, and theory, Solomon embarks on a harum-scarum intellectual odyssey from high modernism to the late modernism of the Beats and Burroughs before a head-on crash into the raw power of punk rock. Throughout, he shows the links between the experimental writers and silent screen performers of the early century, and explores the potent cultural undertaking that drew inspiration from anarchical comedy after World War Two.
Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire (Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Human Rights)
by Karen-Margrethe SimonsenThis book is a study of the forensic theatricality of human rights claims in literary texts about slavery in the sixteenth and the nineteenth century in the Spanish Empire. The book centers on the question: how do literary texts use theatrical, multisensorial strategies to denunciate the violence against enslaved people and make a claim for their rights? The Spanish context is particularly interesting because of its early tradition of human rights thinking in the Salamanca School (especially Bartolomé de Las Casas), developed in relation to slavery and colonialism. Taking its point of departure in forensic aesthetics, the book analyzes five forms of non-narrative theatricality: allegorical, carnivalesque, tragicomic, melodramatic and tragic.
Slaves and Slavery in Ancient Greek Comic Drama
by Ben Akrigg Rob TordoffHow did audiences of ancient Greek comedy react to the spectacle of masters and slaves? If they were expected to laugh at a slave threatened with a beating by his master at one moment but laugh with him when they bantered familiarly at the next, what does this tell us about ancient Greek slavery? This volume presents ten essays by leading specialists in ancient Greek literature, culture and history, exploring the changing roles and representations of slaves in comic drama from Aristophanes at the height of the Athenian Empire to the New Comedy of Menander and the Hellenistic World. The contributors focus variously on individual comic dramas or on particular historical periods, analysing a wide range of textual, material-culture and comparative data for the practices of slavery and their representation on the ancient Greek comic stage.
Sleep Deprivation Chamber
by Adrienne Kennedy Adam KennedyBased on an actual experience, Sleep Deprivation Chamber depicts the emotional devastation of police brutality and the criminal justice system on a highly educated, middle class black family.
Sleep No More and the Discourses of Shakespeare Performance (Elements in Shakespeare Performance)
by null D. J. HopkinsThis Element focuses on Sleep No More, theatre adaptation of Macbeth produced by the British company Punchdrunk. This Element frames the Shakespeare adaptation as part of a system of ghostly citationality through which audiences understand the significance of the past in performances today. Hopkins introduces the concept of “uncanny spectatorship” to describe audience practice in Sleep No More and other performance contexts. The Element positions experiences like Sleep No More as forms of critical inquiry, and, despite its seemingly analog format, Sleep No More is discussed as a valuable site for media research. Ultimately, Sleep No More and the Discourses of Shakespeare Performance Sleep No More offers an opportunity to explore a set of concepts that are significant to the subject of Shakespeare Performance and to consider the ways in which audiences interact with bodies, spaces, text, and media.
The Sleeping-Car: A Farce
by William Dean HowellsWilliam Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1871, but his literary reputation really took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which describes the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur in the paint business. His social views were also strongly reflected in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890). While known primarily as a novelist, his short story "Editha" (1905) - included in the collection Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907) - appears in many anthologies of American literature. Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Ibsen, Zola, Verga, and, especially, Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of many American writers. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence.
The Sloth
by Cy YoungComedy \ 3 m., 3 f. to play var. roles. \ Ext. \ Nadine Schitzle of Tarzana, California, has a problem: there's a sloth in the eucalyptus tree in her back yard and she's convinced it's her husband, Herman. Her neighbor calls Eye Witness News anchor woman Sally Sweet, who shows up with her crew, and suddenly the story is hot news. The animal shelter representative informs Nadine that an animal that big can't be kept within the city limits and a psychiatrist from social services arrives to determine her competency. Called before a judge, Nadine explains with unquestionable logic why she feels Herman has turned into a sloth and the judge, who says Nadine reminds him of his mother, rules for competency. Back home, Nadine celebrates with her minister and a friend, who also believes Herman is the sloth, and berates her neighbors for trying to have her committed so they could get her property. She gives Herman and all his belongings except the Honda to the San Diego Zoo.
A Slow Burning Fire: The Rise of the New Art Practice in Yugoslavia
by Marko IlicYugoslavia's diverse and interconnected art scenes from the 1960s to the 1980s, linked to the country's experience with socialist self-management.In Yugoslavia from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, state-supported Student Cultural Centers became incubators for new art. This era's conceptual and performance art--known as Yugoslavia's New Art Practice--emerged from a network of diverse and densely interconnected art scenes that nurtured the early work of Marina Abramović, Sanja Iveković, Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), and others. In this book, Marko Ilić offers the first comprehensive examination of the New Art Practice, linking it to Yugoslavia's experience with socialist self-management and the political upheavals of the 1980s.
SLUT
by Jennifer Baumgardner Katie Cappiello Carol Gilligan Meg Mcinerney"SLUT is truthful, raw, and immediate! Experience this play and witness what American young women live with everyday."--Gloria SteinemRemember the slut at your school? Whether used as a slur or reclaimed as an expression of sexy confidence, this word has been used as an acceptable excuse for rape, bullying, and the sexual double standard. In the spirit of The Vagina Monologues, this riveting, critically acclaimed play, written in collaboration with New York City high school students, sheds light on enduring feminist issues. The play is accompanied by production notes, a guide for talk-backs, and provocative essays by Carol Gilligan, Jennifer Baumgardner, and Jarrod Chin of Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), among others, providing the resources to inspire change within our communities and ourselves.Katie Cappiello and Meg McInerney are the creative director and managing director of the revolutionary feminist acting school The Arts Effect. In their ten years of teaching, they have brought theater arts programming to public, private, and special education schools worldwide. Their work has been hailed by Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler, Kathy Najimy, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, and they have been honored by The National Women's Hall of Fame and The United States Congress for their dedicated, cutting-edge work empowering young girls.Jennifer Baumgardner is the executive director of The Feminist Press at CUNY as well as an author, activist, and filmmaker.
Small Acts of Repair: Performance, Ecology and Goat Island
by Stephen Bottoms Matthew GoulishGoat Island are one of the world’s leading contemporary performance ensembles. Their intimate, low-tech, intensely physical performances represent a unique hybrid of strategies and techniques drawn from live art, experimental theatre and postmodern dance. Small Acts of Repair: Performance, Ecology and Goat Island, is the first book to document and critique the company’s performances, processes, politics, aesthetics, and philosophies. It reflects on the company’s work through the critical lens of ecology – an emerging and urgent concern in performance studies and elsewhere. This collage text combines and juxtaposes writing by company members and arts commentators, to look in detail at Goat Island’s distinctive collaborative processes and the reception of their work in performance. The book includes a section of practical workshop exercises and thoughts on teaching drawn from the company’s extensive experience, providing an invaluable classroom resource. By documenting the creative processes of this extraordinary company, this book will make an important contribution to the critical debates surrounding contemporary performance practices. In so doing, it pays compelling tribute to committed art-making, creativity, collaboration, and the nature of the possible.
The Smart Words and Wicked Wit of William Shakespeare
by Max Morris“Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit,” said the world’s greatest and most preeminent English writer of all time, William Shakespeare.Have you ever wanted to quote the most quoted writer in the English language? Deliver the most inventive and debasing Shakespearean insult (“Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon!”)? Recite titillating love poetry like a modern-day Romeo to his (or her) Juliet? Or commit a learned wisdom about life’s woes to memory? The Smart Words and Wicked Wit of William Shakespeare is the perfect pocket book to carry around in your arsenal. Laugh, cry, rage, and muse along with beloved (or not so beloved) Shakespeare characters like Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, King Lear, and Cleopatra on the topics of love, art, beauty—as well as life’s most irreverently relevant insights. Full of savvy wisdoms from works such as Twelfth Night, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, and many others, this inspiring collection compiles the wisest and wittiest Shakespearean quotations that speak of the writer’s enduring legacy—even in contemporary pop culture.
Smash It!
by Francina SimoneRefreshingly authentic and bold… Don’t miss this smashing #ownvoices novel from Francina Simone, filled with heart, humor and a heroine to root for!Olivia “Liv” James is done with letting her insecurities get the best of her. So she does what any self-respecting hot mess of a girl who wants to SMASH junior year does…After Liv shows up to a Halloween party in khaki shorts—why, God, why?—she decides to set aside her wack AF ways. She makes a list—a F*ck-It list.1. Be bold—do the thing that scares me. 2. Learn to take a compliment.3. Stand out instead of back.She kicks it off by trying out for the school musical, saying yes to a date and making new friends. Life is great when you stop punking yourself! However, with change comes a lot of missteps, and being bold means following her heart. So what happens when Liv’s heart is interested in three different guys—and two of them are her best friends? What is she supposed to do when she gets dumped by a guy she’s not even dating? How does one Smash It! after the humiliation of being friend-zoned? In Liv’s own words, “F*ck it. What’s the worst that can happen?” A lot, apparently.#SMASHIT
Smoke And Mirrors
by Will OsborneFull Length, Mystery Comedy \ 4m, 1f \ Int. \ This rivetting mystery comedy will keep audiences guessing as they go on location to an isolated island off the Gulf coast to watch power hungry producer/director Hamilton Orr lure his timid screenwriter Clark into a scheme to get rid of the insufferable star of their multi-million dollar film. The plot hinges on the rehearsal of a suicide scene and the only witness to the murder is Hamilton's wife Barbara, the film's quirky publicist and Clark's former lover. The wily, eccentric sheriff unearths one surprise after another until the final stunning revelation. \ "A good mystery ... [with] funny dialogue, well crafted characters. If Agatha Christie and Noel Coward had collaborated on Robert Altman's 'The Player', they might have come up with something like this." Palm Beach Post.
Smoke On The Mountain
by Mike Craver Constance Ray Mark HardwickMusical / 4m, 3f / Interior / The year is 1938. It's Saturday night in Mount Pleasant, NC, and the Reverend Oglethorpe has invited the Sanders Family Singers to provide an upliftin' evening of singin' and witnessin'. The audience is invited to pull up a pew and join in the rollicking good time. More than two dozen songs, many of them vintage pop hymns, and hilarious stories from the more or less devout Sanders provide a richly entertaining evening that has audiences clapping, singing, laughing and cheering.
Smoke On The Mountain Homecoming
by Alan Bailey Connie Ray Mike CraverMusical / 4m, 3f / Unit Set / It's October, 1945, and the gospel-singing Sanders Family is back together again. The war is over and America's years of prosperity are just beginning. But there's another kind of rite of passage at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, where Reverent Mervin Oglethorpe is giving his last service. He's been called to preach in Texas, and he's already bought a ten-gallon hat and is preparing to ride into the sunset with his wife June, who is eight months pregnant. Tomorrow morning, young Dennis Sanders takes over as Mount Pleasant's pastor. Join the Sanders Family as they send Mervin and June off in style, with hilarious and touching stories and twenty-five toe-tapping Bluegrass Gospel favorites.
Snow Job
by George EastmanComedy / 10m, 4f / Interior / A copywriter is being sent to Montana in the dead of winter. He decides to grab a weekend with his wife at their yet unfinished chalet in New Hampshire first. Beginning with his next door neighbor who chooses this weekend for a skiing trip and a stop in visit that never stops and adding assorted uninvited guests, the weekend snowballs with frustrating confrontations. A houseful of people and no place to put them, a raging snowstorm, no hot water and a snow bunny who is after the host are enough to ruin any weekend.