Plays

The complete scripts to two of Larry Gelbart's most popular and powerful political satires. Review of Mastergate: If George Orwell were a gag writer, he could have written Mastergate. Larry Gelbart's scathingly funny takeoff on the Iran-Contra hearings is a spiky cactus flower in the desert of American political theatre. - Jack Kroll, Newsweek. Review of Power Failure: There is in his broad etching all the ethical outrage of an Arthur Miller kvetching. And, oh, so much more fun! - Carolyn Clay, The Boston Phoenix.

These popular editions allow the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Each note, each gloss, each commentary reflects the stage life of the play with constant reference to the challenge of the text in performance. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will be empowered to rehearse and direct their own productions of the imagination in the process.

If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be the Applause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries of Shakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the original countenance of Shakespeare's work. Never has there been a Folio available in modern reading fonts. While other complete Folio editions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance of the Elizabethan look, none of them is easily and practically utilized in general Shakespeare studies or performances.

The rich tapestry of medieval belief, morality, and manners, shines through this comprehensive anthology of the twenty-four major plays that bridge the dramatic worlds of medieval and Tudor England. Here are the plays that paved the way to the Renaissance and Shakespeare. In John Gassner's extensively annotated collection, the plays regain their timeless appeal and display their truly international character and influence. Medieval and Tudor Drama remains the indispensable chronicle of a dramatic heritage - the classical plays of Hrotsvitha, folk and ritual drama, the passion play, the great mortality play Everyman, the Interlude, Tudor comedies Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton's Needle, and the most famous of Tudor tragedies, Gorboduc. Mr. Gassner's introductions and notes tell a tale of excellence and evolution too easily forgotten. The texts have been modernized for today's readers and those composed in Latin have been translated into English.

These popular editions allow the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Each note, each gloss, each commentary reflects the stage life of the play with constant reference to the challenge of the text in performance. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will be empowered to rehearse and direct their own productions of the imagination in the process.

If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be the Applause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries of Shakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the original countenance of Shakespeare's work. Never has there been a Folio available in modern reading fonts. While other complete Folio editions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance of the Elizabethan look, none of them is easily and practically utilized in general Shakespeare studies or performances.

This Applause edtiion allows the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Readers and students are faced with real theatrical choices in each speech as the editors point out the challenges and opportunities to the actor and director at each juncture. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will be empowered to rehearse and direct their own productions of the imagination in the process.

To those for whom the monologue has always been synonymous with terror, The Monologue Workshop will prove an indispensable ally. Jack Poggi's new book answers the long-felt need among actors for top-notch guidance in finding, rehearsing, and performing monologues. For those who find themselves groping for a speech just hours before their big break, this book is their guide to salvation. The Monologue Workshop supplies the tools to discover new pieces before they become over-familiar, excavate older material that has been neglected, and adapt material from non-dramatic sources (novels, short stories, letters, diaries, autobiographies, even newspaper columns). There are also chapters on writing original monologues and creating solo performances in the style of Lily Tomlin and Eric Bogosian. Step by step, Poggi works with the actor in the rehearsal process, combining improvisation and textual analysis in the acclaimed technique that he has developed over thirty years of teaching. Besides the wealth of practical advice he offers, Poggi transforms the monologue experience from a terrifying ordeal into an exhilarating solo opportunity. Jack Poggi, as many working actors will attest, is the actor's partner in a process they had always thought was without one.

More Power to You is acting guru Robert Cohen's follow-up act to his now legendary Acting Power. Now, More Power to You brings together Cohen's most important writing on performance, plays and productions. Among the diverse subjects the reader will learn about are, that Shakespeare's actors cried real tears (and had their methods on how to make the tears flow); that Hamlet was sixteen; what that secret is that British actors have for running off with all the American stage awards, and why kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst robbed that bank (and what that has to do with a book on theatre!).

Based on actual events in Argentina 1952-1976, this play dramatizes the efforts of two sisters to locate their children and other missing relatives who have mysteriously disappeared, a fate shared by many Argentinians during those tumultuous decades.