Plays

Pip Broughton has translated the play for The Old Vic with reverence for Brecht, an understanding of the social relationships in the play and last but not least with a fine feeling for the language. -Angelika Hurwicz

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.

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.

Here is a joyous pageant of plays by masters through the ages - including Dylan Thomas, Charles Dickens, Thornton Wilder, Langston Hughes, and Hans Christian Andersen - ready to be produced, along with The Traditional Christmas Pageant and The Second Shepherd's Play in a modernized text and a lively version of St. George and the Dragon. Comedies like A Visit from St. Nicholas, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Kringle's Window and A Partridge in a Pear Tree stand beside more serious works such as A Child's Christmas in Wales, Black Nativity, Scrooge and Marley, The Match Girl's Gift and The Long Christmas Dinner, called by critic John Gassner ...the most beautiful one-act play in English prose. Lowel Swortzell, himself the author of a number of popular Christmas plays, has brought together these delightful works, which are ideally suited for performances in the classroom, sanctuary, or theatre. Ranging from the traditional to the contemporary, they also can be enjoyed for themselves as holiday reading that reminds us how Christmas has inspired great writers to their highest dramatic achievements.

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 complete scripts to six Sam Shepard plays: The Unseen Hand Forensic and the Navigators The Holy Ghostly Back Bog Beast Bait Shaved Splits 4-H Club.

Twenty-four leading voice experts speak out on the changing role of voice on stage. Essay topics include: Re-Discovering Lost Voices Thoughts on Theatre, Therapy, and the Art of Voice Finding Our Lost Singing Voices Voice Training, Where Have We Come From? Vocal Coaching in Private Practice more.

Linda Gates addresses key mechanical elements of voice and speech (eliminating division of the two) in a straightforward style. She grounds her approach in the four elements of vocal production: Respiration, Vibration, Resonation and Articulation. This complete and accessible book is a useful guide not only for actors, but for all who want to make more effective use of their voice.

All over the country, people continue to build their personal memorials to the tragedy and heroism of September 11th. U.S. citizens, visitors, and residents alike have reevaluated their own lives, their futures, and their priorities as a result of these cataclysmic events. In this spirit of national contemplation, playwright Lavonne Mueller has created a moving collage of voices from all around America, a lasting dramatic portrait. These monologues, all emotional X-rays of national heartache and soul searching, contribute to the healing that will continue for months and years to come. Reading or performing these words will bear witness to the most horrific single event in American history since Pearl Harbor. These dramatic voices offer guidance, solace and inspiration, and above all, solidarity at a time when no American must feel alone. In the words of the American poet Theodore Roethke, In a dark time, the eye begins to see. Mueller's work helps us to focus our vision.

Voices of Color is a trailblazing collection of scenes and monologues by African American playwrights. This major omnibus of contemporary American writing will serve as a primary resource for African American artists in search of their own voice for the stage. Actors and directors will now have access to a much larges spectrum of work in which to shine. Readers will be introduced to a rich, vibrant medley of work of the human spirit. And schools, colleges and libraries will, at last, have the book we all need to fully explore America's potential for drama.