In this first publication of six plays by the flamboyantly uninhibited author, poet, and playwright Mercedes de Acosta (18931968), theater historian Robert A. Schanke rescues these lost theatrical writings from the dusty margins of obscurity. Often autobiographical, always rife with gender struggle, and still decidedly stageworthy, "Women in Turmoil: Six Plays by Mercedes de Acosta" constitutes a significant find for the canon of gay and lesbian drama.In her 1960 autobiography "Here Lies the Heart, " de Acosta notes that as she was contemplating marriage to a man in 1920, she was "in a strange... View More...
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature In the words of his translator, Ron Jenkins: "The Nobel committee's decision to honor Fo as a master of literature is a historic tribute to the theatre, which is still viewed by many as literature's bastard child; it is also the first time that the Nobel for the literary arts has been awarded to an actor. This courageous and controversial choice indirectly expands the modern definition of literature to include the power of the spoken word." Volume One includes: We Won't Pay We Won't Pay ElizabethArchangels Don't Play PinballAbout Face... View More...
Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares is a savvy look at the wide range of adaptations, spin-offs, and citations of Shakespeare's plays in 1990s popular culture. What does it say about our culture when Shakespearean references turn up in television episodes of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, films such as In and Out and My Own Private Idaho, and hardcore porn adaptations of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet? Burt reads the reception of these often quite bad replays in relation to contemporary youth culture and the "queering" of Shakespeare. View More...
Recent plays from one of the more daring young stylists working today (David Cote, Time Out New York) Adam Rapp's plays have captivated audiences across the country with their unflinching explorations of the good, the bad, and the ugly in America's heartland and cities. Gathered here are three of his latest works: Faster, in which two young grifters try to strike a deal with the devil during the hottest summer on record; Finer Noble Gases, a lament for a band of arrested thirty-year-olds slouching toward adulthood amid East Village decay; and the Off-Broadway hit Stone Cold Dead Serious. An ho... View More...
Charting the neglected contribution made by women to the development of the 19th-century stage and the development of the theatre of realism, these plays include work by the Scottish playwright Joanna Baille and the dramatization of Mrs Henry Wood's novel East Lynne. View More...
Called by Time the "theater event of the year," Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses brings Ovid's tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water onstage, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including "Best Play," Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for "Best Direction of a Play."
